This speech almost woke everyone up, and it also woke Qi Xia.
Yes, the liar indeed has a huge chance of winning.
Qi Xia furrowed his brow. Why does his chance of winning seem so big?
Lying to a group of strangers—people who don't know him, don't understand him—just making up a random lie would be hard for anyone to see through.
Could using a fake name really cost him the lives of eight people?
Or perhaps...
Could it be that the one who drew "liar" is the chosen one, and this is inherently an unfair game?
"No, wait..." Qi Xia thought to himself. "If drawing the 'liar' card ensures survival, why not just write 'life' and 'death' directly on the cards? That would make the goal much easier to achieve. Otherwise, what's the point of this hour-long game?"
A deep sense of discomfort spread within him.
Qi Xia kept replaying every word the goat-headed man had said.
Could it be...
"Hey, it's your turn." Qiao Jiajin patted Qi Xia on the shoulder.
Qi Xia snapped out of it and noticed everyone was looking at him with strange expressions.
At this point, it was too late to think any further. Otherwise, he'd only seem more suspicious.
He composed himself, sorted his thoughts, and continued.
His mind kept repeating the phrase "My name is Li Ming, I'm from Shandong..."
But at this moment, he absolutely couldn't use this answer. To find the solution to this game, he had to take a gamble.
Qi Xia opened his eyes and said to everyone, "Everyone, my name is Qi Xia, I'm from Shandong, and I'm a professional swindler."
"Swindler?"
Upon hearing the first sentence from Qi Xia, everyone gasped. After all, the role of the "swindler" appeared in many people's stories.
This swindler was the one who vaguely connected everyone's stories.
Ironically, they now had to judge whether a swindler was telling the truth.
"Before coming here, I was trying to clean the two million I had in hand."
"Anyway, I went through a lot of effort, and in the end, I managed to pocket one hundred and forty thousand. This was the most cost-effective method I could think of."
"But on the way back, I suddenly encountered an earthquake. I saw my house shaking."
"Logically, during such a time, I should never have gone inside, since the house could collapse at any moment. But I was worried about the people inside, so I had no choice but to rush in."
"Sure enough, as I entered, the porch collapsed, and I was crushed, losing consciousness."
Qi Xia said all this in a calm tone, only a few words to tell his story, and everyone stared at him warily.
He knew he was doing something very risky, but only by doing this could he verify whether his idea was correct.
If the goat-headed man spoke now, it would mean his guess was almost certainly right.
As Qi Xia expected, the goat-headed man slowly walked up to the front and said to everyone, "Good, everyone has finished telling their stories. Now, there will be twenty minutes for free discussion. After twenty minutes, everyone will need to write a name on the piece of paper in front of you."
"Just as I thought!" Qi Xia raised his eyebrows. "There really are twenty minutes!"
This explained everything!
At this moment, the group began to panic. After all, there were only twenty minutes left to decide their fate.
Qiao Jiajin and Li Shangwu both wanted to vote for each other. Perhaps due to their professions, there was a lot of animosity between them.
Dr. Zhao began questioning the writer Han Yimo, since Han Yimo's story had no connection to anyone else's.
Lawyer Zhang and Xiao Ran seemed to be suspicious of Qi Xia, while Lin Qing, Han Yimo, and Tian Tian were still hesitating.
According to the surface rules, it seemed like the game's liar was about to win.
Because the votes weren't unanimous.
The rules were clear: only if everyone selected the liar could all eight people survive.
Qi Xia didn't participate in any of the discussions and quietly closed his eyes.
Countless clues were spinning in his mind.
The goat-headed man said, "There is only one liar among the storytellers."
The goat-headed man said, "The rules are absolute."
The goat-headed man said, "Everyone has been asleep for twelve hours."
Qi Xia opened his eyes. Now, only one last piece of information was needed to solve this "puzzle."
But where was that information?
Suddenly, a flash of insight lit up in his mind.
The lines on the walls and floor, crisscrossing, instantly made him wide awake. He looked at the clock on the table; it was almost 1:00.
"So that's it..." Qi Xia widened his eyes. "So close... I'm a swindler, yet I almost got fooled by all of you."
The group noticed Qi Xia's odd behavior. After all, this swindler had barely spoken up from the start, and no one knew what he was thinking.
"Hey, can I get another piece of paper?" Qi Xia asked the goat-headed man.
Hearing this, the goat-headed man was visibly stunned, then tentatively asked, "You... want another piece of paper?"
"Yes," Qi Xia nodded. "I need a scratch paper."
The goat-headed man fell silent for a while, then took out another piece of paper from his suit pocket and handed it to Qi Xia.
Qi Xia didn't hesitate. He took the paper and immediately started calculating.
He counted the large squares on the wall—there were nine in total, and the squares on the floor and ceiling added up to sixteen.
"If I'm not mistaken..." Qi Xia quickly scribbled something. "The squares are one per square meter. This means we are in a room that is three meters high, with a length and width of four meters..."
"Four times four times three... forty-eight cubic meters."
Qi Xia's hand slightly trembled. "Not enough... not nearly enough..."
The group stared at him in confusion. This was clearly a question about who was lying, yet he was doing math.
He continued writing many long division problems and ended up with the numbers 54.6 and 49.14.
When he saw these numbers, Qi Xia's face turned ashen, as if he was trying to accept something.
If his guess was completely correct, the situation now was truly terrifying.
His eyes flickered as his thoughts soared to the sky.
The arguments around him gradually quieted.
The man in front of them hadn't participated in any discussion, only scribbling something. Did he really find the "answer" to the problem?
After a long time, he finally looked up and gazed at everyone.
His eyes showed a mix of fear, hesitation, doubt, and confusion.
"Everyone," Qi Xia cleared his throat, speaking softly, "I didn't want to save you, but if you pick the wrong one, I'll die too. I absolutely cannot die here; someone is waiting for me outside. So no matter what, I must find a way to leave. I can only reveal the answer now. Please listen carefully to what I have to say."
"Handsome, what do you mean by 'answer'?" Qiao Jiajin, closest to Qi Xia, asked in surprise. "Do you know who's lying?"
Qi Xia didn't answer. He simply took his identity card, slowly revealing it to everyone.
"This is the identity I drew."
Everyone looked closely at the card. The words "Liar" were particularly eye-catching.
[--------------------------------------------]
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