Wuuuuu~~~!

The heavy rain obscured the sky.

The phone at the casino rang, and Siegel went to answer it. It was a call from Los Angeles saying that due to heavy rain, the several planes he hired were unable to take off.

Siegel was very frustrated that the important people he had invited could not come and hundreds of guests were stranded on the road due to the heavy rain.

But now the time has been set, and there are already three or four hundred guests here, so things must go on.

The casino officially opened at six o'clock in the evening.

There was supposed to be a fireworks display, but it had to be cancelled due to heavy rain, so everyone could only hold a simple opening ceremony in the casino.

Since there were no big names around, Siegel invited Meyer and several other well-known bigwigs to help cut the ribbon.

Under such hasty conditions, the casino officially opened for business.

The guests sat down at the casino tables and started playing. The casino hall gradually became lively, which made Siegel feel a little relieved.

But when we were playing until about 10 o'clock, a huge bolt of lightning flashed outside, and the casino hall suddenly went dark amid the rumbling thunder.

The power is out.

“Ah~~!”

A woman's scream was heard in the casino lobby.

I don't know what happened.

The staff quickly brought flashlights, and the hall was temporarily lit up. At this moment, people's faces looked a little impatient.

Siegel was anxious and shouted, "Send someone to check immediately to see what went wrong. Hurry up."

The staff ran out in the rain to check and found that there was a problem with the transformer. Siegel quickly asked people to repair it and also asked people to light candles in the casino for lighting.

There was no point in having fun with only candles. Some people impatiently left the casino and returned to their hotel rooms. It was winter now, the temperature was only around four or five degrees, and it was raining heavily. After the power outage, there was no air conditioning in the room, and it was very damp and cold.

After more than three hours of effort, electricity was finally restored, but most people in the hall had already left.

The first day of business ended in such a hasty manner.

Lounge,

Siegel sat there drinking alone. Nothing had gone well today; it was simply terrible.

It was a rainstorm that rarely occurred in decades.

The important person we invited didn’t come.

Only half of the guests arrived.

The carnival party couldn't go ahead and the fireworks show was cancelled.

The opening ceremony was hastily cut, and there was a power outage, so all the customers left.

Nothing could be worse.

Siegel's woman, Virginia, walked up to the man and put her hand on his shoulder. "It will be fine. Don't worry."

Siegel exhaled lightly and said firmly, "Yes, it will be fine. When the weather gets better tomorrow, customers will come one after another. Business will pick up, and everything will be back on track."

Who is he.

His name is Benjamin Siegel.

As the underground king of the West Coast, there is no way such a difficulty could stump him.

the next day.

Today is Christmas, and the guests got up and prepared for yesterday's less-than-full-on-the-go carnival with a happy mood.

The weather in Las Vegas is nice today, with blue sky and white clouds.

At noon, customers started to arrive and the casino became lively again. Hardy took Ava to play for a while.

Hardy has little interest in gambling.

He read a report that some scholars had studied and found that when people gamble, they secrete a large amount of dopamine, which makes people feel happy. However, this happiness will turn into negative emotions after gambling. In order to feel happy again, people go back to gambling, which is what is called addiction.

But when Hardy was playing, he didn't have this feeling at all. He was much happier when he made a deal or was with a woman.

But at this moment.

The casino is in trouble again.

People gradually felt that the temperature in the hall was getting colder.

At this time, the casino staff discovered that the casino's central air conditioning was broken.

It is a cold winter now, with the highest temperature around 10 degrees and the lowest temperature only around 1 degree. Without air conditioning, the lobby becomes very cold and the gamblers feel very uncomfortable.

After receiving the report from his subordinates, Siegel became a little mad. "Damn it, we have already debugged it before, why did such a problem occur? Find someone to fix it quickly."

After more than ten hours of repairs, the casino's air conditioning was finally restored, but many gamblers had already left, and many were disappointed with their Christmas gambling trip to Las Vegas.

It's not a pleasure, it's simply suffering.

People like Mayer and Warner Bros. who came to show their support couldn't stay here forever, so they left one after another the next day.

Day 3.

There were only about a hundred gamblers in the entire casino, and there were even fewer people than service staff. The huge casino seemed empty.

Originally according to Siegel's design, the hotel had more than 300 rooms and the casino could accommodate more than a thousand gamblers every day, but now there is not even a fraction of that.

Moreover, there is only one entertainment item here, which is gambling. There are no other entertainment items at all. Except for those who are addicted to gambling, people will leave after playing for a day or two, so it is difficult to retain customers.

Hardy saw the problem at the casino and found Siegel.

"Mr. Siegel, why don't you put an advertisement in the newspaper? I believe that will attract some tourists." Hardy said.

"We've already put up advertisements, but that can only attract a small number of gamblers. The biggest problem now is that the other facilities here are incomplete. There's no difference between Flamingo and other casinos, and we can't retain customers at all," Siegel said in frustration.

His original idea was to turn this place into a tourist attraction to attract a large number of customers, so that there would be more gamblers. But now there is nothing attractive here. It is not much different from other casinos if it only relies on gambling. It can only attract real gamblers.

The number of real gamblers is limited.

Yesterday he asked the accountant to calculate the accounts and found that not only did he not make any money in the past few days, but he also suffered a lot of losses. Moreover, considering that there are only about a hundred customers every day, the casino will continue to lose money every day.

Operations require costs.

The casino has more than one hundred service staff, security guards, dealers, and managers, and their salaries are a considerable expense.

Hardy has no way to deal with Flamingo's current situation. This situation can be attributed to Siegel's stubbornness, the coercion of other families, or fate.

God doesn't let him have a good time, accidents happen all the time, how can such a company make money?

