Yuncheng time at 8 pm on January 23rd, and Silicon Valley time at 4 pm on January 23rd.

When Du Qiu was thinking a lot in the small auditorium of the Children's Palace, on the other end of the ocean, at the headquarters of Netview Company in Silicon Valley Mountain View City, there were four programmers who had just stayed up late to finish their work, sitting or lying in a simple and messy lounge, discussing the four articles he published.

One of them had long hair dyed with blue shawl, half shaved off on the right side, revealing his bare head, and wearing a pair of high leather boots on his feet. He didn't look like a coder at all, but he looked like a rock star. His name was Jamie Gavinsky, one of the main developers of Netscape-Navigator browser and one of the world's top hackers and programmers. In the IT circle of the 1990s, there were very few people who could use three letters as abbreviation and let everyone know who it was, but he was one of them. The abbreviation "JWZ" is as famous as Richard Storman's "RMS".

Jamie Gavinski is a loyal fan of free software. He saw four articles by Du Qiu on the Internet shortly after he posted them, and recommended them to colleagues in the company. He sat in a chair and held an apple that had been chewed halfway, and said: "I like these articles, especially the first and second articles, which are very rigorous, clear logic, and very feasible. I think after the development of the Linux version of Navigator browser, an open source version should be released under the form of a CDDL license."

"If you do that, Wall Street's investment bank managers will kill you."

"The investment banking managers on Wall Street may not even know what Linux is."

"They may not know, but they absolutely hate the word free."

"Hey! Scott, have you read this article? Open source does not mean free." The only female programmer of the four emphasized tone and distinguished "open-source" from "free". She was a little exhausted, laying on a sofa, holding a bottle of soda drink, and said lazily: "I like the metaphor of that cathedral and market. Do you know how tired you are as a software testing engineer? You have to check thousands or even tens of thousands of lines of code every day, and you have to read each line, and often you have to read it twice, oh god! My eyes were blind before you released Navigator 1.0 last month."

She took a sip of the drink and continued: "It's a fascinating idea to let enough people see the source code, and errors will be gone. Microsoft has hundreds of dedicated software testing engineers, and none of them Linux, but Linux can run as stably as DOS. If the company releases Navigator in an open source way, my workload will be greatly reduced, just aggregation of those bug patches."

The guy she called Scott was a big fat man, wearing glasses and a thick beard. He sat in front of the TV and played games while playing: "Of course I have read those articles, but people on Wall Street must have never read them. Even if they have read them, they can't understand them. Those guys are all paranoid, wanting to lock all the valuable things in the world into the vault, and then install dozens of layers of security doors outside. In their eyes, opening the software is as ridiculous as spilling money on the road and letting pedestrians pick it up."

"Didn't the third article talk about business? I think it's very convincing, open source software can also make money."

"It is not theoretically convincing enough. There must be real examples. Jim plans to list the company this year. Before the IPO, he, Mark and those investors don't want to see any risks." Scott finished a game, put down the handle, picked up the donut that was placed next to him, and after taking a bite, he said vaguely: "After Bill Gates released the closed-source DOS, he quickly became a billionaire. Linus has been releasing open-source Linux for more than four years. He is still a poor student in Helsinki. Linux is cool, but it is not profitable, and it is not profitable. Wall Street doesn't like it."

Jamie Gavinsky threw away the apple core, put the boots in a cardboard box, held the back of his head with both hands, and after a moment of silence, he said, "Maybe we can ask the authors of these articles to come over and talk."

Behind Scott, there was a man sitting in an ergonomic chair resting. His name was Michael Toy. He was tall and looked like an NBA basketball player. He was one of Netscape's earliest employees and the head of Navigator's browser development department. He didn't say anything just now. He spoke: "In fact, I wrote an email to the Chinese at noon yesterday, hoping that he could come to Mountain View, and the cost was borne by us."

"Oh oh oh! Michael, you are such a good person." The female programmer named Tara, an employee of Netscape's code testing department. She turned over and sat up and asked, "Has that UN2758 replied?"

"Not yet. I asked a Chinese friend, and he said that the Spring Festival will be coming in a few days. It is the most important traditional festival in China. It is like our Christmas, but it lasts for a long time, about half a month, so even if UN2758 is willing to come to Shanjing City, it will have to wait until the end of February or March."

"Just be willing to come here." Tara took another sip of the drink, and then said in some gossip: "UN2758, this ID is very strange, what should it have a special meaning?"

"Someone in the news group said that this is an ID with a strong political meaning. UN is the abbreviation of the United Nations and 2758 is the number of a resolution." Michael turned the back of the chair and glanced at the three people in the room before explaining: "The number of the resolution for China to return to the United Nations in 1971."

"So those four articles were published by Chinese government departments?"

"Maybe, maybe not, few people in China can access the Internet, and we know nothing about it."

"If it is a government department, it should be published in Beijing, but according to the IP information I tracked, those articles came from a Quantum Physics Institute in Yuncheng, China." Jamie Gavinsky stroked a few times in the air with his fingers and guessed: "I have seen the map. Yuncheng is in Sanjiang Province, China, and its geographical location is somewhat similar to that of Kentucky or Indiana in the United States. It is a relatively remote place. Maybe he is just a university professor or a student. Using this ID, he wants to show that he is a patriot."

"No matter who he is, it would be better if he could accept the invitation and come to Mountain View." Michael Toy said with some concern, "I care a lot about the saying in the third article, which says this: In the Internet era, if any product can find a profit model other than direct sales, there will definitely be a free competitor that can match that product. The Navigator browser is released in the form of sharing software. What should we do if a free competitor appears in the future?"

