Live Stream: Overly Pampered Education Creates Three Superstars in One Family

The barrage of comments from netizens surged in like a tidal wave, carrying an undisguised sense of pleasure and mockery.

[Expert Sun, your face has been slapped in the face, yet you're still stubbornly insisting on talking nonsense?]

[Exactly, it's really annoying to watch someone who's clearly in the wrong but still insists on putting on an "I'm not wrong" expression.]

Chen Chu has already explained the reasoning clearly and thoroughly, yet she still insists, "I don't agree." Why don't you tell me why you disagree?

As Sun Xuerong watched these comments float across the top of her live stream, her face turned pale and then flushed.

She took a deep breath, then put down her teacup, sat up straight, and her expression changed from a momentary wavering to a resolute one tinged with anger.

"Why do you say that to me?" Her voice was half an octave higher than before, sharp with a hint of offense. "Am I wrong?"

She looked directly into the camera and spoke a few seconds faster.

"Should we just leave children's rest time unattended? What if they go online? Like Chen Ziran, who uses his hard-earned rest time to play games—which parent wants to see that?"

She paused, then her tone became even more assertive, "Don't parents need to monitor their children's rest time? Some children are obedient, like Chen Ziran, whose father can say 'don't worry about it.' But some children are just naturally mischievous; how can you ignore them? If you don't, they'll cause a huge mess!"

Her words were like a match thrown into a pile of dry wood, reigniting the already wavering public opinion.

Those who had just lost their words found the Bible and began to return to the Qing Dynasty while holding it up.

Teacher Sun is right... If you don't manage your children when they're young, you won't be able to control them when they grow up.

After all, the children are still young and don't understand anything. Without parental supervision, who knows what they might do?

Yes, children lack self-control. If given time to play freely, they'd probably spend all day on their phones.

[Teacher Sun did nothing wrong. Chen Chu only spoke ill of others because his own child was obedient.]

[Chen Chu is acting like he doesn't know what's good for him. It's clearly because Zi Ran is obedient, not because his educational philosophy is superior—don't follow his example.]

The sentiment surrounding the comments section reversed once again in a very short time.

The voices that were just praising Chen Chu for "being right" and "making sense" were like smoke blown away by a strong wind, and were instantly submerged in a wave of "Teacher Sun is right" and "We can't ignore the children."

Chen Ziran sat in front of the computer, watching the comments section on the photographer's phone refresh in real time. The expression on his face changed from shock to speechlessness, and then from speechlessness to a numb feeling of giving up resistance.

He couldn't help but let out a wail: "No way, even if he's a weathervane, this collapse is way too fast! He was praising my dad just a moment ago, and now it's all criticism?"

He turned to look at Chen Chu and said, "Dad, look at these people, their faces change faster than turning the pages of a book."

Chen Chu leaned back on the sofa, not watching the comments. He simply patted Chen Xiayu's head gently, sitting beside him, his tone as calm as if he were remarking on the nice weather.

"You'll get used to it. The voices on the internet go east one day and west the next. If you follow their rhythm, you'll be exhausted to death."

In the control room, Zhao Shuilan sat in her seat, with a row of monitor screens in front of her.

She watched the various live streams and the real-time scrolling of comments, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Ever since Sun Xuerong confronted her on the live stream, her presence on the show has become very low. She carefully considers her words before speaking, afraid of giving others something to say about her.

But at this moment, seeing the comments in the live chat saying "children can't be left unattended," and seeing the views in her professional field that she believed were wrong but were accepted by the public being widely circulated, she finally couldn't hold back anymore.

She adjusted the microphone and began to speak. Her voice was slightly deeper than usual, carrying a restrained calm: "Actually, I think Sun Xuerong is right."

Everyone else in the control room turned to look at her at the same time.

Zhou Zhenyang's brows were already furrowed.

The live chat exploded instantly.

【No? Expert Zhao, you were just scolded by Expert Sun not long ago, why are you taking her side now?】

[666, you're putting aside past grievances, huh? You've broadened your perspective?]

I initially thought Zhao Shuilan would take advantage of the situation to kick someone when they were down, but I never expected her to support Sun Xuerong... I didn't anticipate this turn of events.

