The Rise of the White Lotus

"Haha," Chuckling at the humor from one of the men, Ethan Lu looked around. It has been a while since Lexi excused herself to use the restroom. However, till now, she hadn't returned. 

"Master," from the side, Lyrick Jiang approached Ethan Lu as he wore a solemn countenance. Ethan Lu asked him to check on Lexi, but he couldn't find her. 

"Gentlemen, I'll have to excuse myself first." After glancing at Lyrick Jiang, Ethan Lu smiled at the men around him as he excused himself. After they nodded in approval, Ethan Lu walked away from them while Lyrick Jiang followed. 

When they were on the corner of the event hall, Ethan Lu stared at Lyrick Jiang sharply. By the look on Lyrick Jiang's front, Ethan Lu seemed he already understood. However, he still prayed that he was just overthinking. 

"Master, Madam is not in the restroom nor I find her around. I asked our men to search for Madam, but they could not find her." Alas, despite all Ethan Lu's silent prayer, Lyrick Jiang reported the very thing they dreaded the most. 

"What did Churu say?" As Ethan Lu realized the situation, he began taking strides out of the event hall. Lyrick Jiang followed from behind. 

"She's still trying to track Madam's whereabouts." Low and solemn, Lyrick Jiang gritted his teeth as he tried to keep his composure. 

On the other hand, every passing second, Ethan Lu's aura turned colder and darker. His pair of eyes glinted as his jaw tightened. 

"Mr. Lu!" As they headed somewhere, Diane Huang saw Ethan Lu's figure in the corridor. Hence, she called out as took hurried steps towards them. "Wait—!" Seeing that Ethan Lu and his assistant wasn't stopping from their tracks, Diane Huang had to jog despite wearing heels. 

"Mr. Lu, I haven't thank you about earlier." When Diane Huang caught up, she still kept a hurried pace as Ethan Lu's steps never faltered. "Where are you going?" Glancing at Ethan Lu's broad shoulder, Diane Huang asked out of curiosity. 

"Miss Huang, my wife is missing." Without turning around, Ethan Lu informed. His tone was colder than ever. 

"What?" Surprised by his last remarks, Diane Huang creased her brows as she studied Ethan Lu's back. His tone, aura, and demeanor was not something he would fake. 

"We'll head to the monitor room — order everyone to stop anyone from entering and leaving the premises." As Ethan Lu ordered, his tracks came into a full halt. Turning to face her, Diane Huang gulped as Ethan Lu's visage was akin to a demon who'd ready to kill. 

"Miss Huang, this event is under your supervision. If something happened to Lexi, I won't show mercy to anyone — even the Huang Clan, I won't let you off the hook." Ethan Lu threatened, suffocating Diane Huang with just the aura circling around him. 

Diane Huang's words were stuck in her throat as she could only watch Ethan Lu resumed on his tracks. He knew the man for a long time, but this was her first time seeing him like this. 

In Diane Huang's perspective, Ethan Lu seemed resolute in killing someone. She didn't know how Lexi went missing and who abducted her. What Diane Huang was certain was that she must cooperate with Ethan Lu or else, their Huang Family would have a taste of Ethan Lu's wrath. 

****

Inside the monitor room, Ethan Lu and Lyrick Jiang were assisted to review the cctv footage. To their dismay, the CCTV outside the restroom Lexi went in was not functioning. 

Therefore, the last footage Lexi was caught in the camera was on the hallway before the restroom. After that, they never saw Lexi again. 

"Stop it." Minutes after Lexi's went into the restroom, Ethan Lu asked the staff to pause the recording. They'd been rewinding the recording when Lexi went in. 

There were a few guests that went in and out of the hallway of the restroom. However, none of them seemed suspicious, nor they seemed they saw something amiss.

Regardless, after watching the recording several times, Ethan Lu narrowed his eyes on the janitor that went in before Lexi and then departed the area minutes later. 

If Ethan Lu was not considering all possible people as suspects, he might have overlook this cleaner. 

"Can you zoom it in?" He asked, still had his gaze glued on the monitor. He only heard a few clicks before the janitor was on close up. 

The janitor had his head hang low, pushing a tray. Ethan Lu sized the photo up, after a minute of examining the janitor, Ethan Lu gritted his teeth. 

"Ask the manager who is this employee — or inform everyone not to let anyone out of the premises. He got Lexi." Through his gritted teeth, Ethan Lu wanted to throw a huge fit. 

The reason? Under the tray that the cleaner was pushing, he had a glimpse of the small part of Lexi's small bag. It was just a small area that was shown — almost not noticeable. However, Ethan Lu still recognized as Lexi has a habit of leaving marks on her bag. 

It was an odd habit of hers as she would mark it with white regardless of the price of the bag. Who would have thought that it would come in handy?

Just as Lyrick Jiang and Diane Huang busied themselves by contacting everyone that could help them. Ethan Lu's phone rang. 

Without further ado, Ethan Lu picked the call from an unknown number. "Where is she?" The second the line connected, Ethan Lu growled. 

"Hahahaha!" From the other end of the line, Dylan Lu's hearty laugh was heard. By the sound of it, it amused him that Ethan Lu guessed right. 

"Chill, my dear cousin." Relaxed, Dylan Lu advised while Ethan Lu ground his teeth. "Do you want to see your little fox? I'll give you the address so you can reunite, but in one condition: come alone." From sounding amused to creepy, Dylan Lu said before ending the line abruptly. 

"Master," Worried, Lyrick Jiang looked at him as he was waiting for an order. 

"It's Dylan — he had her." Balling his trembling hands, Ethan Lu nearly broke the phone he was holding.