I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

"Who is this?"

"I met Shen Kang on the way," Chen Shi said as he unpacked the box. "He also wants to buy a computer and came to see the actual product."

"Oh." Zhao Lei didn't think much of it, his gaze shifting to the T60 in Chen Shi's hand, his eyes instantly lighting up. "Quick, turn it on! I even copied Warcraft onto a USB drive; I'll just plug it in and install it later, see how it runs!"

He learned about Chen buying a used laptop online when he came back this afternoon.

Zhao Lei seemed even more impatient than Chen Shi, temporarily ignoring his game. After all, he could play games every day, but someone in the dorm buying a computer, and a used laptop at that, wasn't something that happened every day.

Zhao Lei thinks the secondhand laptop is pretty good.

"You even copied Warcraft onto a USB drive?" Chen Shi asked.

"Of course, how would you know if a dedicated graphics card is real or fake if you don't run World of Warcraft? Let me tell you, there are a lot of unscrupulous merchants on the market now who use integrated graphics to impersonate dedicated graphics cards. Running 3mak will expose them."

"Are you trying to help me choose, or are you just playing around?"

"Both, both," Zhao Lei said matter-of-factly. "This is called technical acceptance. What do you know?"

Chen Shi ignored him and pressed the power button.

The T60's screen lit up, the classic red dot L of the THNKPA flashed by, and the NP boot bar ran for less than twenty seconds before it reached the desktop.

Zhao Lei approached with the USB drive and chased Chen Shi away.

"Excuse me, excuse me, let me take the test."

Chen Shi and Wang Hongyu usually use Zhao Lei's computer; Zhao Lei is like a second father to them.

So although Chen Shi also wanted to "deflower" himself, he stepped aside and let his godfather do it.

Zhao Lei sat in front of the computer, inserted the USB drive, copied the installation files into it, and started reading the paste progress bar.

Shen Kang watched from the side, feeling a bit of a headache—the data read/write speed of USB drives and mechanical hard drives these days is enough to make someone who was reborn in 2025 have high blood pressure.

Even though I've been reborn for half a year, I still look like I have high blood pressure.

But apart from Shen Kang, everyone was quite patient and didn't feel the pace was slow.

After the pasting and installation were complete, Zhao Lei opened Warcraft III and began the setup.

Full effects, 1024768, lt tmpl, simple computer.

The moment the Sword Saint was born, Zhao Lei's breathing rhythm noticeably changed.

The first jump attack was executed flawlessly, with a stable frame rate. The second jump attack was completely still. He led three large teams to charge into the computer base, resulting in a chaotic battle between different units. The Blademaster spun around, and the whirlwind slash's light effect drew a smooth arc on the screen without the slightest lag.

Zhao Lei pushed the mouse aside, leaned back in his chair, and announced in an extremely childish tone: "No frame drops."

In Zhao Lei's evaluation system, these two words represent the highest honor.

He said that "no frame drops" doesn't mean "barely playable," but rather, "As a man who has been playing Warcraft on a CT monitor for two and a half years, judging by my APM and micro-management standards, this machine has no performance bottlenecks at full settings in team battles."

This statement carries roughly the same weight as a Michelin three-star inspector saying, "I give this roadside stall's fried noodles three stars."

Before Chen Shi could speak, Zhao Lei added, "You bought this for 2,300? You got a real bargain."

Li Wei looked up from behind the magazine.

He doesn't play World of Warcraft, but he can understand Zhao Lei's tone. For Zhao Lei to say "I've struck gold" means that the computer's performance truly far exceeds expectations.

He closed the magazine "Men's Health," stood up from his chair, walked to Chen Shi's desk, and looked down at the T60.

His eyes were sharp as he examined everything closely, from the wear and tear on the edges of the casing to the uniformity of the screen's brightness and the spacing between the keyboard keys, even touching each one with his hands.

The level of detail is like a thirty-year-old Xiao Chunan, on his wedding night, facing a naked bride, wanting to leave no corner untouched.

Shen Kang glanced at the man and thought to himself, "It's a shame this kid isn't working as an appearance quality inspector."

This guy is like a quality inspector, not missing a single detail. When it comes to appearance inspection, he's even more professional than the quality inspectors at Huanhuan.com.

Li Wei finally "completed the quality inspection".

