Showdown

This line of reasoning almost awakened everyone, and it also awakened Qi Xia.

Yes, the 'Liar's' chances of winning are indeed too great.

Qi Xia's brow furrowed as he wondered, 'Why are my odds of winning so high?'

Lying to a group of strangers, who do not know or understand me, it would be difficult for anyone to see through any lie I tell.

Could using a false name really lead to the death of eight lives?

Or is it that...

The person who draws 'The Liar' is the chosen one, and this is inherently an unfair game?

"No, that's not right," Qi Xia thought to himself, "If drawing it means surviving, it would be easier to just write 'Life' and 'Death' on the cards to achieve the purpose. Otherwise, what's the point of this nearly hour-long game?"

A deep sense of incongruity spread within his heart.

Qi Xia kept recalling every word the goat-headed man had said.

Could it be...

"Hey, it's your turn," Qiao Jia Jin said, patting Qi Xia to get his attention.

Qi Xia then snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that everyone was looking at him with strange expressions.

There was no time to think further, or he would appear even more suspicious.

He composed himself and reorganized his thoughts.

His mind kept repeating the phrase, "My name is Li Ming, I'm from Shandong."

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

Qi Xia opened his eyes and said to everyone, "Everyone, my name is Qi Xia, I'm from Shandong, and I am a professional swindler."

"A swindler?"

The people present all gasped at the first sentence Qi Xia said, as the character of a 'swindler' had appeared in many of their stories.

This swindler also subtly connected the stories of the people present.

More ironically, they had to judge whether a 'swindler' was telling the truth or not.

"Before I came here, I was trying to clean up the two million yuan in my possession."

"In short, it took some effort, but I ended up with 1.4 million yuan. This was the most cost-effective method I could think of."

"But on the way back with the money, there was suddenly an earthquake. When I reached the door, I saw my house shaking continuously."

Logically, one should never enter a building at a time like this, as there's always the risk of collapse. But I was very worried about the people inside, so I had to rush in at that moment."

"As expected, the moment I entered the room, the porch collapsed, and I was pinned down, losing consciousness."

Qi Xia told the story with a flat tone, and after his brief narrative, everyone looked at him warily.

He knew he was taking a big risk, but only by doing so could he verify whether his guess was correct.

If the goat-headed man spoke up at this moment, it would mean his speculation was likely on the mark.

Just as Qi Xia thought, the goat-headed man slowly stepped forward and said to everyone, "Very well, everyone has finished telling their stories. Now there is a twenty-minute free discussion time. After twenty minutes, each person needs to write a name on the paper in front of them."

"Indeed!" Qi Xia raised his eyebrows, "There is indeed a twenty-minute period!"

In this way, everything made sense!

At this moment, the crowd became somewhat panicked, as there were only twenty minutes left to determine their life and death.

Qiao Jia Jin and Li Shangwu both wanted to cast their votes against each other, perhaps due to their professional backgrounds, and both were full of intent.

Dr. Zhao began to question the writer, Han Yimo, after all, Han Yimo's story was unrelated to everyone else's.

Lawyer Zhang and Xiao Ran seemed to be suspicious of Qi Xia, while Lin Go, Han Yimo, and Tiantian were still hesitant.

According to the apparent rules, the game of 'The Liar' was about to be won by the 'liar'.

Because the votes were not unified.

The rules were clear: only if everyone chose the liar could the eight people survive together.

Qi Xia did not participate in any discussion and silently closed his eyes.

Numerous clues swirled in his mind.

The goat-headed man said, "Among the storytellers, there is and can only be one liar."

The goat-headed man said, "The rules are absolute."

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

Qi Xia opened his eyes; now, only one piece of information was needed, and the 'puzzle' could be solved.

But where was that piece of information?

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind.

The crisscrossing lines on the walls and floor instantly sobered him up, and he glanced at the clock on the table, which was nearly 1 o'clock.

"So that's how it is..." Qi Xia's eyes widened, "That was close... I am a swindler, yet I was almost deceived by you all."

Everyone seemed to notice Qi Xia's peculiarity, but this swindler had spoken very little from the beginning, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Hey, could you give me another piece of paper?" Qi Xia asked the goat-headed man.

Hearing this, the goat-headed man was clearly taken aback, then tentatively asked, "You... need another piece of paper?"

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

The goat-headed man was silent for a while, then took out another piece of paper from his suit pocket and handed it to Qi Xia.

Qi Xia wasted no time, took the paper, and began calculating.

He counted the large squares on the wall, a total of nine, and the squares on the floor and ceiling together totaled sixteen.

"If I'm not mistaken..." Qi Xia quickly wrote something, "The squares are one per square meter, which means we are currently in a room that is three meters high, with a length and width of four meters..."

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

Qi Xia's hand trembled slightly: "It's not enough. It's not enough at all."

Everyone watched Qi Xia, puzzled. This was clearly a matter of deducing who was lying, but he was doing math instead.

They saw him list many vertical calculations and finally arrived at the numbers '54.6' and '49.14'.

Upon seeing these two numbers, Qi Xia's face turned ashen, as if he was trying to accept something.

If his guess was completely correct, then the current situation was truly terrifying.

His eyes flickered continuously, his thoughts long since flying away.

The arguing among the people gradually quieted down.

The man in front of them did not participate in any discussion but kept calculating something. Could he have really found the 'answer' to this problem?

After a long while, he raised his head and looked at everyone.

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

"Everyone," Qi Xia cleared his throat and spoke softly, "I didn't want to save you, but if you choose wrongly, I will die too. I absolutely cannot die here; someone is waiting for me outside, so I must find a way out no matter what. I can only reveal the answer here and hope you listen to me carefully."

"Handsome, what do you mean by 'the answer'?" Qiao Jia Jin, who was closest to Qi Xia, was slightly taken aback, "Do you know who is lying?"

Qi Xia did not answer but simply reached for his 'identity card' and slowly turned it around in front of everyone.

"This is the identity I drew."

The crowd looked closely and saw the three characters 'The Liar' on the card, which were particularly eye-catching.