Chapter 6: The Officer
1420 Words
“Don’t try to sow discord,” Officer Li glared at Jason. His tone was stern. “You’re the one distributing goods, and I’m the police. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
Zachary glanced at the arguing crowd. He knew that Officer Li wasn’t lying; he really was a criminal investigator. But his approach was misguided.
Perhaps it was his professional instinct or a sense of justice, but he seemed determined to organize everyone.
As the halftime had already stretched on for a while, the noise in the room began to fade.
During this time, Zachary had repeated the phrase “My name is Li Ming” countless times in his mind, until he started feeling annoyed. After all, there was a decapitated corpse beside him, making it hard to focus.
Blood dripped steadily from the table to the floor, and they had been sharing the space with this corpse for nearly an hour now. An eerie odor began to fill the air.
Zachary casually glanced at the corpse next to him; its clothes were already filthy.
When a person dies, their muscles lose their tension within a short time, leading to incontinence.
Before the stench arrived, a foul odor had already assaulted his senses.
Zachary and a girl were seated on either side of the corpse, and she seemed particularly bothered by the smell, constantly covering her mouth and nose with her hands.
Another ten minutes passed before the Goat Mask finally spoke. “The twenty-minute halftime is over. The game resumes.”
The young man named Han Yimo steadied himself, took a deep breath, and said, “My name is Han Yimo, and I’m a… writer of online novels.”
“Before coming here, I was at my rented apartment, writing the ending of a novel. Since the story featured hundreds of characters, nearly all of them had to make an appearance in the finale. I was completely focused on writing, unaware of any commotion outside.”
“Even… I don’t know when the earthquake hit or when I lost consciousness…”
Han Yimo’s story was different from the others. So far, he seemed completely “independent,” finishing his account in just a few short sentences.
“Is that all?” the muscular man asked, slightly taken aback. “You finish by saying ‘I don’t know’?”
“Because I can’t lie, so there’s no need for me to concoct an answer just to fit in with everyone else.” Though Han Yimo’s voice was quiet, it carried an unexpected conviction.
“Alright… next,” Officer Li said, still looking skeptical. “It’s your turn, young lady.”
“Hey, officer,” Jason said, somewhat dissatisfied with Li’s attitude. “We’re all ‘participants’ here; you don’t need to act like a captain.”
“Someone has to step up and organize things,” Officer Li retorted. “I’ve said it before: there’s only one enemy among us, and the remaining eight need to unite.”
“But it doesn’t mean you get to lead,” Jason dismissed Li’s words. “Out there, I might fear you, but in this situation, who knows if you’re the ‘Liar’?”
“Enough of this bickering,” the cool woman interrupted.
From the start, she had been pointing out that the Goat Mask had imprisoned them for twenty-four hours, and she appeared calm and collected.
Once the two had quieted down, she continued, “This so-called ‘game’—no matter who wins in the end—could lead the rest of us to be seen as ‘indirect murderers.’ After all, we collectively voted to have the Human Goat kill him, and that’s something you all need to consider.”
Upon hearing this, Zachary’s expression changed slightly.
If he really made it out of this room alive, then he would have indeed “killed” the other eight.
But what could he do about it?
The card in front of him clearly read “Liar,” and who would willingly give up their life for others to survive?
“My name is Zhang Chenzhe, and I’m a lawyer,” the cool woman said, arms crossed, her face impassive. “It’s unfortunate to meet everyone in such a bizarre place; otherwise, I would have handed you my business card.”
The others couldn’t quite grasp her humor, but she seemed indifferent.
“Before coming here, I was organizing court documents. My client was scammed out of two million yuan, and the case involves a massive sum of money with serious implications.”
When she mentioned “two million,” the crowd’s expressions remained neutral, but Jason seemed visibly shocked. “Two million?”
“Indeed, two million. They say lawyers are the most fair-minded people, but we also have our biases. That man, desperate to support his family, resorted to loan sharks, which is quite worrying. But illegal borrowing is a separate case and has nothing to do with me.”
“When the earthquake struck, I was driving to meet my client. I was on Qingyang Avenue, just passed Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, near Wuhou Shrine. I remember… I wasn’t going fast, probably around forty miles an hour, when I suddenly saw the ground crack ahead.”
“I immediately slammed the brakes, stopping right in front of the fissure. But unexpectedly, the car behind me couldn’t stop in time, leading to a chain collision.”
“I heard several loud crashes, and my car was pushed into the crack. After that, I lost consciousness and ended up here.”
With another story concluded, only three people remained to share theirs.
“Wuhou Shrine…” Dr. Zhao pondered. “Is that the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?”
“Yes, I work in Chengdu.”
It seemed this earthquake spanned the entire nation.
Based on these unfamiliar stories alone, guessing who was lying would be incredibly difficult.
“It’s my turn now.” Officer Li looked at the crowd. “As I mentioned before, my name is Li Shangwu, and I’m a criminal police officer from Inner Mongolia.”
“Before coming here, I was surveilling a fraud suspect. We had credible information about the suspect’s whereabouts.”
“This fraud case involved a massive sum, amounting to two million yuan, and was the largest fraud case reported in our city this year.”
“My colleague and I had been sitting in the car, monitoring, waiting for the suspect to appear.”
“But that suspect was smarter than we thought. It seemed he sensed something was off, and for three consecutive days, he didn’t show up.”
“For those three days, we were eating, drinking, and doing everything in the car, and we were about to lose our minds.”
“But do you know what’s harder for an adult man than not having food or drink?”
“It’s not having cigarettes.”
“We had run out of cigarettes, and according to protocol, we absolutely couldn’t leave our post. But the craving for a smoke was unbearable.”
“So I had my colleague run to buy some, while I kept a close watch on the entrances and exits of the suspect’s residence.”
“What I didn’t expect was that shortly after my colleague left, the ground began to shake violently. I wanted to get out of the car to see what was happening, but suddenly, I was choked from behind with a thin wire.”
“Though we were trained in close-quarters combat, dealing with a wire coming from the back seat was extremely difficult. I couldn’t even reach the person behind me, let alone remove the wire from my neck.”
At this moment, everyone stared at Officer Li, noticing the distinct red marks on his neck.
“So I immediately leaned back in my seat to regain my breath, but I couldn’t turn around since my tall frame had my legs pinned beneath the steering wheel.”
“The person behind me seized the opportunity while I was lying down and struck me hard on the head with something. After that, I lost consciousness.”
After hearing Officer Li's words, everyone began to doubt.
He described a situation that was entirely different from the others, who had all ended up here due to accidents.
Only he had been attacked and ended up here.
If they had to pick the most suspicious person among them, wouldn’t it be him?
- Writer
