America 1982

Holly handed Tommy a California beef burger sitting on a bench on the street, then sat down next to him and looked at the white-tailed deer beside the lake in the distance:

"Are you sad?"

Tommy nodded, opened the wrapper, and took a bite of the burger: "There are some."

"You rarely have such low moments." Holly also opened the burger in her hand, took a bite, and turned her head to look at Tommy: "At some point, I even suspected that you were developed by those weirdos in the computer science department. Robot, no emotions. When Renee and I talked about this incident, she didn’t say that you would be sad too, she only said that you advised her to say it’s okay and we’ll contact you again after this incident has passed.”

"Renee?" Tommy heard Holly's words, came back from his thoughts, swallowed the food in his mouth and asked, "What's wrong with Renee?"

Holly looked at Tommy in surprise: "Look at this bastard, what happened to Renee? It wasn't because of your lawsuit that Renee was persuaded by her parents to separate from you temporarily to avoid getting into trouble. You caused her to be raped by the other party." The attorney's investigator is looking for trouble? Now you ask me what happened to Renee?"

"It looks like we weren't on the same channel just now, Renee... Yes, Renee and I are temporarily separated, but I'm not sad, anyway, there are so many blonde girls in BDP." Tommy bit into his burger and said:

"But if there is no one else, are you willing to pay to patronize me?"

Holly rolled her eyes speechlessly: "You are not sad about the breakup, so why do you look like you are reminiscing about your old love under the sunset?"

"Bob's TV direct sales company is suspected of selling some inferior products and needs to be temporarily subject to supervision. Only products that pass the review can continue to appear in live advertising. Guess which ones have not been reviewed yet?" Tommy bit into his burger, his voice vague. said.

Holly thought for a while: "No matter what they are, including our OSS?"

Tommy nodded: "Yes, there are only two products that have not passed the review. One is our OSS. The reason is that we are worried that most consumers will not be able to verify the quality of the product because they do not have computers, so they will choose qualified software. The reviewers will verify and confirm that it is correct before it is allowed to be sold. The other one is developed by a company affiliated with the fundamentalist church. It is said that drinking it can increase spiritual power and feel the presence of God."

"That is to say, you are not sad at all that your girlfriend broke up with you. You are sad mainly because you can't continue to sell software to make money." Holly sighed: "Renee was still worried that you would be sad."

"Shallow, Holly, I taught you never to talk to people in superficial words. I don't care how much money I make, okay? I'm sad that Lotus used its connections to cut off the ordinary people of Florida from access to knowledge. I'm just feeling pity for people, not because I'm making too little money, and we're still running ads." Tommy ate the burger in a few bites, then wiped his mouth with the wrapping paper, balled it up and handed it to Holly:

"Remember to throw it away together after you finish eating."

Holly sighed: "You just said that OSS was removed from the shelves, and then you said that advertising was placed? What to sell? Without software, the only thing Actor Company can sell is Jason's Cowherd service."

"There is no conflict. Our ads do not sell software, but instead directly solicit donations. Let Bob continue to promote conspiracy theories and tell everyone that some people have taken action against Actor Company. Actor Company has encountered many obstacles and can no longer sell software. Therefore, the families in Florida can only simply donate to support us now, but I'm afraid the donation will not be too much." Tommy said with some sadness:

"It's like when you were a kid and you helped your parents with housework to earn some extra money, you would always get adequate compensation. But if you didn't contribute any effort and just asked them for money, you wouldn't get much money."

Holly looked at Tommy in surprise: "Tommy, OSS has sold more than 40,000 units in Florida. Even after tax is deducted, there should be nearly one million in the company account, and then you actually let those people Will I support you with money?"

"I can't live up to everyone's enthusiasm. Counting the money Jason earned in Mississippi, it currently amounts to about 1.3 million, and I'm about to hand it over to you." Tommy looked at Holly:

"Except for necessary expenses and investigator fees, use the remaining funds to contact Compaq or Brigadier General at the lowest possible price to purchase a batch of cheap computers, coupled with the same amount of software, and wait for the signal to appear, all of which will be distributed to those in Massachusetts who have SSD Chapter College.”

"What is a signal?" Holly frowned: "You never said that before."

Tommy shook his head confidently: "I don't know, maybe the other party has withdrawn the lawsuit? Maybe it's the other party's internal strife, maybe we got some key testimony? The signal is not fixed, I can only judge based on the situation. I'm not a real robot, so what? You can probably guess what the signal is.”

"I originally wanted to talk to you about Renee, but then you talked about work." Holly ate her burger and looked at the sunset in the distance and said, "Renee said she didn't know what you were busy with. , although you spend time with her every weekend, she doesn’t know your work, and you don’t seem to want to talk to her about it.”

"Renee is a good girl. Her parents made the right choice. Why would they let their daughter get involved in such unnecessary trouble?" Tommy said calmly:

"So, do you feel now that you are actually more important to me than her? If I pursued you to be my girlfriend, the situation would be completely different and the scene would never be as peaceful as it is now."