Although he stayed up late and wrote the code all night, Jamie Gavinsky was still very clear-headed and said bluntly: "Either it is the same free or it is slowly dying."

"I don't know if it will die, but if the code written by your development department can be as concise and standardized as 7-ZIP, I won't die until I was about 50 years old." Tara stood up, stretched her waist wide, and said, "I'm going home to sleep, good night everyone."

...

The evening party ended. After returning home, Du Qiu called Chen Dayou at 10 o'clock as agreed yesterday, and learned about the invitation message sent by Netscape Company.

Netscape was one of the most important promoters of the early open source software movement, but that was after being defeated by Microsoft in 1997. Netscape in 1995 was like the rising sun, shining brightly. It was one of the most popular IT companies in Silicon Valley and even the world. Its status is similar to Google in 2004. With just four articles that are not even formal papers, it received their attention in one day, which is simply a miracle.

Did your butterfly wings swell a little too fast?

"Did you say anything specific in the email?"

"No, I just said I am very interested in your articles and I hope you will go to their place to give an internal speech." If the US IT industry in 1995 was a train, then China is probably a wheelbarrow, and it is far behind the other party in terms of technical level and industry scale. Therefore, the atmosphere of admiration for foreign countries is very strong. Chen Dayou was very excited and said, "Du Qiu, before you go, I will be a pawn for you and visit Netscape Company."

"I'm very bad at English and can't speak. I'm now an unemployed vagrant. Without a guarantee from the unit, it's difficult to get a visa. Please reply to me and say something thankful for me. I'll go back to Yuncheng after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month before deciding whether to go."

"If you can't speak English, you can find an interpreter. There is an invitation from Netview Company, so it should not be difficult to apply for a business visa." Chen Dayou persuaded a few words, and then asked, "When will you have a train tomorrow?"

“Third to 10:30 in the morning.”

"I'm going to go back to the city tomorrow and I'll send you the printed mail before 9 o'clock."

"Thank you."

After Du Qiu hung up the phone, he was about to go to bed, but he saw that the light was still on in the master bedroom. He walked to the door and looked at it. He found that his mother was sitting on the head of the bed and putting on her sweater. Lin Jinyan was already asleep, curled up next to her like a pig.

"Sister, haven't had a rest yet?"

"I'll go to bed later. I'm not sleepy yet. You go to bed first."

After hesitating for a while, Du Qiu felt that it would be better to explain the matter clearly before returning to his hometown. So he closed the door, walked to the bed and sat down, and said openly: "Sister, brother-in-law told me that you two were preparing to divorce."

Du Chunhua was a little surprised, looked up at him, then continued to lower his head to sport his sweater, and asked, "What did he say?"

"He said that the fate is over, the love is still there, and he will still be friends in the future."

Du Chunhua stopped beating his sweater, leaned on the pillow and stared at a daze for a while, and then said in a whisper: "Dawei is actually not bad. I have never really quarreled since I got married. It's just that our temper, personality, and hobbies are too bad. We can't speak together. He never goes against what I asked him to do, but he always does not do as much as I want, so we often have friction."

"Didn't I tell you last time? Before Jinyan was born, he and I lived in the small red building in Yunda. The house I rented was only a little bigger than Su Wenxiu's office, less than 50 square meters. The two were in a small room and could meet each other with their hands. They lived together for more than half a year, but they could never find a common language. Many times they couldn't say ten words all day long. Even if they spoke, they would just eat, drink water and other nonsense."

As Du Chunhua spoke, a look of remembrance appeared on his face, but he quickly restrained himself. He shook his head gently and continued, "If it were in the era of our parents, it wouldn't matter if there was no common language. At that time, the shortage of supplies and the couple would live together. But now the times are different. There are abundant supplies and no worries about food and clothing. We must pursue spiritual enjoyment. Dawei and I were tied together. Although we couldn't talk about hurting each other, we wasted each other's youth and feelings. So after Jinyan was born, I asked him to go out to find a lover by himself and don't waste his life with me."

Du Qiu was shocked by his mother's open mind. He didn't know what to say. After pausing for several seconds, he said hard: "Isn't this fair?"

"There is nothing unfair. I have agreed with him that if I meet the right person, I will divorce him. If I don't meet the right person, I will be a magistrate of the palace for the rest of my life."

"Then you meet it now?"

"Not yet." Du Chunhua looked at Du Qiu's face, as if he was admiring the most precious treasure in the world, and said slowly: "On the night you came back, I decided to modify the previous agreement and divorce Dawei as soon as possible."

After all the trouble, it turns out that I am the real fuse of divorce?

If I had known that you two were so carefree and had already signed an agreement, why would I have to worry about it a few days ago...

Du Qiu was both surprised and annoyed, touched his cheek with both hands and asked, "Why?"

"Idiot! Because single women are better at finding a novice than married women. When they are young now, the sooner they divorce, the better." Du Chunhua chuckled, looked down at Lin Jinyan, afraid of waking him up, and then said seriously: "Because you are back, our family will have a backbone in the future, and someone has taken over our father's idea of ​​inheriting the family line. After the storm, you will be with him. I am not afraid anymore, and I am tired. Now I want to pursue my own happiness."

Seeing that his mother's smile was very calm, not only did she not have much sadness, but she felt relieved. Then she felt completely relieved and said with a smile: "When I get home, I will make a military order with my dad. From now on, I will find him ten or eight daughters-in-law and have a bunch of grandchildren to let him hold him every day."

"This is the best. Oh, how about I knit a few words with red wool on your vest? You will wear it out shopping every day in the future, and it will be very popular."

"What word?"

“High-quality stallion, free breeding.”

Du Qiu fled in panic.
Chapter completed!