Chapter 109

Chapter 109

Right after the Lantern Festival, the festive atmosphere still lingered in the municipal government offices. People coming and going were all smiles—a new year, a new beginning, and everyone had high hopes.

The cold wind was biting out on the streets, with few pedestrians. Two black jeeps pulled up boldly in front of the municipal government building, drawing sidelong glances from many passing clerks.

Could this be an inspection from the higher-ups?

Before anyone could speculate further, Qian Jun was the first out of the lead car, followed by Chen Hua from the second car, then Xiao Wang and Xiao Li, Jiang Long and Zhang Ying, and finally Feng Xia and Wan Fulin, who were carrying a box that held the printer. Today, they had come to test the newly built printer.

Qian Jun had notified the city government the day before, and Secretary Li, the mayor’s secretary, had been waiting at the entrance for a long time. Seeing them arrive, he immediately smiled and stepped forward.

"Comrades, you've worked hard. Mayor Zhou is in a meeting and can't get away, so he specifically asked me to wait here for you. Please, come this way," Secretary Li said in a soft, gentle manner, leading Feng Xia and the others inside.

Not until the group disappeared from sight did a few junior clerks huddle up together and whisper among themselves.

Clerk A: "Where are they from? Quite the big deal? Secretary Li came down to greet them personally, and they drove two jeeps themselves? Looking at the model, is it from the military district?"

Clerk B: "It's from the military district. This group looks a bit odd—old and young. But that young girl there is really delicate-looking."

Clerk C: "Oh, could it be a big shot's daughter on tour? Didn't they just catch a bunch of typical cases in Wufu County? Who dares to come like this with the political winds against them?"

A low-level leader barked sternly at the three clerks, who could only purse their lips reluctantly and go work on the wall poster. Ah, they really wanted to know what that young girl was here for!

Secretary Li led the group to the office where the computer was stored. In those days, few people could read, and even fewer could operate a computer—only a handful in the entire municipal government. Coincidentally, Secretary Li knew a bit about computers.

"Comrades, this is our computer. It's the DSJ-5 model developed by our own Flower Kingdom. It's the fastest and best processing system in the country," Secretary Li said with evident pride. Although Flower Kingdom started computer research late, the people of Flower Kingdom never gave up on this field. The top leader had also drawn up plans to catch up vigorously. Now, compared with the most advanced computer technology in the Beautiful Country, there was only about a decade of innovation gap between them.

One must know that Flower Kingdom only began computer research about twenty or thirty years ago, while the Beautiful Country had been researching since the last century.

Flower Kingdom's perseverance and intelligence have never been inferior to any other nation.

Feng Xia eyed the bulky computer, curious as hell. It had a single function, a heavy shell, and complex wiring, but it could indeed work with a printer.

She opened the box she was carrying, took out the printer, and connected it with a data cable. A red light lit up on the left side of the printer, and a mechanical voice announced, "Printer connected. Ready to use."

The mechanical voice startled everyone. Qian Jun even reached out to gently touch the silver-white shell of the printer, exclaiming in surprise, "Oh, this little thing can talk?"

Chen Hua pushed his glasses up, his eyes full of excitement. Secretary Li couldn't help but take another look at Feng Xia. This girl was scary talented.

Feng Xia casually glanced at the computer—it was frighteningly empty, leaving nothing to work with. She decided to write a small program on the spot. That ability came from a book she'd come across while scavenging for supplies in the apocalypse. Back then, there was no computer to practice on, so she had used the book as bathroom reading material, going through it again and again until she had memorized almost every page, including the page numbers.

Now, seeing this antique, she itched to give it a try.

She acted on her impulse. Secretary Li only saw Feng Xia's fingers flying across the keyboard. He didn't dare disturb her. A crowd gathered around Feng Xia, watching the screen filled with characters and numbers at a dizzying speed. After about twenty minutes, she had written a super simple little program. Naturally, she needed to test if it worked. She clicked to run the program, and the computer chugged along but managed to run it.

Secretary Li watched anxiously, afraid that Feng Xia might break the computer. This was the only computer in An Tai City! If it broke, they wouldn't even know where to get it repaired! But he couldn't stop her—she looked very professional—so he just let her operate.

After the small program finished running and confirmed it was usable, Feng Xia opened the little software she had just designed. It was a simple office application. She demonstrated it to Secretary Li while explaining: "This is an office software. Look, you can make tables, do some statistics, and write reports. You can adjust font size and layout here. For now, I've only included a few simple functions; the computer can't handle more."

Secretary Li watched as Feng Xia switched between pages, dazzled and stunned. My god, this is still considered simple? Good heavens, many departments in the municipal government were still using abacuses to do calculations!

Feng Xia seemed bent on surprising him even more. She connected the printer and printed a formatted table. The printed table had clear fonts, no ink bleeding, and the paper was still warm. Qian Jun held the paper, afraid to use any force. This was too amazing!

With just this little thing, they could print! The printing factory that made books had huge machines, or they needed a lot of people to do it manually. Oh my god, how did this girl's brain work? How could she be so damn clever?

The two young assistants in the lab were so happy tears streamed down their faces. They had also contributed to this treasure!

Feng Xia was still fiddling with the computer, looking somewhat dissatisfied. Secretary Li's mouth twitched. Is this what genius looks like? Indeed, the thoughts of a genius are completely different from us ordinary people! The little program Feng Xia had created seemed almost miraculous to him. It was truly impressive.

Now the computer's functions were very simple—just computing and recording. To do computations, you had to input formulas, which Secretary Li didn't know how to do. So the most he used the computer for was recording documents, and that was about it.

Feng Xia casually printed out an experiment report. The layout was neat, the font clear, causing Old Gentleman Wan Fulin to laugh so hard his beard curled up. Previously, they had to handwrite reports of over ten pages, which was exhausting. With this treasure, perhaps they would be liberated in the future.

The whole room was buzzing with excitement, except for the young girl sitting in the middle. Her features were delicate and sharp, her eyes bright like stars. Though seated, she was hard to ignore—the first thing you noticed was her.

"Oh, everyone's so happy. Then I’ve just gotta be part of the fun."