Joseph had both hands on the steering wheel, his brows furrowed as if deep in thought about some serious problem. Hugo, sitting in the passenger seat, unbuckled his seatbelt and was about to get out, but he noticed Joseph still hadn't moved. He turned and said, "Get out."Joseph looked up at Hugo. "Are you serious?"Hugo's right hand, which was on the door handle, simply pushed it, opening the car door and stepping out. He said to Joseph, "You've been nagging the whole way. Don't you get tired?"Joseph quickly got out of the car too, catching up to Hugo. "Are you really going to buy a brick (The Brick)?"Hearing the apt nickname, Hugo laughed. "Yes, that's why we came to Motorola. Look, we're already at the store.""But, but I heard this thing is completely useless. You can't hear what the other person is saying, and you often can't even reach them. Plus, it's so heavy and inconvenient," Joseph said, still frowning and complaining.Hugo let out a long sigh. "I know, I know everything you're saying, but trust me, buying it will truly be useful."In Los Angeles in 1992, Hugo was finally about to connect with technological life. Today, he decided to buy a mobile phone! This kind of thing would be meaningless to discuss twenty years later, but today, it was a new invention that shook everyone's perceptions.Mobile phones were invented as early as 1973, but they didn't officially come into use until 1983. Over the past nine years, the development of mobile phones had been very slow, with no more than 300,000 mobile phone users across the United States. Compared to landlines, mobile phones still didn't have many advantages. The unclear call quality was not only due to the scarcity of cell towers, but also fundamentally due to technical limitations of the phones themselves. And the so-called "portable" advantage was almost non-existent due to their large, brick-like size.People jokingly called the current mobile phones "shoe phones," meaning heavy and bulky devices like shoes. Later, the more widely circulated nickname was "brick," mocking wealthy people who walked around the streets carrying a brick. This shows the difficult situation of mobile phones in the market at that time.So, when Hugo suggested buying a mobile phone, Joseph thought Hugo had gone crazy. However, Hugo possessed a soul from twenty-two years in the future, and a life without a mobile phone or internet was simply unimaginable. Before this, Hugo didn't have the financial means to improve his life and could only passively adapt. But now, the remaining two million from "A Few Good Men" had arrived, and the plan to buy a mobile phone immediately popped into Hugo's mind.As one of the world's leading telecommunications companies, Motorola had branches in major cities, but the number of branches where mobile phones could be purchased was very limited. Fortunately, Hugo was in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, which saved a lot of trouble.Walking into Motorola's flagship store in Los Angeles, a sales associate immediately came over. "Good morning, gentlemen, I'm Chris. How can I help you?"Hugo's gaze scanned the interior of the store. There were far fewer counters than he imagined, and the decor was very simple. After entering the 21st century, mobile communication played an increasingly large role in life, so the stores of related industries became more and more luxurious. But at present, even the Motorola Los Angeles flagship store could still be described as rudimentary.Chris Keane approached with a smile. The slightly shorter man's eyes constantly surveyed the store, so his gaze naturally met that of the stronger man. The man in front of him seemed to have something on his mind, frowning and pouting, looking uncertain. Chris knew that to get a sale, he had to take the initiative, so he did."Sir, our store has all kinds of communication tools that will definitely meet your needs," Chris enthusiastically promoted. "Recently, more and more young people are choosing pagers. If you need, I can show them to you."Pagers, also known as beepers or BP machines, were transitional communication devices before the advent of mobile phones. Pagers were actually very simple to use, essentially a portable radio receiver.For example, if Hugo wanted to find Joseph but couldn't, he could call the paging station and leave a message for Joseph's pager number. Then, Joseph's pager would display that someone was calling him, and he could use a nearby public phone to call the paging station and listen to the message. Another example is that pagers could display numbers, which made them a new romantic way to express feelings, with messages like "520 means I love you" and "1314 means forever" being very popular.Compared to mobile phones, pagers were now widely accepted, with impressive sales worldwide, making them the