How Much Do You Think This Color TV Costs?

The next morning,

The early morning sunlight warmly spilled across the streets.

The cries of street vendors, the clattering of rickshaws, the roar of machinery from small workshops—sounds high and low interwove, breaking the morning calm and spreading throughout the streets.

Fang Bai woke to the noise ringing in his ears.

After washing up, he went downstairs and saw the driver already awake, sitting in a chair and smoking.

"Morning, Master Zhang. How did you sleep last night?"

"Not bad. I'm used to it. Just some mosquitoes, but luckily I brought mosquito coils."

"Have you had breakfast? If not, let's eat together."

"I wake up early. I already ate."

As Fang Bai chatted with him, he also checked on the truck. After a whole night, the goods were still safe and sound.

These days, most families were used to keeping money at home, and quite a few had been visited by thieves.

It wasn't like the future, where breaking into someone's house left you wondering what there was even worth stealing, with cameras everywhere.

After breakfast, Fang Bai went looking for movers.

His rented place was not far from the dock, where many laborers waited around for work.

Fang Bai rode there and saw a large crowd squatting around waiting. Some even had signs hanging from their bodies listing their skills and years of experience. The moment Fang Bai called out that he needed movers, they immediately swarmed over and surrounded him. In his hurry, Fang Bai picked two young, strong-looking men and offered them three yuan each.

Fang Bai returned to the rented house. He was no longer in a rush, so he let the movers work slowly while he sat in a chair reading, occasionally glancing over at them unloading the goods.

By eleven in the morning, the two movers had finished unloading. They took their pay and left, saying he could find them again if he had more work.

Watching the two movers leave, Fang Bai saw the faint exhaustion in their steps and suddenly felt a trace of bitterness. He silently sighed. People at the bottom were just like his parents—honest and hardworking their whole lives, merely trying not to go hungry.

Once the goods were unloaded, Fang Bai treated the driver to lunch. He said he might come to T City again later to find a truck, and that he would look for him then.

The driver said that was no problem and told Fang Bai to just mention his name.

After lunch, the driver drove away, and Fang Bai returned to the rented house.

"If I need people to do repairs and someone to watch the goods, I can't manage without my family helping."

He wondered what expression his parents would have when they found out what he had been doing.

That afternoon, Fang Bai bought several sets of repair tools and materials, including a soldering iron, flux, solder, insulated rubber shoes, and other protective gear against electric shocks, as well as capacitors, resistors, rectifier components, and more.

He picked out two 21-inch Panasonic color TVs with damaged circuit boards, intending to repair them and take one home for his family to use.

Before taking the machines apart, Fang Bai sprinkled water around to keep the room humid.

He could not buy an anti-static wrist strap, so he had to remove static electricity manually by connecting a grounding wire to the TV.

Using the Golden Finger to inspect them, he could tell which components were faulty with a touch.

Time to take it apart!

Wearing insulated gloves, Fang Bai removed the TV's back cover. He sorted the dismantled components, bolts, and nuts into separate piles, then used the Digital Test Pen to check the circuit board for static electricity. Only after making sure everything was fine did he start removing the circuit board.

Taking out the circuit board was rather troublesome, mainly because there were too many wires.

Yet in just a few minutes, Fang Bai had removed the circuit board and placed it on the wooden table beside him.

The soldering iron had to be powered on to melt the solder before the damaged electronic components could be removed.

For the circuit board in this TV, several capacitors had gone bad.

Replacing capacitors was not difficult. He just had to work carefully and avoid burning the nearby components.

Half an hour later, Fang Bai had replaced the damaged components. He selected a better-looking casing and matched it with the wiring to assemble one TV. After powering it on, the screen displayed normally.

There was no TV antenna at home, so he rode out to buy one.

After a bit more tinkering, the repaired TV finally displayed a clear picture, and the sound quality was excellent.

Fang Bai adjusted the screen brightness, contrast, and color saturation again. The picture became even clearer, the colors more vivid, and the image more lifelike.

Although it could not compare to the high-definition LCD TVs of the future, this picture quality was enough to beat many TVs of the same era. Even after the year 2000, it would not be considered poor.

He switched through the TV channels. There were only a few, back and forth. It might not mean much to him, but his family would definitely be satisfied.

He checked the time. It was already four in the afternoon.

Fang Bai continued repairing the other one. The second TV took only a little over an hour to fix, though cleaning it properly would take quite a while.

He planned to carry one home and give his family a huge surprise. At the same time, it would serve as a weapon to persuade his parents to start a business with him.

