Chapter 6

Ten minutes later, Feng Xiaotian, who had been racking his brains, suddenly leaped up from his chair. Due to the force of his movement, his head hit the ceiling beam, causing a sharp pain. However, Feng Xiaotian paid no attention to it because he had found the answer to the problem—the signal receiver had no power source!

This was a simple issue, but it was also one that was easily overlooked. The signal receiver had been taken from a radio, which required batteries to function properly. Now that it was installed on the computer, it naturally needed a power source as well.

Feng Xiaotian laughed out loud, then took the batteries from the radio and connected them to the signal receiver with two copper wires. After completing this, he eagerly looked at the computer screen. This time, the screen finally showed some activity, but Feng Xiaotian was stunned when he saw it—why were there random characters?

Indeed, the computer displayed a stream of random characters, filling the screen and changing line by line. Feng Xiaotian was dazed by the chaos and, after a moment, began to move the mouse to operate the computer. However, the stream of random characters did not disappear due to his actions; they still occupied the entire screen.

"What... what's going on?"

Feng Xiaotian was once again confused. The appearance of this situation at least indicated that the signal receiver had received wireless information, but the random characters displayed on the computer screen were hard to explain.

Feng Xiaotian began to think. This time, he didn't take long to find the reason. The reason was actually quite simple: the electromagnetic waves received by the signal receiver were in the frequency range of a radio, not the frequency range of a computer's wireless network. To solve this problem, he would need to know the frequency band of the computer's wireless network, which he did not understand. Therefore, he had to give up for now.

"Ah..."

Feng Xiaotian sighed deeply. He had started the modification with great enthusiasm, thinking that the problem would be solved quickly, but reality was not that simple. A computer is a machine, and any issue in any part could lead to improper results. The random characters appearing on the computer screen were actually digital signals used by the radio. Currently, it seemed impossible to convert them into text because they were audio signals and did not belong to the text system.

Feng Xiaotian felt a bit discouraged, but he soon became more accepting. The problem arose because he lacked the relevant knowledge. It seemed he needed to strengthen his understanding in this area.

With this thought, he turned his gaze to the pile of books in the corner. These books covered many topics, and one of them was about wireless signals. Feng Xiaotian had bought this book from Old Li specifically to repair the radio, so he had only read the parts related to radio signals and hadn't paid much attention to the rest.

Feng Xiaotian shut down the computer, got up, and found the book from the pile. He lay on the bed and studied it carefully. In the dim light, his expression was very focused, and the room was extremely quiet, with only the occasional sound of turning pages.

At four o'clock in the morning, Feng Xiaotian got up. He hadn't slept all night, but this didn't affect his mental state. At this moment, Feng Xiaotian looked very happy. Through his all-night study, he had gained a relatively intuitive understanding of radio knowledge. Radio signals were indeed a magical thing, and different frequencies could produce completely different results.

Feng Xiaotian got up, washed his face, and then went out with a snake skin bag, just as he usually did, starting his daily routine to make a living.

It was winter break, so he had plenty of time. Feng Xiaotian had made up his mind to take advantage of this opportunity to thoroughly understand the computer, this magical device. As for artificial intelligence, it was still unreliable at the moment. One couldn't think about going to outer space just after learning to walk, right?

At 6:30 in the morning, Feng Xiaotian arrived at Old Li's courtyard with a bag full of scrap. As usual, Old Li was squatting in the corner, brushing his teeth. It seemed to be a tacit agreement; every day at this time, Feng Xiaotian would arrive at Old Li's house, and Old Li would be squatting in the corner, brushing his teeth. This was a默契 (tacit understanding) between a scavenger and a scrap collector, which was quite magical.

Feng Xiaotian pushed open the courtyard gate and walked in, smiling as usual, "Uncle Li, you're up early."

Old Li rinsed his mouth, stood up, and smiled, "You're even earlier, Xiaotian. Wait a moment, I'll wash my face and come out."

After about ten minutes, they settled the account. Feng Xiaotian's income for the day was 1.75 yuan, which was quite good. Old Li handed the money to Feng Xiaotian, who took it but didn't leave. He looked at the pile of old books in the corner, and Old Li, seeing this, smiled and said, "What? You want to look for books again? If you want them, go ahead and find them, just remember not to mess things up."

Feng Xiaotian smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Both of them were familiar with this routine. Old Li nodded and went into the house to cook, while Feng Xiaotian came to the pile of books and searched carefully. His goal was to find books about computers.

Since computers were not yet widespread and were still a novelty, there were not many books about them in the country. As a result, the number of related old books Feng Xiaotian could find was also limited. After a hard search of more than twenty minutes, Feng Xiaotian only found two books.

Feng Xiaotian tidied up the pile of books, took the two books, and went into the house. Old Li was cooking, and when he saw Feng Xiaotian, he took the pipe out of his mouth, knocked it on the stove, and chuckled, "You picked these two books today?"

Feng Xiaotian nodded and smiled, "Yes, please weigh them for me."

The two books weighed less than three pounds. According to the price of scrap paper, it would have cost less than 0.2 yuan, but that would mean Old Li did the work for free. According to their agreement, the price for books was 0.08 yuan per pound. Feng Xiaotian finally paid 0.25 yuan and left with the books.

In the following days, Feng Xiaotian continued to wake up early to collect scrap and sell it for money. After returning home, he studied computer knowledge and practiced on the computer. Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, the lunar new year arrived.

The new year was not particularly important to Feng Xiaotian, as his family now consisted of only him, and there was no festive atmosphere. Therefore, he was indifferent to it—perhaps even deliberately avoiding it.