"Shut up!" Russell hollered furiously while glaring at Elijah. "Are you doubting the Kingstons in addition to slandering Mr. Gray?"

He had just instructed one of the staff members working for the Kingstons to bring Lucas's Black Diamond Card for a check. Apart from verifying the authenticity of the card, he had naturally also checked the name of the account and cardholder, which wasn't something someone could forge casually.

Elijah finally realized that he had a slip of the tongue and said something wrong in a moment of impatience. Shocked by the sudden realization, he hurriedly explained, "No, no, that's not what I meant! I…"

Smack!

Callum gave his younger brother a hard slap on his face and said with a stern expression, "Hurry up and apologize to Mr. Duncan!"

Elijah touched his numb face and immediately lowered his head to apologize to Russell. "Mr. Duncan, I'm so sorry. It was a slip of the tongue. I really wasn't doubting you and the Kingstons!"

Russell snorted coldly and said austerely, "You should be apologizing to Mr. Gray instead!"

Elijah's face immediately became extremely gloomy.

He apologized to Russell only because Russell worked for the Kingstons and held great power, so he didn't dare to offend him.

But in his opinion, Lucas was just a nobody. Even though Lucas had an extremely prestigious-looking Black Diamond Card, he had a preconceived prejudice against him. Besides, Lucas was about the same age as him and didn't have the support of a powerful family, so he wasn't afraid of Lucas at all and felt no need to apologize to him.

Overwhelmed with fury and resentment, Elijah glared at Lucas, who was keeping a straight face, and couldn't bring himself to apologize.

When Russell saw his actions, his face turned gloomy too.

At this moment, someone interjected, "Actually, I don't think Elijah has done anything wrong. There's no need for him to apologize to Lucas Gray at all."

In shock, everyone turned to look at the person who spoke up for Elijah. It was Tristan Parker!

Although Tristan knew that by saying this, he would be blatantly contradicting Russell and would likely cause Russell to be displeased, he couldn't care less about this now.

Elijah had insulted Lucas and attempted to get him kicked out of the auction hall only because he was trying to stand up for Tristan. But he ended up offending Russell and landed in a difficult spot.

If Tristan continued to standby quietly without helping Elijah out, he was certain that Callum and Elijah would definitely sever all ties with him once they left the auction hall today! It might even affect the relationship between the Parkers and the Owens! If that happened, his elders would never spare him!

Therefore, he couldn't care less even though he was temporarily offending Russell.

"What do you mean by that?" Russell's face was sullen as he stared at Tristan, waiting for him to give a reasonable explanation for what he just said.

Tristan pursed his lips while thinking about an excuse to give. After a while, he finally said, "Actually, you can't blame Elijah for questioning Lucas Gray's identity and whether he's qualified to enter this place or not. Well, because he's notorious in Orange County!"

Lena stood up and hollered furiously, "Tristan Parker! Shut up!"

Tristan glanced at Lena sneeringly and completely ignored her. He then continued, "Six years ago, Lucas Gray was just a penniless man who just graduated from college! Later on, he resorted to god-knows-what tricks and managed to seduce Cheyenne Carter, who used to be called the most beautiful girl in Orange County. The two of them got involved in a scandal that spread around the entire country, and in the end, he had no choice but to become the live-in son-in-law of the Carters.

"Lucas Gray is just a penniless good-for-nothing who freeloads off of his wife! So, I think it's completely reasonable for Elijah to have suspicions about Lucas Gray's identity and his motives for coming here. There's no need to apologize for that at all!

"Many of the guests here tonight are from Orange County. Mr. Duncan, you can just ask any of them, and you'll know if what I said is true or not."

Many of the guests present were indeed the local tycoons of Orange County, who started discussing among themselves after hearing what Tristan said.

"Yes, he's not making things up. Back then, that scandal indeed caused a huge uproar in the county, and almost everyone knew about it. But I didn't remember the name of the Carters' live-in son-in-law, and I only found out today that it's this young man!"

"The Carters were probably just a second-rate family in Orange County at the time. I heard that's precisely the reason he chose to become their live-in son-in-law. Unfortunately, none of the Carters' descendants are competent. They ended up offending one of the big shots of the Stardust Corporation not long ago and almost went bankrupt because of it!"

"Yeah, but I also heard that they nevertheless disowned and kicked Lucas Gray's wife and her family out even though they were on the verge of bankruptcy! I wonder what intolerable thing they did to warrant that. Logically speaking, it's impossible for someone like him to have a Black Diamond Card."

"Yeah, there's something very fishy about this matter… I don't believe it either!"

...

The local tycoons of Orange County started mentioning the things that they had heard about one after another, immediately making many of the other tycoons of other cities gasp in amazement and also begin gossiping among themselves.

It was Russell's first time hearing about these things, and he couldn't help but look at Lucas in surprise.

But what surprised him was that despite being the subject of gossip, Lucas still maintained his composure and was rather indifferent. There were no signs of shame or anger on his face at all, which was to the amazement of Russell, who admired Lucas's ability to keep his cool.

But regardless of what Lucas had done and who he used to be in the past, it all meant nothing to Russell.

All Russell knew was that Lucas was a holder of a Black Diamond Card that truly belonged to him. This was enough.

"Be quiet!" Russell raised his voice, and everyone in the auction hall soon fell silent.

They understood that there was a final verdict for the matter.

Russell looked at Tristan and asked, "What is your name, and which family are you from?"

His expression was much calmer than when he was sullen.

Seeing that Russell wasn't angry due to his words and was instead being so courteous to him, Tristan was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Hello, Mr. Duncan! My name is Tristan Parker, and my grandfather is Damon Parker!"

Russell nodded and then turned to ask Elijah. "How about you?"

Elijah was just as delighted as he hurriedly answered, "I am Elijah Owen from LA."

Russell nodded and asked the rest, "What about you?"

"Mr. Duncan, I am Eric Hank from Orange County."

"My name is Larry Harold."

...

Russell asked eight people for their names, all of whom Russell had heard insult Lucas or speak about him derogatorily just now.

After asking them, Russell said to a staff member behind him, "Have you written down their names?"

"Yes, Mr. Duncan. There are a total of eight of them, and I've written down all their names!"

Just as everyone was bewildered and confused, Russell suddenly announced, "From now on, these eight people will not be allowed to enter the venues of all the auctions that I'm in charge of!"