After Men Youping finished speaking, none of us understood what he meant at first. A few of us were momentarily stunned, and when we finally reacted, I felt inexplicably confused: everyone said that the corpse had been dead for a long time, so how did it suddenly become A Ning’s corpse? Besides, A Ning was right here standing fine.

Everyone was puzzled, and A Ning frowned, not understanding what Men Youping meant by that.

Men Youping ignored our expressions and carefully took the bracelet off the hand bone of the corpse I had just seen, handing it to A Ning while giving her a look that suggested she should take a closer look.

A Ning took it with confusion, glanced at Men Youping, and then looked at the bracelet. At first, her expression was one of bewilderment, but when her gaze fell on the bracelet, her face changed dramatically, turning pale in an instant.

Seeing her expression, we felt a chill run down our spines. Something was off. The Fatty, without thinking, blurted out, “What? Is this corpse really yours?”

A Ning didn’t speak, but when she turned to look at us, her face had already turned a bit green. She handed us the bracelet that Men Youping had given her and extended her right hand in front of us.

On A Ning’s left hand, she wore a decorative item made of a string of copper coins. I had noticed this when I was in Hainan, and when I got lost in the Devil’s City, those copper coins had been used as markers pressed under the stones. There were a total of seven coins, all of which were “Ten Copper Coins” minted by the Anqing Copper Coin Bureau in Anhui. At that time, I joked with her that this might be the most valuable marker in the world. She told me that she chose to make a bracelet out of these copper coins because there could never be a second one like it in the world.

Because of this conversation, when she placed her hand and the bracelet from the female corpse in front of me, I understood her intention.

I hurried to take a closer look at the bracelet taken from the female corpse. When I had glanced at it earlier, I hadn’t examined it closely, but now, upon closer inspection, I found that the bracelet was fused together by copper rust. When I peeled away the surface copper mud, I indeed found several decayed copper coins inside, all bearing the faint inscription “Guangxu Yuanbao.”

At first, I couldn’t believe it. I pried it open a bit more and saw the Manchu script inside, and I was instantly horrified, looking up at A Ning.

“No need to look; it’s just the Ten Copper Coins,” A Ning said to me. “There are a total of seven.”

“This…” I was at a loss for words, thinking, how could this be possible?

The female corpse’s hand also had seven Ten Copper Coins… However, Ten Copper Coins are extremely rare. The seven coins A Ning had were collected bit by bit over ten years. Setting aside the sheer coincidence of this idea, just the rarity of the copper coins alone made it hard to explain this situation… What are the odds that another woman would have the same idea of making a bracelet out of Ten Copper Coins, have the financial means and channels to acquire seven coins, be a field worker, and also come here to lead us to discover the corpse?

Such a probability is not just perplexing; it is fundamentally impossible…

Others still didn’t understand what was going on, so I explained the preciousness of this copper coin to them. After I finished, they still couldn’t comprehend. Panzi said, “It’s just two identical chains of copper coins. Maybe it’s a coincidence; there are many fakes of this kind of copper coin.”

Men Youping looked at An Ning and shook his head. “So what’s going on?” Panzi laughed bitterly, “This is absurd. Could it be that this big sister standing in front of us is a ghost? She died here over a decade ago?”

As Panzi spoke, he looked at An Ning and smiled, but he only managed to laugh twice before he couldn’t anymore. Then his expression changed, and he suddenly stood up to reach for the knife in his hand.

I was puzzled and thought, “What happened?” I turned to look at An Ning, and when I saw her, I nearly fainted.

In the rain, An Ning’s face had somehow changed; it looked as if it was melting and twisting. Her eyes bulged out in a bizarre manner, and the corners of her mouth twisted at an impossible angle, revealing a mouth full of tiny fangs.

My mind buzzed, and I screamed internally, “What the hell!” I instinctively reached for the dagger at my waist and tried to back away, wanting to keep my distance from her.

In my panic, I forgot I was in a tree. As I stepped back, I lost my footing and fell. In an instant, I braced myself, thinking it was over; I would either die from the fall or be seriously injured. I hurriedly grabbed at the branches around me, but I couldn’t catch anything. Just then, someone grabbed my belt, and I felt a sharp pain in my waist as it nearly choked me. Thankfully, I didn’t fall.

That person pulled me up, and as I steadied myself and turned to see who had saved me, I was horrified to find that it was An Ning. Her mouth was wide open, drooling all over my face.

This was truly a life-and-death situation. In a moment of desperation, I realized that if she pulled me up, I might not survive. If I fell, there might still be a slim chance of survival, so I hurriedly tried to loosen my belt. But the belt was so tight around my waist that I couldn’t undo it no matter how hard I tried. My scalp tingled with fear, and as I struggled, I heard someone say, “Wake up, wake up! What the hell are you dreaming about?”