The Wolf of Los Angeles.

Christie's Classical Art Auction in New York.

After taking a look at the Aztec stone sculpture on the booth, Hawke raised the placard in his hand and offered a price of $30.

No one competed with him for it, and no one wanted to bid for it.

This is a piece of monkey-like granite with blurred lines.

“30 dollars once… twice, and 30 dollars the third time!”

As the auctioneer dropped the hammer, Hawke successfully bought the antique.

Leonardo in the back row glanced at Hawke secretly, not understanding why he bought such an ugly stone.

The auction was still going on, and in order to build up his image as an art lover, Hawke bought a Southeast Asian jade carving and an ancient Greek parchment scroll.

The latter two items are not expensive, totaling $5.

Hawke also paid attention to Leonardo, who bought two modern oil paintings.

As for the Monet painting that was the finale of the auction, Hawke just had to take a look. He still had ample cash flow, but he had to use it wisely.

It is not possible to spend huge amounts of money on art at this stage.

The painting was eventually acquired by Larry Fink, the founder of BlackRock.

After the auction, the organizer Christie's prepared a reception dinner at the Waldorf Hotel.

Considering that items would be auctioned in the future, Hawke went to the dinner party and chatted with a person in charge of Christie's North America.

In the eyes of others, as the founder and chairman of Twitter, Hawke is one of the so-called new technology elites.

Leonardo met Hawke once at a party in Los Angeles. He came over to say hello, shook Hawke's hand, and said, "I saw you bought a few antiques at the auction just now?"

Hawke said nonsense in a serious tone: "I am more interested in these old objects. They represent the history and culture of various places."

Leonardo asked, "Those things seem to be from overseas."

"There's nothing we can do about it. All the artifacts unearthed in North America belong to Indians." Hawke was telling the truth: "I have collected enough things from the indigenous people."

The other party is a newly-minted super-rich man who has a public opinion tool like Twitter in his hands. Leonardo tried to please him: "I also like antiques and artworks. We can discuss it when we have time."

Hawke thought of Leonardo's special relationship with the Clintons, which he might be able to use in the future, so he simply said, "I just got into this business and don't know much about it. I also wasted a lot of money and bought a lot of fakes in Los Angeles."

He bought an ancient Greek parchment scroll at an auction and used it as a topic: "Especially when it comes to ancient parchment scrolls, there are too many fakes. Is there any trick to easily distinguish them?"

Hearing Hawke's "sincere" question, Leonardo said: "As for the authenticity of the ancient parchment, I heard a collection master say that the simplest way to determine the authenticity is to look at the handwriting and the completeness of the parchment."

Hawke nodded: "This kind of leather paper is difficult to keep and not easy to preserve."

"That's right. The biggest characteristic of the ancient Greek parchment scrolls is that they are fake." Leonardo wanted to leave a deep impression on Hawke, so he continued, "In addition to whether the parchment scroll itself is well preserved, there is also the handwriting."

Hawke asked curiously, "Handwriting?"

Leonardo elaborated: "The Declaration of Independence is written on a parchment scroll. I don't know if you have ever seen the original scroll in a museum. It is the most important cultural relic of the United States. The United States has the most advanced technology in the world. The Declaration of Independence has been best protected since the founding of the United States. But after more than 200 years, the handwriting on it has become blurred."

He paused for a moment, giving Hawke some time to think, and continued, "What about most of the ancient Greek parchments that have been discovered? After thousands of years, the handwriting on them is even clearer than the Declaration of Independence. Is this normal?"

Hawke was a little surprised: "I didn't expect you to be so knowledgeable about antique art."

"Because I've been fooled a lot and bought a lot of fakes." Leonardo's face was a little bright, and he said, "Whenever they need something, they can always dig it out from the caves and underground."

Hawke understood: "First there is a demand, and then according to the actual demand, the corresponding cultural relics, books and antiques are customized?"

Leonardo laughed: "Yes, that's it."

The two chatted for a while.

Someone came over and Leonardo went somewhere else.

Hawke glanced over.

Leonardo DiCaprio has joined Gisele Bundchen and the two haven't broken up yet.

Hawke is very dedicated and work pops up in his mind unconsciously.

Twitter would have received another wave of attention if it had captured an exclusive video of Leonardo and Gisele's breakup.

The person who came over was already close.

Hawke recognized him immediately: Larry Fink, the founder and CEO of BlackRock.

The latter had seen Hawke's photo and introduction in the materials sent by the San Francisco branch, and said: "I heard Douglas mention Twitter and its founder a long time ago, but I didn't expect to see him here today."