Didi Didi~ Didi Didi~ Tommy's pager rang. He picked it up and looked at it, then got up and walked towards the nearby phone booth: "Thank you for your comfort. Although the comfort was wrong, I am very relieved. , but now I don’t have time to be sad about Renee, Susan called me.”

"Susan?" Tommy walked to the nearest phone booth and dialed Susan's calling number: "What's wrong?"

"There is a high-end girl named Dorothy who has some impressions of the Jim Manz you mentioned." Susan said.

Tommy asked, "Where are you and that girl?"

"San Francisco."

"Very good, find a hotel, book a room and wait for me. I will have a long enough conversation with her." Tommy hung up the phone and looked at Holly who was walking over: "I think the signal is about to appear."

…

"Tommy Hawke." Jim looked at the photo of Tommy on the "Stanford Daily" in his hand: "Before the age of seventeen, he was a happy country youth with mediocre grades. Starting at the age of seventeen, due to the death of his mother, his sister After being taken away, this guy who would have settled down to be an ordinary worker after graduating from high school was forced to rebirth by this bastard society. His academic performance continued to improve, and he did whatever it took to get a resume, and became a co-producer of Nickelodeon. , held a Caribbean summer camp, helped the high school and myself make a lot of money, and got an admission letter from Stanford."

"My father was a worker before and lost his job. He first worked as a ship-breaking worker, and then he opened a small ship-breaking yard. My brother is a car mechanic, and my sister is in elementary school. How did that guy learn these skills? Equality in technology, equality for women... …”

As he spoke, he picked up the remote control and pressed the play button. The commercial video on the TV immediately played again. In it, Tommy Hawke threw his suit jacket to the crowd and shouted inflammatory words. .

Robert pointed to Tommy Hawke on the TV and said: "They sold 43,000 units in Florida in just over two months. What level of sales is this in the software industry?"

"Junk level, Lotus sold 60,000 units in a single month last month." Jim said a statistic.

Robert shrugged: "In other words, they made nearly one million. Before the plagiarism lawsuit has been resolved, making so much money from this allegedly plagiarized software is enough for the court to lose their impression."

"Didn't his father have anything worth exploring? The impression points lost by plagiarism and making money can easily be made up by the two gimmicks he threw." Jim stared at Tommy in the photo and asked.

Robert shook his head: "No, poor people at the bottom. The more we dig out people like this, the more dissatisfied the court and the jury will be with us, feeling that we are bullying each other equally, and what we dig out will have little impact on this case. They are drunk and persistent." Guns are not directly related to the plagiarism software he started in the company. His father can't even tell the difference between a computer and a game console. Moreover, the other party has arranged professional lawyers to provide guidance to his father and relatives. They all know how to deal with this kind of court. Investigation, not to mention the ruthless folk customs in that place, Leonard’s car was stolen four times there in two days.”

"We have to restrain this little guy named Tommy Hawke and make him really stop. He doesn't have time to help Actor Company put on various protective clothing. Do you have any suggestions?" Jim looked at Robert and asked. asked.

Robert shrugged: "According to previous case experience, if there is no other way, some employers will arrange some accidents to send him to the hospital for a period of time, but Jim, that kind of thing is when rich people are entangled in criminal cases..."

"No, no, no, I won't do stupid things that get myself into trouble." Jim interrupted Robert: "Check what he did after making all that money. Equal rights in science and technology, equal rights for women, and giving to the poor seems like a common practice. Just like Michus, he brings the fire of knowledge... If this guy donates all his money in addition to filing a lawsuit, I think the best option is to contact him privately and settle and withdraw the lawsuit."

"This feeling is a bit dangerous. Obviously all software companies are eyeing Lotus, but only this Actor company has jumped out to cause trouble for us. Some of them are like bait. I always feel that there are other companies behind it, but the investigation shows that these guys from Actor Company are completely I haven’t been exposed to those big software companies.”

"Ring ring ring~" The phone on the table rang, and Jim picked up the phone: "I'm Jim, I..."

Seeing that Jim was stunned on the spot without finishing his words, Robert asked in surprise: "What happened?"

After a long time, Jim hung up the phone and looked at Robert: "My old colleague from National Review magazine called. The other party came to the door with a permission letter and asked about me and the article as a routine... "

"Are you worried?" Robert asked in confusion: "Worried about a college student?"

Jim looked at Robert and said matter-of-factly: "Of course I'm scared. The other party has nothing, understand? Behind me is Lotus. We may look like the same assholes, but the weights we carry at the moment are completely different."

"So what are you thinking about?"

"Try the first formal contact between the two parties to see if there is a possibility of reconciliation and withdrawal of the lawsuit." Jim said seriously: "At least let me understand how much appetite the other party has and how much money he wants."

I'll do three updates tomorrow, two updates today... I'll code one chapter first, and then a movie will only last two hours at most. Just watch it if you want. How can I still get five or six when I come back from twelve to three o'clock? A thousand words, but I walked in at 10:10 and walked out a little after 1 o'clock. The movie was three hours long, and it was almost 2 o'clock when I got home...

I only managed to get out 3,000 words ~ Sorry, sorry, I will make up the promised update tomorrow

But The Wandering Earth 2 is really great~~recommended~