"Brother Wei, where do you get this music box?" asked Wang Yong the next day when he opened the desk drawer to take some stationary for school.
"Oh, that. Uncle Li gave it to me" Wang Wei doesn't want to tell Wang Yong that it is their mother's and make him more depressed.
Initially, Wang Wei's family is not poor. His father, Wang Zhou, is an archaeologist and his mother Isabella Wang, is a physicist. They are so-called power couple in the Earth Federation and very famous in both academic and business circles. But when Wang Yong is eight years old, their mother was kidnapped while she was conducting research in Israel.
Wang Zhou gave up his profession and went all around the world to search for their mother. He spent all his fortune hiring private investigators, mercenaries, information brokers and even mafia to get clues on her whereabouts.
With all the money gone and not a single clue about his wife, Wang Zhou gave up and moved to a small city in Zhejiang province. There he helped Uncle Li to appraise the antiques and did other odd jobs.
As Wang Yong grew up without the warmth of a mother, he gets depressed if hears anything about her. So Wang Wei wants to hide this from him.
"Can I have it? This music box looks really cool, " Wang Yong said while trying to open it. "Why is it so tight? It's not opening. I will bring a hammer and break it open" he said annoyed.
"Stop Yong. Don't do that. You will destroy it. Leave it there and get ready for school. You are already late, " said Wang Wei.
"What about you?" Wang Yong asked Wang Wei while wearing clothes.
"I'm taking a break from work today" Wang Wei replied, keeping the box back in the desk.
"That's not what I mean. I'm asking about when will you come back to school. Even though you are telling others you dropped out of school, you are still registered as a 2nd year high school student. So technically you are just skipping classes" said Wang Yong.
He knows that Wang Wei is working his arse off to pay back the debt, and he is also feeling guilty for not helping him whenever he saw Wang Wei's tired self. Of course, he discussed about him also dropping out of school to help his brother, but Wang Wei scolded him and told that it is the duty of the eldest to take care of the youngest.
"Well, you know what, maybe I can start coming back to school from next week" Wang Wei said with a smile on his face.
"What?" Wang Yong said after some time, processing what his brother told him.
"You heard what I said, and it is true"
"Wow. But how? What about boss Hugo. Did you consider what I said. When are we running away from this city? I need to pack our bags. What all we should take?" Wang Yong spoke hurriedly, pacing front and back.
"Chill bro. We are not moving away from this city. This old house is the only property we have and even if we sell it, the money we get from that will not be enough to start a new life"
"Then how?" Wang Yong said, confused. He knows that selling their house won't make any difference. Otherwise they would have sold it and cleared their debt long time.
"It's Uncle Li. He told me he will help us as a gratitude for dad helping him" Wang Wei answered his brother.
"Stop joking, brother. I would rather believe that you are selling your body for money than believing that old miser giving away money. Wait, don't tell me that you are really selling your body for money. I heard there are some rich ladies from capital looking around our town for young men" said Wang Yong.
"No. I'm not selling my body for money and where did you hear about rich ladies" Wang Wei said while covering himself with his hands.
"It's really uncle Li who is giving us the money. He told me to collect it from him next week. So next week both of us will go to his house and thank him for showing generosity towards us. I mean offering us help at the time of need" said Wang Wei and continued, "Don't tell anyone that uncle Li is the one who gave us the money. We still have to find out about dad's accident"
"Okay. Then I'm leaving for school. See you" said Wang Yong and stormed off the apartment because he is already 10 minutes late for the school.
Wang Wei just sighed, looking at his brother running. He brushed his teeth and ate some bread for breakfast. At last, he took out the box on the desk and examined it carefully.
He can see the exquisite details in the box. He also felt the intricate design on the surface of the box by running his fingers along the sides.
"This is amazing. Not even a grand master can create this sort of complicated designs on such a small box. Maybe I can find something about this on internet" he thought and searched for antique boxes which have the same design philosophy on the internet using his old smartphone.
Though there are a lot of search results, the design on those boxes is a far cry in front of his mother's box. So he stopped searching for the useless information and started his trials on opening the box.
Time passed without him knowing. And it's already afternoon. Wang Wei checked the clock and gave himself a break, realizing that he spent four hours trying to open the box. He went to the kitchen to cook himself a small meal to eat for lunch.
Wang Yong eats his lunch at school. Luckily, the school provides lunch for its students decreasing the burden on Wang Wei.
Wang Wei decided to just cook his rice and eat it with some stir-fried vegetables. Meat is a luxury for the Wang brothers. Though the meal seems simple, it tastes delicious.
Even when Wang Wei is chopping the vegetables, he is still thinking about the origins of the small box and he accidentally stabbed his finger, bringing back his senses. Wei immediately kept his hand under the running tap to control the bleeding, but the blood was still flowing out.
He ran to the desk and took out a bandage, but before he could put a bandage on the wound, a small drop of blood fell on the box. Wang Wei covered his wound with the bandage and picked up the box to clean the drops of blood fell on it.
But to his surprise the hard to open box presented itself wide opened before him.
"What the bloody hell? How is it opened?" he yelled out loud, but immediately he became dumbfounded seeing the object in the box.
He picked up the object and exclaimed, "Of all the things that can fit in this box and I found a rock" he said
There is a small rock in his mother's box. "Tough luck, a ring would have been better" he thought, but before examining that rock further, it melted and that liquefied rock flowed into his body through the wound on his finger.
Wang Wei panicked and tried to squeeze out that melted rock, but suddenly he felt like there is a bright light in his consciousness and heard a voice
"Welcome Mr. Wang Raymond Wei. Congratulations on becoming the ninth successor of the Unlimited Borrowing System. My name is Genesis and I'll be your assistant"
"F***"