Li Ang picked up the wooden box,

The wooden box itself was slightly larger than a palm, square-shaped, and coated with a layer of brown varnish,

On its six sides were printed some colorful starbursts, reminiscent of stickers that kindergarten teachers would affix to children’s foreheads,

A slip of paper was pasted on the bottom of the box, with slightly slanted English written on it:

"We were born in the same place, grew up, went to school, yet never knew each other’s names or existence until fate brought us together. I made this box as a testament to our first meeting, hoping there’s still time. S"

"Hmm?"

Li Ang furrowed his brow, turning the small slip over under the light to examine it.

This paper was undoubtedly meant to be part of the wooden box as a whole.

"Judging by the tone of the description, it seems this is a gift someone made for his or her lover.

The ’S’ at the end might be some kind of code, or the name of the person who made the gift.

S...

Samuel? Stephen? Stone? Sandy?

If it was the man of the house giving it to the woman, it indicates they were from the same hometown.

But what does the last sentence ’hoping there’s still time’ mean?

A caught affair, about to divorce?"

Li Ang muttered to himself, turning his gaze to the wooden box. The six sides were assembled tightly, but by running a fingernail along the edge, the seams could still be felt.

Li Ang picked up the wooden box, weighed it lightly in his hand, and rotated it, sensing something off about its weight.

The interior of the square box was hollow,

and the center of gravity wasn’t entirely in the middle — one side was heavier than the others.

"Something hidden? A diamond ring? Earrings? Necklace? Jewelry? Surely, it’s not a divorce agreement, right?"

Li Ang squinted thoughtfully, set the box down, and scanned the garage.

The Chevrolet SUV had no keys, and the garage door displayed the system-marked "Unable to pass", meaning even if Li Ang broke into the car, he couldn’t force it through the garage door.

While studying the box, Li Ang left the garage, headed back to the living room.

The wooden puppet was still covered by a ceramic flowerpot, showing no signs of movement,

If the tattoo that suddenly appeared on his arm hadn’t lied, the puppet had 16 minutes left before waking from the seal.

Li Ang, holding the wooden box and a flashlight, walked to the staircase leading to the second floor,

Across the middle of stairs stretched a silver-white steel gate, with dense vertical iron bars on the upper part,

The lower part was a thick steel plate, replaced the position where a door handle should be with a liquid crystal screen,

The liquid crystal panel bore a black handprint silhouette, seemingly requiring a fingerprint scan.

Standing before the gate, through the upper prison-like bar structure, he could glimpse a small portion of stairs behind the gate.

But the bars were densely packed, unbreakable, not even a child’s arm could pass through.

Li Ang barely managed to extend a picture frame beyond the bars, using its mirror surface to see that behind the gate, there was also a fingerprint scanning liquid crystal panel,

indicating the gate was dual-directional.

"So what does this household do exactly, the Smiths? Installing such exaggerated security doors at home."

Li Ang commented, "The fingerprint panel was dark, pressing corners produced no response, looks like it’s either out of power or damaged.

This gate could serve as a riot shield without issue, and no signs of damage, seemingly intact.

Considering the gate’s heavy and non-disassemblable nature, it likely uses an external power source, not an internal battery...

Hmm?"

He looked up at the ceiling, noticing a thin white insulated rubber-covered wire extending from the ceiling-wall gap, leading to the top of the iron gate, likely the power cable for the metal gate,

Yet midway through, the wire seemed deliberately cut, missing over three meters.

"The wire’s broken? Intentionally preventing me from going upstairs?"

Li Ang frowned, "The mission is to find a way upstairs, meaning I should find a sufficiently long wire?"

After pondering a moment, he fetched a chair from the dining area, placed it on the stairs,

and stood on it to pry loose the broken wire ends from the ceiling.

The broken wire was relatively thin, with white insulation imprinted with "12V".

The United States originally had a voltage standard of 100V, originating from Edison’s personal preference (his developed bulbs worked well at this voltage), later adjusted to 110V for reduced losses, then further increased by 10V for easier calculations, becoming the standard 120V voltage.

The fingerprint unlocking gate was clearly not connected to the standard domestic electrical system, but rather installed by the homeowner themselves,

Li Ang scrutinized the wire for a while, then returned to the living room, searching for other electrical materials.

He had noticed earlier that the room contained various appliances like TVs, lamps— cutting their wires for self-modification seemed feasible.

However, when he tried cutting the wire using insulated kitchen scissors, he couldn’t sever them,

After much effort, the surface insulation remained intact.

"Is the US tech tree in this world misaligned? Making wires so sturdy to spite unauthorized civilian wiring?!"

Li Ang continued complaining, not too agitated inside, as this was evidently a fundamental setting of this scripted mission.

If manually wiring was impossible, what about using water for conduction?

Standing still, Li Ang bounced slightly – no urge for urination, and the kitchen sink yielded no flow upon turning the faucet.

"This path blocked too..."

Li Ang sighed, turning decisively to leave, heading to the room’s right side—the only door with unknown purpose.

This door lacked a handle or keyhole, only a circular recess with retractable metal sheets around its edge, seemingly requiring insertion of something.

Ten minutes remained before the puppet’s release from the seal.

Li Ang calculated the remaining time calmly, looking down at the wooden square box in his hand.

Per puzzle game conventions,

When all items collectible in a stage are gathered but progress stalls,

The solution must lie among the collected items.

"Does the box contain a sufficiently long wire?"

Li Ang pondered, cautiously inserting a meat-cutting knife into the square box seams, twisting the knife to pry it open.

But before he could exert force, sharp glass shattering sounds emanated from the box, as though some container was breaking.

