641: Chapter 636 The surgery was a success.

"When you wake up, we'll discuss the second phase of the Spark Laboratory project."

"That lunatic Feng Yuanshan wants to build another Antimatter Annihilation Collider next to the lab. I haven't agreed to it yet."

Fang Zhizhuo was amused by him.

"You brat... you're trying to empty out all my life savings, aren't you?"

Amidst the laughter, the tension eased considerably.

The next day, early in the morning.

The red light above the operating room turned on right on schedule.

Shen Yan and Chen Guangke stood at the end of the corridor.

There was no restlessness, no pacing back and forth.

Shen Yan just stood quietly, gazing at the closed door.

Chen Guangke handed him a bottle of water.

"Yan Zi, that old man has suffered so much. Surely Heaven should open its eyes now, right?"

"Whether Heaven opens its eyes or not, I don't know."

Shen Yan unscrewed the cap and took a sip.

"But I know Professor Gu's hands are very steady."

Time ticked by, second by second.

One hour.

Five hours.

Ten hours.

Outside the corridor, the sun rose and set.

During this time, Wu Ya came once to report on company matters, but Shen Yan dismissed her in a few words.

Liu Hui also called, but Shen Yan simply reported that he was safe and told her not to worry.

In his world, it seemed only the door and the red light shining on it remained.

Finally, it was nine in the evening.

After the red light had been on for a full thirteen hours.

It clicked off.

The door opened.

Gu Yanfei walked out, looking as if he had just been pulled out of water; his surgical gown was completely soaked.

He took off his mask, revealing an extremely exhausted face that was nonetheless shining with brilliance.

"The surgery was a success."

"The grafting of the nerve bundle and the implantation of the stem cells went even smoother than anticipated."

He looked at Shen Yan, his voice hoarse but carrying the excitement of someone who had just completed a masterpiece.

"We pulled him back one step from the gates of hell."

"Next... comes the real hell."

The 'hell' Gu Yanfei spoke of descended on the third day after Fang Zhizhuo woke up.

Rehabilitation therapy.

The process of nerve regeneration was accompanied by unimaginable pain.

The sensation was like billions of ants gnawing between his bones, or countless red-hot steel needles piercing through his flesh and blood.

Fang Zhizhuo was a tough man.

He hadn't shed a single tear when his wife and daughter died tragically and his own leg was crippled back then.

But now, every day he was tortured by this inhuman pain until his body was drenched in sweat and his veins bulged.

Yet, he gritted his teeth and remained silent.

The person in charge of the rehabilitation therapy was Professor Li, the most authoritative physical therapy expert in the country.

His daily job was to 'torture' Fang Zhizhuo.

Using electrical currents to stimulate his insensible muscles, forcing them to contract.

Using an exoskeleton brace to fix his body, making him repeat the actions of standing and sitting like a puppet, over and over again.

Every time therapy ended, Fang Zhizhuo felt like he had died once.

Shen Yan pushed the wheelchair, taking him back to the ward.

"Shen Yan... maybe we should just stop."

Fang Zhizhuo's voice was as weak as a candle in the wind.

"It hurts too much... I'm afraid I can't hold on."

For the first time, he spoke of giving up.

Shen Yan stopped walking.

He neither comforted nor encouraged him.

He just took out a tablet and opened a real-time monitoring video.

The screen showed the construction site at Jingluo Bay.

The massive foundation base for the Tidal Energy Matrix was already taking shape, resembling a steel behemoth lurking on the coastline.

"Professor Fang, Feng Yuanshan said that the final tuning of the Energy Matrix must be completed by you personally."

"He said that only you in the whole world can truly bring this giant to life."

"And that Quantum Entanglement Communication Model you designed—the prototype is ready. It's waiting for you to return to conduct the first cross-space communication experiment."

Shen Yan's voice was calm.

"They are all waiting for you."

Fang Zhizhuo looked at the magnificent project in the video, which embodied his life's effort. A flame slowly reignited in his cloudy eyes.

He clenched his fists, his nails digging deeply into his palms.

"Help me... help me up."

"Professor Li said there is still one set of standing exercises today..."

"It hasn't been finished."

Day after day.

From midsummer to late autumn.

Three full months.

Shen Yan pushed aside ninety percent of the company's affairs and spent almost all his time at the hospital.

He would accompany Fang Zhizhuo through every rehabilitation session.

When the pain was unbearable, he would discuss the evolution path of Spark AI with him.

He would personally cook the meals that suited his appetite best.

Chen Guangke visited a few times and shook his head in amazement every time.

"Yan Zi, you're treating him like your own father."

"I was the one who invited him out of retirement."

Shen Yan said lightly.

"So I must be responsible for him until the end."

That afternoon.

In the rehabilitation room.

Fang Zhizhuo was standing unsteadily, relying only on the handrails on both sides, having detached from the exoskeleton.

Sweat had soaked his hair and clothes.

His legs were trembling violently, as if they would collapse the next second.

Professor Li stood to the side, watching nervously.

"Professor, try... lifting your right foot."

Fang Zhizhuo took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes, concentrating all his will on that insensible right leg.

Move!

Move for me!

One second.

Two seconds.

That leg seemed welded to the floor, motionless.

A look of pain and despair appeared on Fang Zhizhuo's face.

Just as he was about to give up.

Shen Yan suddenly spoke.

"Professor Fang, Mei Hongyuan's company released their first-generation AI assistant yesterday."

"The stock price of Yongsheng Group hit its daily limit."

Fang Zhizhuo's body jolted violently.

He opened his eyes.

Those eyes instantly filled with blood vessels.

Mei Hongyuan!

The enemy who ruined his life!

An indescribable rage and power exploded from his chest.

"Aaaah—!"

He let out a roar suppressed for fifteen years.

Under the shocked gaze of everyone.

His motionless right leg suddenly lifted, then heavily stepped forward.

One step!

Although it was only a short ten-plus centimeters.

Although he lost his balance completely upon landing, and would have fallen if Shen Yan and Professor Li hadn't caught him in time.

But that was truly, genuinely, his own.

His first step in fifteen years.

Fang Zhizhuo gasped for air, completely exhausted.

He lowered his head, looking at his own feet.

The tears could no longer be held back.

They poured down like a broken dam.

Fang Zhizhuo's tears were the rust accumulated over fifteen years, finally washed away by the flood of hope.

He didn't cry for long.

The old man, hardened like a stubborn rock by time and hatred, simply wiped his face roughly with the back of his hand.

Then, summoning all his strength, he held onto the railing and tried to lift his left foot again.

Failure.

The body's command seemed like a letter sunk to the seabed, unable to reach the long-lost nerve endings.

But he did not give up.