Brother Tian~
This one call to Brother Tian hit Old Tian's soft spot.
Not only two agents went out to buy some Nokia 3210, but even Yao Weihong and Fan Qingxi were sent out to make purchases.
Zhanqi Laiden and Shi Feng had to deal with the new rumors created by Qi Hao and couldn't go.
Gao Fei went home to check.
Apparently, she has a small warehouse full of birthday gifts, Children's Day gifts, New Year's gifts, Mid-Autumn gifts from her father... many of which haven't been used.
Qi Hao went out himself too.
An army coat, hat, scarf, paired with a light tan-colored glasses, though he looked somewhat sketchy, at least no one could recognize him as the rising star who recently stumbled on the red carpet.
Everyone was assigned by region to avoid repeated efforts.
Either reach the goal or arrive at the grave!
Qi Hao went to the mobile street at West Gate.
"Boss..."
The boss looked up, and suddenly got a fright, thinking he was being robbed.
Luckily, the next words weren't "Boss, lend me some money."
"Do you have a Nokia 3210?" Qi Hao asked directly, he didn't have time to chat with the boss, there were too many mobile shops waiting for him to visit.
"We have Nokia, the latest model N93i, 3.2-megapixel... there's also the E90, not bad. Wait, what do you want?"
The shop owner suspected he heard wrong.
"3210!"
"Nope!"
"Bye-bye then!"
One shop after another, Qi Hao went to seven or eight without finding anyone with eight-year-old stock.
At most, some shops asked if he wanted second-hand ones.
And they were the kind almost worn down with age.
The Nokia 3210 had a launch price over three thousand, which was two to three months' salary for many people.
No matter how lavish a store might be, they wouldn't stock it.
From ten in the morning till half past one in the afternoon, Qi Hao had combed through three streets without finding one.
Just as he was hesitating whether to continue searching, news came from Zhang Nan.
Qi Hao rushed back to the company to see about ten phone boxes on the table.
"All of them?"
"Yes, all are Nokia 3210s, with other models too, if you want I can fetch them." Zhang Nan nodded.
"I've been searching half a day without finding any, people thought I was crazy! How did you find them?"
Qi Hao felt his intelligence had been humiliated.
He admitted he wasn't very smart and occasionally disliked using his brain, but this huge gap still made him question life.
Could it be he's really underdeveloped cerebellum-wise, with a totally undeveloped brain?
"I also went to several stores and couldn't find them, realized this wasn't the way to find a Nokia 3210, so I changed my approach and called some friends familiar in state-owned enterprises to ask if they have old stock, and indeed found some."
Zhang Nan wasn't overly proud.
He just thought those state enterprises were poorly managed, too wasteful, and lacked accountability.
Truly unsuitable for building a career.
"How much did it cost?" Qi Hao actually didn't need so many.
One would be enough for him.
But since Zhang Nan had gotten them, he didn't mind buying them all, couldn't let an employee pay on their own.
Such a boss isn't human.
"Didn't cost anything, they casually cleared out the inventory for free." Zhang Nan commented indifferently.
"Then I'll treat everyone to a meal, what do you want to eat?"
Qi Hao gave everyone a phone from the ten, keeping only two for himself.
"There's an Akasaka Pavilion at the mall next door that's pretty good." Senior Legal Affairs Yao Weihong's belly immediately gave away that he was a seasoned foodie.
He looked really chubby, because he's never been thin from childhood.
"What's Akasaka Pavilion, I only know Akasaka Reiko." Old Tian casually joked.
"Is Akasaka Reiko delicious?" The coal boss's daughter perked up.
"Don't corrupt the kids!" Marketing Manager Shi Feng rolled his eyes, the company was banking on the coal boss to grow strong in the future.
They came to connect with society, not to handle births.
"Haven't you eaten chestnuts before?" Old Tian turned to quiz Gao Fei.
Gao Fei realized: "Chestnuts, huh? I love eating chestnuts, I'll have auntie make some to bring tomorrow."
The group headed to the restaurant to feast.
Got to say, the people at Qi Hao Studio are quite decent, everyone is especially pleasant.
Most are the type to work if they're paid, even getting treated to a meal by the boss makes them happy.
Meanwhile, Zhanqi Laiden's mouth seemed tethered.
If not particularly necessary, he'd even remain silent.
But Qi Hao suspected him bottling it in like this would inevitably lead to a large-scale revenge on colleagues after passing the probation period.
"Dong Jie seems to be with Pan Yueming, boss, did you have a fling with her?" Gao Fei curiously asked.
Only she dared to ask such a thing to the boss.
"Dong Jie, huh, no... right?" Qi Hao helplessly glanced toward Old Tian.
After all, the entertainment circle is quite small, even without collaboration, chances for intersection at events are high.
Especially with overlapping social circles, it's easy to get introduced.
"See, he's uncertain himself." Old Tian chuckled.
