Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 142 The Care I Finally Waited For
"Sophia, you are his secretary. You have to pay attention to everything he does during this period. I don't care if he pays you or not, but if you just take naps with him during his trip, I will suggest that Tommy replace you. The young people from the White Shoes Society of Stanford Law School will be happy to take over your job..."
Delia, with her head full of silver hair, sat in the conference room of the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco with a strong aura. However, she did not look at Tommy, but at Sophia. The words she said made Sophia a little at a loss.
Tommy was signing some documents brought by Delia. When he heard Delia's words, he interrupted and said, "No, let her be my secretary."
"Maybe Susan could do better than her." Delia looked at Tommy who was signing.
Tommy closed a signed document and opened the next one to read it carefully. "After Actor loses the case in Boston, I will arrange for Susan to have a very long vacation, enough for her to go to community college and then come to Stanford for further studies. Susan deserves a better life than just being an ordinary secretary by my side."
"You have to listen to other people's advice, Tommy." Delia emphasized.
Tommy signed his name at the desk and slid the document across the table in front of Delia:
"I will take advice that I think will help me, Delia, thank you for your advice, but I repeat, Sophia is not going anywhere, just sit here next to me."
Seeing the two of them lower the temperature in the conference room in the blink of an eye, the person in the storm had not yet reacted and wondered why Delia was so harsh on him.
She looked at Delia in confusion: "Ms. Case, did I do something wrong? I mean you can just tell me directly, I will definitely pay attention and not let myself make the same mistake again."
"Who prepared the interview text and topics for Chicago?" Delia took out a videotape from her bag, turned on the TV and VCR in the conference room, put the tape in, pressed the remote control, and after a burst of noise on the TV, it began to play Tommy's interview on "Good Morning, Chicago".
Sophia glanced at Tommy, who seemed to have nothing to do with the matter, and said to Delia, "No one prepared for him. He completed the entire interview without a script. And I think his performance on the spot was great, even better than with a script. The audience was impressed by him. There were even TV viewers who called in to ask what business Tommy was in. The host praised him many times after the interview and was almost convinced by him to sign Actor to help him sell software."
"You empathized with black people on the show, didn't you, Tommy?" Delia didn't look at Sophia, but said to Tommy, "You thought you were successful in using emotions to incite the enthusiasm of black people."
Tommy did not deny it, but nodded slightly in affirmation: "Of course, I originally wanted to trick that black host into helping me make money, but he refused to be fooled. He rejected me directly on the grounds that I had no industry experience and influence. However, I performed well on the show, at least the black people at the scene had a good impression of me."
"The better you perform, the bigger the trouble will be. You are a member of SSD. Don't tell me you don't know that SSD is an elite white university student organization. The other party can use this trick to teach you a lesson. When they reveal that you wore the white robes of the 3K Party that burned black people in history and swore in, what do you think those black people who have a good impression of you will think of you? Do you think they won't spread this news? By then, you will be a hypocritical villain and a hypocrite in the eyes of black people. Your mask will be exposed, and it may even be enough to shake the basic base you have worked so hard to accumulate. Maybe Actor will win, but for Lotus, simply ruining your reputation is also a victory. After they publicize your hypocrisy and your racial discrimination, Actor will be forced to cut ties with you under public pressure, and you will eventually be out. Without you, Actor can even reconcile with Lotus, right? In the end, SSD has even been stigmatized because of you." Delia took out a cigarette and held it in her mouth in a bit of annoyance:
"We discussed at the beginning that we should not talk about the detailed case and not show favor to everyone. Just talk about your dreams and what you are doing. Why can't you prepare a speech as we discussed before?"
After speaking to Tommy, Delia looked at Sophia again:
"This is why I'm dissatisfied with you, Sophia. When he's too excited, you standing next to him is not just for him to show off his tall secretary, but to always think about every possible problem in your mind. Once you realize it, tell him immediately. For example, when he is about to go off the script, you should stop him from doing so in time."
"I'm sorry, Delia, I..." After listening, Sophia lowered her head and said in a low voice.
Tommy picked up the coffee and took a sip. "No need to say sorry. Do you think Sophia can stop what I'm going to do? Delia, first of all, I didn't stigmatize SSD, and I haven't worn a white robe. I don't deny that SSD had racist tendencies when it was founded in the last century, but since 1930, there has been no information about burning black people in SSD's records. Over the years, SSD has lived in peace with black people. It doesn't absorb them, but it doesn't hate them either. Otherwise, how could it exist today? If it really hated people of color, it would have been forced to disband by Stanford long ago. Please, this is California, and there are people of color everywhere. It's not much easier to fuck a pure-blooded white girl than to get 3S honors in college. SSD has always been very friendly to people of color, especially women of color with honey skin. It's so friendly that I don't know how many women of color have slept in the same bed with SSD boys and completed in-depth exchanges."
