Reborn in 2005, starting with repairing mobile phones

He nodded heavily, almost with all his might, his voice trembling with excitement, yet unusually resolute: "Brother! I'll do it! I, Ah Hao, will do it with you! If you say east, I'll never go west! If you tell me to shut up, I won't even talk in my sleep!"

"Just call me Brother Dong."

Lin Dong's face remained expressionless. He simply reached out and patted the man's thin shoulder forcefully. "Pick up any tools you can take with you. Throw away anything you can't. You won't need these anymore."

Zheng Hao paused for a moment, looking at his rusty "belongings" and then at Lin Dong's calm but unquestionable face. He gritted his teeth, grabbed only the screwdriver and multimeter that were still handy, and didn't even glance at the others.

"Dong-ge, I'm all better!"

"Let's go."

Lin Dong turned around, and Zheng Hao, carrying an empty and tattered woven bag, followed closely behind him, half a step behind.

The two walked out of the narrow alleyway, which reeked of decay, one after the other.

As Zheng Hao stepped out of the alley and stood once again amidst the noisy afternoon sun and din of Huaqiangbei, he couldn't help but look back at the alley where he had struggled for so long.

He knew that he might never return to that dilapidated wooden stall in his lifetime.

Lin Dong didn't give him much time to reflect and asked directly, "Are there any cheap places around here where people can live and work without having to register their ID cards? Preferably somewhere remote and quiet."

Zheng Hao immediately snapped out of his daze, his mind racing.

He knows this area much better than Lin Dong does.

"Yes! Brother Dong, go two streets east, there's an old residential compound. There's a semi-basement storage room on the first floor. It used to be where the old man who looked after the compound kept his junk. He passed away last year, and the room is empty. The key... I can find a way to get the key."

"It's damp and dark inside, and there are no windows..."

"Lead the way," Lin Dong interrupted him.

The place was indeed as Zheng Hao described: damp, dark, and musty, about ten square meters in size, piled with broken furniture. But the advantage was that it was absolutely secluded, a private dwelling, and completely unnoticed from the outside.

"This is it."

Lin Dong glanced around and made a decision on the spot.

He counted out two hundred yuan and handed it to Zheng Hao. "Go find someone to get the key, and buy two sturdy new locks. With the rest of the money, buy two sets of clean bedding and a bright light bulb. Hurry up."

Zheng Hao took the money, his hand trembling slightly.

He hadn't felt this sense of trust and being entrusted with a task in a long time. "Don't worry, Brother Dong! I'll get it done right away!" He turned and ran, his steps carrying the wind.

Lin Dong stayed where he was and briefly planned the layout of this temporary base. This would be their first real "workshop".

Not long after, Zheng Hao returned, panting. He had not only found the key and the new lock, but also bought bedding and light bulbs, and even somehow managed to get two old tables and a few broken chairs.

He also brought back a bottle of bulk alcohol and several packs of cotton, obviously intended for cleaning and repairing tools.

Lin Dong observed this without saying anything, but nodded inwardly. Zheng Hao's quick wit and decisiveness were exactly what he needed right now.

After locking the door, Lin Dong led Zheng Hao straight to Uncle Cai's warehouse.

Uncle Cai had been waiting for a long time. The warehouse door was wide open, and inside, dozens of dusty V3 "corpses" were piled up against the wall, like a small mountain.

"Brother Lin! You've finally arrived! They're all here, I ordered them myself, thirty-five of them! Their condition is absolutely the best I have!"

Uncle Cai rubbed his hands together, being overly enthusiastic. When he saw Zheng Hao behind Lin Dong, he only glanced at him curiously a couple more times without asking any questions.

Lin Dong quickly inspected the goods and found that their quality was indeed better than the previous batch. He nodded and paid a 30% deposit, a little over 1,800 yuan in cash, as agreed.

Uncle Cai took the money, his eyes crinkling into slits with laughter: "Brother Lin, you're so generous! I'll get someone to help you carry it right away! Ali! Come give me a hand!"

"Need not."

Lin Dong stopped him and pointed at Zheng Hao, "We'll move it ourselves."

Without saying a word, Zheng Hao immediately stepped forward, found a sturdy sack, and began stuffing the bags into it one by one with practiced ease.

Looking at Zheng Hao's practiced stance and Lin Dong's calm demeanor standing to the side, Uncle Cai's last remaining doubts completely disappeared.

This Brother Lin has even got all the workers ready; it seems he's really going to make a big splash!

"Brother Lin, I'll keep collecting this kind of 'trash' from now on!"

Uncle Cai escorted him to the warehouse door, patting his chest and guaranteeing it.

"Yes, I'll take as many as you have. The price remains the same."

Lin Dong left a message, and he and Zheng Hao each carried a heavy sack, then turned and left.

Back in that semi-underground "workshop," lock the door.

Lin Dong emptied all the V3 "corpses" from the sack and piled them into a small heap on the open ground.

Then, he laid out all the new tools he had bought: soldering iron, solder wire, rosin, precision tweezers, ultra-fine wires... all gleaming coldly under the dim light.

Zheng Hao stared at these professional tools, his eyes wide with amazement. They were so much better than his old, shabby set.

"Ah Hao,"

Lin Dong picked up a V3 and looked at him. "Watch carefully, I'll only teach you once. What we're fixing isn't the motherboard, it's this part."

He skillfully removed the back cover, his fingers precisely poking at the thin ribbon cable.

"This ribbon cable. It's broken inside, but you can't see it from the outside. Our job is to find the break and connect it using this thinner wire. Understand?"

Zheng Hao leaned closer, staring intently, and nodded emphatically: "Understood!"

"Um."

Lin Dong said no more, plugged in the soldering iron, and began to demonstrate on the spot.

Disassembling, positioning, scraping, soldering, testing... His movements were steady and rapid, each step clear and efficient, as if he had done it a thousand times.

Zheng Hao watched, holding his breath, not daring to blink.

He realized that all the unorthodox methods he had learned before were utterly insignificant compared to Lin Dong's surgical precision.

After demonstrating one unit, the screen lit up.

How much did you understand?

Lin Dong asked.

"I...I understand about 70-80% of it!" Zheng Hao said, both excited and a little nervous.

That's enough.

Lin Dong pushed the soldering iron to him, pointing to the pile of "corpses" on the ground, "From today onwards, you will be in charge of disassembling, cleaning, and the final assembly and testing. I'll handle the delicate work of soldering the flying wires. The two of us will form an assembly line."

He patted Zheng Hao on the shoulder: "Tonight, we'll test five units. If you fix them, I'll take you out for a nice meal, and you'll still get paid. If you can't fix them, consider it practice. Any questions?"

"No problem, Dong-ge!"

Zheng Hao straightened his chest, grabbed the screwdriver, and the almost extinguished flame in his eyes was now burning brightly.

In the dim light, two figures began to work.

The soft rustling of disassembly, the sizzling of soldering irons, and the occasional hushed conversations wove together in this secluded semi-underground space a hopeful prelude to a path towards wealth.