"Clark, I feel like there’s a certain lack of trust between us."
He was speechless. Clark, feeling the pressure from his sister, could only say, "Alright, I promise you, after I crack it, I’ll share the information with you. But you also must promise not to venture out alone. If we’re going, we’re going together."
"Deal!"
She agreed to his proposal, but he was still hesitant to believe her.
"No lying," Clark emphasized.
"Okay."
Hearing her promise, Clark’s anxieties were slightly alleviated.
Their car pulled up in front of a vast ranch on the outskirts of town, with sprawling fields and a herd of cows grazing leisurely.
There stood an inconspicuous house in the middle of the ranch, where Mr. and Mrs. Earwood had been taken.
That was a safe location owned by Roo, a place where no one would think to look for them at that ti.
As Clark got out of the car, he fumbled with his bag, causing its contents to spill out.
Rosemary bent down to pick it up, only to find sothing odd about the necklace.
"What’s wrong?" Clark asked, puzzled.
Rosemary shook the necklace in her hand. "There seems to be sothing inside it."
"Sothing?" Clark took the necklace and saw that it was a simple red string necklace with a pendant, like a talisman from a temple.
Mimicking Rosemary, he shook it and indeed heard a faint sound from within.
There really was sothing inside!
As they approached the house, Taylor, who had been anxiously waiting at the door, saw their safe return and couldn’t contain her relief and guilt.
"I’m so glad you’re okay."
Seeing that they were unscathed, Taylor couldn’t help but hug the two children as she prayed for their safe return.
Logan was becoming more and more convinced that those siblings were not ordinary. They had managed to return safe and sound from such perilous circumstances.
No ordinary person would have such skills.
"Mrs. Taylor, this is your bag," Clark handed her the bag.
Taylor was overjoyed. "Thank goodness, nothing is lost. Everything’s still here."
"And this necklace," Clark handed her the necklace, reminding them, "There seems to be sothing inside."
"I suggest we open it up and see," Rosemary said gently.
Sothing was inside!
What could it be?
"This is a necklace that Carol got from a temple last year for her dad, for protection. But then the string broke and he stopped wearing it," Taylor explained. Last year, Logan had been having a bit of bad luck, so Carol got this from a temple and insisted that Logan wear it every day without taking it off.
"Let’s open it." Logan also shook the pendant and heard the faint sound from within.
What if there was a clue inside?
"How do we open it?" Taylor was unsure of what to do.
"Let try." Rosemary found that the pendant was not simple—it used a lock chanism, layer upon layer. If not opened in the correct order, it wouldn’t budge.
Eventually, everyone saw a tiny chip inside the opened pendant!
"Why would this be here?" Logan and Taylor exclaid in unison. "What is it for?"
That was the first ti Rosemary had seen such a small and delicate chip—slightly bigger than a grain of rice—its purpose unknown for the mont.
"Could it be that Carol had sothing to say, and she wanted to tell us through this chip?"
Clark seed to have stumbled upon sothing that linked him with Carol, and his heart pounded with excitent.
Rosemary suddenly had a thought. "Clark, didn’t Carol give you an amulet as well?"
Upon hearing that, Clark realized, "You think there might be sothing hidden in the amulet too?"
"There is a chance."
Clark instantly pulled out his wallet and retrieved the red, triangular amulet.
He shook it but heard no sound from within.
The thought that it might be hiding a clue made him brace himself, and he carefully began to unravel the amulet.
Logan and Taylor held their breath, watching his actions closely, and soon, a tiny crescent moon appeared at the very heart of the amulet.
That moon was about the size of a fingertip, made of platinum, and had a strange symbol carved on it.
"Is this a clue Carol left for ?"
Clark couldn’t believe that Carol had hidden that in the amulet so long ago, and it had taken him all that ti to finally find it!
If it hadn’t been for his sister’s reminder, he likely would never have discovered it.
He felt so foolish!
"What’s the aning of this tiny moon? What’s its purpose?" Taylor couldn’t guess. "What ssage is Carol trying to get across to us?"
Logan, too, was unsure of its purpose, examining it closely in his hand. "If Carol really is involved with so organization, could this symbol be the organization’s logo?"
"It could certainly be a possibility," Rosemary confird. "I’ll have soone look into it."
She took a photo and sent it to Jack, asking him to identify the symbol as quickly as possible.
"Carol must have realized long ago that she was in danger. She didn’t abandon us—her parents—or leave Clark. It must have been a last resort," Taylor surmised, tears streaming down her face again.
"I have a suggestion."
At Rosemary’s words, everyone turned to look at her, curious about her new idea.
"I propose we examine everything Carol left behind."
"You an we should even take this scarf apart?" Taylor’s tears were welling up, but what could possibly be hidden in a scarf?
She had washed it so many tis—any clues would have surely been washed away by that point.
"What if we find sothing new?"
Hearing Rosemary’s suggestion, Taylor thought it over and finally decided to unravel the scarf to see.
Logan picked up a platinum necklace. "This was the first gift Carol bought for her mother after she started making money. It’s made of platinum—there’s probably nothing suspicious about it."
"Let see." Rosemary took the heart-shaped platinum necklace. It looked ordinary, but she pulled out a magnifying glass from her bag to see if there was anything written on it.
"Kid, aren’t you overthinking?" Logan couldn’t help saying. "How could there possibly be a clue on this tiny thing?"
"Have you heard about a news story—a calligrapher who could write characters 3mm tall with a brush? It was called micro-calligraphy."
Rosemary explained as she examined the necklace, "Later, another calligrapher broke the record by writing characters only 0.8mm tall—and now there’s even smaller writing."
Logan was shocked. He’d never imagined such a thing could exist.
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