12 Time to test what we can do

"You three, clean the floor and you four boys, come with me to do some heavy work." Matt ordered the gang as he walked through the bar towards the exit.

"Coming, Boss!" Clint's mood changed abruptly and sounded as if he was more excited and inspired to work. Ian and Sai shifted their heads to the sides, seeing each other, before sighing.

"Boss, can we go out in the afternoon during lunch? We will be back before lunchtime is over. The thing is..." Leo called out to Matt and started to give him some kind of excuse why the seven want to check their Qi again. Matt didn't understand the logic well, but Leo made sure he was confused for sure.

"It's your first day and you seven are already asking for favours huh? But whatever, if it is the Qi exam then no one has the right to stop you. Such are the rules, so make sureto notbe late." Matt was actually mad in a way, but he didn't want to shout at them on their first day.

The seven munched down the same amount of food as the day before, but faster and left in a hurry. The last morsel of food was still in poor Erina's mouth, when she was dragged in a hurry to the office.

"Sir, we want to reserve seven spots for Qi test." Leo spoke for the rest of the gang.

"You do know that the candidate himself must be here even for reservation, right?" The officer had a stern tone and a wrinkled serious face on him.

"Yes, we do. Well, the reservations are for us seven." Leo and the rest let out a gentle smile to which the middle aged man in the counter countered with a face which screamed 'What?!'.

"Sixteen!" The seven said ever so casually but at the same time to which the middle aged man's right eye started to twitch.

"You young lads are seventeen and you never tested your Qi!?" The middle aged man shouted as he slammed the table with both hands before he stood up.

"Oh about that..." Leo started talking to the middle aged man. The group sighed with a smile before looking at each other and giggling in their minds. They knew very well that Leo would be well prepared to tell another good story, which made them feel a little bad for the man in the counter, who was going to be confused and manipulated.

"Ah! Whatever! Just take these seven tokens. Your turn would probably come in a week's time. Just be here on the 7th day, around the same time." The middle aged man was very agitated and it was clear by the tone he was using.

The seven took the tokens and left the office, giggling as they were before.

"Poor guy, we had no choice but to play with him." Sai said with a smile and hints of pity for the confused middle aged man.

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"Aiko, bill for table 5." Matt shouted from the other end of the bar which was now a restaurant. Almost everyone worked in the day, due to which they wouldn't have any customers at that time. After learning this, Leo advised Matt to covert the bar into a restaurant every afternoon and open it as a bar in the night but Matt wasn't very sure of his idea. But two days after following Leo's plan, their income rose by fifty percent and so did the group's salary.The restaurant became more and more popular because it only served for a limited time per day and also due to some new dishes that Aiko taught the chef.

"Got it Boss." Aiko rushed towards the table.

"Matt, we need to go for the Qi test we told you about." Leo approached Matt from the behind slowly knowing it was the peak time for the restaurant.

"What?! Yeah, but I don't think we can handle it without the seven of you."

"Ah!!! I guess I've got no choice but to let you go. Qi exam can never be prioritized below anything. You won't be returning till night for sure. Well, I will just hope things go good for you, but if it goes good for you then I will lose the seven of you and if it goes bad then I won't lose you seven . Don't worry,I won't wish you bad luck for my own selfishness,alright? Hahahaha!"

"Best of luck to you seven. Now go!"

"Lily, bring the change for table 5."

"Let's go everyone. We can't afford to be late." Reeva said loudly, as she removed the apron on her and rushed towards the exit along with the others.

The same middle aged man was in the counter squinting his eyes, trying to confirm whether the people approaching from afar, were the same seven.

"Right on time you teenagers. There is a 12 year old kid inside the Examination room. As soon as he is finished, start going in one by one. A person usually sits one to two hours in front of the emerald. The officer inside the room will tell your state of Qi after that."

"Understood sir." Leo said with a pleasant smile as he pulled back to sit on one of the chairs nearby.

"Leo, what's the exam going to be?" Ian came rushing to Leo's side.

"I got no idea as well. We will be directed anyway, just calm down. I will go in first and tell the five of you what happens inside, but one of you will have to go in without knowing anything, just like me, after I come out." Leo was very calm in his words.

"Hey you seven, the kid inside is done. And he flunked the exam it seems. One of you can go in now."

"I will go in now." Leo got up from his seat still maintaining his composure. The other six looked at him with worried eyes.

"It's going to take at least one or two hours for him to come out. If anything out of ordinary happens for Leo, then the same might happen to us." Reeva had a concerned look on her face as it involved everyone's future.

'About that Reeva...'

"Yeah? " Reeva looked around in question, at the other five, to see who called her but everyone shook their head denying that it wasn't them.

"Here, Reeva."