Chapter 201 Unless there are variables
When Zoe Winters walked out of the airport, the lights were already on. She looked at the signboard at the airport in doubt: "San Francisco? Shouldn't it be Los Angeles?"
"Mr. Hawke and Mr. Binn have booked restaurants and hotels near Berkeley for you." Page introduced.
Page helped Zoe open the door of a commercial vehicle waiting to be picked up from the airport. After Zoe got in the car, he took the co-pilot's seat and told the driver to drive the car to a parking lot in the small town of Berkeley.
Getting off the car, Zooey looked at this quaint town.
Zoe has always lived on the east coast. In her impression, California should be sunny during the day and feasting at night, but at this moment in the small town of Berkeley under the night, it is the complete opposite.
The night wind blows slowly, blowing away all the impetuousness, hustle and bustle, and various academic, artistic or other temperaments that filled this Berkeley town during the day, leaving only tranquility and leisure,
Even the depression and irritability in Zoe's heart caused by the suspension of work gradually let go with the quiet scenery in front of her, and she felt a little more relaxed.
At the end of the bluestone road in front of you is the restaurant Tommy and Stephen booked, Pampas House, which looks no different from ordinary houses in appearance, with elegant and monotonous stone walls, wooden signboards and fences, if it wasn’t for Page’s introduction The building in front of her was a restaurant, and Zooey thought it was a private house.
Pushing open the wooden door of the restaurant, most of the seats inside were empty, except for a small table, where two young men were sitting. When they heard the wind chime on the wooden door, the two young men got up and raised their heads, and showed Zoe a smile. Hearty smile.
Then they came up to her and gave her a warm hug.
"I guess this restaurant must be recommended by Stephen." After hugging the two of them, Zooey sat down at the dining table, and said affirmatively to the two men sitting side by side.
Stephen said happily: "This question is not difficult, right, Zoe."
"Why can't it be my recommendation." Tommy asked angrily.
Zoe said with a smile: "Because you are stingy, it is unlikely that you have such a taste, Tommy."
Zoe's guess was not wrong at all. According to Tommy's idea, just find a well-known high-end restaurant in Los Angeles, but Stephen insisted on making a reservation at this unremarkable restaurant.
Tommy heard the name of this restaurant when he was studying at Stanford University. I don’t know which gourmet or artist highly praised this restaurant, boasting it as a perfect combination of art and food. The chef is boasted as Da Vinci in the food world , so the California area is very attractive, and many men and women living in Los Angeles even come here to taste it. New York Food Magazine even sent a reporter to interview it, making it famous on the East Coast.
Actually, in Tommy’s opinion, the taste has no special advantage over other restaurants. It’s just that the restaurant’s appearance is very literary and the food served on the plate is more delicate. The restaurant claims that all the vegetables used are grown by itself.
As for magazine interviews, it must be that the reporter received money to help place an advertisement.
After the waiter finished serving the food and the three of them had a few drinks, Zoe, who looked elegant and intellectual, began to show her true nature in front of her two friends and let herself go.
He spoke viciously to Tommy and gritted his teeth about the **** who gave the TV station chocolates disguised as bombs and caused her to take a temporary vacation. Because of that guy's behavior, it is likely that she lost this year's Massachusetts local social news survey Award Eligibility.
Tommy glanced at Page not far away calmly, then smacked his lips and enlightened Zooey: "Think of the good, Zooey, at least he gave you a holiday and two handsome and rich friends. "
"Just the two of you are worthy of the word handsome and rich?" Zooey looked at the two and asked back.
"Wow~" Tommy and Stephen immediately spoke, and looked at each other, and then Tommy said to Zooey, "I'm in charge of handsome, and he is in charge of gold, isn't it more appropriate to describe it this way?"
Zoe heard Tommy's words, looked at the expressions of the two, laughed happily, and then said with a sigh: "It feels good to see that you have not changed much from before."
"Better yet, Stephen is going to make a movie and take our story into it. He is full of movie dreams and urgently needs someone to confide in. As a reporter, you are the best person to confide in." Tommy patted Stephen on the shoulder: " You can start."
Afterwards, Stephen really talked about his movie ideas to Zoe. Zoe listened with gusto, and gave suggestions from time to time, talking about the little things that impressed him during the summer camp, and reminded Stephen to remember to shoot them.
With a smile on his face, Tommy listened to their conversation quietly, until Stephen got a little drunk because of his high spirits, and ran to the vegetable garden behind with the chef to appreciate the vegetables grown by the restaurant himself, and the table fell silent.
"Don't you have anything interesting to tell, Tommy?" Zoe held the goblet, swirled the liquid, and asked Tommy curiously.
"Your black TV station?" Zoe laughed out loud.
