A long, short hour finally passed. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At 9:30 a.m. EST, the NASDAQ stock exchange officially opened, and the Firefly system did not announce the reduction of holdings until the last minute before the stock market opened, and people who had been terrified for an hour finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, as the news of the possible large-scale reduction of the Firefly system spread quickly within an hour, some investors with unknown inside information and short-selling capital with ulterior motives still began to sell stocks in large sums after the opening of the Nasdaq market.

As a result, as soon as the stock market opened, the Nasdaq index fell all the way from 3,476 points to 3,435 points. In just ten minutes, the Nasdaq fell by 1.17%, and more than $40 billion of wealth was lost.

Faced with this situation, a large number of technology companies and Wall Street capital have had to start entering the market to stabilize stock prices.

Compared to the Firefly system, which is a behemoth that can destroy the entire Nasdaq market, hedge funds and a small number of investors who short the Nasdaq are clearly unable to compete with the entire new technology industry.

After a brief decline, the Nasdaq soon began to rally. In the end, after a morning of shocks, the Nasdaq not only did not fall, but broke the record again, breaking through the 3,500-point mark.

Shortly before noon, Eric's Boeing 747 finally landed at Long Island Private Airport.

After getting off the plane, Eric boarded the VH-60 helicopter to Manhattan with his assistant and bodyguards, and the Iron Man crew took off again and returned to Los Angeles.

More than forty minutes later, the helicopter landed on the roof of the building at the entrance to Sixth Avenue.

After a brief greeting between Eric and Robert Iger, who had arrived to greet him in person, he got into the car that drove to the headquarters of the Oprah Show studio.

The three black luxury cars drove together to Midtown, and Robert Iger, who was sitting next to Eric, spoke: "Eric, I just received a call from Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital, and he wants to apologize to you about the 'Hollywood gossip'. ”

"Sequoia Capital, Hollywood gossip," Eric said, still looking down at a document, "Sequoia Capital has fallen to this extent?"

"No," Robert Iger explains, "Hollywood gossip is a website invested solely by a partner of Sequoia Capital named Ronald Hill, and is not directly related to Sequoia Capital, and Don Valentine is just interceding on behalf of others." ”

"yes, I see. ”

Robert Iger didn't know if Eric agreed or refused.

However, he also knew that the boss was very angry today, so naturally he wouldn't say anything more for an outsider.

After a while, Eric spoke again, with a mocking tone in his tone, "It's always like this, when something happens, some people feel that they are big people and will not be implicated, and some people feel that they are small people and will not be implicated. This time I'll let them know that there are exceptions to everything. ”

Robert Egger nodded in agreement, but he felt a chill rushing up from the soles of his feet, and he couldn't help but shiver slightly.

The Oprah Show studio headquarters is already busy.

Over the years, the black girl who came out of the slum has become the queen of talk shows in the American television industry step by step, and Oprah's status in the media industry has also risen.

If it was another time, someone wanted to cut the queue to disrupt the original production rhythm of the show, even if it was a Hollywood A-lister, Oprah would have the confidence to refuse the other party.

However, today's task directly pressed down by the ABC headquarters left Oprah without any room for refusal. And, the more people come out of the hierarchy, the more they can appreciate the power of power, and Oprah knows very well that she must make sure that nothing goes wrong with this show, which is only 24 hours in production.

After announcing to all the staff in the production studio that she would be working all-night work today, Oprah began to study the information about the revelation, and then felt more and more headaches.

Although "The Oprah Show" often touches on some very sensitive social topics in order to gain attention and ratings. But today's incident obviously does not allow her to take it out for hype, not only can she not hype, but she also realizes that the next episode of the show must deal with a gossip news that is obviously full of explosive points is not so eye-catching.

was reading some copies of online news provided by ABC repeatedly, and when she heard the assistant remind, Oprah quickly got up and left the office.

As soon as he walked out of the studio, Oprah saw Eric and his party coming out of the elevator, and hurriedly greeted him warmly: "Mr. Williams, it's a pleasure to meet you." ”

"Hello, Ms. Winfrey," Eric shook Oprah's hand.

Oprah greeted Robert Iger again, and everyone went to a conference room in the studio.

As they sat down at the conference table, Oprah took the folder from his assistant's hand, sent out all the irrelevant people, and went straight to the point: "So, Mr. Williams, can you start by saying, what scale can we touch on this episode?"

"Today's incident, two women, three children," Eric said, adding, "Also, you can call me Eric." ”

Oprah nodded, her mood relaxed, what she was most worried about was that Eric avoided this scandal and forcibly clarified and covered it up, which would often only backfire.

However, although he had already made up his mind, Oprah cautiously confirmed, "Eric, you mean, you plan to publicly admit the identities of your three children?"

"Yes, and my thoughts on this incident, which I hope will be talked about openly and honestly on the show. ”

Oprah was a little surprised by Eric's calmness.

However, in her opinion, this is clearly the best coping strategy.

"That's good, Eric, it's always easier for the public, well, to understand honest and frank people. ”

Eric naturally understood the pause in Oprah's tone, and the other party obviously wanted to use the word 'forgiveness'.

It's just that Eric never thought of getting the other party's forgiveness because his code of conduct was contrary to the general perception of the public, which was boring. The reason why he arranged this episode was just to tell some people his attitude towards some things, and Eric didn't want anyone to use this kind of thing in the future and hurt the women and children around him.

Of course, Eric is not averse to conveying to the public through this show a false feeling that he wants to be forgiven.

After all, popular sentiment is always one of the easiest to manipulate and a very powerful tool for argumentation.

Eric's unexpected attitude made Oprah quickly set the tone of the episode, and continued to discuss some details for more than an hour, and everyone moved to the studio hall to start the official recording of the show.

