The air around them had grown oppressive.
Everyone seated around Xiao Xiao was either the store manager or someone from the bar's marketing and supervisory staff. Those in lower positions had all been driven out. Yet these were the people who understood the truth best. Now that the manager had brought it up, every one of their faces was filled with dread.
That invisible atmosphere of fear had clearly seeped into everyone's heart.
Even the dark corners of the unlit bar seemed to be hiding something.
After explaining all this, the store manager had to spend quite a while calming himself down before he sighed and said:
"It's already been going on for more than a month. Word has long since gotten out."
"When there's such a strange customer appearing from time to time, and girls disappearing every so often, who could hear about it and not be afraid?"
"After all this back and forth, our business has already been badly affected..."
"..."
Xiao Xiao was silent for a long while before asking, "When does he usually come?"
"Friday."
The store manager's expression was grave. "If he follows his previous pattern, he'll appear tonight."
"Though I have to say, ever since this started, earning money has felt a lot more reassuring..."
Looking at the store manager trembling in front of him, Xiao Xiao helplessly rubbed his brow.
He questioned him in greater detail and discovered that the situation was even stranger than the manager had described.
For example, they had checked the surveillance footage, and occasionally the cameras had captured brief glimpses of that person appearing.
Once, they had even seen him loop a chain around a girl's neck and drag her into the restroom.
But when they checked afterward, there had been no one at all in the restroom.