I responded with a sound and turned to climb a few steps up, shouting towards the top. At that moment, I saw the fat guy was already climbing down. Hearing my call, he quickened his pace and jumped to my side, asking me what was wrong.

I said I had made a major discovery and called out to Panzi and Aning a couple of times to bring them down as well. The few of us gathered at the edge of the snake bones, and I recounted what we had discovered. Everyone was immediately astonished. Aning became tense and quickly went over to take a look, while the fat guy said, “No wonder I felt someone calling me just now. It turns out we have revolutionary predecessors who sacrificed here. What a coincidence! Let’s dig it out and pay our respects.”

By this time, the rain had calmed down. Although it was still pouring, it was no longer the kind of relentless downpour it had been earlier. We were already soaked, so we had no qualms about it. I, however, carefully protected the cuff of my sleeve that had been stained with the blood of the bottle, as this thing below might save my life.

We climbed onto the massive plant body. It was manageable when there were just two of us, but with more people, it became a bit unstable. The fat guy and I had to place one foot on a nearby branch to prevent it from collapsing. We used our knives to cut away the dead vines inside, exposing the snake corpse wrapped within.

If it had been sunny, it might have been easier to dig, but now, in the heavy rain, as soon as we leaned down, the water dripped down from our bangs, making it hard to see. We had to frequently shake the water off our hair to see clearly below.

However, having more people was definitely an advantage, especially the fat guy, who swung his knife boldly without a thought about whether he might damage the bones of our revolutionary predecessor.

The vines were quickly cleared away to reveal a larger opening, exposing a segment of the massive snake bone. The fat guy cursed, and I was a bit surprised because when we had talked about the snake earlier, I hadn’t realized it would be this big. Looking at the diameter of the snake bone, it could be as thick as a person. A snake this size could swallow a person in less than a minute.

As we pulled at it, we saw the twisted remains of a human skeleton entwined within the snake bones. The giant python must have died shortly after swallowing this person, or else the bones would have been regurgitated. The skeleton still had remnants of clothing that hadn’t fully decayed, but it was impossible to tell what it had originally looked like. Panzi, like the bottle, leaned in and pulled out something from inside—it was a belt buckle, with only a few rust spots, seemingly made of stainless steel.

He took it out, scraped it with his knife, and then handed it to me. We leaned in closer, and I saw a few numbers engraved on it: “02200059.”

I was taken aback and immediately looked at Aning, “This is your company’s registration number; this is one of your people!”