The lawyer led Xiang Yi to a room that looked like an interrogation chamber.
Xiang Yi wasn't cuffed or shackled, though — he was simply shown to a seat at the interrogation table.
The lawyer slid a document across to him almost immediately.
It was a nondisclosure agreement.
The signing party was a company called "Iron Shell Security Management" — almost certainly the name of the outfit behind this private prison.
Come to think of it, the gun he'd taken off that old guard earlier had the "Iron Shell" brand on it. Probably made by this company, or whatever parent company owned it.
Xiang Yi had a rough picture forming in his mind. He kept reading.
The agreement essentially stated that he had rendered significant service to the prison, and in exchange, he was required to keep his mouth shut about everything that had happened inside — or face legal consequences.
Legal consequences. Sure. For a convicted felon like him, the most likely consequence of breaking this agreement was a bullet.
Of course, signing came with its own benefits.
The most obvious one — and the most valuable to any prisoner — was a sentence reduction.
The agreement spelled it out plainly: Xiang Yi had been convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Execution was set for a month and a half from now.
But if he signed the NDA, his death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment.
"This..."
A normal private prison might work with the government on inmate supervision, but it would never have the authority to directly reduce a sentence like this. That kind of power pointed to something much deeper between this prison and the local government.
It was safe to say that the Blood Crystal Abnormality in the mine tunnels below was closely tied to official interests — and the signatures at the bottom of the agreement confirmed exactly what Xiang Yi suspected.
Alongside the company representative's signature was an official government seal.
The seal read: "Office of the Liuyun Star System Government."
That was about as high-level a seal as a government body could produce. The fact that it had been stamped on a document involving him personally made Xiang Yi think he'd need to be a hell of a lot more careful about any escape plans.
He scanned back from the bottom of the agreement to the middle, his eyes finally settling on the date of his scheduled execution.
He still had no memory of what he'd actually done. Even staring at this document, nothing came back to him. So he looked up at the lawyer and said, "This execution date — I don't seem to..."
The lawyer answered plainly, without any attempt to dodge the question. "Death row inmates aren't told the exact date of their execution. That's standard. And you can't just sit around doing nothing in the meantime."
"So if I don't sign, and that date comes around..."
"Then the process moves forward as scheduled."
Xiang Yi picked up the pen immediately.
He'd skimmed through the rest of the fine print well enough. Nothing jumped out at him — and even if something had, he probably wouldn't have caught it. And even if he had caught it, it wouldn't have mattered. The gun was in their hands, not his.
So he signed without hesitation.
All things considered, the agreement wasn't bad. Between working as a miner in the tunnels and working as a mechanic, the latter gave him considerably more options.
As for whether the agreement would actually hold, Xiang Yi could only hope the Liuyun Star System Government was powerful enough to keep its word and keep criminals in line. Otherwise, this paper wasn't worth anything.
Though that assumed he couldn't find a way to escape. If he could, he'd actually prefer the whole thing to be worthless.
The lawyer gathered up the signed document and nodded toward the door.
"Congratulations on buying yourself a little more time. Head on out — someone's waiting for you."
"Alright."
While Xiang Yi was signing the agreement on his end.
He Dong happened to be knocking on the warden's office door at the same moment.
The door swung open, and the warden, who had been seated behind his desk, immediately rose and came to meet He Dong, steering him toward the couch along the side of the office.
"So? Do you have the results yet? Why did the Blood Crystal Worms in the mine tunnels go berserk?"
He Dong shook his head slightly. "Still can't say for certain. My best guess is that three Blood Crystal Clusters appeared underground all at once. That's a lot — more than those Blood Crystal Worms were willing to give up without a fight, which is why they turned so aggressive."
"And the accident itself?"
"The Blood Crystal Worms were too aggressive, the Mind Pulse Generator didn't have enough output, and the one person on my team who could actually operate the thing switched it to overload mode. Run it overloaded long enough and the equipment gives out — bang, it's done."
He Dong spread his hands when he finished. There was nothing more to say about it. "If Xiang Yi hadn't happened to know his way around that kind of equipment, not a single person down in those tunnels would have made it back up."
The warden offered a consoling nod. "I can't do much to help you on the Abnormality side of things, but if there's anything you need, just say the word."
"I can put in requests with the company's higher-ups. They've been pretty generous with the budget."
"Anything smaller, just come to me directly. Don't worry about the inconvenience."
"Got it." He Dong fixed the warden with a long, thoughtful stare.
The warden held it for a beat, then cleared his throat awkwardly and took a sip of water before he could continue. "Ahem. There's actually another reason I called you in today."
His tone gradually turned cold. "It's about Xiang Yi. He needs to die."
"What?"
He Dong looked genuinely confused. The warden lowered his voice. "Chairman Liu called me yesterday. He specifically asked about Xiang Yi."
At the mention of Chairman Liu, He Dong instinctively dropped his own voice. "That Chairman Liu — the one with ties to the military?"
"That's the one. He asked me whether Xiang Yi was still alive. If he is, he wants it handled — quickly, and cleanly. No traces back to us."
He Dong frowned and turned it over for a moment. "I've been wondering how someone like him ends up convicted of crimes against humanity. Turns out he was taking the fall for someone higher up."
"Which is why I wanted to ask what you think of him. From what I could see, you seemed inclined to keep him around."
"He's a convict. What did you think I was keeping him for?"
"He got you out of those tunnels alive."
"And I got his death sentence reduced to life. We're even."
"Then why make him a technician?"
"It's convenient. Easier for me to interact with him without having to trek all the way down to the lower levels every time."
"There's only one reason I kept him. He's the only person so far who came into direct contact with Blood Crystal Worms at close range, without a hazmat suit, with open wounds on his body — and survived. I need him as a test subject."
The words rolled out of He Dong's mouth as casually as if he were discussing the weather. The warden didn't so much as blink — Xiang Yi's life didn't register as a life to either of them.
"Wouldn't that apply to you as well?"
"It would have, but I had the whole leg replaced to be safe."
He Dong pulled up his trouser leg, revealing skin the soft, unblemished pink of a newborn's. On a grown man built the way he was, it looked deeply wrong.
"I don't have a problem with Xiang Yi dying, but there's something you need to know first. Right now, he's the only person in this entire prison who can repair Spiritual Devices. If he's gone, we won't be able to run any mining operations for the foreseeable future."
"The person on my team who could do repairs died. The Engineer the company assigned recently went back to headquarters, and the apprentices he left behind just aren't up to the job."
"On top of that, I'm genuinely short on test subjects right now. Keeping him alive a few more days works in my favor."
He Dong was arguing for more time, but there wasn't a shred of sympathy in his voice. It was pure, practical irritation — the frustration of someone about to lose a useful tool.
"Hss... this is..."
The warden pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, wincing.
After thinking it over, he looked up at He Dong. "We can drag it out a few days. But a week is my absolute limit before I have to answer to them."
He Dong clearly wasn't satisfied. "Why not just tell them Xiang Yi's already dead? It's not like they're going to come down here and check."
"Chairman Liu said he would..."
That stopped He Dong cold.
"How deep in the shit is this guy, exactly?"
"Crimes against humanity — how deep do you think? If it were just murder or something, I could sit on it. But I don't have the guts to play games with this. So wrap up whatever you're doing and get it done. You're the best-positioned one to handle it."
"Fine. Give me five days. I'll squeeze out the data as fast as I can."
When it came to people higher up the chain, there really wasn't much room to maneuver. Still, something flickered in He Dong's eyes — the look of someone calculating exactly how much value they could extract from Xiang Yi in the shortest amount of time possible.