Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

By the second week of school, Lin Ying had a complete grasp of what she was about to face.

Not only was her class schedule full, but several professors in the department had already privately approved her for an early application for an experimental project. When Deputy Director Gu talked to her, he said, "Your communication theory can't just be talked about; you need to come up with a practical derivation plan, the more detailed the better. The department needs to report it to higher authorities."

Lin Ying readily agreed at the time, but only after returning to her dormitory did she realize that she had dug a hole for herself.

There was so much to write about in the proposal! Base station layout, frequency reuse model, signal transmission loss calculation—she had already filled almost half a notebook just with drafts. She sat at her desk, her wrist aching from writing, and when she looked up at her watch, it was only 8 p.m. She felt like she had been writing for a lifetime.

"This won't do." She stared at her draft paper, which was covered with crooked handwriting and arrows for corrections, and thought that if she continued like this, her hand would be ruined before she could even submit the proposal.

The next day was Saturday, and Lin Ying went to the largest foreign trade mall in Beijing early in the morning; this place specializes in imported goods, and it is filled with all kinds of electrical appliances, and the prices on the price tags are painful to look at.

She stood in front of the computer counter, gestured to the salesperson for a while, and finally pointed to a silver-gray machine: "This is it."

The salesperson pulled out a price list: "Apple PowerBook 170, this is a brand new model released this year, four thousand six hundred US dollars, foreign currency accepted, are you sure?"

"Confirmed." Lin Ying pulled out the bank draft and said generously, "And add one more portable inkjet printer."

The salesperson had never seen such a quick sale before: "You want a printer too? That's six hundred dollars."

"I want them both."

After paying, Lin Ying carried the two suitcases out of the mall and took a taxi back to school.

Downstairs in the dormitory, Sun Miaoshu happened to be returning from outside. Seeing her carrying two large cardboard boxes, she came over to help: "What are these? They're so heavy!"

"computer."

"A computer?!" Sun Miaoshu exclaimed in surprise. "You mean that kind of computer...the kind that can type and do math problems?"

"Yes, it can also be printed."

The two of them worked together to carry the box up to the fifth floor, making quite a commotion. By the time Lin Ying opened the box, a group of people had already gathered at the door. Liu Yang, Chen Jian, and several boys from the next class were all crowding at the door, peeking in.

"This is a computer?" Liu Yang looked at the laptop, which seemed both familiar and unfamiliar. "I've only seen this thing on TV before. It's so small!"

"This is a laptop, you can take it with you." Lin Ying placed the machine on the table and plugged it in.

Chen Jian asked directly, "Lin Ying, how much does this one cost?"

"Four thousand six hundred US dollars."

"How much?" Chen Jian repeated, as if he had misheard.

"Four thousand six hundred US dollars, printer six hundred US dollars, five thousand two hundred in total." Lin Ying turned on the machine, and the screen lit up.

Sun Miaoshu chimed in, "This computer is worth five years' worth of our family's income!"

"That's more than that! That's 24 RMB!" a boy next to me whispered.

Lin Ying focused on debugging the machine. When the cursor appeared on the screen, she naturally tapped a few keys on the keyboard with both hands.

Liu Yang realized what was happening: "Wait, you know how to use it?"

"I've used it." Lin Ying: "When I was in primary school in Hong Kong, the school had computer classes."

"Elementary school?" Zhao Lei felt out of touch with the times. "You teach computers in elementary school?"

"Yes, St. Paul's College started offering computer courses in 1981; back then they used Apple IIs with green screens that could only display characters and simple graphics."

Liu Yang did some calculations: "1981... I had only just seen a television that year."

Chen Jian smiled wryly: "Our town only got electricity in 1981."

Sun Miaoshu asked, "And what happened after that? Did you continue using it at school?"

"I bought a desktop computer when I was in junior high school," Lin Ying said, testing a piece of text she typed. "I used it for writing scripts back then. Writing a script by hand would take two or three days, but typing and editing on a computer could be done in a day. The efficiency difference was huge."

"He bought his own computer while still in junior high?" Zhao Lei was completely dumbfounded.

Lin Ying didn't continue the topic; this disparity wasn't anyone's fault, it was just a matter of time and place; she changed the subject: "If you want to try, you can type a few words, it's not that expensive."

Lin Ying plugged in the printer, inserted the cables, and printed a test page. The machine ran and slowly ejected the white paper, which had a line of neat words printed on it.

"Wow."

Chen Jian looked at the printed paper: "This...this is so clear, much clearer than our mimeographed lecture notes."

"It's nothing." Lin Ying pulled out the paper and casually put it aside. "From now on, I'll use this to type all my proposals, so I don't have to bother with handwriting."

Sun Miaoshu leaned closer curiously: "What are you going to write in your proposal?"

"It's still under wraps." Lin Ying sat back in her chair, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "The department wants me to submit a first draft by next week."

The onlookers wisely dispersed and returned to their rooms, all still muttering about their computers as they left.

Lin Ying locked the door, and the room became quiet. She sat at the table and reorganized her handwritten drafts, line by line, comparing them with the previous ones. She typed the base station site selection principles, frequency reuse block division, and signal attenuation estimation formulas into the document.

Compared to handwriting, it was more than twice as fast; she rubbed her sore wrists and looked at the plan gradually taking shape on the screen. The irritability that had accumulated in her heart due to the heavy workload slowly dissipated.

------

A week later, Lin Ying printed out the first draft, which consisted of thirty-three A4 pages with charts and graphs.

She packed the materials into a plastic folder and took them to the Industrial Automation Department office on Tuesday afternoon when she had no classes. Professor He was making tea and waved to her when he saw her come in.

"Finished writing?"

"First draft, there are still many details to be added." Lin Ying placed the folder on the table.

Professor He opened the first page, read a few lines, and said nothing; he continued reading until the third page...

"Go back to class first." Professor He closed the folder. "I'll send this upstairs first."

Lin Ying nodded: "Okay."

She left the office and went back to the teaching building for her afternoon signal processing class. The teacher was lecturing on the sampling theorem on the podium, and she sat by the window, taking notes as usual and being called on to answer questions as usual. The days were no different from the previous two weeks.

Unbeknownst to her, the 33-page first draft was transferred from Professor He to the department head within ten minutes of her leaving the office.

After reviewing the document, the department head immediately contacted Lao Zhao from the Communications Research Group, who is a PhD student in the Department of Communications Engineering at the University of Posts and Telecommunications.

After reviewing the urgently delivered materials, Old Zhao's first words were: "Old Gu, did you snatch this person?"

Deputy Director Gu replied, "What do you mean by 'stealing'? They applied to our school's automation program themselves."

"It's a mistake!" Old Zhao said regretfully. "This whole thing is pure telecommunications engineering! Cellular networking, frequency reuse, digital encoding and decoding—it's all our area of ​​expertise! What's she doing in your Automation Department? Is she here to learn how to control an assembly line?"