"Dupont, you bastard!" a booming voice echoed in the vast front hall where some of the guests who just arrived were congregating. "You're here! Bahahaha! It's nice to see your old, wrinkled face again!"

"Speak for yourself, Jianhong," Professor Erwan Dupont replied in German. His stern, sharp eyes twinkled as he shook his old friend's hand before giving each other hugs. "Still as loud as a blue whale, I see."

"Bah! I'm just speaking louder than usual so that your old ears can hear what I'm saying. Bahaha!"

Grandpa Lu "patted" his old friend in the back and it was a miracle how the much thinner headmaster of Cross Academy was able to endure such force. The people around them winced at the loud sounds. Looking at Professor Dupont, however, his back remained tall and straight. His expression also didn't change.

"Sir Lu, it's good to see you again," Giulia Moretti, Cross Academy's admissions counselor who also doubled as Professor Dupont's assistant sometimes, stepped forward and greeted.

"Giulia! You look even more beautiful than before!"

The others also stepped forward and greeted Grandpa Lu. There was Iris' language instructors, Professor Kalisha Schwarz and Professor Hisakawa Akio.

On the students' side, there was the beautiful artist Ashandra Knightson, the charming but quirky inventor Amanpio Kileksky, the small and bubbly economist and Cross Academy's star moneymaker AJ Zheneres, the pretty and shy environmental inventor Florence O'Sevan, and finally, the conscientious biomedical engineer Theresa Blipsburg.

Afterwards, Grandpa Lu introduced Grandma Li and Huang Yuyan to Professor Dupont. The others already met the two Jin madams at Orchidia Beauty's grand launch.

They heard more people arriving and turned their heads to see Enrique Valdez walking together with Maestro Ludovico De Luca and JJ.

"You're here!" Once again, Grandpa Lu's voice boomed in the front hall.

After a brief chat, they finally started talking about the mysterious event. There were many extra staff both male and female dressed in the same refined butler suits welcoming all the guests after checking the invitations. The entire front hall was decorated with many colourful wildflowers, artfully crawling vines, beautiful green shrubs and small potted trees, and hanging lights that looked like glowing fireflies.

At the top of the grand twin staircases was a new and bigger painted portrait of Iris, Jin Liwei and their four cats.

The fat grey cat sitting on Iris' lap seemed to be the haughtiest as if she was looking down on everyone in the world.

The striped ginger one looked comical with his tongue lolling out like a dog as he balanced his agile body on the back of Iris' throne-like chair.

On the arm of the chair beside Iris was a pure shadow-black cat with striking golden eyes. His stone face looked bored but his curled tail made him adorable.

Standing beside Iris was the tall Jin Liwei carrying an adorable pure snow-white cat with beautiful green eyes in his arms. She was definitely the most photogenic cat that the guests had ever seen in their entire lives.

"How cute!" AJ Zheneres exclaimed.

"Hahaha! Look at that white cat! It smiles exactly like Xiulan!" Amanpio Kileksy pointed at Ketchup. "What the heck? Did she really give birth to a cat? How else could it look so much like her? Hahaha!"

The ladies all shook their heads at him but still inwardly agreed that the white cat indeed smiled like their friend Xiulan.

Then Amanpio offered both of his elbows to his female companions. "Since Exlorsson, Wiztein and Seekerton are all unable to come, it seems that I'll be your only escort today. Don't worry, ladies. I can accommodate all of you—"

"No, thank you," Florence interrupted him before grabbing Ashandra's arm. "We're good."

"Yes, we're fine by ourselves," Theresa followed suit and paired up with AJ.

Amanpio stared at them and at his empty elbows. "Damn! I'm the one who doesn't have a partner?!"

The ladies laughed at him before chatting among themselves while looking around the beautifully decorated surroundings. They were all interrupted by the mansion's head butler.

"If you will all please follow me and the other staff, we'll lead you to the parlour where you can have some refreshments before the event starts."

"What is the event? How come we still don't know what's going on? Tell us, we want to know!" Grandpa Lu's booming demand voiced out the exact thoughts of the other guests.

"My apologies, Sir Lu and everyone. The master and mistress have not granted us authority to disclose that information. We ask you to be patient for now. We assure you that everything will be revealed at the appointed time."

"Hmph!"

Grandpa Lu pretended to be displeased but his eyes couldn't hide the excitement and anticipation. The others were also in similar states. When they reached the parlour, there were already some people inside.

The Bauer siblings were there. Alric was chatting with his sister Alona who flew from Germany to attend today's event. The Cross Academy students headed straight to them to give them a greeting. They had met before at Orchidia Beauty's grand launch. Amanpio was especially friendly with the German siblings because he had closely worked with Alric before in creating special equipment.

Qiao Yu, Iris' financial manager, was sitting at a corner and chatting with Xu Tian, Jin Liwei's right-hand man. Both of them actually knew what was going on today but pretended to be clueless like everyone else.

Near them sat the two managers Tang Yiyi and Lin Dong. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you're not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It's very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please support the original author, ArriaCross. Thank you! Also follow me on Instagram @arriacross]

At another corner, there was a big group comprising of the Black Stars officers. Zhou Mei'er (CaptainBlackStar), Ming Li (LittlePhoenix) and her father were there. The four posh ladies Feng Wan (MrsLovePhantom), Si Xinyue (JJNumber1Fan) with her Police Chief husband, Bai Li (JJNumber2Fan), and Kung Mian (JJNumber3Fan) were all present. To complete their group, Hou Liang (MonkeyFace) and Wu Chen (iEatSlippers) also attended, of course.

Grandpa Lu formed his own group at the centre of the parlour with Grandma Li and Huang Yuyan, Professor Dupont and Giulia Moretti, Professor Schwarz and Professor Hisakawa, and also Enrique Valdez, Maestro De Luca and JJ.

The door opened again as more people entered the now bustling parlour.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.