Chapter 1: Found Treasure

  In the Sanjiang of 1990, on a winter morning - it's not quite right to call it a morning, as it was only 4 am. At this time of year and at this hour, when many people were still fast asleep in their warm beds, Feng Xiao Tian had already gotten up.

  Feng Xiaotian is an orphan. When he was six years old, his parents died in a car accident. He then lived with his grandmother, who was a very kind and gentle person. For the sake of her beloved grandson, she would get up early every day to collect garbage to support the family's livelihood. Unfortunately, five years ago, his elderly grandmother also fell ill and passed away, so now there is only Feng Xiaotian left in this household.

  Feng Xiaotian is not without relatives, but those relatives are all quite indifferent. Even when Feng Xiaotian's grandmother passed away, they didn't come to take a look. As for being human, it can be said that there is no affection at all.

  When he was very young, Feng Xiaotian learned to be independent. Compared with his peers, he lost his parents at a young age, which made him mature overnight. In his eyes, the world seemed to have lost its color overnight, and everything was gray and hazy.

  "Hmm..."

  Feng Xiaotian got out of bed, the weather was really too cold. As soon as he lifted the quilt, the warm air under it disappeared instantly. Feng Xiaotian wore a worn-out autumn coat with many patches on it. Despite this, Feng Xiaotian cherished it very much because it was one of his only two autumn coats, which were both left by his father. Although they looked a bit oversized on him, having an autumn coat to wear was already quite good under the current circumstances.

  Feng Xiaotian quickly put on his coat, the military green coat was very old but warm, with fluffy fur inside. After putting it on, Feng Xiaotian finally let out a sigh of relief.

  After rinsing with icy cold water, Feng Xiaotian carried a snakeskin bag out the door to make a living by picking up scraps.

  Feng Xiao Tian is fourteen years old this year, and picking up scraps has become a familiar routine for him. For several years now, he does it every day, regardless of wind or rain, without ever stopping, because if he didn't do so, he would have no source of livelihood, and that would mean going hungry.

  Feng Xiao Tian took out a black cotton glove from his snake skin bag and put it on, locked the door behind him, and then strode towards the street.

  It was pitch black outside. In this era, even if there were streetlights, it was impossible for them to be on all night. The residents' electricity supply was still not sufficient, so how could they afford such waste?

  Feng Xiaotian walked forward in the dark, and soon he arrived at the first garbage dump. He squatted down to rummage through it for valuable things. Although he couldn't see very clearly, relying on his years of work experience, he could roughly tell what he was touching and which things were worth selling or keeping for himself. Feng Xiaotian was crystal clear about this. Very quickly, the garbage dump was swept clean by him, but he only gained two empty wine bottles. It seemed that today's outing wasn't very successful.

  Feng Xiao Tian continued to walk forward, and every time he passed by a pile of garbage, he would stop and repeat the action of rummaging through it. As time went on, the snake skin bag in his hand slowly bulged up, until at 6:30 in the morning, the snake skin bag was finally full and couldn't hold anything else.

  Feng Xiaotian walked towards the waste collection station with a satisfied smile, carrying a bulging snakeskin bag on his back. The waste collection station was located at the foot of a slope near the vegetable market. This was Feng Xiaotian's usual place to sell his junk. As he arrived at the entrance with his snakeskin bag, the boss of the station was squatting at the root of the wall inside the courtyard, brushing his teeth.

  Feng Xiao Tian pushed open the courtyard door and walked in, a smile on his face: "Uncle Li, it's so cold outside, yet you're up so early."

  The old man in the mouth of Fengxiao Tian was a sixty-year-old little old man, with hair as messy as a chicken's nest and a beard that was all tangled up. Everyone called him Old Li, but few people knew his real name.

  Upon hearing Feng Xiaotian's words, Old Li rinsed his mouth and then stood up laughing: "How could I have come early? Aren't you even earlier than me? Little Tian, wait a bit, I'll wash my face and be right out."

  Old Li finished speaking and walked into the house. Feng Xiang Tian responded with a sound, poured out his harvest on the ground, and then he sorted these things out one by one. When Old Li came out, he smiled and said: "Uncle Li, come and weigh them."

  Old Li smiled and nodded, holding a steelyard in his hand. He first tied up the old paper boxes and newspapers that Feng Xiaotian had picked up together and weighed them on the scale. After weighing, he said: "The waste paper weighs a total of five catties and four taels. Five cents per catty, five times twenty-five is one yuan two jiao, and four taels are two cents. Adding them up, it's a total of two yuan seven jiao."

