Surgery Godfather

Chapter 2173: Chapter 1428: Joining the Ranks

The email from the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research lay in Yang Ping’s inbox for three days before being answered.

It wasn’t that Yang Ping deliberately delayed; he just didn’t know how to respond. "If you have time, I’d like to come to China to discuss this face-to-face," said an old scientist who had been working in the stem cell field for nearly half a century, was nearly eighty, a Nobel Prize winner, a living fossil in global stem cell research, and wanted to fly across half the Earth to have a "face-to-face discussion" with you. This was no courtesy; this was serious.

Yang Ping replied with five words: "Welcome, you set the time."

The other party’s reply came even faster: "Next Wednesday, I will come over with my two students. Please allow me to visit your laboratory and meet that volunteer."

Yang Ping forwarded this email to Manstein, who looked somewhat complex after reading it.

"Do you know him?"

"I do, for over thirty years!" Manstein leaned back in his chair, gazing at the ceiling. "Herman Weber, seventy-eight years old, Nobel Prize winner, one of the founders in the stem cell field. My mentor in Germany knew him well. I’ve seen him many times at academic conferences when I was young."

"How is your relationship?"

Manstein was silent for a moment. "He’s my predecessor. I’ve always respected him, but he was never quite satisfied with my... style."

"What style?"

"Too sharp!" Manstein smiled, with a hint of self-mockery. "He believes science should be rigorous, conservative, and progress step by step. He thinks I speak too absolutely, criticize others too directly, and draw conclusions too quickly."

Yang Ping looked at him; this was the first time Manstein voluntarily mentioned someone else’s negative evaluation of him. This German never cared about external opinions, dismissing interviews cleanly and speaking only with data when questioned. Many in academia feared him.

Yang Ping nodded. "So, now that he’s coming, how do you plan to interact with him?"

"Say what needs to be said; data is data, and friendship is friendship."

Manstein picked up the phone and called the rehabilitation training room. The call was answered by Sister Li, who remained silent for a moment after Manstein stated his purpose, then Chen Jianguo’s voice came from afar: "Who? President of what international society? A Nobel Prize winner? If they’re coming, let them come. Just nice to let them see if Professor Manstein’s method works on me."

In the following days, the whole team prepared for the visit. It wasn’t about hospitality preparation but data preparation. Manstein organized all the evidence about original cell repair into a folder: M7’s electrophysiological records, M8’s immunohistochemistry photos, M21’s single-cell sequencing results, Chen Jianguo’s cerebrospinal fluid test report, the sensory plane decline curve, the muscle strength recovery timeline, the standing duration change graph, each piece of data marked with the date, conditions, and location of the raw data. "Weber won’t believe any conclusion that isn’t supported by raw data. He’s been in this field for forty years and has seen too many beautifully wrapped fake data. We’re not showing him conclusions; we’re showing evidence. Conclusions can be packaged, but evidence cannot."

Yang Ping revised the last part of the review paper three more times. The third part’s title changed from "Future Outlook" to "A Testable Hypothesis," then to "Unified Hypothesis: Homologous Regulation of Differentiation and Migration." In the final version, the title had only one line under it:

"We propose that the differentiation fate and spatial position of cells are regulated by the same signal network at the molecular level. This network coordinates tissue construction during embryonic development and can be reactivated by specific microenvironment signals after adult injury, mediating endogenous tissue repair."

Yang Ping read this sentence several times, confirming that he truly believed in every word, then saved the document. He intended to make this theory open to the world, so he had to be as cautious as possible to avoid misleading researchers who might get involved.

On Wednesday of the next week, the visitors arrived on time.

Yang Ping originally wanted to pick them up from the airport, but Weber’s assistant insisted they shouldn’t bother. "Professor Weber rented a car himself and navigated his way over; he doesn’t like bothering others." Yang Ping didn’t insist further. He had heard about Weber’s style. This old gentleman, over seventy years old, never traveled with an assistant, dragged his suitcase alone in economy class, and rented a car to drive to the hotel at the destination. Some said it was for show, but those who knew him understood that Weber had been like this since he was young—it’s not for show, he genuinely doesn’t like being waited on.

At ten in the morning, a black business car stopped at the institute’s entrance. The door opened, and two young people came out first, a man and a woman, each carrying a backpack, with sharp eyes that marked them as postdoctoral students trained in top laboratories. Then an elderly man with white hair got out of the car. He was not tall, wearing a gray jacket, holding an old document bag, looking just like any retired university professor—ordinary to the extreme.

Manstein stood at the door, and upon seeing this elderly man, instinctively straightened his back slightly. It wasn’t due to tension, but respect. Herman Weber, the living textbook of the stem cell field. Manstein had read nearly all his papers and seen him countless times at academic conferences but had not had more than ten face-to-face conversations. Every time, Weber would give him a scrutinizing gaze, like a stern teacher observing a clever, wayward student.

"Manstein!" Weber walked over, extending his hand, using not English, but German.

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