Surgery Godfather

Chapter 2201: Chapter 1440: Ambassador of Hope (2)

Then he replied to Yang Ping with an email: "Professor Yang, this video is more significant than any paper we’ve published. Papers are for scientists; this video is for all of humanity. Please tell Chen Jianguo that six monkeys in Heidelberg are cheering for him."

Yang Ping replied: "I’ll pass it on. How are the six there doing?"

Weber replied: "Hoffnung ran 300 meters today, breaking M7’s record. Vertrauen is starting to try jumping. They are all making progress, aligning with Nandu’s direction. Two continents, seven monkeys, one result. Professor Yang, this is not a coincidence; this is a pattern."

Yang Ping replied: "We’ve found the pattern, now let’s make it everyone’s pattern."

Weber looked at this message and sat in his office for a long time as it snowed outside in Heidelberg, with snowflakes disappearing on the Neckar River.

He stood up, walked to the window, and watched the ancient castle gradually turning white in the snow.

On the third day after Chen Jianguo took his first step, M7 received a special gift.

Fritz bought a small red soccer ball online, with black and white pentagon patterns. He tossed the ball into M7’s cage. M7 caught it with his paws and then started kicking it. He kicked the ball with his hind legs, it rolled to the other side of the cage, he chased it and kicked again, making excited noises as he went.

"It’s playing football," Hans said, standing in front of the cage, stunned, "A monkey is playing football."

"Not playing football," Fritz corrected, "it’s playing with the ball; it doesn’t know what football is. It just knows this thing rolls and it’s fun."

"But it’s using its hind legs to kick," Hans said, "hind legs, not front paws. Its hind legs can perform such precise movements?"

Fritz didn’t answer, he pulled out his phone and started recording. In the video, M7 chased the little red ball, running from one end of the cage to the other, then kicking with its hind legs, making the ball fly and hit the cage bars, bouncing back, and M7 would chase it again.

"Professor Yang," Fritz sent the video to Yang Ping, "M7 can play ball now."

Yang Ping watched the video and replied: "It doesn’t know it’s recovering; it only knows it’s fun. That’s the best kind of recovery - to recover while playing."

Yang Ping forwarded the video to Weber.

When Weber saw the video, he was having lunch in the Heidelberg laboratory. He set down his sandwich, watched the video four times, then looked up at Hanna sitting opposite him.

"Hanna, do you remember what I told you before?"

"Which one?"

"I said, all the papers I’ve published in my life don’t compare to this one experiment by Professor Yang."

"I remember."

"I now feel that statement is still wrong."

"Where is it wrong?"

Weber turned his phone around, showing the screen with M7 chasing the red ball.

"None of those papers made any monkey play ball. But Professor Yang’s experiment, it made a paralyzed monkey kick a ball with its hind legs. The problem wasn’t the papers; it was that I was asking the wrong question before."

Hanna was silent for a moment, then laughed.

"Professor, that’s not called a ’paralyzed monkey.’ That is a ’monkey in recovery.’ Paralyzed monkeys don’t play ball; recovering monkeys do."

Weber nodded, picked up his sandwich, and continued to eat. He ate very slowly, chewing each bite for a long time, as if tasting something more important than food.

In mid-March, the chairperson of the International Spinal Cord Injury Research Society, Richardson, sent an email to Yang Ping, asking if he could publish a report about M7 and the Cell cover story on the society’s official website.

Yang Ping replied that it was possible, but that Manstein should do it because it was his project.

Richardson sent another email: "Professor Yang, I have another request. Can M7 and your patient Chen Jianguo have a video conference? I want all the spinal injury patients in the world to see what hope looks like."

Yang Ping didn’t reply immediately. He thought for a long time, then went to find Chen Jianguo.

"Jianguo, Professor Richardson wants you to have a video conference with M7. You will be seen by the whole world. Are you willing?"

Chen Jianguo was sitting on a mat in the rehabilitation training room, drenched in sweat after finishing a set of gait training. He thought for a while, then asked, "Professor, will those who see me know that I was once paralyzed?"

"Yes! Richardson wants them to see someone who was once paralyzed, who can now stand up."

Chen Jianguo was silent for a moment.

"Will they think I’m pitiful?"

"No! They will see you as courageous."

Chen Jianguo’s lips moved, as if hesitating about something, then he looked up at Yang Ping.

"Okay, I’ll do it. Let the world see how a paralyzed person stands up."

The date for the video conference was set for March 20th, the vernal equinox.

Richardson sat in his home in San Francisco, with a laptop in front of him. Yang Ping was in the institute meeting room in Nandu, next to him were Chen Jianguo and Fritz. M7 was in the animal room, with a tablet computer in front of him displaying Richardson’s face.

M7 stared at the white-haired old man on the screen, tilted his head, then reached out his hand and touched the screen.

"It’s touching Richardson’s face," Fritz said, "it hasn’t seen him before, but it wants to know him."

Richardson laughed on the other end of the screen.

"Hello, M7, I’m James. I’ve watched your video, many, many times. You are the most extraordinary monkey I’ve ever seen."

Of course, M7 didn’t understand, but it heard the sound, its ears moved, then it turned around, walked to the other side of the cage, and walked back again. Its gait was steady, walking quickly, with its tail held high.

"It’s walking," Richardson’s voice suddenly became somewhat hoarse, "it walks so well."

The video switched to the meeting room, where Chen Jianguo sat in a wheelchair, also facing a camera. He wore a clean blue T-shirt, his hair neatly combed, with a smile on his face, but not a relaxed one; it was a nervous, serious smile.

"Jianguo, are you ready?" Yang Ping asked.

"I’m ready."

Richardson’s face appeared on the screen.

"Hello, Mr. Chen. I’m James Richardson."

"Hello, Professor Richardson! I’m Chen Jianguo."

"Mr. Chen, can I ask you a question?"

"Please do."

"From your injury until now, it’s been roughly twelve years?"

"Twelve years?"

"Twelve days?" Richardson nodded, "From not being able to move, to standing up. Do you feel lucky?"

Chen Jianguo thought for a moment.

"Absolutely, I am the luckiest, to be the test subject for Professor Yang’s new technology."

"Mr. Chen, what you’ve said, I’ll write it down. I will tell every spinal injury patient in the world to see your appearance, listen to your voice. You are not a doctor, not a scientist, you are a patient. But what you say carries more power than all of us doctors and scientists combined."

Chen Jianguo’s eyes reddened, but he didn’t cry. He took a deep breath and then asked a question that no one expected.

"Professor Richardson, can I go to hospitals and talk to patients who have just been injured? Tell them not to give up, not to despair, that there are people working on things that will let them stand up."

Richardson looked at Chen Jianguo, watching him for several seconds.

"Mr. Chen, if you’re willing, I can arrange for you to be our Ambassador of Hope. The society has over three hundred hospitals worldwide. You let me know which one you want to go to, and I will help coordinate. All expenses will be covered by the charity fund."

"Any of them, as long as I can help people."

The video conference ended. Yang Ping turned off the screen and turned around to look at Chen Jianguo.

"Jianguo, do you know what you just did?"

"I know, I just talked to an American professor."

"It’s more than that," Yang Ping said, "you did something more important than me publishing a paper. Papers are for scientists; you’re for the patients. Patients don’t read Cell, but they can see you. You stood up, and they will know they also have hope."

"I’m the first paralyzed spinal cord injury patient in the world to stand up, and if I can bring hope to other patients, that’s the most valuable thing."

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