Then he spoke, saying "Not bad," his tone somewhat disappointed.

Li Wei was indeed a little disappointed.

When Li Wei learned that Chen Shi wanted to buy a used laptop online, he was actually a little amused: used, and online no less, the risk was too great! If Chen Shi bought a computer that looked like it had been unearthed from Sanxingdui, and all sorts of problems popped up when he turned it on, then there would be some fun to watch.

In the morning, Li Wei lent Chen Shi three hundred yuan more readily than usual, partly because he wanted to see some fun.

However, the result appears to be disappointing.

He thought this used laptop would be like Shang Zhou's. But it turned out that the used laptop looked like it was from last week—of course, last week is a bit of an exaggeration, but overall it was unexpectedly new.

Disappointing!

Li Wei shook his head inwardly. He had originally wanted to go back to his seat and continue reading his "Men's Health" magazine, but then he caught a glimpse of the stranger Chen Shi had brought back staring at him.

Seeing Li Wei looking over, Shen Kang grinned and gave him a friendly smile.

But Li Wei saw it differently.

Perhaps because he felt guilty, Li Wei felt that the stranger's smile was mocking, as if he saw the dirty thought in his heart that he was "hoping that his roommate would make a mistake".

This made Li Wei stop in his tracks, pause for a moment, and then add, "This keyboard feels better than my Dell."

This seems to prove that he is pregnant.

After saying that, Li Wei returned to his desk and sat down to read "Men's Health" magazine.

Zhao Lei turned his head and glanced at Li Wei.

Li Wei's Dell P was bought for him by his family when he started college. It cost over nine thousand yuan and was said to be the top-of-the-line Dell ultrabook at the time. He said that the keyboard of the T60 was better than his, and this evaluation carried as much weight as Zhao Lei's own "no frame drops".

"BM keyboards have always been like this," Chen Shi said, standing to the side. "Many people buy Thnkpa specifically for the keyboard."

Zhao Lei continued playing World of Warcraft to help Chen Shi test the machine.

After reading "Men's Health" for a while, Li Wei became absent-minded, glancing at Zhao Lei and Chen Shi from time to time, thinking to himself, "This is a computer crash, a computer crash..."

Perhaps this used laptop is just a facade, looking new but actually riddled with internal problems?

But reality disappointed Li Wei.

Chen Shi's computer, from the moment it arrived in the dormitory until now, has never had a moment that made him think, "It really is second-hand": no crashes, no strange noises, no screen flickering, no keyboard key jamming. Everything is normal, so normal that one would forget it's second-hand.

Or rather, it allows the concept of "second-hand" to return to its essence: second-hand originally meant something that someone had used, sold, and then bought by someone else.

This does not mean that they are "easily broken" or "have many problems." It is only because of the current situation in the second-hand market that people automatically label second-hand items as "easily broken" or "have many problems."

Now, this second-hand laptop on Huanhuan.com seems to be just the purest second-hand product – it's old but has no other problems.

Of course, only time will tell how it really turns out. Li Wei thought to himself.

Just then, the dormitory door opened.

Wang Hongyu walked in carrying a water bottle and two books of past exam papers for the postgraduate entrance examination in English. When he saw a stranger in the dormitory, he paused for a moment.

"And who is this?" Wang Hongyu asked Chen Shi.

"We met this person on the street; they're here to look at computers."

Wang Hongyu nodded without asking any further questions.

He placed his water glass on his desk and his gaze fell on the T60 computer that was running Warcraft.

He came back in the evening and that's how he learned that Chen Shi had bought a second-hand laptop.

Then Wang Hongyu walked over and stood behind Zhao Lei, watching Zhao Lei play Warcraft III. His gaze would occasionally fall on various parts of the laptop, while he listened to Zhao Lei's shouts and Chen Shi's occasional remarks.

"Wow, this computer is amazing, Chen Shi. Buying it for just over two thousand is a much better deal than that Lenovo you were thinking of buying before!"

"That's certainly the case at the moment, but the key is to see how things go from here on out."

"I think it'll be fine. CPUs and memory are not easy to break. If they're fine now, they'll probably be fine in the future too. Maybe this CPU can even last you a lifetime, hahaha..."

