Chapter 67

This is the chasm-like difference caused by the changing times.

In the years after 2010, you could pull any auntie from the street and she might be a skilled typist with flying fingers. But from 1996 to the early 2000s, a typist who could type 70 characters per minute was considered a treasure in any organization.

"Brother, do you know how to type in Wubi? I see you're quite adept at typing English letters," a man with long, messy hair, who had a bit of an artistic youth vibe, asked Xiaofei, his face showing a hint of disdain.

He probably thought Xiaofei was just showing off.

At that time, anyone who could afford to play with computers in the computer room usually came from a well-off family and had a high level of education.

After all, it cost 10 yuan per hour... who among ordinary families could afford such luxury?

It was clear that the few young men in the computer room came from good families, wearing brands like Adidas and Nike.

The reason the artistic youth asked Xiaofei this was because Wubi typing was once considered the most advanced input method.

It was said that with enough practice, one could type nearly 200 characters per minute with Wubi.

However, Wubi input required memorizing the word roots, and there were so many to memorize, which was quite tedious. After memorizing the word roots, one had to familiarize themselves with the keyboard and practice diligently. Only after becoming proficient could one learn the so-called first, second, and third-level simplified codes to speed up... the difficulty and complexity of this process deterred many.

This was one of the reasons why typists were so highly regarded in that era.

Xiaofei had learned Wubi typing in college and had practiced it for a while. At that time, he could type about 30 characters per minute, which was considered barely qualified.

But who would have thought that the development of Pinyin typing would be so rapid?

First came full Pinyin, then Smart ABC, and later, the incredibly powerful Sogou Pinyin. With Pinyin input, once you became proficient, you could type over a hundred characters per minute with ease.

This was the fundamental reason for the decline of Wubi in later years.

One could say that Sogou Pinyin destroyed an entire industry.

The profession of typist, which had just begun to rise, quickly declined and never saw the light of day again.

Wubi input?

That was truly a thing of the past.

Xiaofei recalled, and all the word roots and their positions on the keyboard clearly appeared in his mind, including the most difficult characters to decompose.

"I know a bit," Xiaofei smiled and said to the long-haired youth.

"Ha ha!" The long-haired youth laughed, quite disdainfully. "Then why don't you type the words on this paper and see?" He placed a paper filled with words on the table.

Xiaofei took a look.

The paper was filled with the most difficult characters to decompose.

It seemed that the long-haired youth had been practicing Wubi input recently.

Xiaofei checked the software on the computer and found that WPS was installed. He opened it, looked at the paper, and began typing without looking at the keyboard.

As he typed, the difficult characters appeared in the document.

"Ah! Blind typing!"

"He actually knows blind typing!"

"My God! His typing speed is really fast, it looks like he can type 70 to 80 characters per minute without any problem."

The long-haired youth and his friends, as well as the girl in the computer room, were all wide-eyed and exclaimed in surprise.

They had originally suspected that Xiaofei was just randomly hitting the keys, so they were a bit resentful and wanted to embarrass him, but they didn't expect him to be a real computer expert.

Xiaofei smiled faintly and stopped.

"Brother, that's really impressive. How long have you been practicing? Any tips?" The long-haired youth immediately changed his attitude, showing a willingness to learn.

"Practicing this has no shortcuts. Just memorize and practice more, and you'll get better," Xiaofei nodded at him.

Xiaofei stayed in the computer room for over an hour and found it a bit boring.

Going online was too expensive.

Just playing with the computer wasn't very interesting either. There were a few games on the computer, like Red Alert and StarCraft, but Xiaofei wasn't interested in them.

He settled his bill and walked out.

He vaguely remembered there was a bookstore on Liberation Road, so he went there to browse. On the shelves, he found several books by Dai Houying.

He thought for a moment and bought "People, People!", "The Death of a Poet", "Footsteps in the Valley", and "Unforgettable Past".

Xiaofei had read these novels in his previous life.

He still remembered them clearly and could recite them without any problem.

He bought them to have Dai Houying sign them in Shanghai, as a brain-dead fan, he should have a few signed books, right?

By the time he left the bookstore, it was already 6 o'clock.

Xiaofei had a bowl of beef noodles for dinner near the train station. A large bowl of noodles with two thick slices of meat cost only 1.5 yuan.

After dinner, he went to a store and bought some cookies, ham sausages, bread, and water to take on the train.

From City X to Shanghai, it was over 1,300 kilometers.

In 1996, domestic trains hadn't yet been sped up, with an average speed of less than 50 kilometers per hour. The slowest trains traveled at just over 30 kilometers per hour, taking more than a day and a night to reach the destination. It was necessary to prepare some food.

This was the main reason why Xiaofei had to leave for Shanghai 4 or 5 days in advance.

Finally, at 8 PM, Xiaofei entered the waiting room and boarded the train smoothly.

It was the summer vacation, and there were still quite a few people on the train.

This was an air-conditioned express train, with higher ticket prices, so most of the passengers were business travelers, students, or tourists.

Sitting next to Xiaofei were a few young people.

From their appearance, Xiaofei thought they were likely college students.

Three boys and two girls.

The two girls sat diagonally across from Xiaofei.

After the train started moving smoothly, they all took out books to read, mostly magazines like Youth Digest, Reader, True Love, and Family.

Xiaofei glanced over and saw that the two girls were reading the latest issue of Youth Digest, which was the 8th issue.

The boy across from Xiaofei was reading the latest issue of True Love.

The two boys sitting next to Xiaofei were reading Reader and Family, respectively.

The journey was long.

The night grew deeper.

Xiaofei wanted to close his eyes and rest for a while.

But at that moment, the boy across from him whispered, "Wow! This story is really well-written, so tragic and beautiful."

The boy's words caught the attention of the two girls sitting next to him.

They asked, "Which story? What's it about?"

The boy began to explain, "The article is called 'Secret Love as a Wound.' It's about a kind girl who secretly loves a boy, but the boy likes her best friend, a beautiful and proud girl..."

It turned out to be the story Xiaofei had written. He perked up his ears and listened to their conversation.

The girl in the middle, after listening to the boy, said, "It's indeed a beautiful and sad story. Who is the author?"

At that time, if an article was good, people would naturally want to know the author, unlike in later years when people enjoyed the eggs without caring which chicken laid them.

"The author is called Xiaofei," the boy across from Xiaofei said.

The girl in the middle exclaimed in surprise, "I just read an article in Youth Digest signed by Xiaofei! Could it be the same person?"

The boy sitting next to Xiaofei also shouted, "There's also an article by Xiaofei in Family, and it's very good."

The group began to chatter, discussing the articles written by Xiaofei, especially the attitude towards the inspirational articles, which sparked a lively debate.

Xiaofei remained silent but felt very happy inside. He thought, such discussions must be happening in countless places across the country, right?