Chapter 48
I’m translating the chapter into polished HTML prose and preserving the in-universe status window and letter content in styled blocks, since those are special content under your formatting rules.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Singing Bird Box Reveals Its Secret
His vision inverted once more, and he was back in reality.
The people who had been standing at the stall a moment ago. Shin A-young’s worried gaze as she looked at him. Even the buzz of tourists all around him.
During the time he had been sharing in Anna’s grief and aching for her, reality itself seemed to have stopped, as though not a single second had passed.
Ah...
His mind felt hazy.
Had his ability evolved, then?
That wasn’t the important thing right now.
[Name: Frères Rochat Singing Bird Box]
[Crafted: Geneva, Switzerland, 1820]
[A box in which a finely engineered mechanical bird, created by the legendary automata craftsmen the Frères Rochat brothers, sings]
[A groundbreaking device adorned with gold, guilloché enamel, rubies, emeralds, and natural pearls, built with ultra-precision mechanics]
[At first glance it looks like a mass of rusted scrap, but the interior was sealed layer by layer with oil-soaked cloth and wax to protect the mechanism from moisture and shock, while the exterior was thickly coated with tar and resin to disguise it as worthless junk]
[The airtight interior has preserved both the mechanism and the exterior in their original condition even after all these long years]
[Estimated value: at least 7 billion won]
He was astonished by the 7 billion won valuation, but at the same time, his thoughts turned complicated.
Anna’s treasure, given to her by her father, had been disguised like this. He couldn’t help wondering why it had ended up here.
Did he and his daughter never manage to reunite?
He picked up the box containing the bird box, which had been lying on the ground.
Inside that pitch-black decoy, the dazzling treasure he had seen in his memory was hidden here. It was hard to believe, even now that he was looking at it with his own eyes.
The heavy weight in his hands felt much like the hearts of Joseph and Anna themselves.
“Mr. Si-woo. Are you all right?”
Shin A-young asked worriedly, watching Si-woo stand there blankly with the box in his hands.
He gathered himself and looked at her.
“Ah... yes. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
Then he turned to Park Seong-jun and said, “Could I ask you to interpret for me?”
“Of course. Please go ahead.”
“Please tell the elder that I’ll take care of cleaning up this mess, and ask whether he’s willing to sell this item too.”
He pointed to the jet-black box in his hands.
Park Seong-jun was plainly flustered. Anyone would be, since it looked like a piece of refuse dragged off a construction site.
But he kept that off his face and translated for Old Man Lee.
The old man looked at the object in Si-woo’s hands and stroked his white beard.
A few days ago, he had remembered buying it from a construction worker named A-Chaeng for 400 dollars.
He had tried every method he could think of to open it, but the thing was caked over with all sorts of grime and hardened so stubbornly that nothing would peel away. It had become a nuisance, dead weight.
He had even considered taking it to the antique street and paying an expert to look at it, but he had abandoned that idea when it seemed the appraisal fee would cost more than the thing itself, and instead tossed it into the basket.
He wants to pay money for that? Could there actually be something inside?
No, that couldn’t be.
How could anyone know what was inside just by looking at the outside?
And from the way the exterior looked, the interior was obviously no different.
Old Man Lee hid his delight at having struck gold and said as though doing a favor, “If you’re taking it, make it 2,000 dollars, Hong Kong dollars. I’ll count the mess inside the shop as cleaning fees.”
At the translation, Si-woo hesitated only briefly before opening his wallet.
If he dragged this out by haggling, the old man might change his mind.
He took out the bills and handed them over.
The moment Old Man Lee received the money, his expression brightened at once.
Something he had bought for 400 dollars had just become 2,000.
“Hah, there you are. Take it and be on your way. No refunds, so don’t come back later with some other story!”
Worried that the other man might change his mind, Old Man Lee quickly stuffed the cash into his pocket.
Si-woo bowed politely.
“Thank you, sir.”
The transaction was done.
He held Frères Rochat’s Singing Bird Box close with great care.
It looked, on the outside, like a hideous lump of scrap metal.
