After completing my life's work, I achieved financial freedom.

Chapter 5: Compensation for My Past Self

When I walked out of the ramen shop, my belly was already noticeably bulging, the sun was high in the sky.

This bowl of ramen took Gu Bai almost an hour to finish.

On one hand, the ramen portion was indeed quite large; on the other hand, he no longer had to rush through meals like a cow or a horse. Now, the one thing he had in abundance was time...

Looking at the bustling in77 not far away, Gu Bai fell into deep thought.

Although he has been studying and working in Hangzhou for more than five years, he has actually visited in77 very few times, and for a moment he didn't know where to start.

After standing there for a moment to think, Gu Bai slapped his forehead and cursed himself for being narrow-minded.

Since I don't know what I want to buy anyway, why bother thinking about where to start shopping?

Just read whichever page the wind blows to, and if you see something you've always wanted, just buy it.

After thinking it through, Gu Bai stepped into the crowd.

As a popular tourist destination, Hangzhou is undoubtedly the most famous city in China for its handsome men and beautiful women.

Especially in shopping malls like Yintai, handsome men and beautiful women are practically the least of your worries.

Gu Bai, with his simple clothes and ordinary appearance, looked like an anomaly among them.

But life doesn't have that many spectators. This is reality, not those movies, TV series, or novels, so not many people care about the ordinary Gu Bai.

Naturally, no one would dare to give Gu Bai a hard time...

However, in77 was still too high-end for Gu Bai. Many of the brands there were ones he had never even seen before, leaving him empty-handed after wandering around for so long...

"If all else fails, let's go buy some electronics..."

Completely at a loss, Gu Bai looked toward the Apple Store not far away.

He has never had a strong desire for clothes since he was a child, so it's unrealistic for him to complete the task of releasing the system by buying clothes. But mobile phones are different, especially the latest Apple phones.

After junior high school, every time Apple released a new phone, classmates from well-off families would buy it and show it off at school.

This made Gu Bai really want to own one back then, but unfortunately his family didn't have the money to buy one for him when he was in school, and he couldn't bear to spend more than a month's salary to buy one after he started working. So he used the Honor phone he had for three years and then another three years...

This year marks the sixth year that his Honor Play4 has been with him.

"Let's let our old friend retire today!"

Touching the noticeably rough feel of the Honor phone in his pocket, Gu Bai walked towards the Apple Store.

As soon as he entered the store, a staff member came up to greet Gu Bai.

"Hello, welcome to iPhone. How can I help you?"

In the past, if this situation had occurred, Gu Bai would most likely have waved his hand timidly and said he was just looking around.

But he's not the poor guy he used to be anymore. Now he has at least a hundred thousand yuan in his pocket. As the saying goes, money gives a man courage.

He is now like Zhao Yun at Changban Slope—full of courage.

Do you have the latest iPhone in stock?

Although Gu Bai had always had the urge to buy the latest Apple phone, that urge was just that—an urge. He really couldn't bear to spend the money.

Therefore, he was not very familiar with Apple's offline sales situation and did not know whether the time for buying the new phone had passed. In order to avoid the situation where he looked for a long time and then found out that the other party was out of stock, Gu Bai thought it would be better to ask the other party first if they had any.

"Sir, if you need to check your phone, you can come this way with me."

Gu Bai breathed a sigh of relief and gestured for the other party to lead the way.

Although the shop assistant said they had the items in stock, the store was still very crowded, which made Gu Bai, who was eager to complete the system task, feel a little urgency.

It's not that he can't buy it after today, it's just that he doesn't want to wait until tomorrow.

He was extremely curious about what kind of reward the all-powerful system would bring him.

"What other colors do you have for the ProMax 2T version? Do you still have silver?"

Gu Bai wasn't particularly fond of the new orange color; he'd never really liked items in that color. If possible, he'd prefer to buy a silver one.

"Yes, let me show you the demo unit first."

After a moment's thought, the shop assistant nodded affirmatively and gestured for Gu Bai to follow her to the experience area.

"Sir, here is the color scheme and model you requested. You can feel the texture and size first."

Gu Bai took the demo unit from the salesperson. The demo unit felt slightly cool to the touch and had a decent weight. The only thing Gu Bai wanted to complain about was the size of the phone.

It would be so inconvenient to carry this in your pocket to work...

Uh...it seems he doesn't have to go to work, so it's fine. This shortcoming isn't really a shortcoming.

"Hmm, it's alright, I'll take this one."

Gu Bai made the decision without hesitation.

"Okay sir, please wait a moment while I go to the back warehouse to get you a brand new, in-stock item. Please have a seat in the rest area here for a while."

After the clerk finished speaking, and Gu Bai nodded in confirmation, she walked into the staff passage on one side and headed towards the warehouse.

Instead of resting in the lounge, Gu Bai wandered around the lobby. As one of the largest Apple stores in Asia, the store had a very complete selection of Apple products. Gu Bai scanned the items in the lobby, recalling whether he had ever wanted a particular item.

But after looking around, Gu Bai couldn't find anything he desperately wanted but couldn't get.

Take computers for example. Gu Bai did want to buy a computer, but he wanted a desktop computer that could run AAA games smoothly, not a useless laptop.

After circling around and returning to her original spot, the clerk who had just left returned with a white box bearing the Apple logo. After confirming Gu Bai's location, she came up to him with a smile and said...

"Sir, this is the iPhone 17 Pro Max in original titanium 2TB that you requested. It's brand new, unopened, and the price is 17999 yuan. You can check the information on the outer packaging to verify it."

Stealing the young master?!

This phone actually costs 17999 yuan?

Well, I originally thought I could afford it with one or two months' salary, but I never imagined it would take three months of saving every penny to buy one...

If it weren't for his father, Tongzi, he probably would never have been willing to spend this money to buy a cell phone in his entire life.

Despite his shock, Gu Bai picked up the box and glanced at it casually, indicating that there was nothing wrong with it.

"Okay, this one will do. We'll do it via WeChat."

To be honest, this was the first time Gu Bai had ever spent over ten thousand yuan in such a casual tone.

This feeling...

Just one word.

Cool!

It's a kind of exhilarating feeling where you don't feel bad about spending money and only care about whether you like the things you buy.

This is not extravagance, but compensation for my past self.

The only thing that Gu Bai found somewhat regrettable was that the shop assistants didn't show the same level of shock as those in the novel.

........