Asperger's Syndrome

"So what you're saying is, that 'friend' of yours at Jinling University gave you these materials?"

"What exactly is your relationship with him? Such important materials, and he just handed them to you instead of applying for a patent?"

Ren Jian, seated across from Lin Xu, asked suspiciously.

"It's a very complicated, very long story..."

Lin Xu scratched his head and answered,

"My friend is a patient with Asperger's syndrome."

There was no way to explain it away. He could only make something up on the spot.

Xu Jin, he could only let him take the fall for now.

"He has severe social and language impairments and isn't good at communicating with people."

"But in materials science—or rather, in anything involving permutations and combinations—he has astonishing talent."

"It's as though he possesses some kind of heaven-sent intuition. He can always effortlessly find the optimal result."

"Of course, it's also possible that he has already run through every possibility in his mind and eliminated all the wrong answers before arriving at the correct one."

"I'm not him, so I can't describe what he truly experiences."

"But regardless, you can understand why he gave the materials to me, right?"

Ren Jian fell into thought.

"Asperger's... like that kind of person in Rain Man?"

"Yes, exactly. Rain Man."

Lin Xu nodded.

"Except Rain Man's talent was in mathematics, while his is in materials science."

"Is that possible?"

Ren Jian frowned.

"As far as I know, Asperger's syndrome is a type of high-functioning autism, right? Aren't their talents generally concentrated in fields related to numbers? How could it lean toward materials science?"

"First, Asperger's syndrome doesn't only produce mathematical talent—there are people with Asperger's syndrome doing all sorts of things in real life."

"Second, who said materials science has nothing to do with numbers?"

Lin Xu spoke with absolute certainty, leaving Ren Jian with no grounds to argue.

"Fine, I accept that."

He picked up the teapot and poured three cups of tea, then pushed two of them toward Lin Xu and Jiang Xingye.

"Have some tea."

Lin Xu lifted his cup and took a small sip, while Jiang Xingye drained hers in one gulp.

She had run herself ragged earlier and was parched now.

Ren Jian glanced at her and asked helplessly,

"Want another cup?"

"No, no."

Jiang Xingye quickly waved her hands.

Ren Jian shook his head with an amused smile, then turned back to Lin Xu.

"So, given your... friend's condition, how should we communicate with him going forward?"

"What I mean is, if this technology works, the patent rights will be a very difficult issue to resolve."

"Does someone with Asperger's syndrome count as having full civil capacity under the law?"

"Yes. There's currently no legal determination of whether Asperger's syndrome qualifies as a mental illness, so they can be treated as having full civil capacity."

Lin Xu knew that part well—not because he had looked it up beforehand, but because he had seen it on TV dramas.

"What about communication?"

Ren Jian pressed on.

"I'll communicate with him—he won't have contact with anyone else."

Obviously, he wouldn't.

What would happen if they got in touch with him? Wouldn't the whole thing be exposed?

"Understood. I get it."

"We'll look at the results, not the process."

Ren Jian took a shallow sip of tea.

"As long as you can handle the documents, even if we can't obtain the patent, getting more favorable licensing rights would still be a tremendous achievement."

"If you can bring him over directly... then many things are negotiable!"

"Are you sure these materials are valid?"

Lin Xu asked tentatively.

"I'm an outsider in this field, but I've looked into PEEK materials. In my opinion, there's a high probability that these materials are valid."

"As for the specifics, that depends on..."

Before he could finish, there was a sudden knock on the chairman's office door.

"Boss."

The executive secretary stood at the door.

"Engineer Chu and Manager Liu are here."

The two men behind him entered the office. Ren Jian nodded, skipped the pleasantries, and handed the materials directly to them.

"Don't ask anything else. Assess their credibility."

The two took the materials without a word, huddled together, and buried their heads in the documents.

"Turn the page."

Chu Xu said.

"Rustle."

Liu Tong from procurement turned a page.

"Turn the page."

"Turn the page."

More than ten minutes passed before the two looked up at the same time.

After exchanging a glance, Chu Xu said,

"Old Liu, you came from a materials background. You tell them."

"Then I'll say it."

Liu Tong nodded slightly and began,

"The materials are incomplete. Far too much is missing."

"Right now, I'd estimate they're less than thirty percent complete."

"But the overall framework has no issues. This is a very strong, very innovative process document."

"The idea of manufacturing PEEK materials through liquid molding has been explored before. The current problems are mainly temperature control, wettability, and viscosity."

"There's no settled solution. The general approach has been to improve equipment precision."

"But this proposal takes a different path. The process it mentions, using a one-way breathable membrane to assist vacuum infusion molding, is extremely novel."

"From a purely theoretical perspective, I can't find a single flaw in it."

"Also, M46X, purely in terms of performance, isn't actually the optimal material."

"The stuff those Japanese devils come up with is always overhyped—sorry."

"What I mean is, if we're talking performance alone, our domestically developed M55X carbon fiber is even stronger."

"However, the main advantage of this process lies in its drastically reduced cost."

"The most crucial point is using lignin as a bio-based precursor. This point..."

"How should I put it? If it can be made to work, it would be hugely significant."

"M46X is a versatile technology, and lignin precursors are also a versatile technology. It can be used on M46X, on M55X, and certainly on every other kind of carbon fiber material."

"The person who developed this process probably only used M46X as a test case."

"He was focused solely on this material and didn't pay attention to other directions for expansion."

"It's strange. This line of thinking... how should I put it..."

"It's like someone holding a golden shovel, but instead of selling it, he uses it to chop down trees."

Liu Tong's brows were tightly furrowed. Ren Jian added at just the right moment,

"The inventor of this process is a patient with Asperger's syndrome."

"Asperger's?"

Liu Tong froze for a moment.

"What's that?"

"It's Rain Man."

"What's Rain Man?"

Seeing Ren Jian practically about to explode, Lin Xu hurriedly explained,

"A lonely genius. Like a Guo Jing in the field of materials science."

"Guo Jing?"

"Even more wooden than Guo Jing."

"Then I think I roughly get it. Autism, right?"

Liu Tong let out a long breath.

His understanding of autism was clearly mistaken, but at least he understood what Lin Xu meant.

"Then that makes perfect sense. This really is the thought process of someone with a mental disability..."

"So what are we doing now? Go straight to him and have him complete the materials?"

"As long as you confirm the materials are genuine and valid, I'll have Lin Xu communicate with him."

"I can't guarantee it one hundred percent."

The moment Liu Tong said that, Ren Jian's expression changed.

But immediately afterward, Liu Tong continued,

"Still, I'd put its credibility at around ninety-nine percent."

"...If you keep pausing like that when you speak, I'll transfer you to logistics."

Ren Jian glared furiously at Liu Tong, then stood and said to Lin Xu,

"Then it's settled."

"Lin Xu, go talk to him."

"Remember what I told you."

"If you can make this happen, it will be of major significance to the Star Traveler One project, to our company, and even to the entire industry!"

"As long as you make it happen, whatever you want, we can discuss it!"

"Go to finance now and draw an advance of two hundred thousand as contingency funds. Tell them to charge it as entertainment expenses."

"Someone like an Asperger's patient... must be extremely difficult to deal with, even if he's your friend."

"But I don't care what method you use. You have to win him over!"