I stood on the curb side cursing myself. “You moron!”
Thirty minutes earlier, I got into the taxi and noticed the driver is a woman, a rare event in Beijing. My phone chirped. I replied to several WeChat messages and arranged meetings accordingly. I turned my attention to the weird CCTV building from close-up, then many sky scrapers nearby. A thought came to my mind…
“Would you be able to come pick me up in the afternoon?” I asked. “Sorry, I cannot really predict where would I be.” “That’s OK. I am also thinking of renting a car for the weekend. Are you available?” “Sorry, sir, I don’t work over the weekend.”
This is when I notice the cell phone mounted at the left corner of the windshield. In the US, that will be Uber. “Which service do you participate for the mobile?” “I do Di-Di. But over 90% of the guests are from normal street traffic.” “Do you consider joining Baidu’s taxi service?”, I like to survey people randomly. “No. One phone, one app. Can’t afford two.”
The fare was 29RMB, I gave her 30 and told her to keep the change. As I walked up to the building, I noticed my cell phone was not in my pocket.
Imagine yourself just lost your phone right now! How many seconds would you wait to curse?
Rushed into the office, I dialed my cell. No answer. This is typical. The moment someone picks up a lost phone, he/she turns it off. I started to consider going to the corner “3C” store to buy a new one. Which make/model? How much should I pay? Hmm…
Five minutes later, I tried again. It rang! The driver answered. She could only come back in about 40 minutes. We rendezvoused where she dropped me off. I paid her RMB100 and thanked her. As she drove away, she said, “I did this only because you were nice to me.”
I watched the taxi disappearing into the river of cars. My phone said I have 3 missed calls and 28 messages.