Joseph placed both hands on the steering wheel, frowning, as if pondering some deep and serious question. Hugo, sitting in the passenger seat, unfastened his seatbelt and was just about to get out of the car, but then noticed Joseph still hadn't moved. He turned back and said, "Get out."
Joseph lifted his head and looked at Hugo. "Are you serious?"
Hugo's right hand, already on the door handle, twisted and pushed it open, stepping out as he spoke to Joseph, "You've been nagging all the way here, don't you feel tired?"
Joseph hurriedly got out of the car as well, catching up with Hugo's steps. "You really want to buy a brick (The Brick)?"
Hearing this vivid nickname, Hugo laughed. "Yes, that's why we came to Motorola. Look, we've already arrived at the store."
"But, but I heard that thing isn't useful at all, you can't hear the other person clearly, most of the time you can't even reach them, and it's so heavy, not convenient at all." Joseph still frowned, constantly complaining.
Hugo let out a long breath. "I know, I know everything you're saying, but trust me, buying it really will be useful."
Los Angeles, 1992—Hugo was finally about to connect with the life of technology. Today he had decided to buy a mobile phone! Something that twenty years later wouldn't even be worth discussing, but today, it was a brand-new thing that shocked everyone's mindset.
Mobile phones had already been invented back in 1973, but it wasn't until 1983 that they were officially put into use. In the nine years since, their development had been very slow. Across the United States, there were no more than three hundred thousand mobile phone users. Compared with landline phones, mobile phones still didn't hold much advantage. The poor call quality wasn't just due to the lack of signal towers, but also the technological bottlenecks of the phones themselves. As for the supposed "portable" advantage, its massive brick-like size nearly eliminated any convenience.
People mocked the portable phone of the time as a "shoe phone," meaning as clumsy and large as a shoe. The nickname that later spread even more widely was "brick," ridiculing those rich people parading down the street carrying a brick. This showed just how difficult the market situation of mobile phones was back then.
So when Hugo brought up buying a portable phone, Joseph thought Hugo was crazy. But Hugo carried a soul from twenty-two years into the future; life without a phone or internet was unimaginable. Until now, Hugo didn't have the financial means to improve his lifestyle, and he could only adapt passively. But now, with the remaining two-million-dollar salary from A Few Good Men already in his account, the plan to buy a mobile phone immediately entered Hugo's mind.
As one of the world's top communication companies, Motorola had branches in many major cities. However, stores that actually sold portable phones were still very limited. Fortunately, Hugo was in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the U.S., which saved quite a bit of trouble.
Walking into Motorola's Los Angeles headquarters store, a clerk immediately came up to greet them. "Good morning, gentlemen. I'm Chris. Is there anything I can help you with?"
Hugo's gaze searched around the store interior. There were far fewer counters than he had imagined, and the decoration was very simple. After entering the twenty-first century, mobile communications occupied an ever-larger proportion of life, and the related industry stores became increasingly luxurious. But now, even Motorola's Los Angeles headquarters could still only be described as plain.
Chris Keane greeted them with a smile. The slightly smaller man's eyes were constantly scanning the shop, so naturally his gaze met that of the stronger man. That man seemed troubled, frowning, lips pursed, looking uncertain. Chris knew that to secure business, he needed to take the initiative, so he did just that.
"Gentlemen, we have all kinds of communication devices in our store, absolutely able to meet your needs." Chris said warmly, pitching his products. "Recently, younger people have been choosing pagers more often. If you'd like, I can show them to you."
Pagers, also called BB machines, beepers, or BP machines, were transitional communication devices before the appearance of mobile phones. Their usage was actually quite simple, essentially serving as a portable radio receiver.
For example, if Hugo wanted to find Joseph but couldn't, he could call the paging station, leaving a message with Joseph's pager number. Joseph's pager would then display that someone had paged him. By calling the paging station from a nearby payphone, he could hear the message. Also, numbers could be displayed on the pager, making it a romantic new tool for confessions—messages like "520 meaning I love you," or "1314 meaning forever," were very popular.
Compared with portable phones, pagers were already widely accepted. Their global sales were quite impressive, making them the hottest new instant communication tool of the time.
