The Erased Name

Thirty-two white roses sat atop his mentor's coffin. He was the only Chinese student who came to pay his respects.

The day he took possession of the belongings, Cheng Yong found that someone had removed the name from the office doorplate. Only four screw holes remained, and the dust inside them had yet to settle.

Seven months after returning to China, he produced the country's first batch of T800-grade carbon fiber. At the acceptance meeting, someone slid a report across the table and said just four words: "The data is questionable."

Following that lead, he discovered an old blueprint whose title block had been scraped away with a razor blade, an ammonia blueprint machine from 1998, and a blueprint technician who checked out a key in the winter of 2009, then died at home four months later.

At last, he understood: people who steal technology leave traces. People who alter the baseline do not.

All it takes to scrape away a name is a razor blade.