1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 125: The Phone Calls Are Ringing
According to the "Hong Kong Yearbook" published in the 50s, as early as ten years ago, there were more than TV users in Hong Kong watching TVB programs.

At that time, Asia Television, which was still called Rediffusion Television, had only more than 8 subscribers.

After the advent of color television, ATV used the TV series "The Good Earth" to snatch more than half of TVB's users.

But then it lost ground to TVB's "The Bund 2" and "God of Gamblers", leaving ATV powerless to fight back.

It was not until 1982 that businessman Qiu Degeng acquired the shares of Asia Television, and then he launched the Qin Shi Huang, Yang Family Generals, Miss Asia Beauty Pageant... one after another, and finally stabilized the downward trend.

This also brought the war between TV stations to a temporary end.

At this time, the number of users of the two TV stations in Hong Kong has exceeded one million.

Millions of TV users versus Secret Garden's pitiful twelve phones.

The result was that as soon as the prime-time commercials at 8 o'clock ended, telephones began to ring one after another in the office lobby.

Zhai Yuan’s advertisement was very cunning, and he never mentioned the nine-dollar-per-minute call charge.

The advertisement simply said "1.5 cents, Secret Garden", misleading the audience into thinking that the charge per minute was only 1.5 cents, but in fact the price was charged by the second.

It is already foreseeable how many innocent people will receive high bills from the telephone company tomorrow.

Of course, there is a limit for each call. This is the current regulation of the telephone company. Each call to a commercial number cannot exceed ten minutes.

Even so, the terrifying money-making ability of pay phones was still fully demonstrated at this time.

"One order, two orders, three orders..."

Zhai Yuan counted on the watch. Since the advertisement was broadcast, the number of phone calls received within ten minutes has exceeded twenty.

The employees received a commission of 10 cents per minute, so they used all means to prevent the customers from hanging up the phone.

"Good evening, my name is Nana~"

Shen Nana, who is nearly 40 years old, spoke in a sweet voice, as if there was a layer of sugar in her throat: "Hehe~ This is the first time brother called me. What do you want to talk about? As long as brother wants to talk about the topic, Nana is willing~"

Don't say 'I', use nicknames instead.

Although this was all trained by Zhai Yuan, even he himself couldn't help but get goosebumps at this moment.

Sweet Nana was chatting with the user on the other end of the phone while trimming her nose hair in front of the mirror, and she had the guy on the other end of the phone under her control.

Born as prostitutes, they are as knowledgeable in this area as Boss Qiao. They can learn any martial arts at a glance and become proficient with just a little practice.

After practicing on and off for half a year, I can now handle the endless orders with ease.

Feeling sleepy during the night shift? Not happening.

In the past, not only did I have to work night shifts, but I was also bullied by the customers.

Now, just open your mouth and the company will provide you with free throat lozenges, tea, coffee and cigarettes to keep you awake.

The boss’ only requirement is to let customers talk for a full ten minutes before hanging up.

Ten minutes or one hour, very easy.

…………

Hong Kong Island.

A man in his thirties, after watching a program on TV, dialed the Secret Garden's hotline out of curiosity.

"Oh ha~"

A full of energy voice immediately came from the receiver.

The man was a little embarrassed. This was his first time making such a call and he didn't know how to start.

Just as I was hesitating whether to hang up, the voice on the other end rang again.

"Hey, why aren't you talking? Is my phone broken? Weird~"

There was a tapping sound coming from the receiver, and just by the sound he could imagine that a lively girl was fiddling with the phone with a frown on her face, curiously.

She has such a playful voice, she must be very cute too.

"Hello, can you hear me?" the man asked tentatively.

"Ah~ Turns out the phone isn't broken, good evening~"

The energetic girl said mischievously: "My name is Qingzi, I am eighteen years old, are you my brother or my uncle?"

The man lied inexplicably: "I'm 25 years old, just call me brother."

"Okay, brother~ No, your voice sounds very young, you are not deliberately taking advantage of me, right? There will be punishment for lying to me~"

"No no."

The man coughed twice, not even noticing the smile on his face. He couldn't help but lower his voice and asked, "What's your punishment?"

"Wow! Your voice sounds better again. You really were lying to me!"

The energetic girl hummed and said, "Let me think about it."

Ten seconds passed as she thought about it. The man seemed to see her biting her fingers and frowning as she thought. "I figured it out! I punish you by making you sing a song for me!"