……

San Francisco on the West Coast.

In the office of Sequoia Capital's headquarters, Don Valentine hung up the call with Robert Iger again and said to a thin middle-aged man opposite: "Williams only responded that he knew. ”

As one of the most powerful venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, Sequoia Capital is actually made up of more than 30 investment funds. The middle-aged man named Ronald Hill across from Don Valentine is one of the larger fund leaders.

Hearing Don Valentine's words, Ronald Hill realizes that Eric clearly didn't accept the apology.

Pulling his tie, Ronald Hill said in an anxious tone: "What else is he going to do, just one morning, in order to maintain the NASDAQ index, the entire new technology half has smashed at least $3 billion, doesn't he think it's not enough?"

Don Valentine put the receiver back on the landline and said, "Ronald, it's useless to complain, let's think about the aftermath." I also don't understand why you would want to invest in such a provocative website. ”

"Adam Wembry, the founder of this website, is my middle school classmate," Ronald Hill squeezed out a wry smile and said, "He showed me the plan, I thought it was good, and he only needed $2 million to get 70% of the shares, so he agreed." ”

"Did you know about this beforehand?"

"Of course I don't know, and if I did, I wouldn't have allowed that idiot to mess around. This is Eric Williams, I'd rather that idiot mess with the president. ”

"So," Don Valentine tapped his fingers on his desk a few times, "and you're not close to that Adam Wembry?"

"I'd rather never know this person now. ”

"That's easy to do," Don Valentine nodded, and said in a solemn tone: "Ronald, if you don't want to be implicated, go and find out the ins and outs of this matter." That Adam Wembry obviously couldn't have done such a thing for nothing. Also, until this matter settles, I hope you can leave your position as the LH fund manager for the time being. ”

Although Don Valentine's tone was gentle, Ronald Hill instantly understood that the other party was going to kick him out of Sequoia Capital, which was a hundred times worse than he imagined. He struggled for eight years to get to where he is today, at the helm of a $1 billion fund owned by Sequoia Capital. Without Sequoia Capital, Ronald Hill had no idea if he would have the courage to start from scratch.

Standing up suddenly, Ronald Hill was silent for a moment with a changing expression on the solid wood office desktop, and then said with some begging in his tone: "Don, it's not like this." ”

"I'm sorry, Ronald," Don Valentine also stood up, turned his desk and patted Ronald Hill on the shoulder, then leaned against the edge of the desk and said in a somewhat embarrassed tone, "The timing is very sensitive, and we can't take the slightest risk of being targeted by the Firefly system." You should know that this is a behemoth that controls the size of the capital and is already close to $1,000 billion. 1,000 billion US dollars, equivalent to one-ninth of the size of the North American economy, no one dares to confront such a capital monster. If Eric Williams does make a reduction announcement this morning, everyone is done by now. But as you heard it earlier, he wasn't about to give up. ”

"But it really has nothing to do with me. ”

"Children do something wrong, and the responsibility often needs to be borne by adults," Don Valentine stretched out his hand and patted Ronald Hill on the shoulder again, and said: "If I were you, the first thing I would do now would be to shut down that website completely, and then find out the ins and outs of the matter, and take the initiative to give Eric Williams an explanation." ”

"Don, I can do this, but can the company not tear me off for the time being?"

Don Valentine shook his head again and said, "I'll let Deborah make your departure announcement later." Ronald, cheer up, you already have a net worth of more than $30 million, and you can still do something of your own without Sequoia. Of course, I think the most important thing for you now is to get this thing right. That's it for now, I'll have a meeting later, so you can calm down. ”

With that, Don Valentine left the office without hesitation, leaving Ronald Hill standing in place.

……

After experiencing a decline in the opening and a shock in the morning, the Nasdaq index was slowly rising throughout the afternoon.

By the end of the day, the Nasdaq had rushed to a high of 3,526 points.

Moreover, many investors have discovered a slightly strange phenomenon for the first time.

In the entire Nasdaq market, compared to most of the other technology stocks that barely managed to maintain their stock prices and did not suffer a decline in the morning shocks, the stocks of Yahoo, Cisco, Amazon, Qualcomm and other companies in the Firefly system all showed significant gains.

Among them, Yahoo Network's stock rose by an astonishing 6.1% in a single day, with its market value jumping from $132.6 billion at the opening to $140.7 billion, and its market value rose by $8.1 billion in a single day. Cisco's market capitalization has also reached a new high, reaching $295.6 billion by the end of the day, just one step away from the $300 billion mark.

According to statistics, this wave of single-day gains alone has increased the scale of assets controlled by the entire Firefly system by $57 billion, and at the same time brought more than $11 billion in asset appreciation to Eric himself.

As a result, in the evening, TV evening newspapers and Internet media across North America once again expressed their feelings about the new wave of technology.

On the other hand, although the news about the exposure of Eric Williams' illegitimate children this morning has basically spread among the public, not only the Internet platforms that have been basically eliminated, but most of the traditional media have shown a very cold attitude towards this matter.

Of course, it is not without scepticism.

Time Warner's CNN TV station has gone against the trend by dedicating itself to an evening talk show to discuss in detail whether Eric's crackdown on Internet media has affected topics such as press freedom.

This is also a very sensitive topic, and once the topic is broadened for freedom-loving Westerners, Eric's crackdown on press freedom is obviously more likely to provoke a public backlash than his illegitimate child.

However, despite CNN's ill intentions, this topic has not caused large-scale media hype.

In fact, most news events often become more and more serious when the media is swarming and hyped.

In the same way, without the impetus of the media, without enough discourse guidance, the public will often naturally feel that this is not a big deal. As a result, CNN was left alone with a potential bombshell, only to turn out to be a dud.