Zhao Shuilan ignored the comments in the live chat and continued, speaking slowly but with each word carrying the weight of careful consideration: "Although I have some... conflicts with Expert Sun, I don't object to her parenting methods. After all, how can a child be obedient if they aren't disciplined?"

She turned her head and looked at Zhou Zhenyang sitting next to her.

"Furthermore, I believe that disciplining children is the responsibility and obligation of parents. A responsible parent should pull their child back when they go astray."

Zhou Zhenyang's brows furrowed even more. He put down his pen—he had been jotting something down in his notebook—and looked up at Zhao Shuilan, his tone carrying a clear disagreement: "I don't think what you said makes sense. After all..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Shuilan interrupted him. She turned her head and looked directly at Zhou Zhenyang, her tone unhurried but carrying an inescapable sharpness.

"You think what I said makes no sense? Then let me ask you, Dr. Zhou."

She paused, as if gathering her strength for the question: "If your parents hadn't disciplined you, would you have been able to get into a doctoral program?"

Zhou Zhenyang opened his mouth, then closed it again.

He was silent.

That silence seemed exceptionally long in the live stream.

Zhou Zhenyang sat in the chair, his gaze slightly lowered, landing on a vague point on the table.

It was as if a pebble had been thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples in his mind.

He recalled his childhood, a wild boy running rampant in the alleyways, climbing trees to steal bird nests, wading into the river to catch fish and shrimp, never doing his homework, and relying entirely on his cleverness to get by on exams. He was the kind of student teachers would shake their heads at, the kind of troublemaker whose parents were called in so many times that even the homeroom teacher was too embarrassed to call them again.

His parents were ordinary working-class people with little education, but they never slacked off in disciplining him. They really hit him, really scolded him, and really made him kneel as punishment, but it was they who dragged him back from the path of becoming a street thug, forced him to sit at his desk, and pushed him to improve his damn grades little by little.

What kind of person would he become without their discipline?

A professional esports player?

He did play games, and he was quite good at them. If his parents had given him enough freedom back then, he might have spent several years in internet cafes and then used his skills to become a professional gamer.

Or he could become a painter. He won awards for his paintings when he was a child, and his teacher even spoke to his parents to say that the child was talented.

Or he could become a musician. He studied guitar for two years, but his parents forced him to stop because it affected his studies.

Or, to be more realistic, go to a top-tier university, graduate and become an ordinary worker, living a muddled life from nine to five every day, and then, on some late night after finishing overtime, suddenly remember the dreams you couldn't realize when you were young, then give a bitter laugh and continue working overtime.

It's unlikely he would become a PhD like he is now. A person known as "Dr. Zhou" on a nationally recognized educational program.

His silence gave Zhao Shuilan room to continue speaking.

Zhao Shuilan's voice became smoother and more confident.

"As parents, we would never be bad to our children. We always think of our children. Ultimately, why do parents discipline their children? Because they want the best for them."

She turned her head slightly to look at Zhou Zhenyang. "Dr. Zhou, what do you think? You can't expect your parents to let you become a doctor, and then you turn around and blame them, can you?"

Zhou Zhenyang's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but swallowed the words back down.

It's hard to describe that feeling. It's like you know something is wrong, but when you try to refute it, you find that every word the other person says is perfectly embedded in a complete logical chain, and you can't find the gap that you can pry open.

She was right, every single word of hers was correct.

Disciplining children is for their own good. Responsible parents should discipline their children. Without the discipline he received back then, he might not have become a PhD today. These are all facts.

but.

but.

His intuition told him that things weren't that simple.

Each of Zhao Shuilan's words, taken individually, is fine, and when put together, they form a seemingly complete logical loop. However, that loop is missing something.

What's missing?

He couldn't grasp the thread.

He wanted to say something, to refute, but he didn't know where to begin.

It feels like you're trapped in a room with walls on all four sides. You know there must be a door, but you just can't find it.

He remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "...I need to think about it some more."

Zhao Shuilan looked at his expression, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, and she did not continue to pursue the matter.

She turned her head, looked back at the camera, and said in a gentle yet firm tone, "Actually, the principle I'm talking about is very simple: if you don't let your child experience hardship, society will make them suffer. If you don't discipline your child, plenty of others will do it for you in the future. At that time..."

She gently shook her head. "It might not be as simple as a few slaps on the hand or standing in the corner for half an hour."