Jiangcheng City Seventh People's Hospital.
Ninth-floor conference room, Comprehensive Building, intensive care area.
A man and a woman sat on one side of a long table, facing three people in white coats.
The man's name was Zhao Guodong, and the woman's was Zhu Huilan. Half a person's width separated them. Neither looked at the other.
"Mr. Zhao, Ms. Zhu, your son's condition is extremely serious," the person in the middle said. "His cognitive functions are completely lost, his sensory system is disordered, and he depends on others for eating, drinking, and toileting."
Zhao Guodong sat with his legs crossed, tapping the tabletop.
"Just say it. Stop beating around the bush. You're raising the hospital fees, right? By how much?"
"You misunderstand, Mr. Zhao." The person in the white coat remained unhurried. "We asked you both here today to sign a liability waiver."
"What does it say?"
Zhao Guodong's fingers stopped.
The person in the middle took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. "We've assessed Zhao Weiqiang's IQ. Genius level. But people like him are often the most likely to go to the opposite extreme: idiocy."
He paused.
"Sorry. That was rather blunt."
"Can you get to the point?" Zhao Guodong didn't mind in the slightest that the man had called his son an idiot.
"We have an experimental program to protect geniuses, and we'd like to use Zhao Weiqiang as a subject. We hope you'll consent."
The conference room fell silent for three seconds.
Zhu Huilan spoke.
"What do we get?"
Her voice was neither loud nor soft, and perfectly steady.
"All future hospital fees will be waived. You'll also receive compensation, to cover the cost of raising Zhao Weiqiang over the years."
"Is this legal?" Zhao Guodong asked.
"Entirely legal. But the experiment carries risks,