He went back with Ni Guanghui, a boy from the same school but a different department; they sat side by side.
Outside the window, a father and daughter walked by carrying their luggage.
My father was wearing a navy blue polo shirt and neatly pressed gray trousers. The suitcase he was carrying was dark brown with shiny edges, a smooth handle, and wheels that made almost no sound when it rolled.
The girl followed behind, her hair tied in a simple ponytail. She wore a light apricot-colored knitted short-sleeved top and a matching skirt. Although the style wasn't particularly flashy, the fabric looked very comfortable, making her skin appear fair and giving her a clean and well-mannered air.
He must be a freshman going to university, Fang Dongqiang thought to himself.
"Look at that girl coming over, she looks like a freshman!" Ni Guanghui remarked upon seeing her.
"Mm." Fang Dongqiang nodded.
The two of them got into the car. Fang Dongqiang looked up and saw that the girl's face looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before.
The girl was looking for a seat when her eyes inadvertently met his. Fang Dongqiang immediately looked away and gazed out the window. The girl didn't seem to notice and sat down with her father in the row in front of him.
"Call home often when you're at school, so your parents know how you're doing. This is the first time you've been so far away from them. If you don't want to eat at the cafeteria on weekends, go find something good to eat outside, but come back early if you go out. When you go out with your roommates, share the local specialties in your bag with them and try to get along well with them." His father's words of advice drifted into Fang Dongqiang's ears intermittently. He was indeed a freshman.
Fang Yu and Fang Dongqiang did not meet during the summer vacation. After the start of the new semester, Fang Yu wrote a letter to Fang Dongqiang.
"Teacher Fang, there's a letter for you." When Fang Yu passed by the mailroom after school, she didn't need to guess that it was a letter from Fang Dongqiang.
"Thank you!" Fang Yu took the letter, then ran back to the classroom and carefully opened it.
"Teacher Fang, did you forget your things? Why are you back?" asked the childcare worker who was cleaning the classroom.
"Oh, my classmate wrote a letter, let me take a look."
In his letter, Fang Dongqiang said that when he returned from summer vacation, he saw an internet cafe in the county town. He said that he could go to the internet cafe to chat in the future, register an oIcq account, and ask the manager if he didn't know how. It was much faster than writing a letter, and he could chat in real time, just like talking face to face.
At the end of the letter, he wrote down a string of numbers and gave Fang Yu his number. Fang Yu copied down the number and put it in her bag.
(oIcq is the later QQ)
Fang Yu ate dinner at the shop and said she was going out. "Where are you going when it gets dark? Are you going to see Hua Hua?" Yu Jihong asked while washing the dishes.
"Let's go to an internet cafe." Fang Yu's voice wasn't loud, but it was filled with barely suppressed excitement. "Let's go online and see what's going on outside."
"Internet cafe? What kind of place is that? Is it safe?" Yu Jihong stopped what she was doing and frowned.
"It's a place with lots of computers where you can read the news and chat," Fang Yu quickly explained. "I'll just go for a little while, take a look, and come right back."
"Then be careful, I'll be back before the shop closes," Yu Jihong said with concern.
Fang Yu responded and ran to the internet cafe with her bag.
This was her first time at an internet cafe. Fang Yu hesitated for a moment at the door before pushing it open and going inside.
Amidst the swirling smoke and the incessant clatter of keyboards, she found a secluded corner to sit down, staring at the dense array of icons on the screen, too nervous to know which one to click.
"Boss, I'd like to apply for oIcq." She mustered up her courage and called out to the network administrator.
A young man wearing glasses walked over with a smile, "Okay, I'll teach you."
He quickly helped her register an account.
When the small penguin icon popped up on the screen, Fang Yu's heart inexplicably started racing. He took out the note, entered the number Fang Dongqiang had given him, and sent a friend request.
Almost instantly, the other party accepted the request. After a few coughs, a "beep beep beep beep" sound came, and the avatar of the user with the screen name "Dongdongxia" began to flash.
"Fang Yu, is that you?"
"Yeah, the network administrator taught me." Fang Yu stared at the screen, her fingers clumsily tapping on the keyboard. "Can this thing really have direct conversations?"
"Of course, you can type it in and I'll see it right away."
Fang Yu stared at the flashing avatar on the screen.
Every word Fang Dongqiang uttered made her heart pound, even more so than when she opened his letter.
"This is Sina. Click here to read the news. It covers news from all over the country," Fang Dongqiang sent a message along with a website address.
Fang Yu followed suit and clicked on the link. The screen was instantly filled with dense text and pictures, and she felt like she had discovered a new continent.
"You can also listen to music and play games. In this match-3 game, you can eliminate two identical ones by clicking on them."
Under Fang Dongqiang's guidance, Fang Yu gradually became more skilled.
Everything was new and interesting to Fang Yu. When she checked the time, she thought, "My mom is closing up shop, I have to go." She was filled with reluctance.
"Okay, be careful on your way back." Fang Dongqiang's reply popped up quickly.
Fang Yu reluctantly turned it off. On her way to the store, her mind was filled with the text, music, and the little penguin icon on the screen. She felt that the evening had passed by so quickly that she hadn't had enough fun.
After that, she became a regular at the internet cafe, coming several nights a week.
That day, after she turned on her computer and logged in, a friend request popped up in the lower right corner. The person with the username "Thor" added her, and the verification message was just the two words "Hello".
Fang Yu hovered her fingertip over the mouse, a hint of curiosity rising in her heart. This was the first friend request she had received from a stranger. Previously, she only had Fang Dongqiang as a friend, and their chat history was completely clean.
She opened the profile page; besides a nickname and avatar, there was nothing there. This simplicity actually put her at ease. She figured this person named "Thor" was probably just a peer who wanted to make friends.
Fang Yu bit her lower lip, clicked the mouse lightly, and confirmed that he had become a friend.
Almost simultaneously, a message from "Thor" popped up: "Hello."
Fang Yu hesitated for a moment before replying, "Hello."
"Let's be friends and chat sometime."
"Where are you from?"
After a while, "Thor" replied, "Don't ask me where I came from?"
Fang Yu paused for a moment after seeing this sentence, then laughed and replied, "Should I ask you, where is your hometown?"
"You guessed right! Looks like we're on the same wavelength. Besides surfing the internet, what else do you like to do?"
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