Chapter 4: A Disaster?
1216 Words
At that moment, the tattooed man raised his hand and looked at the Goat Mask. “Hey, judge, how do you count people using aliases? Do you consider that lying?”
The Goat Mask neither nodded nor shook his head. He merely said coolly, “I will no longer intervene in any part of this process. You only need to write down the name according to your own judgment. Just remember, the rules are absolute. In the end, I will personally ‘punish’ the losers.”
The word “punish” fell like a heavy stone, sending chills through everyone.
“So… that means I wasn’t lying!” Titi shouted anxiously. “If I were lying, wouldn’t I already be dead? Even if it’s an alias, my alias is really ‘Titi’!”
No one responded. They were now in a life-and-death situation, where even the slightest suspicion couldn’t be ignored.
“Then it’s my turn,” the tattooed man said reluctantly. “If this lady’s story doesn’t count as lying, then neither does mine.”
“My name is Jason Quinn, and I live in Guangdong. I don’t really have a steady job. Before I came here, I was collecting a debt.”
Jason’s Mandarin was rough, and everyone had to focus to understand him.
“People today are something, aren’t they? When they borrow money, they’ll say anything to get it, but when it’s time to pay it back, suddenly it’s all tears and pity.”
“They curse us debt collectors, call us devils, heartless…”
“But if they took a moment to think, when they were at their most desperate, who helped them? When no one else would lend them a dime, I gave them a chance. To him, I was no demon; I was his savior!”
“And how does he repay his savior?”
“He’s gone around telling everyone about his misfortune, claiming he was cheated out of two million, painting me as the heartless villain just for trying to collect. But he signed a contract when he borrowed from us. We spelled everything out. Now he can’t pay back, and it’s somehow our fault?”
“Last night, I decided to teach him a lesson. I took him up to the rooftop of a high-rise building. But suddenly, there was an earthquake. I didn’t intend to kill him, but the bastard pulled a knife on me in the chaos!”
“In the midst of all the confusion, he shoved me off the roof, and I crashed into a billboard. After that… I don’t remember anything.”
When Jason finished his story, everyone frowned.
But Titi seemed to notice something and sneered, “See! Now we know why you were so quick to throw dirt at me! You’re the Liar!”
“What? Why would you say I’m lying?” Jason snarled.
“I’m in Shaanxi, and you’re in Guangdong!” Titi pointed at him, saying, “Your story is just a copy of mine! I had an earthquake, and suddenly you have one too. I got hit by a billboard, and somehow you did too! If that’s not lying, what is?”
“I don’t care where you are. I had an earthquake.” Jason glared back. “If I’d hidden that fact, that would be lying! And as for the billboard—what, is there only one billboard in the whole world?”
“You’re lying, period!” Titi shouted, pointing at Jason. “People in your line of work are already sketchy. It wouldn’t surprise me if you lied too!”
“Ha, and your line of work is so much better?”
Zachary watched the two argue, feeling that something was indeed strange.
Not because he thought either of them was lying, but because he had also experienced an earthquake.
And he wasn’t in Shaanxi or Guangdong. He was in Shandong.
Could there be such a widespread earthquake?
This earthquake spanned half the country, affecting three different provinces.
If what they said was true, then this would have to be an unprecedented disaster.
“Stop arguing and finish up,” said the muscular man sitting across from them, silencing the pair before turning to the next girl. “It’s your turn. If we’re really going to judge who’s lying, maybe we should let everyone tell their story first.”
The two fell silent after a cold snort each.
The woman beside Jason timidly nodded and began, “Um… I’m Rachel Xiao, a kindergarten teacher.”
Rachel seemed terrified; her voice was soft, and she spoke with a tremor.
“Before I came here, I was waiting with a child for his parent. Usually, it’s his mom who picks him up, but I heard she’s very ill, something in her brain that needs surgery… So his dad’s been picking him up instead, though he often forgets to show up…”
“It was already past six last night, well past my shift. I kept trying to call, but the father wouldn’t answer…”
“I didn’t know their address, so I couldn’t take him home. We had to wait at the corner, hoping he’d show up.”
“I actually had an appointment that night… I’d scheduled a session with a therapist. I’m not that fond of my job, and I wanted help figuring things out.”
“But I waited for hours, and the appointment went down the drain.”
“Just when I was spacing out, the ground suddenly started shaking. I was so scared… It took a few seconds for me to realize it was an earthquake…”
“The earthquake felt different than what I’d heard. The ground wasn’t jolting; it was swaying, back and forth, like I was standing on a table and someone was shaking it…”
“My first instinct was to hold the child tightly, but I didn’t know what to do. I could see the three towers of Chongsheng Temple cracking in the distance. Luckily, we were in an open space.”
“Then, a small car came hurtling toward us… I could only try to stagger away with the child, but the ground was so unsteady I kept stumbling.”
“The last time I fell, I hit my head… and blacked out. When I woke up, I was here.”
It was an ordinary story, with nothing particularly eye-catching.
But one detail caught Zachary’s attention: the three towers of Chongsheng Temple.
The three towers were in Dali, Yunnan.
Zachary gently touched the card on the table. His fingers hid the word written on it, but he knew it read “Liar.”
So, could there be multiple Liars?
If the rule was absolute, then the Goat Mask’s statement that “there is only one Liar” must be true.
Since he’d drawn the “Liar” card, it meant no one else could be lying. There could be only one Liar.
Which meant they were all telling the truth.
Yet, the stories from three different provinces seemed oddly linked.
Not just the earthquake, but even the content of their stories seemed connected. Wasn’t that far too coincidental?
Everyone’s eyes shifted to the next person—the middle-aged man in the white coat.
- Writer
