Hawks from the Land of Light are calling me a dove and an undercover agent in the chat group.

Yashiro quickly clarified, "This time, it was my visit to each student's homeroom as their homeroom teacher. I visited every single one of their families."

"Then I'm relieved." Mrs. Dong seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, but she continued, "Oh dear, but teacher, you don't need to take care of this child anymore. Don't I know what kind of person he is?"

what?

What makes you say that?

Ya's Meng was stunned. If the initial question was about whether Higashi Naoki had caused trouble at school and was therefore being visited at home, that would be understandable and a normal concern.

But now that the matter has been clarified, why would someone still specifically target their child in front of this teacher?

If you say that Higashi Naoki is the kind of naughty, troublesome kid who skips class all the time and bullies his classmates, that's fine. The problem is that from a universal perspective, Higashi Naoki is indeed a typical good student and good kid.

A strong sense of unease suddenly rose in Shi Meng's heart.

He glanced at Naoki Higashi, who simply kept his head down.

He seemed like a normal person at school and on the way here, but why has he been so downcast and withdrawn since he got home?

After being invited to sit down in the living room, Yato Takeshi immediately tried to find out the truth through a home visit conversation.

But before he could speak, Mrs. Dong preemptively spoke up, smiling apologetically and saying, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Ya, but today is the day the test scores are released, right? I'd like to see the child's test scores first, is that alright?"

“Of course, you go first.” Ya gestured with his hand, it was nothing.

But right after he said that, he saw a very strange scene.

Instead of directly asking Higashi Naoki for the exam papers, Mrs. Higashi got up and went to the kitchen, bringing out a freshly baked pancake cake.

The pancake cake was placed on a small table near the sofa where Higashi Naoki was sitting with his head drooping and his head down. It looked very delicious and was tantalizing Higashi Naoki's taste buds.

Even with his head drooping and lowered, Naoki Higashi's gaze was clearly drawn to the pancakes when they appeared; anyone could see just how much he longed for them.

But it was precisely because of this longing that Higashi Naoki's pupils, hidden behind his nearsighted glasses, became even more gloomy and sullen.

"Alright, come on, take out your test paper, Naoki?" Mrs. Dong seemed to be encouraging her child. "Your teacher came for a home visit and praised you. There must be a surprise, right?"

"...Mom, I, I..."

Naoki Higashi made an indescribable expression, a clown-like, comical one, as if he were using a clown's face to protect himself from the inevitable harm that was about to happen.

With a comical yet reluctant expression, he unzipped his backpack and slowly, as if he didn't want to at all, took out the test paper that had been handed out that morning and handed it over at a pace that seemed to wish time would stop.

But time didn't stop, and Mrs. Dong was quick; she reached out and grabbed the exam paper in no time.

then.

In just a glance, less than a second, Mrs. Dong's smile vanished instantly, replaced by dissatisfaction, displeasure, and anger emanating from her brow.

Her voice, which had been normally dignified and elegant, suddenly became incredibly sharp and sarcastic.

"Ninety-four points... Didn't we agree on this last time? Didn't you promise? You said you wouldn't let Mom down again, and you said you would give Mom a surprise next time."

"But why is it that I haven't improved by even one point compared to the last test?"

Mrs. Dong spoke slowly and deliberately, as if she hadn't broken down or expressed any dissatisfaction with the child; she was simply pointing out the child's problems from one perspective.

“It’s not easy for a teacher to come to our home visit, and this is how you treat your mother and teacher? The teachers work so hard to teach you, and you can’t even get a perfect score. Are you really working hard? When your brother was your age, he never dropped below 100 points.”

"Your father is, your brother is, and I am too, Naoki, are you really my and your father's child? Look, your brother can do these things, so why can't you do them every time?"

He spoke slowly and deliberately, at a calm pace, without any shouting or yelling. He simply sighed and spoke in a normal volume, as if having a heart-to-heart talk.

However, her expression, her aura, all of these things, every tone of her voice, every second.

