Reborn in 2005, starting with repairing mobile phones

Lin Dong gently squeezed her fingertips and then let go.

"What happened just now was nothing."

His tone was flat, and his gaze returned to the open math book, clearly indicating that he had no intention of continuing the conversation.

Chen Lu opened her mouth as if to say something, but looking at Lin Dong's focused profile, she swallowed her words back.

She took her phone out of her bag; it was a silver Nokia 3100 with a small screen, but it looked brand new. She looked down and pressed a few buttons, as if sending a text message to let everyone know she was safe.

The carriage returned to calm, with only the hum of the engine and the occasional bumpy sound remaining.

Lin Dong continued to review his math, but his attention was not fully focused.

The last glance those three "non-mainstream" guys gave him before getting off the bus made him more wary. These street thugs were the most troublesome; if he lost face, they might really seek revenge.

However, he wasn't too worried.

In 2005, Shenzhen's public security wasn't great, but it wasn't nearly as exaggerated as the online jokes portray it later. In places like Huaqiangbei, business people have their own rules, and as long as you don't actively cause trouble, there shouldn't be any major problems.

Around 1 p.m., the car finally entered Shenzhen territory.

The tall buildings outside the window gradually became denser, and the traffic on the road noticeably increased. Looking at the familiar street scene, Lin Dong felt a complex mix of emotions welling up inside him.

In his previous life, he struggled here for more than ten years, starting from a small counter in Huaqiangbei. Although he achieved some success in Huaqiangbei, he never really managed to leave.

In this life, he wants far more than just these things.

"We've arrived in Shenzhen!"

With a shout from the ticket seller, the minibus slowly drove into Luohu Bus Station.

Lin Dong closed his book and packed his backpack. Chen Lu also stood up and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

The two got off the car one after the other.

The station was bustling with noise, a mix of various regional accents. Lin Dong took a deep breath; the air in Shenzhen carried a unique, restless quality.

"Lin Dong".

Chen Lu called out to him and quickly walked over. "Thank you so much for earlier. Do you... have anywhere to go in Shenzhen? If not, I can..."

"Need not."

Lin Dong interrupted her. He pointed to the bustling cluster of buildings outside the station.

"I know it very well."

After saying this, he nodded slightly to Chen Lu as a farewell. Then he turned around and disappeared into the surging crowd at the station in the blink of an eye.

Chen Lu stood there, looking in the direction Lin Dong had disappeared, then looked down at the new phone she was clutching in her hand, and pursed her lips.

This person... is completely different from those thugs on the bus who just want to hit on people.

He helped her as if it were just "casual," without even giving her a chance to repay the favor.

She shook her head and walked toward another exit.

The car rattled along, the air blowing in through the windows was hot and smelled of gasoline. Lin Dong sat in the back seat, holding a backpack, his fingers tapping idly.

This is bus route 214 to Huaqiangbei; he knows it well. It costs two yuan and fifty cents, and takes almost an hour to get there. In his previous life, he had ridden this beat-up bus countless times.

Outside is Shenzhen in 2005.

There aren't that many buildings yet; large tracts of land are waiting to be built, and red banners proclaiming "Special Economic Zone Speed" are hung everywhere.

Most of the cars on the road are Santanas, Jettas, and yellow taxis. Occasionally, a shiny new Honda will drive by, and people waiting at the red light will take a second look.

The whole city looks new, rough, and full of energy.

Lin Dong closed his eyes and mentally searched for maps.

He knows Huaqiangbei, SEG Plaza, Electronic World... he knows these places like the back of his hand.

But he doesn't go to those glamorous buildings anymore.

The real money-making opportunities are found in those winding back alleys, inconspicuous warehouses, and small stalls that specialize in dealing with "difficult" mobile phones.

That's the real heart of Huaqiangbei; you can find all sorts of information there, parts are cheap, and there's a lot of gray market trading.

The bus swayed for another half hour before the horn announced: "We've arrived at Huaqiangbei. Get off at the back door."

Lin Dong picked up his bag and squeezed off the bus with the crowd.

