At that moment, the tattooed man raised his hand and looked at the goat-headed figure. "Hey, referee, how do we handle names that could be aliases? Does that count as lying?"
The goat-headed figure neither nodded nor shook its head. It spoke in a calm, detached voice, "I will not participate in any of the proceedings. You only need to write down the names as you see fit. Just remember this: 'The rules are absolute.' In the end, I will personally deliver 'the judgment' to the loser."
The word *judgment* fell with such finality that a shiver ran through the group.
"So, this means I haven't lied!" Tiantian shouted, her voice edged with panic. "If I were lying, I'd be dead by now, right? Even if it's an alias, my name really *is* 'Tiantian'!"
No one answered her. They were at a critical juncture where even the slightest suspicion could mean life or death.
"It's my turn now," the tattooed man said with a grimace. "If her story isn't considered a lie, then mine shouldn't be either."
"My name is Qiao Jiajin. I live in Guangdong, and I have no particular job. Before coming here, I was collecting a debt."
His accent made his Mandarin difficult to follow, so everyone leaned in to listen.
"People these days, they're something else. They promise anything when they need money, but when it's time to pay up, they act pitiful."
"They curse us, calling debt collectors demons, cold-blooded."
"But those fools need to think from another angle. When they were at their lowest, when no one else would lend them a dime, *I* was the one who stepped in. When every institution turned them away, I was the one who helped. To them, I wasn't a demon—I was a savior."
"And how did he treat his savior?"
"He went around spreading sob stories, saying he was swindled out of two million and calling debt collectors heartless. He tried to stir up sympathy from his neighbors. But we had a contract. Every interest rate was crystal clear. Now that he can't pay up, is that our fault?"
"Last night, I decided to teach him a lesson. I took him to the rooftop of a bar. I wasn't planning on killing him, but out of nowhere, an earthquake hit. I didn't expect it, and neither did he. In the chaos, he pulled out a knife and tried to kill me!"
"In the ensuing struggle, we both fell off the rooftop and crashed into an advertising billboard. After that... I don't remember anything."
The group fell into silence, eyebrows furrowed at the man's tale.
Tiantian's eyes lit up as if she'd solved a mystery. She sneered, "See? Now it makes sense why you accused me! You're the liar here!"
"What? On what grounds do you call me a liar?" Qiao Jiajin spat back, his tone dangerous.
"I'm in Shaanxi, and you're in Guangdong!" Tiantian pointed an accusing finger. "Your story is just a copy of mine! I had an earthquake, and now you're saying you did too. I was hit by a billboard, and so were you! How is that not a lie?"
"I don't care where you were! I really did experience an earthquake." The tattooed man's eyes blazed. "If I left that detail out, then *that* would be a lie! And as for the billboard—there isn't only one in the world, is there?"
"Liar!" Tiantian shouted. "Your whole job reeks of dishonesty. It wouldn't be surprising if you were lying now!"
"Hah! And your profession is so noble, is it?"
Qi Xia watched the heated argument between them, sensing that something was indeed strange. It wasn't a matter of who was lying or telling the truth; it was the fact that he, too, had experienced an earthquake.
And he was neither in Shaanxi nor Guangdong—he was in Shandong.
Could there really be an earthquake spanning such a large distance across the country?
This earthquake seemed to stretch across three provinces, intertwining their stories in an unsettling way.
"If they're all telling the truth, this must be an unprecedented catastrophe," Qi Xia thought.
"Enough arguing. Let's finish this quickly," said the muscular man across the table, cutting through the tension. He glanced at the next person in line, a timid-looking young woman. "Your turn. If we're going to determine who's lying, we should hear everyone's stories first."
Both Tiantian and Qiao Jiajin exchanged a cold glare and fell silent.
The woman sitting beside Qiao Jiajin nodded nervously, her voice trembling as she began, "M-my name is Xiao Ran, and I'm a kindergarten teacher."
She looked terrified, her words barely above a whisper.
"Before I ended up here, I was waiting with one of the children for their parents. Usually, it was the mother who came to pick him up, but I'd heard she was very sick, something in her brain that needed surgery. So, his father started coming instead, though he often forgot…"
"It was already past six in the evening, long after my shift ended, and the father still wouldn't answer his phone."
"I didn't know their home address, so I couldn't take the child home myself. We just stood at the street corner and waited."
"I had my own appointment that evening… with a therapist. I haven't been very fond of my job lately, and I hoped the therapist could help me understand why."
"I didn't expect to wait for hours and miss my appointment."
"Just as I was lost in thought, the ground started to shake. It took me a few seconds to realize it was an earthquake…"
"It felt different from what I'd imagined. The earth wasn't jumping; it was swaying side to side, like standing on a table being shaken by unseen hands."
"My first instinct was to grab the child and hold him close, but I had no idea what to do. I saw the distant Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple start to crack… thankfully, we were in an open space."
"Then I noticed a speeding car, out of control, heading right for us. I tried to run, clutching the child, but the quaking ground made me fall with every step."
"The last time I fell, I hit my head… and blacked out. When I woke up, I was already here."
The group listened, more perplexed than before.
Qi Xia's fingers traced the card on the table, feeling the imprinted words he already knew: "Liar."
But could there be multiple liars?
If "the rules are absolute," as the goat-headed figure had said, and there could be only *one* liar, then that meant everyone else must be telling the truth.
Yet, these stories, spanning across three provinces and linked by an inexplicable event, seemed oddly connected.
All eyes turned to the next participant—a middle-aged man in a white lab coat.