Half a year ago, Redmond, on the edge of Seattle, welcomed a big taxpayer. Microsoft, a well-known IT industry, moved its headquarters here and became another local master in the country, following RB Nintendo's Americas branch.

Mr. Gates chose a building with an average height, just a few floors, but the area is really not small, and a large area of ​​open space has been left for greening. It is normal. After all, for large companies in such small cities, there is no need to build skyscrapers like Manhattan. With a permanent population of less than 50,000 Redmond, if Microsoft's headquarters is really a building that is dozens of stories high, it will be laughed at to death.

One morning in mid-April, a bicycle slowly drove from a distance. The rider had a funny and slim head and was also fatter. A discerning person could recognize him at a distance. In addition to Steve Ballmer, executive vice president of sales support, who else has this style?

"Yo, Steve, it was very early today."

The guard Tom said hello, but Ballmer's tense face showed that he was definitely going to work today with emotion. After waving Caocao and Tom, he quickly walked into the elevator.

The elevator door directly leads to the top floor where the company's executives are located. When a ding sound sounded, Ballmer still walked out of the elevator like an enclave.

"Hey, Steve."

At the time, Eric was standing in an open space with coffee: "Bill is waiting for you in the office."

"Thank you, Eric, give me some other coffee."

He picked up Starbucks' big cup of coffee, and before Ballmer could finish half of the corridor, two-thirds of the coffee left were left. After throwing the paper cup into the trash can, he pushed open the door of the chairman's office.

"Steve, you're here!"

In the office, Gates and Paul Allen were discussing something. When he saw Ballmer enter the room, he immediately stood up and said, "Has the result come out?"

Ballmer took out a stack of documents from his bag, threw them onto the coffee table, and then lay on the sofa, letting a sigh of relief: "I'm so tired, there are so many broken documents. I stayed up until four in the morning to finish it. You guys should take a good look."

There was no word written on the cover of the document, but all three of them knew what it was.

"Windows 1.0 Half-year Sales Performance Report".

It's highly confidential.

Time passed slowly in silence, and only the sound of the clock ticking in the room was heard. Ballmer was closing his eyes and pretending to sleep. Gates and Allen were reading the investigation report together. Both of them were frowning, but their expressions were very complicated and they were obviously happy, but the worries between their eyebrows were even more obvious, and there was a hint of fear hidden in everyone's eyes.

After half an hour, when the documents reached the bottom, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

"Awesome, awesome."

Allen patted his thighs and kept shaking his head: "This girl is such a complete genius. Although it only lasts half a year, in just half a year, the profit we made with this system is equivalent to the total profit added to all the years in the past!"

Gates patted the stack of A4 paper that is neither thin nor thick, and his eyes were constantly flashing: "According to this result, we can go public directly at the end of this year. At that time, everyone's shareholding ratio will change greatly, and the number of orders will be more..."

After a moment of silence, Gates said to Ballmer: "Call Eric in."

The technical supervisor arrived. After he managed the door, Gates said: "Eric, the research report you did at that time stated that if all employees of the company were asked to develop on their own, it would take at least a year to make Windows 1.0, right?"

Eric didn't know what was going on, but he had seen Ballmer's mood beside him. He thought about it and said cautiously: "That's right, but the number of programmers in the company has increased now. If he develops another one with the same difficulty, it will definitely not take that long."

Gates did not answer immediately, but thought silently.

On the timeline, it was about August 1983 and May, July and August 1985.

If Alice had not appeared, the entire Windows 1.0 would have been about this cycle from research and development to finished products.

In August 1983, when he boasted about Haikou at the Las Vegas Computer Expo, he swore that Microsoft's new system would be released next spring.

If Alice had learned the news immediately from then on, then it would be eight months before the spring of 1984, when she came to find her at home.

In eight months, how far has the company made its own progress?

They are fifty-five senior engineers, and the other party had not graduated from elementary school at the time and was only in the seventh grade now.

After thinking about it, Gates said: "Then Eric, you can do another feasibility analysis for me now. If the company currently has 67 engineers, not Miss Alice, it will take a company to develop another...1.1 system, or 2.0 system?"

Eric's eyebrows jumped hard.

Even if he is a technical person, he is still an executive, and immediately guessed what Gates was thinking.

"Well... it depends mainly on the degree of improvement."

Eric found a seat and sat down, saying: "I personally have had ideas about the next-generation system. I think we can use the speed of Intel's latest processors to maximize system performance, improve processing speed, expand memory, and the communication capabilities between applications brought by dynamic data exchange technology. If this level of improvement..."

He thought for a moment: "Little half a year?"

Allen raised his eyebrows: "Efficiency improvements alone are not enough. After all, research institutes only account for a small part of the customer base, and our main buyers are major companies. For those people, overemphasizing computing power is useless, and they don't do that kind of job."

"So it's the efficiency evolution and the interface optimization?"

Eric thought for a while: "It will take about eight to nine months. Two bosses, are we going to have a new job?"

Gates smiled slightly: "Of course, the competition in the IT industry is so fierce now, but there is no room for us to relax. Just like Jobs, Apple's recent big moves are emerging one after another. If we don't keep up quickly, the market will be snatched away by others."

In this way, Eric had nothing to do. But after he left, the three people in the room sighed deeply.

As a senior at Gates University, Ballmer leaned against the sofa without sitting alone. He smiled bitterly: "Are you believe it or not? If Alice takes action, you will save at least two-thirds of this time."

Allen nodded slowly and frowned: "Indeed, after all, she never told us about her R&D cycle. Even from the earliest, it would only take that long..."

"And she now has experience in developing 1.0. If she optimizes her old works, she probably won't be able to use it in two months."

Gates leaned against the back of the sofa, his blonde hair was obviously a little scattered. He kept shaking his head and smiling bitterly, and kept holding his glasses with his hands.

Alan looked at his friend silently without saying a word.

He could clearly feel that since his old friend experienced the drug dealer kidnapping incident, his whole person has changed a lot. Of course, it is understandable to propose moving the company to the Seattle area. Whether it is the hometown factors of the employee, the potential for regional computer education, or the fuse of the drug dealer kidnapping case, they can all be the cause of this decision.

What Allen noticed was that Gates' attitude towards Alice changed.

For some reason, whenever a company member mentions that shareholder normally, Gates will have a...similar to fear. As someone who has been with him since elementary school, no matter how good Gates hides this emotion, Allen can detect it.

Then the question arises.

At that time, something special must have happened.

Allen has carefully recalled the case many times, but he is not a police officer after all. It happened that the company and Alice were negotiating technology investment. Of course, he did not have the energy to observe the details of the case, especially the specific details about the police.

For example, the police's speech when they explained to reporters was very brief and ideal; for example, those policemen seemed to have a look of fear and a feeling of confusion. Moreover, when Allen went to the police station to meet Gates in person, they obviously felt that the atmosphere around them was very tense, but it was not a normal tension, but like a panic-minded tension. Moreover, they all seemed to not show such tension in front of Allen, so they seemed even more nervous...

The situation was really strange at that time, and Allen clearly felt that while Gates kept saying "let me rest" at the time, he was also a part of the nervousness.

Does he have any story he and Alice have to tell?

Or is Alice having any ulterior secret?

Alan couldn't think of anything even though he had a high IQ, but it was really difficult for him to guess what Gates, who was both a friend and a client, both kept silent.

"Anyway, come on as much as possible."

Gates, who didn't know what he was thinking, said firmly: "Don't let Alice be alone and completely replace the company's technical department."

Alan looked into his eyes, covering up the doubts and worries in his heart, and nodded happily.
Chapter completed!