She knew about Tommy starting a black television station.
Tommy shook his head slightly: "No, I'm planning a cable news network, and I need a lot of reporters. I mean, you can leave the rural area of Worcester and change to a bigger stage."
Zooey first laughed when she heard Tommy's words, and then carefully looked at Tommy's expression, and found that he was not joking, she hesitated for a moment: "If I win the local social news investigation award this year, my boss will almost be able to retire , when the time comes, I can take over his job as the editor-in-chief of a news program at a local TV station, and then work hard for about three to five years to win a few more news awards. At that time, my resume should be eligible to enter the three major TV networks news department, or work for a major newspaper."
Tommy nodded while eating the food: "You've always been angry, haven't you? From the first day I knew you, I knew you were an angry girl."
While talking, he wiped his hands with a napkin, then generously reached out and grabbed Zoe's left hand, raised it up to observe, and there was a ring on the middle finger.
Zooey believed that Tommy would not eat his own tofu blatantly. That guy didn't have the guts, because he knew what would happen to him if he turned his back on him, so let Tommy carefully observe the ring on his finger at this time , without pulling his hand back.
Tommy looked at the ring and asked, "How's that guy? A **** like our summer camp mates?"
"He's a shy and introverted person who manages a flower shop by himself." Zooey also looked at the engagement ring on her finger. Although she didn't know why Tommy would change the topic to the ring, her gaze was gentle said:
“The most important thing is that he can put up with the nasty profanity and bad temper when I come home from work.”
"I can guess that he must be a gentle and considerate man, so that he can wrap you, a bad girl, softly like warm sea water." Tommy let go, and then continued to pick up the knife and fork to deliver food to his mouth:
"Then, as time goes by, your inner anger towards the world will become less and less, and finally it will be completely eliminated by this kind of tenderness and consideration."
Zoe froze for a moment when he heard Tommy's words.
"I am not inviting you to join, I just want to say a multiple-choice question, I am starting a news network, I need trustworthy friends to accompany me, and your inner anger also needs to be poured out, you don't need to follow the steps Those old guys have absorbed the so-called nutrition from behind to grow themselves. Here, you can grow wildly in your own way. Choose a place on the world map and tell me, then you can choose team members and go there to set up a reporter station. Continue to report Those social news that the local people are not interested in, get some unknown journalism awards in Massachusetts, or witness the important moments in the world, interview those world-famous celebrities, and let the Pulitzer chase after you to award you the journalist of the year?" Tommy looked at Zooey:
"This is the multiple-choice question. You can go back to Worcester and let your fiancé in the flower shop teach you with gentleness. You don't need to use anger to face the world and compromise with it. You can also try it and keep your anger , and let everyone in the world hear it."
Zoe looked at the ring on her hand, then lingered on Tommy's face for a while, then lowered her head and said, "I don't know if I can complete your so-called barbaric growth alone."
"Then you see how I grew up? If I can, why can't you?" Tommy asked after taking a sip of his wine:
"I don't want to agree to Stephen making this movie, but I have no objection because he is willing to trick the bank into lending me money in the end."
"Do you know why I disagree? Because I think the time has not come. As the prototype of the character, we don't have any outstanding achievements worth adapting, right? But if it is many years later, those female stars will rush to play you, A world-renowned news reporter, instead of now, there are only unknown little actors who are willing to play the role of the TV reporter and flower shop owner's girlfriend in your small city for a fee."
"Long time no see, your eloquence has improved a lot compared to high school, Tommy." Zoe said with a forced smile.
Tommy stared at her seriously, caught the subtle expressions on Zooey's face, and immediately said, "You're blaming me for not being honest enough, right?"
Hearing Tommy's last words, Zooey re-examined Tommy, nodded slightly, without denying: "Yes."
"You're thinking, this opportunity can be given to you or someone else, why has it got to be you? Well, actually because of the actress who played you in Stephen's movie, I needed to know her father and you came to me Working around you makes everything fall into place.”
"It's the same as letting us manage those students for you for free." After hearing Tommy's words, Zooey said with emotion, and then smiled: "This is what I remember about you. If I work for your news network , have you helped me choose the first place to grow?"
"East Germany, under the Berlin Wall, you will be the first reporter in the world to witness the fall of the Berlin Wall." Tommy said.
"This sentence makes me unable to find a reason to refuse, but can I go back and finish my investigation first?" Zooey thought for a while and said to Tommy: "I don't want to give up halfway."
"Of course, you can." Tommy said with a bright smile: "No one likes to give up halfway."
Zoe also laughed, and then continued to eat food with her head down, while Tommy looked at Page, and Page nodded to Tommy almost unobservably.
"Unless there are variables." After Tommy got the answer, he added to Zoe.
(end of this chapter)