The man from Wharf Cable was a consummate salesman. In 10 minutes, the smooth talking youngster had persuaded the Spice Trader to sign up for a Cable TV contract and pay for a year's worth of films on the pay-TV channels.
This may not seem particularly remarkable, but anyone who knows this writer will realise the man's peerless sales skills.
The Spice Trader loathes television. He knows it to be an evil corporate weapon designed to subliminally distort people's brains.
He tours schools in Hong Kong, giving lectures against television. He refuses to let his children watch anything at all.
Subsequently, the Wharf Cable people efficiently installed the various boxes into the living room, collected their cheque, and went off to the next building.
The first night, the black box just stood idle, since the family was conditioned to do other typical Hong Kong family things in the evenings, such as converse with each other, read books, make pirate software, burn copies of the Basic Law and so on.