Chapter 674: Telephone
Chapter 674: Telephone
When Jiang Xia saw how excited Great-Grandma was, she asked curiously, "Who’s looking for us?"
Several women were sorting fish jerky outside Great-Grandma’s house.
These fish jerky would be sold to Jiang Xia’s family.
One of the women couldn’t wait to say, "It seems like someone from the post and telecommunications office came with a group of people, saying they’re here to install a telephone at your place. Xia, did you apply for a telephone?"
Jiang Xia replied, "Yes, we did. Did they say when they’ll come back?"
Great-Grandma said, "They said they’d install it today. If you miss it, you’ll have to wait for the higher-ups to reschedule. I told them you’d be back around two or three in the afternoon and could let them in. They went to pull the lines first, saying it would take half a day."
When Jiang Xia returned, she indeed saw workers pulling telephone lines by the roadside, thinking it might be for their home.
At that moment, two postal and telecommunications workers arrived.
"Is Comrade Zhao Cheng Lei back?"
Zhou Mu quickly said, "He’s back. I’m Zhao Cheng Lei’s mother."
"We are postal and telecommunications workers. You applied for a telephone last month, and we’re here to install it."
Their attitude was quite good.
After all, in this era, families that could install telephones at home were not ordinary.
Jiang Xia knew that household telephones became widespread in the 1990s, and even then, applying for a telephone required queuing up.
The installation fee was expensive, and it wasn’t cheap now either.
Zhou Fu smiled and said, "Finally, we can get it installed! Please come in."
The two workers walked into the house.
The village women followed them inside.
None of them had ever seen how a telephone was installed.
As soon as they entered, the workers saw a set of leather furniture in the living room and were secretly amazed!
They had installed many telephones, but this was the first time they saw such a grand house and furniture in the village.
Even in the city and county town, such grandeur was rare, and even the homes of high-ranking officials didn’t compare.
What kind of background did this family have?
The workers looked around the living room and asked, "Do you want the telephone installed in the living room or a bedroom?"
Jiang Xia said, "In the living room."
"Which corner? Next to the TV cabinet or the sofa?"
Jiang Xia said, "Next to the sofa."
Installing the telephone next to the sofa made it convenient to sit while answering the phone. Installing it next to the TV cabinet would require standing, and it would be inconvenient with the TV on.
Jiang Xia thought about installing an extension phone in Zhou Chengsen’s house, so she asked, "Comrade, how much does it cost to install an extension phone?"
The worker replied, "On the second floor? It will cost about a hundred to two hundred yuan extra."
Jiang Xia said, "Then please install one on the second floor, in the study."
"Sure."
The villagers heard that installing an extension phone on the second floor cost two hundred yuan and asked Zhou Mu, "Is installing a telephone very expensive? How much did you pay for yours?"
Zhou Mu said, "It’s very expensive! Besides the installation fee, you have to buy the telephone, and the telephone line costs extra. Choosing a number also costs money! If you need to install a telephone pole to pull the line, that’s even more expensive. From the production team to our house, they said we need at least a thousand meters of line. Luckily, our village has electricity, so we can use the existing poles. Otherwise, it would cost even more!"
Zhou Mu didn’t know the exact amount, but she saw her younger son give her second son several thousand yuan to pay the installation fee.
She wasn’t sure if it was all spent.
Zhou Mu knew that the factory and the capital city had also installed telephones recently, but the prices were different.
Zhou Mu couldn’t understand how these installation fees were set, finding it very unreasonable.
Why the discrimination?
Moreover, the electricity in the village was more expensive than in the city! What was the logic behind that?
Wasn’t the income in the city higher than in the village?
Great-Grandma was surprised, "Besides the installation fee, you have to pay other fees?"
"Yes, I thought paying the installation fee would be enough, but there’s also a material fee! Luckily, our village is close to the production team, and they already have a telephone, so we can pull the line from their box, making the material fee cheaper. If the production team didn’t have a telephone, we’d have to pull the line from the county town, which would be much more expensive!"
The workers overheard their conversation but didn’t explain that the installation fee was high due to the construction of the machine room, the cost of the lines, and the investment in equipment.
Last year, their office introduced a programmable switchboard, and to quickly recover the cost of the equipment, the installation fee was much higher than before, even more expensive than in other cities.
But compared to the construction and equipment costs, the installation fee was nothing!
A villager asked, "Now that you’ve installed it, will it be cheaper for us to install one? My house is only a few hundred meters away, so we won’t need a telephone pole, right? We can just nail the line to the wall."
Zhou Mu shook her head, "I don’t know, but it should be a bit cheaper?"
"Do you think anyone can install one just like that? Xia can because she runs a food workshop."
"Exactly, not only does Xia run a food factory, but her brother is a high-ranking official in the county town, giving them the qualifications to install one."
Someone couldn’t help but ask Zhou Mu, "I heard your brother-in-law got a promotion recently?"
After the production team reform, the leadership in the county town also changed. Zhou Chengsen, due to his outstanding work ability and high education, was indeed promoted by the leadership.
Mentioning this, Zhou Mu was happy and laughed, "What’s the use of a promotion if the salary doesn’t increase? With more responsibilities, the salary barely went up."
"Promotion and salary increase, of course, the salary should go up! You’re amazing; all your sons are capable."
"Where’s the skill? Just lucky, that’s all." Zhou Mu talked with the villagers while watching the workers install the telephone.
...
Nearly ten workers were pulling lines and installing the telephone, busy until almost five-thirty.
The workers had Jiang Xia and her family test the telephone.
Jiang Xia immediately called her father.
The workers watched as Jiang Xia dialed the number on the telephone, giving her an extra glance.
Once the call connected, Jiang Xia happily said, "Dad, are you off work? We’ve installed the telephone at home."
Then, Jiang Xia gave her father a four-digit telephone number.
The four-digit number was easy to remember and matched the last four digits of Jiang Xia’s birthday. Her father immediately memorized it.
He then said to his daughter, "Tomorrow, I don’t have much work in the afternoon. I’ll take a leave to send you to the airport."
Jiang Xia replied, "No need, Second Brother will take us."
Since it was just a test call, Jiang Xia spoke a few more words to her father and hung up.
Seeing no issues with the telephone, the workers finished and left.
Zhao Cheng Lei gave each of them a pack of cigarettes, and Jiang Xia gave them a few bags of spicy crispy fish snacks.
After the workers left, a villager said, "Xia, what’s your telephone number? Can you write it down for me? Next time my son calls, I can give him your number, and he can call you directly. I won’t have to go all the way to the production team to answer the call."
Other villagers also asked Jiang Xia for her telephone number.
Everyone might need a telephone in an emergency, and they were all neighbors who often helped each other. Jiang Xia wrote down a few telephone numbers for them.
Tian Caifua immediately thought of a way to make money.
(End of Chapter)
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