Chapter 341: Computer Discs

(1)

An Jing walked along the road that wasn’t particularly wide, with shop fronts crammed tightly together on both sides, densely packed and stretching off into the distance. Every single one had its doors open, every single one had business, and a few were even especially lively.

This was a sight you’d never see in a small city.

Her gaze swept back from the pharmacy, past a vegetable shop and an internet cafe, then a noodle shop and a cold drink stand, then a snack shop and a local eatery, followed by another vegetable shop and another internet cafe…

So she turned her gaze to the other side of the street, and this time she spotted a computer shop open right by the roadside.

The storefront didn’t look big, but the poster stuck on the floor-to-ceiling glass filled An Jing with confidence.

It was a Warcraft III promotional poster. Though it was a bit old and worn, it somehow gave people the confidence that this place didn’t just sell computer parts.

The not-so-wide road had no traffic lights, only a zebra crossing every so often.

Luckily, there was no need to worry about cars speeding down this little road. A quick glance left and right was enough to cross safely.

If the old residential area converted from the old factory dormitories still had retired workers, young families, and well-dressed white-collar workers, then here in the urban village, what you mostly saw were young people and middle-aged people. Children and the elderly were both rare sights.

Many people, in the scorching summer heat, simply walked around bare-chested, showing off bodies that weren’t exactly pleasant to look at—either gaunt as skeletons or fat with a protruding beer belly.

…

A musty smell drifted out from the alleys, and the open drainage ditch flowing through them carried rotten vegetable leaves and plastic garbage.

If the old factory dormitory was the bare minimum of a city’s face, then the urban village was the city’s truest “insides.” And the side nearest the main road was already the clean and tidy part—the further in you went, the more filthy and chaotic it became.

An Jing didn’t particularly like it, nor did she particularly dislike it. She just knew that many people lived in the urban village, and though it wasn’t exactly respectable, they were all working hard to make a living.

Lost in such idle thoughts, she closed her umbrella, gently pushed open the glass door, and stepped into the small computer shop.

The shop had no air conditioning running—just an electric fan rotating its head back and forth. The air was stuffy and hot. The boss was leaning back in a cheap-looking office chair, lazily playing Dou Dizhu.

“Pass.” “Pass.”

“Three points.”

It looked like a round had just started. The shopkeeper’s expression turned a bit more serious, though he still spared a glance toward the door.

“What do you need?”

“Boss, do you have any game discs here?”

“The computer discs are all over there. Take a look at that pile yourself.”

“Okay!”

When shopping, An Jing loved hearing words like that.

What she hated most was someone chattering away beside her while she was trying to pick out her items…

It was a low wooden table set beside the shelf, with a cardboard sign propped up on it. Written casually on it were the big words: “Computer Disc Clearance—Five Yuan Each.”

The handwriting was actually pretty good, and it faintly carried a hint of calligraphic flair.

An Jing couldn’t wait to look down. The first things to catch her eye were various music discs.

These discs were all packaged in plastic-wrapped colored cardstock sleeves, rectangular in shape, with relevant introductions printed on them.

Music discs like these were one more exaggerated than the last—invariably claiming to be collections of hundreds of songs in one.

An Jing picked up a “Collection of 999 Popular Music Hits,” flipped it over to the back, and saw that the dense little text was almost entirely old songs from before the 1990s. And to pad the count, all sorts of folk songs and foreign-language songs had been squeezed in.

It certainly looked like a lot, but based only on what was listed on the back, there was no way it actually added up to over nine hundred tracks.

An Jing glanced at it with mild amusement, then set it aside.

In the stuffy computer shop, the electric fan occasionally sent over a gentle breeze. The boss at the cash register was still clicking his mouse, dueling with online opponents in card skills.

Amid the sound of “Hurry up, I’m waiting so long my flowers have withered,” she finally found a large stack of game discs buried underneath.

When buying game discs, you had to be careful not to buy a game your computer couldn’t handle.

As for whether your computer could handle it, they generally didn’t write that on the cover.

Even if they did, An Jing figured she wouldn’t really understand which specs were stronger anyway.

So she usually judged by the graphics.

Anything with particularly exquisite graphics, she could basically determine her computer couldn’t handle. Slightly rougher 3D graphics, on the other hand, were worth a try.

After all, in her view, single-player games demanded far more from your hardware than online games.

She first picked up a <Warcraft III> disc. She’d played this one before, so she was sure her current computer could run it. It served as her safe bet for this shopping trip.

Then she found herself hesitating between a few games that looked decent.

In the end, she chose the one called “Spore.” Its description was just too tempting—the freedom seemed very high, and… the graphics didn’t look particularly refined either, so there was a good chance her computer could handle it.

As for <Assassin’s Creed>, she gave it up, because the graphics looked far too beautiful…

Then came another round of browsing. After much deliberation, she finally settled on one more.

Need for Speed.

Its graphics were also gorgeous—it really didn’t look like something her computer could run.

