Acting and Practice

Chapter 69 Acting and Practice

"Brother! Brother! Calm down! Calm down!"

No sooner had Don Valentine finished speaking than Nolan Bushnell stood up.

With one arm around the other's shoulder and the other gently patting his back, his mouth kept moving like a spring.

"Brother, calm down, we're discussing something."

"Ethan has been very polite ever since he came in. No matter how we questioned him or how much we vented our emotions, he remained very restrained. I think he was trying to show that he was willing to communicate, right?"

Nolan Bushnell winked at Ethan.

Having received the explicit instruction, Ethan descended the steps and nodded slightly.

This situation relieved Nolan Bushnell, who then turned to Don Valentine and said, "Ethan may have indeed caused us significant financial losses, but since he's willing to communicate, why don't we sit down and talk?"

"I admit that I was furious when I first saw him, and I wanted to strangle him! But we all know that killing him is pointless, right? And we live in a civilized society now, no one resorts to such barbaric behavior anymore."

Upon hearing these words, Don Valentine glared fiercely at Ethan.

"snort!"

He made a nasal sound and forcefully shook his hand.

"Fxxk You!"

He broke free from Nolan Bushnell's embrace and walked out of the office without looking back.

Then came a muffled "thump".

That was an expression of dissatisfaction.

This action made Nolan Bushnell shake his head. After turning his gaze back to Ethan, he shrugged and spread his hands, looking helpless.

"Ethan, I'm sorry, we were a bit too emotional just now, but I believe you can understand."

Nolan Bushnell took a pack of Marlboro cigarettes from the drawer, pulled one out, and handed it to Ethan.

Seeing that Ethan wouldn't take it, he put it in his mouth and lit it himself.

As pale blue smoke rose, Nolan Bushnell, exhaling a smoke ring, sighed, "Ethan, as you know, just a few months ago, Atari reached a settlement agreement with Milova, paying them hundreds of thousands in compensation and preventing us from releasing our self-developed games for a year."

"Under these circumstances, Atari's survival environment was actually very difficult. The company had very little money left in its accounts, and the entire company was on the verge of bankruptcy. That's why I sent Steve, who had just returned from abroad, to gather information about our competitors. If they develop a popular game, Atari might fall into the abyss overnight."

"There's no way around it; the business world has always been this ruthless."

"but……"

At this point, Nolan Bushnell placed the cigarette in his hand next to the ashtray and flicked it lightly.

With his movement, the already difficult-to-shape cigarette ash instantly crumbled.

The pale red flames, like stars in the night, suddenly appeared.

"Steve discovered you, and you brought us Snake Game, which was a huge surprise for us."

Nolan Bushnell smiled at Ethan. "To be honest, we've been very grateful to you over the past few months."

"Although we have our disagreements, for example, the initial negotiations were not pleasant, but business is business. Everyone's core goal is to seek greater benefits for themselves, and there is no intention to target each other."

"It's precisely because we have no ill intentions towards each other that our cooperation is so pleasant, isn't it?"

Although it was a question, Nolan Bushnell didn't give Ethan a chance to answer. Playing with the cigarette in his hand, he continued, "We trusted you, so we settled your commission after the first round of sales..."

"We trust you, so we'd like to get your opinion on distribution as well..."

"We trust you, so we called you in to review the accounts right after the second round of sales..."

"But what happened today caught us off guard."

At this point, Nolan Bushnell also extinguished the cigarette in his hand.

He crossed his arms, propped his elbows on the table, and looked at Ethan with a complicated expression.

"Ethan, do you know what? When we received the lawsuit from Mirova, we felt like the sky had fallen. We didn't understand why this happened, and we didn't understand why you, as a former Mirova employee, would make such a mistake."

"We desperately wanted to find you and get the real answer to the matter, but we searched for you all afternoon without finding a trace of you. So when you finally answered the phone, we may have unconsciously used a somewhat harsh tone during the conversation because of our eagerness."

"I'm sorry about that. Of course, I also want to apologize to you on behalf of Tang. After all, he has invested all the money he has earned over the years into Atari. If Atari disappears, then all his hard work over the years will have been for nothing."

