A system scheme is presented, which allows non-reciprocal wave transmission or directional amplification of electromagnetic signals, using a boxed four-node method. Edges represent strong hopping interactions and diagonals stand for weak parametric interactions. Using careful optimization of values for design parameters, we are able to obtain non-reciprocity in excess of 12 and 130 dB for intrinsic and extrinsic configurations at identical input/output frequencies. For the directional amplification, an isolation as high as 40 dB is demonstrated with the forward/backward gains of +/- 20 dB. Cascading two such systems potentially can offer high isolations at high gains.