"How many people are in your family? What's your mother's name? What's her older sister's surname? Her younger sister's surname? How old are your paternal grandparents this year? What's the relationship between your maternal grandmother and grandfather?"
Zeng Mu's answers had been flawless, but the questions only grew more numerous and came faster, as though Qin Zhongyi intended to uncover everything about his family and every relative they could possibly contact. He showed not the slightest mercy.
When people were questioned rapidly, their ability to lie dropped by half compared with ordinary questioning. Rapid questioning, coupled with strange questions that seemed to lead nowhere, could expose even accomplished liars. In criminal interrogations, this efficient technique was called the "Devil's Music."
When people lied, they often felt uncomfortable all over. Some inexplicably raised their eyebrows, while others pulled one corner of their mouths to the side. In an interrogator's eyes, these were all signs of lying.
People could deceive anyone, but ultimately, they could not deceive themselves. Only one kind of person could fool even themselves, and everyone called such people lunatics.
The highest art of lying was to mix truth with falsehood, half fact and half fabrication.
Zeng Mu answered every question truthfully, without needing to think at all, because the names and ages he gave were those of his actual family members and relatives.
Fortunately, Qin Zhongyi was not a woman. Otherwise, if he asked what clothes they usually wore, Zeng Mu might genuinely have been unable to answer. He could hardly say, "They usually wear Zhongshan suits, Western suits, and Han-style robes, and their shoes are generally leather shoes, skate shoes, or glass slippers..."
The relentless questioning failed to expose any slip on Zeng Mu's part. Instead, Qin Mu, who stood beside them listening to Qin Zhongyi drone