十天结束

Chapter 6: The Police Officer

"You son of a bitch, don't try to sow discord." Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin, his tone stern. "You're a loan shark, and I'm a cop. Who do you think people will believe?"

Qixia looked at the bickering crowd and knew Officer Li was likely not lying; he truly was a detective. But he was heading in the wrong direction. Perhaps it was his professional instinct or a sense of justice that drove him, but he always wanted to organize everyone in an orderly manner.

The halftime break was over, and gradually, the room fell silent.

During this time, Qixia had repeated "My name is Li Ming" countless times in his mind until it became annoying.

After all, he had been sitting next to a headless, broken body, which made it hard to focus. Blood had been dripping from the table to the floor, and they had been in the same room with the body for almost an hour now, emitting a strange smell.

Qixia glanced casually at the corpse beside him, his pants already dirty. After death, various organs lose muscle control temporarily, causing incontinence. Before the stench of decay, an unpleasant odor had already pervaded the air.

Qixia and another girl sat on either side of the body, but the girl seemed quite displeased with the smell, covering her mouth and nose with her hand.

Ten more minutes passed, and finally, the goat head spoke, "The twenty-minute halftime break is over, and the game resumes."

Han Yimo, seemingly calming himself, took a deep breath and said, "My name is Han Yimo, and I am a web novel writer."

"Before coming here, I was in a rented house working on the final chapters of a novel. Since the story involved nearly a hundred characters, almost all of them had to appear in the final chapters. So, I was completely absorbed in writing and didn't hear any outside noises."

"Even... I don't know when the earthquake happened or when I lost consciousness..."

Han Yimo's story was different from everyone else's. At present, it seemed he was completely "independent," and his narrative stopped abruptly after just a few sentences.

"Is that all?" the burly man was slightly taken aback. "You're ending it with just 'I don't know'?"

"Because I can't lie, I don't need to fabricate an answer just to please everyone," Han Yimo's voice was soft but strangely convincing.

"Alright... who's next?" Officer Li's face still held suspicion as he spoke. "It's that lady's turn."

"Hey, cop," Qiao Jiajin expressed his dissatisfaction with Officer Li's attitude, "We're all 'participants.' Don't act like you're the leader."

"Someone has to step up to organize everyone," Officer Li retorted. "I've said it before; among us, only one is an enemy. The remaining eight must unite."

"But it's not your turn to command here," Qiao Jiajin disregarded Officer Li's words completely. "In this situation, no one knows if you're the 'liar' or not."

"Please stop arguing, both of you," the cold woman interjected.

From the beginning, she had accused the goat head of imprisoning them for twenty-four hours. She seemed logical and very calm.

Seeing the two calm down, she continued, "In this so-called 'game,' regardless of who wins in the end, the remaining people may be considered 'indirect murderers' because we collectively voted to kill the sheep. That's the problem you should be considering."

Upon hearing this, Qixia's expression changed slightly.

If he really managed to get out of this room alive, then he did indeed "kill" the other eight people.

But what could he do about it?

His card was a genuine "liar." Who would willingly give up their life to let others live?

"I'm Zhang Chenze, a lawyer," the cold woman said, crossing her arms and expressionless. "It's unfortunate to meet everyone in such a strange place; otherwise, I would have handed out my business card."

"Before coming here, I was organizing courtroom documents. My client was defrauded of two million yuan, involving a huge amount and a serious offense."

"When the earthquake struck, I was driving to see my client. I remember... I wasn't driving fast, about forty miles per hour, just passing by the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, near the Wuhou Shrine. Suddenly, I saw the ground cracking not far ahead."

"I immediately hit the brakes and stopped steadily in front of the crack. But I didn't expect the car behind me to fail to evade and rear-end my car repeatedly."

"I only heard a few loud noises as the car was pushed into the crack, and then I lost consciousness and woke up here."

Another story ended, leaving only three people left to narrate.

"Wuhou Shrine..." Dr. Zhao pondered for a moment before asking, "Is it the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"

"Yes, I work in Chengdu."

It seemed this earthquake had spread across the country.

Based on these different and unfamiliar stories, it was really hard to guess who was lying among them.

"It's my turn next," Officer Li looked at everyone and continued, "I've already said my name; I'm Li Shangwu, a detective from Inner Mongolia."

"Before coming here, I was staking out a fraudster. According to reliable information, we had already tracked down the exact whereabouts of the suspect."

"The suspect was involved in a massive fraud of two million yuan, the first such case in our city this year."

"My colleague and I were monitoring from the car, waiting for the appearance of the suspect."

"But the suspect was smarter than we thought. He seemed to sense some danger and didn't show up for three consecutive days."

"We spent those three days eating, drinking, and doing everything in the car, and our spirits were about to collapse."

"Do you know what's even more unbearable for an adult man than being hungry or thirsty?"

"It's not having cigarettes."

"Neither of us had a single cigarette. According to protocol, we couldn't leave our post, but the taste of not having a cigarette was too unbearable."

"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 intended to get out of the car to see what was happening, but suddenly someone from behind used a thin wire to strangle my neck."

"Although we are both good at close combat, the thin wire from the back seat was very difficult to deal with. Not only could I not reach the person behind me, I couldn't even remove the wire from my neck."

"At that moment, I immediately reclined the seat to regain my breath, but I couldn't turn around because of my large build, and my legs were stuck under the steering wheel."

"While I was lying down, the person behind me took the opportunity to hit me hard on the head with something, and I lost consciousness."

After listening to Officer Li's words, the others couldn't help but start to suspect.

He described a completely different situation. Before him, all the participants were injured and unconscious due to accidents.

He was the only one who was attacked and brought here.

If they had to pick the most suspicious person among them, wouldn't it be him?