Chapter 519: Altered?
As soon as Chen Junnan voiced his question, even Qi Xia’s mind felt like it was clogging up.
“What did you say?” Qi Xia was taken aback.
“I said, since when the hell did you become a swindler?” Chen Junnan repeated his question, still looking confused. “Is that some new identity you made up for yourself?”
“Brother Jun Nan, what are you on about?” Qiao Jiajin wore a puzzled grin. “Liar man said it himself back in the ‘Liar’ game…”
Before he could finish, Qiao Jiajin felt something was off.
It seemed they had never actually played the “Liar” game with Chen Junnan.
In the first two games, Chen Junnan had been killed. In the third, the Man-Sheep had committed suicide.
That meant Chen Junnan had never heard Qi Xia’s personal account, nor had he ever heard Qi Xia say with his own mouth, “My name is Qi Xia, and I’m a swindler.” If that was the case, then what exactly was the story Qi Xia had told in Chen Junnan’s memory?
“So… who am I…?” Qi Xia’s lips trembled slightly as he looked at Chen Junnan.
“What kind of question is that…?” Chen Junnan furrowed his brows. “You don’t even know who you are?”
“No…” Qi Xia stopped in his tracks, his expression deathly serious. “Chen Junnan, in your memory… what story did I tell in ‘Liar’?”
“You said you were a swindler who cheated someone out of two million,” Chen Junnan answered without hesitation, then felt something was off. “Wait, Old Qi, you didn’t end up fooling yourself, did you?”
“What—” Qi Xia finally realized what felt so strange. “So the version you heard… is the same as the one I told.”
“Did you tell different versions? No matter what we said back then… wasn’t it all lies?” Chen Junnan laughed. “Did anyone actually tell the truth in that first story? You know what identity cards everyone drew, right?”
Hearing this, Qi Xia suddenly understood what the underlying dissonance he had been feeling all along was.
Perhaps everyone had added lies to their first stories—but he, of all people, had not.
In his memory, he had indeed swindled someone out of two million, and he had laid it all out in that first story. After all, he knew there was no need to lie even if he had drawn the “Liar” card, so he had told the truth from the start.
Qi Xia organized his thoughts and said to Chen Junnan, “If the version you heard is the same as the one I told, doesn’t that prove I really am a swindler?”
This remark made Chen Junnan laugh. “Old Qi, what the hell are you doing? Trying to prove to me that you’re a swindler? What’s your angle? Normally, if someone hears they’ve been slandered as a swindler, they’d be in a hurry to deny it. But you’re worried I won’t believe it?”
“I…” Qi Xia shook his head firmly. “This isn’t about being a ‘swindler’… This concerns something very important. You need to tell me everything you know.”
Seeing the earnest look in Qi Xia’s eyes, Chen Junnan sensed something was seriously wrong. He thought for a moment before speaking. “Old Qi, to be honest, nobody told the truth in the ‘Liar’ game. You included. You confessed to me once that before you came here, you had just graduated with a master’s degree. You were looking for a job. Your lie was the most outrageous out of all nine of us.”
“What…?” Qi Xia’s eyes slowly widened. “I have a master’s degree…?”
“Look, I know I couldn’t trust what you said in the ‘Liar’ game, but there’s no reason for you to lie to me afterward about that, right?” Chen Junnan let out a confused, bitter laugh. “You’re not about to tell me now that you’ve been lying to me all along?”
Qi Xia pondered the question carefully. Chen Junnan was a decent guy, talkative but reliable in actions and character—not the type he disliked. There was no reason for him to have concocted a lie just to brush Chen Junnan off.
But how could he possibly have a master’s degree?
After high school, he had never gone back to school. He had struggled alone, learning all the dark sides of human nature. At nineteen, he had met Yu Nian’an. They had been together for seven years. Now he was twenty-six, stuck in this “Land of the End.”
This godforsaken place had taken Yu Nian’an from him and trapped him here for a long time. He wanted to escape, and he wanted to find her. Wasn’t that his entire life?
Thinking about it further, a chill ran down his spine.
Wait… why had he swindled that two million in the first place…?
“Because that scumbag offended Yu Nian’an…” Qi Xia muttered to himself. “The only time I ever swindled anyone was to get back two million for her…”
In an instant, the world spun around him again. A fundamental logic surfaced in his mind.
If there was no Yu Nian’an… would he still be a swindler?
“This is very bad…” Qi Xia frowned, his face full of disbelief. “Why does every piece of evidence point down this road? Why won’t they stop? Why is it that whenever I dig into this question… it always leads to this answer?”
Seeing the drastic change in Qi Xia’s expression, Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin grew uneasy. Even when they had faced death before, Qi Xia had never worn such a panicked look.
“Old Qi… what the hell’s going on?” Chen Junnan asked with an awkward smile. “I know you’re smart, but you don’t have to be a swindler… I only have a high school diploma, but don’t feel bad—a master’s is nothing to be ashamed of…”
“My memory has been altered…” Qi Xia completely ignored Chen Junnan, his eyes flickering as he spoke. “The lie I told in the 'Liar' game… has become my actual life… What kind of twisted situation is this…?”
“Huh?”
Chen Junnan finally understood what Qi Xia was struggling with, but the information was so hard to grasp that he couldn’t figure out how to respond.
After a long pause, he said, “Old Qi… when you went back to the ‘real world’ last time…”
“I was already a swindler.” Qi Xia answered without hesitation. “I stopped going to school when I was eighteen. I’ve been drifting through life until now. I even brought back the laundered money… Yu Nian’an was waiting for me at home… Are you telling me all of that is fake?”
“What…?” Chen Junnan felt Qi Xia’s story was getting more and more absurd. “Old Qi, I don’t care about the rest… I just have one question. If you only have a high school education, then how did you use all that theoretical knowledge to lead us through challenge after challenge?”