Jiang Xiaohui grabbed the old man and asked, "Old man, can you teach me? If I had your skills, I could make a fortune gambling."
But the old man said he could not teach him. He said that whenever he wanted a certain tile, that tile was simply there.
"You can see them?"
The old man shook his head and said he could not see the tiles either.
But he just knew that was the tile he wanted.
It sounded fantastical, but he did not know how to explain it either.
"Alright, you asked us to play with you, and we did. Didn't you say that if we played cards with you, you'd tell us anything we wanted to know?"
The old man looked at me and nodded. "Yes. As long as I know it, I'll definitely tell you."
I frowned. "Do you think this world is real?"
The old man opened his mouth wide. "What do you mean? How is this world not real?"
Ye Jinghong said, "Have you ever been outside? For example, the city where your two sons are. Have you ever gone there?"
The old man froze for a moment, then shook his head. "No, I haven't."
Ye Jinghong continued, "I didn't see a single photograph in the villa. No pictures of you and your wife, nor any with your children. Did you never take photos?"
"Photos? No. It seems I really never did."
I asked, "Are there any photos of elderly relatives in your home?"
He shook his head again. "There aren't any photos in my house, but what does that prove?"
Ye Jinghong's question reminded me that when we were in Lower Kū, we had visited several homes, and there had not been a single photograph in any of them either.
That really was