ITF Chapter72

Just as Luo Congye had said, two Alphas brought over two shipments of daily necessities that very night. Over the following days, they continued to deliver all three meals punctually, without fail. Occasionally, Bai Heting would walk alone in the dense forest behind the house, but no matter where he went, the two Alphas always followed closely behind him.

At lunchtime on the seventh day, Bai Heting made a request to them, “I want to see Jiang Han.”

The two Alphas acted as if they hadn’t heard him. They set down the lunch and prepared to leave, but Bai Heting blocked the doorway. He raised an arm to press against the doorframe; though his tone carried no trace of mockery, the meaning behind his words was perfectly clear, “You don’t actually think you have me under house arrest, do you?”

He had seen both of these men in Luo Congye’s elite squad before. They did not try to force their way through the door, but they had no intention of communicating with Bai Heting either, and so the two sides stalemated in silence for a brief moment.

Bai Heting quickly lost his patience. He stopped blocking the door and, under their wary gazes, walked over to the dining table and sat down as if no one else were there. Today’s lunch still included his favorite apple pie. The pie had been sliced into small pieces, so there was no need for him to cut it himself. Of course, he didn’t have the means to do it himself anyway, as the two Alphas had never provided him with a steak knife.

“I am not leaving because I am not ready to leave yet. You are still alive because I feel there is no need for you to die.” He picked up a small piece of pie and placed it in his mouth, chewing slowly and swallowing before continuing, “Before I change my mind, take me to see Jiang Han.”

The two men exchanged a look and left without a word. By the time Bai Heting finished his lunch at a leisurely pace, they happened to return, bringing a carriage with them.

*

Half an hour later, Bai Heting spotted Jiang Han’s back on an open beach. The landscape remained as bleak and barren as ever. Jiang Han sat alone by the sea, seemingly lost in thought, and only turned to look at Bai Heting a moment after he had already approached.

Bai Heting looked around and saw no one tailing Jiang Han, but he did notice his pant legs, which were soaked by the sea spray. He sat down right next to Jiang Han and asked, “Did they make things difficult for you?”

Seeing that he was safe and sound, Jiang Han was visibly relieved. He curled the corners of his mouth upward, but the smile looked a bit forced, “No, they’ve been quite polite to me.”

Given that his wrist had been snapped out of joint, these words clearly lacked conviction. Bai Heting looked down at his hand and asked again, “How is your hand?”

“It’s fine,” Jiang Han answered half-heartedly. “It’ll be better in a few weeks.”

His right wrist was crudely stabilized with wooden boards and strips of cloth. The cloth was tied rather haphazardly, likely because operating with only one hand was not very convenient. Bai Heting said nothing more; he placed the things in his hand onto the sand and began to untie the bindings on Jiang Han’s hand.

Jiang Han could recognize that what he had brought along were several types of herbs used for reducing swelling and dispelling bruises.

After Bei Chengzhou’s death, he had meticulously inquired about the man named Bai Heting. Some said he was an orphan, while others said half of the royal blood ran through his veins, but everyone’s description of his personality was entirely consistent—Bai Heting was arrogant and merciless, the sort of person who could slit someone’s throat without a flicker of emotion while still in his teens; a cold-blooded killer who never blinked at taking a life.

Yet this cold-blooded killer was currently condescending to massage his wrist for him.

Watching Bai Heting’s expression, he lowered his voice and asked, “When did you regain your memories?”

Bai Heting didn’t answer the entire time, so he smiled understandingly.

He shouldn’t be surprised.

He could hear distressed murmurs and sleep-talking drifting from the room next door almost every night.

“You never lost your memory.” He said softly.

Bai Heting still made no sound, which amounted to tacit agreement. Only after a moment did he ask a question, “How did you rescue me?”

Jiang Han looked out at the sea and let out a long sigh, “Good luck.”

Bai Heting looked up at him.

“I’m not joking.” Jiang Han simplified that thrilling night into a few light sentences, “That night, panthers were growling nonstop. Those two guards were probably terrified, and in their panic, they found a hilltop and just threw you and me down there.” Skipping over the various hardships of the ordeal, he said nonchalantly, “The slope wasn’t steep. I always kept some emergency bandages and medicine on me, and there was no shortage of water and herbs in the forest, so we just scraped by in the wild for a few days. Later, I pawned everything valuable on both of us and bought a carriage. By then, your funeral had already been held.”

After saying this, he paused for a long time, looking hesitant to speak.

