Uneasy daily life

"Therefore, capable people should listen to themselves."

The son argued vehemently, "I read a lot of history to prepare for my essay! A truly powerful emperor is one who is like a father to his father! The essence of power is to be everyone's father, including your own!"

"What?! Talking about history? And the nature of power?" The father was enraged, drawing on his professional keyboard skills as a history enthusiast. "Don't think that just because you've secretly read a few stories, you understand history! Among the emperors who murdered their fathers and usurped the throne, very few died peacefully, and very few could be considered powerful! Li Shimin was an exception, and not by much—do you even know what filial piety is?"

"Of course I know!" the son declared matter-of-factly. "It's something that wants Dad to be Dad forever!"

"Ha, superficial! You, you... you actually have a point."

The father was bewildered, looking at his son with some surprise—the essence of power is rule, and filial piety is a theoretical product that makes rule more stable and wants it to last forever.

What a genius! To have transcended the themes of heroes, nations, and countries so early on, and grasped the unchanging essence amidst the ever-changing nature of history?!

"wrong!"

The father steered the conversation back on track: "I'm your father! You should listen to me!"

The son tilted his head and said, "Then Dad should listen to Dad's dad?"

"That's your grandfather. Your grandfather has passed away. How am I supposed to hear that?"

"I want to listen to Dad, but you don't have to. That's not fair!"

"That's fair. You can become a father after you have a son! It's still too early!"

"Damn it! I'm going to launch the Xuanwu Gate Incident!"

"Ha! You? The Xuanwu Gate Incident?"

The father scoffed, straightened his back, and flexed his muscles: "You're not Li Shimin, who conquered the Tang Dynasty and whose achievements were so great that they shook his father, nor am I Li Yuan, who reaped the benefits of his son's success! I'd like to see how you're going to stage a coup at Xuanwu Gate!"

"Mom! Dad often watches a bunch of women with exposed legs dancing on the computer!"

"Wait a minute—you're allowing the emperor's relatives to interfere in politics!"

"Mom! Dad says you're an outsider!"

"You unfilial son—"

……

That's about it.

As they chatted, the person typing the translation changed from a middle-aged man to a middle-aged woman: [At home, I usually call him Erbai (Second White). Although he's the eldest only child, with Dabai around, he can only be Erbai, waiting for the day he successfully defeats Dabai and inherits the family position—I don't know why, but Erbai suddenly chose to run away instead of continuing to solo with Dabai every day.]

What a truly... eventful family.

Feng Bin and Hua typed on their phones, asking: "You might not be able to win an argument with him, haven't you thought about hitting him?"

That's a really good question...

The middle-aged man's brow twitched as he replied, "I'd only hit him if he actually made a mistake. That kid's very clever, and he's got a whole repertoire of fallacies, but he hasn't done anything wrong, so why should I hit him?"

Bai Jun's father in this life is more reliable than in the previous one...

As Yukino was thinking, she suddenly saw the middle-aged woman interrupting her.

[Erbai has many ways to deal with his father. If you're talking about hitting him, he did hit him once—I remember it very clearly.] The middle-aged woman typed out the sentences with a smile, making sure the translation wasn't too idiotic. [That time, Dabai had some problems at work and was in a bad mood. When he saw Erbai, he told him to go study, earnestly saying, "You're not studying for us, are you?" Erbai replied, "You're not working for me either..."]

In Erbai's words, when faced with a bad mood, one transfers that anxiety and trouble to others, while subconsciously embellishing one's words and actions, spouting self-righteous platitudes—being a father and being an emperor are similar, inevitably leading to the desire to abuse power while simultaneously seeking to glorify oneself.

The middle-aged man was starting to lose his composure; the chair must have been burning his bottom. "Sigh, that happened so many years ago, what's the point of bringing it up? Why don't you talk about how you were particularly superstitious for a while..."

Yukinoshita Haruno typed with great interest, "What happened next?"

Later, Erbai would suddenly say to Dabai every day, "I'm not studying for you guys"—he'd say it while eating, while sleeping, occasionally while chatting happily with Dabai, and sometimes even to me...

The middle-aged woman quipped: [These words sound hurtful, and it just so happens that Da Bai said them himself. After Da Bai calmed down, Er Bai brought it up every few days. I remember it lasted for a whole month, right? It made him go from feeling embarrassed and guilty to confused and puzzled, and then to scared. Giving him more pocket money and taking him to the amusement park didn't help. In the end, he had to sheepishly apologize to Er Bai to get the matter off the hook.]

