Chapter 121: Assistant Work

In the rented luxury car, Audrey He Ben and Robert Wodes, seated in the back, were fiddling with an ear-hook wireless earpiece.

This was a self-developed research product that Henry had handed to them while waiting at a red light.

The technology behind this little device was based on the Bluetooth transmission standard released just two years ago; the earliest commercial applications would not appear until seven years later, when giants like Ericsson would achieve preliminary results.

Henry had simply created something for his own use for now. After all, the two users were not that sensitive to tech products, so there was no risk of the technology leaking out.

The reason for developing this was that wireless transceivers of this era required a signal relay device, making personal use extremely cumbersome. Thus, they developed the relatively lightweight Bluetooth earpiece.

Henry also spent some time refining the appearance, making this single-ear ear-hook device look like a fashionable accessory such as an earring, rather than a lab-ready component brimming with mechanical feel.

After both of them put them on, Henry, who was driving, took a moment to activate the bone-conduction microphone on his neck and said, "Microphone test, microphone test, one, two, three. Can you two hear me speaking?"

Lady He Ben exclaimed, "I can really hear the sound."

"Is it clear?"

Robert glanced at the lady beside him and nodded, saying, "Very clear."

Turning off the microphone, Henry asked, "Then does it block outside sounds? Will the ear wearing the earpiece be unable to hear what others are saying?"

"No, I can still hear everything." After Audrey replied, she asked, "Henry, where did you find this kind of earpiece?"

Henry answered, "I have a friend who developed this little gadget; I just borrowed it to use. —"

The "I have a friend" series of excuses worked very well.

"—This way, I can fulfill my duties as an assistant without having to accompany you two at banquets listening to those old men, and instead happily go eat. Anyway, I won't be the protagonist; the protagonists are you two."

"You child." Lady He Ben, who knew how gluttonous this little assistant was, felt both annoyed and amused. She said nothing more.

Actually, at the beginning, Henry really didn't understand what an assistant needed to do when attending banquets. He wasn't the host of the banquet.

An assistant just needed to know when it started, when it ended, and that there was a car for pickup and drop-off, right?

In reality, at social banquets of this nature, an assistant's tasks could be very light or very heavy.

Light meant managing nothing, only paying attention to the scope Henry had originally thought of.

Heavy meant assisting the employer in remembering all attendees' information, most importantly their names and appearances, so that the employer could interact with them warmly like old friends, rather than not even recognizing who they were and needing others to introduce them.

If a participant was a newcomer to the banquet, just entering the social circle, then having someone introduce them was understandable.

But the banquets Audrey He Ben attended were mostly held in her name for fundraising for the United Nations Children's Fund.

In such cases, whether the lady acted like a newcomer, asking everyone for introductions, or could warmly treat everyone as old friends, made a huge difference in fundraising results.

People attending such banquets were mentally prepared to donate generously. But this amount usually had an upper and lower limit; it was unlikely to make someone impulsively donate an amount exceeding the upper limit.

However, as a fundraiser for Lady He Ben, making people feel at home and willing to donate the upper limit of their intended amount was within her duties.

Therefore, knowing who the invited guests were, being able to call out their names immediately, and even having some understanding of their work and achievements, fell within the scope of assistance an assistant could provide.

At the beginning, Henry didn't understand any of this. Lady He Ben did it all herself and taught him along the way.

They had to obtain the guest list from the banquet organizers, then mark those Lady He Ben knew well and those she didn't know at all.

For the former, they might already be old friends of Audrey He Ben, or the two knew each other to a certain extent, so no extra investigation was needed.

But for the latter, they first had to find publicly available photos of the person to link the name to the face. Then they had to investigate the person's public background information, such as being the president of a certain company or the head of a certain institution.

If necessary, they also needed to have some understanding of the fields in which the person specialized.

Besides investigating this information, Lady He Ben also needed to spend time reciting and memorizing these details so she could perform effortlessly at the banquet, treating everyone as warmly and familiarly as old friends she had known for a long time.

For a sixty-year-old elder, staying up late at night memorizing the guest list for the next day's banquet felt like slapping Henry, the assistant, in the face for not being diligent enough.

So Henry took over the work from investigation to memorization. Then, during the banquet, he followed behind Lady He Ben, offering reminders at any moment.

In fact, for most information, the banquet organizers would conduct investigations and provide it to participants who needed it.

However, such banquets were not limited to invitees only; who the invitees would bring and who would come uninvited were all unpredictable. Thus, they had to extend outward from the network of relationships within the guest list.

In this era without the internet to search, wanting to know about a person wasn't as simple as opening a webpage and Googling them. Besides flipping through newspapers themselves, sometimes they even had to hire private detectives.

Certain large public relations firms would have organized business public information that did not involve illegally obtained or illegally disclosed data. One could pay them to obtain it.

If some more secretive matters were needed, it would require a large sum of money, or even hiring a detective.

In short, Henry, shouldering the responsibilities of an assistant, indeed gave Lady He Ben much more rest time.

But following Lady He Ben in the capacity of an assistant had some inconveniences. Because Western banquets had no obvious seating arrangements, most of the time, everyone walked around.

Although Henry stood behind the lady, in the position belonging to an attendant, occasionally he would be squeezed to her side, leading others to mistake him for a companion.

When seeing unfamiliar faces at the banquet, guests conversing would inevitably ask about his identity. After all, Henry's age was in the same range as the lady's second son.

Only then saying he was an assistant was actually awkward for both parties. Mainly because modern banquets were unlike old aristocratic banquets, where the attire of guests and servants was quite distinct, allowing people to distinguish them at a glance.

Plus, Robert Wodes, the life partner certified by the lady, was also present.

The lady was quite enthusiastic about bringing Robert to such social occasions; Robert himself liked it and enjoyed this sense of participation. This was completely different from Henry, who wished to hide and have no one see him.

Henry, this little assistant, certainly could not continue to occupy the position beside the lady, providing face-to-face guest information. Because a trio inseparable as a small group was too cumbersome at a banquet.

So he simply created a set of one-way wireless walkie-talkies to free up this redundant manpower. Just as he had said himself, he could have more time to eat.

(End of this chapter)