"Whether or not you stigmatize SSD is not important here. What matters is your image. The image you present cannot be inconsistent. The other party will definitely use this to attack you." Delia stared at Tommy seriously, "You must not have this kind of problem. This is the most important thing."
"Then guess, when I said those words to the black audience, did I ever think about the question you raised?" Tommy asked calmly.
Delia sighed. "Then tell me, if they reveal that you are a member of the SSD who was suspected of racism, how can you change your image in the black community?"
"Do your job well, Delia." Tommy took out a cigarette and lit it, then smiled at Delia, "My joining SSD is not hypocritical, but very real, because my paternal ancestors in Rhode Island really burned black people to death in white robes and did nothing wrong. How do I know to do the right thing from now on."
Delia saw Tommy's smirk and her expression gradually relaxed: "You are sure you have thought about this problem and have a solution."
"If the other party is too high and wants to use this trick to destroy me, then let's try it and see who is the clown. I have said many times, don't treat me as a normal gentleman. I am just a rough bastard from the countryside." Tommy put away his smile, looked directly at Delia, and said word by word: "Whoever helps Lotus, I will fuck to death."
Tommy was originally very serious, but he suddenly froze for a moment, then he slapped the table and said to Delia excitedly, "Do you think the title of the character draft "I Should Die: The Story of Tommy Hawke" is better, or "As a Mortal, I Fuck Gods: The Story of Tommy Hawke" is better? As a mortal, I fuck gods, just thinking about it makes me excited."
"Sophia, remember to give him medicine. This bastard's narcissism has recurred." Delia said as she packed up the documents, videotapes and other items.
"Goodbye. I have to go to Stanford Law School to accept their offer letter, and then rush back to Boston to wait for the court to announce that we lost the case, and then I will preside over a series of subsequent work. Also, I want to inform you, Tommy, after we lose the case, the court will issue an injunction against Actor to prohibit the development and sale of OSS software. The only way to fight the injunction is to spend money. The lobbying company will help you lobby and cooperate with the lawyers to try to turn this matter into a suspension of the injunction during Actor's appeal. That is not a low-intensity expense such as hourly charges. Of course, you can also choose to comply with the injunction, so you don't need to pay this extra fee."
Tommy just asked, "Have you calculated the approximate cost of this expenditure?"
"Seven hundred thousand is just the cost of staying execution during the appeal to the circuit court level. The cost of staying execution during the appeal to the Supreme Court is calculated separately, but based on previous cases, it will be about three times as much." Delia looked at Tommy and quoted a price.
"What a wonderful country! It tells its citizens directly that poor people should not sue if they don't have money!" Tommy joked, then looked at Delia and nodded.
"Of course, of course I have to spend money. I have to sell 100,000 sets as soon as possible and then announce that they are free, right? If I comply with the ban, how can I sell 100,000 sets as quickly as possible? I have to be honest. I would rather spend money to postpone the ban than make an extra cent from everyone."
The other party was the employer, and since he was not afraid of spending money, Delia naturally would not object. She picked up her briefcase and stood up, calling on her assistant Kane who was waiting outside the door to leave together.
Tommy and Sophia were the only ones left in the small conference room at the Four Seasons Hotel. Sophia had been silent since Delia's words, and she seemed to feel very guilty about the harsh criticism from her industry idol.
"Hey~" Tommy said to Sophia.
Sophia raised her head and looked at Tommy uncomfortably: "What's wrong?"
"Did Delia shatter your confidence in yourself?" Tommy asked Sophia knowingly.
Sophia nodded and did not deny it: "Yes, I feel like a yes-man. It seems that I always do things when you need me to help you prepare something. I really didn't expect that..."
"Girl, if you can think of it, why do you want me to go to Chicago? If you had my brain, I would have gone back to school and handed Actor over to you. Delia is just dissatisfied with me. She thinks that if I do something wrong, it will increase her workload, but she dare not complain to me directly. After all, I pay her fees, so she can only blame you for this unhappiness." Tommy looked directly into Sophia's eyes and said in an enlightening tone:
"Do you know how to make it so difficult for someone to break your heart?"
“Make your heart stronger.”
"No, it's to grow more meat on your chest to improve your defense." Tommy said with a wicked smile:
"You've done a good job. With a weekly salary of $80, you still need to have the brain of Einstein. That's unrealistic. I don't need your brain."
Sophia didn't roll her eyes at Tommy as she usually did when she was teased. Instead, she said in a depressed tone, "What do you need me to do? Just to be teased by you when you're bored with words that disrespect women?"
