The Era of the Pager

Fang Bai quickly finished reading the letter. It was mostly about Qin Shuyu's amusing stories from school life, along with her concern about how his finger was healing. Every word in the letter revealed her longing for him.

"Tch, this silly girl."

Fang Bai found some letter paper and wrote back to Qin Shuyu. He wrote fairly quickly and finished in about half an hour.

The main content covered his recent school life and how his finger was recovering, and at the end, he wrote down his new mailing address.

Maybe it was because he had been through too much that he wasn't good at writing about romantic feelings, but Fang Bai still straightforwardly expressed his longing for her.

When two people hadn't seen each other for a long time, misunderstandings were the biggest worry, so Fang Bai wrote plainly—if he missed her, he said so, unlike Qin Shuyu's more subtle style.

At the same time, he asked for her specific dormitory address. Fang Bai had never been to Shencheng University of Finance and Economics in his past life, so when he went to visit Qin Shuyu later, he needed to know where to find her.

Qin Shuyu's dorm didn't have a landline installed, and there was no nearby phone she could use either, or she would have definitely told Fang Bai the number.

As for making money, it couldn't be explained clearly in a letter and would only make Qin Shuyu worry, so Fang Bai planned to talk about it in detail when they met.

By then, he would have already taken the monthly exams and could show her his grades to prove he hadn't fallen behind in his studies, so she wouldn't worry too much.

He also considered whether to install a landline in the rental house, but after thinking about how installation and wiring would cost several thousand yuan, and the lease would end next year, he dropped the idea.

If the house were his own, it might be worth it, but Fang Bai didn't want to spend money on buying a house for now. Self-built houses didn't come with property titles, making transactions quite risky.

There was no landline nearby either, or he could have written down someone else's number, and Qin Shuyu could call that number and have them fetch Fang Bai to answer.

Of course, answering the phone that way meant paying the owner, charged by the minute.

Fang Bai thought it over and felt that buying a pager would be more convenient, making it easier for Qin Shuyu or others to reach him.

Pagers had been around for a few years, but it was only at the beginning of this year that paging stations had sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain, booming the paging market.

Pagers weren't cheap either. Fang Bai had recently asked around—a Motorola pager cost over three thousand yuan, including the network access fee but not the service fee.

"A pager clipped to the belt, bragging wherever you go."

That saying wasn't an exaggeration. Owning a pager and hanging it on your belt was a symbol of being a successful person.

If a pager suddenly went "beep" in a crowd, everyone would cast envious glances at you.

Who was the coolest guy around? The one with a pager.

"Call me if you need me" became the most confident and show-off phrase.

Of course, owning a Big Brother phone meant you were at the Boss level, someone ordinary people could only look up to.

Fang Bai had no interest in clipping a pager to his belt, but since he didn't have a Big Brother, it would be best to buy a pager.

Yeah, he'd go take a look when he had time.

Ah, communication was such a hassle now. For the time being, he could only rely on letters to keep in touch.

Fang Bai was used to the instant communication of later generations, and now he could barely tolerate this inefficient way of communicating—it was inconvenient to find anyone.

If he wanted to call home from outside, he could only call the Village Chief, who would then broadcast over the loudspeaker for whoever it was to come to his house within a certain number of minutes to take the call.

Some small workshop owners had pagers, but he hadn't heard of anyone buying a Big Brother.

After finishing the letter, Fang Bai went downstairs, rode his bike, and headed out to mail it.

When he got to the Post Office, he found it was already closed for the day. There wasn't even a place to buy stamps, so he had to wait until tomorrow to send it.

Once he had the stamp on, he could just drop it into the mailbox outside the Post Office.

Fang Bai wasn't interested in stamp collecting. He'd heard that the Monkey stamp published in 1980 had already risen to over two hundred yuan per stamp. If it were just a few yuan each, he might pick up a few for fun.

For a businessman, money only made money when it circulated. If art collecting took years to turn a profit, it wouldn't help business and would just tie up operating capital.

Fang Bai rode back and saw his parents had bought rice, vegetables, cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and kitchen utensils like pots and pans. They said they'd cook dinner themselves from now on, and only eat out at noon when there were more people.

Fang Bai said, "Mom, if you don't mind the trouble, go ahead."

"What trouble is there? Cooking ourselves saves money and worry. You earn a lot, but every bit saved counts. Your dad said ordering a plate of stir-fried meat at a restaurant costs two yuan—I could buy over a pound of pork with that, enough for two meals for the whole family." Liu Fengqing grumbled as she and her father sorted through the things they'd just bought.