He's always suggesting that Qi Hao should give him guardianship of Ao Bai.
Qi Hao isn't suited to raising Ao Bai.
He's more suited to raising a husky, which would match him perfectly.
"And what about Liu Tao? Why didn't you go to her and Wang Ke's wedding, boss? Is their love real? I have a netizen who says Liu Tao is just after Wang Ke's money."
Gao Fei seems more interested in this kind of internet gossip.
In fact, the reason she agreed to work for her dad, besides her dad crying so pitifully, was to listen to some showbiz gossip up close and share it with the wild boys back home.
"I'm not familiar with them, so I didn't attend. Also, I'm not very keen on attending weddings of wealthy families. As for the two of them... I think it might have been love at first sight."
Qi Hao didn't really know how to explain.
At around the same age, look at Zhang Nan: excellent work capability, totally focused on his career; then look at Gao Fei, she's simply a... wealthy little slacker.
"Pft~" Old Tian snorted but didn't say anything sarcastic.
Zhanqi Laiden stuffed another piece of meat into his already full mouth.
He was so stuffed that his eyeballs were almost popping out.
Absolutely incapable of making any sarcastic comments.
"Is Fan Xuexue's hand soft?" Seeing that the boss was quite amiable, Gao Fei got bolder.
"It's okay." Qi Hao didn't know how to evaluate this.
"Then..." Gao Fei was clearly not satisfied with this answer.
"That's enough from you." Qi Hao was getting a bit scared of her now, are you a curious baby or what, with so many questions.
Are they soft or not, what kind of weird question is this.
Those who don't know might think you're a female lecher.
As your dad's brother, don't blame me for criticizing you.
"Celebrities are no different from normal people, at most the entertainment industry's beauties are slightly more numerous, don't take celebrities too seriously."
Old Tian offered a word of advice.
"I'm just curious, if next time our boss goes to shoot a film or meet some celebrities, can I tag along to see?"
Apart from having endless money at home, Gao Fei is just an ordinary girl.
Moreover, she's the kind that hasn't been overly tainted by knowledge and society.
"Sure, but don't embarrass me too much."
What else could Qi Hao say?
Actually, many people in the entertainment industry are quite gossipy too.
Qi Hao has signed many autographs in crews.
It's just that perhaps out of jealousy, or concern about transferring interests, many stars dislike their team members being fans of other stars.
Qi Hao doesn't care much about these things.
He's not demanding much from employees, just that they do their jobs well.
Everyone's born of moms and raised by dads, there's no need to treat others like servants.
With just a few days left until New Year's Day, Qi Hao decided to take Ao Bai back home.
It's too many days of New Year to leave Ao Bai alone in the capital without worrying.
Besides, Qi Hao's hometown of Jinmen is not far from here.
He could just drive himself.
After the studio was established, the company purchased several cars, allegedly to some extent for tax deductions.
After more than two hours of driving, Qi Hao returned to his hometown.
Of course, he didn't forget to bring his Nokia 3210.
"Hey, isn't this little Qi Hao! The big star has come home!"
The granny on the first floor saw Qi Hao and immediately shouted with vigor.
"Grandma, did you eat yet? Please don't tease me, I'm no big star." Qi Hao quickly begged for mercy.
After chatting with the old granny downstairs for a while, he escaped upstairs.
Qi Hao's family lives in a century-old residence.
Back then, Jinmen was forced to become a nine-nation concession, and many old houses like these contributed to the so-called "World Architecture Expo" today.
Later, these old houses were allocated to the poor.
Outside, they look like row houses, but inside, they're shabby and very inconvenient.
Qi Hao's parents are elementary school teachers, and they also got a house.
He's been trying to get his parents to move out and buy them an apartment to live in, but they've lived there for decades and are used to it, so they've always refused to move.
"Dad, Mom, I'm back!"
Qi Hao put the cat cage on the ground and knocked on the door with one hand.
"What's all this stuff?" Mr. Qi opened the door, saw his son with lots of bags, and couldn't help but frown.
"It's New Year's, I bought some things. Where's Mom?"
Qi Hao handed the cat cage to his dad and followed him into the house.
Their family qualifies as dual-income, so they got a slightly larger area, which doesn't feel so cramped, but it still isn't quite spacious for a family of four.
"She went to the market with your sister, they insisted on going despite the crowd there."
The old man grumbled as he got some clothes for Qi Hao.
The home heating had been remodeled, making it excessively warm, and if Qi Hao didn't take off his outdoor clothes, he'd soon be overheated.
"Dad, I need to discuss something with you."
"Go on, say it!"
"Promise you won't get mad when I say it." Qi Hao was feeling a bit intimidated.
"What's that supposed to mean, got a Kitty cat stuck in your throat? Just spit it out, why are you hesitating."
The old man got more annoyed the more he looked at Qi Hao's hesitant face.