# Chapter 6: Officer
"Don't try to sow discord among us, kid." Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin and said sternly, "You're a loan shark, and I'm a police officer. Who do you think everyone will believe?"
Qi Xia looked at the arguing crowd. He knew Officer Li probably wasn't lying—he really was a detective.
But his approach was wrong.
Maybe it was professional instinct, maybe it was a sense of justice, but he kept trying to organize everyone.
Half of the break time had already passed, and the crowd gradually fell silent.
During this time, Qi Xia had repeated "My name is Li Ming" countless times in his head, until he himself grew annoyed.
After all, a corpse with a shattered skull was lying right next to him, making it impossible to calm down.
Blood dripped from the table onto the floor in a steady trickle. They had been in the same room with this corpse for nearly an hour, and a strange, foul odor was beginning to spread.
Qi Xia glanced casually at the body beside him. Its pants were already filthy.
After death, various organs lose the restraint of muscle strength within a short time, causing incontinence.
Before the stench of decay arrived, a putrid smell was already overwhelming.
Qi Xia and another woman were seated on either side of the corpse. The woman seemed very displeased with the odor and kept covering her mouth and nose with her hand.
Another ten minutes passed before the Goat Head finally spoke: "The twenty-minute halftime break is over. The game resumes."
The young man named Han Yimo steadied himself, took a deep breath, and said, "My name is Han Yimo. I'm an online novel writer."
"Before coming here, I was writing the final chapter of a novel in my rented apartment. Since over a hundred characters appeared in the book, and almost all of them had to show up in the ending, I was completely focused on writing. I didn't hear anything outside."
"Actually... I don't even know when the earthquake happened or when I lost consciousness..."
Han Yimo's story was different from everyone else's. So far, he seemed completely "independent," and his account ended abruptly after just a few sentences.
"That's it?" The burly man was slightly taken aback. "You just say 'I don't know' and that's the end?"
"Since I can't lie, there's no need for me to make up an answer just to fit in with everyone." Han Yimo's voice wasn't loud, but it was strangely convincing.
"Alright... Next." Officer Li's face still showed suspicion, and he said, "It's that lady's turn now."
"Hey, cop." Qiao Jiajin was somewhat dissatisfied with Officer Li's attitude. "We're all 'participants' here. Don't act like you're the team leader."
"Someone has to step up and organize everyone, right?" Officer Li argued. "I told you, only one of us is the enemy. The other eight need to unite."
"That doesn't mean you get to boss everyone around," Qiao Jiajin dismissed Officer Li's words. "I might be afraid of you outside, but in this situation, nobody knows if you're the 'Liar'."
"Both of you, stop arguing." The cold woman interrupted them.
This cold woman had been accusing the Goat Head of imprisoning them for twenty-four hours from the very start. She seemed clear-headed and very calm.
Seeing that the two had calmed down, she continued: "In this so-called 'game,' no matter who wins in the end, the remaining people could be considered 'indirect murderers.' After all, it was our collective vote that let the Human Sheep kill him. That's what you all should be thinking about."
Upon hearing this, Qi Xia's expression shifted slightly.
If he really made it out of this room alive, then he had indeed "killed" the other eight people.
But what else could he do?
The card in front of him was a genuine "Liar." Who would willingly give up their own life to let others survive?
"My name is Zhang Chenze, and I'm a lawyer." The cold woman crossed her arms and spoke expressionlessly. "It's a pity to meet you all in such a strange place. Otherwise, I would definitely hand you my business card."
None of them could understand Zhang Chenze's humor, but she herself didn't seem to care.
"Before coming here, I was organizing court documents. My client had been scammed out of two million yuan—a huge amount, with serious implications."
When the number "two million" was mentioned, everyone's expressions remained normal, but Qiao Jiajin was visibly shocked. "Two million?"
"That's right, two million. They say lawyers are the most impartial and selfless people, but we have our private feelings too. That man borrowed from loan sharks to support his family, which was very worrying. But illegal lending is a separate case and has nothing to do with me."
"When the earthquake happened, I was driving to meet my client. I was on Qingyang Avenue, just past Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, near the Wuhou Shrine. I remember... I wasn't driving fast—about forty kilometers per hour—when I suddenly saw the ground cracking not far ahead."
"I braked immediately and stopped steadily in front of the crack, but I didn't expect the car behind me couldn't stop in time, causing a chain collision."
"I only heard several loud crashes, then my car was pushed into the crack, and I lost consciousness. That's how I ended up here."
Another story came to an end. Now only three people had yet to speak.
"Wuhou Shrine..." Dr. Zhao thought for a moment and said, "Is that the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"
"Yes, I work in Chengdu."
It seemed this earthquake had spread across the entire country.
Relying on these fragmented stories alone to figure out who was lying was far too difficult.
"I'm next." Officer Li looked at the crowd. "I already said my name earlier. I'm Li Shangwu, a detective from Inner Mongolia."
"Before coming here, I was staking out a con artist. According to reliable intelligence, we had the suspect's exact whereabouts."
"This suspect had committed a massive fraud, totaling two million yuan—the first major fraud case in our city this year."
"My colleagues and I were monitoring from a car, waiting for the con artist to show up."
"But that suspect was smarter than we thought. He seemed to sense danger and didn't show his face for three straight days."
"During those three days, we did everything—eating, drinking, and relieving ourselves—in the car. We were about to lose our minds."
"But do you know what's more unbearable for an adult man than having no food or water?"
"Not having cigarettes."
"Neither of us had a single cigarette left. In principle, we absolutely couldn't leave our post, but the feeling of being without cigarettes was too terrible."
"So I sent my colleague to run and buy cigarettes, while I kept a close eye on the suspect's residence entrance."
"But what I didn't expect was that shortly after my colleague left, the whole ground began to shake violently. I wanted to get out of the car to see what was happening, but suddenly someone strangled me from behind with a thin wire."
"Although we're both skilled in close combat, a thin wire choking from the back seat is very difficult to handle. Not only could I not reach the person behind me, but I also couldn't remove the wire from my neck."
At this point, everyone looked at Officer Li and noticed there was indeed a red mark on his neck.
"So I immediately reclined the seat to restore my breathing, but I couldn't turn around because I'm tall and my legs were stuck under the steering wheel."
"While I was lying down, the person behind me hit me hard on the head with something, and I lost consciousness."
After listening to Officer Li's story, everyone began to doubt him.
He described a completely different situation. Before him, all participants had been injured and fell unconscious due to accidents.
Only he was attacked and brought here.
If they had to choose the most suspicious person among them, wasn't it him?