Very Pure and Ambiguous: The Prequel

Zhao Yanyan gazed at the boy sitting beside her that was repeatedly typing a string of characters, and thought curiously: Why did it seem like he’s not paying attention while studying, yet also seemed like he understood everything?

Like in that math lesson, he was definitely sleeping, yet he got all the questions on the blackboard correct, even if there were only right and wrong as the answer, it wasn’t possible to guess it all right. Also, this time, he actually typed so quickly although there was no pattern in these characters, after careful observation, it was a repeat of the alphabets fghutemvga.

What did this set of alphabets mean? fgh was definitely not English, and not pinyin, then what was it? The intrigued Zhao Yanyan carefully remembered this set of alphabets, was prepared to find a chance to ask her mysterious deskmate.

“Now, everyone can follow the method I just mentioned to practice typing, turn on the computer, and enter CAI2 underneath the DOS prompt, then press enter,” the geezer started walking around in the computer suite, and once in a while, a student that didn’t understand would ask him this and that.

Ai, I sighed, how good would it be if this was in the future, I could buy a pirated CD for three or five kuai at the Electronics World, yet right now I was getting anxious about where to buy a copy of TC2.0.

Suddenly, a gasp was heard from beside me, and was followed by the excited voice of a geezer, “This classmate, how is your typing so fast? Have you practiced before?”

I didn’t need to think, this was definitely the voice of the computer teacher. I turned my head around, and saw the geezer use an unnaturally excited gaze to stare at Zhao Yanyan, who was beside me. Fuck, I swore in my head, what kind of gaze does the old pervert have, he couldn’t possible have his sights on our Yanyan.

Zhao Yanyan didn’t think the teacher would become so excited, and answered quietly, “I practiced at home before.”

“You have a computer at home?” the old man asked with a face full of surprise.

“En, there’s one in my dad’s room,” said Zhao Yanyan.

The geezer gazed at the monitor in front of Zhao Yanyan, “127 alphabets per minute, classmate, go and represent our Shao Nian Gong in the National Teenage Computing competition!” the geezer’s expression was like he just found a treasure.

Zhao Yanyan answered shyly, “A lot of people are better than me.”

Seeing Zhao Yanyan say so, he continued to try and convince her, and finally Zhao Yanyan said, “Then I’ll talk about it with the people at home.”

The geezer stood there with a face full of smile, and then saw me on the side, “This classmate, why aren’t you practicing?” The old man pointed at the blank screen in front of me.

“There’s no need to practice,” I replied emotionlessly.

“What?!” the old man shouted angrily after hearing my reply, “What do you mean by no need? Typing is the basis of computing, if you can’t even pass typing, then don’t think about getting anywhere, just don’t learn at all.”

What kind of attitude was the geezer putting up, he was just full of happiness facing Zhao Yanyan, then was treating me like I owed him money. I retorted unhappily, “How do you know I wouldn’t pass?”

The geezer said, “If you think you can pass, then show me right now! If you can beat her——“ The geezer pointed towards Zhao Yanyan, “Then I’ll waive your lesson fees!”

“Sure! It’s a promise!” I said, although the school fee of four hundred kuai wasn’t a lot, to me who was lacking in funds, it wasn’t a small amount of money.

Under the geezer’s look of disdain, I opened the typing practice software, the geezer’s gaze became more imposing, since he thought I was typing randomly. I entered into the program and chose the highest difficulty without thinking, and tapping the keyboard familiarly.

Gradually, the geezer’s gaze turned from imposing to surprise to excitement, “Genius, definitely a genius!”

Zhao Yanyan also stared at my monitor in disbelief, 336 alphabets per minute, without any errors. In other words, on average the keyboard was tapped 5 to 6 times per second without any mistakes.

The geezer completely forgot about the tones of disdain he used towards me, and didn’t care whether I agreed or not, and immediately announced, “You two will be entering this Teenage Computing Competition! Our Shao Nian Gong will finally have its time to shine!”

“Then my school fee——“ I was scared that the geezer will go back on his words.

“It’s waived, not only is it waived, I’ll also tutor the two of you privately, the computer suite will always be open for the two of you!” the geezer said excitedly, and begun to think about how much fame the Shao Nian Gong of Songjiang would gain if they managed to get a prize.

I didn’t have much interest for private tutoring, the thing I was most focused on was how to quickly earn money. I suddenly thought that if I asked the geezer to get a copy of TC2.0, then it’d be rather simple, since he is in the industry, specially now that he has certain expectations for me, if I raise it to him now, then I believe he wouldn’t refuse me. Therefore I said, “Laoshi, do you have TRUBOC 2.0?”

The geezer momentarily blanked after hearing it then immediately reacted and asked with a face full of surprise, “You know how to program?”

“A little!” I replied.

“That’s great! It’s simply wonderful, I was still stressing over the programming contest in the computing competition, how about this, you enter that as well,” disregarding whether or not I agreed, the geezer already made up his mind. Ai, whatever, I’ll just enter it, nobody forced me to make the request.

The geezer promised to get me a copy the following week, and then asked me multiple questions, which I just answered perfunctorily.