Rebirth 1977 Great Era

Chapter 275 Chinese Typewriter and Lin Yutang, Inexplicably Funny Nanako (All Subscriptions Plus Updates)

When Fang Yan heard Le Miao's words, he immediately became alert and asked her:
"Ledian, do you know how many types of Chinese typewriters there are now?"

Le Miao asked back in some surprise:
"Why did you suddenly think of asking this?"

Fang Yan smiled and said:

"I was just asking casually. I was thinking that if I wanted to write a book someday, I might want to get a typewriter to use."

After hearing this, Le Miao suddenly realized:

"There are quite a lot of typewriter models, and they are basically all made in Shanghai. There are Shuangge brand, Feige brand, and Yingxiong brand. But their principles are the same. They all use the Zhou Houkun lead-type Chinese typewriter that was improved by Shu Zhendong, an engineer at the Commercial Press in 1919."

"But these typewriters are basically not used by private individuals. They are only available in government agencies, schools, newspapers, and writers' associations. Moreover, if you want to use them, you need a lot of training. It is said that the training is quite difficult. Sometimes when you need to print urgently, you need to borrow typists from some units."

"If you want to use a typewriter, you can only go to these units to find someone, and you need to borrow their typists, otherwise the machine will not work at all."

This was the first time Fang Yan had heard this knowledge. He silently memorized it and after thinking about it for a while, he asked Le Miao again:
"How many words can a skilled typist type in one minute?"

Le Miao responded:
"The average typist is said to be able to type 50 words a minute, while the fastest typists are said to be able to type just over a hundred words a minute."

Over a hundred? Fangyan felt that he could only type at this speed in Pinyin in his previous life, and those professional typists in his previous life were much faster than this.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but mutter:

"Oh, that doesn't seem to be very fast..."

Hearing Fangyan's words, Le Miao was a little amused and explained to him:

"This is already very fast. At least it's much faster than writing, and it's not typing in English or Latin."

After she finished speaking, she seemed to remember something and added:
"But I've heard that Lin Yutang's Mingkuai typewriter could type more than 120 words a minute. Unfortunately, the whole country was at war at the time, and no one was optimistic about the machine he invented with all his royalties, so only a few prototypes were preserved."

“Now those machines are nowhere to be found.”

I know Lin Yutang from the dialect and have read his books in my previous life. He is a famous modern Chinese writer, scholar, translator, linguist, and representative of Neo-Taoism. He studied in the United States and Germany in his early years, and obtained a Master of Literature from Harvard and a Doctor of Linguistics from the University of Leipzig. After returning to China, he taught at Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Xiamen University. He wrote many books in his life and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twice.

But I didn't know that the royalties from his many books were actually used to invent the typewriter.

It’s a pity that the typewriter he invented did not survive.

Fang Yan said to Le Miao:

"I see, thank you."

Le Miao waved his hand:
"Well, you're being polite to me."

It happened that Director Chen and Professor Cai had to be notified in the afternoon, and Fangyan planned to ask them if they could get him a typewriter to use.

Of course it would be best if you could find a typist and have them type while you speak.

But even if you can't match it, you can learn it yourself. As long as you understand the principles and the system is enabled, your typing will naturally not be much slower.

Now I don’t know whether the other party is willing to lend it to him. After all, he will not need it for just one or two days. If it really doesn’t work, Fangyan can only write it by hand.

Just thinking about the hundreds of common medicines in "Chinese Materia Medica Preparation" made his scalp tingle.

I guess it will take me until next year to finish writing it myself.

It was soon time to get off work. Fangyan packed up, took off his white coat and rode his bike home.

When he got home, he found Zhu Lin was already in the kitchen, using the gas stove to heat up the pine nut soup he had made last night.

After seeing the dialect, Zhu Lin said:

"I'm getting nervous and anxious again after taking the medicine alone. I'd better take the medicine."

Fangyan felt her pulse and found that it was indeed a pulse of anxiety. It seems that the novice period of a doctor is not something that can be overcome in just a few words. There is no room for cheating at the hurdles that need to be overcome, and one has to slowly get through them.

After taking the medicine before dinner, Zhu Lin immediately felt much calmer.

Although I still feel worried when I think about those things, I find myself feeling calm and indifferent.

It’s like Chinese medicine’s own tranquilizer.

Zhu Lin was amazed.

The family then had lunch. Fangyan massaged his wife's head acupuncture points to relieve her tension. Then he personally sent her to the department to work and told her not to be nervous.

After finishing these things, Fangyan walked out of Union Hospital, went to the street office to borrow a phone, and called Director Chen.

Soon the call was connected. The person who answered the phone was Chen Kaige. When he heard Fangyan's voice on the phone, he became very excited. Fangyan heard him shouting to the outside world, "Dad, Brother Fang is calling! Brother Fang is calling!"

Then, a series of hurried footsteps of Chen Huaikai came from the phone, and it sounded like jogging as they got closer.

When Chen Huaikai heard Fangyan tell him that they could meet this afternoon, he immediately said that he would come right over. Seeing how excited he was, Fangyan quickly reminded him to remember to notify Professor Cai.

Chen Huaikai finally reacted and said that he would definitely notify everyone.

After telling them the exact location of the courtyard, Fangyan hung up the phone.

After thanking Director Feng, Fang Yan returned home.

Tell my little brother to get ready, they will be here in about an hour.

Fang Chen spent the whole afternoon preparing today and took note of what Fang Yan gave him last night. Now he looks confident.

Knowing that they were coming today, Zhu Lin prepared tea, tea sets, and fruits, and Fangyan moved them all to the study.

After doing all this, Fang Yan saw that there was still time, so he went to take a look at the back house in the front yard.

They are currently doing the finishing work. Once they are finished today, they will be responsible for cleaning up the site tomorrow.

Fangyan watched them finishing their work meticulously, took out a cigarette and passed it around. They were serious and responsible in their work, and Fangyan was not one to be stingy.

He said to the workers:
"After we finish the finishing work tomorrow, don't leave yet. I'll treat everyone to a meal in this house tonight."

Hearing his words, everyone smiled and agreed after a symbolic refusal.

An hour later, there was a knock on the courtyard door.

The two brothers Fang Yan and Fang Chen walked to the door and opened it.

Then I saw Chen Huaikai and his son Chen Kaige.

Behind them were Professor Cai and a very familiar-looking girl.

The girl was pretty, but when Fang Yan looked at her face, a series of voices automatically appeared in his mind: "Why is this happening?" "Dad, where are you going?" "They are all thousand-year-old foxes, what kind of Liao Zhai are you playing?"

The funny memories that came to him almost made him laugh out loud.

Fangyan recognized that this was Cai Caizi, Guo Da's screen comedy partner in later generations. He was a little surprised why Professor Cai called his daughter over as well?

PS: After finishing this chapter, I still owe you 33,000.

No more today. Please come early tomorrow.

Lao Feng is working hard on coding for tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)