"Don't try to sow discord, you brat," Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin, speaking very sternly. "You are the one who lends money, and I am the police. Who do you think people will believe?"
Qi Xia glanced at the noisy crowd, realizing that Officer Li was not lying; he was indeed a criminal police officer.
However, his direction was wrong.
Perhaps it was his professional instinct, or perhaps a sense of justice, but he always wanted to organize the crowd in an orderly manner.
The intermission had already passed its halfway point, and the crowd gradually quieted down.
During this time, Qi Xia had repeated "My name is Li Ming" in his mind countless times, to the point that he was starting to feel annoyed.
After all, there was a shattered corpse lying beside him, making it impossible to find peace of mind.
Blood dripped from the table onto the floor with a steady "dida" sound, and the crowd had been in the same room as the corpse for almost an hour. A strange stench began to waft through the air.
Qi Xia casually glanced at the corpse beside him; his pants were already filthy.
After a person dies, various organs temporarily lose the muscle control, leading to incontinence.
Before the stench of decay set in, a foul odor had already hit him head-on.
Qi Xia and another girl sat on either side of the corpse. The girl seemed quite displeased with the smell and kept covering her mouth and nose with her hand.
Another ten minutes passed, and the goat-headed man finally spoke up: "The twenty-minute intermission is over; the game will resume."
The young man named Han Yimo took a deep breath to steady himself and said, "My name is Han Yimo, and I am a web novel writer."
"Before coming here, I was in my rented apartment writing the ending of a novel. Since the story features over a hundred characters, almost all of them need to appear in the conclusion, so I was completely focused on writing and didn't hear any commotion outside."
"I didn't even realize when the earthquake happened or when I lost consciousness..."
Han Yimo's account was different from everyone else's; it seemed he was completely "independent," and he abruptly stopped speaking after just a few sentences.
"That's it?" the burly man said, slightly taken aback. "You just say 'I don't know' and consider that the end?"
"Because I can't lie, I don't need to fabricate an answer just to please everyone," Han Yimo's voice, though quiet, somehow carried a sense of conviction.
"Alright... then it's the next person's turn," Officer Li said, still looking skeptical. "It's the lady's turn now."
"Hey, officer," Qiao Jiajin said, somewhat dissatisfied with Officer Li's attitude. "We're all 'participants' here; you don't need to act like a captain."
"Someone has to step up and organize everyone," Officer Li retorted. "I've already said that there is only one enemy among us, and the remaining eight must unite."
"That doesn't mean you get to call the shots," Qiao Jiajin completely dismissed Officer Li's words. "I might be afraid of you outside, but in this situation, no one knows if you're the 'liar.'
"Please stop arguing, both of you," the cold woman interjected, cutting off the two.
From the beginning, this cold woman had accused the goat-headed man of imprisoning everyone for twenty-four hours. She seemed very clear-headed and calm.
Seeing the two calm down, she continued, "In this so-called 'game,' regardless of who wins in the end, the remaining people could be seen as 'indirect murderers,' since it is our collective vote that led to someone being killed. This is what you all should be considering."
Hearing this, Qi Xia's expression changed slightly.
If he really managed to leave this room alive, then he would indeed have 'killed' the other eight.
But what could he do about it?
The card in front of him was a genuine "liar." Who would willingly give up their life to let others live?
"My name is Zhang Chenze, and I am a lawyer," the cold woman said, arms crossed and expressionless. "It's unfortunate to meet everyone in such a bizarre place; otherwise, I would have handed you my business card."
The crowd couldn't quite understand Zhang Chenze's humor, but she seemed indifferent to it.
"Before coming here, I was organizing court documents. My client was defrauded of two million yuan, which is a significant amount and of a serious nature."
When she mentioned the figure of "two million," everyone's expressions remained normal, but Qiao Jiajin clearly looked shocked and asked, "Two million?"
"That's right, two million. They say lawyers are the most just and selfless people, but we also have personal feelings. That man borrowed money from loan sharks to support his family, which is quite concerning. However, illegal lending is a separate case and has nothing to do with me."
"When the earthquake struck, I was driving to meet my client. I was on Qingyang Avenue, just past the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, near the Wuhou Shrine. I remember... I wasn't driving fast, about forty miles per hour, when I suddenly saw the ground crack up ahead."
"I immediately slammed on the brakes and stopped steadily in front of the crack, but I didn't expect the cars behind me to be unable to avoid it, resulting in a series of rear-end collisions."
"I only heard a few loud crashes, and my car was pushed into the crack. After that, I lost consciousness and ended up here."
Another story came to an end, and now only three people had yet to share.
"Wuhou Shrine..." Dr. Zhao pondered for a moment and said, "Is it the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"
"Yes, I work in Chengdu."
It seemed that this earthquake had affected the entire country.
Just based on these unfamiliar stories, it was really difficult to guess who was lying.
"Now it's my turn," Officer Li said, looking at everyone. "I've already mentioned my name; I'm Li Shangwu, a criminal police officer from Inner Mongolia."
"Before coming here, I was keeping watch on a fraudster. According to reliable information, we had already grasped the exact whereabouts of the suspect."
"This suspect was involved in a massive fraud case, with an amount as high as two million yuan. It was the first major fraud case reported in our city this year."
"My colleague and I had been monitoring from the car, just waiting for the fraudster to show up."
"But the suspect was smarter than we had anticipated; he seemed to sense some danger and didn't show up for three consecutive days."
"We spent those three days eating, drinking, and taking care of everything in the car, and our spirits were about to break."
"But do you know what is more unbearable for an adult man than not having food or drink?"
"It's not having any cigarettes."
"We didn't have a single cigarette between the two of us. According to protocol, we absolutely couldn't leave our posts, but the craving for a cigarette was too difficult to bear."
"So, I had my colleague run to buy some cigarettes while I kept a close watch on the entrances and exits of the suspect's residence."
"But what I didn't expect was that shortly after my colleague left, the ground began to shake violently. I was about to get out of the car to see what was happening when suddenly, I was choked from behind with a thin wire around my neck."
"Although we were all very skilled in close combat, the thin wire being pulled from the back seat was extremely difficult to handle. I couldn't even reach the person behind me, let alone remove the wire from around my neck."
At this point, everyone looked closely at Officer Li and noticed a red mark around his neck.
"So, I immediately reclined the seat to regain my breath, but I couldn't turn around, as my tall frame had my legs stuck under the steering wheel."
"The person behind me took advantage of the moment I was lying down and struck me hard on the head with something, causing me to lose consciousness."
After hearing Officer Li's words, the crowd couldn't help but begin to doubt.
He described a completely different situation. Prior to him, all the participants had been injured and lost consciousness due to accidents.
Only he had been attacked and ended up here.
If they had to choose the most suspicious person among them, wouldn't it be him?