Eric & Steve. Keith talked back and forth for a day, and didn't reach much agreement until the end of the day, so we had to continue talking the next day.

Because Chris invited him to his house for dinner, after work, Eric sent his entourage away and got into Chris's car.

"I really can't believe that there are more than 1.5 million Internet users in the whole of North America, and I thought it would take a while," after Chris started the car, Eric said with some emotion, he planned to wait for Clinton to take office, after launching some projects in the plan, after seeing some numbers about AOL today, he still felt that the project in his heart should be sooner rather than later.

Although the figure of 1.5 million is not at all comparable to the hundreds of millions of people who have gone online in later generations, it is already a very impressive number in this era when personal computers were not yet widely available. Moreover, when the number of users is relatively small, the layout is carried out in advance, and when the number of Internet users explodes, it can even reach the level of creating an industry standard.

Eric vaguely remembers a sentence, it seems that first-class enterprises set standards, second-rate enterprises rely on brands, third-rate enterprises sell technology, and fourth-rate enterprises make products. These four sentences are like an industry pyramid, the more at the top of the pyramid, the higher the benefits, take the smart phones in the original time and space, Apple and Samsung, which have a full set of technical standards, have blown 90% of the profits of smart phones, and those domestic mobile phone manufacturers who are always clamoring to beat Apple in the configuration can only get one percent of the benefits, because the chips they use are American, the screen is Japanese, and the camera is South Korean. The austenitic 304 stainless steel gimmick turned out to be just an ordinary tableware material commonly seen around people.

Chris was unaware of Eric's mental activity. Hear Eric's words. "Wait for what?" he asked. ”

"I have some thoughts in my mind. Originally, it was planned to wait for the network to develop for a period of time before implementing it, but now it seems that there is no need to wait, and the sooner the better. ”

Chris hummed and leaned towards the side of the road, letting go of a red BMW convertible that was speeding by, obviously absent-minded.

"You've moved?" Eric looked at the signs outside, remembering that Chris and Emily had been living in Midtown Manhattan last time, and were now almost at Central Park.

"We bought an apartment on the Upper East Side some time ago. It's on 3rd Avenue 72nd Street. ”

"It just so happens that I also have a villa near there, which I bought with Drew last year and haven't lived in yet," Eric said, suddenly remembering something, and asked, "You're not going to get married, are you?" ”

Chris shook his head: "Emily wants to wait another two years, she doesn't plan to get married until she is thirty." ”

Eric was still more sensitive, and Chris, who was originally quite talkative, suddenly spoke a lot less, and he quickly guessed. Maybe it has something to do with this dinner.

Chris parked his car in the parking lot of a high-rise apartment, and the two got on the elevator together. Soon arrived at the floor where Chris's new home was.

Emily, dressed in a homely dress, opened the door and hugged Eric warmly, "Eric, it's nice to see you again." ”

"Me too," Eric said with a smile as he let go of Emily, "but I didn't bring red wine." ”

"It's okay, please come in," Emily let Eric into the apartment, not only thoughtfully helping Eric hang up his trench coat, but also taking a pair of slippers for Eric to change into.

Eric thought to himself that the little couple seemed to be a little abnormal, and although Emily had always been very cheerful and enthusiastic, it seemed that she had gone a little too far today.

"Eric, you sit down first, dinner will be ready soon," Emily said after pouring Eric coffee, and glanced at Chris again, "Chris, can you come and help me?" ”

Chris approached the kitchen with some reluctance.

Eric just glanced in the direction of the kitchen, and didn't express any more curiosity, but randomly picked up the remote control on the coffee table and turned on the TV, anyway, if there was something wrong with the two of them, they would definitely say it themselves later.

In the kitchen, Emily put on her insulated gloves, opened the oven and closed the lid before asking in a low voice, "Did you tell him?" ”

Chris spread his hands: "This is so embarrassing, what do you want me to say?" ”

"How can it be embarrassing, this is a normal thing," Emily glared at her boyfriend with some anger: "You...... You just don't want to help me. ”

"If I hadn't tried to help you, I wouldn't have invited Eric over, you can do the rest," Chris said, picking up his kitchen knife to help Emily chop the onions.

Emily snatched the kitchen knife in a huff: "Okay, I'll say it myself, I don't need your help." ”

……

"That night, it really scared the hell out of me, especially when the farm tractor hit the TV screen at the end, I really thought it was broken, Eric, how the hell did this happen?" At dinner, Emily recalled about the trailer of "Tornado" some time ago, and asked with some excitement.

"It's just a simple visual effect," Eric said the principle simply, and there was not much pride in his tone, after all, the current 3D movie effect has been able to achieve this kind of process, and the visual effect will be more shocking, but the current 3D film technology is not mature enough, and the current 3D glasses will cause very strict visual fatigue if worn for a long time, so most of the current 3D technology can only be used in short films.

Emily asked expectantly: "I remember that "Tornado" will be released on June 5th, so it will be a long time, will Firefly be screened in advance?" ”

"Of course, I'll have someone bring you two tickets then," Eric replied with a smile.

Emily thanked her, and then the atmosphere in the dining room came to a brief pause, and after a moment, Emily finally mustered up the courage and said, "Eric, now, that ...... Firefly Investment Company still has a lot of money in hand, right? ”

Eric glanced at Chris, who lowered his head and pretended to drink the soup, and smiled, "This Chris should know better than me, right?" ”

Hearing this, Chris was suddenly choked, and quickly pulled out a few tissues and turned around.