Everything felt like the sharpest needles, piercing deep into Higashi Naoki's heart and brain from all directions, making him lower his head even further. His inner feelings were beyond words.

However, Mrs. Dong did not stop there.

She gracefully reached out to grasp the plate of pancakes she had brought from the kitchen, and said in a sarcastic yet gentle tone, "There's nothing I can do. It's not that Mom won't let you eat. You've already endured it for so long, you should be able to continue to endure it, right?"

"You can eat it if you get a perfect score next time. It's such a simple thing, you can definitely do it next time, right? Or are you just not willing to try at all, and don't even want to eat this cake? Hey, Naoki?"

The north wind howled.

Mrs. Dong's words, each one more biting and sarcastic than the last, were like heavy blows from a sledgehammer. Although there was no actual violence, the terrifying cold violence made Dong Zhishu visibly weak and breathless.

He felt as if he were on the open sea, being battered by a storm, and his small boat, which had been pierced over the years and was about to sink to the bottom of the sea, could not surrender.

You have to kneel down and surrender to the storm while crying and saying that the storm didn't attack you and that you are very grateful to the storm.

No, it's even more tragic than that.

He wasn't even allowed to cry as he spoke; he had to smile with both loyalty and gratitude to thank the storm!

Naoki Higashi couldn't even remain silent now. He had to raise his head, put on an expression more ridiculous and pathetic than a clown, and tremble as he promised his mother, "I... I wanted to eat it, I'll definitely do it next time..."

"—Your educational approach is absolutely problematic, Mrs. Dong!"

Boom!

Before Higashi Naoki could make his promise with a forced, tearful face, Yato Takeshi, who had already reached his limit, suddenly stood up and grabbed the plate of pancakes that was about to be taken away.

With a majestic, absolute, overwhelming, and invincible serious expression, he was directly confronting Mrs. Dong!

"Varied……"

Naoki Higashi, who was about to force out a guarantee, froze completely, staring in shock at Takeshi Yagi, who had suddenly become incredibly tall and imposing.

Mrs. Dong was equally stunned, staring in astonishment at Ya's sudden outburst. "What did you say, Ya's teacher?"

“I’m saying, haven’t you noticed this all this time?” Yato Takeshi, who was even taller than Mrs. Dong, immediately retorted, “From the moment this child was born, has this been your way of educating him?”

"Is there a problem with this, Mr. Ya?" Mrs. Higashi frowned. "Are you trying to say that I don't know how to raise children?"

Faced with this somewhat aggressive question, Yato Takeshi did not back down, but instead said decisively, "If this child continues to be educated by you like this, his whole life will be ruined!"

"Ya's teacher!"

Mrs. Dong was visibly angry. She frowned and her voice turned cold: "You are a professional teacher. How to teach children to improve their grades is your field, and I will not question you. But Naoki is my child, and it is none of your business how I educate him!"

"You say I don't know how to raise children? Do you know that before Naoki, I had already taught his older brother to get 100 points on every test since kindergarten? He's even more amazing now, and he can get into any university he wants. My education is undoubtedly the most successful. You have no right to question me!"

She appeared particularly proud and honored when talking about her eldest son.

But Yashiro wasn't stumped by the question. Instead, he said, "Then I want to ask you, Mrs. Tou, is your eldest son still following your planned path? Are there increasing disagreements between you?"

Mrs. Dong's heart skipped a beat.

What Yagami said hit her sore spot, but she chose not to respond and instead asked, "What are you trying to say?"

Let me guess.

Ya no Takeshi calmly analyzed the situation and made a guess, but he believed it was 100% true: "If your eldest son doesn't have more and more disagreements with you now and doesn't obey your orders, then he must be spending less time at home than before, and becoming more and more cheerful."

"If he hasn't shown any disagreement with you so far, then he must be like Dong, extremely gloomy at home, barely speaks, and very dull, right?"

Mrs. Dong did not answer.

Her eyes began to burn with anxiety, as she forced herself to think, wanting to refute and disprove what Yato Takeshi had said.

But she couldn't do it.

