By the fortieth week post-operation, Chen Jianguo's recovery process had entered a relatively stable stage. He could stand for three minutes holding onto parallel bars, with muscle strength in his right leg reaching level two, and his left leg at one and a half. His sensory plane stabilized at five fingers below the navel. This change does not conform to traditional theories, nor to the patterns summarized on M7.
These numbers were meticulously recorded by Manstein in the laboratory notebook, annotated with the date, time, and specific conditions during evaluation—indoor temperature, humidity, Chen Jianguo's sleep duration that day, and the time of his last meal. Manstein's style of recording was just like him; every piece of data must have context, and every observation must be repeatable.
But what truly kept Manstein awake all night was not the numbers themselves but the biological problem behind them.
