"She objected, saying her eyesight wasn't as good as mine. I was really puzzled in my heart, I didn't quite understand what she meant by that."
It wasn't that he didn't quite understand; it was that he knew what was going on and was afraid things would get worse, so he simply claimed he was puzzled. This was exactly the psychological pattern of people like classmate Zhao Wenzong, those soft-hearted types: avoidance, afraid to face cruel reality, preferring to keep lying to themselves over and over, deluding themselves that things weren't as bad as they thought.
At bottom, it was a lack of strength.
On this front, Zhao Wenzong was trying hard to buck himself up. He said, "I heard about you helping treat her grandmother. I said she should at least give you a call and say Xie Xie. She didn't say anything after she heard that. I think maybe she'll come to you again later."