“I was actually very afraid of you recovering your memory because…” He turned his face away and said softly, “I didn’t know how to tell you the truth.”

But Bai Heting spoke the truth for him, “You came to avenge Bei Chengzhou back then.”

Jiang Han snapped his head back, his gaze containing not only shock and panic but also a trace of embarrassment. Bai Heting’s expression remained calm, and his tone grew even more certain, “That senior brother you mention from time to time is Bei Chengzhou.”

Jiang Han said blankly, “You knew all along…”

“Not at first.” Bai Heting picked up the bunch of herbs, crushed them thoroughly in his palm, moistened them with some seawater, and applied them to his wrist, adding, “As time went on, I gradually guessed a little.”

Recalling the unsheathed short dagger hidden under Bai Heting’s pillow, Jiang Han hooked the corner of his mouth in self-deprecation, “So, that dagger was to guard against me.”

Bai Heting did not deny it.

“Not entirely, but it’s never wrong to be careful.” He arranged the wooden planks, grasped Jiang Han’s wrist with his left hand, and reached with his right for the cloth strip he had taken off earlier. After a brief pause, he added, “Didn’t it end up being useful later anyway?”

He had plunged that dagger into Luo Congye’s shoulder.

Jiang Han fell silent.

Although no one had explained why he was being confined here, the moment he heard the name Bei Yang, he had already inferred the general situation. “The one leading them is Pei Yan, right? It’s only natural that he hates me. After all, I did something irreversible. I…”

Bai Heting interrupted him immediately, “You saved me.”

Jiang Han’s brow furrowed tightly, his emotions becoming uncharacteristically intense, “I killed…”

“You had no choice.” Bai Heting still didn’t let him finish, his tone dropping a few degrees colder. “Furthermore, he doesn’t know about that matter, and he never will.”

Jiang Han froze, blurting out, “Why?”

“There is no need for him to know,” Bai Heting said calmly. “Do you remember that story which should never have begun? Between him and me, it is just a story that should never have begun.”

“But this story has already begun.”

“So, I am going to end it.”

That nightmarish day was still vivid in his mind, and Jiang Han could hardly believe what he was hearing.

“This is no place for me to stay for long,” Bai Heting continued. “I don’t know how much Urdan blood I have on my hands. To this island, I am their enemy.” He paused slightly, lowering his voice a bit. “And his enemy too.”

Jiang Han said, “Those are all things of the past. You are no longer…”

“Some things cannot be moved past.” Bai Heting stopped what he was doing and reminded him, “Have you forgotten? I killed Bei Chengzhou.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Han indeed fell into silence.

He returned Bai Heting’s words to him, “You had no choice.”

“You are wrong. I had a choice.” Bai Heting continued wrapping the bandage for him. “Killing Bei Chengzhou was my choice. If I had known his true identity a little sooner, it would have only made him die earlier, rather than leaving him for Shao Yixiao.” He tied a knot in the cloth strip, pulled it tight, and looked at Jiang Han. “No one held a knife to my throat to force me to kill Urdan people. I killed the rebels simply because their existence threatened the king I swore allegiance to.”

Jiang Han cast his eyes down amid his calm narration. He no longer had the strength to look Bai Heting in the eye; many words were choked up in his chest, but he could say nothing.

Bai Heting let out a laugh that carried no surprise, “The truth is always hard to accept, isn’t it?” It was as if he had long made up his mind, his tone sharp and resolute without a hint of reluctance or any sadness at all. “Some things cannot be kept in the palm of your hand just because you want them to be. I tried to fight for it, more than once, but reality delivered a resounding slap to me every single time. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

Jiang Han raised his head, wanting to say something, but saw two silhouettes; one tall and one short, behind Bai Heting.

Lin Qian’s footsteps faltered slightly in the distance, her eyes slowly widening. Raising her voice, she called out with uncertainty, “Senior Jiang?”

Bai Heting also turned his head to look back before asking Jiang Han, “Do you know her?”

Jiang Han tried hard to recall for a moment but truly could not remember where he had seen this face before, so he answered honestly, “I can’t really recall.”

“Don’t say anything. Saying those things now is already meaningless.” Bai Heting instructed once more. His gaze bypassed the girl who was running over quickly and looked at the person behind her.

The tall one’s pace was slow, almost to the point of dragging.

“And besides,” Bai Heting withdrew his gaze and sighed softly, “that kid will cry.”

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