Parker wore a somewhat regretful expression. "You might think I'd suddenly come to my senses and beat them up, but the truth is, I couldn't. I just felt miserable, and there was nothing I could do about it."
"But you didn't sacrifice anyone else."
"Yes, I knew I couldn't do that." Parker shook his head. "I don't know what other people are like, but if I framed someone else just because I was suffering, I'd never know peace for the rest of my life. Better to endure it now."
"But it obviously affected my grades too." Parker sighed. "I could have gone to a pretty decent high school, but in the end, I only attended a community technical school."
"But that's life. You always end up finding a blessing in disguise somewhere unexpected." Parker smiled again. "Because I'd experienced that kind of bullying, I became extremely sensitive to whether a group truly accepted me."
Natasha suddenly understood. "So you sensed that same bully-like attitude from this group of scientists."
Parker nodded. "Within their team, I was always in the weaker position. I had to provide emotional support and curry favor with them, because obviously, even if I was the Chief Engineer of the power department, I was still just a technician."
"But the scientists who could come to this research station obviously graduated from prestigious schools. Most people with those qualifications were children of elites or wealthy families. They were from a completely different world from me."
"That was also how outsiders viewed my place in the group. Something like, 'Look, that electrician gets to hang around with all those PhDs and professors. He's so lucky.'"
Natasha shrugged. "After the Soviet Union was gone, the status of technical workers like you declined sharply too. I still remember how, last century,