Hawke knew that the Douglas the other party was talking about was the deceased president of BlackRock's San Francisco branch.

There was a gunfight between the two sides, but he was lucky and succeeded in counterattacking.

Douglas was unlucky and had several transparent holes punched in his body. Hawke was not polite and said directly: "Although we haven't dealt with each other much, Blackrock has taught me a lot."

Larry Fink, who had just turned fifty and was full of ambition, pretended not to understand and said, "It's a pity that I missed the opportunity to invest in Twitter."

Hawke said: "We could have reached a commercial cooperation. Twitter needed funds last year, but you made an unwise choice."

When discussing cooperation last year, BlackRock valued Twitter at less than $20 billion, but by the end of the year, the valuation of Twitter by several Silicon Valley institutions exceeded $80 billion.

Twitter has now received investment from Silicon Valley funds, and its most conservative valuation exceeds $100 billion.

BlackRock's current market value is less than $200 billion.

On paper, the two sides appear to be about the same.

But Hawke knew very well that behind BlackRock there were a number of Jewish investors who were quite difficult to deal with.

Larry Fink added: "Douglas was indeed not very wise, but that was his decision alone, not BlackRock's choice."

Hawke didn't believe a word of this nonsense: "I hope so."

Seeing a high-quality company like Twitter, Larry Fink didn't want to miss it: "With Twitter's growth rate, it will soon have to consider going public. BlackRock can help you and make your path to going public smoother."

Hawke asked directly: "What are the conditions?"

Larry Fink did not need to hide his words: "In the second round of financing, we accepted investment from BlackRock."

"Okay." If the other party simply invested money, Hawke would not refuse: "Dual-share structure, if you invest in Class A shares, you will only have the right to dividends, but no voting rights."

Larry Fink remained calm, but couldn't help cursing in his heart. This bastard's heart was as black as Blackrock's.

Hawke didn’t finish his words: “You must not interfere with the day-to-day operations of Twitter.”

Larry Fink knew well that this was indistinguishable from rejection.

But he said something else: "I can consider these. BlackRock's investment only requires one thing: the number of female employees should be as close to half as possible."

"Half of the employees are women?" Hawke laughed. "How about this, BlackRock achieves this first, then persists for two years, and Twitter follows suit?"

Larry Fink looked at Hawke in surprise.

Since formulating the marginalized population plan last year, BlackRock and Vanguard International have developed corresponding investment assessments, one of which is the so-called freedom and equality.

In this item, the proportion of female employees and the attitude towards gay employees are the most important scoring criteria.

Most companies can accept it.

Companies that are in desperate need of money won't go against investment.

“If BlackRock can do it, Twitter can try it,” Hawke said.

Unlike other companies, BlackRock is a pure investment company, and the most common positions are market researchers and investment managers.

If women account for half of the positions in these positions, the results will be outstanding.

If time goes on a little longer, BlackRock's chances of over 90% will go downhill and it will no longer be a threat.

The two sides could not reach an agreement on this, and after a brief conversation, they ended up parting on bad terms.

When leaving the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, someone suggested to Larry Fink that he should launch another high-end business war.

But Larry Fink was very cautious, because he had someone conduct a thorough investigation and found out that Hawke not only had bodyguards with him at all times, but also had outstanding abilities.

If Hawke cannot be eliminated, what awaits Blackrock is not only the revenge of a powerful family involved in the police, government and business, but also the cruel methods of Hawke himself.

Douglas Coster is the best example.

As for Hawke, all the cars he rode in in New York were bulletproof cars.

Back at the Four Seasons Hotel where they were staying, he asked Betty to get ready and they all prepared to go to Boston.

Hawke will not have direct contact with the two talents hired through Campos, nor will he appear in front of Zuckerberg.

He wanted to see with his own eyes whether a person's path could be changed through long-term efforts and the temptation of money and women.

It is easy to say that you should refuse money and women, but few people can do it.

Back in Cambridge, Bart and Neville were using drinking parties and three-person revelries to influence Zuckerberg, causing Zuckerberg's entrepreneurial ideas about computer programs to unconsciously change in the direction planned by Hawke.

The three of them agreed to invest together this time.

Bart and Neville registered a new company before Hawke came to New York.

The company is registered in the Cayman Islands. Apart from two small shareholders, Bart and Neville, the controlling shareholder is Hawke's overseas shell company.

Bart and Neville hired a dozen girls in Cambridge in the name of their new company, and copied some school tags and name badges to conduct frontline research on female students at Harvard University, MIT, and other nearby schools. (End of this chapter)