Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 43: I won't take advantage of the situation anymore, I'm afraid of being beaten

Q: When you see a guy wearing black Martin boots, black wrinkled leather pants, a black T-shirt, a black leather jacket, and big black sunglasses on his collar, what is the first reaction in your mind?
Answer: The long hair fluttering in the wind immediately made Ethan think of the adjective "will-o'-the-wisp boy".

The exclamation of "this is stupid" even came to his lips!

But when he saw the guy's face clearly, he decisively left the agent and hurried downstairs.

He rushed to the guy and asked in confusion: "What's going on? Steve, what are you doing..."

That’s right, the guy in abstract clothing is Steve Jobs.

At this moment, his face was full of anger.

He stared at the people in front of him with red eyes, veins bulging on his neck, as if he was ready to fight if they didn't agree.

Next to him stood a guy with round cheeks and thick lips.

Although he was dressed politely, his blue shirt was tattered, with the sleeve on his left arm torn to shreds and several buttons on the front missing, causing his more lively hair to poke out.

After hearing Ethan's voice, several people at the scene immediately turned their eyes over.

Steve Jobs, who was furious, was stunned for a moment, then asked in surprise: "Ethan? Why are you here?"

"I'm here to see the house..." Ethan pointed behind him with his thumb.

"What are you doing here?" Ethan asked with a frown, "Fighting?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Ethan felt that the wording was wrong.

Because except for Steve Jobs, the other people were dressed normally.

They either wore T-shirts and shorts, or plaid shirts and jeans. If they wanted to be more formal, they would wear suits, shirts and trousers. Only Steve Jobs was like a street urchin, swearing all the time.

"Uh... I guess so..." Jobs thought for a while and nodded.

However, the next second, he explained: "But this incident was not initiated by us! They slandered us for damaging their things!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the people on the opposite side, who had been quiet, became excited again.

"Steve! Watch your words!"

"You didn't explain things clearly!"

“We didn’t slander!”

"Oh! Fxxk! I told you this is not our problem!" The shouting from the other side made Jobs a little jumpy.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Seeing that these guys were still trying to quack like ducks, Ethan Jones said quickly, "Stop arguing! I think you all know that arguing will not lead to any results, so calm down first, how about we find a place to sit down and talk?"

Ethan's voice was so loud that it drowned out theirs.

The spontaneous momentum also brought the dispute on the scene to a standstill.

"That's fine with me." Steve Jobs panted and agreed first. "Let's talk inside."

At the same time, he introduced the fat boy next to him, "This is the Ethan I told you about, the Ethan who took me to sell goods last month."

Then he turned to Ethan and said, "This is my friend Stephen."

"Hello." The little fat man nodded slightly.

"Hello." Ethan also stopped there.

The person next to him was a little puzzled, "Sir, who are you?"

Their questioning made Steve Jobs raise his head: "Him? Aha? Do you know Snake Game?"

“He invented it!”

This introduction is powerful.

After learning that Ethan was the producer of Snake, these guys who were about the same age as Jobs immediately put away their anger. Some even came over and shook hands with Ethan, saying, "Hey, brother, nice to meet you."

"I'm Steven, Steven Levy, you can call me Steven."

"They were Harry Garland, Lee Firsteinsen, Roger Mellen, John Draper."

"Oh... I don't know any of them..."

Ethan had never heard of any of these names.

But it doesn't matter because it doesn't affect his etiquette.

After a brief handshake with these guys, Ethan, who acted as a middleman, was also ready to follow these guys into their houses.

But before entering the house, he greeted Frank again.

"Uh...please help me communicate with the agent. I won't take this house anymore. Do you understand me?"

"I understand, I understand. It's to avoid being beaten at night!"

"..."

Frank always has a unique way of explaining the essence of things.

This made Ethan admire him very much.

Although the words were a bit unpleasant, Ethan didn't have time to care about so much. After entering the room and sitting down, he began to understand the disputes among these people.

The first speaker was Steve Jobs.

"Ethan, here's the thing. Several of us are members of the same computer club. Last month, in May, didn't you and I go out together to replace the motherboard of Snake Game for a customer? During that time, our club held an offline gathering."

"Because I'm not in California, I couldn't attend and I don't know what they talked about that day, but when I came back this month, my friend Stephen, who is also him, told me about the magic of the party."

As he spoke, Steve Jobs pointed.

The fat boy with torn clothes beside him immediately said, "After Steve came back, I told him about the party in May, and the content of the party, uh...specifically, it started in March."

