Willow sighed and shook her head, "Then, you promise that, if we finish the game, you'll let us out?"
"Of course." The voice replied having noticed the manager's silence.
"Yubikiri?" Willow questioned in English with a smirk across her face.
This time, the voice chuckled, "Very well."
This time, the door opened with a small crack and, just as it did, the elder man rammed into the door. However, despite looking more masculine than the manager, he was also sent flying back into the table. The voice chuckled, "Let's not be hasty, Mister Gu."
Ah, that's right. The eldest male customer was had the Gu surname and the youngest was Wu. With their names being so similar, Willow didn't have the mental strength to continue remembering which is which, so she didn't bother it. An adult hand stuck out from behind the crack and held out his pinky. It was then that Willow noticed the sharp nails on it and smirked. She entwined the mysterious man's pinky with hers, "Finger cut-off, ten thousand fists-punchings, whoever lies has to swallow thousand needles."
Though she said this in Chinese, the male voice responded with a chant of unusual dialect. No, that wasn't right. She knew these words.
"Japanese!" Lady Qi held her breath nervously, "This man is Japanese..."
"What is a Japanese man doing here?!" The manager hollered in bewilderment and glared at the door, "I'll tell you this now, but the manager has a thing against Japanese people. There's no way he'll interact with a Japanese person!"
"Ah..." Willow nodded and sighed, "Well, whatever the case now. Even is the owner was here, do you think that this person would loosen up? He clearly stated something about the owner. Don't you think that something would happen to the owner? So, would he be here, then? I mean, not even our phones work."
Hearing this, the initially-agitated manger froze as his face suddenly paled. Finally, he gnashed his teeth when the closing of the door snapped his senses back, "We'll play..."
Willow nodded in agreement. After all, she may as well please the little guy. She smiled, "Then, let's do this. Since the manager believes it's me, then this will be between me and the manager. I'll pick a male representative to go into the men's room and you can pick a female representative to go into the women's room. We'll trust this representative of ours to tell the truth. So, let's first pick one. Oh, if that person finds the money, then we can end the game and the representative won't bear are of the blame. Also, I promise you this. The cash isn't on any of us and all the customers here are innocent."
Hearing her words, the manager frowned as Lady Qi stammered, "All the customers are i-inno-?!"
The one slightly older than Willow, Miss Shu, quickly clasped over her mouth and whispered, "We'd be better off not saying out thoughts out loud."
Having her her warning, Miss Qi silently nodded her head with great agitation. Willow smiled, "I'll have Mister Gu stand as my representative, then."
The manager glanced at the three girls as Qi hid behind the doorway nervously. He pointed and said, "I'll have to trouble Miss Qi, then."
"Me?!" Qi gasped in horror.
The eldest of the women, Si, frowned, "She's too young and inexperienced. Why not me or Miss Shu?"
"It's because she's inexperienced that she'll be more honest." The manager responded with a scowl and glared at Willow, "I should be more worried about your choice."
Willow smiled back, "I'm afraid I have a different reason than yours."
"Oh?"
Willow smirked, "It's because the situation is so dire that I believe Mister Gu won't dare to tamper with any evidence since he understands the weight of the situation. If done so, he'd have placed himself in trouble."
Hearing her words, the manager fell into a sense of contemplation over his decision before he waved his hand, "Whatever! What's next?"
"Next, we'll have our representative look through our belongings and our clothes in case we hid the cash somewhere. This will be done in our respective rooms." Willow said with a wide smile.
"How would we know if the other is hiding the money for them?" Mister Gu questioned nervously.
Willow smirked, "Because they're like you and Miss Qi and Shu. They wouldn't dare to."
With that said, she walked into the room before she paused and turned around, "All right. Places like the wallet or pouch could be looked into, but you can expect that the money there are the owner's. Right, manager?"
The manager glared at her in disgust before turning around and entering the men's room.
Around fifteen minutes or so had passed before Willow left the room and rejoined with the others where she found that the manager had already came back out with Gu. The manager turned to Miss Qi and Miss Shu, who later came into the room as well after he stated that they were taking too long. The two shook their heads. Miss Qi spoke up, "There was a lot of spices and herbs in her bags. Then, a strange book that looked old with nothing in there. Her wallet was made of newspaper and only have about 356 RMB."
"The manager lost about 700 RMB." Mister Wu stated nervously seeing Miss Shu's nod of confirmation.
