Chapter 28: The Great Misfortune of Buying a Symbian Phone

On the night after starting university the entire campus was filled with people relishing in the novelty of their new environment.

Jiang Qin returned to the male dormitory along the original path all the while pondering one question – what would be the most profitable way to get started making money at this school?

Internet cafes, supermarkets, milk tea shops.

These were likely the first choices of any on-campus entrepreneurs because the initial investment was low the profits were stable and considerable and they were hassle-free.

But the downside was also obvious – there were no development prospects and the ceiling was very low.

As Jiang Qin strolled along his gaze was suddenly drawn to a poster pasted on the door of the campus supermarket.

“University Student Forums – the professional forums used by all university students.”

Jiang Qin walked over and peeled the entire poster off the wall studying it in his hands for a long time with a pensive expression.

Beep beep beep–

Just then a notification sound rang out. Jiang Qin took out his phone and saw a pixel penguin bouncing in the signal bar.

“Adoptive father I have a question. How do you get someone’s contact information?”

“Already have a target as soon as you start university? Not bad. Just go ahead and ask for it boldly. It’s not like you’ll be fined for getting rejected.”

“I mean is there a way to get contact info without having to ask?”

Looking at Guo Zihang’s question the corner of Jiang Qin’s mouth twitched. He thought this guy must be hopeless. Did he take out a loan for that mouth since he’s so reluctant to use it?

But for the sake of being called “adoptive father” Jiang Qin still maintained his patience deciding to first get a clear understanding of the situation.

“Senior or junior? For a senior, don’t even consider it for now. They’ve experienced everything so they can see through your little tricks at a glance. For a junior, you can pretend to borrow their phone then sneakily call yourself.”

“Then… what if it’s a little auntie selling fruit at the school gate?”

“???????”

“That auntie has a baby doll voice. Listening to her talk made my heart flutter like crazy.”

Jiang Qin’s mind went blank for a moment and he suddenly felt like a doubt had been resolved.

This guy Guo Zihang seemed to have never had his feelings awakened as if he was a late bloomer. In high school, he never showed enough interest in any girls, not even sparing a glance at Chu Siqi. Jiang Qin had thought he preferred them fully ripe!

In high school he was watched closely and didn’t dare speak up but now that he’s in university this dog is starting to let loose huh?

But little aunties with baby doll voices are indeed quite enticing.

Jiang Qin casually sent a “get lost” and headed back to the dorm.

As soon as he entered the dorm building a series of thudding footsteps came from upstairs and six or seven university students rushed down from the second floor creating a momentary chaotic scene.

Jiang Qin watched as he walked upstairs and found Cao Guangyu Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang also standing by the door spectating the excitement.

“What’s the situation?”

Zhou Chao lowered his voice: “The freshmen and seniors from the Foreign Trade College got into a fight. I heard it’s because someone called Li Dazhuang spoke out of line provoking the seniors by calling them ugly.”

After hearing this Jiang Qin’s brows stood up: “There’s really someone called Li Dazhuang in the Foreign Trade College?”

“What’s wrong is he your friend?”

“Uh not important. How are things going now?”

Ren Ziqiang next to him instantly got excited with eyebrows flying: “You know why this guy is called Dazhuang? He really lives up to his name. His arms are thicker than my thighs. Those seniors have met their match going in all high and mighty but rolling out in a sorry state.”

“University students still fighting so childish. No depth at all.” Cao Guangyu snorted disdainfully pulling out a full-screen phone from his pocket and tapping it twice.

Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang’s gazes were immediately drawn in: “Damn Old Cao what phone is that? Why is the screen so big?”

“Nokia 5230 new model. Not available in China yet. My dad got it through internal channels. Around 3000 yuan. It’s alright to use but the feel isn’t as good as my Blackberry. Response speed is a bit slow. Okay as a backup phone.” Cao Guangyu spoke as if he was well-versed in major phone brands.

“Over 3000 yuan? That’s almost a year’s tuition! Damn can we take a look?”

Cao Guangyu very casually handed the phone to Ren Ziqiang as if he didn’t care at all but in the end couldn’t hold back quietly saying be careful don’t drop it.

Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao played with it like they had obtained a treasure nearly breaking off the stylus on the back cover. Seeing this Cao Guangyu was pained to the point of gritting his teeth but didn’t dare say more so he quickly shifted his gaze to Jiang Qin’s side.

Jiang Qin had no reaction at all to Cao Guangyu’s new phone still intently focused on the situation with the Foreign Trade College fight.

Cao Guangyu felt a bit uncomfortable as if he hadn’t shown off enough.

“Old Jiang don’t you want to take a look? My phone only has 8 physical keys in total. Ever heard of Symbian? Smart phone. I remember you use Nokia too right? The 7610 from ’05? That old thing is like a little brother compared to the 5230.”

Jiang Qin glanced back at him thinking anyone who still buys Symbian in ’08 is a pure misfortune: “Not interested. I’ve used one with only three physical keys. That’s what you call a smart phone.”

“Only three physical keys? Stop bragging!”

Jiang Qin ignored him pushing open the door and entering the dorm. He took out the poster he had torn off earlier flattening it out on the desk. Then he pulled out a suitcase from under the desk and took out a Lenovo workstation – ThinkPad W500.

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

Jiang Qin had bought it as soon as he received the demolition compensation. After all, he would inevitably need to go online once he started his business. He couldn’t keep running to internet cafes all the time.

Seeing this scene Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao instantly returned the phone to Cao Guangyu and gathered around Jiang Qin.

Who cares about 8 physical keys or Symbian smart phones. None of that was attractive anymore.

“Holy shit a laptop?”

“Old Jiang can this play CrossFire?”

Jiang Qin plugged in a mouse and pressed the power button: “You mean the game? I don’t know never tried.”

Zhou Chao rubbed his hands enviously: “Getting a laptop and not gaming on it what a waste.”

“This is a workstation not a gaming laptop. It most likely can’t run games.”

Ren Ziqiang also couldn’t help leaning in: “Then watching a movie is fine too. Have you seen Chinese Paladin? The one with Hu Ge. I missed the finale!”

Jiang Qin took out a network card reader and inserted a mobile SIM card: “You know mobile data packages right? 5 yuan for 30MB. Guess how much data it takes to watch one episode of a TV show?”

“Uh I’ve never really looked into that.”

“Conservative estimate at least 500MB. That means watching one episode costs over 100 yuan in data.”

Mentioning this issue Jiang Qin also felt it was a bit messed up.

Although the penetration rate of laptops in 2008 wasn’t high every dorm would have at least one or two.

But Linchuan University had a stupid rule. In order to prevent freshmen from neglecting their studies except for those in the Computer Science department no freshmen were allowed to connect network cables to the dorms.

He could only go online using a mobile SIM card now and had to install a data monitoring app. The retro vibe instantly hit him in the face.

“Can’t game can’t watch movies then what’s the point of having it?”

Cao Guangyu felt a tinge of jealousy planning to call his dad and also get a computer a high-end desktop. He absolutely couldn’t let Jiang Qin one-up him!

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