Chapter 4: Disaster?

At this moment, the tattooed man raised his hand and looked at the goat-headed figure. "Hey, referee, how do you handle cases like hers, where she uses an alias? Does that count as lying?"

The goat-headed figure neither nodded nor shook his head. He simply said calmly, "I will no longer participate in any part of the process. You only need to write down the name you believe is the liar. Remember one thing—'the rules are absolute.'* In the end, I will personally enforce 'punishment' on the losers."*

The word "punishment" fell heavily, sending a chill down everyone's spine.

"This... this proves I didn't lie!" Tiantian shouted anxiously. "If I had lied, I'd be dead by now, wouldn't I? Even if it's an alias, my alias really is 'Tiantian'!"

No one responded to her. At this life-and-death juncture, no one was willing to let go of any potential clue.

"I guess it's my turn to tell my story," the tattooed man muttered, clicking his tongue in apparent reluctance. "If her story doesn't count as a lie, then mine definitely isn't."

"My name is Qiao Jiajin. I live in Guangdong and don't have a steady job. Before coming here, I was collecting debts."

His Mandarin was poor, so everyone had to listen carefully.

"You know, people these days are something else. When they borrow money, they promise the world, but when it's time to repay, they start playing the victim."

"Those bastards call us debt collectors devils, cold-blooded monsters.

"But think about it—when they were at their lowest, when no one else would lend them money, I was the one who stepped in to help. When no institution would give them a cent, I gave them a lifeline. To them, I wasn't a devil; I was their savior."

"And how do they treat their savior?"

"They run around crying about how hard their life is, claiming they've been cheated out of two million yuan. Then they slam us for being cold-blooded debt collectors. They try to use the sympathy of their neighbors to wiggle out of their situation. But we signed a contract, didn't we? Every penny of interest was laid out clearly. And now they can't pay back the money—that's our fault?"

"Last night, I decided to teach one of them a lesson. I tied him up and took him to the rooftop of a bar. But then an earthquake hit out of nowhere. I didn't want to kill him, but that coward pulled out a knife in the chaos and tried to stab me!"

"In all the confusion, I ended up falling off the rooftop with him. We crashed into a billboard. After that... my memory's a blur."

After listening to his story, everyone frowned.

Tiantian, however, seemed to catch onto something. She let out an angry laugh and said, "See? I knew it! This is why you were trying to throw dirt on me. Turns out you're the liar!"

"What? What makes you think I'm lying?" Qiao Jiajin retorted fiercely.

"I'm in Shaanxi; you're in Guangdong!" Tiantian pointed at him. "Your story is clearly copied from mine! I said there was an earthquake, and now you're saying there was an earthquake. I got hit by a billboard, and now you're saying you also hit a billboard. If this isn't lying, what is?"

"Who cares where you are? I experienced an earthquake, simple as that," the tattooed man shot back, his eyes glaring. "If I didn't mention it, that would be lying. And as for the billboard, it's not like there's only one billboard in the entire world!"

"You're lying, plain and simple!" Tiantian shouted, pointing at him. "Your profession is inherently shady. It's no surprise you'd lie!"

"Heh, and you think your profession is so much better than mine?"

Qi Xia watched the two argue intensely. Something about the situation felt... odd.

It wasn't that he could determine who was lying, but rather, he had also experienced an earthquake.

He wasn't in Shaanxi, nor was he in Guangdong—he was in Shandong.

Was it possible for a natural disaster like this to span such a vast area?

This earthquake seemed to have affected three provinces, covering half the country.

If all of their stories were true, then this would have been an unprecedented catastrophe.

"Stop arguing and let's move on," said the muscular man sitting across from them. His deep voice silenced the two bickering participants. He glanced at the next girl and added, "Your turn. If we're going to judge who's lying, we might as well wait until everyone has spoken."

Hearing this, the two offenders snorted coldly but said nothing more.

The woman next to Qiao Jiajin nodded timidly, her voice shaking as she started her story. "Um... My... my name is Xiao Ran. I'm a kindergarten teacher."

She looked terrified, her voice barely above a whisper and trembling as she spoke.

"Before coming here, I was waiting with a child for his parent to pick him up. His mom used to come every day, but I heard that she was seriously ill, something about needing brain surgery… So his dad had been picking him up instead. But his dad often forgot to come."

"Last night, it was already past six. My work hours had long since ended, but for some reason, the child's father wasn't answering his phone..."

"I didn't know their home address, so I couldn't take the child home. All I could do was wait with him at the street corner."

"I actually had an appointment last night... with a therapist. I've been feeling like I don't enjoy teaching anymore. I was hoping the therapist could help me figure things out."

"But I ended up waiting at the street corner for hours, missing my appointment completely."

"While I was lost in thought, the ground suddenly started to shake. I was so scared… It took me a few seconds to realize it was an earthquake."

"The tremors didn't feel like what I'd heard about before. The ground didn't jump—it swayed back and forth. It was like standing on a table while someone rocked it from side to side."

"I immediately grabbed the child and held him close, but I didn't know what to do. I saw the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple in the distance begin to crack... Thankfully, we were standing in an open area."

"Then I saw a car, completely out of control, speeding straight toward us. I tried to carry the child and run, but the shaking ground made it impossible to stay on my feet. I kept falling with every step."

"The last time I fell, I hit my head... and passed out. When I woke up, I was here."

Her story was unremarkable, except for one detail that caught Qi Xia's attention: Chongsheng Temple's Three Pagodas.

Those pagodas were located in Dali, Yunnan.

Qi Xia gently tapped the card on the table. Beneath his fingers lay the words "Liar."

Could there be multiple liars?

If "the rules are absolute," as the goat-headed figure had said, then the statement "there is only one liar" must also be absolute.

Since Qi Xia drew the "Liar" card, it meant no one else could be lying—the others' stories had to be true.

And yet, these stories, spanning three provinces, seemed inexplicably connected.

Not just the earthquake—the events themselves seemed intertwined. Wasn't that far too strange?

At this moment, all eyes turned to the next person: the middle-aged man in a white coat.

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