The Odds of Winning

"Cop, you're lying," Qiao Jiajin snapped coldly.

"Hmph. I knew you'd say that, but what evidence do you have that I'm lying? 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 have been connected to some degree. Many of them share people in common. If we set aside the locations, everyone's account makes sense."

"So what?"

"That's precisely the problem." Qiao Jiajin pointed at the lawyer, Zhang Chenze. "Your story and the lawyer's share one person: the 'con artist who swindled two million.' But your stories contradict each other. That means one of you lied."

Officer Li paused as well, then asked, "How do they contradict each other?"

Qiao Jiajin shook his head and looked at Officer Li. "Attorney Zhang was already preparing to go to court. That means the suspect in her story had already been caught. But you were still on a stakeout, which means the suspect in your story was still at large. Isn't that a contradiction?"

Officer Li considered this for a moment before saying, "I have to admit, there's some sense to what you're saying. But I think this 'game' has clouded your judgment. First, you need to understand one fundamental fact: everyone who told a story was in a different city from everyone else. In other words, no matter how similar our experiences were, we couldn't possibly have been talking about the same incident. Since they were different incidents, naturally they could have different outcomes."

Qi Xia quietly watched the two men continue arguing without trying to stop them.

Yes, argue. The fiercer, the better.

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

After all, the rules were absolute. If anyone other than the Liar cast the wrong vote, everyone else would die with them.

Although Officer Li had offered an explanation, Qiao Jiajin's words had still left their mark on everyone.

After all, this was the first time they had discovered conflicting details in two people's stories.

Qi Xia couldn't help thinking more highly of the thug named Qiao Jiajin.

He looked wild and unruly, but he was smarter than Qi Xia had expected.

"Um... it's my turn..." a young woman said.

Only then did everyone put their thoughts aside and turn to her.

This was the young woman who had screamed shrilly when someone died at the beginning.

She seemed calmer now, but she still didn't dare look beside her.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Lin Qin. I'm a psychological counselor."

Qi Xia paused briefly. The name "Lin Qin" was rather interesting.

Before the Tang Dynasty, "linqin" had meant "apple."

Those two characters were poetic and memorable.

Perhaps Miss Lin's parents had wanted their daughter to have a distinctive name, but that name would clearly 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 what "linqin" meant.

Once they turned that name over in their minds a few times, Lin Qin's story would become memorable.

Seeing no particular reaction from the others, 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 was a kindergarten teacher."

Everyone glanced at the kindergarten teacher named Xiao Ran, no longer surprised. Once again, the stories were connected.

"According to her, working as a kindergarten teacher is very difficult these days. You can't hit the children or scold them. The parents treat the teachers like babysitters, and the children treat them like servants. Every classroom has surveillance cameras, and the parents watch the feeds in real time. If your tone gets even a little stern, a parent will call the principal."

"But isn't the whole point of sending children to kindergarten to help them develop their outlook on life, values, and the world?"

"If teachers aren't allowed to discipline them firmly, how are the children supposed to recognize their mistakes?"

"She felt she'd been lost and emotionally stifled for a long time."

"So I put together a treatment plan for her that would last about a month."

"But for some reason, the client never showed up for her appointment, so I kept waiting in my office."

"When the earthquake hit, I had no chance to escape. My office was on the twenty-sixth floor, after all."

"The higher the floor, the stronger the shaking. I felt the entire building swaying."

"I'd never known Ningxia could have earthquakes before. This time, I experienced it firsthand."

"After that, I vaguely remember the ceiling collapsing. Everything went black, and I lost consciousness."

After hearing Lin Qin's story, everyone seemed to have thought of something else.

Qiao Jiajin was the first to speak. "I have two questions."

"Go ahead," Lin Qin said, still covering her mouth and nose.

"What did you mean when you said every classroom had 'surveillance cameras'?"

No one had expected that to be what caught Qiao Jiajin's attention. But Lin Qin lived up to her profession as a psychological counselor and explained patiently, "I think the cameras were installed so parents could see what was happening in the classroom from anywhere."

"So it's 'closed-circuit television'... Is it some kind of elite kindergarten...?" Qiao Jiajin muttered to himself before asking, "Then was the kindergarten teacher you were supposed to meet this Xiao Ran beside you?"

"I don't know." Lin Qin shook her head. "We'd only added each other on WeChat. I was going to discuss the rest with her when we met."

"WeChat?" Qiao Jiajin froze for a moment, seemingly confused.

Officer Li raised a hand to interrupt them. "Thug, here you go again. Xiao Ran was in Yunnan, while Lin Qin was in Ningxia. Who would travel that far to see a psychological counselor?"

Qiao Jiajin refused 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 Qiao Jiajin had a point. He nodded and asked, "Xiao Ran, was your reason for seeing a psychological counselor the same as what Lin Qin described?"

"Um..." Xiao Ran hesitated timidly before saying, "Not quite... I was feeling a little depressed because a parent had been criticizing me for a long time..."

"Then that proves it's just a coincidence." Doctor Zhao nodded. "These things happened in two different regions, after all. There's no need to force a connection."

Everyone fell silent for a moment, but Attorney Zhang suddenly spoke. "Miss Lin, half the story you told was about that 'kindergarten teacher.' Doesn't that break the rules?"

"Huh?" Lin Qin was briefly taken aback. "I talked about the kindergarten teacher so you could better understand what my work involved..."

"Don't misunderstand. I didn't mean anything else by it." Zhang Chenze smiled. "What I'm saying is, if you made up that kindergarten teacher's experiences, naturally they would differ from Xiao Ran's story. That would prove you were lying."

"You...!" Lin Qin hadn't expected the woman before her to be so aggressive. All she could do was defend herself. "Doctor Zhao and Officer Li just said we were in different provinces. It's all just a coincidence!"

"A coincidence, is it?" Zhang Chenze folded her arms and continued, "Think carefully. Why were the nine of us specifically chosen to gather here? Don't forget, we're nine strangers. If we're supposed to spot flaws in each other's stories, we need some clues. And that 'clue' is that all our stories are connected. After listening to everyone's stories, I feel we were deliberately selected. Only then could we spot the flaws in those stories and find the Liar. Otherwise, this game would be absurd, because the Liar's odds of winning would be far too high."