“Cop, you’re lying.” Qiao Jiajin said coldly.

“Hmph, I knew you’d say that, but what evidence do you have to prove I’m lying? Is it merely because someone attacked me?”

“Of course not.” Qiao Jiajin smiled slightly. “Although I don’t know the reason, all the stories told previously were connected to some degree. Many of these stories share common characters. If we set aside geographical locations, everyone’s accounts are reasonable.”

“So what?”

“That’s exactly where the problem lies.” Qiao Jiajin pointed at lawyer Zhang Chenze. “Your story and the lawyer’s story have a common figure—the ‘fraud suspect who swindled two million yuan.’ But your stories contradict each other. This means one of you is lying.”

Officer Li also paused and asked, “Where’s the contradiction?”

Qiao Jiajin shook his head and looked at Officer Li, saying, “Lawyer Zhang is already preparing for court, which means in her story they’ve ‘already caught the suspect.’ But you’re still staking out, which means in your story, ‘the suspect is still at large.’ Isn’t that a contradiction?”

Officer Li contemplated for a moment and then spoke: “I must admit your words have some merit, but I think you’ve been influenced by this ‘game.’ First, you need to understand a major premise—all the people who told their stories before were not in the same city as the others. In other words, no matter how similar our experiences are, we absolutely couldn’t be talking about the same incident. Since they’re different incidents, naturally they’ll have different outcomes.”

Qi Xia quietly watched the two men who kept arguing and didn’t interrupt them.

Yes, argue. The more fiercely they argued, the better.

As long as either of them cast a vote against the other, the Liar would win.

After all, the rules were absolute. Except for the Liar, if anyone cast the wrong vote, everyone else would be buried along with them.

Although Officer Li had given his explanation, Qiao Jiajin’s words still left an impression on everyone’s hearts.

After all, this was the first time everyone had discovered conflicting plot points between two people’s stories.

Qi Xia couldn’t help but view this thug called Qiao Jiajin in a new light.

Though he looked unruly and carefree, he was smarter than expected.

“Um… it’s my turn…” a young woman spoke up.

Only then did everyone collect their thoughts and look toward her.

This woman had let out a violent scream when the death occurred at the beginning.

Now she seemed to have calmed down, except her gaze kept avoiding looking beside her.

“Hello everyone, my name is Lin Qin. I’m a psychological counselor.”

Qi Xia paused slightly because the name “Lin Qin” was quite interesting.

Before the Tang Dynasty, “Lin Qin” meant “apple.”

These two characters were rich in poetic imagery and left a deep impression.

Perhaps Miss Lin’s parents wanted to give their daughter a unique name, but this name would very obviously get her killed here.

Among those present were a writer, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, and a police officer. Any of them might know the meaning of “Lin Qin.”

As long as this name circled in their minds a few times, the story Lin Qin told would leave a deep impression.

Seeing no particular reaction from everyone, Lin Qin covered her mouth and nose with her hand and continued: “I’m from Ningxia. Before coming here, I was waiting for a client. She’s a preschool teacher.”

Everyone glanced at the preschool teacher named Xiao Ran with little surprise. Once again, the stories were connected.

“According to her, the preschool teaching profession is very difficult nowadays. You can’t hit the children, and you can’t scold them. Parents treat preschool teachers like nannies, and children treat teachers like servants. Every classroom is equipped with surveillance cameras. Parents monitor in real-time, and if your tone is even slightly stern, parents will immediately call the principal.”

“But isn’t the reason parents send their children to preschool to help establish the children’s values?”

“If teachers can’t be strict in their instruction, how can children recognize their own mistakes?”

“She felt that for a long time, she had been in a state of confusion and depression.”

“So I prepared a treatment plan for about a month for her.”

“But for some reason, that client never showed up for the appointment, so I just kept waiting in my office.”

“When the earthquake came, I had no chance to escape at all. After all, my office was on the twenty-sixth floor.”

“The higher the floor, the stronger the tremors. I felt like the entire building was swaying.”

“I never knew Ningxia could have earthquakes before. This time I experienced it firsthand.”

“Later, I vaguely remember the ceiling collapsing. Everything went black before my eyes, and then I knew nothing more.”

After hearing Lin Qin’s story, everyone seemed to think of something.

Qiao Jiajin was the first to speak: “I have two questions.”

“Go ahead,” Lin Qin asked while covering her mouth and nose.

“You said every classroom is equipped with ‘surveillance.’ What do you mean by that?”

No one expected this to be Qiao Jiajin’s point of focus, but Lin Qin, worthy of being a psychological counselor, patiently explained: “I think the reason for installing ‘surveillance’ is so that parents can see what’s happening in the classroom from anywhere.”

“So it’s ‘closed-circuit television’… Is it an elite preschool…” Qiao Jiajin muttered to himself, then asked again, “So is the preschool teacher you had an appointment with this Xiao Ran beside us?”

“I don’t know.” Lin Qin shook her head. “I only added that person on WeChat. I planned to discuss other matters when we met in person.”

“WeChat?” Qiao Jiajin was stunned for a moment, seemingly confused.

Officer Li raised his hand to interrupt them and said, “Thug, here you go again. Xiao Ran is in Yunnan, and this Lin Qin is in Ningxia. Who would travel such a vast geographical distance to find a psychological counselor?”

Qiao Jiajin was equally unyielding: “I just think there are suspicious points. This is the first time someone’s story has mentioned another participant.”

This time, Doctor Zhao felt Qiao Jiajin’s words made sense and also nodded, asking, “Xiao Ran, is your reason for seeking a psychological counselor the same as what this Lin Qin described?”

“Um…” Xiao Ran timidly pondered for a moment and said, “Not quite the same… I was feeling somewhat depressed because I was constantly criticized by one particular parent…”

“Then that proves it’s just a coincidence.” Doctor Zhao nodded. “After all, these are incidents from two different regions. We don’t need to forcibly connect them.”

At this point, everyone fell silent for a moment, but lawyer Zhang suddenly spoke up: “Miss Lin, half of the story you told was actually that ‘preschool teacher’s’ story. Doesn’t that violate the rules?”

“Huh?” Lin Qin was slightly stunned. “I talked about that preschool teacher to help you better understand the content of my work…”

“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t mean anything else by it.” Zhang Chenze smiled slightly. “What I’m trying to say is, if that preschool teacher’s experience was fabricated by you, naturally it would differ from Xiao Ran’s story, which would prove you were lying.”

“You…!” Lin Qin didn’t expect the woman before her to be so aggressive and could only argue back: “Both Doctor Zhao and Officer Li just said our provinces are different. These are all just coincidences!”

“Coincidences, are they?” Zhang Chenze crossed her arms and continued, “Think about it carefully. Why were we nine people specifically gathered here? Don’t forget, we’re nine strangers. If we’re to hear flaws in each other’s stories, we must be given some clues. And this ‘clue’ is that all our stories are connected. After hearing everyone’s stories, I feel we were specifically selected. Only this way can we successfully discover flaws in people’s stories and find the Liar. Otherwise, this game would be too absurd, because the ‘Liar’s’ winning odds would be far too great.”