A month in prison was much more difficult than I imagined.

The corporate alliance will not waste medical resources on death row inmates, Zhou Zhen can only use prison clothes and bed sheets to simply fix the fracture, although the pain has been relieved, but there is still a clear bone grinding sound in the chest cavity when breathing and talking, coupled with the sweltering and humid underground prison, in less than a week, his lungs began to emphysema, and his brain was also groggy all day due to lack of oxygen.

Even more tormenting was the process of waiting for death, which was more unbearable for Zhou Zhen than death itself, as he carved expletives into the sticky gray walls, slammed on iron doors with shackles in the middle of the night, kicked food out of the delivery port, hoping that the angry prison guards would surprise him with a shot, or that the severed rib would inadvertently puncture the heart and lungs.

One evening, a month later, he finally received a notice of execution, which was unexpected.

Hayes. Rhodes, his savior and gravedigger, is now his mourner.

Hayes had just undergone his seventeenth heart operation, weak and pale, and he was paralyzed in a wheelchair pushed by his son, Thomas, both in plain black suits and black ties.

"Welcome, you are the first and probably the last visitors to my new home."

Zhou Zhen sat on the shelf bed and greeted, his voice swirling in his throat, and every time he said a word, his chest ached faintly.

"Thank you, brother."

Hayes got out of the wheelchair with Thomas's help and struggled to sit on the shelf bed, moving his body inward to make room for him and avoid physical contact with him.

"The execution date is tomorrow morning."

Hayes took out a black envelope from his arms and handed it to Zhou Qian, who took it and opened it, unfolded the concise notice inside, and placed it between the two, as if drawing a dividing line between life and death.

"Thomas, you go out first, and get some attention on the prison guards to keep them away from here for a while."

Hayes waved his hand at Thomas, who was standing beside him, and Thomas bowed deeply to Zhou Zhi, turned and walked out of the cell, and closed the iron door with his backhand.

"Thomas is still the same as when he was a child, a stuffy gourd."

Zhou Zhi said in a pleasant greeting, remembering that he hadn't seen Thomas in many years.

"He is now studying for an MD at the Alliance University in A01, and it is very suitable for him to do research, so he doesn't need to talk much."

Talking about his son, Hayes couldn't hide his gratification, Alliance University is the world's top university, and it recruits top students from one in a million.

"Ha, interesting, you have been killing people all your life, and your son has become a doctor who hangs the pot to help the world."

Zhou Zhen clutched his chest and squeezed out a smile.

"Do you hate me?"

Hayes ended the reins stiffly, and Zhou Zhen shook his head, indicating that he had no hatred for Hayes, and then pointed to his chest.

"I have a fracture here, which affects my head, and I'm not particularly conscious now."

"It's okay, just so that you don't contradict me, you just listen to me, of course, I hope you can do what I say."

Hayes didn't care about Zhou's injury, and he didn't mean to apologize to him.

"Brother, I've been doing what you say all my life, let's see what happened to me."

Zhou Zhen laughed at himself, Hayes nodded with a wry smile, rummaged in the inner pocket of the suit for a while, and used two fingers to pull out a metal box the size of a pill, the surface of the box was dark, almost did not reflect any light, and the weight was extremely light, as if it was about to fly out of his fingertips if he was not careful.

"Is there any water?"

Hayes asked, and Zhou Zhen picked up the water cup from the shelf next to the bed, and there was still half a cup of dusty water in it.

"Swallow it."

Hayes took Zhou Zhi's hand and put the small box into his palm, Zhou Zhen didn't look at it, threw it into his mouth without hesitation, and swallowed it with half a glass of dirty water.

"Don't you ask me what I am?"

Hayes was a little surprised, and Zhou Zhen smiled calmly: "Where else can it be?" I wish it was poison, so that I would not endure another night's torment. ”

"Do you remember the explosion in Moscow?"

Hayes asked abruptly, Zhou Zhen nodded, how could he not remember, it was a nightmare that had plagued him for more than forty years.

"In that explosion, your own brother Zhou Liang died, and I also lost half my life."

Hayes lowered his head and said slowly.

"You don't have to remind me that I owe you my life, and I'll pay you back soon."

Zhou Zhen patted Hayes's leg, Hayes took advantage of the situation to grab his hand, Zhou Zhen wanted to pull his hand away, but Hayes's hand trembled, he thought about it, and put his other hand on his hand.

Hayes sighed: "Alas, an explosion killed 100,000 people, and at that time we all thought that by sacrificing these 100,000 people, we would end the war, and there would be no need to kill people again." ”

Zhou Zhen also sighed sadly: "But in fact, the war has long ended, and we are still killing people, killing people to grab energy, killing people to earn a little commission." ”

He had always regretted his stupidity to believe such a ridiculous argument as slaughter in exchange for peace.

"Do you believe that people have souls?"

Hayes asked after being silent for a moment, his tone was the same as that of Jiro Oshima, and Zhou Zhi couldn't help but feel a little funny: "You and Oshima are a natural pair, we probably have the wrong partner." ”

"No, Oshima is not an armored rat, do you remember why I named the company an armored rat in the first place?"

Hayes ignored his joke and explained seriously: "Armoured rats, also known as armadillos, are covered with bone armor, cannot penetrate small-caliber rifles, are very good at making holes, are nocturnal and nocturnal, are good at camouflage, have a strong ability to survive, they love to eat carrion, and they are eager to carcass of animals." ”

"So what?"

Zhou Zhen asked impatiently, and Hayes pointed at Zhou Zhen and then at himself.