But in Si-woo’s eyes, it shone like the most brilliant treasure in the world.
As he left the shop, Shin A-young came over.
“Mr. Si-woo... could it be?”
Her gaze fixed on the box cradled in his arms.
The Nutflix camera belonging to the filming crew also caught the object in frame.
“I think I found something.”
Si-woo said it with a bitter little smile.
Shin A-young’s eyes went wide.
Every time he had said he’d found something until now, it had never once been an ordinary object.
“Is that a relic? But just looking at the outside, I can’t tell.”
Director Choi Min-ho nodded lightly, as though he agreed.
It really did look, no matter how you saw it, like construction waste.
“I think we should check it first. Mr. Park Seong-jun, do you happen to know the most skilled relic-restoration expert in Hong Kong?”
Park Seong-jun asked back, looking puzzled. “A restoration expert?”
“I need someone who can open this very carefully.”
His steady gaze met Park Seong-jun’s.
Park Seong-jun thought for a moment, then took out his phone.
“There’s a master named Wang Wei who belongs to our Sotheby’s auction house. I’ll contact him right away.”
* * *
Sotheby’s Hong Kong Branch Restoration Room.
“Mr. Wang Wei, I’m sorry to call you in on your day off.”
Manager Park Seong-jun bowed his head.
The old man in the white coat, Wang Wei, wore a sour expression.
He looked to be in his mid-sixties and was the most famous antique restoration specialist in Hong Kong.
“Tsk. It’s my day off, you know.”
“Please indulge us just this once, Mr. Wang,” Park Seong-jun said politely. “They’re valuable VIP guests of our Sotheby’s.”
Wang Wei looked over Si-woo and Shin A-young as they entered the restoration room, then stopped on the box caked in all sorts of grime.
“So what is this?”
“It was found in the antique market. There are signs that someone deliberately hid the surface. I’d like to inspect the interior.”
Park Seong-jun translated Si-woo’s words.
Wang Wei glanced at the object with clear disapproval.
“You called me over for something like this? Since you’re asking, I’ll help. It can’t be helped.”
He took the box and placed it on the X-ray stand.
“Let’s see what’s inside first. If there’s nothing special, I’m going straight home.”
Whirrrr.
The machine started up with a mechanical hum.
After a moment, the monitor revealed the internal structure of the box.
“Huh...”
Wang Wei’s expression changed.
Inside the monitor, a delicate spring mechanism, a music cylinder, and a tiny mechanical figure shaped like a bird were all visible in clear detail.
“Good heavens. Could this be...?”
Interest lit up Wang Wei’s eyes.
“It’s a mechanical automaton.”
Wang Wei murmured as he enlarged the image.
“This looks like a double-spring mechanism?”
Si-woo nodded in agreement. “Yes. It looks just like a bird box.”
At the words bird box, Wang Wei’s expression sharpened as he looked at Si-woo.
“Don’t tell me you knew from the start?”
With Park Seong-jun translating, Si-woo shook his head.
“How could I have?”
“Exactly. You can’t tell from the exterior alone. Let’s check it first. Whether this really is the famous bird box you mentioned, or just a misunderstanding.”
Wang Wei’s attitude changed completely.
He moved the box to the workbench without hesitation.
“We’ll open it. Looking at the X-ray, the outer shell has been covered over with a useless box. The interior was also sealed and preserved with some kind of material. We’ll just break the outer box.”
Wang Wei brought out a carving tool that looked almost surgical.
The heated blade attached to it gave off a stream of hot vapor.
“Everyone put on dust masks.”
As he brought the tool down, the hardened tar and various layers of grime began to melt away.
Wang Wei’s hand moved without hesitation.
The black shell peeled off piece by piece.
“Hm. The inside is packed tight with wax.”
He muttered after opening the iron box on the outside.
Then he took out another precision tool.
Whirrrr.
The tiny machine blade shaved off the hardened wax layer with exacting precision.
The Nutflix crew filmed the scene without daring to breathe.
There was nothing tentative about those hands.
Confidence born of decades of experience showed in every movement.
Thud.