The middle-aged man coughed repeatedly: "I just admit my mistake and want to correct it. I'm trying to reason with you!"

The four women looked at each other in disbelief. They could guess that their boyfriend's childhood was eventful, but they hadn't expected it to be this eventful...

"That kid, he's clearly my son, but he just wants to be my father." This middle-aged man's rant perfectly captures the core of the problem: "Other kids mess with their dads by being mischievous, he messes with me by wanting to be my dad. There have been countless similar incidents since he was little—for example, for a while my wife was obsessed with buying him brain-boosting supplements, but he said it would be better for his mother to take them rather than him."

At first, she was touched, thinking how filial her son was. But then she realized he was implying she was stupid—the longer she ate, the stupider she became; and wanting to keep eating after finishing made her even stupider.

The middle-aged woman couldn't hold back any longer and decisively revealed the truth: "[Aren't you the same? Once when you had a stomachache, Erbai suggested you go to the hospital, but you waved it off and said it was a minor issue. You ended up being rushed to the hospital shortly afterward. The doctor prescribed some medicine, and as soon as you took it, you asked why it wasn't working and if there was something wrong with your illness...]"

[Erbai even wrote about this in his composition; I still remember the couplet he used that was praised by the teacher!]

[Consulting the doctor about symptoms and ailments is not a big deal; don't worry. Hospitalization and prescriptions will surely be effective and highly efficient medicines.]

"That's human nature for most people. If you tell him he's sick, he'll call you a quack; if you prescribe medicine, he'll think it will cure him right away..."

Yukinoshita shook her head and muttered a few words, then suddenly muttered in puzzlement, "I was just saying I wanted to find some of the jerk's past embarrassing history to play with, but it all seems to be the embarrassing history of the jerk's parents?"

"After all, he was the one who started as the anti-fan," Mai Sakurajima concluded. "What were the uncle and aunt talking about?"

The middle-aged man and woman were talking to each other, appearing quite emotional with rich expressions, sometimes sneering, sometimes awkwardly stammering, highlighting a back-and-forth, confrontational exchange.

"Hmm... are they settling scores? Other families calculate who has more merit and less fault, but this scoundrel's family calculates who has more dark history?"

Feng Bin and Hua made a strange comment.

Chapter 114 Reversing the Heavenly Gang!

Trying to dig up someone's embarrassing past is unreliable, because Bai Ying used to focus on messing with his parents. As a guy with strong initiative and a wildly imaginative mind, he didn't leave behind much of a dark history for himself, but he did leave his parents with many unforgettable memories. Whenever they think of it, they can't help but feel the urge to discipline their children with a stick.

As a father, Bai Ying's feelings were complicated. He was pleased that his son was smart, quick-witted, and had strong initiative, which would surely lead to great things. However, he was also often saddened by the lack of a sense of accomplishment as a teacher and by the frequent criticism from his son. In any case, from childhood to adulthood, he had never won a reasoning argument, and at most, the argument would end in a draw, bringing the topic to a close.

That kid used to be always finding fault with me. Like, "I'm at the top of my class, but what about me compared to the other parents?" Or, "Why don't I work harder? You rest on your days off, while others work hard on theirs—that's how the difference is made." Even when I dabbled in stocks, he'd nag about how people who want something for nothing are supporting others who do the same. When I was busy editing, he'd stand by and give me advice, even asking how my career was going…

The middle-aged man typed the translation intermittently, revealing the bloody, mottled traces of the past to Yukino and the other three.

The group looked at each other, unable to distinguish between the lines who was the father and who was the son.

Both Feng Bin and Hua Du were a little envious: [They're really open-minded, they don't even care about the bastards?]

"If you can't argue with him and still try to control him, he might run away from home, embellish his parents' stories in school essays, and use tutoring as an excuse to freeload at other people's houses." The middle-aged woman's expression was undeniably strange as she recounted the past. "Erbai is very different from ordinary kids. Ordinary kids are clueless and fearless, but Erbai is a brat who's confident and fearless."

When other parents talk about their children, they're mostly anxious and nitpicky, hoping their children will be more capable and have a brighter future. We're also quite anxious when we talk about our child; who knows what kind of nonsense he'll bring up when he gets home.

What a bizarre family dynamic.

The thought flashed through the minds of all four simultaneously, but upon further reflection, it seemed that the white shadow wasn't so strange after all.

"This shows that you have a friendly, equal parent-child relationship." Mai Sakurajima subtly implied. "At least you're much better than those elders who never reflect on themselves and only demand things of their children. Your relationship is also much closer than that kind of family; you have many memories that you can easily recall."

