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李開復博士英文自傳全書（連載【96】）

On Aug. 26, 2005, I went to the Microsoft depositions, during which Microsoft executives provided their evidence and were questioned by my lawyers. After I left Microsoft, that was the first time I saw my former bosses and colleagues of the company again. I saw Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Eric Rudder and Microsoft’s chief technical officer, Craig Mundie.

Gates never looked me in the eyes that day. I expressed my feelings about seeing him again in my journal:

When Bill Gates walked into the room, he did not look at me.  Was it because he sees me as enemy and won’t talk to me?  Was it because the legal team gave him coaching that this is the time to make me feel bad about my “betrayal”?  So that it would negatively affect me in my deposition and at the preliminary injunction?

Here is one of his seven most trusted advisers, someone who once confided in him that: “Bill I would never lie to you.  I want to tell you what I can do and what I cannot do.”  Someone who once rescued him from a disastrous meeting, and went to his suite in the hotel to tell him that he needn’t worry any more – someone to whom he showed his most sincere and innocent smile of appreciation.  Someone he really trusted.  Now what has become of this person?  I thought of Steve Ballmer’s famous quote: “You are either with us, or you are against us”?  (The famous words Steve Ballmer used with a customer who adopted Netscape Navigator)

It also saddened me that day to see Mundie, who had taken his wife with him on a business trip to China during my time with Microsoft Research Asia. He asked me, “Can your wife help my wife look for garbage?”  I was surprised. Then he told me about his wife’s hobby of collecting second-hand things. My wife took her to the flea markets in Beijing and made her very happy. In the meantime I accompanied him to see Chinese government officials. He criticized a high tech policy of China in front of a Chinese minister, who knew little English. I was afraid he would offend the minister because the government’s authority was hardly ever challenged in China, so I only translated about 20% of his words. After the meeting, he asked why the Chinese translation was so short. I told him, “Brevity is the magic of the Chinese language.”

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【法奶日報www.lulijen.com2017.5.24.出刊，第9-1885號】