Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 200 Pager

After laughing and joking around for a while, the five of them finished washing up and went downstairs for breakfast. Xiaohong went to school, and the other four went to Sanhao Street.

It was almost 9 o'clock, and the market was already open. This was the first time Xiaowei and Xiaohong had gotten up so late, and it was also the first time Xiaohong had been late.

Upon arriving at Sanhao Street, they went straight to Chen Xiao's shop counter. It was the first time Xiao Wei and Xia Maosheng had met Chen Xiao's brother. Since his sister wasn't there to help with the shop, he didn't have time to go out and have fun either. He always looked at Chen Hui with a hint of resentment in his eyes.

"Chen Peng, get me four pagers." Chen Xiao and his brother addressed him by his full name without any hesitation.

(Here's a question: Pagers are also called BP machines, but why are they all called BB machines? Answer in the comments section, and there will be an extra chapter for the correct answer.)

Chen Peng's face twitched, and he stared blankly at Chen Xiao, waiting for her to continue.

Chen Xiao patted the counter and said, "I'm giving you the money, it's not like I'm taking it for nothing. Hurry up, it's too much trouble to buy one at the post office, you have to find someone and get a number." Pagers weren't something you could use right away after buying them; you had to register them and write a number, sometimes it took ten days or so before you could use them. It wasn't until around 95 that you could buy one and use it immediately. But by then, cell phones had already appeared, and pagers were already on their last legs. That's just how slow our domestic service industry is.

Chen Peng asked Chen Hui, "Are you guys going to buy it?"

Chen Hui nodded and said, "Yeah, it'll be more convenient to bring one. We can each have one. Thanks, bro."

Chen Peng glanced at the counter and said, "I only have three Motorolas here. These are expensive. There are more people who want Songxia, so I took more." He bent down and rummaged through the counter, taking out a few pagers and placing them on the counter: "These are all numbered, they can be used right away. I've also paid a year's service fee, they're all 126."

The first-generation Motorola pager was not much different from the Matsushita; it was also a vertical model with a screen at the top. However, it looked a bit more technologically advanced than the Matsushita. It also came in men's and women's versions. The men's version was larger and had an orange reading button, while the women's version was smaller with rounded edges and a large, green, round reading button.

There were no Chinese character display computers at that time. The first generation of Chinese character display computers became popular in Northeast China in 1992. The earliest domestically produced computer appeared in 93, namely Bird.

Chen Xiao said, "Don't you still have a few of the latest models? Show them to me, you're so stingy. Chen Dapeng, are you trying to outsmart me? You don't want to live anymore!"

Chen Peng's face stiffened. The blow of having an undercover agent in the family was too great. He chuckled awkwardly and said, "That machine just came out of the market. The post office didn't even sell it. It was all pre-ordered. How am I supposed to explain it to them if I give it to you? They've already paid in advance." The two of them were talking about the Motorola 2nd generation machine, which was launched in China in 1991. It had a larger screen that was displayed on the front, and it also had a back cover and an anti-loss chain.

Chen Xiao pressed down on the counter and asked, "Are you going to give it to me or not? You're not going to? You'll have to wait until I get home tonight. I'll go over your little mess with my parents from the beginning. Oh, you went to the bar to fight, and you lost over a thousand playing mahjong. Here you go." "Alright, alright, I'm scared of you. Here you go." Chen Dapeng surrendered quickly.

Chen Xiao pouted and said, "I haven't finished yet. Okay, don't worry, I'll definitely keep it a secret."

Chen Peng looked at Chen Xiao and said, "Probably everyone in the world except our parents knows about this stupid thing. What kind of secret is this? It's not that I'm really afraid of my parents finding out, I'm just too lazy to listen to their nagging. If you threaten me with this again, I'm going to..."

Chen Xiao glanced at Chen Peng and said, "What?" with a smug look on his face.

Chen Peng retreated again and said to Chen Hui, "Hui, hurry up and take her away. Let her cause you trouble. Don't let her come home again."

Everyone laughed. Generally speaking, older brothers treat their younger sisters much the same way as their fathers do, spoiling and protecting them, while older sisters often have a tougher time.

Chen Peng took out the key, opened the cabinet on the far side, and took out four machines, saying, "These haven't been officially launched yet. We only made five in total. I've already spent several hundred yuan just treating people to meals. The earliest we can buy them is next April or May."

Xiao Wei asked, "Brother Chen, how much is this?"

Chen Peng said, "Xiao Wei, right? I always hear them talking about you. I took 1300 from the bureau, 150 for network access, and 360 for the annual service fee, so it's 1810 per unit. You can give me 1800, otherwise Xiao Xiao will get angry with me. Three units will cost 5400. I'll give Xiao Hui the one."

Xiao Wei smiled and said, "That's great, thank you very much, Brother Chen." He took out 5400 yuan, counted it out, and handed it to Chen Peng. Chen Peng took the money, stuffed it into his pocket, and said to Chen Xiao, "Satisfied, Princess? I lost five or six thousand yuan. Is that enough for your hush money?"

If this machine were sold normally, it would cost 2,300 in mid-1991, empty. Now it can definitely be sold for a higher price.

Chen Xiao leaned over the counter and kissed his older brother on the cheek, saying, "That's a true friend. When you have a sister-in-law, I'll buy her a bag, whatever's expensive."

Chen Peng chuckled and ruffled Chen Xiao's hair, then collected all the machines from the counter, leaving only these four. He picked one up, unfolded it, and said, "These are all numbered 126. The numbers are written on them; they're stuck here. Remember them, or better yet, copy them down. Any of these numbers will do; I had someone write them. You can sort them yourselves. Put the battery here, pry it out like this, then press it in like this, and it's installed. This end hangs on your belt, this end clips to your belt. When you want to use it, just pull it out like this and then clip it back in."

He rummaged through the back box, found a few AA batteries, and handed them to Chen Hui: "You guys can install them yourselves. Anything else, Xiao Xiao?"

Chen Xiao said, "I also need to buy a Famicom and get a lot of game cartridges. What are you going to do with that? Going out?"

Chen Peng tidied up his things, looked around, and said, "Don't we have one at home? You can take mine to play with. Why buy this one? I have to go to my workplace to pay the money and see if I can get a few more. I really promised someone that. It wouldn't be good if they came and I didn't get one."

Chen Xiao said, "I took all your stuff to Xiaowei's house last night. We played there until 1:30. Xiaowei and Lao Xia want to buy some to take to Longcheng. They usually live there, didn't they tell you? Buy two, and get them a few extra cards. Oh, and can you get the TV, refrigerator, and washing machine?"

Chen Peng was taken aback for a moment and asked, "What's going on? Are you rich?"

Chen Xiao raised his eyebrows smugly and whispered, "Yesterday we went to the camp with Xiao Wei and made over 100,000 yuan, more than 160,000."

Chen Peng dropped what he was holding. He bent down to pick it up and asked, "Really?"

Xiao Wei said, "It was just pure luck. You might only get this once or twice in your life."

Chen Peng said, "Wow, that's half a year's worth of my earnings. Don't forget me when you guys get rich in the future." He ducked out from behind the counter. He wasn't very tall, about 1.73 or 1.74 meters, but he was quite strong and five years older than Chen Xiao, already twenty-seven.

(End of this chapter)