Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 188 Some people deserve to be supported

A few days later, home.

"Linda—I'm going out for a walk—"

"Don't worry, I can see it. The moon is so bright in the sky. I also brought a flashlight."

"Ethan went with me, too. We wouldn't both fall into the pit at the same time, would we?"

"Yeah~ Dad is right - the workers haven't started digging the foundation yet, there's no pit for me to fall into! Don't worry, we won't run into the fields, we'll be back soon, Bye~"

When Evelyn took Ethan's arm and pushed him out the door, the bright moonlight was like a veil, gently covering them. Walking slowly along the wooden path in front of the house, the endless vast fields soon appeared in front of the two. The land here has been leveled. In the next few days, workers will sow cotton seeds in it. At most eight to ten months, they will be able to see the snow-white world.

The reason why they appeared on their own farm was because today was Thomas and Linda's housewarming day. To celebrate, they brought gifts home for dinner.

Before, Thomas and Linda lived in the center of the small town of Los Gatos. They settled there to make it easier for them to go to school. But when Ethan and Evelyn moved out one after another, moving back to the farm became what they wanted to do most.

Of course, this is also the living habit of most farmers in America. Since they have land in their hands, why should they live in the city? Once they go to the vast and boundless farm, the life without noise, pollution, disturbance, and disputes is simply too wonderful.

If the navel orange orchard at home had not been a bit sloping and not suitable for building a large residence, Thomas and Linda would have moved out long ago. After Ethan and Evelyn spent all the profits from Snake on the land, they fell in love with the plain-like cotton fields and built a house here.

The three-story wooden building has a spacious design with five bedrooms and three living rooms. It is very comfortable for two people to live in. The reason they didn’t design it bigger is that this place will become a manor in the future.

After three months of hard work, the designers at the Stanford Research Institute had designed the aquarium that Evelyn wanted. It was seventy feet long, thirty-three feet wide, and had a capacity of four hundred thousand gallons. It was big enough to raise sea turtles, or even whale sharks. When the aquarium was so huge, the other facilities of the manor could not be left behind, right? After a round of calculations, the first phase of the building with the aquarium would take up at least fifty acres, and the second phase of the swimming pool, tennis courts, and horse farm would take up more than a hundred acres. If the third phase added some gardens, golf courses, etc., the total area of ​​the manor would have to expand to more than three hundred acres. And three hundred acres to build a manor?
Then there must be at least 600 acres of surrounding farmland to not be conspicuous, right?
The cotton field under their feet had 1,100 acres when it was purchased last year, and there were more than 400 acres of fruit orchards on the surrounding hillsides, which made sense. Of course, there was another more important point, that is, the cotton here had always been planted by artificial irrigation, and there was already water underground. With the convenience of water, the configuration of artificial seawater was much simpler.

Looking at the flat land under the moonlight, letting the breeze caress his body, Ethan asked as he walked side by side with Evelyn on the ridge of the field, "Have the experts from Stanford given us a quote?"

"Yeah, the total cost of the three phases is about five million. If we use the best materials, the price will increase by about three to four times, and the annual maintenance fee is about five hundred thousand..." Evelin turned her head and glanced at Ethan, saying, "You should be able to accept this, right?"

"Let's use the best." Ethan gave his choice. "If it's not enough, ask the game company to borrow. Since we live here by ourselves, there's no need to save money on this."

“Hey!” Evelin smiled and put her hands in her pockets, “I thought so too.”

After a brief conversation, the two fell into silence again. For a moment, the only sounds in the world were the humming of the breeze, the staccato footsteps, and the occasional chirping of insects in the fields.

Perhaps because the silence here was so comfortable, neither of them said anything.

When they were tired and sat down, the comfort of looking up at the sky and seeing the Milky Way aroused Evelin's curiosity. She swayed and bumped into the person next to her.

"Ethan."

"Ok?"

"What did you talk about with Roy that day? I see you've been thinking about it these past few days."

This question made Ethan, who was looking up at the sky, stunned for a moment, and then he smiled, "Is it so obvious when I'm thinking? Why can you always see it?"

"Yes."

Evelyn said, "You like to be in a daze when you're thinking for a long time. You can tell from the look on your face that you're distracted."

"Then I will hide myself next time when I am thinking about something, so that you won't find me."

Evelin almost choked at the nonsensical words, her mouth twitched, and she stared at Ethan with a look of idiot, “But if you disappear, wouldn’t it be more obvious?”

Ethan blinked his eyes. "It seems so."

"..."

Evelin was speechless at the stupid look. She raised her arm and hit the boy on the arm. After the boy felt the pain, he stopped looking up at the stars and rubbed his arm while satisfying the girl's curiosity. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you, I'll tell you."

