The Rise of the White Lotus

Chapter 195 You said what? Love her?

"He knew all along… huh, how foolish of me to think that hurting her, replacing her with Mia, constantly put pressure on Uncle Fred would make him let them go— he didn't… until his last breath, he won." Morris Liu's brows slightly creased as the pain he neglected for a long time resurfaced.

At first, he was convinced that Kong Shuren bought his facade after proving that they had nothing to do with him and pretended to be his loyal puppet for almost 6 years. However, just before the said man died by the hands of one of Seraphina Yue's me— Morris Liu realized that all these years, he was only fooling himself and destroyed his beloved in the process.

"Ha… hahaha!" Ethan Lu started with a scoffed before it turned into a loud, hysterical laugh which made Chris Yu furrowed his brows while Morris Liu seemed he expected this reaction from him.

"You said what? Love her? Haha!" Hurt... confused... insulted… rage... Ethan Lu hid his true feelings in a pretense of a loud laugh.

The information about Lexi and her family being in danger already alarmed and confused him. Not to mention, Morris Liu's sudden confession of killing someone hence, this last statement he dropped— how could he absorb everything in one go? Morris Liu love Lexi? Is he joking?

"Ethan… seriously? Lexi of all people?" Displeased, Chris Yu sternly commented as he perceived his laughs were nothing but a wordless insult. At first, he was baffled as to why would Morris Liu needed to contact Ethan Lu after knowing that Lexi was in danger. After all, he had no recollection of seeing Lexi being entangled with Ethan Lu and vice versa.

Therefore, after questioning Morris Liu, he came to know that his friend, Ethan Lu was pursuing Lexi which shocked him to the core. The news almost helped him stay awake throughout the night as he needed to safeguard Morris Liu when Kong Shuren was killed.

Regardless, now that everything was laid on the table, Chris Yu was neither siding with Morris Liu nor Ethan Lu. All he wanted to do was for them to communicate well in the serious matter and set their love interest aside-- though he sounded biased at one point.

"Haha, how dare you..." Sneering, Ethan Lu's gaze seemed he was strangling Morris Liu inside his mind. "You dare say you love her after everything? You destroyed her yet, you're saying you love her? F*ck—!" Ethan Lu could not continue his words as he grinded his teeth and began to seethe with anger.

"No one expected what happened to her, alright? Brother Mo tried to send her back to Country Y but she refused! He broke the engagement but she refused— always! Also, that's not the point here!" Pissed by Ethan Lu's mocking words, though they were the truth, however, there were always two sides to the story and the whole truth half a year ago wasn't known to him.

Chris Yu knew Morris Liu too well after spending time with him for the last six years. He was well versed that he would blame himself for what happened to Lexi and he would never defend himself even before Ethan Lu.

He also knew Ethan Lu who had certainly received a huge blow just with this glimpse of their reality. Chris Yu might not know the whole story of how Ethan and Lexi became a thing, but what he was certain was that he had admired Morris Liu like a big brother. Thus, revealing the truth to him— their friendship would never be the same again.

"Shut up, Chris!" Retorting back to Chris Yu, none of his words passed through him as he returned his threatening eyes to Morris Liu's unchangeable expression which irked him even more. "Can't you talk? Aren't you going to defend yourself? Explain it until I understand because no matter how I rationalize it— I can't! Kong Shuren, that man-- I heard about him, how the hell did you work with that kind of person?"

"I didn't work with him-- I worked for him…" Examining the stunned countenance of Ethan Lu, Morris Liu flatly resumed as if the story he was about to say was not his own. "Even before I inherit the Liu Empire, my uncle had been the puppet of the real owner of our company. We covered up his illegal activities and he used Liu Empire as the front of his contraband business. In other words, being the family head of the Liu family was to replace his previous shield to a new one so, if ever the authorities get involved, I will take all the blame and he would continue with his life."

"The reason why I came into the picture." Giving more clarification to Ethan Lu, Chris Yu flinty chimed in. "Six years ago, Morris Liu hired a retired agent which is me by the way to catch the guy. But, the shreds of evidence we gathered weren't enough to make him rot in jail because he was more careful than anyone can expect. So, we took our time because one wrong careless move, brother Mo will die along with the Yang family. We settled to be discreet because, in six years, the sum of the very few meetings he had been in contact with brother Mo will give us enough proof to catch him."

"What?" Ethan Lu tried to absorb all their words no matter how ridiculous they were. However, if he opened his mind about it, they outrageously made sense. "Six years? So, half a year before the said time span, Lexi returned?" Since he undoubtedly remembered the day Morris Liu was declared as the new chief executive officer of the Liu Empire, Ethan Lu accurately guessed and got the gist of what happened afterward which made his heart clench.

"She was supposed to return after six years, that is our ultimatum is six years." Morris Liu clarified, still bearing his icy tone.

"Then what about Mia? Does she know? Or just another casualty to this whole circus?" At this point, Ethan Lu seemed his whole energy was drained because the more words they uttered, the clearer the chaotic situation Morris Liu had.

"Nah, Mia and brother Mo were just accident because Lexi caught a message from her which is actually me trying to tease him using her phone." Shaking his head in disbelief, Chris Yu recalled a supposedly harmless prank that led to such unforeseen destruction and pain.