Chapter 28: The Sucker Who Bought a Symbian Phone

The night after enrollment, the campus was buzzing with people reveling in the novelty of their new environment.

Jiang Qin made his way back to the boys' dorm, lost in thought the whole time. What would be the most profitable venture to start in a place like school?

Internet cafes, convenience stores, milk tea shops.

These were likely the top picks for any student entrepreneur—low initial investment, steady and decent profits, and low hassle.

But the downsides were obvious: no growth potential and a low ceiling.

Strolling along, Jiang Qin stopped at the entrance to the campus supermarket, his gaze drawn to a poster plastered on the door.

"University Forum: The Professional Forum All College Students Use."

He stepped forward, peeled the entire poster off the wall, and studied it in his hands for a while, his expression thoughtful.

Beep beep beep—

At that moment, a notification chimed. Jiang Qin pulled out his phone and saw a blinking pixelated penguin in the signal bar.

"Godfather, I've got a question. How do you get someone's contact info?"

"Already got a target right after starting school? Not bad. Just go for it boldly—getting rejected doesn't cost you anything."

"Yeah, but is there a way to get it without asking directly?"

Reading Guo Zihang's message, Jiang Qin's mouth twitched. This guy's hopeless. Did he take out a loan for that mouth and can't bear to use it?

Still, for the sake of that "godfather" title, Jiang Qin held his patience and decided to get the details first.

"Senior or junior? If it's a senior, forget it for now—they've seen it all, and your little tricks won't fool them. If it's a junior, you could pretend to borrow her phone and secretly call yourself."

"What if… it's a young lady selling fruit at the school gate?"

"?????"

"She's got a baby voice. I was so smitten listening to her, I couldn't stand it."

Jiang Qin's brain short-circuited for a second before a sudden realization hit him.

Guo Zihang had never seemed to hit puberty properly. Back in high school, he showed zero interest in any girl—not even Chu Siqi warranted a second glance. Jiang Qin had thought his hormones were just late to the party. Turns out this guy was into fully ripened fruit!

Kept under tight watch in high school, he'd stayed quiet. Now in college, this dog was ready to let loose, huh?

Still, a young woman with a baby voice did have a certain appeal.

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

As he entered the dorm building, a flurry of thumping footsteps echoed from upstairs. Six or seven students charged down from the second floor, the scene chaotic for a moment. Jiang Qin watched as he climbed up, reaching the doorway where Cao Guangyu, Zhou Chao, and Ren Ziqiang were also rubbernecking.

"What's going on?"

Zhou Chao lowered his voice. "Freshmen from the Foreign Trade Academy got into a fight with some seniors. Word is, a guy named Li Dazhuang mouthed off, provoked the seniors, and called them ugly."

Jiang Qin's eyebrows shot up. "There's actually a dude named Li Dazhuang in the Foreign Trade Academy?"

"What, you know him?"

"Uh, not important. How's the fight going?"

Ren Ziqiang jumped in, practically dancing with excitement. "You know why they call him Dazhuang—'big and strong'? He lives up to it! Arms thicker than my thighs. Those seniors picked the wrong fight—came in all cocky, left looking like a disaster."

"College students fighting? So childish. No class at all," Cao Guangyu scoffed, pulling a full-screen phone from his pocket and tapping it twice.

Zhou Chao and Ren Ziqiang's eyes instantly locked onto it. "Holy crap, Old Cao, what phone is that? Why's the screen so big?"

"Nokia 5230. New model—not even out in China yet. My dad got it through some internal channel. Three thousand-something bucks. It's decent, but the feel's not as good as my Blackberry. Response time's a bit slow. Fine as a backup, though." Cao Guangyu rambled on like he'd tried every big-brand phone out there.

"Three thousand bucks? That's almost tuition! Damn, let us check it out!"

Cao Guangyu handed it over to Ren Ziqiang with a casual flourish, acting like it was no big deal—though he couldn't hold it together and muttered, "Be careful, don't drop it."

Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao treated it like a treasure, flipping it over and nearly snapping the stylus off the back. Cao Guangyu winced in agony but didn't want to seem petty, so he quickly shifted his focus to Jiang Qin.

Jiang Qin showed zero reaction to Cao Guangyu's new phone, still fixated on the Foreign Trade Academy drama.

Cao Guangyu felt a pang of unease—like his flex had fallen flat.

"Old Jiang, not gonna take a look? This thing's got just eight physical buttons. Ever heard of Symbian? It's a smartphone. I remember you've got a Nokia too, right? That 7610 from '05? That old relic's nothing next to the 5230."

Jiang Qin glanced at him, thinking, It's 2008, and you're still buying Symbian? What a sucker. "Not interested. I've used one with just three buttons. Now that's a smartphone."

"Three buttons? Yeah, right, keep dreaming!"

Jiang Qin ignored him, pushed open the dorm door, and pulled the poster he'd torn off earlier from his pocket. He smoothed it out on the table, then dragged his suitcase from under the desk, retrieving a Lenovo ThinkPad W500—a work-oriented laptop released in 2008. Dual-core CPU, 4GB RAM, priced at 12,600 yuan.

He'd bought it right after getting his relocation compensation money. Starting a business meant he'd need internet access, and he couldn't keep running to internet cafes.

Seeing this, Ren Ziqiang and Zhou Chao instantly returned the phone to Cao Guangyu and swarmed Jiang Qin.

Eight buttons? Symbian smartphone? None of that mattered anymore.

"Holy crap, a laptop?"

"Old Jiang, can this run CrossFire?"

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

Zhou Chao rubbed his hands enviously. "Buying a laptop and not gaming? What a waste."

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

Ren Ziqiang leaned in closer. "Then play a movie! Seen The Legend of Sword and Fairy? The one with Hu Ge? I missed the finale!"

Jiang Qin pulled out a data card and inserted his SIM. "You know about mobile data plans? Five bucks for 30MB. Guess how much it'd cost to watch one episode?"

"Uh, I've never looked into that."

"At least 500MB, probably. That's over a hundred bucks in data for one episode."

Talking about this, Jiang Qin felt a bit annoyed too.

In 2008, laptops weren't super common, but most dorms had at least one or two. Yet their university had this dumb rule: to keep freshmen from "losing themselves to distractions," no dorms outside the computer science department could get wired internet for first-years.

He was stuck using a mobile data card and had to install a traffic-monitoring app. The retro vibes hit him hard.

"Can't game, can't watch movies—what's it even for?"

Cao Guangyu's tone soured. He decided to call his dad and get a computer too—a high-spec desktop, no less. No way was he letting Jiang Qin outshine him!