After talking for a while, Zhao Lei, while directing the Sword Saint to kill monsters, frowned and wondered, "Wait, Chen Shi, how come this computer only costs a little over two thousand? Two years ago it was over ten thousand! I thought that such a drastic price drop must mean there was something wrong with it, but hey, now that I look at it, there's not a single problem! I'm really puzzled."

Chen Shi couldn't understand this either and didn't know how to answer.

Shen Kang, who had been silent all along, spoke up at this moment: "I do know a little about it. There are mainly three reasons."

"The first one is Moore's Law."

Zhao Lei was taken aback, and subconsciously interjected, "What is Moore's Law?"

Shen Kang explained: "Moore's Law means that, with a constant price, the number of transistors that can be placed on a chip doubles every 18 to 24 months, and the performance doubles. Economically, this means that the price of a computer with the same performance will be halved every 18 to 24 months."

"According to Moore's Law, this computer from two years ago, if converted to a new machine with the same performance, would cost around six or seven thousand now."

Shen Kang simply explained without saying anything more.

In fact, Moore's Law is correct, but the key point is that this era is also the golden age of Moore's Law.

In another ten years or so, Moore's Law will come to an end. Everyone will be able to incrementally improve performance, and it will no longer be possible to double the performance every two years like it is now. Naturally, the performance will not decrease as drastically as it is now.

Currently, the price of such a "high-performance" laptop may plummet within two years, but more than a decade later, the price of a high-performance laptop, even two or three years after its release, may still be 70% or even 80% of its original price when it was first launched.

However, Chen Shi and his roommates naturally didn't know this.

After hearing Shen Kang's words, they suddenly realized that there was such a thing as Moore's Law. They decided to remember it; they could use it as a topic of conversation when chatting with others in the future.

Shen Kang then went on to explain the second reason.

"The second reason is the financial crisis, which impacted the high-end market. Many of these high-end laptops were actually purchased by large companies for their middle and senior management. Now that the financial crisis has hit, many people are struggling and may be thinking of selling their laptops to recoup some of their losses. As demand from the supply side increases, websites have more bargaining power with them and can acquire them at lower prices."

Shen Kang stopped there and didn't continue.

There are actually several other reasons. For example, the current secondhand market is still very rudimentary and immature. In a mature, transparent, and highly competitive secondhand market, secondhand platforms would have to lower their profits to maintain competitiveness. However, in a rudimentary and less competitive market, secondhand platforms can offer relatively lower buyback prices and higher profits. That's why there's a saying that "chaos is opportunity."

However, these two reasons were enough for Zhao Lei and the others to suddenly realize the truth.

Zhao Lei even joked, "If that's the case, according to Moore's Law, in ten years, won't my desktop computer only cost five or six hundred? Haha."

Shen Kang thought to himself, five or six hundred? He's dreaming. A decade or two from now, a couple hundred yuan will be enough to scavenge for a desktop computer, perfectly capable of handling everyday tasks and games like Lair. That kind of scenario is unimaginable to people today.

Li Wei, who was looking at "Men's Health" magazine, looked up again and glanced at Shen Kang, thinking to himself, "Wow, another one who knows a lot but has no money."

Then I continued to bury myself in reading magazines.

At that moment, Wang Hongyu, who had been standing silently behind Zhao Lei, suddenly spoke up and asked a question.

"Can this website offer installment payments?"

The dormitory was quiet for a moment.

Zhao Lei looked up from the T60 screen, Li Wei put down the magazine "Men's Style" again, and even Shen Kang, who had been standing quietly to the side, turned his head slightly.

Wang Hongyu was the only person in the dormitory without a computer, and also the one from the poorest family.

He never mentioned buying a computer, and he borrowed Zhao Lei's computer far less often than Chen Shi. He was the kind of person who would suppress all his desires, hiding them completely from others. His question, "Can I pay in installments?", indicated that he had already silently calculated it many times in his mind.

"It doesn't seem like that will work," Chen Shi said, "but their prices are quite low, and they all come with warranties. You can go and take a look once you've saved up two thousand."

Wang Hongyu nodded and said nothing more.

He stopped standing behind Zhao Lei and returned to his seat to prepare to study, only to be stunned—where the hell is my chair?

Before he could even speak, Shen Kang immediately pulled over a chair with a grin. "Sorry, you weren't back just now, so I sat here for a while."

"fine."

