The Otherworld (Part 2)

As Bian Senlin's thoughts became clearer, his faith grew stronger, and the chain that had been wrapped around his waist slowly receded.

As soon as he finished speaking, the chains extending from the rocks on the ground exploded into pieces and then dissipated.

28 Seeing this, the subconscious mind narrowed its eyes gloomily.

Seeing that the other party was unhappy, Bian Senlin felt happy for some reason. His thoughts were clear at this moment:

"I don't deny that my parents are somewhat partial, but this partiality is well controlled within a certain range.

Most importantly, I have my own preferences!"

When he was a child, his parents were busy making a living. Later, they had their second child, Bian Yan. Bian Yan could not be separated from his mother as soon as he was born, so he was sent to be taken care of by his grandparents.

His grandparents loved him very much and took him with them almost everywhere they went.

Grandpa happily taught him how to hold a pen, and grandma told him the truth of the world through stories.

Later, when he grew up a little, his parents told him to go home for dinner after school on the first day, but he ran to his grandparents' house without looking back the next day.

Even after he went to college, his grandmother would still call him every week to listen to him talk about his life at school.

He can accept his parents' favoritism because he also had his own preferences when he was young.

After all, humans are not sophisticated electronic scales, and they will inevitably have certain biases due to various reasons.

As long as there are no mistakes in the general direction, Bian Senlin believes that it is acceptable.

Just like himself, he is closer to his grandparents than to his parents. After all, human emotions are mutual.

"Besides, I don't think my parents don't love me."

Bian Senlin's mother is a ruthless person who can fight with his father with a knife without showing any fear during an argument.

He will probably never forget that one time he suddenly fell into a coma due to illness. When he opened his eyes, he saw his mother pinching his nose and face with tears and crying to wake him up.

That was the first time he saw his mother crying so miserably.

His father, who was on a business trip at the time, rushed back and stayed by his side without blinking.

"My parents did tell me that I should give in to my younger brother, but they didn't tell me to give blindly like you said.

They also know my character well and are worried that I might suffer losses due to my soft-heartedness."

My parents would quarrel over firewood, oil, salt and other daily necessities from time to time.

Once, because of a certain household expense, the two quarreled over who should pay for it and started a cold war.

Bian Senlin found an opportunity, gathered up his savings, gave it to them, and told both parties that it was the other party who paid the money.

A war was put out.

But a month later, his parents happened to talk about this matter, and after they compared the accounts, Bian Senlin could no longer hide it.

The parents silently gave the money to Bian Senlin, but privately they felt that the child was afraid that he would suffer in the future because of being too soft-hearted.

The night before he went to college, his mother gave him a lot of nagging instructions, but his father worriedly told him: It's okay for people to learn to be a little selfish.

"So what?"

28 His subconscious mind interrupted him impatiently, and Bian Senlin’s repeated rebuttals made him very unhappy.

He looked at the forest as if it were a rotten tree: "They don't know how to raise a child.

They had you without any preparation, and to them, more children are just more pairs of bowls and chopsticks.

They don't understand what it means to teach by example, what it means to guide, and how much influence unintentional behavior can have on a person's character and future!

28 The subconscious looked down at Bian Senlin and said, "You are cowardly and timid. Have you ever thought about why you are like this?"

“You don’t get praise for the good things you do, but more often than not, you get criticism.

When you find something new and bring it to them, they will say, "You'd better study hard instead of spending this time on it."

When you start learning something, you usually don’t get encouragement, but rather ‘Why are you so clumsy? I used to…’;

And when you do something wrong, you are only yelled at and scolded instead of taught..."

28 Subconsciously looking at the forest beside him, his expression gloomy and mocking:

"Do you still remember that time when you were bullied in school, you went home as if nothing had happened and didn't even dare to fart?

Why?

Isn't it because they are afraid of trouble? Every time you go out to school, you must be warned to "don't cause trouble."

So, even if you don't cause trouble, when trouble comes to you, you dare not say anything, let alone ask for help.

Over time, you don't dare to try to do anything extra because you are afraid of trouble.

They took you back from your grandparents, but they had no time to pay attention to you.

They will tell you thousands of times to study hard, but they will not guide you to develop good habits.

They can’t tell you the rules of how this society works, because they themselves don’t understand it;

So when you enter the society, you become a young man who is weak and reckless at the same time!

You won’t be able to see the road ahead clearly, and walking on a muddy road, you will sprain your ankle, slip, and fall into a deep pit..."