But the cover had bold red text printed on it: “Best Racing Game of the Year. Perfect optimization lets even low-end computers enjoy it.”

That was just too tempting.

It made An Jing want to give it a try.

And anyway… even if her computer couldn’t run it, it was only five yuan. She could keep it for later.

As for the fourth disc, she didn’t buy a game this time. Instead, she picked up a <Complete Collection of Popular Novels> disc, which claimed to contain over a thousand complete e-books. For someone with no internet access, it sounded like the perfect way to kill time.

After all, her mother’s bookshelf was packed as full as it could get, and that was only a hundred or two hundred books.

This one had two to three thousand, and quite a few seemed to be genres An Jing liked—like martial arts and science fiction.

“Boss, just these.” An Jing held up the discs in her hand and walked over to the boss. At that moment, the computer happened to play the little tune that signaled the end of a round.

Sounded like he’d won.

Then came the clicking sound of someone leaving the card table.

“Four discs, right? Then pick out one more yourself.”

“ Huh? “

“Buy four, get one free.” The boss pointed at the cardboard sign on the table. “It’s written on the back.”

“Oh… sure?”

“The free one can only be picked from that small pile over there.”

When she walked over there, An Jing understood why these discs were being given away.

Because these were probably the ones that couldn’t sell even in a clearance sale.

They were all old-fashioned opera, classic documentaries, or outdated desktop software and games. An Jing browsed for a long while before finally deciding to take a reinstall disc home. It was a Windows 7 reinstall disc, printed with the words “Deep Blue System.” It looked like the newest one in that pile of outdated discs.

“Boss, this one.”

“Alright.” The boss glanced up, pulled out a red plastic bag, and helped pack the discs. “Twenty yuan.”

“Here you go…”

“Exactly twenty. Come again next time.” His lips barely moved as he mechanically rattled off the pleasantry, then turned his attention back to the computer.

An Jing happily carried the bag of discs and pushed open the glass door to greet the sunlight, feeling like she was returning home with a great haul.

So much so that even the walk back seemed shorter than the walk there.

When she got home, Grandfather was feeding two stray cats, and Cai Qi was beside him, cockily lifting its wing, stretching its neck, and mimicking a dog’s bark—it sounded like a small dog, maybe a Pomeranian or a Chihuahua.

“Grandfather, I got them! Five yuan each, super cheap!”

“Haha, do they even work?”

“That’s something we’ll have to test to find out…” An Jing hurried into the first floor, grabbed a carton of milk from the fridge, and then quickly trotted up the stairs. “Grandfather, I’m going upstairs!”

“Dinner’s at five. Come down on your own when it’s time.”

“Got it!”

An Jing rushed into the room on the second floor, shutting the door on Cai Qi’s dog-like barking from downstairs. Then she kicked off her shoes at the doorway—left foot kicking off the right shoe and vice versa. They landed crookedly on either side, one of them even ending up sole-up.

Barefoot, her little feet slightly sweaty, she hopped over to the chair in two quick strides and sat down. Then she pressed the button on the disc drive. After a brief delay, the tray slowly slid out.

She inserted the disc, and the computer let out a series of beeping sounds. After a short stutter, a small disc icon appeared next to the mouse cursor. After another moment of spinning, a folder finally popped up.

Inside the folder was the game’s installation file. Double-clicking it would start the install.

Though An Jing was already used to downloading games from the internet, installing one from a disc still gave her a strange sense of ceremony.

Before she could even watch the progress bar reach one hundred percent, her phone suddenly rang.

It was a text message from Zhu Ying.

「Check QQ now!!」

It was clear from that alone that she’d been getting a little impatient over An Jing not replying to her messages for so long.

An Jing could already picture her puffing out her cheeks and staring wide-eyed.

It made her feel both amused and a little flustered. She quickly logged into QQ on her phone, and after opening the messages, she was met with a string of 「images」.

Right, just a box with the word “image” written inside it.

「I’m on my phone, I can’t receive images!!」

「What? Can’t you just get on the internet with your computer?」

「Grandfather’s house has no internet…」

「What era is this? No internet!」

「He doesn’t really have much use for it.」An Jing sent a sweating emoji.

「Pfft—」

「I can’t help it…」

「In the future, I’m definitely buying Xiao Jing a phone that can view QQ images!」

「Sweat… So what was the picture?」

「A photo, silly. I’ve packed my luggage, wanted to show you and see if there’s anything else I should bring.」

「Can you just describe it in text?」

So Zhu Ying started sending messages at lightning speed. Each line was only a few characters long, but they kept scrolling up continuously, giving the illusion that she was actually speaking.

「So,

「I’m bringing one suitcase,

「And,

「One bag,

「In the suitcase there’s,

「The clothes Xiao Jing wore last time.」

「Huh???

「The undergarment one?!」

「Yep, it has Xiao Jing’s scent on it!」

「Wash it thoroughly when you do the laundry, please!」