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Tonight, there was a grand banquet at the Giannini Estate, held especially for Hardy. Every new member of the California Consortium received such a welcome. All the heads of member enterprises would come to meet the new member, build connections, and cooperate to make money together.

Hardy attended the banquet with Andy and John.

The banquet was men only. When Hardy walked into the hall, there were already more than forty people present, all impeccably dressed in suits. When Giannini saw Hardy, he walked over, took Hardy\'s hand, raised it, and enthusiastically introduced him:

"Gentlemen, this is our new member, Mr. Jon Hardy of the Hardy Group. I believe everyone has heard of HD Security, ABC Television, and the Hardy Grand Hotel. These are all Hardy\'s businesses."

"I\'m sure many of you have read Playboy magazine. That\'s also Hardy\'s property."

The men smiled knowingly.

"From today onwards, Jon Hardy will be our partner. We have gained a powerful ally. Let\'s all give him a warm welcome!"

Applause erupted from the crowd, warmly welcoming Hardy into the fold.

From this moment on, Hardy was officially part of the California Consortium, becoming a member of the capital consortium.

Giannini personally introduced Hardy to everyone in the room: the owner of Safe Pacific Company, the owner of the Kaiser Group, the owner of the Crock Agriculture Group, the owner of Metron Real Estate Development, the owner of California Life Insurance, and the owner of Lockheed Corporation.

This round of introductions took half an hour. Each person greeted Hardy, shook his hand, and welcomed him. Dozens of people—it would have been impossible for Hardy to remember so many names at once without his good memory.

Finally, Hardy introduced Andy and John to everyone. One was the president of the Hardy Group, and the other was the president of Wells Fargo Bank. They would be Hardy\'s right hand men in the future.

The long banquet table was reminiscent of an ancient European court dining scene. The people at the table were all so called big capitalists, with assets of less than ten million unqualified to sit there.

This banquet had no women, no music, and no dancing. The only topic was business and making money.

After lunch, there was free time for socializing. Someone came over to greet Hardy the owner of Metron Real Estate Company.

"Mr. Hardy."

"Mr. Stone, hello."

William Stone smiled and said, "Mr. Hardy, I heard from Chairman Giannini that you plan to build two more casinos, each with an investment of over 100 million dollars. That\'s quite a sum. Metron is a professional construction and real estate development company. We have developed many large projects and hope to cooperate with you."

A 200 million dollar investment—if Metron could get these projects, they would make a significant profit, even if it was just one of them.

Hardy naturally knew of Metron\'s reputation. Metron was the largest real estate development company in California and also the largest construction company.

"I am certainly willing to cooperate with Metron. I am currently looking for people to plan those two casinos and have also approached other construction companies. I welcome Metron to join. If the conditions are equal, I will prioritize Metron," Hardy said.

William Stone immediately beamed with joy. "Then I must thank you, Mr. Hardy. I will have my people contact your company."

He raised his glass to toast Hardy.

After the Metron boss left, another middle aged man came over. "Mr. Hardy, hello. I am Walter Mack, Chairman and President of PepsiCo. I heard you acquired shares of PepsiCo from Bank of America?"

"Yes, I am very optimistic about PepsiCo\'s future, so I bought their shares," Hardy said. Experience more tales at m vl-em|p-yr

Walter Mack was puzzled. You are optimistic about PepsiCo? Most people are more optimistic about Coca Cola. PepsiCo has been squeezed to only 5% of the market share, and it\'s all in the low end market. Many people say that PepsiCo will either be acquired by Coca Cola or be eliminated by Coca Cola.

In fact, in history, PepsiCo had asked Coca Cola to acquire it three times, but Coca Cola refused because they thought PepsiCo\'s taste was similar to theirs and saw no need to acquire it, believing PepsiCo would eventually disappear.

Coca Cola was wrong. PepsiCo grew stronger and eventually surpassed it.

"Can I ask why you are optimistic about PepsiCo?" Walter asked.

"I have some ideas for PepsiCo\'s development. It might take some time to explain clearly. How about we arrange another time to discuss it in detail?" Hardy suggested.

"Sure," Walter replied happily.

He knew that Mr. Hardy was a business genius. Many of his ideas were still talked about, such as TV shopping, which started the history of telephone shopping, attracting countless women to watch TV every afternoon.

For example, the casino lottery and proxy betting company were brilliant ideas. The United States banned lottery activities, but in Las Vegas, gambling was legal. Hardy used the model of legal casinos, TV broadcasts, and proxy betting companies to perfectly avoid the lottery ban.

With Hardy\'s current status, as the owner of the Hardy Group and Wells Fargo, with assets worth billions, he was several levels higher than Walter. Walter was naturally willing to discuss matters in detail with him.

Hardy also actively chatted with others. He never had social anxiety and was never afraid of communicating with people. Soon, he made many business friends.

Among the crowd, he saw David Merck, the owner of Merck Pharmaceuticals, and suddenly remembered something. A month ago, Victor had arrived in England. After settling down, he started working, renting a building in London and putting up the auction company\'s sign.