Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

“Oh my God! The earrings! Let me call my wife!” Nick said in astonishment. He quickly
called Rachel’s cell phone, and moments later she answered in a sleepy voice.
“Honey, sorry to wake you. Yes, I’m in Chiang Mai now. Remember those earrings I
gave you? The pearl earrings from my grandmother?”
Rachel crawled out of bed, went over to the dressing table and opened the drawer where
she kept her jewelry.
“What am I looking for exactly?” she asked, still half asleep.
“Do you see any numbers carved on the pearls?”
Rachel held a pearl stud up to the window light. “Nothing, Nick. It’s totally smooth and
luminous.”
“Really? Can you look again?”
Rachel closed one eye and squinted at each pearl as closely as she could. “I’m sorry,
Nick, I see nothing. Are you sure we’re talking about these earrings? They are so tiny, I
can’t imagine where someone would hide any information, unless it’s inside the pearl.”
Nick thought back to what his Ah Ma told him when she had handed them over. My
father gave these to me when I escaped Singapore before the war, when the Japanese
soldiers had finally reached Johor and we knew all was lost. They are very special.
Please look after them carefully. The words took on a whole new significance now. He
stared at the safe, wondering what it could possibly hold. Would there be gold bullion
bars, stacks of old bonds or some other type of financial documents that would help him
secure Tyersall Park? What was in there that was so valuable to his grandmother that she
would go to such great lengths to protect it?
“Rachel, I’m sure those are the earrings. Maybe we do need to crack them open. Or
maybe the numbers appear if you put them in water? I dunno, try anything,” Nick said in
frustration.
“Well, before we destroy these lovely pearls, let me try the water thing.” Rachel went
into the bathroom and turned on the tap to fill the sink. She looked at the earrings again—
they were simple pearl studs on gold posts, each with a little gold disk as backing. Before
dipping one of the earrings into the water, she decided to pry the backing off the stud.
Suddenly she gasped. There, on the underside of the backing were tiny Chinese characters
carved into the gold. “Nick, I never thought I’d ever get to say these words, but…EUREKA,
I’VE FOUND IT! There are Chinese characters carved into the backing of the earrings!”
Rachel quickly deciphered the numbers: “9, 32, 11, 17, 8.” Nick turned the dial to the
corresponding numbers, his heart pounding as each of the locks seemed to click into
place one by one. When he finally turned the lever to open the safe, he held his breath,
wondering what he would find inside.
The safe door creaked open, and when Nick peered inside, all he saw were small red
leather-bound books, neatly arranged in stacks. He took one of them out and began
flipping through its pages. Every page was written in Chinese, and Nick realized he was
looking at his grandmother’s private diaries, beginning from the time she was a child to
her adulthood.