5: Spiritual mentor Lin Chen

The plan to find middlemen hit a snag and couldn't proceed, so for the time being, Lin Chen used his youthful energy to run back and forth between mobile phone shops, asking around and negotiating prices.

Eventually, after about half a day, he finally managed to acquire the quantity he needed, totaling 43 mobile phones.

During this process, he inquired at no fewer than a hundred shops, but the vast majority turned him down.

After all, why would they sell to you when they could keep all the profits for themselves? Wouldn't it be better to just take it all?

Furthermore, they didn't know Lin Chen at all, had no idea where he came from, or if he was just running some kind of scam.

Therefore, unless they had overstocked and couldn't move the inventory themselves, or had other factors at play, they wouldn't even consider acting as a middleman to make a small profit.

After running to nearly a hundred phone shops and getting many cold shoulders, Lin Chen barely managed to acquire 43 units, but getting the phones didn't mean he could stop.

The next, more important task was to dismantle those phones for inspection and repair. He would set aside the difficult ones and prioritize replacing parts for the easy ones, ultimately quickly completing the production of these 43 units.

Regarding the refurbishment of these 43 phones, Lin Chen didn't plan on doing it all by himself; besides, if he relied solely on himself, he wouldn't be sleeping at night.

Therefore, while procuring the Nokia 5110 phones, Lin Chen managed to recruit two apprentices along the way.

One of these apprentices was from Shandong, a cheerful guy named Huang Hua, and the other was from Guangxi, a reticent guy named Chen Dong.

Both of them had high school diplomas and were young men who had recently come to Huaqiangbei to chase their dreams.

For such dream-driven young men willing to endure some hardship, the incredibly thick-skinned Lin Chen used brainwashing rhetoric like, "No pain, no gain," "Learning a skill is never a mistake," and "Once you learn the trade, you can be your own boss."

He offered them a base salary of 300 yuan plus variable bonuses to take them on as apprentices.

In that era at Huaqiangbei, this base salary was equivalent to offering a 1500 yuan base pay when the average monthly salary in the mainland was 3000 yuan; in a way, Lin Chen was truly ruthless.

Perhaps Lin Chen's brainwashing worked, or maybe they genuinely wanted to learn a skill, or perhaps they wanted to learn how to repair phones so they could be their own bosses later.

At the cost of 600 yuan a month plus variable bonuses, Lin Chen successfully secured two miserable laborers masquerading as apprentices. With these two, Lin Chen could expand his operations and earn even more astonishing profits.

It was certainly impossible for these two apprentices to repair phones right now, but having them mechanically dismantle phones and parts in order was no problem at all.

Lin Chen didn't just make them work without teaching them anything; while having them dismantle the phones, he would tell them what each part was, why it needed to be removed, how to remove it, and other such knowledge.

They were indeed talented enough to have attended high school; relying on their own aptitude, combined with the system's 15% bonus to learning speed and 15% bonus to work focus...

When Lin Chen taught them, they understood almost immediately. They could quickly memorize the points Lin Chen made, which left him pleasantly surprised and applauding their efforts.

Lin Chen came from the future year of 2023, where he worked at the BYD electric vehicle company. He was a high-level talent proficient in both software and hardware; whether it was mechanical, electrical, software programming, or chips, Lin Chen knew a thing or two about everything.

The knowledge he possessed couldn't be learned by these two apprentices in a short time. Of course, even if they wanted to learn, Lin Chen wouldn't teach them about those futuristic things.

Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, it was the next morning.

"Why hasn't that young man shown up yet? I've been waiting for him for an hour."

"Could it be that he's not selling the phones anymore? Even though Huang He ran off with his sister-in-law, the remaining equipment and machinery should still be worth something. Maybe the workers sold the equipment, which is why he hasn't shown up."

"I think that's very likely."

At this moment, over a dozen passersby were waiting for Lin Chen's arrival. Some had been waiting for over an hour, while others had been there for ten minutes or so.

Regardless, they were all starting to feel impatient. If they hadn't seen with their own eyes that the Dawn brand mobile phone was indeed durable, good quality, and cheap...

…they really wouldn't have spent their time waiting here for Lin Chen. Even so, they were growing impatient.

Just then, a passerby heard their conversation and asked curiously, "What's this about Huang He running off with his sister-in-law? What are you all doing here?"

Hearing the passerby's question, a potential customer waiting for Lin Chen laughed and said, "It's about the Dawn brand phones. They say the boss of Dawn, a guy named Huang He, gambled and whored away 20 million, then ran off with his sister-in-law. The remaining workers took the phones left in the factory to sell them. Phones that originally sold for 1000 are now only 850, so we're waiting here for the phones."

The passerby nodded lightly and said disdainfully, "So that's it. Even if the phone is cheap, who knows about the quality? If the quality is too poor, I wouldn't even take it for 100. Besides, this 'Dawn' brand sounds like a small, unknown brand. With that kind of money, you might as well buy a Boda Mobile or a TLC phone. If you don't like domestic brands, you could pay a few hundred more and buy the cheapest Nokia or Motorola or other big international brands."

Seeing the passerby's disdainful look, the potential customer frowned and said, "I don't know about the quality of those Bo Island or TLC phones, but I trust the quality of this Dawn phone because I saw him smash it right in front of me, and it didn't break!"

However, no one believed him, and the passersby just shook their heads slightly, preparing to leave.

But just then, the dozen or so potential customers suddenly became agitated, and the passersby who were about to leave curiously stopped in their tracks, wanting to see what was going on.

On the other side, Lin Chen's two apprentices asked him somewhat shamefully, "Master, do we really have to recite this? Isn't it a bit too embarrassing?"

"Yeah, it's too embarrassing. I think we should just sell the phones normally."

Facing his apprentices' words, Lin Chen earnestly lectured them, "Without taking small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles. Nothing is easy if you want to succeed. If you can't even let go of a little shame, how can you achieve the dream of catching up to the United States in technology?"

"This..."

Lin Chen's two apprentices hesitated. After a few seconds, the more cheerful Huang Hua gritted his teeth and said, "You're right. If we can't even overcome a little bit of shame, how can we realize the great dream of catching up to the United States in technology?"

Lin Chen smiled and nodded, then slowly walked over to the spot where he had set up his stall last time, where over a dozen customers were already anxiously waiting.