Everyone looked stunned when they saw the word.
"I drew 'Liar,'" Qi Xia said slowly. "But it doesn't matter whether I turn this card over, because it isn't important."
He picked up the card and casually tossed it into the middle of the table.
"If I'm right, every one of you is holding a 'Liar' card."
No one moved after hearing this. After a while, Officer Li finally asked, "So... you're saying everyone lied just now?"
"That's right." Qi Xia nodded. "You're all smarter than I imagined. Each of you slipped a little lie into your story, making it hold together without affecting the logic of what happened."
Officer Li thought for a moment, as though something had occurred to him too.
"If you're right..." Officer Li let out a meaningful sigh. "Then things are even trickier."
Everyone turned to Officer Li again, puzzled.
Officer Li continued, "According to the rules, we can only survive together if all of us choose the Liar. But that would mean the Liar loses. So we..."
Doctor Zhao was the first to understand what Officer Li meant. "You mean... we can vote however we want, because everyone is lying. This has become a 'guaranteed-win game,' where only the person we vote for has to die?"
"Exactly." Officer Li nodded. "The best option now is to put all our votes on one person. That would minimize our losses. At least everyone else would survive..."
His words plunged the mood to its lowest point once again, while Goat Head, in contrast, did not move at all.
So... they were simply voting for one of them to die?
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and looked at Officer Li. "Officer, is interrupting people a hobby of yours? Does it give you a sense of accomplishment?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Officer Li replied with a frown. "Aren't I helping you work out a plan?"
"I don't need your help," Qi Xia said without hesitation. "Your idea will get everyone killed."
"What?" Officer Li froze. "Why would I get everyone killed? Am I wrong? If everyone is lying, wouldn't any vote be valid?"
"Officer Li, Goat Head said, 'The rules are absolute,' and 'There is one and only one Liar.' Do you remember?"
"Well..." Officer Li paused to think, recalling that Goat Head had indeed said both those things.
"Let me put this in order for everyone," Qi Xia said coldly. "In this game, it looks like the 'Liar' has a very good chance of winning, because everyone thinks they're about to win. But if we vote at random, all of us will end up dead."
Sitting beside Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin rubbed his tattooed arm and murmured to himself, "Because we'd be breaking the 'rules'..."
"Yes." Qi Xia nodded. "But the interesting thing about this game is that we have no way to determine whether someone else is lying. Just as Lawyer Zhang said, we can only judge whether our experiences contradict each other. But we're not even from the same area. No matter how contradictory the events might be, we can't prove with absolute certainty that someone else lied."
Qi Xia glanced at everyone as they sank into thought, then continued, "The Organizer specifically chose the nine of us to sit here. There must have been a purpose behind that: to make us smugly pick out flaws in stories that seem interconnected."
"But would that really be right? How could we be certain that someone else was lying?" Qi Xia gave a cold chuckle. "In this game, there's only one person we can identify as a 'Liar' with absolute certainty from the clues we have. What he said is completely at odds with our current situation."
Qi Xia picked up his pen and quickly scrawled "Human Sheep" on the paper.
"I was already wondering why Goat Head introduced himself at the start with such a strange name as 'Human Sheep.' It seemed unnecessary. Now that I think about it, that was part of the game too."
Everyone slowly turned to look at Human Sheep. He still did not move.
Officer Li looked taken aback, then shook his head. "Con man, I have a question. Goat Head's rule was, 'Among everyone who tells a story, there is one and only one Liar.' But he didn't tell a story."
"Didn't he?" Qi Xia shrugged noncommittally. "I distinctly remember Goat Head saying he gathered us here to create a 'god.' Isn't that an unbelievable story?"
Officer Li silently lowered his head. He felt that what Qi Xia said made perfect sense, yet something still seemed off.
"But..." Doctor Zhao spoke up. "All your assumptions are based on the premise that 'everyone is a Liar.' Why are you so sure we're Liars? What if we turn over our cards and you're the only 'Liar'?"
"You couldn't possibly have told the truth." Qi Xia gave a bitter smile, his expression tinged with despair. "It took me some time to verify this too. Not only do I know you were all lying, I also know exactly where you lied."
He pushed his scratch paper forward, then looked at Tiantian beside him. "Tiantian. You were 'working' in the car, with your head sticking outside. Did that falling billboard really hit the car and make you lose consciousness?"
Tiantian pressed her lips together, not daring to speak.
"Qiao Jiajin, you fell onto a billboard from that high up. Did you really only 'lose consciousness'?"
Qiao Jiajin remained silent.
"Xiao Ran, did you really manage to dodge that speeding car with the child?"
Xiao Ran's gaze flickered away.
"Doctor Zhao, operating rooms are built much more sturdily than ordinary rooms to ensure stability. But you said the operating room's ceiling collapsed. Were you really just knocked unconscious?"
Doctor Zhao turned his head aside.
"Han Yimo, you said you had no idea what happened. But when you're concentrating on writing, the last thing you want is an interruption. Do you really not know how you got here?"
Han Yimo sighed softly.
"Lawyer Zhang, your car was knocked into a fissure. How deep was that fissure?"
Lawyer Zhang folded his arms, his face expressionless.
"Officer Li, what make of car were you driving? Could you really recline the seat in an instant and break free of the person restraining you from behind?"
Officer Li touched the red marks on his neck, starting to speak, then stopping.
"Lin Qin, your ceiling collapsed too. But you said your studio was on an upper floor. Once the upper floors started collapsing, wouldn't the whole building have been destroyed?"
Lin Qin bowed her head deeply.
Seeing their expressions, Qi Xia reached out and tapped the table.
"Everyone, admit it. All of us, myself included, are already dead."
Before you continue