"Students doing poorly always left me helpless, and being unable to teach them made me angry, but what would truly damage my reputation in academia would be watering down an exam." Schiller sighed.
"Bruce's graduation exam topic was Manipulation and Counter-Manipulation. Which do you think is harder?"
"Manipulating others and not being manipulated by others?" Helen thought for a moment. "Manipulating others should be harder. You need to learn many techniques, quickly analyze someone's personality, and formulate a targeted strategy."
But Schiller shook his head. "Techniques can all be learned. Finding the weaknesses in someone's heart isn't technical work. Understanding someone in a week is difficult, but if you are willing to invest the time and spend years revolving around one person, then no matter how hard they are to understand, you should know them fairly well by then."
Helen nodded thoughtfully and touched her chin. "Is it hard not to be manipulated by others?"
"It's hard not to be influenced by others." Schiller took another sip of tea. "People inevitably get influenced by their surroundings. The more important someone is to you, the greater the influence they can exert on you. It is impossible to be completely immune to that influence."
"And once someone wants to manipulate you, their understanding of you and their importance in your heart become their most powerful weapons. Being unable to resist isn't weakness. The essence of manipulation is that they love you, and you feel that love too. You believe it makes up for their manipulation of you."
Helen silently committed those words to memory. Then she said, "Since Bruce graduated, that proves he learned both how to manipulate others and how to resist manipulation."
"Jack himself is manipulating Bruce. It's the same point of knowledge, merely in another form." Schiller sighed.
"And