The middle-aged couple, who were reminiscing and sighing, suddenly exchanged a knowing glance.

"No, no, no, I mean I've put up with that kid for a long time!" the middle-aged man typed with a serious expression. "He's a rebel against Heaven, an inhuman son, and has acted recklessly. We've resented him for a long time! Now he's created this enormous disaster. We can no longer tolerate it and are determined to sever all ties with that kid!"

The four looked at each other, completely baffled. They felt that the other party was quite open-minded and had a strong ability to accept things, but why was he so unwilling to agree and insisted on cutting ties with Bai Ying completely?

"Could it be that these scoundrel's parents have been harboring resentment for a long time and have been planning to kick him out of the house, so they're using this incident to cut ties completely?"

"Impossible, right? They don't seem to harbor any deep resentment. Besides, Bai Jun has been gone for six years. That's practically the same as being kicked out of the family, so why bother?"

"Since we don't understand the situation, let's continue with the approach of building a closer relationship and wait for the hater to come back and handle it."

"This is so troublesome. If we don't object, why are they objecting?"

The four people at one end were discussing and exchanging ideas in Japanese, while the middle-aged father at the other end was also whispering among himself.

"Byaku, I think Yukino Yukinoshita is a good girl. She's hardworking, down-to-earth, and devoted. In this era and at this age, for a girl to have cooking skills that are no less than mine, it's clear that she's deeply in love..."

“Wife! You absolutely mustn’t get involved in this! If you say Yukino Yukinoshita is nice, then you’ll be targeted by others—she’s not here to claim kinship with you, she’s here to collect a debt! Besides, you’re choosing a wife for that kid? Aren’t you afraid he’ll ask you, as a wife, how do you compare to Yukino Yukinoshita?”

"Impossible! He would only ask you that kind of question!"

"Anyway, we must maintain a completely detached and neutral stance! In this unsolvable deadlock, whoever gets involved will die! That kid is really something, unreliable since childhood, but he's never caused any trouble, and yet he's stirred up such a huge mess..."

After discussions, both sides decided to continue their policy of strengthening relations.

The four-person group believes that as long as they can build closer relationships, they can reduce the resistance to persuading Bai Ying's parents!

Parents' group: As long as we build a closer relationship, we can stay out of it and avoid being made difficult by the other party!

The two camps hit it off immediately and began to cooperate with each other as if they were rigging a match. Yukino Yukinoshita helped wash the dishes, and the middle-aged woman praised her virtuous, diligent and down-to-earth. Yukino Yukinoshita helped take out the trash, and the middle-aged man praised her as if she had risked her life to clean up Chernobyl. Mai Sakurajima exchanged work experience with the middle-aged man as a member of the entertainment industry. If she didn't know her own limitations, she would have thought she was famous all the way to China.

However, there was only one exception.

The middle-aged man decides to conquer the most troublesome person—Toyohama Kazuka.

Other girls were more or less friendly, but she was quite tough. When others came to collect debts, they would try to be polite first and then resort to force, but she always went for the "polite first, then force" approach.

[Ms. Feng Bin, aren't your family worried about you coming all this way from across the border?]

[I'm not very close to my family, and I can't be bothered with my mom and dad's relationship problems. They basically don't concern themselves with my affairs either.] Feng Bin and Hua were itching to ask Bai Ying's dad what he was thinking, but considering their sister's advice, they decided to hold off for now. [I'm an adult already working in the entertainment industry; it's just a trip.]

[Work? What do you do? Are you a celebrity like Mai Sakurajima?]

The middle-aged man was trembling – good heavens! A scumbag who's scumbagd two colleagues? And in the entertainment industry, where it's so public? You're really fearless!

"Well, we're both celebrities, but my sister is an actress, and I'm an idol in a group."

【elder sister? 】

Mai Sakurajima, we are half-sisters.

The middle-aged man's liver no longer trembles.

What? Bai Ying? Is there such a character? I don't remember her.

Feng Bin and Hua glanced at the middle-aged man and saw a kind of detached, Buddhist-like quality on his face. For a moment, they were puzzled—was he satisfied or dissatisfied with his profession? They couldn't understand it at all!

I've heard that Chinese people are very conservative and look down on the entertainment industry. Are you one of them?

"Times have changed. Back then, money was in the hands of the powerful and wealthy, so of course they looked down on actors. Who among ordinary citizens could look down on whom?" the middle-aged man quickly typed. "At your age, to be working in the entertainment industry is far more capable than me—do you have any recordings of your performances? I quite enjoy watching entertainment programs."