Fang Bai smiled, understanding his mother's thinking. Her monthly salary was only fifty yuan—a whole day's work wasn't enough to order one meat dish. She knew how hard it was to earn money.

His father had no real say at home and always listened to his mother. He didn't have much ability himself, and now that his son was capable, he listened to him too.

But Liu Fengqing thought differently. No matter how capable her son was, there were still things he had to listen to her about. She was just your typical housewife.

Fang Bai and his younger sister helped clean the vegetables, listening to his mother complain about the prices at the market and gripe that the butcher only gave her lean meat with no fat.

His father lit the fire to heat up the new pot with oil. He had originally wanted to bring pots and pans from the village, but the ones at home were old. Now that they had money, they could buy new ones. Besides, if they brought them over, there'd be no pots to cook with when they went back to the village, so his wife finally agreed to buy new ones.

The family of four chatted about everyday things, joy shining on every face.

In the evening, the family gathered for a happy dinner, laughing and talking.

The table had two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and a soup. Fang Bai's goal from a while back—to have meat on the table every day for his family—had finally been achieved.

After dinner, his younger sister didn't have to go back to school. It was Saturday tomorrow, and there were no classes, so she wanted to help the family sell TVs.

Fang Bai went back to his room to study.

The next day, At eight in the morning, they opened the shop and started working.

With an extra storefront, the space was larger, and ten people would come today to repair televisions. If there were any more, Fang Bai wouldn't be able to handle it.

He was quick at diagnosing problems, but explaining how to fix them took a lot of time.

At ten o'clock, Fang Bai rode his bike to the post office to mail a letter.

When he got back, he discussed the day's stall setup with his parents.

The day before yesterday, he had repaired 15 televisions in the afternoon, and yesterday, 30. With more repair staff in the morning, he estimated about 20 more today.

So, the number of televisions available for sale today would be around 65.

After the last sales frenzy, Fang Bai had hired two more salespeople and two more helpers. Adding his parents and his younger sister, the total on-site staff reached eleven.

With more people, he could ensure nothing went wrong on the ground. Spending a little extra was fine.

At the same time, he added another tricycle.

To prepare for today's sale, Fang Bai and his family had done a lot of work and increased their investment significantly.

Fang Bai still set the stall opening time for after lunch. In the morning, people on the road were in a hurry to run errands, so not many would be buying televisions, and he was too busy anyway.

In the morning, Fang Bai gave his father a note. If any teachers from Oubei No. 1 Middle School came to buy a television, those whose names were on the list could get a 10% discount. If they were teachers who had looked out for him, they could get a 20% discount.

"Dad, just say you know me. Don't reveal that this stall is ours or that we're father and son. If anyone asks, don't say this TV business has anything to do with me."

Fang Shi didn't quite understand. "Why hide it?"

"Dad, I need to keep a low profile. Otherwise, I won't have a moment's peace at school. If students and teachers all come to me asking for discounts, I'll be driven crazy."

"Haha, I see. Then I get it—keep a low profile and get rich, hehe." Fang Shi grinned foolishly.

Time flew by, and everyone had lunch a little after eleven.

After eating, they rested for a bit, and at twelve o'clock, they officially moved the televisions out to the stall.

Liu Fengqing saw this large-scale sales operation for the first time. She didn't understand much about it, so she just lent a hand wherever help was needed.

Fang Bai went to check on the stall, greeted the owner of the Small Restaurant, handed him a cigarette, and left.

He had already handed over the on-site sales work to his father. His mother was also there watching, along with eight other people.

In truth, Fang Bai hadn't counted his younger sister; she wasn't much help.

Li Meng, because of her good performance and ability to handle unexpected situations, had been promoted by Fang Bai to sales team leader, with a raise in pay.

The day before yesterday, quite a few customers hadn't been able to buy televisions and were disappointed, so they decided to come today to snatch one up.

Customers who had bought televisions took them home, and some friends, relatives, and neighbors, learning they had gotten them cheap, were envious and wanted one too.

Over the past two days, many customers had helped Fang Bai spread the word about the cheap televisions, bringing in plenty of potential buyers.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, a crowd of one to two hundred people had gathered around the stall. The sales scene was buzzing, even more popular than the day before yesterday.

Some customers who hadn't been able to buy last time just paid and grabbed a television.

Others who hadn't planned to buy got swept up by the crowd's momentum and made impulse purchases, as if buying one meant getting a bargain.

Liu Fengqing watched her husband busy counting and collecting money and quickly jumped in to help. This kind of money-counting work, she loved it. She muttered to herself, We're rich, we're rich, her eyebrows curved into a smile.