"We're all smart people, so I think you should be able to understand what I mean. And since you said this might be a misunderstanding, I'll trust you one more time. I hope you can communicate well with Mirohua when you get back, and I hope you can reach an agreement with them. After all... everyone wants to make money, right?"

"At the same time, we hope you can understand that we will be suspending the second round of dividend payments because no one knows how this case will develop, so we will suspend payments until the case is closed..."

I'm sorry.

Nolan Bushnell sighed.

He forced a stiff smile at Ethan.

Ethan gave him a deep look, then gave a formulaic smile before leaving Atari.

With his departure, Don Valentine returned to Nolan Bushnell's office.

The two exchanged a glance.

Then, they all burst into laughter.

"How was my performance?" Don Valentine asked.

"Great job, bro!" Nolan Bushnell gave a thumbs up. "When you yelled at Ethan, I thought you were going to throw a punch! Especially when you said—'Ethan, you want to talk about the law? Then go to jail!' your expression was terrifying! I was genuinely afraid you'd fight him!"

"Hahaha~" Don Valentine liked Nolan Bushnell's assessment. "If you think I'm fierce, then all we need to do is wait for Ethan to come back, because you put a lot of pressure on him too; he didn't say a word just now!"

"Of course! My acting skills are definitely good enough to win awards in Hollywood!"

Nolan Bushnell boasted for a moment, then returned to the main topic, "Of course, this is also related to the lawsuit filed by Milrovia. They're demanding one million from us, and another million from Ethan and his team? Oh... that idea of ​​filing separate lawsuits is really brilliant! They're just after the money! And Ethan can't afford to pay that much, so he had no choice but to sell 'Snake Game' to us..."

…………

Palo Alto and Los Gatos were not far apart. When Ethan returned to his new home, he threw himself onto the newly bought sofa as the door closed. The softness made his whole body ache, and the endless darkness made him feel icy cold.

He didn't know why things had developed to this point!

He had no idea why things had happened so suddenly!

Why did Milrohua, who had never had any contact with him in the past few months, suddenly sue him?

Isn't this guy crazy?

If he really infringed on his rights, wouldn't it be enough for Mirohua to just send a lawyer's letter?

Why was he subjected to such a swift and decisive legal punishment?

Ethan really couldn't understand it.

But what angered him even more than this incident was Atari's attitude tonight!

Don Valentine and Nolan Bushnell's back-and-forth singing technique was so clumsy!

Anyone can see their core objective: to shift all the blame for the Snake Game project onto him!

While there's nothing wrong with this approach—it's all business—the way they act, trying to have their cake and eat it too, is utterly disgusting.

It's understandable to talk things out and vent emotions.

After venting, they still pretend to be lesbians? Saying they were forced to not share profits?

I'm pulling you, aren't I?! I'm helpless, aren't I?!

From a business perspective, not distributing dividends is perfectly reasonable!

To put on a cloak of hypocrisy, how incredibly hypocritical!

Perhaps because he was too angry, or perhaps because he was too stressed by the day's events, Ethan fell asleep after lying on the sofa for only a short while.

When he woke up again, an enticing aroma wafted into his nostrils, stimulating his taste buds.

"? 』

This situation left Ethan bewildered as he got up, and then he noticed the blanket on his body.

Following the aroma into the kitchen, Evelyn was frying eggs.

"Awake? Go wash up." Evelyn glanced at Ethan, her hands still busy, and said with a smile, "I'll finish frying the eggs and we can eat right away. The bread is toasted, the salad is mixed, and there's milk too."

At the same time, she also made a joke.

"If Linda saw what we were eating for breakfast, she would be heartbroken, right? But there's nothing I can do, it's just the kind of food I know how to make."

"When did you arrive?" Ethan didn't pick up on his sister's topic, but instead asked the question that had been bothering him.

This question made Evelyn pause, then she smiled and shook her head, saying, "Last night."

"Last night?" Ethan was even more confused.

"Yes, last night." Evelyn sighed and said, "Our two villas face each other. You left not long after I went in. Do you think I wouldn't know?"