Feng Bin and Hua were skeptical, so they dug out several program videos.

The middle-aged man watched with a solemn expression and commented: "[The singing is beautiful, the dancing is excellent, very good, very good! Young people are so energetic—what's your idol group called? Interested in developing a cross-border fanbase?]"

Unexpectedly smooth sailing?

Our name is Sweet Bullets, I'm the captain, and this is...

……

As night fell, the middle-aged couple stopped the group of four who were about to go out to find a hotel and let them stay in two rooms of their house in pairs.

The couple stayed in the room and began to have a serious argument.

"It has to be Yukino Yukinoshita. She's serious, composed, upright, and down-to-earth. Although she seems a bit aloof, she's incredibly polite to everyone. Plus, she's so pretty and adorable!" the middle-aged woman commented. "Her older sister is also great. She's very open and generous when she speaks and jokes. Although she's two or three years older than the others, she's much gentler and easier to get along with!"

The middle-aged man had a different opinion: "I think Toyohama and Hana are better. They are straightforward and don't hide anything. They are honest, cheerful, and idols. Sakurajima Mai is also good. Although she is a big star in Japan, she is not pretentious or arrogant. You can't see any affectation in her."

The two women exchanged a glance, and the middle-aged woman complained, "Didn't you say we shouldn't offer our opinions?"

"I have a new idea," the middle-aged man said in a deep voice. "I think all four girls are quite nice people. What do you think?"

"That's true..." The middle-aged woman nodded slightly. "If she had a bad temper, there would already be a huge fight at home. Erbai really only picks on good girls to ruin! His crime is compounded!"

"Although that kid had the foresight to tell us to cut ties and avoid trouble, we are still his parents. How can we stand aside? No matter how many disclaimers we make, it will only make others think we are making excuses. Only actions can show our stance."

The middle-aged man sighed slowly, his face full of complicated emotions: "Wife, you must have had the same thoughts about being with those girls today, right?"

"Hmm..." The middle-aged woman nodded calmly, "Then let's do it this way!"

……

"Educating parents is an art. It requires understanding their comprehension, thought processes, and values. Appropriate communication methods should be used to correct unrealistic ideas and help them learn to work hard in a down-to-earth manner, rather than expecting to rise to great heights through their children's success. I do not advocate using violence to correct parents; that will only lead to psychological problems for them, causing them to either rebel against you or become discouraged and insecure..."

"Truly good children should learn to reason with their parents, refuse unreasonable demands, break free from their dependence, and cultivate a strong spirit of independence and self-reliance! They should also promptly identify and correct their parents' bad habits—such as smoking, drinking, lottery tickets, stocks, superstition, etc.—and not let them run rampant! You might ask how to correct these bad habits. My answer is to follow their example and even surpass them. Why are bad habits called bad habits? Because they harm both the child and others! If your bad habits are bad enough, they will definitely not tolerate them and will be able to empathize and correct them..."

"Of course, we should also learn to be tolerant of our parents' shortcomings and understand that they are human beings who cannot escape the mundane nature of life. However, tolerance does not mean indulgence. It's okay to like looking at beautiful women, but it's not okay to have an affair. It's okay to like money, but it's not okay to fantasize about making a fortune. It's okay to like drinking, but it's okay to drink a little and get a little tipsy. It's okay to believe in something for psychological comfort, but it's not okay to invest time and energy in it... The difference between tolerance and indulgence lies in the degree."

"The above are all theories. In practice, it must be tailored to the individual. However, violence and coercion must not be used. If the other party cannot understand and correct their behavior, forcibly correcting them will only lead to distorted results."

Walking down the street, Bai Ying summarized her life experience as a child, highlighting how much she had worried about her parents.

Angelina gave a deadpan look: "...Are you kidding me?"

"Why would I tease you?" Bai Ying frowned. "Do you know the troubles and anxieties of being a son? Every day I see my parents doing foolish things, wasting their lives and time, completely disregarding their future. How anxious I am! I study so hard every day to get good grades, all for their future."

Angelina retorted, "Are you playing the son or the father?"

Bai Ying asked in surprise, "Why can't a son be a father?"

Angelina: "?"

She frantically searched through her elementary school memories, trying to uncover Bai Ying's family relationships.

Unfortunately, most of my memories are of Bai Ying dominating the primary school, acting like a tyrant and bullying the villagers. As for Bai Ying's parents, my impression of them is that they were a rather spirited and kind couple. I can't imagine them fighting with their son for the position of father at home...

"So?" Angelina pointed to the crux of the matter, "How will your aunt and uncle react to the fact that you've been a jerk?"