The heat and noise suddenly enveloped him.

The sun at 2 PM was so bright it made people dizzy.

All I could see were a sea of ​​black heads, so crowded I could barely move.

The loudspeakers of roadside shops were practically blaring: "MP4! Latest model! 399!" "Mobile phone accessories! Factory direct!" The noise was enough to give anyone a headache.

The air was filled with all sorts of smells: the rancid smell of oil from the fast food restaurant next door, the burnt smell of plastic melting in the sun, the smell of sweat, the smell of cheap perfume, and the smell of solder wafting from the repair shop.

This is the essence of Huaqiangbei—a restless energy driven by an insane desire to make money.

Lin Dong stood by the roadside for a few seconds.

His face showed neither the bewilderment nor the excitement of a first-time visit. His eyes were indifferent, like an old hunter returning to his own mountain, able to spot rabbits with a casual glance.

After he finished reading, he turned and left.

Instead of entering the grand gate of SEG Plaza, we turned right and plunged into a narrower alley with overhead wires tangled like a spider web.

The alleyway was just as bustling, but it felt more authentic.

Both sides were lined with stalls, and glass cabinets were crammed with mobile phone motherboards, disassembled parts, and bundles of data cables.

People speak more aggressively here, and the bargaining is louder.

Lin Dong slowed down, pretending to be a student looking for bargains, looking at this stall and listening at that stall.

"We just got a bunch of V3s again. It's really weird. Eight out of ten of them are dead. The screen goes black as soon as you open the flip. They must be the problematic batch!" A shirtless boss was complaining to the person next to him, holding a silver flip phone in his hand.

"Just sell them as spare parts, that way you can recoup some of the losses," someone nearby said.

"How much do the parts cost? Only the casing and keyboard are worth something... What bad luck."

After listening, Lin Dong understood: the V3 "sleep dead" machine was already considered "junk" by the seller and was worthless.

Moving a few steps forward, the experienced repairman at the stall was looking troubled at a V3 wrecked machine, poking around with it with a multimeter, and said to his apprentice:

"That's weird. The power supply is normal, the clock is normal, and the logic circuit doesn't look burnt out... This V3 has a really weird problem. It dies as soon as you flip it over."

"Several experienced technicians have fallen victim to this problem. If the price is too high, customers won't repair it. If they take it apart, they can't find the cause. In the end, they treat it as a 'hidden motherboard problem,' and whoever takes it will lose money."

Lin Dong's lips twitched slightly.

He continued browsing.

My eyes swept over the phones piled up in the corner, labeled "broken" and "dead".

Inside, there were Motorola V3s in pretty good condition, mixed in with Nokia and Samsung phones, and the prices were mostly between 250 and 300.

Not far away, at another stall selling secondhand mobile phones, a V3 that could also be turned on but was in poor condition was priced at "750", with a note on the screen saying it was a good phone.

There was a difference of more than four hundred yuan.

All the information he heard and saw clicked right into place in Lin Dong's mind.

He understood the problem and knew how to fix it. That's why these "dead-end machines" were as cheap as cabbage, but once repaired, they could be sold for the price of meat.

What he had to do was find the cheapest pile of "cabbage" (referring to cheap, low-quality spare parts) and then fix them using a method much cheaper than the original ribbon cables.

Lin Dong stopped and looked at a slightly larger stall in the middle of the alley.

The owner, a man in his forties with a tanned complexion, was using a calculator to do some accounting with someone, speaking in a thick Chaoshan accent. Behind him, the shelves were piled high with what seemed to be a lot of V3 "corpses".

This is it.

Lin Dong didn't go directly over.

He walked to the water stall across the street, spent a dollar on a bottle of frozen mineral water, and bought a pack of cigarettes. He unscrewed the cap, slowly drank, pretending to look elsewhere, but actually keeping an eye on the stall to see who the owner was looking for.

He was waiting, waiting until the boss was free and there were no other important customers around before making a decision.

The ice water flowed into my stomach, easing the afternoon heat a bit.

I can already smell the rabbit.

Now, it's time to put the trap on.