  The old man finished speaking and put the waste paper aside, then picked up a broken pot and said: "This pot weighs two and a half catties. At three cents per catty, it's six cents for two catties, and one cent five for half a catty. Adding them together is seven cents five... Now let's take a look at these plastics..."

  Lao Li's business was very familiar, and in less than three minutes, he had counted the things Feng Xiaotian had picked up. After calculating the price, he smiled and said: "Xiao Tian, your harvest is not bad today. All the things add up to 1 yuan 6 jiao 3 fen. Here's the money, take it."

  Feng Xiao Tian carefully took the money from Li Bo and put it in his own pocket, then smiled and said: "Thank you, Uncle Li. You're busy, I'll leave first."

  Feng Xiao Tian turned around and walked out while talking, but when he passed by the pile of waste in the yard, his gaze was attracted to a strange iron box among them. He stopped in his tracks, lowered his head and carefully examined the iron box, his black eyes motionless.

  Old Li laughed and said, "I got this thing back from University Town last night. It was sold to me by a security guard who said it was... what was it again? - I think it's some kind of equipment that the school discarded, but I don't understand it either."

  Feng Xiao Tian heard this and opened his mouth to say: "Uncle Li, how much money did you spend on buying this thing? Can...can you sell it to me?"

  Feng Xiao Tian was somewhat excited at this moment, because he knew what the iron box was, and he had only seen such a thing in books, it was his first time seeing it in reality.

  Old Li blinked his eyes, somewhat puzzled, and asked: "Xiao Tian, what do you want it for? I think it's just like scrap iron, so when we collected it, the price was calculated as scrap iron... a total of two yuan, right? Really, you want it?"

  Feng Xiao Tian heard the words and nodded slightly. He suppressed the intense excitement in his heart and said, "Uncle Li, can you sell it to me?"

  Feng Xiaotian was afraid that Old Li would raise the price, so he tried to make his tone sound as calm as possible. Old Li looked at Feng Xiaotian and then at the iron box again, and after a while, he smiled and said: "I can sell it to you, but this thing was dragged back from University Town, more than 20 miles away, which cost me a lot of effort. How about I add a little labor fee and charge you two yuan and fifty cents? What do you think?"

  Feng Xiao Tian heard the words and pretended to be hesitant, hesitating for a moment before taking out the money from his pocket. After counting it carefully, he handed it over to Old Li's hands, saying: "Uncle Li, this is the money, please count it."

  Old Li made a small profit and laughed repeatedly: "No need, Little Tian, when have you ever miscalculated?"

  Old Li's face lit up with joy, originally buying broken items at a low price and selling them at a high price was just a way to make a profit. This iron box was transported back together with other things, saying that it took a lot of effort, this is simply a tactic to raise the price. Something bought for 2 yuan was sold for 2.5 yuan, calculating the return on investment, it's still quite impressive. Old Li has been in this business for many years and naturally understands this very well, so he can't help but be happy.

  The happy person was a bit dazed, and only heard Old Li continue to say: "Xiao Tian, there are two more things that came back with this thing, do you want them or not?"

  Feng Xiao Tian's eyes lit up upon hearing the words, but he quickly put on a confused expression and said: "Oh? There's still something? Can I take a look?"

  Old Li might still want to make a profit from Feng Xiaotian, so he seemed very enthusiastic. He smiled and said: "The thing is in the house, come with me to take a look."

  Feng Xiaotian followed Old Li into the house, and he had already guessed what the two things were in his heart. However, his face remained calm and expressionless. By the time Old Li pointed to the two things inside the house and spoke to him, Feng Xiaotian could no longer hear any words.

  This is a computer. The iron box outside is the host of the computer, and there are two things in the house: one is the computer monitor, and the other is naturally the keyboard.

  In this era, computers were extremely rare in the country, and many people had not even heard of such a thing. However, Feng Xiaotian was very familiar with it because when he was picking up trash, he picked up a book about computer knowledge called "Computer Programming Language and Programming".

  Feng Xiao Tian was still a young man, and he was naturally very curious about new things. When he picked up this book, he was immediately attracted to the title - Computer? This was actually a book that explained computer knowledge?

  This book was finally kept by Feng Xiaotian, who flipped through it every night. His curiosity about this magical thing called a computer had already reached its peak. What he found most incredible was: how did the computer execute instructions? How did people give the computer such magical abilities?

  After learning from Feng Xiaotian, he finally understood the truth behind it. In terms of computer programming, he also had his own unique insights in theory. Today, seeing the computer host, his strong curiosity was instantly raised to its peak. If he could have a computer, wouldn't he be able to turn theory into practice?