The communication between Ethan and Roy Disney could actually be considered private, after all, the issues involved were too sensitive, but in front of Evelyn, there was no point in keeping these things secret, right? After Ethan's narration, Evelyn also understood Roy Disney's intentions, and then...

She asked curiously, "No, Roy Disney is too bold, isn't he? If he uses the "Save Disney" operation to drive down Disney's stock price so that you can buy it at a low price, wouldn't that involve financial crime? At the very least, he could be charged with insider trading, right?"

"While their privileges in Florida are attractive, he is willing to take such high risks, even the possibility of being sent to jail, for a chairman position? Is he crazy?"

Since there was so much open space around them and the thousands of acres of private land were no place to hide anyone, Evelyn did not hide her emotions when she spoke, and her excitement made Ethan laugh.

"There has never been any financial crime in this world." Ethan shook his head and said, "There are only differences in background. People with strong backgrounds doing these things are actively helping the target companies to increase their corporate value. People without strong backgrounds or whose backgrounds have collapsed are committing crimes."

"Roy Disney dared to do this because he knew he would not take any risks. Since there was no risk in doing this, why didn't he do it?"

Ethan turned to look at his sister.

The girl in the moonlight frowned, but after a while, she relaxed her brows and shook her head with a smile.

When they themselves used their backgrounds to defend against external enemies, it was impossible to accuse others of relying on their backgrounds. Evelyn was surprised because the Disney Group had become a public company. When Roy Disney wanted to control a public company, he, who was famous for the Disney Group, seemed to have no external help. But now...

"Then Roy Disney must have powerful allies," said Evelyn.

"No one will play all their cards at the beginning of the game." Ethan shrugged.

"Will you cooperate with him?" Evelyn asked.

The next second she added, "I think he is using you because he has shown you his ambitions. Not only does he want to cooperate with you, he also wants to use you to establish a relationship with Steven and George. Regardless of whether this will work out in the end, as long as you agree, he can get bargaining chips."

This analysis made Ethan's eyes light up.

"Oh - Evelyn - you seem to be well suited to running a company -"

He praised.

"We are now...actually thinking the same thing..."

He narrated.

A few days ago, when Roy Disney said that the Disney Group had long planned to get involved in the live-action film business and was willing to hand over the live-action film business to Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Ethan not only saw his ambition, but also his exploitation.

Because of this concept, Roy Disney could not only talk to him, but also to other shareholders.

Just as Evelyn said, as long as Ethan Jones showed interest in the cooperation in front of Roy Disney, Roy Disney could contact other shareholders of Disney Group and tell them that he had already connected with Ethan Jones. Roy Disney could bring the strongest video game production capabilities to Disney Group, and also bring Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, two superstars in the film industry, to Disney Group.

Although Philips' patent licensing is very tempting and the expected revenue from self-made games is also considerable, it takes time to realize those. Compared with the plug-and-play, profitable "Star Wars" sequels, Spielberg who has made two consecutive movies with box office revenues of over 100 million yuan, and Ethan who has never failed in the field of electronic games, Philips' patent licensing and the expected revenue from self-made games are simply a defense! Because Disney is still a film company after all!
When these chips were placed in front of Disney's shareholders, any shareholder with a little bit of brains would be very interested in Roy Disney's plan. And once more people were interested, they would inevitably unite to try to let Roy Disney bring a bright future to the company.

By that time...

The Save Disney movement didn't even have to start before those shareholders joined Roy Disney in kicking Walt Disney's son-in-law, Ron Miller, out of the company.

After Ron Miller leaves, Roy Disney, who is in control of the power, will definitely fulfill his promise to Ethan, but how and to what extent he will fulfill it are actually question marks.

More importantly, Roy Disney's approach actually has another benefit.

That is, there is no need to bring Ethan, who looks more powerful, into the company.

Without launching the movement to save Disney, it would have been impossible for Ethan to hold stocks on a large scale.

"Roy is a smart guy." Ethan said with a smile, "But I'm not stupid."

"The conditions he offered were very tempting."

"But I won't be fooled until I show real sincerity."

“Haha~” Ethan’s words made Evelin chuckle, “You rejected him again?”

"Not this time." Ethan explained honestly, "Now that we have fallen out with many Hollywood companies, Roy Disney's expectations of us can bring us a lot."

"So I told him I needed to think about it. Then... I called George and Steven these days and told them about Roy's desire..."

“What?” Evelyn didn’t understand her brother’s behavior.

Ethan explained: "Because they have ambitions to become bigger..."