"Just stay by my side and do some secretarial work. When I see you, I can remind myself not to make any mistakes." Tommy exhaled smoke and looked at the empty space in the meeting room in a calm tone:
"You are the image projected by Jason, Susan, Mark, and Holly around me. You are the concrete symbol of Actor Company by my side, representing them who have complete trust in me. They are just like you, stupid and have no idea what I am doing, but they still do everything according to my instructions. I am responsible for them, and the specific manifestation of being responsible for them is to remind myself at all times not to do the wrong thing. Those idiots are waiting for me to make them rich together."
Sophia tried to look calmer, looked directly at Tommy, and said with all her courage: "You now have a professional lawyer to help you solve your legal problems. I don't think you need my legal assistance anymore, Tommy, I..."
"Look at this girl's touching words. She's about to leave me, but she's still pretending that I don't need legal aid. Do you think someone like me doesn't need free legal aid?" But Tommy didn't even give her a chance to finish her words and interrupted Sophia directly:
"Remember, Sophia, free things are always more important than paid things. Imagine the first time we met. I appeared in front of you as if it was a chance encounter, but you know how many ugly women I eliminated before sitting in front of you, whose only flaw is that your breasts resemble those of men. You are the one I carefully selected, Sophia, believe me. If Tommy Hawke one day needs Delia or others to teach me how to deal with various troubles in this country, it means that I should retire."
"I insist..." Sophia spoke again, her voice a little softer than before.
Tommy Hawke put out his cigarette butt. "Your persistence is useless in front of me. If you dare to go back to law school, I will immediately have Delia send you a lawyer's letter, saying that during your time working for me, due to your negligence, your personal image has been seriously damaged, and the responsibility will be put on you. In this way, even if you graduate and pass the judicial examination, those law firms will not give a silly girl like you a job after seeing your information. Finally, I will force you to come back obediently and earn the 80 dollars a week salary that I will never pay you. You know I can do such a thing."
"Thank you for your unmoving but threatening plea." Sophia sighed and tried to smile: "I'm feeling better now, Tommy."
"I'm just threatening you, okay? Delia said something to you, and you wanted to recall all the mistakes in your life. I told you hundreds of times that Sophia, you have no breasts, Miss O'Connor, you need to grow again, and other valuable advice, but you never got a breast augmentation." Tommy said unhappily.
"Do you have any cash on you right now?"
Sophia nodded and said reluctantly, "Yes, there are some, but I guess they are not enough to pay for breast augmentation surgery."
"Of course I know it's not enough. Don't worry, we can let the company pay for this kind of thing. When we are done with this busy period, we can ask the company to find a reason to update the company's equipment and take out some money so that you can have breast augmentation." Tommy drank the last drop of coffee in the cup, then stood up and walked out of the meeting room:
"But now, go to the hotel front desk and pay the venue fee for the conference room. I guess Delia must not have paid the bill. Why does this silver-haired girl have a special liking for the Four Seasons Hotel? She has to choose such a high-end place just for a meeting, without considering that my employer is just a poor bastard with conscience, morality, and demeanor but no money."
"I'm just not suitable for secretarial work, right? In fact, I will still be an excellent lawyer." Sophia followed Tommy, trying to calm herself down, and asked Tommy.
Tommy smiled and shook his head as he walked. "Sophia, when you pass the bar exam, the first thing I'm going to do is send you to a rival firm so you can earn two salaries at once."
"Do you think I would be a good corporate spy?"
"No, you don't need to be a spy. I believe you don't need my guidance. You can destroy that company by just doing your best."
…
Stanford University School of Engineering, Department of Computer Science Campus Technology Expo.
For real computer enthusiasts at Stanford University, this is a grand party held twice a year. Not only will the school's real computer research results be displayed at the exhibition, but also all kinds of weird software and hardware invented by students. Of course, this is not just a carnival for a group of computer geeks and nerds. Many potential investors themselves or their assistants will also show up to see if they can find projects that interest them.
For example, at this moment, Tommy Hawke was standing in the second longest line of people in the entire exhibition, waiting to experience a self-service voice touch screen launched by the Stanford University Computer Research Center. In just half an hour, Tommy had seen at least a dozen secretaries or assistants of large companies experience it, and then turned to the bigwigs of the engineering school to learn more detailed technical information.
This touch screen is far from as exaggerated as the one Tommy saw in his previous life. There are no colorful images, the touch is very bad, and the voice recognition is even worse. Most of the time, you need to touch to complete the command. Of course, even if the voice recognition is correct, you can only give the most basic answers in short sentences, such as telling the other party where the bathroom is, where the library is, etc.
But just for this touch screen and built-in system, Stanford's Computer Research Center has spent countless time and money on it.
Although it cannot be commercially available now, some people will see another future it leads to. If it continues to be developed and eventually put into commercial use, it may mean that many companies will no longer need front desks, parking lots will no longer need administrators, and libraries will no longer need extra administrators...
"Where can I buy Torjan?" When it was Tommy's turn to experience it, he looked at the product in front of him that looked like a pillar installed on a TV, and asked seriously.
