Chapter 34: Mendeleev's Epiphany (Part 2) "I've actually been following your work since I was very, very young!" "I once aspired to be a painter, just like you..." "I used to feel your loneliness in your paintings... It was a desert-like solitude, as if you were running, but the race had no end..." "I also saw a sense of decline in your work. Take 'Spring', for instance. You wanted to express romance, but it was permeated with a sense of sinking..." "More than that, I saw you going through…