Wang Hongyu smiled, picked up a chair, sat down, opened the past exam papers for postgraduate English, picked up a pen, and drew a line on the first reading comprehension question. Then his hand stopped, and his gaze lingered on a blank space at the top of the paper for a long while, not on the question itself.

Shen Kang had already returned to stand next to Zhao Lei, silently observing everything. He found it quite interesting and felt that coming here was the right decision.

Zhao Lei showed him a gamer who understands performance, proving in the simplest and most direct way that the T60's dedicated graphics card was not just a gimmick.

This verification process has no technical barriers whatsoever—installing the game, turning on all the effects, and playing team battles are things any student can do and understand.

Shen Kang made a mental note: Huanhuan.com's product details page could add a "Real-world test frame rate for common games" section. It wouldn't require any professional benchmarking software; it could just test games that students actually play, such as Warcraft, KartRider, and Fantasy Westward Journey.

Then, Shen Kang glanced at Li Wei over there.

Li Wei, on the other hand, showed him a person who understands quality, using the keyboard and the shell, the two most intuitive tactile elements, to verify thnkpa's workmanship and materials.

This verification doesn't require knowledge of configuration or graphics cards; all you need is your hands.

Shen Kang mentally added another note: in the product descriptions on Huanhuan.com, selling points such as "magnesium alloy casing" and "full-size keyboard" should be highlighted in a prominent position, because for students who don't understand computer configurations, these are the most direct criteria for judging whether a computer is "worth it".

Then, Shen Kang glanced at Wang Hongyu, who was studying over there.

Wang Hongyu showed him Huanhuan.com's true target users: not Zhao Lei, who already had a computer and was just there for the fun, nor Li Wei, who was rich and simply appreciated quality. Instead, they were genuinely poor, extremely cautious, and people who would weigh every penny carefully.

The fact that Wang Hongyu was able to ask "Can I pay in installments?" shows that the T60 has gone from being something he "wouldn't even dare to dream of" to something he "might give it a try." This psychological hurdle he overcame is more valuable than ten Zhao Leis saying "It won't drop frames."

Unfortunately, these days, it's very risky for websites to offer installment plans in terms of compliance, so this customer's needs cannot be met for the time being.

Finally, Shen Kang glanced at Chen Shi.

Chen Shi showed Shen Kang the ideal customer: he understood configuration, could inspect the machine, comprehended the design logic of the seal code, and even took the initiative to help Huanhuan.com explain the process to potential users.

"It's no trouble at all, just a quick check of the numbers, it'll take at most ten seconds"—these words from Chen Shi were more convincing than if Huanhuanwang had said them a hundred times.

With the after-sales investigation completed, Shen Kang had a clear understanding of the situation.

"Thanks, Senior Chen," he said. "I feel much better after reading this. I'll place an order when I get back."

"Buy the same model?" Chen Shi asked.

Shen Kang said, "It depends. I'd like to see that one that costs over three thousand. If it's like this at two thousand, then the one at three thousand must be taking off like crazy!"

Zhao Lei and Chen Shi both laughed heartily.

Shen Kang smiled and then took the initiative to exchange phone numbers with Chen Shi.

Chen Shi also had a good impression of this "like-minded person," so they naturally exchanged items.

After exchanging phone numbers, Shen Kang bent down and took out several boxes of electric toothbrushes from the cardboard box, handing them out to everyone: "Electric toothbrush, one for each person. This is a new product from my company, still in the testing phase, so it's free. Just follow the instructions in the box and write down your experience after using it for a few days. If you don't write it, we'll take it back. If you do write it, the electric toothbrush is yours for free."

Chen Shi and the others were somewhat surprised.

"This, this, is it for us? That's not a good idea..." Chen Shi instinctively wanted to refuse.

Although he didn't know how much the thing cost, the toothbrush was electric and the packaging looked quite nice, so it must be worth some money.

I feel a little bad about taking it for free.

"Hey, I was going to give them away anyway, so it doesn't matter who I give them to. I was just worried about not finding anyone to give them to, so you guys are helping me out. Anyway, if I didn't give them to you, I would have given them to someone else..."

After Shen Kang's explanation, everyone finally accepted it—that's right, according to Shen Kang, even if he didn't give it to them, he would still give it to someone else, so they might as well take it.