No one could think of a proper way to deal with the cheongsam woman, so it was naturally left as it was.
The little fox said, "Big brother, it's only been twice. Just from your description, I feel like this cheongsam woman is quite mysterious. You also said her demeanor isn't like someone from our era."
"Do you think... she might be the mastermind behind everything?"
Ye Tiancheng pondered for a moment and replied to the little fox, "It's hard to say. But I have a vague feeling that her identity... is probably quite important."
"Moreover, our interactions with her in the future will likely not be limited to this."
He couldn't definitively say that she was a bad person.
However, if this cheongsam woman was truly not from their era, then whether she was human or not would be debatable.
Ye Tiancheng and the others stayed in the black motel for another day. They wanted to test the rules of this so-called Xiao Jing City and compare them to identify the proportion of misleading false rules.
However, it was unclear if it was an isolated case. In this black motel, most of the rules in the traveler's handbook seemed to be fine. At least sixty percent of the rules were not problematic, though there were also quite a few misleading ones, some of which were difficult to discern.
For instance, regarding food, Ye Tiancheng and the others couldn't risk their lives. After ordering a meal, they couldn't figure anything out and had to give up.
The misleading rules, much like the prohibition of going out at night, only stated that one was not allowed to go out, but didn't mention that even doors and windows couldn't be opened, which was similar to their previous speculation.
However, Ye Tiancheng and the others couldn't waste too much time in the motel. Therefore, the next day they still decided to proceed according to their original plan, intending to investigate the university.
Yet, Ye Tiancheng and the others hadn't expected that their plan to explore the university would be so full of twists and turns.
Early the next morning, after a night of torment, Ye Tiancheng and the others once again heard a knock on the door. Ye Tiancheng impatiently walked to the door and opened it. Upon seeing the motel owner again, his expression immediately turned much uglier, thinking the person was going to revert to their old ways.
However, before Ye Tiancheng could say anything, he noticed that the cheongsam woman he had seen before was also standing beside the owner.
Seeing her, Ye Tiancheng thought to himself that this matter was probably different from yesterday morning.
And indeed, that was the case.
The cheongsam woman's expression seemed somewhat anxious. Today, she was wearing a pink cheongsam, and she was tightly clutching a white handkerchief in her hand.
Ye Tiancheng glanced at the duo at the door and asked, "What is it so early in the morning?"
Immediately, Ye Tiancheng heard the cheongsam woman say, "Sir, I am very sorry to disturb you. Something has happened, so I had to come and bother you. Please forgive me."
Upon hearing the female voice from the door, even Nie Chongyang, Liang Ping, and the little fox came out, drawn by the sound, and walked to the door of the room.
This was the first time the three of them had seen the cheongsam woman Ye Tiancheng had mentioned.
The moment the three saw the cheongsam woman, they couldn't help but stare.
Although Ye Tiancheng had described her, they never imagined that this cheongsam woman would be so beautiful. Ye Tiancheng's words that she was too beautiful to be human were not an exaggeration.
Ye Tiancheng said to the cheongsam woman, "Tell me first, what is it?"
"Greetings, sirs. I apologize for disturbing you."
The cheongsam woman first greeted the suddenly appearing Nie Chongyang and the other two, apologized, and then replied to Ye Tiancheng, "It's like this, I have a ruby pendant. This ruby pendant is very important to me, and I always carry it with me."
"But this morning, when I was preparing to dress, I discovered that my ruby pendant was missing."
Hearing the cheongsam woman say this, Ye Tiancheng couldn't help but frown.
He said, "Do you mean you suspect we stole your things?"
The cheongsam woman immediately waved her hands in panic and explained, "Sir, you misunderstand. I didn't mean that."
Ye Tiancheng raised an eyebrow and asked, "Then why did you and the motel owner come here so early in the morning?"
The motel owner stood by, like a prop, not speaking at all, acting as if he were invisible.
The cheongsam woman then said, "Sirs, please let me explain."
"This ruby pendant, it truly means a lot to me. It is the only memento my mother left me, and it is genuinely very important to me. And now it is lost."
"I am not suspecting that you gentlemen stole my ruby pendant, but I am truly anxious, so I wanted to ask everyone to help me find my ruby pendant."
At this point, the cheongsam woman added, "If you gentlemen can help me find the ruby pendant and recover the memento left by my mother, this humble one will be greatly rewarded!"
After hearing the cheongsam woman's explanation, Ye Tiancheng and the others exchanged glances, appearing hesitant.
They didn't know what encountering this situation meant for them, what its significance was, or what it would bring them.
But this cheongsam woman clearly made everyone feel that she was very important. If they stood by and did nothing, they might miss some clues. However, they had already made their plans.
