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李開復博士英文自傳全書（連載【100】）

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 My heart ached. But there was no time for sadness. I had to put my emotions aside! I took a deep breath and then continued to look for evidence with my lawyers.

We found the evidence we needed. One email written by an employee of MSN Search said, “Though Kai-Fu Lee had nothing to do with our projects, we have to say he worked with us for the sake of the lawsuit. We’ll frame him that way.”

We also went through Gates’ calendar as well as mine and proved the “four to five” search meetings claimed by Microsoft were fabricated.

We found these, and many other valuable pieces of evidence. My lawyers were very happy. One of them said, “Hey, Kai-Fu, if you ever want to change jobs again, you can work for us! You are as good as two people.”

“Really?” I asked, making an expression of being flattered. “Am I really as good as two lawyers?”

He shrugged, “I meant two IT people.”

In addition to collecting evidence, my lawyers suggested trying to get some fair news stories on the case so the judge wouldn’t find all the articles pro-Microsoft when reading the newspaper in the morning. Particularly, it would be valuable to show that Google wanted to hire me for my inherent abilities, rather than what I learned from or did at Microsoft.  This was another challenge. Since I wasn’t supposed to do interviews, I needed to find someone objective and committed to not quoting me.

I recalled a young reporter I had met in China, Kristi Heim, who had worked in China and once followed me to a Chinese university to cover my speech there. With her excellent command of the Chinese language, she understood what I had done for Chinese college students. More significantly, she happened to work at the Seattle Times, the newspaper the judge probably would read every morning.

Would she write a fair report from an objective point of view? When I reached her by phone, she said, “Kai-Fu, I know you are a decent person. But as a news reporter, I have to investigate the case and let both sides voice their opinions.”

In August 2005, an article titled, “Microsoft and Google Feud over Top Exec” appeared in the Seattle Times. The article describes me as “a kind of spiritual leader to aspiring Chinese technologists.”

It quotes a Beijing University graduate named Gao Jian, “Kai-Fu Lee is a kind of idol among universities. Students in universities just want to choose a name and go where he is. Bill Gates and Kai-Fu Lee are both a kind of hero in the business, but Kai-Fu Lee has more contact with the students. And he is a Chinese. I think this is an important reason."

The article also analyzes the lawsuit and states, “But the real struggle may have less to do with Lee's technical expertise and more to do with his ability to influence a generation of young technologists, especially in China.”

I hoped the judge would read this article and see the lawsuit in a different light.

Following the Seattle Times article, other media began to tell the Google side of the story. Google repeatedly announced that the company didn’t need any of Microsoft’s technologies and thus hired me not for technical know-how, but for my management abilities and my influence in China. Google also pointed to my record of never leaking business secrets in past job changes to prove my honesty and integrity.

While some accurate news and balanced reports made me feel better, my nerves were still all wound up, unable to relax. I felt as if skating on thin ice. Any minute I could fall through the ice and drown in deadly cold water. Every step was a risk to take.

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