"Our club was formed in March this year, and Steve was there at the time. At the first gathering, the club's founder Gordon told us that he had ordered an Altair 8800 through Popular Electronics and that he might get it in a month or two, so we were looking forward to it."

"You know Altair, right? It's the hottest personal microcomputer right now!" "Last month, Altair arrived. Gordon showed it to us and let each of us try it out."

"Because in March, Steve showed great interest in Altair, so when he came back from work this month, I told him about what happened last month, and he was interested and wanted to meet Altair."

"So, on the 12th of this month, when the party was held again, we went together. At this party, he saw the Altair he had always dreamed of, and then he tried with his own hands how to make the typing tape type out numbers by fiddling with the joystick..."

Having said that, the fat man turned his head and looked at Jobs.

As if recalling the scene at that time, Jobs' face was full of excitement, "Yes, Ethan, you know what? When I saw Altair, I was very shocked! Because I had never come into contact with such a thing before!"

“This thing seems to have life!”

Steve Jobs waved his hand and continued, “Because Altair looks so amazing, it can calculate all kinds of things according to our instructions! And I was very curious about how it worked, so I asked Stephen how it was made. After seeking the consent of Gordon, the owner of Altair and the founder of our club, Stephen took Altair apart in front of everyone, and then introduced the internal structure of Altair to me and all of us. I listened very carefully at the time…”

At this point, Steve Jobs paused.

He raised an eyebrow at Ethan.

Ethan understood what was going on with this action. After a brief discussion of the content of the argument, he knew what these guys were arguing about. "So, the Altair you took apart is broken, right?"

"Liquid! It's broken!"

Before Jobs could speak, Steven Levy, who had taken the initiative to greet Ethan, said, "The day before yesterday, Gordon, the founder of our club, told us a good news. He got an offer from SSA and will be going to work in Baltimore soon."

"We are happy for his success, but at the same time we are sad because we may never see Altair again after he leaves, so we want to see Altair again before he leaves."

"But when we went there yesterday, we found that the machine seemed to be broken. After the circuit was connected, an indicator light on the main panel was not on. It had only been touched by Steve and his team before, so..."

"I told you! We tore it apart and then restored it! And we ran it again right in front of you!" Jobs shouted.

"But it's broken now!" Steven Levy and his gang argued.

"Okay! Okay!"

The quarrel that had arisen again made Ethan raise his voice.

"I think I understand why, but at the same time, I have a new question."

"Can anyone tell me, has anyone checked that computer? Or do you know how that computer broke down?"

This question made Steven Levy and his group look at each other in confusion.

Even the voices became much quieter.

“We didn’t dismantle Altair.”

"Gordon bought the complete version! He spent over six hundred dollars on it! How dare we dismantle something so expensive?"

"Yes! The seller of Altair specifically said that the fully assembled version of the machine will not be repaired separately!"

'have to!'

Ethan understood as soon as he heard this.

These guys really want to pass the buck without even understanding the specific situation!
But on second thought, Ethan felt it was normal.

After all, something worth more than six hundred dollars is nearly two months' income for a normal person. It would be strange if they didn't rush to repair it after it broke.

"So what do you want to do now?" Ethan asked.

"We called them here today because we want them to pay compensation."

"Is this what you mean or is it the founder of your club, what's his name..."

"Gordon."

"Yes, is that what you meant or what Gordon meant?"

"Gordon thinks this thing should be repairable, but we don't dare!"

'? ? ? '

"...This is troublesome."

Ethan had a headache.

I don't know how the item broke? I want to fix it but it's too expensive? Why do I feel like these people are trying to be right but are shameless?

But Steve Jobs said, “Maybe we can.”

"What?"

After these words were spoken, Steven Levy and his group became anxious again.

"You've already broken it! And you still want to touch it?"

"That won't do! What if it's just a minor problem now, and it becomes a big problem after you touch it?
"Yeah! Gordon has to go to Baltimore to report on his work! He can't waste time here with you!"

The noisy noise that appeared again made Ethan Jones feel annoyed.

"Stop barking!!!"

Not wanting to fall into an endless loop, he shouted directly—

"Let Steve and the others fix it!"

"Over six hundred dollars for a machine, right?"

"If they break the machine, I'll buy you a new one!"

After a burst of roars, the scene fell silent.

Looking at the few people who kept silent, Ethan said in a deep voice: "I have finished speaking. Who agrees? Who opposes?"

"Ok?"

He stared with his big eyes and looked around.

Note: ①SSA is the Social Security Administration of the United States.

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(End of this chapter)