Finally, Willow smiled, "Then, let's start with the instructions."
"Aren't you going to ask me if I found anything?" Mister Gu questioned her with a raised brow.
"Nope." Willow smiled, "Since I know the money isn't on him."
Her words brought disbelief onto their faces when they heard this and turned to Gu. The man nodded, "I found nothing."
The manager shirt to the table with a sigh. When the male voice spoke up again, "There's no use opening the window. Till this game is over, nobody can interact or enter the outside world."
"I thought so..." Mister Wu groaned as he slumped onto the couch, "So much pressure..."
"Well, then..." Willow smiled, "Shall we start with the instructions?"
"First, we'll each pick a place from the room without seeing it." Willow said as her entire speech with them became full of mandarin, "Since each room are exactly the same, there won't be much problem deciding which area to search. However, we can't be very vague and just tell our representative to search the room or the table. Instead, we'll be a little more specific. For example, the space between the wall and the bed."
"You get to start first?" The manager scolded her with a scowl.
"Let's not get too worked up over this." Willow smiled against his glare and pressure, "The game hasn't even started yet. I did say 'For example'. So, how could it be that I went first?"
The man scowled and sat on the sofa as he grumbled. Honestly, the man was very annoying and Willow hated his behavior towards her, but what can she do now that he's drawn the joker. Biting back a sigh, she sucked in a cold breath of air and continued with a trying smile, "We will each take turns looking for whatever could be there."
"You mean, cash." The manager corrected.
"That too." Willow smiled as she also sat on a wooden chair across from his couch. It's been a long time since she last played a game like this. She may as well try to play it before someone rains down on her later.
"Now, then." Willow said with a sigh, "Since we're stuck here, we might as well get it started. The sooner, the better."
If she recalled correctly, each of the customers here has their own agenda for the day. It would be best not to keep them waiting.
"Now, let's tell our part of the situation from our perspectives." Willow said with a shrug, "Everyone already knows my story. What of the others? What did everyone else did last night after they went to bed?"
"I was asleep the entire time." Miss Qi stated, "Oh, but I did hear a loud bang sound coming from the living room. I thought someone was entering the living room, so I turned on my earphones and went back to sleep. I was sleeping right above Willow."
"I heard it too." Miss Shu nodded in agreement, "But, I was too tired from all the trekking that afternoon and went back to sleep."
"I slept right next to the wall between our room and the living room, but my hearing hasn't been getting better. So, I slept soundly last night." Miss Si answered, "Miss Shu was sleeping in the upper bunker above me."
"What about the men?" Willow turned to the manager.
"I also thought it was a cat coming from outside." The manager answered quickly, "There have always been stray cats in these part of the neighborhood. I didn't think a cat could enter the house, so I went back to sleep."
"I was studying till late last night." Mister Wu said, "I was about to go to sleep, but I heard a loud bang shortly after I was about to doze off. My mind was a bit hazy, but I believe the sound came from outside of our window."
"So, your window was opened?" Willow raised a brow.
Mister Wu nodded, "That's right."
"I had it opened." Mister Gu spoke up, "It was shortly before I fell asleep. It was a little warm, so I opened the window. I had just finished packing up my stuff so I could leave this morning, but it was too warm. So, I opened the window shortly before I went to bed. As for the loud sound, I'm a heavy sleeper, but I've heard it too. I opened the curtain to take a look, but the manager was still asleep. So, I went back to sleep thinking nothing was wrong."
"The manager was still asleep?" Mister Wu raised a brow, "But, when I tried to go wake him up, he wasn't there after I called him. So, I checked and saw that the money box was on the bed, but he was missing."
"There was a moment when I went to the bathroom." The manager said, "It was only after I returned that I went back to sleep."
"After you heard the sound?" Miss Si said in bewilderment.
"I left the money box on the bed when I left." The manager responded.
"I see." Willow nodded as she absorbed the situation in her mind.
"Um," Miss Qi spoke up, "can a mere medical student actually solve this?"
"I doubt it." Miss Shu responded with a raised brow, "I'm a senior in the law department and you don't see me touching medicine. You can't talk about things outside of your field unless you've studied it beforehand on your own. The higher your education the more likely others would believe you. Willow, what college did you go to?"
"Me?" Willow sighed, "I'm a freshman from a university in Beijing."
"Beijing?!"