The energetic girl suddenly clapped her hands and said excitedly, "Your voice is so nice, you must be very stylish when singing, hurry up! Don't be lazy!"

After a few more words, the man began to sing Roman Tam's version of "The Flying Dagger of Li" affectionately into the receiver.

At first there were cries of surprise from the other end of the phone, but eventually it became quiet. He felt that the girl must have been impressed by his singing voice.

"Okay, we're done. Now it's your turn to sing a song for your brother."

I held the receiver and waited for a while, but there was silence on the other end.

Huh? The man looked at the screen curiously. It had only been seven minutes, but the phone was still on?
"Hello, hello? Haruko, can you hear me?"

…………

In the Secret Garden office lobby.

Xia Qingzi, a thirty-something woman with two children, wrapped a special sound-proofing sponge around the telephone receiver, and her voice became as rough as ever.

"I'll pick that one! The old pervert is playing a ghost. Even Luo Wen's songs are too old-fashioned. And he still says he's only 25 years old. I'll pick him!"

She stood up and stretched her waist, then took a pack of tissues and ran to the bathroom: "Let that idiot sing slowly, I'm going to take a shit first."

When passing by the door, she bumped into Chen Jiale and Liang Zhichao who were coming in. Xia Qingzi greeted them with a cigarette in her mouth.

“Is it such a big scene?”

After watching the advertisement on TV, Carlos Chan and Leung Chi Chiu both rushed to the company, and were then startled by the incessant ringing of the phone.

Working eight hours a night, one phone can earn more than 4,000 yuan a day, 10 phones would be 40,000 yuan, more than 1 million yuan a month...

The two cousins made a rough calculation and then trembled with excitement.

"It's time for the backup staff to come on board."

Zhai Yuan patted Chen Jiale on the shoulder and said, "The boom period is only in the first few months. After that, the business will slowly cool down like the video hall. Let them start training new people after get off work. The salary will be calculated based on overtime. The new people will be trained for a week at most and then work in two shifts, day and night. The new people will work the day shift and the old people will work the night shift. We have to reap this wave of quick money as soon as possible before others can react."

"Do you want to install a few more telephones?"

Liang Zhichao asked excitedly: "The hall looks quite empty now."

"Need not."

Zhai Yuan picked up a throat lozenge from the employee's workstation who was answering the phone, peeled it, put it in his mouth, and shook his head at him.

Twelve telephones is the limit for this office hall. If there are more, the sounds will be mixed.

If the business is good enough, we can rent the floor below next month and install a few more phones to expand the business. There is no need to affect the user experience just to save a little money.

This office building has nine floors in total.

Zhai Yuan felt that if all went well, he could buy or rent the entire building this year.

After a few years when the bonus period of pay phones is over and the number of people following the trend is large, we will reap the last crop of profits and immediately transform ourselves into a telephone dating service center.

At that time, more than a dozen small compartments will be set up on each floor, and male customers will be invited to come into the store to make friends. Interested ladies can call in by themselves, whether you want to chat to relieve boredom or to find a marriage partner or date.

Men come to the store and women call.

In short, all calls from ladies are free, and only male customers’ phone calls, drinks, and agency service fees are charged.

The employees who have transformed from prostitutes can be used as agents in the future. Maybe they will meet their true love and get married.

When doing business, of course you have to plan three steps ahead, so that those who follow you will always be left behind.

"I have a royal bomb in my hand. I can win by playing single cards!"

After that comes the era of computer internet cafes…it’s too far away to think about it for now.

Zhai Yuan shook his head. Current computers can only be used for office work. The development of a recycle bin function for Apple II and the upgrade of its memory to 48KB had to be widely publicized in newspapers.

It's no use. Wait until I make enough money to poach Jobs, Andrew and Gatsby to my brothers.

In the future, computers and mobile phones must be able to switch between iOS, Android and Windows systems at any time!

Zhai Yuan is ambitious and starts a life of unrealistic fantasies.

Until he was awakened by Ni Wawawa, an employee at the workstation next to him.

"Boss, a woman called in and asked if we have a male operator. Would you like to try?"

Ni Wawa covered the receiver and winked at Zhai Yuan.

Zhai Yuan became interested, cleared his throat, and took the receiver from her.

He lowered his voice and greeted the other side with a bubbling voice: "Hi, baby."

In the office lobby of Secret Garden, the phone continued to ring.

PS: It was blocked again. I don’t know what went wrong. It’s so weird.
(End of this chapter)