"You mean to tell me," Nie Guangyi said, "that none of your other students have found jobs? Come on, you're a heavyweight in your field, a mentor to scores of students. How many spies have you sent to check up on me now?"
"What spies? I am just a humble father trying to check on a son who is reluctant to return home."
"Professor Nie, if old scores are to be settled, shouldn't I be the one to do it? Aren't you being a tad childish?"
"Haven't you heard of an old child? I'm over seventy now, and from this point onward, I'm just an old kid. What's wrong with being a bit childish?"
Nie Guangyi didn't continue to argue. If he did, who knows if the old child might revert to an age where communication was altogether impossible.
Nie Guangyi repeated the question that had sparked the argument in the first place, "So, none of your other students have found jobs?"