Ye Tiancheng said hesitantly, "It's not that we're unwilling to help, but we have arrangements today and may not be able to help."
"Your ruby pendant might have fallen into some inconspicuous place. Why don't you look again? If you really can't find it, after we finish our business, we can help you look. What do you think?"
Hearing Ye Tiancheng's words, the cheongsam woman seemed to droop her head in disappointment.
She bit her lower lip, "But..."
Ye Tiancheng really didn't dare to agree rashly, so he could only say, "I'm sorry."
Seeing this, and realizing there was no room for maneuver, the cheongsam woman could only bow to Ye Tiancheng and the others and say, "Alright, it was this humble one who disturbed you gentlemen... I'll go back and look again."
After speaking, the cheongsam woman bid farewell to Ye Tiancheng and the others and left with the motel owner.
The other three had no objections to Ye Tiancheng making this decision.
They couldn't say whether agreeing to this matter was good or bad, and they would only be gone for half a day, which shouldn't delay anything. At worst, they could help her after they returned.
Ye Tiancheng and the others thought it through well. After washing up and eating breakfast, they prepared to leave together. As they walked through the motel lobby and passed the front desk, the motel owner, who had returned behind the front desk, glanced at Ye Tiancheng and the others who were preparing to leave and shook his head.
"Even if you refused that woman, you wouldn't think you could get out of here, would you?"
Ye Tiancheng turned to look at the motel owner and asked, "What do you mean by that?"
The motel owner said indifferently, "It means you can't leave."
Ye Tiancheng and the other three's expressions changed. Nie Chongyang and the others, who were walking in front, tried the main entrance and discovered that it seemed to have formed an invisible wall. They couldn't cross it at all.
The group immediately tried walking to the window, but the result was the same.
Seeing this, Ye Tiancheng's expression turned cold, and he said to the motel owner, "You're behind this, aren't you?"
The motel owner grumbled resentfully, "If I had that ability, I would have been threatened by you yesterday?"
Seeing that they truly couldn't leave, Ye Tiancheng and the others walked to the front desk.
Ye Tiancheng asked the motel owner, "What is going on? Why can't we leave?"
The motel owner chuckled and said to them, "You wouldn't know."
"Gentlemen... you must be new here, which is why you didn't look for the booklet when you checked in. You don't know that on certain days, certain places cannot be visited, otherwise, you would encounter situations like this."
Ye Tiancheng looked at him and said, "We don't know, but you do. Why do you still stay here?"
The motel owner said, "I'd like to leave, but who made me the owner here? So I can't leave. No matter what happens, after all, I don't want to die."
Nie Chongyang also leaned over the front desk and tapped the counter with his hand.
He said to the motel owner, "Tell us carefully. I see that as someone who knows, you seem to have quite a desire to confide."
The motel owner's expression looked somewhat helpless.
However, he still spoke.
The motel owner said, "Since I brought it up, it's not that I'm completely unwilling to say. I can tell you, but you have to agree to make a deal with me."
Ye Tiancheng asked the motel owner, "What kind of deal do you want to make with us? Do you want money again?"
The motel owner shook his head.
He denied, "No, no, no, this time I don't want money."
The little fox rested one arm on the counter, staring at the motel owner.
"Then what do you want?"
The motel owner said to them, "You've survived two nights, two whole nights! You must have some special abilities, right?"
No one answered the motel owner's question directly.
The little fox looked at him, "Uh-huh?"
The motel owner continued, "Don't pretend. Although I'm not a capable person, I at least have a position as the owner of this motel, so I can know some things."
"I know you are capable people, and you must also be trying to find a way to leave this damned place, right?"
"My condition is very simple. I can tell you as much as I know, but in return, when you are looking for a way to leave this place, if you really find a way to leave, you must take me with you."
Ye Tiancheng met the motel owner's gaze.
This time, the motel owner met Ye Tiancheng's gaze without flinching, his eyes firm.
Ye Tiancheng didn't deny what the motel owner said. He just said to the motel owner, "A deal isn't impossible, but what guarantee do you have that you're telling the truth?"
The motel owner persisted in meeting Ye Tiancheng's gaze for half a minute before looking away.
He said, "I have no way to prove myself. You can only choose yourselves whether to believe what I say."
Ye Tiancheng and the other three exchanged silent glances. Finally, Ye Tiancheng stepped forward as their representative and said, "Alright, if the information you provide is truly useful and you haven't lied, we will definitely take you with us when we leave here."
He added, "Do we need to write an agreement?"
In this place, whether such a document was useful depended entirely on the self-awareness of the person writing it.
The motel owner thought for a moment and said, "That's fine. Although the binding force of this thing is debatable, we don't have any better way to prove it to each other. Another written agreement is the best way."