“Cop, you’re lying,” Qiao Jiajin said with a cold huff.
“Hmph, I knew you’d say that, but what proof do you have that I’m lying? Is it just because someone attacked me?”
“Of course not.”
Qiao Jiajin smiled faintly.
“I don’t know why, but all the stories we’ve heard so far are connected, more or less. Many of these stories share characters. If we ignore the geographical locations, everyone’s accounts are plausible.”
“So what?”
“That’s where the problem lies.”
Qiao Jiajin pointed a finger at the lawyer, Zhang Chenze.
“You and the lawyer have a character in common in your stories—the ‘swindler who cheated someone out of twenty thousand.’ But your stories contradict each other. That means one of you told a lie.”
Officer Li paused for a moment before asking, “Where is the contradiction?” Qiao Jiajin shook his head and looked at Officer Li.
“Lawyer Zhang was already preparing for the court hearing, which means in her story, the ‘suspect had been caught.’ But you were still on a stakeout, which means in your story, the ‘suspect was still at large.’ Isn’t that a contradiction?”
Officer Li pondered for a moment, then spoke.
“I have to say, your words have some merit, but I think you’re being influenced by this ‘game.’ First, you have to understand a basic premise: none of the people who have told their stories so far were in the same city as anyone else. In other words, no matter how similar our experiences are, we absolutely cannot be talking about the same incident. Since they’re different incidents, naturally they’d have different outcomes.”
Qi Xia quietly watched the two argue, not saying anything to stop them. Yes, let them argue. The fiercer the argument, the better.
As long as either of them cast a vote for the other, The Liar wins. After all, the rules were absolute. Besides The Liar, if anyone cast a wrong vote, everyone else would be buried along with them.
Although Officer Li had provided an explanation, Qiao Jiajin’s words were still imprinted on everyone’s minds. After all, this was the first time they had discovered a conflict between two people’s stories. Qi Xia couldn’t help but see this hooligan named Qiao Jiajin in a new light.
He might look wild and unrestrained, but he was smarter than he seemed.
“Um… It’s my turn…” a young woman said.
Only then did everyone else pull their thoughts back and look at her. This was the girl who had let out a piercing scream when people started dying at the beginning. She seemed to have calmed down by now, but her eyes still dared not glance to her sides.
“Hello everyone, my name is Lin Qin, and I am a psychologist.”
Qi Xia paused slightly, because the name “Lin Qin” was very interesting. Before the Tang Dynasty, “Lin Qin” was the word for “apple.” These two characters were full of poetic grace, leaving a deep impression.
Perhaps this Miss Lin’s parents wanted their daughter to have a unique name, but that name was clearly going to be her downfall here. Among those present were a writer, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, and a policeman. Any of them might know the meaning of “Lin Qin.”
As long as they turned this name over in their minds a few times, the story Lin Qin told would become deeply memorable. Seeing that no one reacted, Lin Qin covered her mouth and nose with her hand and continued, “I’m from Ningxia. Before I came here, I was waiting for a client.
She’s a kindergarten teacher.” No longer surprised, everyone glanced at the kindergarten teacher named Xiao Ran. The stories were connected once again.
“According to her, being a kindergarten teacher is a very difficult job these days. You can’t hit the children, and you can’t scold them. The parents treat the teachers like nannies, and the children treat them like servants. Every classroom has surveillance cameras for parents to monitor in real-time. If your tone is even a little stern, a parent will call the principal.”
“But don’t parents send their children to kindergarten to build their values?”
“If a teacher can’t be strict in their instruction, how will the children recognize their own mistakes?”
“She felt that she had been in a state of confusion and depression for a long time.”
“So I prepared a treatment plan for her that would last about a month.”
“But for some reason, that client never came to her appointment. I just kept waiting in my office.”
“When the earthquake came, I had no chance to escape. My office is on the twenty-sixth floor, after all.”
“The higher the floor, the stronger the tremors. I felt like the whole building was shaking.”
“I never knew Ningxia could have earthquakes. This time, I truly felt it.”
“After that, I vaguely remember the ceiling collapsing. Everything went black, and I don’t know what happened.”
After listening to Lin Qin’s story, everyone seemed to have thought of something again. Qiao Jiajin was the first to speak.
“I have two questions.”
“Go ahead,” Lin Qin asked, her hand still over her mouth and nose.
“You said every classroom had ‘surveillance cameras.’ What does that mean?”
No one expected Qiao Jiajin to focus on this point, but Lin Qin lived up to her profession as a psychologist. She answered very patiently, “I think the ‘surveillance cameras’ were installed so parents could see the classroom from anywhere.”
“So it’s ‘closed-circuit television’… Is it some kind of preschool for the rich…”
Qiao Jiajin muttered to himself, then asked again, “Then the kindergarten teacher you were supposed to meet, was it this Xiao Ran next to you?”
“I don’t know,” Lin Qin said, shaking her head.
“That person and I only added each other on WeChat. We were planning to discuss the rest when we met.”
“WeChat?”
Qiao Jiajin froze for a second, seemingly not understanding. Officer Li raised his hand to interrupt them.
“Hooligan, you’re at it again. Xiao Ran is in Yunnan, and this Lin Qin is in Ningxia. Who would travel across such a great distance to see a psychologist?”
Qiao Jiajin was not one to back down.
“I just think it’s suspicious. This is the first time someone’s story has mentioned another participant.”
This time, Doctor Zhao felt that Qiao Jiajin had a point. He nodded from the side and asked, “Xiao Ran, was your reason for seeking a psychologist the same as what this Lin Qin described?”
“Um…”
Xiao Ran murmured timidly, “Not really… It was because I was being constantly criticized by a parent, so I became a little depressed…”
“Then that proves it’s just a coincidence,” Doctor Zhao nodded.
“After all, these are events from two different regions. There’s no need for us to force a connection.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment, but then Lawyer Zhang suddenly spoke up.
“Miss Lin, half of the story you told was the ‘kindergarten teacher’s’ story. Isn’t that against the rules?”
“Huh?”
Lin Qin was slightly taken aback.
“I talked about the kindergarten teacher to help you better understand the nature of my work…”
“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t mean anything else by it.”
Zhang Chenze smiled slightly.
“What I mean to say is, if you fabricated the kindergarten teacher’s experience, it would naturally have discrepancies with Xiao Ran’s story, which would also prove that you lied.”
“You…!”
Lin Qin didn’t expect the woman before her to be so aggressive. She could only argue back, “Doctor Zhao and Officer Li just said it, our provinces are different. This is all just a coincidence!”
“A coincidence, is it?”
Zhang Chenze crossed her arms and continued, “Think about it carefully. Why were the nine of us, specifically, gathered here? Don’t forget, we are nine strangers.
If we are to find the loopholes in each other’s stories, we must be given some clues. And this ‘clue’ is that all our stories are connected. After listening to everyone’s stories, I feel that we were specially chosen.
This is the only way we can successfully discover the flaws in everyone’s accounts and find The Liar. Otherwise, this game would be too absurd, because The Liar’s chances of winning would be far too great.”