Ten Days End Revised Edition

Chapter 8: The Showdown

These words almost woke everyone up, and they also awakened Qi Xia.Indeed, the odds of the "liar" winning were far too high.Qi Xia furrowed his brow, wondering why his chances of winning were so great.Lying to a group of strangers—people who didn’t know him or understand him—would make it hard for anyone to see through his lies.Could a false name really cause the death of eight people?Or was it…Could it be that those who draw the "liar" card are chosen ones, and this was always an unfair game?

“No…” Qi Xia thought to himself. “If drawing the card means survival, then why not just write 'life' and 'death' on the card? That would make it easier to achieve the goal. Otherwise, what’s the point of this game that’s been going on for almost an hour?”

A deep sense of unease spread in his heart.Qi Xia kept replaying every word the goat-head man had said in his mind.Could it be…"Hey, it’s your turn," Qiao Jiajin tapped Qi Xia on the shoulder.

He snapped out of his thoughts, realizing everyone was staring at him with strange looks.By now, it was too late to overthink things, or he’d look even more suspicious.He composed himself and began to reorganize his thoughts.The phrase “My name is Li Ming, I’m from Shandong” kept swirling in his head…But at this moment, he absolutely couldn’t use this answer. To solve the puzzle of this game, he had to take a gamble.

Qi Xia opened his eyes and spoke to everyone, “I’m Qi Xia, from Shandong. I’m a professional liar.”

“Liar?”

As soon as the crowd heard the first sentence, they gasped. After all, the character of the "liar" had appeared in many of their stories.This "liar" connected everyone’s stories in a subtle way.The most ironic thing was that now, they had to determine if a "liar" was telling the truth.

"Before coming here, I was thinking of ways to clean the two million I had in my hands.""In the end, after much effort, I managed to get 1.1 million. This was the most cost-effective way I could think of.""But on my way back with the money, I suddenly encountered an earthquake. As I reached my doorstep, I saw my house shaking.""Normally, at times like this, you shouldn’t enter a building. After all, the house could collapse at any moment. But I was worried about the people inside, so I rushed in.""Sure enough, as soon as I entered the house, the porch collapsed, and I was trapped under it, losing consciousness."

Qi Xia spoke calmly, summarizing the story in just a few sentences. The others were all watching him warily.He knew he was taking a huge risk, but this was the only way to verify if his hypothesis was correct.As soon as the goat-head man spoke, it would confirm that his guess was nearly right.

Just as Qi Xia thought, the goat-head man slowly walked up to the group and said, "Good. Everyone has finished their story. Now we’ll have 20 minutes of free discussion. After 20 minutes, each person must write a name on the white paper in front of them."

"Just as I thought!" Qi Xia’s brow raised. "So there really is a 20-minute time limit!"

This explained everything!The others started to panic, as they only had twenty minutes left to determine who would live or die.Qiao Jiajin and Officer Li both wanted to vote for each other, perhaps due to their professional backgrounds. The hostility between them was clear.Doctor Zhao started questioning writer Han Yimo, as his story seemed unrelated to everyone else’s.Lawyer Zhang Chenze and Xiao Ran seemed to be suspicious of Qi Xia, while Lin Qin, Han Yimo, and Tian Tian were still hesitating.By the apparent rules, the "liar" was about to win.Because the votes weren’t unanimous.The rules clearly stated that only if everyone voted for the liar would all eight people survive.Qi Xia didn’t participate in any of the discussions. He silently closed his eyes.Countless clues swirled in his mind.The goat-head man said, "There is exactly one liar among the storytellers."The goat-head man said, "The rules are absolute."The goat-head man said, "You’ve all been asleep for twelve hours."Qi Xia opened his eyes. Now, only one last piece of information was missing, and the "puzzle" would be solved.But where was that information?Suddenly, a flash of insight struck his mind.The intersecting lines on the walls and floor immediately brought clarity. He glanced at the clock on the table, and it was nearly 1:00.

"So that’s it…" Qi Xia’s eyes widened. "That was close… I’m really a liar, but almost got tricked by you guys."

The others seemed to notice something strange about Qi Xia. This "liar" had barely spoken from the start, and no one knew what he was really thinking."Hey, can I get another piece of paper?" Qi Xia asked the goat-head man.

The goat-head man froze, then cautiously asked, "You… want another piece of paper?"

"Yes," Qi Xia nodded. "I need a scrap of paper."

The goat-head man remained silent for a moment, then took out another piece of paper from his suit pocket and handed it to Qi Xia.Qi Xia didn’t hesitate, taking the paper and starting to calculate.

He counted the large squares on the walls—there were nine of them, while the floor and ceiling each had sixteen squares."If I’m not mistaken…" Qi Xia quickly wrote something down, "The squares are one per square meter. That means we’re in a room that’s three meters high, with a length and width of ten meters..."

"10 x 10 x 3... 300 cubic meters."

Qi Xia’s hand trembled slightly: "Not enough... completely not enough..."

The others stared at him in confusion. This was supposed to be about deducing who the liar was, but now he was doing math problems.

He quickly wrote down many vertical calculations, finally arriving at the numbers "54.6" and "49.14."

When he saw these two numbers, Qi Xia’s face turned ashen, as if he was trying to accept something.If his guess was entirely correct, the situation right now was terrifying.His eyes constantly flickered, his thoughts soaring far beyond the room.The others’ arguing grew quieter.

This man hadn’t participated in any discussions, just sitting there calculating. Did he really find the "answer" to the puzzle?

After a long while, he finally looked up, gazing at everyone.His expression held fear, hesitation, doubt, and confusion.

"Everyone," Qi Xia cleared his throat and spoke softly, "Originally, I didn’t want to save you all. But if you vote wrong, I’ll die too. I absolutely can’t die here. Someone is waiting for me outside, so no matter what, I must find a way out. I can only reveal the answer now, and I hope you listen to me carefully."

"Handsome, what do you mean by 'answer'?" Qiao Jiajin, sitting closest to Qi Xia, looked startled. "Do you know who’s lying?"

Qi Xia didn’t answer. He just reached for his "identity card" and slowly revealed it in front of everyone.

"This is the identity I drew."

Everyone’s eyes focused on the card, and the words "LIAR" stood out in bold.