The Rise of the White Lotus

In the middle of the night, Lexi turned her head to her sleeping husband. Her hand caressed him as her eyes softened, and her lips curled into a loving smile. 

'He looks so harmless when asleep,' Lexi whispered internally. If she didn't know better, she would mistake him as a different person to the man who took her body tonight. 

Though there was a touch of gentleness and love, Ethan Lu was very different in bed. Just thinking about it, Lexi chuckled because regardless, her heart could recognize him whether he was acting as her sweet doting husband, the CEO of the LU Corporation, or a pure beast in bed. 

'Now that I think about it...' Lexi sighed as she recalled their current status. "We had protected our privacy to the extent that it almost appeared as a secret marriage." She murmured as she recalled that only a few people know that the two of them were already married.

Lexi was unaware of the rumors outside as her focus was on her business and her family — no time for more showbiz. However, although Lexi had been away from the limelight, her name would never vanish from the entertainment industry completely. 

There were still fans and curious people who would revive forums about her, especially her love life. There are even those diehard EliXi fans that were still delusional that their ship would still sail. 

Lexi was unaware of all this hence when she checked her official account and checked forums, she could not help but shake her head. There was an almost dead thread from months back compiling the missed hints about her relationship with Ethan Lu. 

In one photo, Lexi chuckled upon seeing that it was a screenshot of Rika Song's post about Lexi and Ethan's engagement. Lexi remembered that time when media flocked outside the Lu Corporation and Beauty DR. Yet, all reporters left with nothing as both of them didn't bother to have a word. 

Thinking about it now, Lexi somewhat regretted not confirming it. Now, everyone thought that her relationship with Ethan Lu had gone sour — giving openings to others like Laurel Wang to take advantage of their private life. 

Lexi glanced at the peaceful ball of love beside her and a faint exhale slipped from her lips. Turning her head back to her phone, Lexi for the first time attempted to update her account. 

She had gone through her phone's gallery and scrolled thousands of photos, picking which photo to share to her fans that were waiting for her to update. Most of the photos on her phone were the twins' moments.

There are a few shots of her and the twins, then Ethan Lu with the twins, and their whole family. Everything captured their priceless moments together as a family and them as a married couple. 

Yet, despite that, Lexi was in a dilemma. She didn't want to share that they already had the twins because Ethan Lu's enemies were still lurking. They had been protecting their two wonderful children and abruptly announcing it to the world about their existence was akin to luring their enemies in. 

Hence, Lexi kept scrolling, hoping there's a photo she could use. After minutes of going through the images, then pausing when she found something cute that would make her giggle, one set of photos caught her eyes. 

She clicked at the photo, and her lips curled into a warm smile. It was a photo she took back when she was pregnant. 

In the photo, only her husband's side profile was seen despite the obscurity of the surrounding. It was the time they were having a lazy night, watching a TV series the two of them followed and Lexi's feet were on his lap while his hand was on them, massaging her foot while his eyes were glued ahead. 

The photos were nothing fancy; it was a simple photo of her husband multitasking — she captured it because she found it cute. It reminded Lexi that despite their busy schedule, the two of them still had this kind of laid back days. 

Reminiscing how that day ended, a muffled chuckled escaped her mouth before she excitedly added the photo to upload. She pondered for a caption for a second as bit her lower lip. 

"That's my heart right there <3" She captioned and without further ado, Lexi clicked the upload button. It only took her two seconds before it published the photo. 

She didn't hesitate despite having Laurel Wang at the moment. After all, there was no use in pretending they broke up because she didn't want that woman to have more silly thoughts. 

Moreover, the fifty million was on her hands now so, who cares? There would be tons of things Lexi had cooked up and Laurel Wang was bound to doom, anyway. After all, the biggest mistake Laurel Wang did was lying, attempting to mislead her. 

"Oh, my god!" The very next second, Lexi felt her phone vibrate before a notification showed. The very first person who commented on the photo was none other than her best friend, Rika Song. 

"That's so sweet~! Did Ethan possess you, bestie~?" Rika Song added via another comment. Lexi giggled upon reading her friend's comment because they mostly see Ethan Lu being the sweet partner while Lexi the timid one. 

Lexi only replied with a laughing emoji followed by a smirking emoticon. For sure, Rika Song would understand her humor, which her best friend did as Rika Song giggled before she shared the post and added a caption: "Late night PDA. Jeez, you two give @Eliofficial a break! *laugh emoji*" 

Tagging the forever single Elliot Gong, mischief laced on Rika Song, and Lexi's giggles. It didn't take that long for Elliot Gong to see the tagged post from Rika Song. 

Upon seeing the photo and Rika Song's caption, his eye twitched and nearly tossed his phone out of his car. "Why can't these two leave me alone?" He gritted his teeth as he could imagine his two girl friends giggling like two little mischievous girls. 

In his mind, he also cursed their lovers, Ethan Lu and Jaime Liao, for letting their partners get bored. Hence, the two ended up teasing him — venting their boredom to him!