Chapter 15 Apple Inc.'s Reply_1
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Two hours later.
"That will conclude today's meeting. Everyone may leave now," Chang Weisi said as he removed the simultaneous translation device from his ear at the head of the conference table.
The many scholars and government workers in the meeting room stood up and left their seats in succession.
Sitting at the end of the conference table, Cao Ge, who was only wearing an earpiece, glanced at those leaving and then followed suit, ready to go home.
In the last couple of days, just handling the matters related to the scientific frontier, the police had sought him out several times; he hadn't managed to attend to a single piece of his own business.
Although he carried the task of changing the destiny of human civilization, it was still early days, and there was truly nothing to do.
As for the matters regarding ETO, it was still up to Shi Qiang and his team to investigate—Cao Ge couldn't involve himself too much.
He indeed wanted to gain international attention after the zither operation, but such attention must not come at the cost of his own personal safety.
Logic, because of those two axioms, rose meteorically in stature after the Wallfacer Plan, but as a result, he lived every day under the threat of assassination by ETO and eventually contracted a genetic disease from an attempt that forced him into hibernation until the future, where he might find a cure. That wasn't the life Cao Ge wanted.
At least the world hadn't yet entered the crisis era.
Cao Ge wanted to live life his way, for the technology of this era was still incredibly primitive. Even if he had ideas, they couldn't be realized, so the reality was that he could only do some foundational work.
If that was the case, then of course, the further away from ETO, the better.
He just needed to maintain contact with the government, not too deeply involved, but not completely detached either—the semi-detached state was the best relationship model.
For now, he couldn't help the government with anything, and the government couldn't help him with anything either.
"Thinking about the time, there should be a response by now," Cao Ge thought to himself.
Just now, the leaders of the several major war zones had communicated about the current severe international situation during the meeting; the death toll from scientists committing suicide was still rising, so they planned to increase protection measures.
However, throughout the meeting, Cao Ge hadn't been listening; instead, he was thinking about his own business. He didn't think about anything else, just the email he had sent to Apple Inc.
It had been three days up to today, and by this time, he should have started to receive a response.
Cao Ge was right to guess, at this very moment, the top executives at Apple Inc. were engaged in a fierce discussion about his email.
Yesterday was the day when Apple Inc. processed user emails, and upon opening Cao Ge's email because of its special nature, Apple's customer service didn't reply on their own initiative but reported it to their group manager, who, after reading the contents of the email, forwarded it to the manager of the R&D department.
The R&D manager skimmed through the email and quickly recognized its immense value. He then called a meeting with all the R&D staff, conducted a morning of tests, and concluded that it was an extremely polished intelligent voice assistant. Most of the phone's operations could be completed with its help.
After coming to this conclusion, the R&D manager added his own suggestion, and along with Cao Ge's email, he reported up the chain to the mobile device department, and from there, it went up level by level until it landed in the hands of Apple's head honcho, Steve Jobs.
After reviewing the R&D testing report, Jobs immediately called a high-level meeting that lasted until dawn, and they decided to reply to him after work today and to send a senior executive on a plane to China to discuss the acquisition details with him.
But Cao Ge didn't know any of this; he was just wondering why his email had not yet received a reply.
"Brother Cao, wait a moment," called Da Shi as Cao Ge slung his bag over his shoulder and was about to step into the elevator.
"Officer Shi, do you have something else for me?" Cao Ge stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Da Shi, who was jogging over from around the corner of the hallway.
Da Shi glanced at the elevator packed with people. After the elevator doors slowly closed, he said to Cao Ge, "Brother Cao, here's the thing, our leaders would like you to take on an advisory role in our operations center. That way, it'll be easier for us to interact. What do you think?"
"A scientific advisor, what does that entail?" Cao Ge furrowed his brow and asked Da Shi.
Da Shi looked at Cao Ge, paused for a moment, and then said, "You don't actually have to do much—only provide us with advice when we encounter scientific problems. You can go about your business as usual, we won't interfere with your daily life, but we won't short you on the salary either."
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"What do you think, Brother Cao, are you interested?"
"Let me go back, think it over, and then I'll give you an answer, okay?" Cao Ge thought seriously for a while before responding.
Da Shi was taken aback for a moment, but still replied amiably, "Sure, once you've made up your mind, just call this number."
Cao Ge took the piece of paper Da Shi handed to him, glanced at it, and then slipped it into his pocket.
"Alright, I'll call you once I've thought it through. If there's nothing else, I'll be on my way."
"I'll walk you out," Da Shi said, and ahead of time, he pressed the elevator button.
In this manner, Da Shi escorted Cao Ge to the entrance of the operations center.
"All set, Officer Shi. You can head back now," Cao Ge waved to Da Shi and said.
"Okay, take care," Da Shi smiled and then turned back into the operations center.
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When he left the operations center, it was already noon.
Cao Ge looked up at the big sun above and followed the same path he came in, heading toward the main road outside. Then he hailed a cab and went home.
In a restaurant not far from his rental, he ate something simple and then returned to his place.
"Bang!" After closing the door, Cao Ge took off the bag around his waist, hung it behind the wooden door, and then sat down in front of the computer, pressing the power button.
As the Microsoft logo appeared on the black computer screen, Cao Ge was reminded of the email he had sent to Apple Inc. a few days ago.
The computer booted up successfully after a moment.
Cao Ge immediately logged into his email and opened his inbox, but it was completely empty.
Cao Ge felt a bit dejected, starting to doubt whether the higher-ups at Apple Inc. had seen his email at all, or if it had sunk without a trace.
Whether his following plans could be carried out depended on whether this first pot of gold would come to fruition.
If this first pot of gold didn't come through, then he'd have to consider other options.
The reason he placed so much importance on this first pot of gold was because it was not just about whether his subsequent plans could be realized, but also about the quality of life he would lead afterward.
Failure in the plan to deal with the Trisolarans was a minor issue; he had Logic and others to fall back on. Not being able to live a luxurious life of being desired and surrounded was the major issue.
Just as Cao Ge was grappling with whether he had chosen the wrong target, a "ding dong!" sound suddenly blared from the computer's speaker.
Cao Ge quickly moved the mouse, opened the email, and discovered it was from Apple Inc.
Dear Mr. Cao,
Hello Mr. Cao, thank you for your correspondence. I am Steve Jobs, currently the CEO of the company. I have received your email and am very impressed with your product. After carefully reviewing your acquisition proposal and conducting a corporate executive meeting, we have decided to proceed with the acquisition of the voice assistant "Xiao An." The company has appointed a special team to travel to China to negotiate this matter with you, and we look forward to meeting you.
Sender: Apple Inc.
July 15, 2007.