This revelation jolted the crowd awake, just as it did Qi Xia.
Indeed, the odds were overwhelmingly stacked in favor of the "Liar."
Qi Xia furrowed his brows. Why was his chance of winning so high?
Lying to a group of strangers—people who neither knew nor understood him—was effortless. Any fabricated tale would be nearly impossible to unravel.
Could a mere false name truly seal the fate of eight lives?
Or was it that...
The one who drew the "Liar" card was fate's chosen, making this an inherently rigged game?
"No, that can't be right..." Qi Xia murmured inwardly. "If survival were determined solely by the draw, they might as well have written 'Life' and 'Death' directly on the cards. That would have been a far simpler way to achieve their goal. Otherwise, what purpose does this nearly hour-long game serve?"
A deep sense of dissonance spread through him.
Qi Xia replayed every word the Goat-Head had spoken, scrutinizing them for inconsistencies.
Could it be...
"Hey, it's your turn." Qiao Jiajin reached out and tapped him on the shoulder.
Qi Xia snapped back to reality, only to find everyone staring at him with wary eyes.
There was no time left to ponder. Hesitation would only make him seem more suspicious.
He steadied himself, refocusing his thoughts.
The phrase "My name is Li Ming, I'm from Shandong" echoed in his mind...
But at this moment, he could not use that answer. If he wanted to crack the code of this game, he had to take a gamble.
Qi Xia opened his eyes and addressed the room. "Everyone, my name is Qi Xia. I'm from Shandong. I'm a professional con artist."
"A con artist?"
Gasps rippled through the group. After all, the character of a "con artist" had surfaced in several of their stories.
This liar was, in a way, the thread connecting them all.
And now, the cruelest irony—determining whether a "liar" was telling the truth.
"Before I came here, I was trying to launder two million yuan."
"It took quite some effort, but in the end, I managed to secure 1.4 million. That was the most cost-effective solution I could come up with."
"But on my way back with the money, an earthquake struck. I watched as my house trembled violently."
"Logically, entering a building during an earthquake is the worst decision—any moment, it could collapse. But I was worried about the people inside. I had no choice. I ran in."
"And sure enough, the moment I stepped through the door, the porch came crashing down. I was buried beneath the rubble... and lost consciousness."
Qi Xia recounted the story with chilling detachment, his words succinct yet heavy. The others listened, eyes locked on him, brimming with suspicion.
He knew he was walking a razor's edge. But only by doing so could he verify his hypothesis.
If the Goat-Head spoke now, it would mean his suspicions were nearly confirmed.
And just as Qi Xia expected, the Goat-Head stepped forward and addressed the group. "Well then, everyone has finished telling their stories. Write a name on the paper in front of you."
"As I thought!" Qi Xia's brows lifted. "So there really are twenty minutes left!"
That explained everything.
The room was growing tense. Only twenty minutes remained to determine their fate.
Qiao Jiajin and Li Shangwu eyed each other with barely concealed hostility, both intent on casting their votes against the other—perhaps due to their professions, their enmity was palpable.
Meanwhile, Dr. Zhao confronted the writer, Han Yimo, questioning him aggressively—after all, Han Yimo's story stood apart, unconnected to anyone else's.
Attorney Zhang and Xiao Ran eyed Qi Xia with suspicion, while Lin Qin, Han Yimo, and Tiantian hesitated, caught in indecision.
By the rules of the game, the "Liar" had already won.
The votes would be divided.
The rule was explicit: only by unanimously identifying the liar could all eight participants survive.
Qi Xia remained silent, eyes shut, shutting himself off from the clamor around him.
Countless clues swirled in his mind.
The Goat-Head had said, "Among those telling their stories, there is one— and only one—Liar."
The Goat-Head had said, "The rules are absolute."
The Goat-Head had said, "You have all been asleep for twelve hours."
Qi Xia's eyes snapped open.
He was just one piece of information away from solving this puzzle.
But where was it?
Then, in a sudden flash of realization, it struck him.
The intersecting lines on the walls and floors—grid patterns crisscrossing the space—brought everything into sharp focus. He glanced at the clock on the table. It was nearly 1 AM.
"So that's it…" Qi Xia's eyes widened. "Damn it… I'm a con artist, yet I almost got conned by you all."
The others took notice of his change in demeanor.
But since he had spoken so little from the start, no one could decipher what was running through his mind.
"Hey, can I have another piece of paper?" Qi Xia asked the Goat-Head.
The Goat-Head visibly stiffened before replying cautiously, "You… want another paper?"
"Yes." Qi Xia nodded. "I need it for calculations."
A long silence followed before the Goat-Head finally pulled a sheet from his suit pocket and handed it over.
Qi Xia took it without hesitation and immediately began jotting down numbers.
He counted the large squares on the walls—nine in total. The floor and ceiling had sixteen each.
"If my guess is correct…" His pen flew across the paper. "Each square represents one square meter, meaning we are in a room with a height of three meters and a length and width of four meters each…"
"Four by four by three… forty-eight cubic meters."
His hands trembled. "Not enough… It's nowhere near enough…"
The others watched, perplexed.
This was supposed to be a game about identifying a liar, yet here he was, solving equations.
Numbers filled the page as he calculated frantically, producing two final figures: 54.6 and 49.14.
The moment he saw them, the color drained from his face.
A dreadful realization was settling in.
His pupils trembled as his thoughts soared beyond the confines of the room.
The argument among the others gradually faded into silence.
They watched as this quiet man, uninterested in debates, continued his calculations.
Had he really found the "answer"?
A long moment passed before Qi Xia finally lifted his head.
His eyes flickered with fear, doubt, and an unsettling mix of hesitation and revelation.
"Listen to me," Qi Xia cleared his throat, voice low. "I wasn't planning to save any of you. But if you make the wrong choice, I die too. And I refuse to die here. Someone is waiting for me outside. No matter what, I must find a way out."
"So I will now reveal the answer. Listen carefully."
"Wait," Qiao Jiajin frowned. "'Answer'? What do you mean? You know who's lying?"
Qi Xia did not reply.
Instead, he reached for his identity card and, in front of them all, turned it over.
"This is the role I drew."
The crowd fell into stunned silence as their eyes locked onto the words emblazoned on the card—
Liar.