Chapter 253: First Night: Bracelet

The two of us immediately stretched our limbs and began climbing the tree.

The trees here were fairly easy to climb, with plenty of footholds, but we had to be extra cautious—the trunks were covered with moss and plant sludge, making it easy to slip if you didn't plant your feet firmly. One slip and you might tumble all the way down.

We moved with extreme care, step by step, holding our breath, as if climbing a tree planted with landmines. After much effort, we finally made it to Panzi's side.

Panzi was positioned just below the top of the canopy, where the branches were relatively sparse and the mist thinner. This tree was very tall. Above our heads, a hazy moon loomed through the mist. Probably because we were on the plateau, the moon was exceptionally bright, enough to shine through the thin fog and cast a fair amount of light. Still, the mingling of moonlight and mist gave everything a fuzzy, indistinct feel. In the dim white glow, we could make out the surrounding trees, but never clearly—everything in the mist was ambiguous and blurred.

We climbed up and quietly asked Panzi what was going on. He said in an extremely low voice, "There seems to be someone in that tree over there."

"Which direction?" Fatty asked softly. Panzi pointed in one direction and made a gesture. "About twenty meters away, on a branch."

"How can you see in such darkness? Is it that young guy?"

"I couldn't see him at first either. I only noticed when he moved just now." Panzi frowned and made another gesture for Fatty to keep his voice down. "The leaves are blocking the view, so it's not very clear, but it shouldn't be that young guy."

"Are you sure you're not mistaken? Could it be that you're so eager to see your Third Uncle that you're seeing things?"

Panzi had no time to deal with Fatty's teasing. He waved his hand. "I'm not sure. See for yourself!" With that, he pushed aside the dense branches and pointed at the distant canopy for us to look.

At first glance, all I saw was a vast expanse of dense canopy. I'm slightly nearsighted, which is fine in normal conditions, but in such ambiguous light it's easy for my eyes to blur. So I stared for a long time without seeing anything. Fatty had sharp eyes; he spotted it immediately and said softly, "Holy shit, there really is someone."

Panzi handed me the binoculars. I looked in the direction Fatty had indicated and indeed saw a shape resembling a human figure in a gap in the canopy. It seemed to be peering at something as well, its body tucked inside the canopy so it was hard to make out clearly, but I could distinctly see that its hands were covered in mud, and under the hazy moonlight they looked like animal claws.

Who could it be? I asked, "Could it be that 'Wenjin' we saw in the swamp last night? Didn't that young guy catch up to her yesterday?"

Panzi nodded. "Possible. That's why I told you to keep quiet. If it really is her, she'll run off again if she hears us."

I handed the binoculars to Fatty, who was clamoring to see, and said to Panzi, "What should we do? If she really is Wenjin, we have to catch her."

Panzi surveyed the surrounding terrain and nodded. "But it's a bit difficult. It's over twenty meters from here to there. If she runs off as soon as she hears something, like last night, there's no way we can catch her in this environment. A few steps and she'll be out of sight. The best way is to sneak up to the foot of the tree and trap her up there. Also, we need to hurry—" He glanced at the sea of trees to the side. "The fog is about to disperse. We can't waste too much time. After we catch her, we have to rush to Third Uncle's location."

I thought it over and said, "Alright." No time to hesitate; we just had to act first and think later. With that thought, I patted Fatty and tried to pull him down the tree.

Fatty quickly waved his hand. "Wait, wait, wait."

"Stop looking. Once we catch her, you can look all you want," Panzi whispered sharply.

But Fatty kept watching, moving as he looked. Panzi got anxious and angry, so he reached over to grab the binoculars from Fatty, but Fatty pushed him away. "Wait! Something's not right!"

We were taken aback. We all knew Fatty had sharp eyes, so when he suddenly said that, we had to take it seriously. Panzi and I exchanged glances. Then we heard Fatty inhale sharply. He lowered the binoculars, cursed, and immediately handed them to me. "Just as I thought. Look carefully—look at the hand."

I quickly took them and looked carefully. Fatty said beside me, "Look at the wrist, behind the leaves. Look closely."

I squinted and peered at that person's wrist, straining my eyes to the limit. Sure enough, I saw something. The moment I saw it, my heart skipped a beat. I seemed to realize something, and the next second I understood.

It was A Ning's string of copper coin bracelet! Because of my previous experience in Devil's City and that strange dream, I had an extremely deep impression of that copper coin bracelet. So even in this lighting, I was certain I couldn't be mistaken.

"Goddammit." I also sucked in a cold breath.

So that meant that the 'person' in the distant tree was actually A Ning's corpse. Had those snakes transported her body here? Panzi saw the change in my expression and immediately took the binoculars. He didn't have a strong impression of A Ning; it was only after I reminded him that he frowned and tilted his head thoughtfully.

