Chapter 47: 046

Speaking of Li Lifen, she is also a legend within the Jinghai Dongfang Bank system.

I heard she was originally just a temporary worker in the office of the municipal branch, attended a correspondence secondary school, and was specifically responsible for typing in the typing and copying room.

Her typing speed was both fast and accurate; it is said that she would take a book, have someone read it aloud, and type it out flawlessly as soon as the reading finished.

She won first prize in a typing competition held by the provincial branch, bringing honor to the municipal branch. Later, she was converted to a permanent employee, and it is heard she is about to be promoted to deputy director of the office immediately.

Since the Jinghai region Dongfang Bank system held its skills competition, she has been first in every typing contest, almost unshakable, winning the competition bonus every year; naturally, this aroused resentment among employees of other branches, but none succeeded in challenging her.

Now hearing Zhang Rong suddenly say this, Fang Qingye immediately became interested: "What method do you have?"

Zhang Rong did not answer directly, but asked instead: "Where is Sister Liu?"

"She is over at the counterfeit bill identification group; shall I call her over?" Fang Qingye said.

"Mm."

Fang Qingye took out his mobile phone and called Liu Meili; not a few minutes later, he saw Liu Meili coming down from the upper floor.

"Speak," Fang Qingye said.

"Ordinary people use Wubi for typing competitions; I am different, I use Sogou Pinyin," Zhang Rong said.

Liu Meili was somewhat surprised upon hearing this. "Ah? I have only heard of Intelligent ABC, Intelligent Double Pinyin, and Microsoft Pinyin Input Method; I have never heard of Sogou?"

"Sogou is also a Pinyin input method; its greatest advantage is its powerful association function, allowing one to create new words and even sentences oneself, but this input method has appeared for less than two years and has not yet become widespread," Fang Qingye explained.

"What Fang Qingye says is correct, Sister Liu; I can demonstrate it for you." Saying this, Zhang Rong looked at Fang Qingye again:

"Did you download the Sogou input method on your computer?"

Fang Qingye nodded.

Although he usually used Wubi, who doesn't know Sogou?

"Then let me use it."

Fang Qingye did not refuse; he entered the General Office, turned on his computer, and Zhang Rong sat before the computer, opened an empty Word document, and typed out a line of text.

"See? I used the Sogou association function; next time typing this line of text will be very fast." After speaking, Zhang Rong typed only a few letters, and this line of text appeared on the screen.

"This is faster than Wubi!" Liu Meili immediately noticed.

"Yes, this is the powerful function of Sogou's association for creating words and sentences," Zhang Rong explained:

"Our bank's typing competitions generally select some bank reports; inside, many words and sentences are technical terms that ordinary Pinyin methods cannot associate for input, such as: Lian San Lei Liu, interest first then principal, remittance return, reversal, etc., but if we create these words in advance through Sogou and type them a few times, they will appear at the front of the phrase list... for example, like this."

Zhang Rong created the phrase "Lian San Lei Liu"; after repeatedly typing the Pinyin a few times, this word appeared at the very front.

"See! This is the power of the Sogou input method! If we add our usual practice of typing speed... Li Lifen may be skilled, but after all, her age has passed 40; I don't believe we can't beat her!"

"Mm, your method is indeed good, but I have a question," Liu Meili said.

"What question?"

"You use this Sogou input method on Xiao Fang's computer; if you switch to another computer, will these words you created still be there? You can't possibly carry Xiao Fang's computer to the city for the competition."

"As long as you register a Sogou account, every time you log in, no matter on which computer, these new words you created will be there," Zhang Rong explained with a smile.

Liu Meili was somewhat unconvinced; she glanced at Fang Qingye, and seeing Fang Qingye nod, she believed it.

"Zhang Rong, with you as this 'secret weapon,' then our unit might truly win the typing group championship this time!" Liu Meili said with a smile.

A trace of pride appeared on Zhang Rong's face, but it quickly vanished; he said again: "Sister Liu, I don't know if the city will allow using one's own familiar input method for the competition."

"I estimate there will be no problem... but just to be safe, I will call and ask the municipal branch tomorrow," Liu Meili said.

"Sister Liu, you had better ask one more question: besides one's own familiar input method, will they allow bringing one's own keyboard?"

"What's the point of bringing a keyboard?" Liu Meili was confused.

"One gets used to one's own keyboard, which is beneficial for improving typing speed," Fang Qingye explained from the side, and added: "Zhang Rong, your request probably won't work; every participant bringing a keyboard inside? Everyone using their own? The branch won't agree."

"Exactly; forty people participating in the typing competition, each carrying a keyboard? What would that look like?" Liu Meili agreed.

"Hehe... Sister Liu, actually I also know bringing a keyboard won't work; this is just a smokescreen," Zhang Rong laughed: "I heard the few people in the municipal branch labor union are relatively old and only know the barest surface of computers; I did this just so they wouldn't know or wouldn't care about the existence of the Sogou input method."

"Hehe... Zhang Rong, you are smart enough," Liu Meili laughed after hearing this.

Fang Qingye also sighed inwardly; this fellow has too many tricks up his sleeve.

The next morning, Liu Meili called specifically to ask the competition organizers; the other party quickly gave a reply: "The municipal branch doesn't manage input methods; use whatever you like. But the keyboards must be provided uniformly by the city; otherwise, if some branches propose using their own computers, would they have to carry them to the city too?!"

Hehe...

Just waiting for you to say that.

Liu Meili and Zhang Rong were both very satisfied.

Regarding using Zhang Rong as a "secret weapon," Fang Qingye had no different opinions.

He just vaguely felt that the matter was not so simple.

The purpose of this typing competition was to improve the hands-on ability and comprehensive quality of bank employees, yet Zhang Rong adopted a method of taking advantage of loopholes.

Of course, he wouldn't speak rashly; since the higher-ups didn't forbid it, it conformed to the competition rules.

The competition time was set for the last Sunday of July.

Since the various business outlets under Dongfang Bank operate on a rotating duty schedule on Saturdays and Sundays, handling only private business while suspending corporate business, the workload is relatively reduced, so general collective activities are usually held on these two days.

On July 26, the annual Jinghai City Dongfang Bank system skills competition opened at the branch building; participating team members representing the branch headquarters and seven sub-branches gathered here to compete in four events.

The Nanxin Branch team members arrived in the city the night before last and checked into a hotel not far from the branch building.

Branch President Xia He personally led the team; Vice President Su Ming, along with the directors of the General Office, Wu Shengli and Liu Meili, all participated.

Fang Qingye did not go.

There were only fifteen official team members participating this time; sending one director and one business backbone from the General Office for logistics support was already sufficient; Fang Qingye felt there was no need for him to go again, which would also save the unit a sum of travel expenses, plus there were matters at home.

These two reasons were both very strong, and Wu Shengli approved immediately.

Actually, what he wanted in his heart was to rest on the weekend—we work seriously during work hours, but don't occupy my rest time; I still want to go fishing on Sunday.

At nine o'clock the next morning, all participants gathered in the large conference room on the ninth floor of the branch building; Branch President Zhang of the municipal branch, representing the branch leadership team, delivered a passionate speech, congratulating the participants on competing with style and demonstrating their level, and so on...

After the leaders finished speaking, they all left the venue, including the presidents of each sub-branch; those remaining were the participating team members and service personnel.

The competition officially began.