After the ruckus was resolved, everyone else let out a sigh of relief and they looked at Christopher with more respect and fear. They secretly thought, This young man has connections! It is no surprise that no one dares to lay a finger on him. By that point, many of them had learned that the most influential person in The Serenade was not Luna Sears, but rather, her sous-chef named Christopher Yard. Even Director Reed of the police branch in the southwest region had to show him some respect. Luna’s bright eyes were smiling and her lashes fluttered as she glanced at Christopher as though she was trying to read him. Beside them was Scarlett, who stared at him with a gaping mouth and she reached out to give him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. “Wow! I didn’t know that you’re that influential! How did you get to know the director of the police branch in the southwest region?” He shrugged without a care in the world and looked at the two lovely ladies in front of him before he simply replied, “We became acquainted through a random encounter.” He was not lying—he was able to know Jefferey Reed through a random encounter. In fact, it was Jefferey who begged to befriend him and Christopher reluctantly agreed to Jefferey’s request upon seeing his sincerity. After dealing with the situation at The Serenade, Christopher was thinking of paying a visit to the Thumbs-Up Hotel when he suddenly received an influx of messages from the group chat of his old classmates. Quinn Field inquired, ‘What happened to our group visit to Thumbs-Up Hotel? Anyway, I’m going to leave soon!’ She added a row of smiling emojis. Heather Hitchcock replied, ‘For real? I want to go too! I saw Lola yesterday and gosh, her face almost made me think that she went under the knife! You can’t fake that outcome!’ She inserted a bunch of Lenny Faces in her text. Lola Winters immediately responded with a bunch of eye-roll emojis and some text, ‘Heather! You’re gossiping about me again, but I have to say that the Beauty Soup was tasty and effective! I will visit the hotel again today. We have to line up to get in, though!’ Tina Jones joined the conversation. ‘I want to go too! I want to go! My face needs a refreshment!’ Leonard Baker wasn’t amused. ‘What the heck? Why are you girls discussing beauty in our group chat?’ As if that wasn’t enough, he inserted a row of nose-picking and puking emojis to emphasize his disdain. Albert Robbins agreed, ‘Yeah, these girls only talk about beauty and whatnot in the group chat, down to the insignificant details of their meals in a day! Isn’t that boring?’ The girls were speechless at the guys’ mockery. It was at that moment when Nathan Edwards jumped in and attested, ‘Not only does the hotel have Beauty Soup, it serves the Instantly Handsome Pie as well. To be honest, I went there yesterday and had the stew. The acne on my face cleared after that. Check my Instagram Stories and you’ll know! I even uploaded the comparison!’ His text was peppered with smirking emojis. Albert countered, ‘Alright, I’m going to check out your Stories. If I discover that you were f*cking with me, I will break your legs!’ Leonard agreed with his vulgar friend, ‘Totally! Damnit. If you exaggerate the effects, Albert and I are going to knock you over in our cars! F*ck.’ After reading those rude comments, the rest of the group chat members fell silent. Christopher, who initially had fun reading their interactions, frowned in distaste. These childish guys really need to assert their dominance at all times, eh? He secretly prayed that his senseless old classmates would not end up causing trouble for him. Then, he took out his car keys to drive to the Thumbs-Up Hotel in his Ferrari. He heard a swift movement beside him when he entered the car. In his shock, he found that Scarlett had sneaked into his passenger seat at the speed of a breeze, leaving him with a dumbfounded expression. “Madam Sparks, you are the head chef. Why would you follow the sous-chef around?” Christopher blinked at her before asking in a defeated manner. To that, Scarlett crossed her slender legs and rolled her eyes. Hugging her arms, she looked unbothered. “I have applied for leave and Luna has allowed me to take the day off. I intend to pay a visit to your Thumbs-Up Hotel, hehe!” He could not chase her away, so he allowed her to sit in his car as he drove them to the hotel. As they approached the hotel, he was shocked by the scene before them. The crowd around the hotel seemed to have swelled to around sixty people. Not only that, these people had split into two lines—one for the men and the other for the women. Unlike the crowd at The Serenade, the people waiting at the hotel were civilized and patiently stood in line as they waited for the boss to show up. With his superb eyesight, Christopher took a look around and instantly spotted Frances and Jules standing at the head of the line. Their sidekicks were staring at the others with a hostile look, scaring the other customers into submission. He immediately understood the situation. It seemed that Jules had been maintaining the order at the hotel. No wonder no man has gone up to harass the beautiful Madilyn! Christopher left the car and opened the car door for Scarlett, who appeared joyful at his treatment before she gradually extended her slender, pale legs to walk out of the car. Jules, whose attention was on Christopher, looked elated upon noticing the boss’s arrival. Just when he was about to wave to Christopher, two random men showed up and blocked Christopher from heading over to Jules. Jules and Christopher frowned at the abrupt interruption and it turned out that the two men were Albert Robbins and Leonard Baker. “Hoho, you trash! Who did you borrow the Ferrari from? You better not think highly of yourself just because you knew the director at the police branch and mingled with some upper-class lady! I bet you have a sugar mommy, don’t you? So, you drove your sugar mommy’s Ferrari and even brought along a hot chick! Wow, you’re quite the player, aren’t you? Are you thinking of ordering your food without even lining up? I’m warning you now—you’re dead meat when the boss shows up!” Before Christopher and Leonard could even say a word, Albert started to hurl insults at Christopher out of nowhere. It was possibly to release his anger about the humiliation he suffered at the school reunion and to regain his dignity in front of Christopher. Upon hearing Albert’s words, it brought back memories of the humiliation Leonard suffered back at the Ferrari sales gallery. Leonard gave Christopher a mocking lock and clicked his tongue. “Oh, I didn’t know that your Ferrari came from your sugar mommy! You f*cking smarta**! And you’re thinking of cutting the line now? Haha! How trashy you are!” Standing beside them, Tina had overheard the insults and was reminded of the time when Christopher dumped her. It even caused her to get into a fight with Leonard. Feeling indignant, she joined the men in ridiculing Christopher. “Wow! Did you really get your money from your sugar mommy? You good-for-nothing!” She spat dramatically at him and added, “I must have been blind! How did I fall for you twice?” Christopher had remained silent, but his calm expression hardened after hearing the ridiculous insults by his old classmates. When he was about to speak up, Madilyn’s melodious voice floated in the air. “Looks like our boss is here.” After she addressed Christohper, everyone with the exception of Jules at the entrance froze up in awe or terror.