These words practically jolted everyone awake, including Qi Xia.

Yes, the “Liar’s” winning odds were indeed far too great.

Qi Xia’s brow furrowed. Why would his own winning odds be so high?

Lying to a group of strangers who didn’t know him or understand him—anyone would find it difficult to see through a casually fabricated lie.

Could using a fake name really cost eight lives?

Or perhaps…

The person who drew the “Liar” card was the chosen one, and this was inherently an unfair game?

“No, that’s not right…” Qi Xia thought to himself. “If drawing the card meant you could survive, it would be easier to just write ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ directly on the cards. That would more easily achieve the objective. Otherwise, what would be the point of this nearly hour-long game?”

A deep sense of dissonance spread through his heart.

Qi Xia kept recalling every single sentence Goat Head had spoken.

Could it be…

“Hey, it’s your turn.” Qiao Jiajin reached out and patted Qi Xia.

Only then did he snap back to attention and discover everyone was looking at him with strange expressions.

At this point, there was no time to think further, or he would appear even more suspicious.

He steadied himself and reorganized his thoughts.

The phrase “My name is Li Ming, I’m from Shandong” kept circling in his mind…

But at this very moment, he absolutely couldn’t use that answer. To find the “solution” to this game, he could only take a gamble.

Qi Xia opened his eyes and said to everyone, “Everyone, my name is Qi Xia. I’m from Shandong and I’m a professional con artist.”

“A con artist?”

The moment everyone heard Qi Xia’s first sentence, they all cried out in surprise. After all, the “con artist” character had appeared in many people’s stories.

This con artist also vaguely connected everyone’s stories together.

More ironic still, they had to determine whether a “con artist” was telling the truth.

“Before coming here, I was figuring out how to launder the two million yuan in my hands.”

“In any case, it took considerable effort. In the end, I got one million four hundred thousand. This was already the most cost-effective method I could think of.”

“But on the way back with the money, I suddenly encountered an earthquake. When I reached the doorway, I saw my house constantly swaying.”

“Logically speaking, you absolutely cannot enter a building at such a time, since the structure could collapse at any moment. But I was very worried about the person inside, so I could only rush in at that moment.”

“Sure enough, the moment I entered the room, the porch collapsed. I was pinned down and lost consciousness.”

Qi Xia recounted this story in a flat tone with just a few brief sentences. Everyone stared at him vigilantly.

He knew he was doing something very risky, but only this way could he verify whether his thoughts were correct.

As long as Goat Head spoke up at this moment, it would prove his speculation was close to the mark.

Just as Qi Xia expected, Goat Head slowly walked forward and said to everyone, “Very good. Everyone has finished telling their stories. What follows is twenty minutes of free discussion time. After twenty minutes, each person needs to write down a name on the white paper in front of them.”

“As expected!” Qi Xia’s eyebrows shot up. “As expected, there are twenty minutes!”

This way, everything made sense!

Everyone became somewhat flustered at this moment. After all, only the final twenty minutes remained before their life or death would be decided.

Both Qiao Jiajin and Li Shangwu wanted to cast their votes against each other. Perhaps due to their professions, the two men were filled with mutual hostility.

Doctor Zhao began questioning writer Han Yimo, since Han Yimo’s story had no connection whatsoever to anyone else’s stories.

Lawyer Zhang and Xiao Ran seemed to hold suspicions about Qi Xia, while Lin Qin, Han Yimo, and Tiantian were still hesitating.

According to the surface rules, in this game the “Liar” was about to win.

Because the votes were not unified.

The rules stated very clearly that only if everyone selected the Liar could all eight people survive together.

Qi Xia didn’t participate in any discussion and silently closed his eyes.

Countless clues circled in his mind.

Goat Head said “Among those telling stories, there is one and only one Liar.”

Goat Head said “The rules are absolute.”

Goat Head said “You have all been asleep for twelve hours.”

Qi Xia opened his eyes. Now he was only missing one final piece of information, and this “problem” could be solved.

But where was that information?

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration burst through his mind.

The crisscrossing horizontal and vertical lines on the walls and floor instantly brought him to full alertness. He looked again at the clock on the table. It was almost 1 o’clock now.

“So that’s how it is…” Qi Xia’s eyes widened. “That was close… I’m clearly a con artist, yet I almost got conned by you all.”

Everyone seemed to notice Qi Xia’s unusual behavior, but this con artist had spoken very little from the beginning, so they didn’t know what he was thinking.

“Hey, can I have another piece of paper?” Qi Xia asked Goat Head.

Hearing this, Goat Head was clearly stunned, then asked tentatively, “You… want another piece of paper?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “I need a scratch paper.”

Goat Head was silent for a long while, then pulled out another sheet of paper from his suit pocket and handed it to Qi Xia.

Qi Xia didn’t stand on ceremony. He took the paper and began calculating.

He counted the large squares on the wall—nine in total. The squares on the floor and ceiling totaled sixteen.

“If I’m not mistaken…” Qi Xia quickly wrote something. “The squares are one per square meter, which means we’re currently in a room that’s three meters high and four meters in both length and width…”

“Four times four times three… forty-eight cubic meters.”

Qi Xia’s hand trembled slightly. “Not enough… completely insufficient…”

Everyone stared at Qi Xia in confusion. This was clearly a problem about deducing who was lying, yet he was doing math problems.

He listed out many more vertical calculations and finally arrived at two numbers: “54.6” and “49.14.”

Upon seeing these two numbers, Qi Xia’s face turned deathly pale, as if trying to accept something.

If his speculation was completely correct, the current situation was truly too terrifying.

His pupils kept dilating, his thoughts having long since flown to the outer heavens.

The sound of everyone’s arguments gradually diminished.

The man before them wasn’t participating in any discussion and was merely calculating something continuously. Had he really found the “answer” to this problem?

After a long while, he finally raised his head and looked at everyone.

That gaze held fear, hesitation, doubt, and confusion.

“Everyone.” Qi Xia cleared his throat and said quietly, “Originally I didn’t want to save you all, but if you choose wrong, I’ll die too. I absolutely cannot die here. Someone is waiting for me outside, so no matter what, I must find a way to get out. I can only announce the answer here. I hope you’ll listen carefully to what I have to say.”

“Pretty boy, what do you mean by ‘answer’?” Qiao Jiajin, who was closest to Qi Xia, was slightly stunned. “Do you know who’s lying?”

Qi Xia didn’t answer. He simply reached out to pick up his “identity card” and slowly revealed it before everyone.

“This is the identity I drew.”

Everyone looked closely. The three characters “Liar” on the card were particularly eye-catching.