I bought a prison in the United States.

Wade stood in the doorway, the beam of his flashlight slowly sweeping across the roof.

The cooling tower is to his left.

The metal casing of the cooling tower was rusted, and large areas of the paint had peeled off, revealing a reddish-brown rusted layer underneath.

There is a maintenance opening at the bottom of the tower, with a cover plate tilted to one side, just big enough for a person to crawl through.

Wade walked toward the cooling tower.

His footsteps were very light, and the soles of his shoes made almost no sound on the cement ground.

The baton was already in his right hand, his thumb pressing against the anti-slip texture of the handle.

Holding a flashlight in his left hand, the beam was locked onto the maintenance opening of the cooling tower.

He heard the sound when he was three steps away from the cooling tower.

A sound almost drowned out by the dripping of water inside the cooling tower: a person's breathing.

Wade stopped in his tracks:

"Rivera, come out!"

There was no response from inside the cooling tower, but the breathing sounds quickened.

Wade took a step forward, and then he was struck hard on the back of the head!

Ghost Fang wasn't hiding in the cooling tower; he was hiding in the shadows behind the door!

When Wade pushed open the door and walked onto the roof, Ghost Fang was standing less than a foot behind the door, leaning against the wall, his body completely hidden in the shadow cast by the cooling tower.

When Wade's flashlight beam swept across the doorway, Ghost Fang held his breath.

Holding your breath when you are completely still can reduce the chances of being detected by at least half.

This is the hunter's skill, and also the prey's skill.

"Ugh!"

Wade felt a blackout before his eyes, his knees buckled, and his body lurched forward.

He had not completely lost consciousness and could feel himself falling.

The flashlight slipped from his fingers, and the baton rolled on the concrete ground after slipping from his hand.

His limbs were temporarily out of control; the signal pathways between his brain and muscles had been temporarily severed by that heavy blow.

"Heh~"

Ghost Fang stood behind Wade, holding an iron pipe that had been removed from a ventilation duct in his right hand.

The iron pipe was about forty centimeters long and two centimeters in diameter, with one end stained with Wade's blood.

He looked at Wade's body lying on the ground, then bent down to pick up Wade's flashlight, turned it off, and the roof was once again plunged into the dim light of the moon.

He didn't continue attacking Wade, not out of mercy, but because of time.

The sound of that heavy blow carried far across the empty rooftop.

If anyone hears this, they are already on their way.

Ghost Fang turned and walked to the other side of the roof, where there was a stairwell leading into the building.

He never intended to escape from the roof, which was more than ten meters above the ground; without a rope, it would be impossible to get down safely.

His goal was to go down the stairwell to the other side of the building, where there were laundry rooms and storage rooms.

The laundry room has a cargo access to the basement, which in turn has a maintenance pipe that connects to the external drainage system.

That was a route he had scouted months ago, all for the sake of today. He hadn't even told his lackeys about it.

However, the "three dogs" had already received instructions from their boss to remove all the roadblocks for him.

Knowing all the entrances and exits in prison is like knowing the location of all the ATMs outside—it's a survival skill.

Ghost Fang had just reached the doorway of the stairwell when he suddenly stopped.

He realized there was a third person there!

……

Lingo stayed in prison that night because of a report.

After returning from Winston Hardware that day, he handed over the cost accounting for Paul's shipment to Harmon.

Harmon made a beautiful table, but Ringo felt something was off.

After dinner, he looked at it again and found that Harmon had miscalculated the time for cleaning the copper pipes.

Although the hourly wage for prisoners is very low, the large number of prisoners adds up to a considerable sum.

According to Hamon's calculations, the profit from this order would shrink by nearly two hundred dollars.

Two hundred dollars isn't a lot, but Ringo had just gone bankrupt, and he knew very well that ignoring small numbers was the first step towards bankruptcy.

Save where you can, spend where you can. Wouldn't it be better to save on the prisoners' wages and rent four more sewing machines?

They all told Hamon that they wanted a win-win situation!

So he recalculated in his office until the early hours of the morning.

After finishing, he rubbed his eyes and decided to take a tour of the factory before going back.

Peterson's equipment is due next Monday, and he needs to check how the site has been cleared.

To get from the office to the factory, you have to go through the corridor behind the laundry room.

At the end of the corridor is the stairwell leading to the roof.

Lin Ge simply took a shortcut; this corridor connected the administrative area and the work area, saving him one or two minutes compared to taking the main passage.

It was one in the morning, and the corridor was very quiet. Footsteps bounced back and forth between the walls, sounding like someone was following behind.

Lingo didn't like this feeling, and every time he walked this road, he would unconsciously quicken his pace.

But he will still leave, because of efficiency.

Just as he pushed open the door to the stairwell, preparing to cross it into the corridor on the other side, he suddenly heard a sound coming from the roof.

A muffled thud, like something heavy hitting something even heavier.

Ringo's first reaction was to close the door, return the way he came, and go to the duty room to wake Jackson up.

But then he heard footsteps on the rooftop, moving in his direction.

Footsteps descending.

That person is going down the stairs.

If he walks back now, that person will come out of the stairwell and see him in the hallway.

The corridor was long, with no side paths and no place to hide.

He was at least twenty meters away from the door at the other end of the corridor.

That person was only one floor away from the door of the stairwell.

Lin Ge quickly did the math in his head; there wasn't enough time to run back.

He shouted for help, but the nearest prison guard was in the duty room and couldn't hear him through the two doors.

If you stand still, the person will see you the moment they open the door.

Then Lin Ge thought of the rooftop.

The rooftop is obstructed by many maintenance tools.

Alternatively, if the person is going to the rooftop, he can find another place to hide on the roof.

The roof is large, and the gaps between the cooling towers and ventilation ducts are all corners where people can hide.

This was the only option he could think of; it wouldn't be too late to come out after he could see whether the footsteps belonged to a prison guard or a prisoner.

Although this choice made his palms sweat, he still went up.

When people have no other choice, any direction is better than standing still.

He tried to walk quietly, climbing up one step at a time.

The motion-activated lights in the stairwell were off, leaving only a sliver of moonlight filtering through the crack in the door on the roof.

With each step he took, he could hear his own heart pounding in his ears.

He silently told himself, "Don't shake," but his fingers were still trembling.

Soon, Lin Ge pushed open the door on the roof and darted into the shadows behind the cooling tower.