Fang Bai first tied two wooden boards to the rear rack of his bicycle with rope, padded them with a layer of soft cardboard, then placed the TV wrapped in a gunny sack on top and tied it down. After locking the shop, he rode home.

No matter how well the gunny sack covered it, passersby could probably guess that the thing strapped to the back of his bicycle was a TV. After all, household appliances were still extremely rare at the time!

It could be said that Fang Bai attracted a great deal of attention from passersby all the way home.

Night had fallen by the time Fang Bai returned to the village.

"Hauling this TV on a bicycle is exhausting."

There was a stretch of muddy road in front of his house that had been ruined by cattle and was difficult to travel. Fang Bai panted as he pushed his bicycle along, with a twenty-kilogram color TV still on it. Sweat covered his forehead.

Seeing the lights on at home, he shouted into the house when he was still more than ten meters away. "Dad, are you home? Come out and give me a hand."

His parents, who were preparing dinner in the main hall, were surprised to hear their son's voice.

It wasn't the weekend. Why had their son come home?

Thinking that, they walked outside and saw their son panting as he pushed his bicycle not far from the door. A large object was tied to the rack.

"Son, what is that? Why does it look like a TV?"

"Isn't today a weekday?"

Seeing the two elders walk over and question him one after the other, Fang Bai decided not to hide the fact that he was doing business while attending school.

If he hid it, he would not be able to financially support his family, which would go against his original goal of solving their difficulties. That was not what he wanted.

He would rather get pricked by his mother's needle once. There would always be a way to convince them.

"Dad, let's untie the color TV first."

"A color TV?! Is that for real?"

"What? This is a color TV? How much does it cost? Who did you help bring it back for?"

"Dad, let's carry it inside first. I'm exhausted. I need some water."

His parents helped untie the straps and carefully lifted it down, afraid that they might drop it and be unable to afford compensation.

When they opened the gunny sack, it really was a TV. They just did not know whether it was actually a color TV.

In fact, color TV screens had deeper colors, but Fang Bai's parents did not understand such things. Since their son said it was a color TV, it probably was.

After parking his bicycle, Fang Bai did not answer their questions. Ignoring his parents' confusion and shock, he went into the main hall first and poured himself a bowl of water.

Only after seeing his father carry the TV into the main hall did Fang Bai smile and ask, "Dad, Mom, how much do you think this color TV costs?"

"For such a large color TV, a new one would cost several thousand, wouldn't it? This one looks a little old, so I have no idea." Fang Bai's mother spoke as she and her husband circled around the TV admiring it, lightly touching it with their hands, both afraid of accidentally damaging it.

Seeing his parents look at the color TV as though it were treasure, Fang Bai asked, "If it sold for eight or nine hundred yuan, do you think anyone would buy it?"

"If it works, forget eight or nine hundred yuan—even more than a thousand would find buyers. But what if it breaks?"

"What if it came with a one- or two-month warranty? Or customers could return it within seven days if they found a quality issue?"

"That really would be cheap. I'd want one myself."

The more Fang Bai's mother looked at it, the more she liked it. She had seen other people's color TVs, but none had been this large. This was the first time she had ever been able to touch one herself.

If it really cost only eight or nine hundred yuan, she would want to borrow money to buy one. But then she thought about the money needed for her child's schooling and gave up on the idea.

Seeing the admiration in his parents' eyes, Fang Bai stopped teasing them and said with a grin, "This color TV belongs to our family. It cost less than a hundred yuan, and I repaired it myself. We have many more color TVs like this."

"What? It belongs to us?"

"You little brat, what exactly have you been hiding from us? Weren't you supposed to be at school? Just you wait!"

The two elders could not believe it at all. Fang Bai's mother froze for a moment, then instinctively turned and went back into the bedroom to get a needle.

Seeing her posture, Fang Bai was genuinely frightened. It was like Nanny Rong had come back to life. He immediately jumped up and ran out of the main hall, shouting at his mother, "Mom, can't you listen to me properly first? Stop grabbing a needle at every little thing. I'm an adult now!"

But his shout only made his mother search for a needle faster. Before long, she came out with one in hand.

Fuck!

Looking at the gleaming needlepoint, Fang Bai felt a little afraid.

He had mocked Younger Sister just a few days ago. If she were home now, she would definitely be gloating.

"Then tell us honestly. If you're not studying properly, what nonsense have you been up to?"

Liu Fengqing looked stern, but inwardly, she was quite pleased.

She would not really prick her child again, but she liked using the needle to threaten him.

No matter how old her child became, he would always be a child in her eyes.