The next day, Su Zelin had breakfast at home.

"Mom, I'm going out to get some information!"

He told his mom and then headed out the door.

It's so nice not to have any restrictions. I can stroll into an internet cafe without a care and come back whenever I want, hehe!

"Going online, what information are you getting?"

Watching her son leave, Zhao Lixia started muttering again but didn't stop him.

Once permissions are granted, it's hard to take them back!

Besides, her husband also mentioned that if you're going to play the stock market, it's crucial to have first-hand information. The internet is the fastest, even better than news outlets and newspapers. If you have the right channels, you might even get some insider secrets.

Riding his bike out of the alley, Su Zelin didn't head straight to the internet cafe or look for Lu Haoran.

Before hanging out, there's something he needed to do.

With over 160,000 RMB in his account, it was more than enough to start a business after going to college. You couldn't expect to achieve big things at the start.

Besides starting a business, this money should also be used for enjoyment.

Su Zelin planned to buy a mobile phone first.

As someone who has been reborn, not having a phone feels very inconvenient.

Although phones now are not very functional, mostly just for calls and texts, they're still convenient for staying in touch!

He arrived at the city's big mobile phone store. It was eight o'clock, and they had just opened, but there were few customers this early, the place was deserted, mostly just sales personnel inside.

"Hello, welcome!"

A female sales assistant greeted him.

Looking around, among all the salespeople, this female assistant seemed quite young and pleasing to the eye.

Yeah, she'll do!

"I'd like to see some phones!"

Su Zelin stated his purpose directly.

"Sure, please follow me!"

The sales assistant led Su Zelin to a counter lined with many antique models.

Indeed, in Su Zelin's eyes, they were all antiques.

But he had no choice; that's just how phones were at this time.

"This is the latest model from Nokia, the 3310. It comes in many colors like navy blue, polar silver, desert yellow, glacier gray, snowy white, volcano red, light blue, and transparent. It has a big battery with over five days of standby time. It's a great value, priced just above a thousand. It's been a hot seller recently!"

The female sales assistant picked up a bar phone from the counter and began her smooth pitch.

With his student-like appearance, customers like him typically have limited budgets when buying phones, so they tend to be most interested in budget-friendly, entry-level models suitable for young people.

The Nokia 3310 was a very classic model from 2000, regarded as a heavyweight product. Its affordability, durability, and variety of colors made it popular.

The 3310 mainly promoted its color options. The idea of changing shells as a core technology started at this time for Nokia.

This era did not focus on CPU, memory, or flashy functions.

For a thousand, what more could you want!

But Su Zelin just glanced and looked away.

The 3310 was indeed good, but it didn't fit his identity as someone with a hundred-thousand RMB, pass!

Seeing that Su Zelin's eyes barely lingered on this entry-level phone, the female salesperson knew he wasn't interested, so she took out another one.

"How about this Siemens 3508? It's slightly more expensive than the Nokia 3310, but it's more compact, with colors like traditional black, dark brown, crystal blue, and seagull gray!"

But the sight of the antenna bothered him, and he immediately lost interest. Plus, it was just another thousand-dollar phone, not impressive enough to flaunt.

Before the sales assistant could introduce more, Su Zelin cut in, "I want to buy something high-end, as long as it's under four thousand."

He could afford something over four thousand, but it was unnecessary.

Cheap ones aren't impressive, and the overly expensive ones are just paying a premium for nothing.

So, the three-to-four thousand range seemed just right.

The sales assistant was slightly stunned.

Looks like he's a rich kid!

She then led Su Zelin to the mid to high-end counter.

She began showcasing phones in the three-thousand range in detail.

The 2000 mobile phone market was dominated by Nokia and Motorola, but Samsung had been quietly rising, taking the mid to high-end route.

One had to admit, the industrial design of this global powerhouse's phones was commendable. Their phones were small and exquisite, especially their flip phones. Many would fall for them at first glance, but they're expensive, costing thousands at a time.

However, Su Zelin wasn't fond of flip phones, and if he bought this brand, there was a chance Huang Panpan might think he was intentionally buying a couple's phone with her, so he passed on the whole series.

Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Siemens, Xiamen Xin, CECT...

There was even the UTStarcom, though it was a lesser-known phone.

Little Smart had cheaper call charges, but poor signals, and sometimes couldn't make or receive calls in other provinces, so it was definitely out.

Finally, Su Zelin's gaze landed on a red Nokia.

The Nokia 8210, aside from the 3310, was the hottest one in 2000.

Just like the 3310, it had vibrant colors like black, bright yellow, soft pink, chili red, coffee brown, mint green, sapphire blue, and crystal white, embodying Nokia's "technology-focused on changing shells" strategy.

In fact, it didn't offer much more than the 3310, but it was a lot more compact. This single advantage added two thousand to its price, placing it in the mid to high-end range.

That's the state of the mobile market twenty years ago. Being able to minimize size was worth the RMB, and additional polyphonic ringtones could add a couple more thousand to the price.

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