The Rise of the White Lotus 453 What is love?

[PRESENT TIME]

“But I saw you two! You entered brother Mo’s room!” In an utter disbelief, Mia Chen argued as she was hundred percent certain that Lexi and Morris Liu entered his room and sinned. 

“You did witness us entering a room, Miss Chen. However, how are you certain that it was that particular room?” Raising her brows, Lexi tilted her head to the side.

“It’s—”

“Hmm?” Lexi smirked. Seeing that Mia Chen stopped just as she uttered a word. By the looks of it, a realization suddenly struck her. 

“You just realized it now? Establishment like this, aside from the top floor, the rest were designed the same. Did you really believe that Brother Mo will stay in the second best room in this hotel? Dear, you underestimated elite men and their egos.” Lexi chuckled as she covered her lips by the back of her hand. 

Why did she thought that other guests of Mr. Tang chose not to stay? Aside from their early commitments for the next day, it was because the presidential suites were occupied. 

It was not because they needed to brag about their wealth but, it was more about their pride and dignity. After all, all the respectable guests of Mr. Tang excelled in their fields of business and politics. Hence, they had their pride to protect. If they didn’t get the best, there’s no option for the second. Not unless, the hotel was owned by the Lu’s or the Liu’s. 

It was their secret rule they set for themselves. 

Therefore, Lexi wouldn’t believe it if someone told her about Morris Liu humbling himself. After all, the Liu Empire had their own hotel chains— way better than this establishment. 

But, the reason why they were confident that Mia Chen would believe about the deliberate leak of information about Morris Liu’s stay was because Lexi would also stay.

“While we are heading our way next to this room…” Slowly, Lexi stood up from her seat as she languidly strode towards the monitors on the side. 

Tracing her fingers on top of one of the monitors, Lexi resumed after she turned on the monitor. “You, on the other hand, was watching, believing everything that was shown to you.”

Just then, Nico Zhuang approached the monitors and inserted a USB that immediately revealed the same angles of each camera that Mia Chen had. Upon seeing this, it caused another wave of fog to dim whatever sliver of hope Mia Chen has. 

It entirely scratched the possibility about her accusations earlier as her cameras that were her eyes were tampered from the very beginning. 

“Say, Miss Chen, were you too excited about the success of your plan that you failed to notice the hint I purposely left?” Lexi slowly turned around to face the clueless front of Mia Chen. Satisfied with her helpless reaction, Lexi smiled that didn’t reach her eyes. 

Just like the recording that was put on paused on the screen, all the room numbers correlated with which floor they were. Everything started with the floor number but only the last one— on the farthest side from the camera’s perspective— has a different starting number. 

In simple terms, Lexi and Morris Liu daringly mocked her by stopping on the same floor as Mia Chen — instead of the floor above—and continued to give her the show that she wanted. She was so immersed watching the two figures that she failed to notice something important as that obvious hint. 

After gaining such information, it was easy to guess that when Lexi and Morris Liu entered the room, their decoys that were on standby on Morris Liu’s supposed room continued the show. 

“Did everything make sense to you now?” Offering nothing but coldness, a glint flashed across Lexi’s eyes. “Mia Chen, did this convince you that you and me are different? Are you satisfied?” Despite not receiving a response from her, Lexi inquired. 

“Do you really believe that you can fix everything by brute force? If destroying someone else’s happiness believing that it is in the name of love, then that’s not love; it’s pure cruelty.” Just like what Lexi said, she had guessed the reason why Mia Chen had cooked up this scheme. That was to make her beloved Morris Liu happy. 

After all, Mia Chen doesn’t have any deep grudges towards Lexi. If there’s any, that would be Mia Chen not wishing to be close to how Lexi dealt with things in the past.

Hence, that only left Lexi with the assumption that Mia Chen believed that what she was doing was selfless— contradicting how selfish Lexi was. 

Unbeknownst to her, the more she wanted to be selfless, the more she turned out to be the most selfish person. Not only she would hurt Ethan Lu, but also Lexi, Morris Liu, and Kevin Woo. That would leave the five of them with a tragic ending if her plan was a success. 

“Love is not meant to destroy but to mend a heart that makes a person grow. Sadly, you don’t know that.” Lexi’s gaze never once left Mia Chen’s eyes that has tears forming on the corner of her eyes. 

At the very least, Lexi and Morris Liu learned this lesson about love. The very reason they eventually accepted that their love was never meant to work because it was only a phase in their life to teach them these valuable lessons that made them grow.

After Lexi’s last remarks, silence enveloped the whole room to the extent that it was deafening. Just then, Morris Liu finally broke his silence and stated three sincere words he was meaning to tell her.