The next morning, the streets were bathed in warm sunlight.
The hawkers' cries from every corner, the clatter of pedicabs, the roar of machinery from small workshops—all these sounds, high and low, intertwined, breaking the morning's tranquility and echoing throughout the street.
Fang Bai, in his deep sleep, was awakened by the noise.
After gargling and brushing his teeth, he went downstairs and saw that the driver was already awake, sitting in a chair and smoking.
"Morning, Master Zhang, how did you sleep last night?"
"It was alright, I'm used to it. There were mosquitoes, though; good thing I brought mosquito coils."
"Have you had breakfast? If not, let's eat together."
"I woke up early and already ate."
While conversing, Fang Bai also observed the situation on the truck. After a night, the goods were safe and sound.
Most families now kept their money at home, and many had been visited by thieves.
It wasn't like later generations, where one wondered what there was to steal when breaking into someone's house, especially with cameras everywhere.
Fang Bai ate breakfast, then went to find porters.
His rented place was not far from the dock, where many porters waited for work.
Fang Bai rode his bike there and saw a large group of people squatting, waiting. Some even had signs hanging on them, listing their specialties, years of work experience, etc. When Fang Bai called out for porters, they immediately swarmed him, surrounding him completely. In a hurry, Fang Bai chose two young, sturdy-looking men, paying each three yuan.
Fang Bai returned to his rented place. He wasn't in a hurry now, letting the porters take their time. He sat in a chair, reading a book, occasionally glancing at the workers moving the goods.
By eleven in the morning, the two porters had finished unloading the goods. They took their wages and left, saying Fang Bai could continue to find them if he had more work.
Fang Bai watched the two porters leave. Seeing their slightly tired walk, a pang of sorrow suddenly welled up in him. He sighed inwardly, realizing that these people at the bottom were just like Fang Bai's parents—honest and decent their whole lives, only to avoid starvation.
After unloading the goods, Fang Bai treated the driver to lunch, saying that he might need to go to T City again in a while to find a truck and would look for him then.
The driver said it was no problem and that Fang Bai could just mention his name.
After lunch, the driver drove away, and Fang Bai returned to his rented place.
"To find someone for repairs, and also to watch the goods, it seems impossible without family help."
He wondered what Fang Bai's parents' expressions would be when they found out what he was doing.
In the afternoon, Fang Bai bought several sets of repair tools and materials, including a soldering iron, flux, solder, and insulating rubber shoes for electrical safety, as well as capacitors, resistors, and rectifier components.
He picked two 21-inch Panasonic color TVs with damaged circuit boards, intending to fix them and take one home for his own use.
Before disassembling, Fang Bai sprinkled water to maintain indoor humidity.
He couldn't buy an anti-static wrist strap, so he had to manually eliminate static electricity by attaching a ground wire to the TV.
Using the Golden Finger for detection, he could tell which components were problematic just by touching them.
Time to disassemble!
Fang Bai put on insulating gloves and removed the TV's back cover. He categorized and placed the disassembled components, screws, and nuts separately. He used a digital electric pen to check the circuit board for static electricity, ensuring it was safe before starting to remove the circuit board.
Removing the circuit board was quite troublesome, mainly due to the many wires.
In just a few minutes, Fang Bai had removed the circuit board and placed it on the wooden table nearby.
He plugged in the soldering iron; only after the solder melted could the damaged electronic components be removed.
For instance, the circuit board of his TV had several damaged capacitors.
Replacing capacitors wasn't difficult; it just required careful operation to avoid burning other components nearby.
Half an hour later, Fang Bai had replaced the damaged components. He selected a casing and wiring with a better appearance to assemble one TV. He plugged it in, and the screen displayed normally.
He didn't have a TV antenna at home, so he rode out again to buy one.
After some effort, the repaired TV finally showed a clear picture, and the sound quality was excellent.
Fang Bai also adjusted the brightness, contrast, and color saturation of the picture, making it even clearer, more vibrant, and the images more lifelike.
Although it couldn't compare to the high-definition LCD TVs of later generations, this picture quality could already beat many TVs of its time, and it wouldn't be considered bad even after 2000.
He tuned through the TV channels; there were only a few, which might not be very interesting to him, but his family would surely be satisfied.
Checking the time, it was already four in the afternoon.
Fang Bai continued to repair the other TV. The second one only took a little over an hour to fix, but cleaning it thoroughly would take a lot of time.
He planned to take one home to give his family a big surprise and also as a tool to persuade Fang Bai's parents to start a business together.