hottest new instant communication tool."Pagers? Hey, can I take a look?" Hugo was part of the generation that caught the tail end of the 80s before he transmigrated. He didn't have many memories of pagers because they generally declined around 1995. However, he had seen many pictures of pagers online later, which made him very curious about this communication method. And now, Hugo actually had the chance to touch a real pager, and he immediately got excited.Joseph looked at Hugo and paused. He had originally wanted to say, "Weren't you going to buy a brick?" But then he thought, compared to a brick, he found a pager much more practical, so Joseph didn't speak up to stop him.Chris glanced at Joseph, then cleverly picked up on Hugo's words. "Of course, please follow me." Chris then led the way, introducing, "Motorola was one of the first companies to launch pagers. Currently, there are two types of machines: one that only displays numbers, and one that can display text. We currently have different package options for both models, and we also offer some additional services, such as weather forecasts and news."Arriving at the counter, Chris placed several different models of pagers on the glass surface and enthusiastically introduced them. Hugo's attention, however, was not on Chris's introduction at all. He casually picked up a pager and examined it.The black body was a bit smaller than a cigarette pack, and it could be held in the palm of his hand, making it very convenient to carry. The front had a two-finger-wide display screen, which seemed to be a model that could display text. Below it were several small buttons, with the "Motorola" logo written next to them. The back had a clip that could be fastened to a belt. Hugo immediately recalled a photo he had seen online: a middle-aged man smoking, wearing a black belt with keys, a pager, and a wallet chain hanging from it, and a large brick clipped to his back. His jacket couldn't even cover all these items. This was the typical image of a nouveau riche from a counterfeit market.Thinking of this, Hugo let out a chuckle, causing Chris and Joseph to turn and look at him. He quickly waved his hands, "Sorry, sorry, don't mind me."Joseph thought Hugo was satisfied with this pager, so he asked, "What packages does this one have?""Oh, after purchasing the machine for sixty dollars, there's a basic monthly fee of twelve dollars, and we can also provide daily instant news," Chris quickly introduced, clearly hearing signs of a successful transaction in Joseph's tone.Hugo pursed his lips. It was a bit cheaper than he expected. After all, this kind of portable mobile device did solve many important problems. "Why don't you have a pager at the company?" Hugo suddenly remembered this question. For agents, maintaining contact with clients at all times was very important, and having a pager could solve a lot of trouble, but Joseph didn't have one.Joseph shrugged. "When I took you on, you didn't have that much work, remember?" Now, when they talked about what happened in the past year, there were no obstacles. It could be said casually, and even the Golden Raspberry Awards could be a topic of jokes. "Ron, on the other hand, had two." Hugo turned his head, casting a questioning look. "One for familiar people, and one as a number given out for casual greetings." Hugo suddenly understood."How about it? Do you need to buy two? If so, I think Carl would need one too. You know, he's starting to get busy now." Compared to the expensive and impractical brick, Joseph naturally preferred the pager, and both he and Carl could afford it.Now, in addition to Charlize, Carl was also helping Alex with a lot of work, as Joseph had no free time recently due to Hugo's busy schedule. So, both Carl and Joseph's workloads had increased sharply, and they indeed needed to make more preparations.Chris's gaze also involuntarily turned to Hugo, because he knew who held the decision-making power. Looking at Hugo in front of him, Chris found him increasingly familiar. To be precise, it wasn't just familiar; Hugo's image had been almost everywhere recently. "A Few Good Men" was the only movie that swept the box office in December, so not recognizing this face was truly not an easy task."Hey, you, are you Hugo? I mean, Hugo Lancaster?" Chris tentatively asked. If it really was Hugo, then today's business would definitely be no problem. Hugo's career was red-hot recently. Thinking of this, Chris's face couldn't help but break into a smile."Yes." Hugo turned to Chris, giving him a bright smile that seemed very approachable, but the words he spoke next were destined to disappoint Chris. "Thank you for the introduction, but I think we don't need a pager, thank you."Chris's smile froze at the corners of his mouth, and disappointment filled his brows: This was truly terrible.
