The Grave Robber Notes: The First Notebook 生

The Puzzle Box

The door to his office was opened with an energetic movement making the bells above the door chimp happily. Looking up Zhen Wei smiled expecting to see one of the few walk-ins he got in his store. To his disappointment, it was only Kris one of his best friends with his always smiling expression and his eyes shining with trouble. "What are you up to now?" Zhen Wei asked him turning back to the artefact he was currently appraising. "I found something really interesting." Kris walked over leaning down to look at the beautiful vase on the desk. Looking up Zhen Wei tilled his head. "What did you find?"

"Hm?" Kris returned his attention to the other and away from the Vase. "Oh, right I'll show you later. Too big to carry all the way here." Leaning in again to look at the vase his voice was getting a little distracted. "When did you get this one in? Any buyer yet?" Zhen Wei laughed carefully taking the vase away packing it up. "The Li family asked me to appraise the vase since it will be put up for auction soon." He stretched his back looking around the room. "Since you are already here and I don't have any other costumers let me close shop for the day and you can show me what you found." Kris nodded only having one problem with that idea. "Food first, I know you didn't eat all day."

After eating out for dinner Kris finally couldn't hide the excitement anymore with sparkling eyes he was standing in front of his family's warehouse where they stored all the antiques they got before they were appraised and ready to be sold. "Today we got a delivery from an old collector who needed to sell his stuff for his granddaughter's surgery. So, we bought nearly half of his collection at a blind price but honestly the few things I saw already make up for the money we spent. That's when I found something and right away went over to your store to get you."

Zhen Wei carefully walked through the warehouse to the corner where today's delivery was following Kris. "Did you get the collection appraised already?" He asked making Kris laugh. "You are always looking for an opportunity. But yes, I will keep you in mind for when we need some of the more valuable things appraised." Zhen Wei nodded satisfied.

"This is what I was talking about." Kris pulled away the fabric covering a medium-sized box turning to smile at Zhen Wei proudly. "What do you say, Wei. This is exactly up your ally, isn't it? I already got permission to open it if we can." Zhen Wei nodded, carefully moving the box to examine it. "Marvellous I haven't seen such a perfectly intact puzzle box in a long time. Is it from Japan?" He asked taking out the monocular he was wearing in his vest taking a closer look at it. "No, it is made here in China but we aren't sure about the era it is from my parents were hoping the content could give a closer idea on that."

Zhen Wei nodded finally stepping back again turning to Kris. "Then let's carry it over to the workbench and try opening it." It took both of them to carry the box over to the working station. But now that it was under the light Zhen Wei could finally take a good look at it. "I'm inclined to say this box has stylistic elements of the late Han-Dynasty but I wouldn't say it is from that time or else someone took amazingly good care of it. I can't say what time period it is from but for a puzzle box like this to still be in the conditions it is in now it shouldn't be older than late Ming or early Qing Dynasty." Zhen Wei once more took his monocular carefully looking at every square, line and corner of the box.

The box was rather big about forty centimetres in all direction. Since there wasn't a clear top or bottom to it, they would need to move it around quite a lot before they could solve it. "First let's find anything that moves to see where we should start." Nodding Kris got them gloves then they started slowly touching the box carefully testing it out. "Be careful a box this size can have a lot of traps." Zhen Wei warned his friend as he carefully examined the box.

Outside the sun had already set and it was getting late. Inside the warehouse, the two were still focused carefully moving different petitions of the box as they tried to solve it. They didn't get very far and Kris was starting to feel the frustration. With a sigh, he moved one of the small parts of the box when suddenly Zhen Wei grabbed him pulling him to the side. Only by luck did he evade the mini arrow shooting out of the box. "Kris, I told you to be careful... That was probably poisonous." Zhen Wei sighed shaking his head. "You are lucky I was examining the penal right next to it and heard the click before it shot out." Kris nodded looking a little pale.