02200059 (Zero Two Two Zero Zero Zero Five Nine), this string of numbers, according to An Ning, is a set of mysterious digits hidden in the last piece of the Warring States silk manuscript. After Wang Canghai deciphered it, he couldn’t make sense of it, so he referred to it as “the heavenly number” and used it as his password. Why did Tie Mian Sheng hide this strange set of numbers in the last silk manuscript? What kind of adventures lie behind it? This matter may have deeper implications, but it is unrelated to what we are experiencing now, so I won’t elaborate on it here. An Ning’s missionary boss, Qiu Dekao, was very fascinated by Wang Canghai, so he used connections to adopt this number as the identification code for his resource company. The equipment of An Ning’s team, including their vehicles, all bore this number. Such company identifiers are crucial in international exploration activities to determine the first discoverer, and now I also have this number on my belt. It can be said that this belt buckle serves as evidence to identify the team to which the deceased belonged.

At first, An Ning didn’t understand what I meant. After taking it and looking closely, her face turned pale. “This…”

“Isn’t it your company’s identification code?” I asked.

An Ning nodded; it couldn’t be clearer. She then disregarded the precarious situation and jumped into the gap we had dug, crouching down to shine her mining lamp on the skeleton. Others didn’t understand what I was talking about, and when the fat guy asked me what the identification code was, I relayed what she had told me.

After hearing this, the fat guy looked at his own belt. However, both his and Panzi’s belts were their own, while my gear belonged to An Ning, so only mine had the identification. After looking at it, the fat guy showed an unhappy expression and turned to An Ning, “Hey, I’m saying, Miss Ning, you’re not trying to pull a fast one on us again, are you? Your people have already been here!”

An Ning shook her head, “Impossible. There are no records in the company. If we had been here, with our strength, it definitely wouldn’t be you collaborating with me.”

“Then how do you explain this?” The fat guy questioned, holding up the belt buckle.

An Ning turned and shot him a cold glance, clearly uncomfortable, and said, “I don’t know! Be quiet for a moment and let me take a look at this dead person first, then I’ll explain to you!”

The fat guy was momentarily left speechless by An Ning’s retort, and he felt a bit irritated. Panzi had also never fully trusted An Ning, and at this moment, he looked at me, wanting to see my reaction.

I actually believed she really didn’t know. Although An Ning had a questionable past, this wasn’t a crisis moment; she shouldn’t have any reason to lie to us. Moreover, if they had truly been here, as she said, her team wouldn’t have fallen apart before reaching this place. So, I gave Panzi a glance to signal him to stay quiet. I tend to be more idealistic; since we were all on the same path, it was better not to strain interpersonal relationships too much.

I glanced at the silent oil bottle, wanting to see his reaction, but he showed no indication.

At that moment, for some reason, I suddenly thought of a line my grandmother had written in my grandfather’s notebook: “Those who stand by you in times of peril may not necessarily share wealth with you, and those who betray you in times of trouble may not necessarily be unworthy of friendship. The world is unpredictable; let couples encourage each other.”

This is a sentence written in a notebook, roughly advising Grandpa to have less contact with his old rough-and-tumble brothers. Later, it proved that my grandmother had a keen insight into people; although these men had gone through thick and thin with Grandpa, sharing life and death together, most of them really did drift apart after they became wealthy. There were conflicts between some, others had affairs with each other’s wives, and there were even murders, leaving Grandpa at a loss about how to help either side. He ultimately sighed, saying that in society, when there are no life-and-death worries, the importance of protecting your brothers back-to-back diminishes.

An Ning and the Silent Oil Bottle really seemed to confirm my grandmother’s words.

Fatty was about to say something, so I stepped in to mediate, telling them not to ask any more questions and to go back to examining the skeleton.

The snake bones were intertwined with vines, and the human remains were twisted into a braid-like shape, making it hard to discover anything further. An Ning reached into the skeleton, searching around the neck area for something, but evidently found nothing.

“There’s no name tag!” An Ning climbed back up and pulled a necklace from around her neck to show us. “I joined the company in 1997, and since then, we’ve had to bring these kinds of things on projects, learning from the American military to identify the corpses. This body doesn’t have one, so it should belong to a team from before 1997. It seems it must be someone from our company…” Her expression was serious, and after a pause, she added, “I really haven’t received any information about this team from the company. I don’t know why she would be here! It doesn’t make sense.”

“Miss, but corpses don’t lie. Don’t say it was this python that swam to your company, ate someone, and then came back,” Fatty retorted, somewhat disgruntled.

I looked at the skeleton, my mind filled with doubts. It really seemed unlikely. Just by observing An Ning’s actions, one could tell how much effort they had put in to obtain concrete clues here. If someone from their company had reached this place before 1997, then why would they need so much effort to arrive here again?

While I was lost in thought, the Silent Oil Bottle, who had been quietly examining the corpse and hadn’t participated in our argument, suddenly said, “Hmm.”

He spoke unexpectedly, causing us all to pause and turn to him. He was staring intently at the snake bones, and a look of surprise appeared on his face at some point.

My mind exploded with thoughts; it was rare to see him show such an expression, indicating he must have discovered something extremely strange. We all hurried over to see what was happening.

However, following his gaze, we didn’t see anything unusual that would cause us to feel strange. After watching for a while, Fatty looked up and asked him what was going on, warning him not to scare them in the middle of the night.

The Silent Oil Bottle ignored Fatty and turned to An Ning, saying, “This is very strange; it seems like this is your corpse…”