Li Ang hurriedly stopped,

Some classic hidden boxes feature automatic destruction upon forceful cracking, akin to the glass bottle filled with vinegar in "Da Vinci Code", containing secret text on papyrus.

If someone tries to open it without knowing the password, it will break the glass bottle inside, causing the vinegar to spill out and dissolve the papyrus beside it, ensuring the secret won’t be leaked.

If this wooden box follows the same design concept, then it can’t be forcibly destroyed.

"A hidden box, huh..."

Li Ang took a deep breath to calm his restless emotions and carefully scrutinized the box.

The box itself wasn’t particularly strange, with six surfaces adorned with some decorative star patterns, each surface having a different pattern.

Li Ang held the box close and far, squinting and staring at it, but couldn’t discern numbers, letters, or patterns from the star patterns.

"Six sides... Don’t tell me I’m supposed to throw this box on the ground like a die?"

Li Ang murmured, theoretically, this was possible—if the wooden box was constructed using mortise and tenon joints with hidden bolts that could move on their respective planes, it could indeed work.

Rotate the box back and forth, letting slender wooden pin-like hidden bolts move along grooves on their respective planes,

as the hidden bolts between different planes would lock each other in the corners,

when the box is rotated in the specified sequence, leading to the last hidden bolt returning to its position, one side of the box would open, allowing access to the items hidden inside.

Shuffle shuffle.

Li Ang picked up the box and gently shook it, carefully listening, but didn’t hear the sound of hidden bolts hitting wooden blocks inside.

If not hidden bolts, then what?

Li Ang placed the box on the ground, rotating each face back and forth, continuously pushing and pulling the wooden box surface with his palms, but to no avail.

As time ticked by, Li Ang gently pressed down on the wooden box, his fingers unconsciously scraping over the decorative star stickers on the box’s surface.

"Wait, these stickers..."

Li Ang’s eyes brightened, he picked up the box, and hurried to the floor-to-ceiling window in the side hall, pulling it open with a swipe of his palm.

The radiant starlight from outside shone through the glass,

Li Ang raised the box to align it with the stars in the sky.

"Ah, the star stickers on the box correspond to the star map in the sky."

Li Ang rotated the box, murmuring: "The four faces around are the Ursa Major, Libra, Piscis Austrinus, and Aries.

The top and bottom faces are Cygnus and Carina.

These star patterns vary in size, indicating the star magnitude of these celestial bodies..."

Li Ang darted back and forth between the side hall and the living room, matching all five faces of the star map—the Carina on the bottom wasn’t visible, but should correspond with Cygnus.

"But, there’s something odd."

Li Ang frowned, muttering to himself: "At this very moment, the general direction of these constellations in the sky indeed corresponds with the positions on the wooden box.

The star map I’ve observed is pretty much the view visible from California at night in the real world.

The question is, how did the box’s maker achieve such precision?

If it were a different time, a different season, then the star map on the box wouldn’t match the real world scene.

Also, the star stickers on the box surface are stuck very firmly, not easy to peel off.

It would mean,

there’s only one possibility — the box’s maker intended for it to be given to their lover at a specific time, which is this very moment." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Admittedly, this design is indeed very romantic, opening the box under the witness of the heavens and stars, to take out a token of love, like a ring or a rose,

but knowing this doesn’t help Li Ang much with the deciphering.

"Understanding the design concept of the box is correct, but what method should I use to open it?"

Li Ang pondered, once again taking out the note previously stuck beneath the box,

[We were born in the same place...

yet never knew each other...

until fate brought us together...

I made this box, it is a testament to our first meeting, I hope everything is still in time. S]

"The star map on this box coincides approximately with the star pattern in the real world sky,"

Li Ang contemplated: "No matter where the box’s maker crafted this, they certainly hope to open it at this exact moment."

Perhaps there’s also a requirement to open it at a specific location, like the place where the box’s maker first met their lover.

Could there be a GPS tracking device inside the box?

No, that’s unlikely.

Even if there’s a GPS tracking device, I can’t even leave the house to explore outside.

And if the location is within the house, I’ve already walked through every corner, it would have opened already if that were the case.

Eliminating these possibilities, what’s left..."

He was engrossed in his line of thinking, with possibilities constantly surfacing in his mind, only to be rationally and logically dismissed.

"Wait, S? Could it be..."

Li Ang seemed to realize something, placing the box on the ground, with the Cygnus star pattern side facing up and the Carina side facing down,

holding the side of the box with his left hand, he gently rotated it,

while his right hand pressed and pushed the front of the box.

Click.

Finally, when the box turned to a certain angle, the top wooden panel with the Cygnus pattern on it was pushed open, revealing the structure inside.

The back of the box’s front lid was attached with a fragile square glass bottle, which contained some gravel.

On the bottom of the box below the glass bottle, there was a compass attached.

Li Ang gently took out the glass bottle and compass inside, examining the circular outline of the compass, which matched perfectly with the circular groove on the wooden door of the room to the right of the living room.

He already understood the working principle of this box,

the note had "S" written at the end, which did not denote a name but indicated the compass’s south.

The bottom of the box was attached with a compass,

firstly, the box needs to be placed in the correct position "Cygnus facing up, Carina facing down,"

then continue to rotate the box.

As the compass inside the box consistently points to the north-south directions,

when the needle rotates to a specific angle, it will trigger the magnetic mechanism connected with the compass at the bottom of the box, causing a single hidden bolt at the bottom of the box to move out of place, allowing the box to be opened.

Furthermore, since that hidden bolt was secured by the magnetic mechanism and was the only one, even when Li Ang shook the box before, there was no noticeable sound of the hidden bolt.