The Professor's Undecipherable Will (Day 2)

815 South Azalea Street, November 25th, 2018...

Detective W drove you to the late Professor Cho's house. For such a famous inventor and professor, he lived in a mundane rowhouse. Detective W opened the heavy, white wooden door. Once you walked in, you quickly observed the first floor. It was surprisingly sparkling clean.

You two quickly went up to the second floor. The furthest room back was Professor Cho's personal library. You were astounded by the size of the library. It was the largest room in the entire house. You and Detective W wore formal, black funeral suits. Detective W also had his black gloves on, as usual. He straighten his black tie, and looked around Professor Cho's library.

Ha-Eun and Ha-joon were both at the corner near the window. Ha-Eun was wearing a simple white dress. Ha-joon wore a slim fit gray suit. They both look determined, their eyes warily analyzing each of the attendees. Then, they saw you two, and waved.

You two quickly got to their sides. "W!" Ha-Eun exclaimed as she hugged him. "Glad that you're here!"

"Nice to see you too, assistant," Ha-joon told you. "We're ecstatic to see you two unharmed."

"Unharmed?" Detective W questioned. "Will something bad happen here?"

"No. But, there are some shady people here," Ha-Eun declared rather loudly. People around the library glared at her.

"Shady?" Detective W scanned the room. The other twelve people in the room didn't seem that bad to him. "I think you're just thinking too pessimistically about other people..."

"Trust me..." Ha-Eun gritted her teeth. "I trust them as far as I can throw them... which means not far at all!"

Ha-joon patted Ha-Eun's shoulder. "Calm down, sis. Calm down," he said softly.

"I. WILL. TRY."

A piece of paper fell on Detective W's leather shoes. A man quickly knelt on the floor and picked it back up. "Sorry about that, sir. Wait... I've never seen you in the family before. Who are you?"

The man asking the question was a clean-shaven, fit man with parted black hair. His oval glasses fitted perfectly on him. Detective W could detect a faint whiff of cologne.

"I am W. I was Professor Cho's former student in his Thermodynamics class. He was the best teacher I could have hoped for. He taught me the two creeds as an engineer."

"Oh? And they are?" the man sounded curious.

"They are," Detective W declared proudly, "1. Always observe! 2. Always ask questions! Especially if you might feel stupid about it! He always droned about this in class! Observation is a skill that has to be improved upon everyday! Don't beat yourself up if you missed a thing! After all, we're humans!"

"Sounds just like him indeed. I am Park Donghyun, Cho Ji-hye's husband. Here's my business card." the man bowed as he solemnly replied. Detective W graciously accepted the business card. On the business card was an emblem of a red rose.

"Red rose! Oh, Jangmi!" you cried out. "Isn't that the famous cosmetics company?!"

"Indeed," Donghyun said, smiling. Detective W hurriedly fumbled through his pockets, and pulled out a business card. "Here's mine," Detective W said sheepishly. "If you have an unsolvable problem, please do call me. I will do what I can."

"Oh! You're the... famous detective in the city! W! Now I remember!" Donghyun exclaimed. "Now, if you'll excuse. I have to go to my family." Behind him was his wife, Ji-hye holding an infant. Even with minimal make-up on, her features were pretty. Pretty buxom, too, you observed. Quite the Korean beauty.

"That's my uncle," Ha-Eun muttered with an air of annoyance. "According to rumors, he's a womanizer."

"Even with such a beautiful wife?" Detective W shrugged. "Seems unlikely."

Ha-joon pointed to the far side of the dark oak floor. "Over there is our uncle and aunt, from Mom's side, of course. Their names... Ah... Uncle Hyun-woo, and Aunt... Aunt... Ji-young."

You observed them. Hyun-woo had soft features, a flabby belly and graying hair. His collared shirt seemed it was about to burst. Ji-young, on the hand, was slender and had sharp cheekbones. She had an austere air around her. Unlike Hyun-woo, Ji-young still had lustrous brown hair. Besides her was a small child who held a teddy bear.

"Ah! Chae-Won! My favorite cousin!" Ha-Eun beamed, pointing at her. "Isn't she cute?"

Detective W ignored her and looked at the remaining people. There was a large family of six in the corner diagonal from him. Ha-joon noticed Detective W looking at them, and said, "They are also family. You see the one with the black fedora? He's Uncle Sung-min, the oldest sibling of the three. The one with the gray dress? That's Aunt Sun-young. I'm always amazed by their large family size..."

You, who had been listening to the conversation, pieced two and two together. "So, what about you guys? Where's your mom and dad?"

"They died when I was around five. Ha-Eun was around seven then. Ever since then, Grandpa took care of us."

"Oh."

A loud cough interrupted everyone. It was the will-reader. Even though he has a wizened face and a hunched back, his voice is surprisingly strong and clear. "Excuse me, if you will, everyone. I am here to read the will of the late Cho Youngho."

The hoary old man read the will. You, who had seen the will two days ago, kind of zoned out on this one. As expected, the ones who weren't listed on the will got angry.

"Why am I not on the will?!"

"Dad, you damn liar!"

"Why give money to these damn kids?"

A shouting match ensued. The will-reader, with much effort, told the crowd to calm down. He got to the final part of the will. "Whoever solves this code will receive $5,000,000 USD!"

An uncontrollable uproar ensued. Suddenly, all of them were fumbling in their bags, searching for the will. Detective W and the team pulled out the will out, in order to not look so out of place. After a few minutes, all of them gave up, and exited the library with much fanfare.

"Screw this code! How am I supposed to figure it out?!"

"We will come back later for this! Ji-Hye needs to be home as soon as possible!"

Once all them got out, Detective W told the will-reader. "Hey, mister, do you mind if we go through Professor Cho's bookshelf real fast?"

"Sure, help yourself, kiddo."

Thankfully, Detective W's arms were long enough to reach the top shelve. He grabbed the only copy of 'The Amber Fly' and shared it with you. "This hardcover book should be it."

On the front cover was a fly trapped in an amber tear. "Page thirty four... page thirty four..." he quietly muttered. "Paragraph one... paragraph one... a ha! Is this it?!"

You looked at the passage. It wrote:

'The amber droplet hung from the branch, reaching fullness and ready to drop. It waited. While many of the other droplets were satisfied to form as big as they could and release, this droplet had other plans. It wanted to be part of history. It wanted to be remembered long after all the other non-significant droplets had dissolved into history. So it waited for the perfect specimen to fly by to trap and capture what it hoped would eventually be discovered hundreds of years in the future.'

"What was the cipher again?" Detective W asked.

"1,2,8,52,55,65, 83," you read off the will.

"Huh... those numbers... and a book passage..." Detective W uttered and concentrated on the will. "Could it be...?"

After a minute of looking at the will and mumbling to himself, Detective W confidently nodded. "I'm pretty sure of the answer. Somehow, Dr. Cho made this easier than usual."

"Huh?' You looked at the will, all confused. "Boss, it might be easy for you, but my mental energy is spent whenever I see codes!"

"Ah, you want to figure out the answer? Here's the only hint I will give you: Count the words."

"Count the words?!" you cried out incredulously. "What does that even mean?!"

"Exactly what I mean. I gave you enough of a hint. I hired you because I believe your mental capabilities have potential. Don't give up when you haven't even begun!"

You put both of your hands on your head, panicking. Come on, brain, think! Think, brain, think!

What could the code possibly mean?

Day 2, Over