Buying a Symbian sucker

The night of freshman enrollment was filled with people all over campus, indulging in the novelty of their new environment.

Jiang Qin retraced his steps back to the men's dormitory, pondering a question: what business would be most profitable to start in a school setting?

Internet cafes, supermarkets, milk tea shops.

These were the go-to options for most campus entrepreneurs, due to their low initial investment, stable and considerable profits, and ease of management.

However, their shortcomings were also obvious: a lack of development prospects and a low ceiling.

Jiang Qin strolled along, eventually stopping in front of the school supermarket, his gaze drawn to a poster plastered on the entrance.

"University Student Forum, the professional forum used by all university students."

Jiang Qin walked over, peeled the entire poster off the wall, and examined it for a long time, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Beep beep—

Just then, a notification sounded. Jiang Qin pulled out his phone and saw a pixelated penguin icon bouncing in the signal bar.

"Godfather, I have a question for you. How do you get someone's contact information?"

"Got a target already on your first day? Not bad. Just ask boldly, it's not like you'll get fined for being rejected."

"Yeah, but is there a way to get their contact info without having to ask?"

Jiang Qin's lips twitched as he read Guo Zihang's question, thinking that this brother was definitely a lost cause. Was his mouth bought on credit, that he was so reluctant to use it?

But for the sake of being called godfather, Jiang Qin restrained himself and decided to first understand the situation.

"Is it a senior or a freshman? If it's a senior, don't even bother. They've seen it all, and they'll see through your little tricks in an instant. If it's a freshman, you can pretend to borrow their phone and secretly call yourself."

"Then... what if it's a little auntie who sells fruit at the school gate?"

"????????"

"That auntie has a baby voice, and my heart races whenever I hear her speak."

Jiang Qin's mind blanked for a moment, and he suddenly felt a sense of clarity.

It seemed like Guo Zihang had never experienced the stirrings of love before. He hadn't shown much interest in any girls in high school, not even sparing Chu Siqi a second glance. Jiang Qin had thought his adolescence was just late, but it turned out this dog was into mature women! He didn't dare to make a sound in high school because he was watched so closely, but now that he was in college, this dog was starting to let loose, huh? But a young widow auntie with a baby voice was indeed quite appealing.

Jiang Qin casually sent a "get lost" message and headed back to the dormitory.

As he entered the dormitory building, he heard a series of thumping footsteps from upstairs. Six or seven college students rushed down from the second floor, creating a chaotic scene.

Jiang Qin watched as he walked upstairs, noticing Cao Guangyu, Zhou Chao, and Ren Ziqiang also joining in the excitement at the entrance.

"What's going on?"

Zhou Chao lowered his voice. "The freshmen and upperclassmen from the Foreign Trade College are fighting. I heard it's because a guy named Li Dazhuang was being disrespectful, provoking the upperclassmen and calling them ugly."

Jiang Qin's eyebrows shot up when he heard this. "There's really a Li Dazhuang in the Foreign Trade College?"

"What's wrong? Is he a friend of yours?"

"Uh, never mind. What's the situation now?"

Ren Ziqiang next to him instantly became animated. "Do you know why this guy is called Dazhuang? It's because he really lives up to his name. His arms are thicker than my thighs. Those upperclassmen really ran into bad luck. They went in all high and mighty, but they crawled out looking miserable."

"They're all college students, and they're still fighting. So childish, no substance at all." Cao Guangyu said with a disdainful look, pulling a full-screen phone from his pocket and tapping it a few times.

Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang's attention was immediately drawn to it. "Damn, Lao Cao, what phone is that? The screen is so big?"

"Nokia 5230, the new model. It hasn't been released in China yet. My dad got it through internal channels. It's about three thousand yuan. It's alright, but the feel isn't as good as my Blackberry. The response speed is a bit slow. It's okay as a backup phone." Cao Guangyu spoke eloquently, as if he had tried every major phone brand.

"More than three thousand yuan? That's almost as much as tuition. Damn, can we take a look?"

Cao Guangyu nonchalantly handed the phone to Ren Ziqiang, as if he didn't care at all, but he couldn't help but whisper, "Be careful, don't drop it."

Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao treated it like a treasure, turning it over and over, and almost broke the stylus on the back. Cao Guangyu's heart ached as he watched, but he was too embarrassed to say anything, so he quickly shifted his gaze to Jiang Qin.

Jiang Qin didn't react to Cao Guangyu's new phone at all, still focusing intently on the situation at the Foreign Trade College.

Cao Guangyu felt a little uncomfortable, feeling like he hadn't shown off properly.

"Lao Jiang, don't you want to take a look? This phone only has eight physical buttons. Have you heard of the Symbian system? It's a smartphone. I remember you're using a Nokia too, right? The 7610 from 2005? That old machine is nothing compared to the 5230."

Jiang Qin glanced back at him, thinking to himself, It's already 2008, who would buy a Symbian phone unless they were asking for trouble? "Not interested. The only 'smart' phone I've ever used had three physical buttons."

"Only three physical buttons? You're just bragging!"

Jiang Qin ignored him, pushed open the dormitory door, and took out the poster he had torn off earlier from his pocket. He flattened it on the desk, then pulled out a Lenovo workstation—a ThinkPad W500—from under the desk.

This was a workstation laptop released in 2008, with a dual-core CPU, 4GB of memory, and a price of 12,600 yuan.

Jiang Qin had bought it after receiving the demolition compensation. After all, he would inevitably need to go online after starting his business, and he couldn't keep running to internet cafes.

Seeing this, Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao instantly returned their phones to Cao Guangyu and crowded around Jiang Qin.

What eight physical buttons, what Symbian smart phones, none of that was appealing anymore.

"Damn, a laptop?"

"Old Jiang, can you play CF on this?"

Jiang Qin plugged in the mouse and pressed the power button. "Are you talking about CrossFire? I don't know, I haven't tried it."

Zhou Chao rubbed his hands with envy. "Buying a laptop and not playing games is a waste of resources."

"This is a workstation, not a gaming laptop. It probably can't run games."

Ren Ziqiang couldn't help but lean forward. "Then can we watch a movie? Have you seen Chinese Paladin? Hu Ge stars in it. I missed the ending!"

Jiang Qin took out a network card reader and inserted his phone card. "You know about mobile data packages, right? 5 yuan for 30MB. Guess how much data it takes to watch one episode of a TV series?"

"Uh, I haven't really looked into that."

"At least 500MB, I'd say. Converted, watching one episode of a TV series costs about 100 yuan in data."

Speaking of this, Jiang Qin also felt a bit screwed.

Although the penetration rate of laptops in 2008 was not high, at least one or two could be found in a dormitory.

However, Lin University had a stupid rule that, in order to prevent freshmen from being distracted by entertainment, all freshmen except those in the computer science department were not allowed to connect to the internet in their dormitories.

He could only go online by inserting his phone card, and he had to install a data monitoring application. The retro flavor instantly hit him in the face.

"If you can't play games or watch movies, what's the point of having it?"

Cao Guangyu was slightly sour and planned to call his dad to get a computer too. It had to be a high-configuration desktop, so Jiang Qin couldn't outshine him! Seeking follow-up reads, seeking follow-up reads, seeking follow-up reads.