Whether it was the memories of his previous life or the contacts in this life, Ethan knew that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had the idea of ​​becoming movie moguls.

There is no need to say much about the former. The name DreamWorks is simply the most beautiful thing in the world, and the meaning of creating a dream factory has touched the hearts of countless people. As for the latter, Lucasfilm has monopolized the visual effects production in Hollywood for a long time. Lucas is eager to use the power of technology to break through the blockade of giants, but unfortunately, Sony and the fat man from New Zealand came in without any moral principles.

When Ethan realized that the two of them wanted to build their own film company, the most important thing for Ethan to do was to give them the olive branch thrown by Roy Disney.

This isn't about wishing the two of them could go to Disney, it's about showing them your heart.

Because these two guys didn't seem to really accept him - Spielberg had concealed his help in the Ralph Baer incident at the beginning. On the surface, he liked games, but in fact he was helping Universal to fight Philips;

Later, there were also problems with the production of the "Star Wars" game. Lucas's project was clearly approved by his own people, but no one told anyone. Ethan felt that he had hit the jackpot with the "Star Wars" era, but what was the truth? He even felt that Spielberg deliberately took him to Fox that day, because they had long known that "Star Wars" was not favored by outsiders. If it could be made into a game under such circumstances, perhaps it would be able to turn things around directly;

This is even more true now. When the bomb of Columbia exploded, he realized that the person at the helm of Columbia was one of their own! At that time, he thought Columbia was very good and could help him fight Warner before the contract was signed, but the truth is... Haha!
To be honest, after discovering that these two guys only spoke half of their sentences once, twice, and three times, Ethan was a little angry! If these two guys hadn't really benefited from him, Ethan would have cursed them long ago!

So when he received Roy Disney's olive branch this time, he decisively relayed Roy Disney's words to the two men. He wanted to tell the two guys -

He, Ethan Jones, would not 'hide' things from his friends!
He also hoped that these two guys would stop hiding things from him!
"So...what's the result?" Evelyn was so amused by Ethan's angry expression.

In fact, the girl had long discovered that Ethan always believed in some people for unknown reasons.

She wanted to correct Ethan's problems, but there were many things she couldn't say directly.

And now...

"The result? The result was that after I finished the call, Steven came directly with the contract for Alien, the termination contract with Columbia, and the signing contract with Universal. Not only did the previously agreed terms remain unchanged, but a time guarantee was also signed. Universal will allow the film to start shooting before July, wrap up before January 1st of next year, and guarantee that it will be released no later than Christmas of next year."

"If the film doesn't start before July, he will shoot the movie himself."

"It's a bit tight in terms of time, but he will keep an eye on the project throughout, even turning down a war movie he wanted to make, and said he would edit it himself."

"If the North American box office of the movie doesn't reach 50 million, he and George won't ask for any producer commission. Not only that, George also brought up Star Wars. He said that if Alien doesn't have a box office of 50 million, he will continue to unconditionally license the sequel to Star Wars to me, and only take 20% of the licensing fee. Because of what happened before, I can now sell the Star Wars game at will without any restrictions, whether it is ported to a computer or a home console."

"Wow... do they know they are wrong? So sincere?" Evelyn's eyes lit up when she heard Dachuan's promise. She also smiled and said, "So do you really hope that Alien will die violently now?"

"How is that possible?" Ethan was unconvinced, "Am I that kind of person?"

“Yes!” Evelin nodded seriously.

“…” The serious answer left Ethan speechless.

After staring at his sister for a while, he finally gave in and made the sign of the cross in front of him, "Okay, you're right, I will pray every morning now, that Alien will be finished soon!"

"Hahaha--"

Evelyn laughed until tears came out of her eyes, and she waved and patted Ethan's arm continuously.

But Ethan was telling the truth!

Compared to "Star Wars", "Alien" is nothing!
If the failure of Alien had allowed him to get Star Wars...

Then he would choose Star Wars.

As for "Contra"?
Wouldn’t it be better to just change it to “Star Wars: The Han Solo Legend”?

What about Sylvester Stallone and The Governor teaming up to fight aliens?
Straight into Han Solo raiding the Dark Army!
Anyway, you just shoot with guns!
And when this kind of game is made...

Don’t even mention that their console will be released two years later than Atari and MILOVA!
Even if it's five years later...

It will still sell out!
While Evelyn was laughing, she also discovered a problem, "So, the North American theater blockade led by Philips doesn't seem to have any impact on us?"

"Because we never planned to make an arcade game for Alien from the beginning?"

"Snap!" Ethan snapped his fingers.

"Yes, you're right." He nodded with a relaxed look, "We never planned to make an arcade game for Alien from the beginning, so they blocked it for nothing."