"Dragged all the way from the entrance through the dense forest and swamp, then carried up to such a high tree—this is like a 'snake-thon' race. These snakes sure are strong." Fatty leaned against a nearby branch, chewing his lip, lost in thought. "These snakes seem just like ants. Do you think they might be social animals like ants? There's probably a snake queen hidden in their nest, and these corpses are transported as food for her."

"Snake queen?" I didn't quite catch that.

Fatty said, "Haven't you ever dug up an ant nest? The ant queen is responsible for laying eggs, and the worker ants take care of her. I think that's it—no mistake. The cockscomb snakes here might have a social structure similar to ants and bees. There's definitely a snake queen in this forest, and all these little snakes are her offspring."

I grew even more puzzled. "It's true that the snakes' behavior is inexplicable, but your guess is definitely not justified. Snakes and insects are completely different species; the possibility is extremely slim."

"I think it's a pretty good guess," Fatty said.

I neither agreed nor disagreed. I didn't want to continue discussing this issue. Seeing A Ning's corpse again, under such circumstances, was very unsettling. I dared not imagine what the part hidden inside the canopy looked like now. Although Fatty had expressed his attitude towards life and death, his words at this moment still left me feeling somewhat somber.

After a moment of silence among the three of us, Fatty said, "Fuck it. No matter what they're up to, obviously the corpse is here, and there must be plenty of snakes nearby. We'd better get out of here right now."

"So we're just going to leave her like this?" I felt a bit uneasy. "Since we found the body, maybe we should—"

Fatty shook his head. I thought about it and didn't finish the sentence. It really wasn't a good idea. We couldn't afford to provoke even one of these snakes, and besides, perhaps A Ning wouldn't want us to see her current state. So I sighed, stopped looking in that direction, and softly murmured, "Amitabha. Okay, I'll shut up."

At that moment, I noticed that Panzi still hadn't put down the binoculars. I thought it was strange—he'd been looking for so long and still hadn't seen clearly? But on closer inspection, I saw that Panzi's hands were covered in sweat and his face was turning pale.

Startled, I leaned in and asked, "What's wrong?"

Panzi lowered the binoculars, looking a bit off. He shook his head and said to me, "Nothing."

But that expression was definitely not "nothing." I took the binoculars and looked in that direction again. There really was nothing unusual. I felt a moment of doubt, but by then Fatty had already started climbing down. I had no time to think about it further. I took one last look into the distance and then followed Fatty down the tree.

Panzi climbed down to the foot of the tree, and his complexion had returned to normal. I didn't know what had happened just now, but I noticed that Panzi kept glancing in that direction.

He didn't say, and I didn't want to ask. I guessed he probably wasn't sure either, and asking would only make me feel worse, so I let it go. The three of us immediately packed up, slung on our backpacks, and Panzi corrected the direction as we prepared to leave.

Just as we were about to set out, Panzi looked in that direction again and suddenly stopped. Fatty noticed his strange behavior and asked what was wrong. He raised his hand, pointed in that direction, and made a "keep quiet" gesture.

We all halted. In the daze, we heard faint human sounds coming from somewhere in the woods around us—■■■■—like someone talking.

Because the forest was so quiet, these sounds were extremely jarring. All three of us were bewildered. I broke out in a cold sweat and strained my ears. It felt like a woman whispering intermittently.

We listened quietly. The sound rose and fell, drifting erratically, almost like wind rustling through bushes. But the branches and leaves around us were still—not a breath of wind. And what chilled us to the bone was that the sound came from the direction of A Ning's corpse.

Fatty cursed under his breath: "Son of a bitch, what kind of act is this? Don't tell me that bitch has really come back from the dead to haunt us."

I said it was impossible, but looking around at the eerie fog and the looming shadows, this place practically begged for ghosts.

Fatty said, "If it's not a ghost, then who's talking?"

I thought back to the "Wenjin" I saw last night and mused that it might not be a ghost—it could be that woman nearby. But last night she hadn't made a sound, so I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman.

Another possibility: Third Uncle or his men were nearby—that would be incredibly lucky. But the situation was too bizarre. Third Uncle's group shouldn't be making this kind of noise. I'd run into too many strange things before. At this juncture, I naturally felt a bad omen.

I didn't like this feeling and said to them, "The moonlight here is gloomy. I'm sure something's going to happen. Let's get moving fast, or we'll be in trouble."

With that, I asked Panzi: "You've been calculating for so long—which way do we go now?"

Panzi's face was ashen. He pointed in the direction of the sound: "The problem is, the direction we need to go is toward that tree."

I was stunned. "That way? Are you sure?"

Panzi cocked his rifle and nodded. "If I'm wrong, I'm a bastard. The last time I saw the smoke before the fog rolled in was right there."

