NOVEL SIMPLE
Chapter 47.1
“Really?” Gu Muxi looked at him skeptically.
Yi Feng nodded solemnly, “Really, it still hurts a bit. I think I need a few days to recover.”
Life is like a play, all dependent on acting. If he didn’t do this, how could he get Gu Muxi to take him to school?
He had completely figured out Gu Muxi, haha!
“Alright, let’s go. I’ll help you downstairs,” Gu Muxi said helplessly.
Yi Feng walked down the stairs with her support.
“Gu Muxi, did you go to open an account yesterday afternoon?” Yi Feng asked.
Now, to access the internet, one still needs to go to a business hall to open an account, and then the computer accesses the internet through a phone line.
This era has not yet popularized fiber optics; one could only use dial-up to access the internet.
It involves dialing a special number of an ISP through a phone line modem, with very slow speeds, only up to 56kbps for both upload and download rates.
And once you make a call, you can’t access the internet, and if you’re online, you can’t make calls.
This internet speed only allows for browsing web pages, forums, and using OICQ, later known as QQ. For gaming, one could only play single-player games since they don’t require an internet connection.
Internet cafes and some businesses would use dedicated broadband to play online games like CS.
“Yes, my parents agreed, and a technician will come to install it this afternoon. However, my mom only allows me 30 hours of internet time per month, roughly an hour a day.”
“It can’t be helped, internet fees are quite expensive, around fifty or sixty yuan a month!” Gu Muxi sighed.
“Auntie is probably worried you’ll spend all your time surfing the internet and neglect your studies,” Yi Feng laughed.
“Maybe, but having an hour a day to play isn’t bad, haha!” Gu Muxi quickly cheered up.
Women change their minds faster than flipping a book!
“Fine, when I come back from school, I’ll help you set up the computer. You can also ask the technician to install my internet line. It’s about time my house had a landline installed,” Yi Feng laughed.
“Okay, I’ll tell the technician when he comes after school,” Gu Muxi nodded.
As the college entrance exam approached, there were hardly any classes, with teachers mostly going over exam problems or students studying on their own.
The school days passed quickly amidst intense revision.
After school, Wang Tie took Yi Feng to Zhao Xingye’s shop to repair computers.
The next day, the new assistant apprentice Gao Hongxing started to take the initiative to ask Yi Feng about computer repairs.
Yi Feng didn’t pay much attention to him, letting him adjust his attitude first before possibly teaching him a thing or two.
He was completely under Yi Feng’s control, so he could only obediently assist and dared not talk back.
After fixing the computer, Yi Feng returned home, where the installation technician was from the telecommunications company.
This telecommunications company was not the later China Telecom but a newly established company that undertook small network services in Guang province, which later merged into the Telecom Group.
Seeing Yi Feng come back, Meng Xiaoyun hurriedly asked, “Xiaofeng, why did you call someone to install a phone and internet?”
“That must have cost quite a bit?”
Yi Feng chuckled, “Not much, just three or four hundred yuan.”
“Mom, don’t worry, I’ve earned some money repairing computers recently. Having the internet will also make it easier for me to learn about computers!”
These days, repairing computers had earned him more than seven thousand yuan, and with his previous savings, Yi Feng now had thirty-one thousand yuan in cash at his disposal.
Spending a few hundred yuan to install a phone line wasn’t a big deal.
With another month or so of work, he would have enough money to open his shop.
The soft furnishings for the shop and the purchase of computer components would also be a significant expense.
Meng Xiaoyun patted his head and smiled, “My son is really good, earning money so quickly!”
“But still, focus on preparing for your college entrance exam and don’t get distracted.”
“And if you make money, remember to save it for your university expenses. Don’t spend it recklessly!”
She was reassured to see that Yi Feng could earn money.
“Mm, I know, Mom,” Yi Feng responded with a smile.
However, he looked closely at his mother and noticed her pale complexion, “Mom, you don’t look so well. Are you too tired? Should we go to the hospital for a check-up?”
Meng Xiaoyun smiled, “No need, I’m fine.”
“Still, we should get a regular health check-up, don’t worry about the cost, I have money,” Yi Feng earnestly said.
“Okay, okay, I’ll listen to you. Let’s talk about it some other time,” Meng Xiaoyun brushed it off.
An hour later, the technician had installed the phone and internet at Yi Feng’s home.
After paying, Yi Feng started setting up his computer on the desk in his room.
He successfully connected to the internet after dialing up.
Awesome!
Finally, he could surf the internet at home!
Yi Feng couldn’t express how excited he was.
The internet is arguably the greatest invention since the turn of the century!
It will change the world!
Even though the internet speed was extremely slow and unstable, taking five or six seconds to load a webpage didn’t dampen Yi Feng’s enthusiasm.
With this computer, he could start programming and developing software!
A perfect tool for making money.
Developing software or games that could be sold for money would be amazing!
In the year 2000, an era when the internet and computers were not yet fully popularized, many utility software or games had not been developed, such as stealing vegetables, grabbing parking spaces, playing landlords, and even 4399 small games were not online yet. This market was a vast blue ocean.
Yi Feng opened a few of the most popular websites of the time, like Sohu and Sina, which were information portals that also had their chat rooms.
Chatting in chat rooms, browsing portals, and discussing on Tianya were the main ways of online social interaction at the time.
OICQ, or QQ, was not particularly popular at this point. Yi Feng remembered that at this time, QQ had not yet changed its name, and Tencent had just received financing. The number of registered users had just reached 5 million, but this was only the number of registrations. After all, many people had several, even dozens or hundreds of accounts, mainly because the real-time online number hadn’t broken 100,000, which was low compared to the real-time online traffic of large portal sites.
However, this year was also precisely the year of the internet bubble burst, severely impacting the internet industry. Tencent was also in a severe financial crisis due to the soaring operational costs caused by user expansion, but revenue could not cover the losses.
Bringing his thoughts back, Yi Feng felt that he currently did not have the capacity to enter this era of the internet.
Maybe there would be a chance in the future!
He downloaded an OICQ, which had a very… basic, but nostalgic login interface, with a gray box…
The login interface only had a user number and a user password, with three navigation buttons at the bottom:
Login, Cancel, Registration Guide.
Following the registration guide, Yi Feng registered an account for himself, and it was a six-digit number.
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