At this moment, the tattooed man raised his hand and looked at the goat-headed man. "Hey, referee, what about people who use aliases? Does that count as lying?"
The goat-headed man neither nodded nor shook his head, merely replying calmly, "I will no longer participate in any of the process. You must write down the names according to your own judgment. Just remember, 'the rules are absolute.' In the end, I will personally administer 'punishment' to the losers."
The words "punishment" were spoken with such finality that everyone couldn't help but shudder.
"This... this just proves that I didn't lie!" Tiantian cried urgently, "If I were lying, I would be dead by now, right? Even if it's an alias, my alias really is 'Tiantian'!"
No one answered her. Now was the critical moment, where it was either life or death, and every doubt had to be carefully considered.
"Next, it's my turn to speak," the tattooed man said, curling his lips in apparent reluctance. "If her story doesn't count as a lie, then I certainly don't count as one."
"My name is Qiao Jiajin, I live in Guangdong, and I don't have a job. Before coming here, I was collecting debts."
Qiao Jiajin's Mandarin wasn't very good, and everyone had to listen carefully to understand.
"The people these days are really interesting. When they borrow money, they'll agree to anything, but when it comes to paying it back, they start crying about how tough their situation is."
"Those bastards call us debt collectors 'devils,' 'heartless.'"
"But that guy should try to see it from a different angle. When he was at his lowest, when he needed money the most, it was me who extended a hand. When no institutions would lend him money, I did. To him, I wasn't a devil; I was his savior."
"But how did he repay his savior?"
"He went around crying about how hard his life was, saying he was scammed out of two million. He even blasted us debt collectors for being so heartless, trying to use the sympathy of neighbors to get out of his predicament. But when he borrowed the money, we signed a contract. All the interest terms were clearly explained to him. Now he can't pay it back, and somehow, it's our problem?"
"Last night, I wanted to teach him a lesson. I took him to the rooftop of a tall building, but suddenly there was an earthquake. Originally, I didn't want to kill him, but this bastard pulled out a knife in the chaos and tried to kill me!"
"In the confusion, he pushed me off the roof and I crashed into an advertising billboard. The rest... I can't remember."
After hearing the man's story, everyone furrowed their brows.
Sweetie, seemingly noticing something, suddenly laughed angrily and said, "See! I told you why you were slandering me! Turns out, you're the liar!"
"What? Why are you accusing me of lying?" Joe Jiajin said fiercely.
"I'm from Shaanxi, you're from Guangdong!" Sweetie pointed at him and said, "Your story is exactly the same as mine! There was an earthquake in my place, and now there's one in yours. I was hit by an advertising billboard, and you just happened to crash into one too! How is that not lying?"
"I don't care where you're from! I just experienced an earthquake," the man with tattoos said, glaring. "If I hid that, then it would be lying! As for the billboard, there's no way there's only one in the world, right?"
"Anyway, you're lying!" Sweetie pointed at Joe Jiajin, "Your job is already something only bad people do, so lying isn't surprising!"
"Heh, and how is your job any better than mine?" Joe Jiajin retorted.
Qixia watched the heated argument between the two and felt something was off. It wasn't because either of them was lying, but because he also experienced an earthquake.
He wasn't in Shaanxi, nor in Guangdong—he was in Shandong. Could there really have been such a large-scale earthquake? This earthquake spanned half the country, affecting three provinces.
If what they both said is true, this would be an unprecedented disaster.
"Enough, stop arguing. Let's finish this quickly," the muscular man sitting across from them intervened, then glanced at the next girl. "It's your turn. If we're really going to judge who's lying, let everyone finish their stories first."
Hearing this, both Joe Jiajin and Sweetie snorted in unison, falling silent.
The woman sitting next to Joe Jiajin, looking timid, nodded and began, her voice small and trembling. "Um... my name is Xiao Ran, and I'm a kindergarten teacher."
It was clear that Xiao Ran was scared. Her voice quivered with nervousness as she continued, "Before I came here, I was with a child, waiting for the parents to pick him up. The child's mother used to pick him up, but then I heard she got very ill—she has something growing in her brain and needs surgery... So, for the past few days, his father has been picking him up, but it seems like he often forgets..."
"It was already past six o'clock in the evening. Actually, I had already finished work, but for some reason, the child's father just wouldn't answer the phone..."
"I didn't know the child's home address, so I couldn't send him home. I could only stand at the street corner and wait with him."
"Actually, I had something planned that night... I had an appointment with a psychologist. I felt like I didn't enjoy my current job, and I hoped the psychologist could help me sort things out."
"But I didn't expect to wait for several hours, and my meeting in the evening ended up being canceled."
"As I was zoning out, suddenly the ground started shaking. I was so scared... It took several seconds for me to realize it was an earthquake..."
"The feeling of the earthquake wasn't like what I had heard about... The ground didn't bounce up and down, it swayed from side to side. It felt like I was standing on a table, and someone kept shaking the table."
"This time, I immediately hugged the child in my arms, but I didn't know what to do. I saw the three towers of Chongsheng Temple in the distance crack... Luckily, we were standing in an open area."
"Then, I saw a car speeding towards us, out of control... I could only stumble and run to the side while holding the child, but the shaking ground made me fall with every step I took."
"Finally, when I fell, I hit my head... and then passed out. When I woke up, I was already here."
It was an uneventful story, with nothing particularly remarkable about it.
What made Qi Xia feel strange was the mention of "Chongsheng Temple Three Pagodas."
These three pagodas are in Dali, Yunnan.
Qi Xia gently stroked the card on the table. Although he held the three words down with his hand, he knew that what was written there was "Liar."
At this point, Qi Xia's mind was racing. If "the rule is absolute," then what the goat-headed man said about "only one liar" must be true. Since he had drawn the "liar" card, it meant no one else could be the liar—only he could be the one deceiving.
But the fact that their stories had interwoven across three provinces, not just the earthquake, but even the details of their narratives connecting in such an odd way—it was starting to feel like something much bigger was at play.
It was too strange to ignore.
Now, everyone's gaze shifted toward the next person—the middle-aged man in the white lab coat.