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"Whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on, I can't watch this anymore." Wang Jian clutched his chest, a look of pain on his face.

Bai Xueyao paused the video with some alarm. "Are you... are you alright?"

Wang Jian waved his hand, catching his breath, and let out a long sigh. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

Actually, he didn't have heart disease or any other ailment; it was just the scene he'd been watching that made him feel so bad.

The acting in this 'Little Sadness' was just too good. He could feel the daughter's grievances as if they were his own, and the mother's attitude of 'I'm only doing this for your own good,' without considering her daughter's feelings at all, yet thinking her actions were perfectly justified, feeling like she was the one who was suffering the most—it was too real, too unbearable.

For Wang Jian, who usually loved reading silly comments from netizens and had parents who were relatively lenient with him since childhood, the impact of the plot was too strong.

This kind of parental love, to put it nicely, is a failure of education; to put it seriously, it's going overboard.

Wang Jian finally understood why he had been seeing topics about 'Little Sadness' trending on Weibo so frequently, and why Bai Xueyao had looked so serious just now.

Watching this kind of drama makes it hard not to feel conflicted and uncomfortable.

"The drama is pretty good, too good, but I'm not going to watch it." Wang Jian slumped back in his chair, massaging his chest to ease the stuffiness.

Bai Xueyao tilted her head, asking in confusion, "Tragic… past?"

Wang Jian laughed. "My parents were pretty lenient with me. Although there were some unpleasant moments sometimes—but who doesn't have conflicts with their parents when they're in school? Overall, our relationship is pretty good. As I've gotten older, I can understand a lot of things, and I love them even more. Seeing how serious you looked just now, were your parents very strict with you?"

Bai Xueyao nodded and then shook her head. "Piano."

Wang Jian immediately understood. "Only strict with you about the piano, but more lenient with you about your studies and pretty good to you in your daily life, right?"

"Yeah."

…

After breakfast, Wang Jian went to his studio and carefully wiped his N乃希 figure and Pikachu figure, admiring them for a while.

Then, thinking about 'Little Sadness,' he couldn't help but go to Weibo to look at the comments from netizens.

"This is the typical Chinese-style parent! Selfish, self-righteous, and thinking they're doing it for the good of their children, forcing what they think is good onto their children, ultimately ruining their children's lives!"

"Wanting their children to fly, yet cruelly cutting off their wings, and then blaming them for not being able to fly."

"This drama is too real; isn't this just my mom?"

"Too real, so real I want to report it /crying"

"My mom is like this too."

"The acting is so good; I cried while watching it."

"Are all the kids and parents like this nowadays? I feel so much pressure."

"The love of parents and elders becomes pressure for the children, pressure they want to escape…"

"The line I hate the most: 'Yingzi, you are everything to Mom!' That self-pitying face makes me want to throw up!"

"Using love as an excuse to morally blackmail their children."

"Yingzi's mom is the typical Chinese-style parent, constantly saying 'As long as my child is happy, I'm happy,' 'It's more important than anything that my child is doing well,' but doesn't care about her child's feelings at all."

"I think the most ironic scene is when Yingzi and her mom have it out, when she says she wants to go to Jinling University.

Yingzi: 'I want to go to Jinling University; it's my dream!'

Yingzi's mom: 'Then say it!'

Yingzi: 'I said it, would you agree?'

Yingzi's mom: 'Of course I can't agree!'"

"That scene was really hard to watch."

"It's Chinese-style parents like Yingzi's mom who dismiss their children's dreams and even brutally interfere and discourage them, ultimately turning them into the same mold. How can there be any creativity like that?"

"The drama 'Little Sadness' really reflects the Chinese-style parent's mentality of hoping their child becomes a dragon or phoenix, treating their children as tools to realize their own ideals."

"Exactly! Children's inherently free spirit is burdened with too many demands; this is the obliteration of an unformed personality!"

"From this drama, people can clearly feel the educational anxiety of the middle class. Parents have clear and precise goals, even quitting their jobs to turn their children into good 'products.' But can children shaped like this really adapt to the future?"

In the comments, many were denouncing "Chinese-style parents."

And many were pouring out their unhappiness with their parents.

"My experience is the same as Yingzi's. My parents divorced, and my mom had high expectations for me, controlling me extremely strictly. If my grades were even one rank lower than last time, I wouldn't dare go home and face her. This 'love' is suffocating me, making me unable to breathe. I feel like I'm drowning, suffering from insomnia like Yingzi, often feeling like I can't go on. I don't want this kind of 'love'… I really don't know if I would have had the courage to live if I hadn't done well on the college entrance exam. Luckily, I did pretty well. But that shadow still lingers in my heart."

"Back then, I found a promising job, but my mom was adamant that I go back to my small hometown and take the civil service exam, thinking that would be a stable life. Now, when I eat with them, I always seize the opportunity to unintentionally mention how much my former colleagues are earning now, with houses, cars, and happy families, and see them not daring to reply."

"I'm the same. I keep this hatred firmly in my heart, and I won't forget it even after thirty or fifty years. I'll definitely take revenge then."

Wang Jian frowned as he read these comments full of negative energy.

He couldn't help but post a status update: "Today I watched a bit of the recently popular drama 'Little Sadness' and saw some comments on Weibo that were overwhelmingly critical of Chinese-style parents. I want to say a few words in defense of Chinese-style parents.

Actually, it's hard to strike the right balance in family education. Both parents and children have their own difficulties. I think mutual understanding, seeking common ground while accepting differences, is the most important thing, using love to resolve conflicts.

Chinese-style parents don't just have the aspects of being strict, selfish, self-righteous, and not good at communicating. They also have gentle, tolerant, strong, and lovely sides. I think we shouldn't just see the negative side of parents; we should also see the positive side.

The game I'm developing is called 'Chinese Parents.' I hope to explore the relationship between parents and children through this game."

As soon as Wang Jian posted this, it quickly stirred up a storm!