Eric almost understood. He simply put down the knife and fork in his hand. Said seriously, "Emily." It's good to say something directly, we don't need these polite things, which will make us seem very rusty. ”

Emily was a little embarrassed to say this: "Actually, it's our family's clothing company......"

"Oh, I remember," Eric said with a stunned look, quickly remembering the first time he saw Chris and Emily at Jeffrey's house on Thanksgiving two years ago, when Chris was still working at Morgan Stanley. I happened to be in charge of the listing of Emily's family's clothing company, because Emily's father falsely reported the information of the clothing company, and the listing was yellow: "I remember telling you last year that if you make money in the futures market, I will invest in your family's clothing company, I'm really sorry, I almost forgot about it, how much money do you need now?" ”

Emily glanced at her boyfriend before carefully holding out a finger: "One ...... One hundred million? ”

Chris immediately turned his head and glared, and Emily immediately changed her words: "Actually." Sixty million is also possible. ”

Eric knows Chris's personality to say that light is too serious, and to say strict zhòng a little. is old-fashioned, although he has a large amount of firefly funds in his hands, he feels that it will not be professional enough to attract investment for his girlfriend's family business, so he flashes that embarrassing look.

After the acquisition of Disney, Eric still has about 1.5 billion of the $8 billion he took from last year's Gulf War, and after the acquisition of Disney, Firefly Pictures itself can also achieve self-sufficiency, so he planned to use the money for other investments.

"That's it," Eric thought for a moment and said with a smile, "I'll be staying in New York for the next few days, you take the time to prepare a document for me, and after I read it, I will decide whether to invest 60 million or 100 million, okay?" ”

"Of course," Emily said with a hint of excitement on her face, almost immediately wanting to get up and take out the materials she had prepared, but she soon realized that the occasion was not the right place to do so.

After dinner, Eric refuses Chris and Emily's offer to stay overnight, and Chris sends Eric downstairs all the way to the bustling streets of Comic Town.

"I've always felt that I'm very lucky, if I hadn't happened to meet Jeffrey and met you again, I might not have my current results at all, I have no relatives in this world, I have always regarded Jeffrey as an elder," Eric looked at the neon sign on the side of the road, and sighed with some embarrassment, he still remembers a few years ago, he pressed all the bets on a whim to make "Home Alone", if it wasn't for the fact that he happened to meet Jeffrey and his filming team, he was a rookie who had just entered Hollywood, Even if you can pull up a grass stage team, you may not be able to make the movie in your memory perfectly.

Chris knew why Eric suddenly said this, Chris didn't feel that his father and son were Eric's great benefactors, he had always been very self-aware, and similarly, if he hadn't met Eric, he didn't know if his father would have been able to pick himself up again, and even, the cold war between their father and son didn't know how long it would last. What's more, now, he has more than two billion dollars in assets in his hands, and if he did not choose to resign, he has been working at Morgan Stanley, and it will take at least ten years to be able to independently run an investment project of the same size: "Actually, we are all quite lucky." ”

Eric smiled, "yes." ”

Chris put his hands in the pockets of his trench coat and said, "By the way, you can rest assured of this investment, that, Emily's father has retired, and now Emily is in charge of the clothing company, and it has been developing well in the past two years, if it weren't for the incident two years ago, it would have been easy for the company to re-list." ”

"Then it's up to you and Emily to negotiate the exact amount of investment, like going back in a moment, in bed," Eric joked.

"It's better for you to pay attention, I'll try not to interfere," Chris smiled, "By the way, when you came back today, you said you already had some ideas about computer networks in your mind?" ”

"I can't believe you remember that."

"Okay, don't tease me, what kind of thoughts, tell me?"

Eric looked around, pointed to a café on the side of the road and said, "If you're not in a hurry to go back, let's go in and talk for a while, the villa I bought is in front, but it's a little deserted inside, but before I came today, I notified the housekeeping company to clean it." ”

Chris nodded, and the two walked side by side into the roadside café, ordered two cups of coffee, and made it by the window.

Eric sorted out his thoughts before he said, "It's a pity that there are no laptops here, or it's more convenient to talk about it, you should have studied the computer data during this time, right?" ”

"Well, just say it, I should be able to understand it," Chris said.

"Actually, all my ideas are based on the technology of the widespread popularization of computer networks, but, as I said before, I personally think that this is a development trend of the times, and the possibility is very high, and even if I really lose the bet, I will not lose too much."

Chris echoed: "Actually, I also feel that your judgment is very reasonable, a few days ago, I found that Emily was using Apple's laptop to read clothing design drawings, and those design drawings were designed with software, which was even unimaginable a few years ago, and the price of personal computers is not too expensive now, ordinary people can buy one with a salary of one or two months, if computer hardware can maintain rapid growth now, the popularity of personal computers is a matter of time." ”

"Well, back to the computer network, I have three ideas at the moment," Eric paused, adding, "This is what I have come up with in the course of my daily use of computers." Moreover, I intend to separate the three companies into these three ideas, starting with a vision of a graphical interface browser. ”

"GUI Browser?" Chris repeated Eric's vocabulary.

"It's a ...... Browse the graphical version of the network tool," Eric thought for a while and explained: "You will know that the Internet tool we use now is similar to the DOS operating system a few years ago, which requires complicated instructions to run, which is very inconvenient, and the graphical interface browser I envision is to present the current Internet tool in the form of a simple graphical interface, just like Microsoft's Windows Windows operating system, you know, before the Windows system appeared, Personal computers are often used by more professional technicians, and after the advent of the Windows system, even ordinary people can use personal computers. The graphical interface browser I envisioned is a 'window tool' that allows ordinary people to easily navigate the computer network. (To be continued......)