Chapter 244 - 189. Escape
In the night, amid the heavy snow, Bai Li was no longer lively.
Her hair was disheveled, and her white clothes had become stained with dust.
Han Tong stood atop the mast, looking at Bai Li for a long time without speaking. He hadn’t expected the Spy Department to use Bai Li to threaten him. Who had betrayed him? Was it Ayun? Or the person who had arranged for him to go to Baiyi Lane tonight?
Yun Yang held a torch, illuminating Bai Li’s face with its light to let Han Tong see her more clearly. "Sect Leader Han, in the spring of Jianing 24th Year, you secretly appeared outside the gate of Prince Jing Mansion and left after glancing at the Commandery Princess; on the Lantern Festival of Jianing 25th Year, you waited in secret at the City God Temple, left after glancing at the Commandery Princess; in Jianing 26th Year... you saw the Commandery Princess a total of twelve times, seven of which were on her birthday, and five were during the Lantern and Double Ninth Festivals. Why do you think that is?"
Han Tong’s pupils constricted. He thought his secret visits to Bai Li had been well-hidden, but it turned out they had been observed by the Spy Department all along.
This was not a betrayal by someone he knew; even Ayun didn’t know when he had secretly visited Bai Li. The young man who had set him up tonight couldn’t possibly know either.
Yun Yang looked at Han Tong with a half-smirk, half-grimace, the torchlight casting half of his face in brightness and the other half in darkness, making him look particularly ferocious. "Sect Leader Han, my Spy Department monitors the entire realm, and no spirits or demons can escape our sight. It was only a matter of time before we captured you. Why not make a trade now and save the Commandery Princess’s life?"
Upon hearing Yun Yang’s words, Bai Li looked up dazedly at Han Tong, high upon the mast. She had told Chen Ji that this man had secretly watched her several times, as many times as she had noticed.
Yet in the corners she hadn’t noticed, he had secretly watched her many more times. And these were only the times the Spy Department knew about Han Tong; what about those times they hadn’t discovered?
From a distance, Han Tong asked, "How would you propose to save her?"
Yun Yang continued, "You trade your life for the Commandery Princess’s."