Chapter 6: The Policeman

"Don't make trouble, kid," Officer Li glared at Qiao Jijin and said very sternly, "You're a loan shark, and I'm a police officer. Who do you think everyone will believe?"

Qi Xia looked at the noisy crowd. He knew that Officer Li wasn't lying—he really was a detective.But he was going in the wrong direction.Perhaps due to his professional nature or sense of justice, he always wanted to organize everyone in an orderly manner.

The intermission was already half over, and the crowd gradually quieted down.During this time, Qi Xia had repeated in his heart countless times, "I am Li Ming," until he was a bit annoyed.After all, there was a corpse with a shattered head lying next to him, making it impossible to calm down.Blood was dripping from the table onto the floor, drop by drop. The crowd had been in the same room as this corpse for almost an hour, and a strange stench began to spread.Qi Xia casually glanced at the corpse beside him; his pants were already filthy.After a person dies, in a short time, various organs lose their muscle control, causing incontinence.Before the corpse odor arrived, a foul smell had already hit them.Qi Xia and another girl were sitting on either side of the corpse. The girl seemed very dissatisfied with the smell and kept covering her mouth and nose with her hand.

Another ten minutes passed, and the goat head finally spoke:"The twenty-minute intermission is over. The game resumes."

Then, the young man named Han Yimo steadied his mind, took a deep breath, and said:"I am Han Yimo, a web novel writer. Before coming here, I was in my rented house writing the finale of a novel. Since there were over a hundred characters in the book, almost all had to appear in the finale, so I was concentrating intently and didn't hear any outside noises at all.""Even... I don't know when the earthquake happened or when I lost consciousness..."

Han Yimo's story was different from everyone's; it seemed he was completely "independent," and he stopped after just a few short sentences.

"Just like that?" The muscular man was slightly stunned. "Is saying 'I don't know' enough to end it?"

"Because I can't lie, so I don't need to make up an answer to please everyone." Although Han Yimo's voice wasn't loud, it was inexplicably convincing.

"Alright... next one then," Officer Li still looked suspicious and said, "It's that lady's turn."

"Hey, cop," Qiao Jijin was somewhat dissatisfied with Officer Li's attitude. "We're all 'participants.' Don't act like you're the captain."

"Someone has to organize everyone, right?" Officer Li retorted. "I've said it before, among us, there's only one enemy, and the remaining eight must unite."

"Then it's not your turn to command," Qiao Jijin didn't take Officer Li's words seriously at all. "Outside, I might be afraid of you, but in this situation, who knows if you're the 'liar'."

"Don't argue, you two," the cool woman interrupted them.

This cool woman had been accusing the goat head of imprisoning everyone for twenty-four hours from the beginning. She seemed clear-headed and very calm.Seeing the two calm down, she continued: "In this so-called 'game,' no matter who wins in the end, the survivors might be seen as 'accomplices to murder,' because it's our collective vote that led to the goat killing him. That's what you should be considering."

Hearing this, Qi Xia's expression changed slightly.If he really survived and left this room, then he had indeed "killed" the other eight.But what could he do?The card in front of him was a genuine "liar." Who would willingly give up their life to let others live?

"I am Zhang Chenze, a lawyer," the cool woman said with her arms crossed and an expressionless face. "It's a pity to meet everyone in this strange place. Otherwise, I would definitely hand out my business cards."

Everyone couldn't understand Zhang Chenze's humor, but she didn't seem to care."Before coming here, I was organizing trial materials. My client was scammed out of two million yuan; the amount is huge and the nature is malicious."

When she mentioned "two million," everyone's expressions were normal, but Qiao Jijin was clearly shocked and asked:"Two million?"

"That's right, two million. They say lawyers are the most impartial, but we have our own emotions. That man borrowed high-interest loans to support his family, which is worrying. But illegal lending is another case and has nothing to do with me.""When the earthquake hit, I was driving to see my client on Qingyang Avenue, just past Du Fu Caotang, near Wuhou Ci. I remember... I wasn't driving fast, about forty kilometers per hour, when I suddenly saw the ground ahead crack open.""I immediately braked and stopped steadily in front of the crack, but the car behind couldn't avoid it and caused a chain rear-end collision.""I only heard a few loud bangs, and the car was pushed into the crack, then I passed out and ended up here."

Another story ended; now only three people hadn't told theirs.

"Wuhou Ci..." Zhao Yisheng thought for a moment and said, "Is that the Wuhou Ci in Chengdu?"

"Yes, I work in Chengdu."

It seems this earthquake covered the whole country.Based on these unfamiliar stories, it's really hard to guess who's lying.

"Next is me," Officer Li looked at everyone. "I already said my name earlier; I am Li Shangwu, a detective, from Inner Mongolia.""Before coming here, I was staking out a fraudster; according to reliable information, we had the suspect's exact whereabouts.""This suspect defrauded a huge amount, up to two million yuan; it's the first major fraud case in our city this year.""My colleague and I were monitoring from the car, just waiting for the fraudster to appear.""But this suspect was smarter than we thought; he seemed to sense danger and didn't show up for three days straight.""We spent those three days eating, drinking, and everything in the car; we were about to lose it mentally.""But you know, for an adult man, what's more unbearable than not having food or drink?""It's running out of cigarettes.""We didn't have a single cigarette left; by principle, we absolutely couldn't leave our post, but without cigarettes, it was torture.""So, I sent my colleague to run and buy cigarettes, while I kept a close eye on the suspect's residence entrance.""But to my surprise, shortly after my colleague left, the whole ground started shaking violently. I wanted to get out of the car to see what was happening, but suddenly, someone from behind strangled me with a thin wire around my neck.""Although we're good at close combat, the wire from the back seat was hard to deal with. I couldn't reach the person behind me at all, and I couldn't remove the wire from my neck."

At this point, everyone looked at Officer Li and saw a red mark on his neck."So, I quickly reclined the seat and restored my breathing, but I couldn't turn around; after all, I'm tall, and my legs were stuck under the steering wheel.""The person behind took advantage of me lying down and hit me hard on the head with something, and I lost consciousness."

After hearing Officer Li's words, everyone started to suspect.He described a completely different situation; before him, all participants were injured and unconscious due to accidents.Only he was attacked and brought here.If we have to pick the most suspicious person among everyone, isn't it him?