Bian Senlin didn't take 28's subconscious ridicule seriously. He listened to 28's subconscious thinking calmly.

Suddenly, he interrupted: "What about me?"

28 The subconscious was stunned.

Bian Senlin looked at him and repeated:

"What about me? Where am I?

I don't deny that the situation you described does exist, but in your words, I seem to have become a puppet of my parents, a puppet without my own thoughts.

Bian Senlin spoke slowly. This was the first time he had thought deeply about this issue.

"How a person grows up is indeed closely related to his family; but it would be more accurate to say that family, environment and personal choices together shape this person."

He and Bian Yan are a good reference. They were born in the same family and attended the same school. It can be said that in terms of their growing environment, they are basically the same.

Before going to college, he and Bian Yan held the same views on many things and had similar thinking.

Bian Yan would also hesitate about some things, but compared to him, Bian Yan seemed to be more courageous.

It’s the same old “don’t cause trouble” message, and the same fights at school.

After a fight, he would quietly clean himself up and go home as if nothing had happened.

Bian Yan is different. He will just make a big deal out of it, ask the teacher to call his parents, and let everyone know that he has been bullied.

Although he would be labeled as a mischievous boy and scolded by his parents afterwards, it seemed that he lived a much more comfortable life than the "good boy" he was.

This is the different changes brought about by individual choices under highly similar variables.

As each person makes different choices in each situation, different paths and different lives will emerge.

Bian Senlin believes that it is a very one-sided and irresponsible statement for 28 to subconsciously attribute all the reasons to parents and hide himself.

So, he slowly but seriously expressed his views to 28's subconscious mind:

"I admit that family factors can have a huge impact on a person, and the younger they are, the greater the impact.

But as you grow older, you will have your own ideas and make different choices, choices that even your parents may not be able to interfere with.

So, you shouldn't put all the blame on them. They are responsible, but not entirely.

And I think that as you get older, personal choice becomes a larger part of that responsibility.

Just like when the college entrance examination results came out, my grades were not ideal and I could only go to a third-rate school.

My father was very tough at the time and asked me to repeat the year, but I was really fed up with the high-pressure life in the third year of high school, so I wanted to escape as soon as I could get into a school.

Because of this, I was in a cold war and confrontation with my dad for the entire summer vacation."

The matter finally ended with his father's compromise. His father told him carefully that he needed to be responsible for his own choice, and he agreed.

Even though he has not yet begun to bear the possible consequences of this choice, he does not think he will blame his parents for this.

28's subconscious mind scoffed at his idea: "That's because you were taught to be too cowardly since childhood, so you avoid pressure!"

No! Bian Senlin shook his head violently. He still couldn't agree with 28's paranoid idea.

Bian Senlin suddenly realized that from the time they met until now, 28's subconscious mind had been behaving very paranoidly.

Why is this happening?

Even if it’s just my subconscious mind 8 years later, why would it be so different from what I think now?

After thinking about it, Bian Senlin came to the conclusion:

28 The subconscious mind is dissatisfied! Dissatisfied with the status quo and dissatisfied with the current self.

This dissatisfaction was so severe that he began to hate his past self and the environment in which he grew up.

After knowing the reason, I thought about what I saw and heard that day when I followed 28, until the scene when 28 fell unconscious and was pushed into the emergency room.

Bian Senlin suddenly wasn't so angry anymore, but he still felt a little sad: his future life would probably be very difficult.

Bian Senlin was silent for a moment, and his gaze towards 28's subconscious mind was no longer so confrontational.

But he still insisted on his idea: "Since you are dissatisfied with everything in the past, why don't you start to change it now instead of blaming the past?

If you think I'm cowardly, you should try to change from the moment you realize it, instead of blaming yourself for being cowardly."

These words were spoken by Bian Senlin to 28's subconscious mind, and also to his current self.

Bian Senlin stopped trying to refute 28's subconscious and instead began to think about solutions to the problem:

“You can start with every little thing around you and try to make different choices.

If you think that your family has had a negative impact on you in the past, you can start to change it now and get rid of it.

If you don’t have good habits, you can start to develop them now, and you can learn things you don’t know…”

Finally, Bian Senlin said to 28 Subconsciously in a serious and sincere manner:

"Our lives are not even halfway through yet, we will live a very long time.

We have plenty of time to shape ourselves into what we want, without the interference of others, only our own will!"