Fang Bai first tied two wooden boards to the rear rack of his bicycle with ropes, then padded them with a layer of soft cardboard. Only then did he place the TV, wrapped in a burlap sack, onto the cardboard and secure it. He locked the shop door and rode home.
No matter how well the burlap sack covered it, passersby could guess that what was tied to the back of the bicycle might be a television, especially since household appliances were so rare at that time!
It could be said that Fang Bai received too much attention from passersby along the way.
Dusk fell, and Fang Bai finally returned to the village.
"Riding a bike with this TV is really tiring."
There was a section of muddy road in front of his house, ruined by cows, which was difficult to walk on. Fang Bai panted as he pushed the bike, which carried a twenty-kilogram color TV. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
Seeing the lights on at home, when he was still a dozen meters from the door, he shouted into the house: "Dad, are you home? Come out and help."
Fang Bai's parents, who were preparing dinner in the main hall, were surprised to hear their son's voice.
It wasn't the weekend today, so why was their son back?
Thinking this, they walked out of the house and saw their son panting and pushing his bike not far from the door, with a large object tied to the bike frame.
"Son, what is this? It looks like a television."
"It's not the weekend yet, is it?"
Seeing Fang Bai's parents approach, asking one after another, he decided not to hide the fact that he was studying and doing business at the same time.
If he hid it, he wouldn't be able to support the family financially, which would go against his initial intention of solving family difficulties. This was something he didn't want.
He'd rather be pricked by his mother's needle once; there would always be a way to convince them.
"Dad, let's untie the color TV first."
"Color TV?! Is it real?!"
"What, this is a color TV? How much does this cost? Whose is it that you brought back?"
"Dad, let's move it inside first. I'm exhausted. I'm going to get some water."
Fang Bai's parents helped untie the straps, carefully and gently removing it, truly afraid of breaking it and not being able to afford compensation.
Opening the burlap sack, they saw it was indeed a television, though they weren't sure if it was a color TV.
Actually, color TV screens had deeper colors, but Fang Bai's parents didn't understand this. However, since their son said it was a color TV, they assumed it was.
Fang Bai propped up his bike, didn't answer their questions, and ignored Fang Bai's parents' confusion and shock. He went back to the main hall to pour himself a bowl of water to drink.
Seeing his father carry the TV into the main hall, Fang Bai smiled and asked, "Dad, Mom, how much do you think this color TV costs?"
"Such a big color TV, if it's new, it must be several thousand. This one looks a bit old, so I don't know," Liu Fengqing said, while she and her husband walked around, admiring the color TV, lightly touching it, afraid of accidentally damaging it.
Fang Bai looked at Fang Bai's parents treating the color TV like a treasure and asked, "If it sold for eight or nine hundred, do you think anyone would want it?"
"If it works, let alone eight or nine hundred yuan, even over a thousand yuan, people would want it. But what if it breaks?"
"What about a one or two-month warranty? Or if there's a quality issue within seven days, it can be returned."
"Then it's indeed cheap; I'd even want one."
Liu Fengqing liked it more and more as she looked at it. She had seen other people's color TVs, but they weren't this big. This was her first time touching a color TV.
If it really only cost eight or nine hundred yuan, she would even borrow money to buy it, but then she thought about the money needed for her child's schooling and decided against it.
Fang Bai looked at Fang Bai's parents' admiring gazes, decided not to tease them anymore, and said with a chuckle, "This color TV is ours. It cost less than a hundred yuan, and I fixed it. We have many more color TVs like this."
"What?! It's ours?!"
"You brat, what have you been hiding from us? Weren't you at school? You just wait!"
Fang Bai's parents couldn't believe their eyes. Liu Fengqing froze for a moment, then habitually turned back to the bedroom to get a needle.
Fang Bai saw her stance and was truly scared, like Granny Rong was alive. He immediately got up, jumped out of the main room, and shouted at his mother, "Mom, can you please listen to me finish? Don't just grab a needle at every turn. I'm an adult now."
But his shout only made his mother search for the needle faster. In a moment, she came out with a needle.
Holy crap!
Fang Bai looked at the glinting thumbtack head and felt a bit afraid.
He had mocked his sister a few days ago; if his sister were home now, she would definitely be gloating.
"Then confess honestly, why aren't you studying properly and messing around with things?"
Liu Fengqing appeared strict, but in reality, she was very pleased.
She wouldn't prick her child again, but she just liked to use the needle to threaten him.
No matter how old her child grew, in her eyes, he was still her child.