I deflated, at a loss for words. Then Fatty stood up and cursed, "Damn it, if it's fate, it's fate. If trouble's blocking our path, it doesn't want us to have an easy time. But we're not easy targets either. Let's go find out what's really going on." He stood up and started to move.

I silently cursed my bad luck. Panzi immediately grabbed him and shook his head. "Don't go near there. Listen carefully to what she's saying." Chapter Ten, First Night: Jungle Ghost Voice—"What can a wandering spirit say? Probably 'Give me back my life' or something." Fatty said. Panzi told him to stop joking and listen carefully—he wasn't fooling around.

I hadn't really paid attention to what the voice was saying. When it first started, it scared us so badly our scalps tingled—we weren't in the mood to make out the details.

Besides, the sound wasn't loud. If the forest hadn't been so eerily quiet, we might have missed it. Even now, listening closely, we couldn't make it out clearly. It just felt like a woman, using a very strange tone, murmuring something to herself.

When Panzi brought it up, we focused on that. He signaled us to hold our breath and listen carefully.

The distance seemed too great. The voice was sticky and vague, rising and falling. Even like this, it sounded like crying or chanting something—I couldn't tell. The only clear impression was that the tone was ambiguous.

"Could it be… a mating call?" Fatty frowned.

Panzi whacked him with the rifle butt and told him not to talk nonsense. Then I had a feeling. "Wait… could that voice be… calling my name?"

"Calling your name? I can't hear that."

"Not my real name—it's calling 'Little Third Master'. Listen close."

Fatty listened and shook his head—he couldn't hear it. I listened harder, but lost it. Still, there was something to it, like a ghost summoning a soul. "It really is calling my name. Even if it's not, it sounds like it's my name," I said firmly.

Panzi nodded. "Right. How many women know your name around here? I think this is really a haunting. That woman A Ning probably feels wronged dying like that, doesn't want to rot here alone, and wants us to join her."

I shook my head, then thought of another possibility: "God… Could she still be alive?"

"Alive? How is that possible? Boss, you saw it yourself—when you carried her to the canyon mouth, she was already rotten," Fatty said.

My heart sank again. True. A Ning's death was certain—no room for doubt. We'd checked very carefully.

Panzi said, "I think this dead woman is trying to lure us over. We must not fall for it. Follow me, we'll try to go around. That area's unclear—might be full of venomous snakes, and this whole scene is too weird. Going there won't do us any good."

I looked at Fatty and asked his opinion.

On one side, an unknown factor; on the other, life and death. The choice was clear. Fatty hesitated too, then reined in his curiosity. "Your Fatty isn't backing out, but Dà Pān's right. We don't have enough hardware this time. Let's play it safe. You gotta know your ghost before you fight it—if it really is A Ning, I wouldn't be able to attack her anyway!"

I felt relieved. I hadn't wanted to check on any female ghost anyway. I didn't know what Fatty was thinking. If there was nothing, fine; if there was something, how would we get away? I agreed immediately.

The three of us turned and moved out, ignoring the eerie sound. Panzi set a direction, and we hunched over, carefully pushing on, trying to go around where the sound was coming from. This way we could also get close enough to hear what it really was. If it was Third Uncle's people talking, we'd have enough distance to react.

We covered our lantern heads with cloth, keeping the headlamps dim, and picked our way through the gaps between the trees by the faint light.

It was supposed to be going around that tree, but the distance wasn't far. The strange sound lingered in our ears the whole time. We walked with our hearts in our throats, not daring to say a word.

As we got closer, the sound grew nearer. The more I listened, the less it sounded like speech. The sound was very crisp, repeating the same rhythm over and over—I couldn't figure out what was making it.

But I could tell the source was somewhere nearby. My mind played tricks on me; every direction I looked seemed haunted.

We walked while keeping an ear on the sound. I became absorbed in it. As I listened, I felt I'd heard this sound somewhere before—it rang a faint bell, and the memory was still fresh.

I immediately told them to pause and listened. Suddenly, I realized what it was: "Damn, could that be the walkie-talkie on A Ning?"

"Walkie-talkie?"

I knew that A Ning's standard equipment included a walkie-talkie. I hadn't seen her take it out of her pocket. This kind of walkie-talkie was waterproof, fireproof, and drop-proof. If you weren't deliberately trying to damage it, it wasn't that easy to break. It could also be used continuously for three weeks without recharging. A Ning probably had it on all the time. "Cover the microphone of the walkie-talkie with a wet cloth. If there's static noise, don't you think it would sound just like this?"

Fatty had no experience, but Panzi obviously knew, so he nodded vigorously: "Little Third Master is right. It really sounds like that."

"So who's calling her now?" Fatty asked. "Radio signals in the jungle are very weak; they can't travel long distances."

