Ten Days End Revised Edition

Chapter 6: The Officer

"Don't try to stir up trouble," Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin and said sternly. "You’re a loan shark, and I’m a police officer. Who do you think the others will believe?"

Qi Xia glanced at the people arguing, and he knew Officer Li probably wasn’t lying—he really was a criminal police officer.But his approach was wrong.Maybe it was his professional nature, or maybe it was his sense of justice, but he kept trying to organize everyone into order.The half-time break had already passed, and the noise from everyone gradually quieted down.During this time, Qi Xia had repeated “My name is Li Ming” in his mind countless times, and he was getting a bit annoyed.After all, there was a body with its skull shattered lying beside him, which made it impossible to focus.

Blood was dripping from the table, steadily flowing onto the floor. Everyone had been in the room with the corpse for nearly an hour, and a strange stench began to spread.Qi Xia casually looked at the body next to him. His pants were already filthy.After death, within a short period, various organs lose the muscle control that normally constrains them, causing incontinence.Before the smell of decay arrived, a foul stench had already filled the air.Qi Xia, sitting next to another girl, noticed that she seemed very displeased with the smell, constantly covering her nose with her hand.

Another ten minutes passed before the goat-head man spoke again, "The 20-minute half-time break is over, and the game will resume."

The young man called Han Yimo steadied himself, took a deep breath, and said, "My name is Han Yimo. I’m a w*******l writer."

"Before coming here, I was in a rented apartment, writing the final chapters of a novel. Since the book featured over a hundred characters, almost all of them had to appear in the finale. I was so focused on writing that I didn’t hear any commotion outside.""Even... I don’t know when the earthquake happened or when I lost consciousness..."

Han Yimo’s story was different from everyone else’s. At this point, it seemed like he was completely "independent" and ended his story in just a few brief sentences.

"Is that it?" the muscular man said, slightly taken aback. "You just say 'I don’t know' and call it a day?"

"Because I can't lie, so there’s no need for me to make up an answer just to please everyone," Han Yimo's voice, though small, somehow made people believe him.

"Alright... then next," Officer Li said, his face still skeptical. "It’s the lady’s turn."

"Hey, officer." Qiao Jiajin was a bit dissatisfied with Officer Li’s attitude. "We’re all 'participants.' Don’t act like you’re the leader."

"Someone has to step up and organize us," Officer Li retorted. "I’ve said it before—there’s only one enemy among us. The other eight must unite."

"Then it’s not your place to give orders," Qiao Jiajin said, completely disregarding Officer Li's words. "Maybe I’d be afraid of you outside, but right now, no one knows whether you’re the 'liar.'"

"Stop fighting," the cold woman interrupted them.From the beginning, this cold woman had been accusing the goat-head man of imprisoning everyone for over twenty hours. She seemed very clear-headed and calm.Seeing the two fall silent, she continued, "This so-called 'game,' regardless of who wins, means the rest of us could be considered 'indirect murderers,' since it was our collective vote that led to Man-Goat killing him. That’s what you should be considering."

At these words, Qi Xia’s expression shifted slightly.If he did manage to leave this room alive, then he would indeed have "killed" the other eight.But what could he do about it?The card in front of him was a genuine "liar" card. Who would willingly give up their life so others could survive?

"My name is Zhang Chenze, and I’m a lawyer." The cold woman crossed her arms, her face expressionless. "I regret meeting you all in such a strange place. Otherwise, I’d have handed you my business card."

No one really understood Zhang Chenze’s humor, but it seemed she didn’t mind."Before coming here, I was organizing court documents. My client was scammed out of two million yuan, a huge amount of money with severe consequences."

When she mentioned "two million yuan," everyone’s expressions were unchanged, but Qiao Jiajin seemed clearly shocked and asked, "Two million?"

"Yes, two million. They say lawyers are the most impartial people, but we also have personal feelings. That man, in order to support his family, borrowed from a loan shark, which was really concerning. But the illegal loan is a separate case, and it’s not related to me."

"When the earthquake struck, I was driving to meet my client. I was on Qingyang Avenue, just past the Du Fu Thatched Cottage, near the Wuhou Shrine. I remember... I wasn’t driving fast, around 10 miles per hour. Then I saw the ground c***k ahead."

"I immediately slammed on the brakes and stopped right in front of the c***k, but the car behind me couldn’t stop in time and caused a rear-end collision."

"I heard several loud crashes, and my car was pushed into the c***k. Then, I lost consciousness and ended up here."

Another story ended, and only three people had not yet spoken.

"Wuhou Shrine..." Doctor Zhao thought for a moment and asked, "Is that the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"

"Yes, I work in Chengdu."

It seemed this earthquake was nationwide.From all these unfamiliar stories, it was really difficult to figure out who was lying.

"Next, it’s my turn." Officer Li looked at everyone. "I’ve already said my name. My name is Li Shangwu, and I’m a criminal police officer from Inner Mongolia."

"Before coming here, I was tracking a fraud suspect. According to reliable information, we had the exact whereabouts of the criminal."

"This suspect had scammed an enormous amount—two million yuan. It was the first large-scale fraud case in our city this year."

"My colleagues and I were monitoring in the car, just waiting for the suspect to show up."

"But this suspect was even smarter than we expected. It seemed he sensed some danger and didn’t show up for three days in a row."

"We spent three days in the car, eating, drinking, and doing everything else there. We were mentally exhausted."

"But do you know what’s worse for an adult man than having nothing to eat or drink?"

"It’s running out of cigarettes."

"We didn’t have a single cigarette left. By protocol, we couldn’t leave our post, but the lack of cigarettes was unbearable."

"So I asked my colleague to run and buy some, while I stayed in the car, closely watching the suspect’s residence."

"What I didn’t expect was that my colleague had just left when the whole ground started to shake violently. I intended to get out of the car to see what was going on, but suddenly someone from behind strangled me with a thin wire."

"Although we were both good at hand-to-hand combat, the thin wire coming from the backseat was incredibly hard to deal with. I couldn’t even touch the person behind me, let alone remove the wire from my neck."

Everyone looked closely at Officer Li and saw that there was indeed a red mark around his neck.

"So I immediately reclined the seat, regained my breath, but I couldn’t turn around because I’m so tall, and my legs were stuck under the steering wheel."

"The person behind took advantage of me lying down and hit me on the head with something. Then, I lost consciousness."

After listening to Officer Li’s words, everyone began to doubt.His story was entirely different from the others. All the previous participants had been injured and lost consciousness due to accidents.But he had been attacked and brought here.If they had to choose one person who seemed the most suspicious, it would be him.