"Although I don't know where you went, I know you didn't get back until after midnight last night."

"When I came back, I didn't turn on the lights, so I came over, and then I found you lying on the sofa."

"Oh right, this shouldn't count as trespassing, right? I used your house key to open the door and come in."

Evelyn's tone was very lighthearted.

Ethan laughed and shook his head, "Oh...no, that doesn't count..."

He pursed his lips and added, "Thank you."

He also recounted what happened last night, "Evelyn, last night I..."

Unfortunately, before he could even finish speaking, Evelyn interrupted him, saying, "Go wash up first, we can talk about it later."

"Freshly baked bread tastes the best; it doesn't taste the same when it gets cold."

Ethan accepted Evelyn's suggestion, went upstairs, took a shower, and brushed his teeth.

When he returned to the restaurant, he ate breakfast while recounting his experience from the previous night.

When Evelyn learned that Ethan had gone to Atari the previous night, she nodded slightly.

After listening to Ethan's account and learning about Atari's problems and attitude, she wiped her mouth with a tissue and said with a smile, "It seems Barbara is truly experienced; she guessed everything."

"Since she can see through everything, I'm not in a hurry at all now."

"So what if you get sued? This kind of thing is all too common in our country, right? After all, even a simple traffic violation can land you in court."

"I have class today, you can go see her yourself later, I trust her."

Ethan understood that his sister wanted him to relax and not feel too much pressure.

He smiled and nodded to indicate that he understood. After cleaning up his house, he drove to Stanford.

Knowing the ropes, I found Barbara in the law school, who was in class, and sat down quietly to audit the class.

Although Barbara's women's protection class had nothing to do with him, her confident figure made Ethan feel incredibly at ease.

After Barbara beckoned to him and asked him to help her move the case study from the podium back to her office, the monk, who had been sitting behind his desk, listened attentively to Ethan's story.

Since he had already explained it to his sister that morning and had a clear idea of ​​what was going on, Ethan spoke very quickly this time.

However, his logical and clear words greatly displeased Barbara.

"Ethan."

"Um?"

"The same old problem."

"What?"

"You're talking too fast." Barbara tapped the table and said, "Ethan, you need to know one thing: our country follows the common law system, which is different from the civil law system that follows legal provisions. In many cases, we are actually talking about empiricism."

"So you have to tell me all the details. Perhaps many of these details are not important to you, but I can use my experience to judge whether Milrova's lawsuit and Atari's response are unusual."

"Now, this is exactly the kind of anomaly we're looking for, right?"

"Because we still don't understand why Mirowa would suddenly sue you."

Barbara's prompting made Ethan nod decisively. After a long silence, he recounted the events in detail.

After he recounted his experiences from the previous night in detail, Barbara, who had been listening and scratching her head, looked utterly bewildered.

She thought for a moment, then said sadly, "Ethan..."

"Um?"

"Did you offend Atari too?"

"Why do you say that?" Ethan asked, somewhat puzzled.

His confusion caused Barbara to clasp her hands together, close her eyes slightly, and gently tap her head against her index finger, as if casting a spell, but more like she was thinking.

"Ethan, to be honest, if you haven't missed any information, then the case you're involved in is really strange."

"Because, according to your description, the two subjects, Mirova and Don Valentine, are behaving very abnormally."

"It's like, how should I put it, Milrohua doesn't fit the image of a plaintiff, while Don Valentine doesn't act like a defendant at all... I don't know if you understand what I mean?"

"..."

Ethan shook his head, because he really couldn't tell.

When he voiced his doubts, Barbara slammed her hand on the table and pulled out a blank sheet of paper—

"Ethan, let's set aside the law for now and have a question-and-answer session."

"Once we sort things out, we might be able to find the answer."

"The answer may ultimately lead to the right or the wrong, but that doesn't matter, right? Finding the flaws in all parties involved in a matter is inherently a long and arduous process."

"So, first question: please tell me your feelings towards Milrova, or rather, what conflicts did you have with Milrova when you worked there?"

Barbara pulled out her pen, her eyes narrowed slightly, and looked intently at Ethan.

(End of this chapter)