"You kid, stop trying to sow discord," Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin, his tone stern. "You're a loan shark, and I'm a cop. Who do you think people will believe?"Qi Xia glanced at the arguing crowd. He knew Officer Li was probably telling the truth; he really was a cop.But he was going in the wrong direction.Perhaps it was his professional nature, or maybe his sense of justice, but he always wanted to organize everyone orderly.The halftime break was already halfway through, and the room was gradually quieting down.During this time, Qi Xia had repeated "My name is Li Ming" countless times in his mind until he was getting annoyed with himself.After all, there had been a decapitated corpse lying next to him the whole time, making it hard to concentrate.Blood dripped from the table onto the floor, and they had been in the room with the corpse for almost an hour now, a strange smell beginning to permeate the air.Qi Xia absentmindedly glanced at the corpse beside him, his pants already filthy.After death, various organs lose muscle control in a short period of time, resulting in incontinence.Before the stench of the corpse arrived, a foul odor had already filled the air.Qi Xia and another girl sat on either side of the corpse. The girl seemed to dislike the smell very much and kept covering her nose and mouth with her hand.Ten more minutes passed, and the goat-headed figure finally spoke: "The twenty-minute halftime break is over, and the game resumes."Han Yimo, the young man named earlier, steadied himself and took a deep breath before speaking: "My name is Han Yimo, and I'm a web novel writer.""Before coming here, I was in a rented house writing the climax of a novel. Since the story involved hundreds of characters, almost all of them had to appear in the climax, so I was fully focused on writing and didn't hear anything 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 the moment, it seemed that he was completely "independent," and his story ended abruptly after just a few sentences."Is that it?" the burly man was slightly surprised. "You just say 'I don't know,' and that's the end?""Because I can't lie, so I don't need to fabricate an answer to please everyone," Han Yimo's voice, although not loud, inexplicably seemed convincing."Alright... Who's next?" Officer Li's expression still held suspicion as he spoke. "It's the lady's turn.""Hey, cop," Qiao Jiajin seemed displeased with Officer Li's attitude, "we're all 'participants.' Don't act like a captain.""Someone has to come out and organize everyone," Officer Li retorted. "I've said it before; among us, only one is the enemy, and the remaining eight must unite.""But it's not your turn to command here," Qiao Jiajin completely disregarded Officer Li's words. "Outside, maybe I'd be afraid of you, but in this situation, no one knows if you're the 'liar'.""Both of you, stop arguing," the cool woman interrupted the two.This cool woman had been accusing the goat-headed figure of imprisoning everyone for twenty-four hours since the beginning, and she seemed logical and very calm.Seeing the two calm down, she continued, "In this so-called 'game,' no matter who wins in the end, the remaining people will all be considered 'indirect murderers.' That's the problem you should be considering."Upon hearing this, Qi Xia's expression changed slightly.If he really managed to survive and leave this room, he would indeed have "killed" the other eight.But what could he do?The card in front of him was a genuine "liar," and who would willingly sacrifice their own life to let others live?"I am Zhang Chenze, a lawyer," the cool woman said, her arms crossed and her expression blank. "It's unfortunate to meet everyone in such a bizarre place; otherwise, I would have handed out my business card."The others couldn't quite grasp Zhang Chenze's humor, but she didn't seem to mind."Before coming here, I was organizing trial documents. My client was swindled out of two million yuan, involving a large amount of money and serious consequences."When she mentioned "two million," the expressions of the others remained unchanged, but Qiao Jiajin visibly reacted, asking, "Two million?""Yes, two million. It's said that lawyers are the most fair and selfless, but we also have personal feelings. That man, in order to support his family, resorted to borrowing from loan sharks, which is very worrying. But illegal lending is another matter, unrelated to me.""When the earthquake happened, I was driving to meet with 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, about forty miles per hour, and suddenly I saw the ground crack ahead.""I immediately hit the brakes and stopped in front of the crack, but I didn't expect the car behind me to not be able to avoid in time, resulting in a series of rear-end collisions.""I only heard a few loud noises, and the car was pushed into the crack. Then I lost consciousness and ended up here."Another story ended, leaving only three people left to tell their tales."Wuhou Shrine..." Dr. Zhao pondered for a moment. "Is it the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?""Yes, I work in Chengdu."It seemed that this earthquake had spread throughout the country.With each unfamiliar story, it became increasingly difficult to guess who was lying."It's my turn next," Officer Li glanced at everyone. "I've already said my name; I'm Li Shangwu, a criminal police officer from Inner Mongolia.""Before coming here, I was staking out a fraudster. According to reliable information, we had already pinpointed the exact whereabouts of the suspect.""This suspect was involved in a major fraud amounting to two million yuan, the first major fraud case our city has received this year.""My colleague and I had been monitoring from the car, waiting for the appearance of the fraudster.""But the suspect turned out to be smarter than we imagined. He seemed to sense some danger and didn't show up for three consecutive days.""We spent these three days eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom in the car. It was driving us crazy.""But do you know what's even more unbearable for an adult man than not having food or drink?""It's not having cigarettes.""Neither of us had a single cigarette on us. According to protocol, we absolutely couldn't leave our post, but not having cigarettes was unbearable.""So, I had my colleague run to buy cigarettes while I kept a close eye on the suspect's residence.""But what I didn't expect was that not long after my colleague left, the whole ground began to shake violently. I wanted to get out of the car to see what was going on, but suddenly someone behind me used a thin thread to strangle my neck.""Although we're both skilled in close combat, the thin thread from the back seat was very difficult to deal with. I couldn't touch the person behind me at all, and I couldn't remove the thread from my neck.""At that moment, I immediately reclined the seat to restore my breathing, but I couldn't turn around. After all, my tall figure was wedged against the steering wheel.""While I was lying down, the person behind me took advantage and hit my head hard with something. I lost consciousness."As the others listened to Officer Li's story, they couldn't help but begin to doubt.He described a completely different situation. Before him, all the participants were injured and unconscious due to accidents.Only he was attacked and brought here.If there had to be one person among the participants who seemed the most suspicious, wouldn't it be him?
YOU ARE READING
十天的毁灭
Paranormal"When I thought it was just an ordinary day, I found myself trapped in the land of doom. When I thought all I needed was to keep participating in the death games to escape, I realized that people began to help me."