115: Chapter 115 Preparatory Work

Before this, Wang Zhe had gone to great lengths to prepare the various materials needed for the experiment.

He shuttled between various links, his phone practically welded to his ear.

"Animal test subjects? You want monkeys? Three of them? Is it urgent?"

On the other end of the line, Old Liu, a familiar supplier of experimental animals, sounded a bit surprised, but he didn't ask too many questions.

"Fine! Dr. Wang, you're in luck! A batch of healthy crab-eating macaques just arrived, and they look great! Per the usual rules, I'll rush the process for you! They can be delivered this afternoon!"

After hanging up, Wang Zhe rushed to the medical school building without stopping.

In the slightly old-fashioned anatomy research office corridor, he found Professor Li, with whom he had collaborated before.

After explaining his intent, Professor Li pushed up his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses calm and steady.

"Performing a forearm amputation on monkeys? Preparing for a prosthetic interface experiment?"

Professor Li pondered for a moment, then looked at the two eager senior graduate students beside him.

"Xiao Zhang, Xiao Wang, you two have the steadiest hands. Can you take this job? It needs to be clean and precise, and post-operative care must be followed up properly."

The two boys named brightened up instantly, one of them rubbing his hands in excitement.

"Don't worry, Professor Li! Don't worry, Teacher Wang! We guarantee we'll complete the mission! Sterile operation, post-operative anti-infection, we're pros at this! And..."

He lowered his voice, carrying a bit of the gossip-loving spirit typical of young people.

"This is in preparation for the online discussions, right? We guarantee we'll take good care of the monkeys!"

Watching the two motivated medical students, the tight string in Wang Zhe's heart relaxed slightly.

Leaving professional matters to professionals is the key to efficiency.

Soon, three clueless crab-eating macaques were carefully sent to the surgical preparation area of the medical school's animal facility.

With the source of the test subjects resolved, a bigger problem lay ahead.

The mechanical arms.

"What? Custom-made mechanical prosthetics for crab-eating macaque forearm stumps? And they need to achieve basic gripping functions? Just a few sets? And fast?"

On the phone, the business representatives of several large mechanical arm companies spoke in the same tone, polite yet full of difficulty.

"Mr. Wang, it's not that we don't want to help, it's just... the mold opening cost is too high, the customization cycle is too long, and this order volume is for us..."

After being politely declined several times in a row, Wang Zhe felt a bit frustrated.

He scratched his already messy hair, wondering if he should go find those amateur masters who do mechanical design on ACG platforms.

Just then, the boss of the signal processing chip company he had been working closely with called him personally.

"Dr. Wang, I heard you hit a wall with the prosthetic companies? Don't worry! I asked around for you!"

The boss's voice carried a sense of worldly wisdom.

"Leave this to me! Your project is currently in the spotlight! Being able to help is their honor!"

Sure enough, less than half an hour later, Wang Zhe's phone was blowing up.

Several medium-sized but technically solid smart mechanical arm companies took the initiative to reach out, their attitudes so enthusiastic it made him feel flattered.

"Engineer Wang! I've long admired your name! Your project is famous! Incredible!"

Netizens might not understand, but they, as professionals, certainly did.

The technical director of one company personally led a video call, displaying several design sketches directly on the screen.

"Look, this is the preliminary plan we rushed out overnight. Plan A, lightweight carbon fiber structure, bionic finger joints, built-in micro-servos... Plan B, more focused on basic functions, simple and reliable structure, low cost... Plan C..."

Looking at the dazzling, increasingly intricate plans on the screen, Wang Zhe was a bit confused instead.

He quickly waved his hands.

"Wait, everyone, thank you so much! But this time... um, it's mainly a concept verification and function demonstration, the requirements aren't that high!"

"We just need the most basic, stable one that can clearly demonstrate the gripping action. The simpler, the better. Plan B is very suitable!"

The technical director on the other side froze for a moment, then nodded knowingly and replied readily.

"Understood! Basic demonstration, stability first! Then we'll go with the streamlined version of Plan B."

"We'll use aviation aluminum for the material; it has sufficient strength and is lightweight. We'll prioritize production, three days! We'll deliver the samples to your laboratory in three days!"

After hanging up the video call, Wang Zhe was still a bit dazed.

This efficiency... this attitude... He couldn't help but sigh. Leaning against a big tree makes for good shade; once the project became famous, even getting things done became much smoother.

However, he also knew that they were being so helpful not just because of this cooperation, but because of the potential possibilities in the future.

Three days later.

News came from the medical school that the surgery on the three crab-eating macaques was very successful, post-operative recovery was good, the wounds had healed well, and they had already begun to adapt to the state of losing their forelimbs.

At the same time, several sets of silver-gleaming, structurally simple yet precise-looking aluminum mechanical arm samples were delivered to the laboratory on time.

Wang Zhe and several engineers gathered around the mechanical arm samples to inspect them carefully.

The structure was indeed simple.

A base for connecting to the stump, an adjustable-length arm segment, and a double-fingered pincer at the end that could open and close, driven by a built-in small servo.

No complex multi-joints, no fine tactile feedback, purely for the most intuitive goal of getting it to move.

"It's enough!"

Wang Zhe patted the cold metal arm and let out a sigh of relief.

He carefully picked one up, feeling its just-right weight and flexible opening/closing mechanism.

However, an unavoidable reality stood before him.

Li Wei held the micro-neural interface component, which was wrapped in a special biological material recently prepared by the laboratory, her brows slightly furrowed.

"The interface and signal conversion are key, but we don't have an embedded platform yet."

She pointed to the location where the mechanical arm base met the monkey's stump.

"This means the interface component and the monkey's nerves and blood vessels are directly exposed to the external environment, and we can only rely on strict sterile dressings and external fixation to isolate contamination. It's like..."

She paused, thinking of a metaphor Wang Zhe would immediately understand.

"It's like the chip on your development board being directly wired out for use without a PCB board as a carrier and protection."

"The environment is too fragile; any infection or accidental tugging could mean the entire experiment goes down the drain."

There was a brief silence in the laboratory.

Everyone understood that this was just a semi-finished demonstration as a stopgap measure, still a long way from a truly usable prosthetic.

But time waits for no one, and the wave of public opinion waits even less.

"We can't worry about that much!"

Wang Zhe gritted his teeth, his eyes becoming firm.

"We will take sterile operations to the extreme, ensure the fixation is secure, and keep the demonstration time short!"

"Scientific progress is always accompanied by various sacrifices. This experiment is not just for the netizens to watch, but also allows us to gain experience in how to convert laboratory results into actual engineering."

"After the experimental demonstration, our laboratory will adopt these three monkeys, and no further experimental operations will be performed!"