"You and I, we are armored rats, we have lived in the pile of corpses all our lives, we can't resist the temptation of death, even if there is no Moscow explosion and the energy crisis, we will try our best to find the corpses and create death, because we only know this way of survival."

"Perhaps, if the Armored Rats also set traps for their own kind."

Zhou was prickly in his words, he used to think that he and Hayes were the same kind, but now he is uncertain.

"Thomas can't be an armored rat, I can't let their generation kill each other for energy like us, so I'm going to help Oshima complete the energy experiment, it's my atonement."

Hayes became a little excited, but Zhou Zhen just smiled disdainfully: "There will be no war in the era of abundant energy?" Humans always find a reason to kill each other. ”

"I agree, that's why I need power, I need to let the Armored Rats enter the board of directors of the business alliance after finding new energy on the big island, and have a veto power over major policies, so that we can try to stop wars and killings."

The more impassioned Hayes became, the more ridiculous Zhou Zhi felt: "It's really deliberate, but how can you be sure that the energy experiment will be successful?" ”

"There is no such thing as a complete certainty."

Hayes stood up against the wall, as if he could no longer express his emotions while sitting: "Do you recall that when the Moscow explosion occurred, did you find anything unusual?" ”

"At that time, I was focusing on the number of weeks, and I didn't pay attention to the anomaly."

Zhou Zhen didn't look up at him, he remembered his younger brother's bloody half body that had been blown up.

"On that day, the blood in the sky was like rain, and the corpses were also falling, so much flesh and blood fell from the sky, don't you really think it's strange?"

Hayes asked, and Zhou Zhen just sneered, "Hmm, so what?" Does it mean that you, the demolition expert, set up the nuclear bomb very accurately? ”

"The magnetic field, the magnetic field that day was very different from usual."

Hayes shook his fingers and spoke in an agitated tone.

"Maybe it's your nuclear bomb."

Zhou Zhen disagreed, and Hayes immediately retorted: "No, it's just an ancient atomic bomb, nuclear fission, it can't cause this effect, think about it again, the government coalition army gathered 100,000 people that day, the purpose is to fight for Moscow's energy warehouse, that warehouse is where you are stationed, is there energy reserves in it?" ”

"No, the energy warehouse is just a bait set up by a consortium of companies."

"With just a fake warehouse as bait, 100,000 troops of the government coalition army were mobilized? The government's intelligence services aren't dry, and there's something else in the warehouse, right? ”

"Well, a couple of big boxes, metal boxes, made of a lot like the one you gave me."

Zhou Zhen seemed to sense some clues, those metal boxes that day were very strange, the opening of the box was not locked, but it could not be opened, the box was extremely light, but the texture was extremely strong, when used as a cover, bullets and explosions could not leave any traces on the surface.

"These boxes are the real targets of the government coalition, and the real bait for the corporate coalition."

Hayes's tone turned low, but he was determined.

"Sacrifice 100,000 lives just for these broken boxes?"

Zhou Zhi felt creepy, and Hayes nodded: "More than twenty years ago, Jiro Oshima first came to me and introduced me to his energy experiments, these boxes are in his laboratory, according to him, the boxes are made of a metal called Maya alloy, which can release a magnetic field, a strong magnetic field. ”

"Magnetic field? I'm sorry I'm not a scientist, what does magnetic field and energy experiment have to do with it? ”

"It's confidential, he won't tell me, but it must be very important, and since then I have been exploring the truth of the energy experiment, trying to explain the wrongs of the Moscow explosion, but there has been no progress."

Zhou Zhi, Hayes explained, focused on something else: "Did you collude with Oshima twenty years ago? ”

"Yes, the energy experiment needs the support of the Armored Rat."

Hayes did not deny it.

"Support?"

Zhou Zhen didn't understand what support a small company with a killing business could give to a group of scientists.

Hayes didn't answer, but digressed the subject: "As part of the return, he gave me the small box you swallowed just now, which is also made of Maya metal, which he called the Maya box." ”

Zhou Zhen was confused, shrugged his shoulders and smiled: "Oh, so what kind of box did you give me to use my corpse to light a light bulb?" ”

Hayes was not in a teasing mood: "No, the Maya box is a by-product of energy experiments that can save people's souls. ”

Zhou Zhen felt that he was listening to an old man's dying words, although he was the dying old man: "A pastor I knew back then also said so, but what I gave was not a box, but a Bible, did you believe in any cult?" ”

At this time, Thomas knocked on the door from outside, and Hayes looked at his watch and said in a pleading tone, "My visitation time is almost up, brother, even if it is for atonement, and for the future of Thomas's generation, I need you to help me one last time." ”

"How can I help you? Is the soul haunted by the Oshima family after death? ”

Zhou Zhen picked up the notice with the date of execution and trembled.

Hayes snatched the notice, crumpled it up and threw it on the ground: "Armored rats will not die easily, I have made arrangements, you will go to the truth of the energy experiment on my behalf." ”

"Arrangement? I'm afraid it's too late to rob the prison. ”

Zhou Zhen said with a smile, he was already dead, and he was not interested in the Arabian Nights that Hayes said.

"Do you remember what Zhou Liang said before he died?"

Hayes bent down with difficulty against the wall and hugged Zhou with one arm.

Zhou Zhen patted him on the back very unnaturally: "I didn't hear it clearly at the time, you relayed it, did you forget?" ”

"He's been repeating three words, live."

Hayes admonished, "Don't let him down. ”