Chapter 28 - 28: The Great Frustration of Buying Saipan

Chapter 28: Chapter 28: The Great Frustration of Buying Saipan

Chapter 28: The Great Dilemma of Buying Saipan

On the night of his first day at school, the campus was bustling with people, all indulging in the novelty of the new environment.

Jiang Qin, on his way back to the male dormitory, had been pondering a question throughout: What could he do to make the most money in this school environment?

Internet cafe, supermarket, bubble tea shop.

These seemed to be the preferred targets for all budding entrepreneurs on campus because of their low initial investment, steady and decent profits, and the ease of management. However, their disadvantages were also clear—they lacked long-term prospects and had low earning potential.

Jiang Qin walked slowly and then stopped at the entrance of the campus supermarket, where his attention was captivated by a poster.

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

Jiang Qin took the poster off the wall and held it in his hand, contemplating it.

Ding ding ding—

Just then, a notification sound chimed. Jiang Qin took out his phone and saw a pixelated penguin icon flashing in the signal bar.

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

"You've set your sights on someone already, just as you enter school? Not bad, be confident and just ask; there's no fine for rejection."

"Yeah, but is there a way to get someone's contact information without asking directly?"

Seeing Guo Zihang's question, Jiang Qin's mouth twitched. He thought, "This guy must be hopeless. Did he take out a loan to buy that mouth and now he's too stingy to use it?"

However, out of respect for his godfather's request, Jiang Qin decided to inquire further.

"Is it a senior or a freshman? If it's a senior, you don't need to worry for now. They've been through everything, and they can easily see through your tricks. If it's a freshman, you can pretend to borrow their phone and secretly call yourself."

"But...what if it's a little auntie selling fruit at the school gate?"

"?????"

"That auntie has a cute, childlike voice. I couldn't help my heart flutter when I heard her speak."

Jiang Qin's brain froze for a moment, and then he felt like he had just solved a mystery.

It seemed like Guo Zihang had never experienced infatuation before. In high school, he had shown little interest in any girls, not even giving a second glance to someone like Chu Siqi. Jiang Qin had thought he was just a late bloomer in matters of love. But now, in university, it seemed like this guy was finally letting loose and enjoying himself.

However, the young-sounding auntie with a childlike voice did indeed sound appealing.

Jiang Qin sent a rolling-eye emoji and then headed back to the dormitory.

Just as Jiang Qin entered the dormitory building, he heard a series of hurried footsteps coming from upstairs. Six or seven college students rushed down from the second floor, creating a chaotic scene.

As he made his way upstairs, Jiang Qin noticed that Cao Guangyu, Zhou Chao, and Ren Ziqiang were also at the door, trying to see what was happening.

"What's going on?" Jiang Qin asked.

Zhou Chao lowered his voice, "Freshmen from the School of Foreign Trade are fighting with the seniors. It's said that it's because of a guy named Li Dazhuang who made disrespectful remarks, provoking the seniors and insulting their looks."

Jiang Qin raised his eyebrows after hearing this. "There's really someone named Li Dazhuang in the School of Foreign Trade?"

"What's the matter, do you know this guy?" Zhou Chao asked.

"It's not important. What's the current situation?"

Ren Ziqiang, who was standing nearby, became excited. "Do you know why they call this guy 'Big Strong'? His name really matches his physique. His arms are thicker than my thighs. Those seniors really picked the wrong fight. When they went, they were all full of themselves, but when they left, it was a pitiful sight."

"College students fighting, so childish. They have no maturity at all," Cao Guangyu said disdainfully, taking out a full-screen phone from his pocket and tapping it twice.

Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang were immediately drawn to the phone. "Wow, Lao Cao, what kind of phone is this? Why is the screen so big?"

"It's the Nokia 5230, a new model that hasn't been released in China yet. My dad got it through internal channels for around 3,000 yuan. It's decent to use, but the tactile feel isn't as good as my BlackBerry, and the response speed is slightly slower. It serves as a backup phone." Cao Guangyu spoke proudly, as if he had tried all the top brands of smartphones.

"Over 3,000 yuan? That's almost as much as our tuition! Can you show it to us?" Zhou Chao exclaimed.

Cao Guangyu casually handed the phone to Ren Ziqiang, as if he didn't care, but he couldn't help but murmur quietly, "Be careful not to drop it."

Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao treated the phone like a treasure, examining it from every angle, almost breaking the stylus pen off the back cover. Cao Guangyu winced in pain but didn't say anything, quickly shifting his gaze to Jiang Qin.

Jiang Qin showed absolutely no reaction to Cao Guangyu's new phone. He remained focused on the situation with the School of Foreign Trade.

Cao Guangyu felt a bit uncomfortable, as if he hadn't acted convincingly enough.

"Lao Jiang, aren't you going to take a look? This phone only has eight physical buttons in total. Have you heard of the Symbian system? It's a smartphone. I remember you used a Nokia too, right? The 7610 from 2005? That old machine is like a younger brother compared to the 5230."

Jiang Qin glanced back at him and thought to himself, "It's 2008, and you're still buying Symbian phones. Isn't that just being outdated?" He replied, "Not interested. I've used a phone with only three physical buttons. Now that's what I call a smartphone."

"Only three physical buttons? You're kidding!"

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

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

Jiang Qin had purchased it with the compensation money he received from the demolition, knowing that he would need internet access once he started his entrepreneurial journey. He couldn't keep going to internet cafes all the time.

Seeing this scene, Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao immediately returned their phones to Cao Guangyu and surrounded Jiang Qin.

Forget about those eight physical buttons and Symbian smartphones; none of that seemed appealing anymore.

"Wow, a laptop?"

"Lao Jiang, can you play CrossFire on this?"

Jiang Qin plugged in the mouse and pressed the power button. "You mean CrossFire? I don't know; I haven't tried."

Zhou Chao looked envious as he rubbed his hands together. "Buying a laptop without playing games is such a waste." n-)o//v--E)/l()b/.I()n

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

Ren Ziqiang couldn't resist moving closer. "Then how about watching a movie? Have you seen Chinese Paladin? It's the one with Hu Ge, and I missed the grand finale!"

Jiang Qin took out a network adapter and inserted a SIM card. "You know about mobile data plans, right? 5 yuan for 30 megabytes. Can you guess how much data it takes to watch one episode of a TV show?"

"Well, I've never really looked into that."

"Let's say it's at least 500 megabytes. So, if you do the math, watching one episode of a TV show would cost you over 100 yuan in data."

As he talked about this issue, Jiang Qin also felt a bit frustrated.

Although the popularity of laptops in 2008 was not very high, every dormitory would still have at least one or two.

But there was a stupid rule at the university that prevented freshmen from connecting Ethernet cables in their dorms to avoid them being overly distracted by gadgets. This rule applied to all freshmen except those majoring in computer science.

Now he could only use a mobile data connection, and he had to install a data monitoring app, giving him a nostalgic feeling.

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

Cao Guangyu felt a bit sour and decided to call his dad to bring a high-end desktop computer. He couldn't let Jiang Qin outshine him!

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(End of this chapter.)