From the details of her various expressions, Yato Takeshi was completely certain that the eldest son of the To family was the first case, and now, or rather recently, he must have had the biggest disagreement with Mrs. To, one that was unprecedented.

"You're too controlling, Mrs. Dong."

Ya's sharp retort showed no mercy, directly pointing out the root of the problem: "The child has to get a perfect score, or she can't eat pancakes? Do you even know what you're doing?"

"What am I doing?" Mrs. Dong seemed to think this was a point she could refute, and immediately launched a counterattack. "I'm striving for excellence in educating my own child. What's wrong with that? Are you trying to say that's wrong, Mr. Ya?"

"Does that mean I have to reward my child even if he doesn't meet my goals, otherwise I'm an incompetent parent? Is that what you mean, Mr. Ya?"

Ya no Meng decisively retorted: "That's a serious misinterpretation on your part."

"Indeed, it's wrong to demand rewards from parents if their children don't meet their expectations, but that's completely different from what you're doing!"

“If you think that Dong shouldn’t eat this pancake cake if he doesn’t get a perfect score, then you should look at the score on the test first before deciding whether to make the cake, instead of making it first, serving it to the child, and then criticizing the child for being incompetent, and taking the prize away right in front of him.”

"This is a nightmare, a hell for the child!"

"Nightmare, hell?" Mrs. Dong was furious and sneered, "I won't feel anything just because a pancake that was supposed to be for me was taken away right in front of me!"

“That’s because you’re an adult,” Yato Takeshi shook his head slightly, looking a little uncomfortable. “But have you forgotten that the reason children are children is precisely because their physical and mental endurance is far inferior to that of adults?”

Adults are already a set of adults. No matter what they encounter, they have a strong ability to endure. Even if there are forced factors involved, whether it is forced or they are already capable of enduring it, the various things they encounter will basically not change an adult much.

It's very, very difficult to change them.

Children are different.

Children's minds are not yet fully mature and are very sensitive. Just like a child's taste buds are much more sensitive than an adult's, the taste of food is objectively more intense for a child.

Mrs. Dong's practice of serving the pancakes to the children and then taking them away was too practiced; it was obvious that she had done it countless times before.

For sensitive and perceptive children, experiencing something like this even once could become a lifelong obsession, making them crave the pancakes even in their old age, let alone doing it again and again.

And what's even more terrifying is the concept hidden behind this muffin cake.

"Whenever your child fails to meet your goals, you subject him to comprehensive suppression, blame, and criticism, and even compare him to his older brother. Don't you realize how crazy and excessive your actions are?"

Not to mention Mrs. Dong was furious, even Ya's fiercest friend was enraged.

There are just too many outrageous parents at Sakuraoka Elementary School!

Before Mrs. Dong could figure out how to properly refute the first part, she suddenly heard the second part and couldn't help but widen her eyes and retort stubbornly: "So what if I compared him to his brother? It's not a lie that his brother is outstanding!"

"What does it have to do with him that Dong's older brother is outstanding?"

Yagami threw back a different question, guiding Mrs. To's thinking, "Do you think comparing him to his brother will make his brother a role model?"

"Why don't you think about it? If you continue like this, he will only feel that you are biased and that you, as his mother, are always unilaterally favoring his brother. He will only become more distant from his brother, and may even start to hate him."

"What you're doing is deliberately turning your two children into enemies under the same roof, which is far too serious!"

Volume 1: 497. The Classic East Asian Family, the Authority of the Arrow's Might

497. A classic East Asian family style, exuding authority and power.

Arrow's fierce reprimand showed no mercy.

Although objectively speaking, it was just passive-aggressive psychological manipulation, and Mrs. Azuma did have feelings for her child, as a parent, she was already much better than both Kuse's mother and the previous Kirasaka mother.

However, there are many things that cannot be justified by comparison.

Although murder is a crime, so is assault, and assault is a much less serious crime than murder, we absolutely cannot say that just because someone committed murder, it's okay to say that the criminals here only assaulted people.