At the spot where the black shell had fallen away, Wang Wei said, “This is as far as I can carve it down. From here on, I have to slowly dissolve the outer layer with chemicals.”
He brought over a special solvent and carefully sprayed it onto the wax.
Then, precisely to the correct depth, the wax began to disappear little by little.
And a golden surface, reflecting the light so brightly it almost dazzled the eye, was revealed beneath it.
“Ah!”
“My God...”
Director Choi Min-ho zoomed the camera in.
Through the lens, pure gold, hidden beneath the black wax, gleamed in full splendor. Over it, finely engraved blue enamel wave patterns stood out with startling clarity.
“I can’t believe it. It’s as good as brand new.”
Shin A-young could hardly close her mouth, and Wang Wei let out a cry of admiration as well.
“Good heavens! Thanks to the wax, it’s been completely sealed off from the air. There isn’t a trace of rust.”
He kept removing the coating from the entire box.
Little by little, the beautiful surface decorated with gold, jewels, and enamel came into view.
Exquisite patterns inlaid with rubies, emeralds, and natural pearls.
“...This is definitely the Singing Bird Box made by the Frères Rochat brothers. It can’t be a fake. There’s no way a counterfeit would involve such expensive gems, finely worked and set like this.”
Wang Wei declared it flatly.
“In this condition, compared with other works, it’s practically in perfect preservation.”
He looked at Si-woo with visible excitement.
“Where did you get this?”
“From a stall on Hong Kong Cat Street. I bought it for 2,000 dollars.”
“What?”
Wang Wei made a face of utter disbelief.
To think he had bought a piece that would fetch several billion won even at auction for 2,000 dollars.
Was he supposed to believe that?
Just then, as Wang Wei examined the box more closely, he discovered something odd.
“Oh? Look here. There’s a hidden compartment.”
He took a thin pair of tweezers, inserted them carefully into the seam, and pressed.
Click.
With a crisp sound, the bottom plate sprang up.
A hidden compartment, built separately inside.
Inside it was a photograph folded into several thin layers.
Wang Wei took it out.
He unfolded the picture.
A black-and-white photograph, long trapped in darkness, emerged into view.
On the back, small handwritten letters were revealed.
In the photo stood a middle-aged man in an elegant suit and a freckled girl smiling brightly.
They were the people he had seen in the memory within the object.
Joseph and Anna, and his wife.
“It’s the parents and daughter.”
Dear my beloved daughter, Anna, March 15, 1939, Vienna...
The black shadow of the Nazis has fallen over our homeland, and for a while we must be apart. I will cross to America first and prepare a place where we can be safe. As soon as I have settled in New York, I will rush to Shanghai to bring you back, so please do not lose hope and wait for me. We will be able to see each other again soon. I promise.
...To my beloved Anna. Your father, Joseph.
As Shin A-young read the letter, line by line, the room fell silent.
It held a father’s love, trying to reassure his daughter amid the terror of war.
When she had finished reading, Shin A-young’s eyes were glistening.
“Anna... did she ever meet her father again?”
There was no one who could answer that.
In the silence that had settled over the restoration room, Wang Wei finally spoke.
“Let’s see whether it still works.”
He began winding the spring on the back of the box.
Whir- whir-
Two hundred years had passed, and yet it remained in perfect condition.
The sound of the winding spring rang out brisk and clear.
Click.
Once the spring was wound, the oval lid on the box opened smoothly.
A tiny bird, glittering with jewels, sprang upward.
A short silence followed.
And then.
Chirp-chirp, trilling notes and bright little warbles filled the restoration room.
The bird flapped its small wings, turned its head, and opened its beak.
“Oh, my goodness...”
Everyone stared at it in wonder.
“It’s beautiful. Truly.”
Shin A-young’s eyes had gone wet with tears.
Director Choi Min-ho was holding the camera, struggling to steady the emotion rising in his chest.
Through the lens, he captured that miraculous moment.
The bird sang for thirty seconds, then slowly retreated back into the box.
The lid closed.
Everyone watching fell silent, unable to speak, caught in the lingering echo of that beautiful, sorrowful song.
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