"Mr. Siegel, I have a lot of things to do in Los Angeles, so I'll take my leave today." Hardy also said goodbye.

Siegel nodded.

"Let's go. I'll think of a way to deal with this. After running it for a while, we can just close it down and Tommy and his guys will give up. Once this place is completely built according to my plan, I believe it will attract a large number of customers." Siegel was still very persistent in his ideas.

The convoy returned to Los Angeles and sent Ava home. Hardy said, "I'm going to New York and will be back in a few days."

"Go ahead and get busy."

Ava knew that the man had many careers and a lot of business in New York.

Hardy had someone book a flight in advance and flew directly to New York, landing at the New York airport ten hours later.

......

Elizabeth Taylor finished filming that day and returned to her room to find several large boxes on her bed.

She opened the box and found a delicate doll inside.

Wear beautiful clothes.

Taylor saw at a glance that this was the Barbie doll that Mr. Hardy advertised, and her first thought was that Mr. Hardy was here.

I put the doll down and searched the room, but there was no one there.

She ran out of the house to find the assistant, who smiled and told her that Mr. Hardy was not there and that the things were delivered by the courier.

Taylor returned to the room and saw a card inside.

Hardy tells Taylor that he can't come because he's attending the opening event, and Taylor becomes very disappointed.

He suddenly fell on the bed.

Although she likes Barbie, she wants to see Mr. Hardy more. Now that she knows Mr. Hardy can't come, Taylor feels very sad.

She wasn't that sad even when she received a call from her parents yesterday saying they couldn't be with her for Christmas.

Sometimes she would read some emotional magazines, such as Reader's Digest, which said that her current situation might be a reflection of her falling in love with the other person.

Am I in love with Mr. Hardy?

During the next two days of filming, Taylor seemed a little absent-minded. However, this period of time happened to be a scene in which Matilda was very lost, and Taylor's state was very suitable. Sometimes a scene could be shot in one take, which made director Hitchcock very satisfied. He kept praising Taylor for his increasingly good grasp of the character's emotions and said he was a born good actor.

Only Taylor herself knew that she was actually thinking about Mr. Hardy.

Christmas Eve is here.

The crew celebrated briefly.

The next day was Christmas, and the crew had a day off. Taylor didn't want to go out and stayed in the hotel room with nothing to do. Several Barbie dolls became her playmates.

After Christmas, the crew started working again, and Taylor plunged into the intense filming again. Two days passed like this. One day, when Taylor finished a scene and returned to the rest area, he suddenly saw a familiar figure.

Hardy is chatting with Hitchcock at the moment. Four-fifths of the film has been shot and it will be completed in about twenty days. Then they will return to Los Angeles for post-production. The crew's progress is a little slower than before, but these great directors seem to have this problem.

"Ah~~Mr. Hardy." Taylor shouted happily and ran towards Hardy.

The young swallow falls into my arms.

Taylor threw himself into Hardy's arms.

Hardy picked up the girl and turned around twice, then looked at Hitchcock and said, "Mr. Director, can you give Taylor a day off? I originally promised to spend Christmas with her, but something delayed me."

Hitchcock shrugged, "You are the boss, and the losses caused by the delay in filming will be borne by you anyway."

There is nothing wrong with this.

Hardy took Taylor away. There was nothing else to do today except playing, going to the amusement park, eating delicious food, and shopping.

In fact, Taylor is happy as long as he is with Hardy.

The two came to the Fifth Avenue department store, which had a strong festive atmosphere. After all, New Year's Day was just a few days away.

The mall was filled with a wide variety of merchandise, almost the same as in later times. Hardy and his friends came to the Barbie doll counter and found many parents bringing their children to choose from.

I have to say,

Barbie dolls are indeed very attractive, especially for little girls, who find it hard to resist them.

Most of the people who can walk into the Fifth Avenue department store are from wealthy families, so the sales of Barbie dolls here are very good, and many children leave with a box of their favorite dolls and accessories.

"Mr. Hardy, I know Princess Ava is Miss Ava, but who is the Chinese Princess?" Taylor had been curious about this question for a long time, and he finally asked it when he met Hardy today.

Hardy smiled and said, "A friend of mine, a Chinese girl, is also the general manager of my auction company."

"She must be very beautiful," Taylor asked, looking at the Chinese princess doll.

"Haha, didn't you see it? It's almost the same as a doll." Hardy did not hide it.

Taylor glanced at Princess Ava and the Chinese Princess again. She felt that these two would be her rivals in the future.

The two left the Barbie doll store and arrived at the cosmetics area. Although Taylor was young, she already had all the hobbies of a woman and walked into the cosmetics area.

A woman in her thirties, with several waiters, was promoting their products to customers. When she saw Taylor come in, she stepped forward and greeted him with a smile.

"Hello, girl. You are so beautiful. Are you interested in trying our Estee Lauder products? I can help you with your makeup." The woman asked Taylor with a smile.

"Okay." Taylor agreed happily.

Sitting in the chair, the woman helped Taylor put on makeup while introducing their products, including cleansing oil, facial cream, lotion, and all-effect moisturizing essence. The woman said that these were all researched by her and she herself is a chemist and skin expert.

Hardy, who was sitting nearby, heard something and looked at the woman. It turned out that she was Mrs. Estee Lauder.

He had read the introduction of Estee Lauder Companies. It seemed that Estee Lauder was founded in 1946. Mrs. Estee Lauder and her husband invested 50,000 US dollars to create the Estee Lauder Companies, a brand named after her, to promote cosmetics.

Decades later, Estee Lauder has grown into one of the world's most well-known cosmetics brands, with a market value of over 100 billion US dollars.

Estee Lauder is just starting out now, should I buy it?