"Pagers? Hey, can I take a look?" Hugo, born just catching the tail of the post-'80s generation before his crossing, didn't have much memory of pagers, since around 1995 they basically began to decline. But later, he had seen many images of pagers online, which made him quite curious about this communication method. Now, with the chance to actually touch a real pager, Hugo immediately grew excited.
Joseph glanced at Hugo and paused. He had wanted to say, "Weren't you going to buy a brick?" But then he thought about it—compared with a brick, a pager actually seemed much more practical. So Joseph held his tongue and didn't try to stop him.
Chris, standing nearby, gave Joseph a look, then cleverly picked up on Hugo's words. "Of course, please follow me." Chris led the way ahead while introducing, "Our Motorola was among the first companies to launch pagers. At present, there are two kinds of devices: one can only display numbers, and one can display text. Currently, our company offers different package options for these two types of machines, along with some additional services, such as weather forecasts, news, and so on."
Arriving at the counter, Chris placed several different models of pagers on the glass surface, then enthusiastically began his introduction. Hugo's attention, however, was not on Chris's presentation at all; he casually picked up one pager and examined it.
The black casing was a little smaller than a cigarette box, fitting neatly in the palm, making it quite easy to carry. On the front was a display screen about two fingers wide—it appeared to be a text-display model. Below were several small buttons, beside which was the "Motorola" logo. The back had a clip that could be fastened to a belt. Instantly, Hugo pictured in his mind the photos he had once seen online: a middle-aged man smoking, wearing a black belt with keys, a pager, and a wallet chain hanging from it, with a large brick strapped at the back. The jacket couldn't possibly cover all these things—that was the stereotypical image of a tacky nouveau riche.
At this thought, Hugo suddenly burst out laughing, causing Chris and Joseph both to turn and look at him. He quickly waved his hand. "Sorry, sorry, don't mind me."
Joseph thought Hugo was expressing satisfaction with this pager, so he opened his mouth to ask, "What packages are available for this one?"
"Oh, after purchasing the device for sixty dollars, the monthly basic fee is twelve dollars. Then we can also include daily instant news as a bonus." Chris quickly introduced, clearly hearing from Joseph's tone the sign of a deal about to be made.
Hugo curled his lips. It was a little cheaper than he had imagined. After all, such a portable mobile tool really did solve many important problems. "Why don't you have a pager at the company?" Hugo suddenly remembered this question. For agents, keeping constant contact with clients was very important. A pager could solve many hassles, yet Joseph didn't have one.
Joseph shrugged. "When you first took over, your work wasn't that much, remember?" Now, when they talked about the things that had happened in the past year, there was no obstacle anymore; they could bring it up casually, even the Golden Raspberry Awards could be used as a joking topic. "But Ron has two pagers." Hugo turned his head with a doubtful look. "One for people he's familiar with, and one just for handing out as a number for greetings and social niceties." Hugo suddenly understood.
"So, how about it, do you need to buy two? If possible, I think Kal would need one too—you know, he's also starting to get busy now." Compared to the expensive and impractical brick, Joseph naturally preferred the pager, and he and Kal could both afford it.
Now, besides Charlize, much of Alex's work was also being handled by Kal. After all, Joseph recently had no spare time because of Hugo's busy schedule. So both Kal and Joseph's workloads had sharply increased, and they really did need to make more preparations.
Chris's gaze involuntarily shifted toward Hugo, because he knew who held the deciding power. Looking at Hugo before him, Chris found him increasingly familiar. More precisely, not just familiar—recently Hugo's image had been everywhere. A Few Good Men had been the only sweeping success of December. To not recognize this face was truly not easy.
"Hey, you—you're Hugo, right? I mean, Hugo Lancaster?" Chris asked tentatively. If it really was Hugo, then today's business was certain. Recently, Hugo's career was burning hot. At this thought, Chris couldn't help but let a smile spread across his face.
"Yes." Hugo turned his head toward Chris, revealing a brilliant smile, radiating great approachability. But the words he said next were destined to disappoint Chris. "Thank you for your introduction, but I think we don't need a pager. Thank you."
Chris's smile froze stiff at the corners of his mouth, disappointment climbing across his brows. This was truly awful.
.....
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