[The Listener: An Autistic Doctor’s Journey] An emotional suspense story with urban sci-fi elements, this novel tells the legendary story of Shen Xinghe, an autistic boy who overcomes countless hardships and grows into an outstanding director of cardiology.
From an early age, Shen Xinghe showed a remarkable sensitivity to sound. At just three years old, he could build a mitral valve out of blocks from memory and recite the page numbers in Cardiology. One day, he accidentally fell asleep among his father’s medical books. In a dream, gears overlapped with blood vessels, and when he awoke, he had gained the ability to hear that a mechanical watch was running half a second slow. Yet as he grew up, no one understood this gift. Because he was different, his classmates often mocked him, and he even resorted to self-harm, leaving ECG-shaped scars on his arm. Fortunately, his mother made him a stethoscope charm from a button on her nurse’s uniform, hoping to shield him from his pain. It became one of his most treasured memories. Dr. Lin Deming recognized his extraordinary hearing and gave him an old stethoscope, beginning his lifelong bond with the instrument. But his mother’s sudden death and Dr. Lin’s retirement left wounds that never healed, and also strengthened his resolve to pursue a place at medical school.
