"You, don't try to sow discord." Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin, speaking sternly, "You're a loan shark, and I'm a police officer. Who do you think everyone would believe?"
Qi Xia glanced at the noisy crowd. He knew that Officer Li probably wasn't lying; he really was a criminal investigator.
But his focus was wrong.
Perhaps it was his professional nature, or perhaps his sense of justice, but he seemed intent on organizing everyone.
The half-time break had passed its midpoint, and the room had quieted down.
During this time, Qi Xia had repeated "I'm Li Ming" to himself countless times, to the point where he was starting to feel frustrated.
After all, there was a dismembered corpse lying right next to him, making it impossible to focus.
Blood dripped steadily off the table, and after nearly an hour of being in the same room with the body, a strange foul odor began to fill the air.
Qi Xia casually glanced at the corpse next to him. Its head was shattered, and his pants were already soiled.
After death, the body's organs lose control of muscle strength, causing incontinence within a short time.
Before the stench of decay set in, an awful smell had already started to permeate the air.
Qi Xia was sitting on one side of the corpse, and a young woman sat on the other. She seemed very displeased with the smell and kept covering her nose with her hand.
Another ten minutes passed, and the man with the goat's head finally spoke: "The twenty-minute half-time break is over. The game will continue."
The young man, Han Yimo, who had introduced himself earlier, took a deep breath and said, "My name is Han Yimo, and I'm a web novel author."
"Before I came here, I was in the house I rented, writing the ending of a novel. Since the book features over a hundred characters, nearly all of them were supposed to appear in the final chapters, so I was focused entirely on writing and didn't hear anything going on outside."
"In fact... I don't even know when the earthquake struck or when I lost consciousness…"
Han Yimo's story was different from the others. It seemed entirely "independent," and his tale abruptly stopped after just a few sentences.
"That's it?" The muscular man was slightly taken aback. "You're just going to say 'I don't know,' and that's the end?"
"Because I can't lie, there's no need to make up a story to please everyone," Han Yimo's voice, though quiet, carried a strange conviction.
"Alright... Next," Officer Li said, still looking skeptical. "It's the lady's turn."
"Hey, officer." Qiao Jiajin seemed unhappy with Officer Li's tone. "We're all 'participants' here, so stop acting like you're the team leader."
"Someone has to take charge, right?" Officer Li defended himself. "I've already said, there's only one liar among us, and the other eight of us need to unite."
"That doesn't mean you get to command us," Qiao Jiajin disregarded Officer Li's words. "Maybe I'd be afraid of you outside, but in this situation, who knows if you're the 'liar.'"
"Alright, both of you stop arguing," the cold woman interjected, halting the argument.
She had been criticizing the man with the goat's head for imprisoning everyone for twenty-four hours from the very beginning, and she seemed clear-headed and calm.
Once they quieted down, she continued, "This 'game,' no matter who wins in the end, will make everyone else guilty of 'indirect murder.' That's what you should be thinking about."
Upon hearing this, Qi Xia's expression subtly changed.
If he really left this room alive, then yes, he would have indirectly "killed" the other eight.
But what could he do?
The card in front of him was clearly the "liar." Who would voluntarily give up their life to let others live?
"My name is Zhang Chenze, and I'm a lawyer," the cold woman said, her arms crossed, her face expressionless. "It's unfortunate to meet in such a bizarre place, or I would have handed you my business card."
The others didn't quite understand her sense of humor, but she didn't seem to care.
"Before I came here, I was organizing court documents. My client had been scammed out of two million yuan, a huge amount, and the case was severe."
When she mentioned the figure "two million," the others looked unbothered, but Qiao Jiajin was visibly shocked and asked, "Two million?"
"Right, two million. They say lawyers are the most impartial people, but we also have our personal feelings. That man had borrowed money from a loan shark to support his family, which was concerning. But the illegal loan is a separate case, not related to me."
"When the earthquake happened, I was driving to meet my client. I was on Qingyang Avenue, just past the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, and near Wuhou Shrine. I remember I wasn't driving fast, maybe about forty kilometers per hour. Suddenly, I saw the ground ahead crack open."
"I slammed on the brakes and stopped right in front of the crack. But unexpectedly, the car behind me couldn't avoid it and caused a chain collision."
"I heard several loud crashes, and my car was pushed into the crack. Then I lost consciousness and ended up here."
Another story concluded, and only three people remained to tell their tales.
"Wuhou Shrine…" Dr. Zhao pondered for a moment and then said, "Is that the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"
"Yes, I work in Chengdu," Zhang Chenze confirmed.
It seemed that the earthquake had affected the entire country.
It was hard to guess who was lying, with all these strange stories coming one after another.
"Now it's my turn," Officer Li said, looking at the group. "I've already introduced myself; my name is Li Shangwu, a criminal investigator, from Inner Mongolia."
"Before I came here, I was on stakeout for a fraudster. We had reliable information and knew the exact whereabouts of the suspect."
"This fraudster had scammed a huge amount—two million yuan. It was the first major fraud case we'd handled this year in our city."
"My colleagues and I had been watching from the car, waiting for the suspect to appear."
"But the suspect was more cunning than we thought. He seemed to sense something was wrong and had been avoiding showing up for three days."
"For three days, we had to eat, drink, and do everything in the car. We were on the brink of losing our sanity."
"But do you know what's worse for an adult man than not having food or water?"
"It's running out of cigarettes."
"We didn't even have one cigarette left. By protocol, we couldn't leave our post, but the craving was unbearable."
"So, I sent my colleague to buy cigarettes while I kept watch on the suspect's residence."
"But I didn't expect that, not long after he left, the earth started to shake violently. I wanted to get out of the car and see what was happening, but suddenly, someone from behind wrapped a thin wire around my neck."
"Though we were trained in close combat, the wire was very difficult to deal with. I couldn't reach the person behind me, and I couldn't get the wire off my neck."
At this point, the others looked closely at Officer Li and noticed a red mark around his neck.
"So, I quickly reclined my seat to restore my breathing. But I couldn't turn around. My large frame had my legs stuck under the steering wheel."
"Taking advantage of my position, the person behind me hit me hard on the head with something, and I lost consciousness."
After hearing Officer Li's story, the others began to doubt him.
His story was completely different from the others. Everyone else had been knocked out by accidents, but he was attacked by someone before ending up here.
If anyone were to be suspected of being the liar, it would surely be him.