Chapter 4: Disaster?
At this moment, the tattooed man raised his hand and looked at Goat Head. "Hey, referee, what about someone who uses a nickname? Does that count as lying?"
Goat Head neither nodded nor shook his head. He only said flatly, "I will no longer participate in any of the proceedings. You just need to write down the names according to your own judgment. Just remember—'The rules are absolute.' In the end, I will personally carry out the 'judgment' on the loser."
The words "judgment" landed heavily, causing everyone to shiver involuntarily.
"Th-this proves I didn't lie!" Tian Tian shouted anxiously. "If I were lying, I'd be dead by now, right? Even if it's a nickname, my nickname really is 'Tian Tian'!"
No one answered her. This was now a life-or-death critical moment, and no suspicion could be overlooked.
"Then it's my turn to speak." The tattooed man curled his lip, looking reluctant. "If that lady's story doesn't count as lying, then mine definitely doesn't either."
"My name is Qiao Jiajin. I live in Guangdong. No real profession. Before I came here, I was collecting debts."
Qiao Jiajin's Mandarin was poor, so everyone had to listen carefully.
"You know, people these days are really something. When they borrow money, they agree to anything. But when it's time to pay back, they start crying poor."
"Bastards. They call us debt collectors devils, cold-blooded."
"But that piece of trash should see it from another angle. When he was most helpless, when he needed money the most, I reached out a hand. When no institution would lend him a cent, I lent it to him. To him, I wasn't a devil—I was a savior."
"So how did he treat this savior of his?"
"He went around crying about how hard done by he was, how he was cheated out of two million. Then he ranted about how cold-blooded we debt collectors were, trying to use the sympathy of neighbors to solve his own problems. But when he borrowed the money, we signed a contract. All the interest was clearly explained to him. Now that he can't pay it back, is that our fault?"
"Last night, I decided to teach him a lesson. I took him up to the rooftop of a tall building. But then suddenly there was an earthquake. I didn't want to kill him, but that piece of trash actually pulled out a knife in the chaos and tried to kill me!"
"In the middle of all the confusion, he pushed me off the rooftop. I hit a billboard. After that... I can't remember anything."
Everyone frowned after hearing this man's story.
But Tian Tian seemed to have noticed something. She laughed angrily and said, "See! I told you! I knew you were trying to frame me! Turns out you're the liar!"
"What? What makes you say I'm lying?" Qiao Jiajin said viciously.
"I was in Shaanxi, and you were in Guangdong!" Tian Tian pointed at him. "Your story is completely made up to copy mine! There was an earthquake where I was, and you also had an earthquake? I got hit by a billboard, and you also got hit by a billboard? If that's not lying, what is?"
"I don't care where you were! I did experience an earthquake." The tattooed man glared. "If I had hidden it, that would be lying! As for the billboard, it's not like there's only one billboard in the whole world, right?"
"In any case, you're lying!" Tian Tian pointed at Qiao Jiajin. "With a job like yours, only bad people do it. No wonder you lie!"
"Hmph. And your job is any better?"
Qi Xia watched the two of them arguing fiercely and felt that something was indeed suspicious.
It wasn't about which of them was lying—it was that he, too, had experienced an earthquake.
He was neither in Shaanxi nor in Guangdong, but in Shandong.
Did an earthquake of such a massive scale exist in this world?
This earthquake had spanned half the country, covering three provinces.
If what they said was all true, wouldn't this be an unprecedented disaster?
"Stop arguing. Let's just get this over with." The burly man sitting across from them cut them off, then looked at the next woman. "Your turn. If we're really going to judge who's lying, let's hear everyone out first."
The two snorted coldly at this and fell silent.
The woman beside Qiao Jiajin timidly nodded and began to speak. "Um... m-my name is Xiao Ran. I'm a kindergarten teacher."
The girl named Xiao Ran seemed terrified. Her voice was very soft, trembling.
"Before I came here, I was accompanying a child waiting for his parent. He used to be picked up by his mother. Then I heard she got seriously ill—something in her brain needed surgery... so recently his father has been picking him up. But his father seems to forget a lot..."
"Yesterday, it was already past six in the evening. I was actually off duty, but for some reason, the child's father just wouldn't answer his phone..."
"I didn't know the child's home address, so I couldn't take him back. I could only stand with him at the intersection and wait."
"Actually, I had plans that night too... I had an appointment with a psychologist. I felt like I didn't really like my current job, and I hoped the psychologist could help me sort things out."
"But I never expected the wait to drag on for hours. My evening appointment fell through."
"Just as I was lost in thought, the ground suddenly started shaking. I was terrified... It took me a few seconds to realize it was an earthquake..."
"The feeling of an earthquake wasn't what I'd heard about... The ground wasn't jumping—it was swaying left and right. It felt like I was standing on a table, and someone was shaking it violently..."
"The first thing I did was pull the child into my arms. But I didn't know what to do. I saw the three pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple in the distance cracking apart... Luckily we were standing in an open area."
"Then I saw a car out of control speeding straight toward us... I staggered and ran to the side, clutching the child, but the shaking ground made me fall with every step."
"In the end, I hit my head when I fell... and I passed out. When I woke up, I was here."
This was a rather unremarkable story.
The only thing that struck Qi Xia as odd was the mention of the "Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple."
Those three pagodas were in Dali, Yunnan.
Qi Xia gently stroked the card on the table. Even though his hand was covering the three characters, he knew they read "Liar."
So, could there be multiple liars?
If "the rules are absolute," then what Goat Head had just said—"there is one and only one liar"—was absolute.
Since he had drawn the "Liar" card, that meant the others could not be liars. There was only one.
They were all telling the truth.
But the stories spanning three provinces seemed to be connected.
Not just the earthquake, but even the content of their tales linked together. Wasn't that too strange?
Now everyone's attention turned to the next person—the middle-aged man in the white lab coat.