Reborn in 2005, starting with repairing mobile phones

2005 6 Month 10 Day.

Night, the Lin family in Miancheng

The bell that rang to signal the end of the last exam in the college entrance examination still seems to echo in my ears.

Three days of intense battle, the scratching sound of pens tracing across exam papers eventually transformed into the scorching sunlight outside the exam hall after submitting the papers, and a long-lost, pure exhaustion.

Lin Dong leaned back in his chair; the room was quiet.

His parents, being considerate, didn't ask how he did on the exam; they simply placed the cut fruit gently beside him.

In the past few months, the world has quietly turned around him.

Chen Xiong's case has been decided.

He was convicted of multiple crimes, including armed coercion, contract fraud, and organizing and leading a mafia-style organization, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The legends about "Brother Xiong" on the streets of Cotton City were quickly replaced by new topics of conversation, and only a few families who had suffered greatly from him breathed a sigh of relief at night.

The Lin family is one of them.

Lin Dong himself devoted most of his energy to another "battle".

During the day, he was a student in Class 9 of the senior year who quietly reviewed his studies and whose grades steadily improved.

Late at night and on weekends, he is the brain that directs one "information blitzkrieg" after another in Shenzhen.

Every instruction was as precise as a scalpel, and every stockpiling was timed to coincide with the eve of price increases.

Wealth accumulated silently hundreds of kilometers away, like a snowball rolling downhill, while he himself consolidated his slightly rusty knowledge system through a sea of ​​practice questions.

Shenzhen University is safe.

He was even confident he could get into a better school, but Shenzhen was a must for him.

There lie the seeds he planted, and the rudimentary but loyal team he initially assembled.

Just as the great battle was over and the dust was settling, my phone vibrated on the table.

It's Uncle Cai.

Lin Dong picked up his phone and pressed the answer button.

"Boss Lin!"

Uncle Cai's voice was almost deafening, trembling with barely suppressed excitement after completing an epic quest, "The college entrance exams are over, right? You can finally relax! I have some incredibly good news to share, something I've been holding back for days!"

Lin Dong walked to the window, looking at the peaceful night view of Miancheng outside, and said in a calm voice, "Uncle Cai, go ahead and speak, I'm listening."

"Okay! Let me start from the beginning, so you can have a good laugh too!"

Uncle Cai cleared his throat and began to talk non-stop.

"In February! Right after the New Year, you made a phone call and told me to throw all the one million yuan I'd earned from 'Quick Repair Treasure' into scanning the screen of a Nokia 3310! I was really worried at the time, because there are so many of those things on the market!"

The results of it?

In mid-March, Nokia's supply chain really ran into problems, and the price of screens skyrocketed! It went up like crazy! We held on until the peak and sold at the top, and we made a net profit of this amount!" Uncle Cai announced a number, his tone full of disbelief.

"With this money as a foundation, in March you ordered that we consume as much of Samsung's small flash memory as possible!"

I practically scoured the entire South China market! Then, at the end of April, hey! Samsung's Korean factory went bust! As soon as the news broke, chip prices were changing daily. We sold in batches according to your specified points, and this time we made even more money than last time!

Uncle Cai became more and more excited as he spoke, as if he were reliving that wealth frenzy all over again.

"By April, your eye for detail had become even sharper! You started collecting memory and interface chips from those old, soon-to-be-obsolete PDAs. Back then, so many people laughed at us for collecting junk!"

Then in May, Microsoft released its new system, and the old machines couldn't be repaired anymore! But they still needed fixing! All that "junk" in our warehouse immediately became treasure, and prices skyrocketed! We made a fortune again!

"From May to June, you directed us to go in and out several times, buying cameras, power chips... Every time we went in just before the price increase and came out when the market was at its peak, making huge profits every time!"

"Boss Lin, I, Ah Cai, am utterly convinced! This isn't just doing business, it's like the heavens have opened our eyes! It's like God is chasing after us with a bowl of food, feeding us!"

He took a deep breath and, in an almost reverent tone, announced the final number:

"I just had the accountant cash out the last batch of unsold goods, consolidated all the accounts, and as you instructed, generously rewarded Ah Hao and the brothers who worked tirelessly... We now have 9.8 million in readily available cash in our accounts! More than that!"

Nine million eight hundred thousand.

Four months.

From millions to nearly ten million.

A silent yet fierce primitive accumulation of capital, relying purely on information asymmetry, was quietly completed hundreds of kilometers away.

On the phone, Uncle Cai was still excitedly recounting the details, his voice trembling slightly.

Lin Dong listened quietly, his gaze sweeping across the familiar street scene outside the window and past the scattered lights in the distance.

The expected ecstasy did not materialize, and there was hardly any ripple.

Like a traveler who has climbed a long and arduous mountain, finally reaching the expected summit, only to find that the summit is empty, with only a larger void and distant mountains surrounding it.

The war is over.

The shadow of debt has completely vanished, and financial freedom is within reach.

But then?

Where is the next mountain?

"Uncle Cai,"

Lin Dong finally spoke, interrupting the excitement on the other end of the phone. His voice was as calm as a deep pool, "These past four months have been tough on you, and tough on the brothers too."

"Boss Lin, please don't say that! Following you is the greatest blessing I, Ah Cai, have accumulated over eight lifetimes!" Uncle Cai quickly said.

The lingering excitement in the receiver contrasted sharply with the silence in the room after I hung up the phone.

Nine million eight hundred thousand.

This number, like a red-hot iron, was branded into Lin Dong's consciousness, but instead of bringing the expected heat and excitement, it brought a strange coolness and... emptiness.

He walked to the window and opened it.

The warm summer night air rushed in, carrying with it the muffled music from the television in the convenience store downstairs and the laughter of the neighbor's children chasing and playing. This was the most ordinary human warmth, the peace he had longed for in his past life.

But now, standing in this tranquility, holding enough wealth to buy the life savings of many families on this street, he felt an unprecedented sense of unease, as if his feet were dangling in the air.

He won.

The victory was so complete, so overwhelming.

Chen Xiong spent the rest of his life in prison.

The parents straightened their backs again.

The house is bright and clean, and has everything you could need.

The admission letter from Shenzhen University will be safely lying in my mailbox in a few months.

All the regrets, resentments, and humiliations from past lives were violently erased and surpassed within just a few months.

and then?

He recalled the "battles" that Uncle Cai had mentioned in his report earlier.

Hoarding screens, snapping up flash memory, buying up old memory chips at rock-bottom prices... every time they do it precisely and ruthlessly, reaping huge profits.

Was it good?

It felt great.

But the feeling is like a test taker who knows the standard answer and gets full marks by repeatedly doing practice questions. After the initial novelty and sense of accomplishment, all that's left is the numbness of repetitive operations.

Was his rebirth merely a means to become the most powerful "speculator" of this era?

Is he simply becoming a more legendary and mysterious "scalper" in Huaqiangbei?

The moment this thought arose, the feeling of emptiness suddenly became sharp, even carrying a hint of self-loathing.

He needs to do something.

With his reborn perspective, he doesn't just seek to plunder existing wealth, but to foster new value.

Just then, her mother, Li Xiuzhen, gently knocked on the door and came in carrying a bowl of mung bean soup.

"Ah Dong, this is freshly made, it'll help cool you down in the summer heat."

His mother put the bowl on the table and glanced at him cautiously. "That was... a call from Shenzhen? Is something wrong again? I saw you standing here for ages after you finished the call."