When the compensation conditions offered by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas made Ethan want to tear up "Alien", Ethan suddenly realized that he seemed to have been angry for nothing.

Because they planned to make "Contra" into a console game from the very beginning!

The blockade of him by Philips, Disney, MGM, Paramount, and Warner Communications seemed to be cutting off his financial resources, but in fact it was saving him!

If he sells those arcade machines of "A Fortune 500" to theaters now and makes a fortune, then when "Alien" is released, if he doesn't put "Contra" in theaters, won't the theaters fight him to the death?
Therefore, instead of being threatened by North American theaters regarding the release of the movie at that time, it would be better for him to be kicked out by Philips and others now, because in this case, Ethan would become the victim!
And by that time, if "Contra" sells well, the North American theaters will definitely fight to the end with the Philips Alliance. After all, cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing his parents!
At that time...

All he needs to do is watch the show.

This is really like a situation where you think there is no way out, but when you turn around you will find a new village!
'hey-hey! '

'No matter how you look at it, I win this deal!'

'I'm such a genius!'

"Since Philips' blockade is in our favor, what have you been thinking about these days?"

Evelyn became even more curious.

“I’m thinking of a quote,” Ethan said. “Roy Disney said that.”

"When we were talking that day, he told me that power does not come from the superiors, but from the subordinates' obedience. I think what he said makes sense."

"So I went to the factory these days and talked with Michael and the others, and then I found that almost everyone was waiting for me to release a new game. They wanted to make money, and they wanted to help me deliver the goods..."

"Because they said that since Philips and MGM have joined forces, they might cause trouble for us during the transportation of goods. After all, Kirk Kerkorian is backed by the Italian Mafia. And many truck drivers in North America are of Italian descent."

Thinking back to what he saw and heard when he went to the factory that day, Ethan felt mixed emotions.

During the off-season when business was not heavy, these guys did not all stay in the factory, but took turns to go to the shooting range in San Jose.

In the words of factory supervisor Michael Blanco, what these people are best at is not making circuit boards, but taking up arms and going into battle.

After returning from Asia, many people can only sleep with their cold guns in their arms.

They wanted to get away from it as much as possible, but if necessary -

"When we pick it up, we will be more skilled than many people." Michael Blanco, standing in an office on the second floor of the factory, pointed to the workers who were making circuit boards below and said, "After hearing about the cooperation between Philips and MGM, I communicated with them and said that they may get another job in the future, that is, delivery drivers and accompanying security guards."

"They said there was no problem, they were willing to take the job, and if anyone along the way dared to cause trouble, they would beat them up so that they wouldn't dare to show up."

"In fact, if you don't come to see me these few days, I will go back to you. Although we know how far we should go, you also know that guns are not controlled by human will. So, you should separate the factory from the game company. There are some things we can do, but we can't say them, right?"

"After the split, if something really happens, you can kick us out directly. We only have one request. If you can rescue them, then do your best. If you can't, or if no one can rescue them, then send some money to their families. You can decide the amount yourself. Anyway, we don't have any big demands."

"Those people in the Federation have always disliked us, and other people won't give us jobs. You are the one who supports us. We know you are good, but we can't use your money for nothing, right?"

At this point, Michael Blanco turned his head and looked at Ethan with ease...

Ethan pursed his lips and said with emotion: "This matter has troubled me for several days. We originally wanted to demolish the factory, but after they said that, I feel like we are not human beings."

These words made Evelin open her mouth. She seemed to have something to say, but she couldn't make a sound.

After a while, she sighed.

Gazing at the bright moon in the sky, he murmured, "Let's tear it down..."

“Benefits remain the same.”

“The employee equity incentive plan was extended to 30 percent.”

“I’m helping them get the Apple orders as well.”

"Some people... they deserve to be supported."

This remark caused Ethan to nod repeatedly. As he looked up at the stars, Evelin said, "Are you lucky this time? Although there were many unlucky things, there were also many landmines around you."

"Yes, whether it's the check counterfeiting in Columbia or the joint targeting by Philips, they have shown us a lot of things..." Ethan agreed with emotion, "It feels like playing Minesweeper. If you don't understand the rules, you never know where the next mine is..."

Ethan expressed his thoughts with a smile. At that moment, he even felt a gray interface appear in front of his eyes, but in the next second, his smile froze on his face.

"Oh! Fxxk..." He turned his head and looked at his sister in the moonlight.

The girl who was looking up at the night sky with her hands behind her back also turned her head tacitly.

"You——" The girl's pupils were full of amusement.

Ethan didn't care and said excitedly: "I know what games are suitable for our console!"

(End of this chapter)