"Stop stirring up trouble," Officer Li glared sternly at Qiao Jiajin. "You're a loan shark, and I'm a cop. Who do you think everyone is going to trust?"
Qi Xia watched the argument unfold, feeling sure that Officer Li wasn't lying—he was truly a detective. However, the officer's approach seemed misguided. Whether driven by instinct or a sense of justice, he was determined to organize the group.
The mandatory break was already halfway over, and the room began to quiet down. During that time, Qi Xia mentally repeated his own story countless times: "My name is Li Ming." It had become almost tiresome, but he forced himself to stay focused, even as the broken corpse next to him made it difficult.
Blood dripped from the table to the floor, and after nearly an hour in the same room as the body, a sickening stench was beginning to permeate the air. Qi Xia glanced at the corpse beside him, noting how his pants were now filthy. After death, the body's muscles relax, often leading to incontinence. The smell of decay hadn't even set in yet, but the room already reeked.
A girl seated on the other side of the corpse covered her nose and mouth, clearly distressed by the odor. Ten more minutes passed before the voice of the goat-headed figure cut through the room, "The twenty-minute break is over. The game resumes."
The young man named Han Yimo took a deep breath and began speaking. "My name is Han Yimo. I'm an online novel writer."
"Before I came here, I was in my rented apartment, finishing the final chapter of my story. It's a big project with over a hundred characters appearing in the climax, so I was completely absorbed in writing and didn't notice anything happening outside."
"In fact... I don't even know when the earthquake hit or when I lost consciousness."
Han Yimo's story was different from the others. It was short, detached, and ended abruptly with just a few sentences.
"That's it?" The large man looked surprised. "You're just going to end it with 'I don't know'?"
"Since I can't lie, there's no need to make up a story to fit in," Han Yimo replied in a calm but convincing voice.
"Fine... let's move on." Officer Li's expression remained wary as he turned to the next person. "The lady next."
"Hey, cop," Qiao Jiajin interrupted, clearly annoyed by Officer Li's authority. "We're all 'participants' here. Don't act like you're the leader."
"Someone needs to step up and organize this group," Officer Li argued back. "I've said it before: there's only one enemy among us. The other eight need to stick together."
"That doesn't mean it has to be you giving orders," Qiao Jiajin retorted, showing no respect for Li's words. "Out there, I might be afraid of you, but here, who knows if you're the 'liar'?"
"Enough," the cool woman interrupted. From the beginning, she had been the one to call out the goat-headed figure for holding them captive for twenty-four hours, speaking with a calm and logical demeanor.
With the two men silenced, she continued, "In this 'game,' whoever wins will be considered an 'indirect killer' by the others. That's what you should be thinking about."
Qi Xia's expression shifted slightly at her words. If he were to make it out of this room alive, he would indeed have "killed" the other eight. But what choice did he have?
His card read "Liar," a role he couldn't afford to reveal. Who would willingly give up their life so that others could survive?
"My name is Zhang Chenze. I'm a lawyer," the woman announced, crossing her arms, her face impassive. "It's unfortunate to meet you all under these circumstances. Otherwise, I would have offered you my business card."
Her dry humor was lost on the others, but she didn't seem to care.
"Before coming here, I was organizing my files for an upcoming court case. My client was swindled out of two million yuan—a significant amount, and a serious case."
At the mention of "two million," most remained indifferent, but Qiao Jiajin's eyes widened with shock. "Two million?"
"Yes, two million. People say lawyers are impartial, but we have our private motivations too. That man borrowed high-interest loans to support his family, which was concerning. Though illegal loans are another case entirely, unrelated to mine."
"When the earthquake hit, I was driving to meet my client, on Qingyang Avenue. I had just passed Du Fu's Thatched Cottage and was near the Wuhou Shrine. I remember I wasn't going fast, about forty kilometers per hour, when I saw the road ahead splitting open."
"I braked immediately, stopping just in front of the crack, but a car behind me failed to react in time, leading to a chain-reaction collision."
"There were loud crashes, and my car was pushed into the fissure. Then everything went dark, and I found myself here."
With her story complete, only three people remained.
"The Wuhou Shrine..." Dr. Zhao pondered aloud. "You mean the one in Chengdu?"
"Yes, I work in Chengdu."
It seemed the earthquake had impacted the entire country.
Piecing together these fragmented stories to identify the liar was proving nearly impossible.
"My turn," Officer Li said, looking around the table. "I already mentioned my name—Li Shangwu. I'm a detective from Inner Mongolia."
"Before arriving here, I was on a stakeout for a fraudster. We had solid intelligence on his location."
"The suspect was involved in a significant scam—two million yuan, the largest reported case in our city this year."
"My partner and I had been monitoring the target's residence from our car, waiting for him to show."
"But this suspect was more cautious than we anticipated. He didn't show up for three days straight."
"Three days, eating, drinking, and doing everything in that car—we were mentally exhausted."
"But you know what's harder than going without food or water for a grown man?"
"Being out of cigarettes."
"We were out of smokes. Technically, we weren't supposed to leave, but the craving was unbearable."
"So I sent my partner running to buy cigarettes while I kept watch on the suspect's door."
"I didn't expect what came next. Not long after he left, the ground started shaking violently. I tried to get out of the car to see what was going on, but someone looped a thin wire around my neck from behind."
"Despite our training in close combat, the angle of the wire made it impossible for me to counter. I couldn't reach behind me or remove it from my neck."
Everyone looked at Officer Li, noticing a red mark around his neck.
"I managed to recline my seat to breathe, but I couldn't turn around. My size made it impossible—I was trapped under the steering wheel."
"The assailant took advantage of my vulnerable position and struck my head hard with something. That's when I lost consciousness."
The others exchanged uneasy glances. Li's account differed significantly from the rest. Everyone else had been knocked out by accidents. Only he had been attacked.
If they had to choose the most suspicious person, wouldn't it be him?