The teaching assistant who was in charge of guiding the use of the device had a proud look on his face, because every user made a sound like "Wow" to express the shock of the technology presented to them. However, that proud expression was instantly shattered by Tommy Hawke's question. He looked at Tommy with embarrassment and said, "Student, you...it can't answer your question. We didn't enter this question. You...maybe you can ask some questions related to the campus."
"Isn't Torjan the thing that students consume the most on campus?" Tommy smiled at the bespectacled teaching assistant. "Just kidding, let me ask you another question. Which student apartment at Stanford University has the most beautiful girls?"
This time the teacher ignored him and just gave an apologetic smile to the person in line behind him: "Wait a moment, this student's experience time will soon be over."
"This is a great invention, but it's not interesting enough, Mr. Cohen Victor." Tommy tapped the screen a few times, looked at the screen's reaction, and said to the teaching assistant next to him, "I mean, this screen has a very, very high technological content, but only smart people and investors understand the greatness of you developers. If I were you, when entering the question bank, I would first conduct a round of surveys on students on campus, select the most popular questions, give answers and enter them. I guarantee that you will be more likely to get students from other majors to help you ferment a round of word of mouth, and even beat the booth with the longest queue at the moment. Many users don't care how advanced the technology is. You have to attract them by making it interesting or easy to use."
"Who are you?" The teaching assistant asked somewhat unhappily when he saw the student speaking in a tone of teaching while experiencing the touch screen.
Tommy Hawke pointed to a booth with an EFF logo in the distance. “That’s the booth with the most visitors. I’m the founder of that industry organization, Tommy Hawke, from the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University.”
"If your booth didn't have a computer label on it..." The teacher named Victor only said half of the sentence, and then said to Tommy: "Thank you for your suggestion, classmate, the two-minute experience time should be up..."
Tommy touched the touch screen reluctantly, then turned and walked towards his own station. After Tommy walked away, Victor shook his head slightly: "I thought it was Playboy coming here to participate in the exhibition."
At the same time, Sophia also trotted towards Tommy. Seeing Tommy calmly visiting the exhibition, she came up to him and said, "Tommy, someone called the EFF booth and wants to talk to you."
"Let Susan handle it. Besides, aren't the heads of those small companies here on the scene? If anyone is interested in those software, they will contact Mr. Benjamin Rosen. He is the executive director of EFF. Can't you see that I'm depressed about Actor's defeat?" Tommy talked about his company's first defeat as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.
Indeed, it has nothing to do with him. Not long ago, in a trial in a Massachusetts court, Actor lost the case without any suspense. The judge and jury ruled based on the Lanham Act, the Copyright Act of 1976, the United States Copyright Act of 1976 and previous related infringement cases, and determined that Actor's OSS software constituted plagiarism infringement of Lotus' Lotus1-2-3. The judge required Actor to stop developing and selling OSS software from the date of the judgment, recall the software that had been sold, hand over all OSS sales data and software codes, and compensate Lotus for the economic losses of 35 million yuan caused by this infringement.
Actor chose to appeal to the Federal First Circuit Court, and because of the operations of the lobbying company and the lawyer group, the Circuit Court issued a suspension of execution after receiving the appeal. The document would only be executed after the Circuit Court made a ruling and Actor still lost the case.
The attorneys representing 176 amicus curiae also submitted amicus curiae briefs to the circuit court again requesting intervention, arguing that the verdicts of the local court judges and juries were unclear and had a serious impact on the organization.
The suspension of the injunction means that Actor can still sell software to the outside world during this period, but if it loses the case again, the software sold during this period will also be counted in the injunction, and the amount of money claimed by Lotus will continue to soar as sales volume increases.
However, Tommy was not present from beginning to end. Only Holly and Jason stayed in Boston to cooperate with Delia to complete the relevant work. It is said that the training work in Massachusetts was going smoothly.
"Depressed? But you just borrowed money from me to buy a copy of Penthouse magazine." Sophia was stunned for a moment and asked in confusion.
Tommy sighed, "I just felt depressed after watching it. Okay, who is the other party?"
"He said his name was Roland Hansen and he got it from Mr. Rosen..."
"Sugar Daddy, here I come!" Tommy just heard the name and pulled Sophia to run towards his own EFF booth.
Sophia didn't understand what sugar daddy meant. Seeing Tommy's eyes sparkling, she finished what she wanted to say: "He is the vice president of Microsoft USA in charge of product promotion and sales. However, several member company founders at the EFF booth said that Microsoft's software is rubbish."
"It's really rubbish, especially Microsoft's document processing software Multi File, which ranks 17th in sales in the United States and 31st in global sales, even worse than our OSS." Tommy said the data he had already carefully collected:
"But they have money, and they know that after Actor loses the first game, it needs to be cared for by kind peers. After all, we are just fireflies."