"But she was on the canopy. If the other party was also on a canopy, or on the edge of the canyon, then it's very likely they could receive the signal. Also, the sound is intermittent, which means the walkie-talkie is set to auto-scan frequency mode. It's cycling through all frequencies looking for a signal. Obviously, there's a radio frequency being used here. Panzi, did my Third Uncle bring a walkie-talkie this time?" Because I had a strong impression of walkie-talkies from Devil's City, I knew these functions by heart.

"Third Master absolutely never uses this kind of thing. Because when you go down to dig for treasure, you never have several teams acting separately. Usually, it's just one team; it's good enough if they can even get down. Damn it, but there's a radio in the car. Could it be that the people left to guard the car on the Gobi are using this frequency to talk? I..." Panzi suddenly thought of something, "I get it. They also saw the red smoke. Maybe Third Master had some arrangement with them, and they're coordinating."

I said, "We need to get that walkie-talkie. Then we can talk to the people on the Gobi, find out their movement plan, and why Third Uncle entered the center of the swamp before us. Also, when we leave, we can have them provide support. Maybe we can go straight up the cliff."

Fatty got excited. It seemed he was really tired of walking through the forest. He said, "Then what are we waiting for? Since it's not a ghost, we don't have to be polite."

Panzi shook his head: "We need to think this through carefully. If there are no ghosts, there are snakes. The surroundings are full of branches. If a snake suddenly comes out of the darkness and bites you, then you'll really become a ghost."

These snakes were actually more troublesome than ghosts. Fatty was so anxious he was scratching his ears and cheeks, wishing he had a flamethrower on him: "If only we had brought snake repellent. Looks like we really need to bring everything in the future. Who knew the ancient city in the Gobi would be like this?"

"Would this kind of snake be afraid of snake repellent? I seriously doubt it," Panzi said. "In my opinion, these things might not be snakes at all."

"If not snakes, then what? Eels?"

"Where I'm from, we say that things that live long enough can become spirits. These might be snake spirits, bewitching people. This ancient city was built by these things," Panzi said. "They specifically lure people in to eat them. This might very well be a trap. We'd better not go over."

Fatty patted him and said, "You've read too many superstitious books; you're too deeply poisoned. Snakes are snakes. Even if they have higher intelligence, they're still just snakes. No matter what, they're just animals. We are the paragon of creation. Damn it, are we afraid of things without hands or feet?" As he spoke, his eyes rolled, and an idea came to him. "Hey, what do you think of this? Animals are all afraid of fire. Take off all your clothes. I'll wrap every part of my body with your clothes, soak them, pour liquor on them, and set myself on fire. Then I'll charge over. The snakes definitely won't dare to bite a man on fire. I'll grab the walkie-talkie and then come back and jump into the swamp. It won't take more than two minutes."

"And then? Are we going to run around naked here holding the walkie-talkie?" I said angrily. "Use your brain! And it's too hard to control. The alcohol we have is very high-proof. What if you get burned to death? We still need you to carry the equipment."

"How could it be so easy to burn to death?" Fatty said. Panzi then added, "We're all wearing waterproof, breathable fiber clothes. Once they get dried by heat, they'll catch fire easily. You could turn yourself into a human torch without even pouring alcohol. That absolutely won't work."

Fatty cursed, then suddenly thought of something else: "Hey, maybe we should just start a fire under the tree, pile on wet firewood, make smoke, and smoke all those snakes away."

As soon as I heard that, I thought the method was feasible. You can't confront these things head-on; you have to use a method like this. In the countryside, people often used smoke to drive out rats.

I nodded in agreement and immediately began to collect wet firewood. Fatty asked Panzi to help, but Panzi suddenly grabbed us again and wouldn't let me move. His expression was very unpleasant, almost as if he felt guilty.

I saw Panzi's expression and remembered the look on his face in the tree. Suddenly, I realized something and asked, "Panzi, did you see something just now?"

Panzi nodded, hesitated a bit, paused, and said, "I didn't want to say it at first, afraid it would scare you. But I might as well say it now. There's definitely something wrong with that corpse. We absolutely cannot go over there, no matter what."

"No wonder I felt you were scared shitless," Fatty said. "What exactly did you see?"

"I saw... damn, I don't know how to say it—just now, when I was in the tree, I saw, I saw—"

Panzi's ability to speak was poor. He could say it in dialect, but it was hard to express in Mandarin. He talked for a long time and couldn't describe it.

"Did you see A Ning, like a snake, poking out from the canopy and looking at us?" Fatty suddenly said.

Panzi quickly nodded: "Yes, exactly like that. Huh? How did you know?"

Fatty, with a ghastly pale face, pointed behind us. When I saw Fatty's expression was wrong, my scalp suddenly tingled. I immediately turned around with Panzi.

In a flash, we saw behind the bushes in the shadow under the tree next to us, a figure that looked both like a snake and a human. It was crouching there quietly, only five or six meters away from us. The faint sound of the walkie-talkie was coming from this thing.