Assistant duties

In the rented luxury car, Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wolders were fiddling with an ear-hook wireless headset in the back seat.

This is a small, self-developed research product that Henry gave them while they were waiting at Green Lantern.

This little device is based on the Bluetooth transmission standard, which was only released two years ago. Its earliest commercial applications will not be available until seven years later, when giants like Ericsson will have initial results.

Henry is just putting together something for his own use for now. Anyway, the two users aren't that sensitive to technology products, so they're unlikely to leak the technology.

The reason for developing this is that wireless transceivers of this era all need to be equipped with a signal repeater.

For personal use, they are too bulky. That's why relatively lightweight Bluetooth headphones were developed.

Henry also spent some time on the design, making the single-ear hook-style headphone look like a fashion accessory such as an earring, rather than a bare, mechanical lab piece.

After the two were hooked up, Henry, who was driving, took a moment to turn on the bone conduction Mike around his neck and said, "Mike test, Mike test, one, two, three. Can you hear me?"

Ms. Hepburn exclaimed, "I can really hear the sound!"

"Do you understand?"

Robert glanced at the woman beside him and nodded, saying, "Very clear."

Henry, with the Mike off, asked again, "So, does it block outside sounds? Won't people with headphones on be unable to hear what others are saying?"

"No, I can still hear everything," Audrey replied, then asked, "Henry, where did you find these headphones?"

Henry replied, "I have a friend who developed some gadgets that I'm using. 'I have a friend' is a very effective excuse."

"That way I can fulfill my duties as an assistant without having to listen to those old men talk at the banquet."

I'm happily going to eat. Anyway, I'm not the main character; you guys are.

"You silly child." Knowing how greedy her little assistant was, Ms. Hepburn was both annoyed and amused, so she said nothing more.

At first, Henry really didn't know what an assistant was supposed to do when attending a banquet. He wasn't the host of the banquet.

An assistant just needs to know when it starts and ends, and have a car to pick them up and drop them off, right?

In reality, at such social banquets, the assistant's tasks can be either very easy or very demanding.

Relaxed means ignoring everything else and focusing only on the areas Henry originally thought he was within.

The main task is to help the employer remember all the attendees' information, most importantly their names and appearances. This way, when the employer interacts with them, they can be as warm and friendly as old friends, instead of not recognizing them and needing others to introduce them.

What If...? a participant is a newcomer to the social scene and has just entered the social circle, then it is perfectly understandable for them to ask for an introduction.

However, most of the events Audrey Hepburn attended were fundraising dinners held in her name for United Nations Children's Fund.

In this situation, the woman either needs to act like a novice, asking everyone she meets for introductions, or she needs to be able to treat everyone as an old friend; the fundraising results will be vastly different.

Those who attend such banquets are mentally prepared to donate generously. However, there is usually a limit to the amount, and it is unlikely that someone will impulsively donate more than the limit.

However, as a fundraiser, Ms. Hepburn made people feel at home and was willing to donate the maximum amount they felt comfortable with, which was simply part of her job.

So, knowing who the invited guests are, being able to call them by name immediately, and even having some knowledge of their work and achievements are all within the scope of an assistant's duties.

At first, Henry didn't understand any of this. It was all done by Ms. Hepburn herself, who also taught him.

They had to get the guest list from the banquet organizers, and then check off the people Ms. Hepburn knew well, as well as those she didn't know at all.

For the former, they might have been old friends of Audrey Hepburn, or the two were so familiar with each other that no further investigation was needed.

However, for the latter, you first need to find the other party's publicly available photos and connect the name with the person. Then, investigate the other party's publicly available background information, such as the president of a certain company or the head of a certain organization.

What If...? necessary, you should also have some understanding of the other party's area of expertise.

In addition to researching these materials, Ms. Hepburn also needed to spend time memorizing and studying them so that she could perform with ease at banquets and treat everyone as if they were old friends.

For a 60-year-old to be memorizing the guest list for the next day's banquet in the middle of the night is like slapping Henry, the assistant, in the face for not being responsible enough.

So Henry took over the work, from investigation to memorization. Then, at the banquet, he followed behind Mrs. Hepburn, offering pointers as needed.

In fact, the banquet organizers will conduct investigations on most of the information and provide it to the participants who need it.

However, these kinds of banquets are not limited to invitees only. Who the invitee will bring, and who will show up uninvited, are all unpredictable. Therefore, it is necessary to extend outward from the network of relationships on the guest list.

In this era without internet access for searching, understanding someone isn't as simple as just opening a webpage and Googling it. Besides reading news articles and newspapers yourself, sometimes you even have to hire a private investigator.

Some large public relations firms have compiled and publicly available business information that is neither illegally obtained nor illegally disclosed. You can pay them to obtain it.

What If...? you need something more private, you'll have to spend a lot of money, and you might even have to hire a detective.

In short, Henry's role as assistant did indeed give Hepburn much more time to rest.

However, being an assistant to Ms. Hepburn was somewhat inconvenient. Because Western banquets do not have clear seating arrangements, most of the time, everyone is walking around.

Although Henry stood behind the lady in the usual attendant's position, he was occasionally pushed to her side, making others think he was her companion.

Upon seeing an unfamiliar face at the banquet, guests would inevitably inquire about his identity. After all, Henry was about the same age as the lady's second son.

It was only at this point that they mentioned he was an assistant, which was somewhat awkward for both parties. The main reason was that modern banquets were not like those of old-fashioned aristocratic banquets, where the clothing of guests and servants was quite distinctive and easily distinguishable.

And then Robert Wolders, the woman's certified life partner, joined them.

The lady was quite enthusiastic about bringing Robert to these social occasions, and Robert himself enjoyed it and relished the sense of participation. This was in stark contrast to Henry's attitude of wanting to hide away so no one could see him.

Henry, as the assistant, could no longer occupy the position next to the lady of the house, providing her with information on the guests. The three of them, inseparable, would make the banquet too cumbersome.

So he simply developed a set of one-way walkie-talkies, freeing up his own manpower. And as he himself said, it gave him more time to eat.