Showdown

These words seemed to awaken everyone—and at the same time, they awakened Qi Xia.

Yes, the "Liar" had an overwhelming advantage.

Qi Xia frowned slightly. Why was his chance of winning so high?

Lying to a group of strangers—they didn't know him, nor did they understand him. Any lie he made up would be nearly impossible to see through.

Could a fake name really decide the fate of eight lives?

Or…

Was the one who drew the "Liar" card the chosen one? Was this game inherently unfair?

"No…," Qi Xia thought to himself. "If survival was determined solely by drawing lots, then why not simply write 'Life' and 'Death' on the cards? That would achieve the goal much more easily. Otherwise, what's the point of this nearly hour-long game?"

A deep sense of unease spread through him.

Qi Xia kept replaying every word the goat-headed figure 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 reality, realizing that everyone was looking at him with strange expressions.

At this point, there was no time to overthink—hesitating any longer would only make him seem more suspicious.

Qi Xia took a deep breath, steadied himself, and reorganized his thoughts.

The phrase "My name is Li Ming, I'm from Shandong" kept replaying in his mind...

But at this moment, he absolutely couldn't use that answer. If he wanted to find the "solution" to this game, he had to take a gamble.

Qi Xia opened his eyes and said to the others, "Everyone, my name is Qi Xia, I'm from Shandong, and I am a professional con artist."

"A con artist?"

The crowd immediately reacted with gasps of shock upon hearing his first sentence. After all, the role of a "con artist" had appeared in many of their stories.

This single statement subtly linked all of their stories together.

The irony was that now, 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 in my hands."

"It took quite some effort, but in the end, I managed to keep 1.4 million. That was already the most cost-effective way I could think of."

"But on my way back with the money, an earthquake suddenly struck. Just as I reached my doorstep, I saw my house shaking violently."

"Logically speaking, in this situation, I should never have gone inside. After all, the house could collapse at any moment. But I was too worried about the people inside—I had no choice but to rush in."

"Sure enough, the moment I stepped into the house, the porch collapsed. I was crushed underneath and lost consciousness."

Qi Xia recounted his story in a calm tone, using only a few simple sentences. The others remained on high alert, watching him closely.

He knew he was taking a huge risk, but this was the only way to test whether his theory was correct.

If the goat-headed figure spoke now, it would confirm that he was on the right track.

Just as Qi Xia had expected, the goat-headed figure slowly stepped forward and said to the group, "Very well, everyone has now finished telling their stories. Now, you will have twenty minutes for open discussion. After that, each of you must write a name on the piece of paper in front of you."

"As expected!" Qi Xia's eyebrows lifted slightly. "There really are twenty minutes!"

With this, everything made perfect sense.

Panic began to spread among the group—after all, their life-or-death decision was now only twenty minutes away.

Qiao Jiajin and Li Shangwu both seemed eager to vote for each other. Perhaps due to their professions, the hostility between them was palpable.

Dr. Zhao began questioning the writer, Han Yimo, since Han's story had no connection to anyone else's.

Meanwhile, Lawyer Zhang and Xiao Ran seemed suspicious of Qi Xia, while Lin Qin, Han Yimo, and Tiantian were still hesitating.

According to the surface-level rules, the "Liar" was already on the verge of winning this game.

Because the votes were divided.

The rules were clear: only if everyone unanimously identified the Liar could all eight of them survive.

Qi Xia stayed out of the discussion, silently closing his eyes.

Countless clues swirled in his mind.

The goat-headed figure had said, "Among the storytellers, there is one and only one Liar."

The goat-headed figure had said, "The rules are absolute."

The goat-headed figure had said, "You have all been asleep for twelve hours."

Qi Xia opened his eyes. Now, he was only missing one final piece of information—once he found it, this "puzzle" would be solved.

But where was that missing piece?

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him.

The intersecting lines crisscrossing the walls and floor instantly snapped him back to full awareness. He glanced at the clock on the table—it was almost 1 o'clock.

"So that's it…" Qi Xia's eyes widened. "That was close… I'm the con artist, yet I almost got tricked by all of you."

The others noticed Qi Xia's sudden change in demeanor, but since he had been mostly quiet from the start, they had no idea what he was thinking.

"Hey, can I get another piece of paper?" Qi Xia asked the goat-headed figure.

The goat-headed figure visibly froze for a moment before cautiously asking, "You… want another piece of paper?"

"Yes." Qi Xia nodded. "I need a sheet for calculations."

The goat-headed figure fell silent for a long moment before finally reaching into its suit pocket and handing Qi Xia another piece of paper.

Qi Xia took it without hesitation and immediately started working.

He counted the large squares on the walls—there were nine in total. Then he counted the squares on the floor and ceiling—sixteen altogether.

"If my guess is correct…" Qi Xia quickly scribbled on the paper, "each square represents one square meter, which means we're in a room that's three meters high, four meters long, and four meters wide…"

"Four times four times three… forty-eight cubic meters."

His hand trembled slightly. "Not enough… it's nowhere near enough…"

The others stared at Qi Xia in confusion. This was supposed to be a game about identifying the liar, yet he was doing math instead.

He continued calculating, jotting down more equations until he arrived at two numbers: 54.6 and 49.14.

The moment he saw these numbers, his face turned ashen, as if he were struggling to accept something.

If his theory was entirely correct, then the reality of their situation was far more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.

His eyes flickered, his mind drifting far beyond the confines of this room.

The heated arguments among the group gradually died down.

The man before them had never participated in any discussions—he had only been calculating something all this time. Had he really found the answer to this puzzle?

After a long silence, Qi Xia finally lifted his head and looked at everyone.

His eyes were filled with fear, hesitation, doubt, and confusion.

"Everyone," Qi Xia cleared his throat and spoke in a low voice, "I didn't intend to save you. But if you make the wrong choice, I'll die too. And I cannot die here—someone is waiting for me outside. No matter what, I have to find a way out. So, I have no choice but to reveal the answer now. I need you to listen carefully."

"Wait, 'answer'? What do you mean?" Qiao Jiajin, who was closest to Qi Xia, froze for a moment. "You figured out who's lying?"

Qi Xia didn't respond.

Instead, he reached out, picked up his identity card, and slowly revealed it to the group.

Everyone stared at the card in shock.

On it, three unmistakable characters stood out: "Liar".