Ji Lin did not pick up the list.
Instead, he flipped his pencil around, picked up the April issue of "Mathematical Monthly" lying beside him, turned to the Sudoku page, and continued to fill in the numbers...
"I've always found the way you talk strange," he said.
As he rapidly filled in the numbers, he spoke softly,
"Even though all kinds of things affect the future, why do you always talk about 'history'?"
"That's not important, it's just a way of speaking."
The old man walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the moon outside, his eyes slightly reddened:
"Xu Yun... was the student I cherished most in my life."
"I can tell," Ji Lin replied without looking up.
"You even promised your own daughter to him. Afraid he wouldn't agree, you lied and claimed she was your little niece. But it's not really a lie since my sister didn't know her own background; she didn't know she was the product of a youthful dalliance."
The old man's eyes widened as he turned around:
