The Rise of the White Lotus Chapter 253 – But I don't like you either

Without batting an eye, Louis Lu looked at him straight in the eye and answered as blank, emotionless as ever. “Yes.”

Upon hearing his cousin’s blunt response, Ethan Lu heavily exhaled as he slowly rubbed his palms on his face. After three seconds, Ethan Lu raised his gaze once again and met Louis Lu’s unfazed front.

“No, let me rephrase: Are you the one who did that to brother Mo? I mean, did you tried to kill him.” Low yet clear, Ethan Lu glanced at the second floor out of being cautious before he returned them to Louis Lu who was silently contemplating whether to answer or not.

Of course, the moment Ethan Lu received Chris Yu’s warning, part of him already concluded this much— Louis Lu being involved with Morris Liu’s recent incident because of his time in the country coincided with Kong Shuren’s death. Hence, knowing his cousin whom he trusted despite their borderline in the Lu family power struggle, Ethan Lu and Louis Lu had always remained transparent with each other.

“No, I keep my hands clean— you know that.”

“Did you ask someone to do it for you? Lou, I don’t have time to be playing words with you.” Furrowing his brows, Ethan Lu scoffed as Louis Lu was always like this. One should be precise and attentive whenever they were talking to this man before him or else, they would think that he was a liar.

After all, Louis Lu was always like this, like a genie that needed a complete, exact wish or question for it to be granted or answered truthfully. That is why Ethan Lu must ask all the questions possible to clear his suspicions towards Louis Lu. He was not to be blamed though as Louis Lu would never bother to explain his side of the story the reason why he was always misunderstood through the years.

“Playing games? I am not— I am merely answering your questions. If you’re so curious, you should have said: Can you please explain your involvement with Morris Liu’s shooting incident? If you said that, I would have probably finished my explanation by now and perhaps, I would already be on my way to the hotel that you booked for me.” In a matter of fact tone, Louis Lu crossed his legs one over the other and leaned his back against the sofa’s backrest as he peered at Ethan Lu as if his cousin had turned weird.

Seeing Ethan Lu exhaled a heavy scoff as if he had already figured that out, Louis Lu mildly shook his head before he indifferently resumed. “Well, back when I arrived here, I was told that your place was rather lively at night— I wasn’t talking about your activities with your lover up there but your security surrounding the place. So, I was curious and I found out a thing or two: about our always entertaining family and the Liu Empire— it was amusing by the way.”

“What did you exactly do, Lou?” Toneless words escaped Ethan Lu’s mouth as his deadpan gaze examined every little change of his cousin’s gesture and expression. It was as if nothing could escape from his pair of eyes and one wrong move or gesture from Louis Lu, he would find out.

“I sold his schedule.” Without any reserve, Louis Lu responded along with the blinking of his eyes. “No, actually, I purposely dropped it and someone picked it up.” Correcting himself, Louis Lu elaborated on how he ended up giving that information away by seemingly dropping the piece of notepad unintentionally.

“You did what? How— why?” Knitting his brows together, he leaned his head forward, grit his teeth, and asked in an almost whisper, afraid that Lexi would hear them. Ethan Lu’s mind worked double-time as he processed the complex answer from his cousin. Sold Morris Liu’s schedule? Just how did he do that? More importantly, why would he do such a thing? After all, if Louis Lu sold Morris Liu’s schedule, the only possible conclusion to it was: he leaked Morris Liu’s schedule to his enemies and hence, the ambush.

But WHY? That is the biggest question hovering inside his head as Ethan Lu could not wrap his head around what had gotten into his cousin to entangle himself with such a problem. In retrospect, his cousin was the most indifferent and wise person he had ever met. Thus, Ethan Lu was utterly shocked.

“You’re welcome.” Slightly tilting his head to the side, Louis Lu marginally raised his brows as he received the undelivered thanks of his cousin. He added, “Why you asked? Would you rather me give hers instead?”

Upon hearing Louis Lu’s remarks, Ethan Lu’s words were stuck in his throat as he could not utter a single word.

“Mhmm, that’s right, Kong Shuren was a good friend of mine— he helped me one way or another. So, I knew that his hidden soldiers were after Morris Liu and…” Louis Lu stopped as he only raised his brows as if telling his cousin across him that the person’s name he would drop was obvious hence, he didn’t need to mention.

“It just so happened that I found out, or rather, you introduced me to your girlfriend that I knew was on that shortlist. So, I had to choose between your beloved and Mr. Liu— watching you weep wouldn’t be so amusing to watch.” Indeed, one of the reasons aside from his main reason was, Louis Lu knew that his troublesome cousin was friends with Morris Liu.

Therefore, instead of waiting for the auction week of the said property he had his eyes on, Louis Lu decided to flee much earlier to check Ethan Lu’s well-being. However, that fateful night aside the obvious danger, he was also introduced to Lexi— his cousin’s lover. Therefore, leading him to an easy decision because Morris Liu was the lesser of two evils when it came to any type of importance for him.

“Lou…” When Ethan Lu finally calmed himself down, he closed his eyes and slowly reopened them once again. “Didn’t I tell you to keep your business as clean as possible? Now, you’re telling me you’re friends with Kong Shuren?”

“Late friend.”

“Lou!” Agitated at Louis Lu’s nonchalance, one way or another, Louis Lu was the person to blame as to why Morris Liu was lying on a hospital bed with life support. But, on the other hand, Ethan Lu could not fully blame his cousin. Regardless, he was displeased that Louis Lu, of all people, would be entangled in this dilemma.

“Ethan, one thing.” Erecting his forefinger, Louis Lu said. “I am not friends with Mr. Liu and I don’t care whatever happens to him. But…” Pausing, Louis Lu turned his gaze from behind his cousin and saw Lexi slowly going down. Fortunately, he watched his tone and was certain that all his words would come as indistinct chatter with his distance from Lexi.

“But, I don’t like you either.” Without turning his eyes away from the approaching Lexi, Louis Lu directly announced this and that made her brows arch while Ethan Lu followed where his cousin’s gaze lay.

Lexi only scoffed and strode until she reached Ethan Lu’s behind. “The feeling is mutual.” In a matter of fact tone, Lexi sassed as if she was unaffected by Louis Lu’s sudden declaration of dislike. Well, just as she said, the feeling was mutual.

“I’m out. At least I got to say that to her personally.” Grinning at receiving the same dislike from Lexi, Louis Lu straightened his posture and prepared himself to leave. Since Ethan Lu remained in his position, Louis Lu only shrugged as he gave Lexi the last indifferent glance before leaving without a word.

Meanwhile, Lexi lowered her head to Ethan Lu’s side and saw no sign of him sending his cousin off. Slightly shaking her head sideways, Lexi muttered. “Love? You can stay here, I will send Lou out, okay?”