Chapter 17: Not very harmful, but extremely insulting
"Hey, you're still worried that I'll be cheated, could it be that you're attracted to me?"
Lu Yiming joked.
Of course he knew that the call was absolutely real.
"Stop being so narcissistic. Who would like you? I'm not blind."
Lin Yuzhen snorted softly, pouted her lips, turned around and walked away.
Lu Yiming followed behind and joked with a smile: "No, it's the best. Brother, you can't get a man."
"I don't care!"
The two arrived at Zhu Hanwen's house. Coincidentally, just as Lu Yiming entered the house, the phone rang as expected, ringing in the living room.
Zhu Hanwen urged, "Hurry up and answer the phone. The person on the other end is speaking English. If you don't understand, let Teacher Sun translate for you."
Compared to Zhu Hanwen's impatience, Lu Yi was much calmer. He walked slowly to the phone, and Zhu Hanwen's words rang out again: "Remember to turn on the speakerphone."
Indeed, gossip is the essence of human beings.
Lu Yiming shrugged and pressed the hands-free key, saying frivolously, "Hello, Mr. Gates, I'm the Lu Yiming you're looking for."
On the other end of the phone, Bill Gates yawned and said in a bad tone: "Young man, you are very brave."
It is now 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time at 8 p.m. Microsoft's headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., which is 13 hours behind the U.S. Standard Time at 8 p.m. So it is just past midnight for Bill Gates. If it weren't for this call, he would have gone to bed long ago.
Sun Jiatong was just about to translate for Lu Yiming when she heard Lu Yiming speaking standard American English. Seeing how fluently he answered, it seemed that his oral English ability was even better than hers, who was an English teacher.
Facing Bill Gates's obviously angry tone, Lu Yiming looked calm: "There is no other way. It is too difficult to talk to Mr. Gates in a normal way. I can only resort to this last resort."
On the other end of the phone, Bill Gates had the illusion that he was talking to another industry tycoon.
Lu Yiming is so calm!
He was so calm that even Bill Gates was puzzled.
You know, he is the richest man in the world and the absolute overlord of the software industry!
In a society where money is everything, he is the uncrowned king!
Bill Gates has long been accustomed to ordinary people crawling at his feet and being humble in front of him.
However, after all, as the world's richest man for several years, although Bill Gates had a lot of thoughts in his mind, he did not show it at all.
After taking a deep breath, Bill Gates adjusted his mood and then said, "Tell me, what do you want from me?"
In his opinion, the reason why Lu Yiming went to so much trouble to patch and poison the system was most likely because he wanted to make a deal with Microsoft.
This is a businessman's intuition and is consistent with factual and logical reasoning.
Microsoft has been established for so many years, and Bill Gates has encountered powerful hackers before, so apart from being angry, he is not panicked at all.
Lu Yiming also did what Bill Gates wanted. He did not beat around the bush and directly stated his conditions: "Mr. Gates is really a man of few words. Let's put it this way. I won't ask for more. Just 300,000 US dollars. I promise that you will definitely get more value for your money."
"Three hundred thousand dollars?!"
Bill Gates, who was sitting on a rattan chair, even stood up, his tone filled with surprise and anger.
"Just a few bug patches, and you want me to pay you $300,000!?"
Bill Gates was so angry that he almost burst into curse.
He has no shortage of this little money, but as a qualified capitalist, he is very good at accounting.
In Silicon Valley, the annual salary of an ordinary programmer is only $40,000 to $50,000. For the elite level, the maximum is $70,000. If you hire three or four programmers to work together to install the patch, it will be done in a few months. No matter how you calculate it, it will not cost $300,000!
"You are blackmailing me, do you know that?"
"Oh, Mr. Richest Man, you're joking. I won't do anything illegal."
"You hacked my computer just yesterday!"
" That was just a joke. As the richest man in the world, you wouldn't take it seriously with a young and unknown person like me, right?"
After a few words, Bill Gates finally realized that the young man on the other end of the phone was very cunning, just like a non-stick pan reincarnated, slippery and very tricky.
"Three hundred thousand dollars is too much."
Bill Gates' tone was cold, he didn't want to spend this money in vain.
That’s enough to buy four Ferrari F355s!
Bill Gates' refusal was completely within Lu Yiming's expectations. If Bill Gates gave the money as he said, it would be a miracle.
Lu Yiming took the phone and said calmly, "Three hundred thousand dollars is not much at all, Mr. Gates. After all, Microsoft is a great company and cannot have any stains in technology. What if others knew that the newly launched Windows 98 had a vulnerability and was fixed by an unknown person? What would the users think?"
"They will question whether Microsoft's technology is still leading. How can an industry monopoly that cannot maintain its technological leadership maintain the legitimacy of its monopoly? By the way, I heard that Microsoft is still dealing with the antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, right?"
Although Lu Yiming spoke lightly, Bill Gates heard a strong threat in his words.
That’s right!
It's a threat!
An ordinary citizen from Xia Country poses a threat to the world's richest man!
This all sounds like a fairy tale.
However, fairy tales do happen in reality.
Although it was not stated explicitly, the undisguised threat between the lines was approaching step by step, and Lu Yiming was almost putting a knife to Microsoft's neck.
Bill Gates felt as if his lungs were about to turn into a volcano. The feeling of being blackmailed was unbearable for him.
It’s only three hundred thousand dollars, not a large amount, but it’s extremely insulting!
"What if I say no?"
Bill Gates' tone became even colder, like the frost and snow in the cold winter, blowing across the cables on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and directly in front of Lu Yiming.
After all, he is a top boss and not everyone can afford his anger .
Lin Yuzhen and others were standing by, feeling extremely anxious and not daring to breathe.
On the contrary, Lu Yiming, who faced Bill Gates' anger, had a very calm expression: "Maybe Mr. Clark will be interested in my offer. It's only $300,000. I'm sure he would be happy to exchange it for a knife to stab Microsoft."
Jim Clark!
The founder of Netscape!
Because its own browser was banned by Microsoft, it is currently looking for trouble with Microsoft. This involves a hatred of more than ten billion US dollars, which is no more than the revenge for the murder of its father.
Bill Gates pinched his brows, his emotions on the verge of rage.
