Chapter 4: Disaster?

At this moment, Hua Bi Nan raised his hand and looked at Shan Yang Tou.

"Hey, judge, how should we count something like using a pseudonym? Does it count as lying?"

Shan Yang Tou neither nodded nor shook his head. He simply said in a flat tone: "I won't be involved in any of the process from now on. You just need to write down your names based on your own thoughts. All you have to remember is that 'the rules are absolute.' In the end, I will personally carry out the 'sanction' on the loser."

The two words "sanction" echoed with a resounding force, making everyone shudder involuntarily.

"This proves I didn't lie!" Tian Tian shouted anxiously. "If I had lied, I would be dead by now, right? Even if it's a pseudonym, my pseudonym really is 'Tian Tian'!"

No one answered her. They were now at a critical stage where it was life or death, and no doubts could be overlooked.

"Then it's my turn to speak." Hua Bi Nan pursed his lips, looking reluctant. "If this lady's story doesn't count as lying, then mine definitely doesn't either."

"My name is Qiao Jia Jin, and I live in Guangdong. I don't have a specific occupation. Before coming here, I was collecting debts."

Qiao Jia Jin's Mandarin was not very good, so everyone had to listen carefully.

"You know, people these days are really something. They promise everything when they borrow money, but when it's time to pay back, they start playing the sympathy card."

"Dammit, they curse us debt collectors as devils, as heartless."

"But that debtor should think about it from another angle. When he was at his most helpless and needed money the most, I was the one who lent him a hand. When no institutions would loan him money, I did. To him, I'm not a devil—I'm a savior."

"But how did he treat this savior of his?"

"He went around complaining about how hard his life was, saying he'd been scammed out of two million yuan. And he criticized us debt collectors for being so heartless, even trying to use the sympathy of his neighbors to get out of it. But when he borrowed the money, we signed a contract, and all the interest was clearly explained to him. Is it our fault he can't pay it back?"

"Last night, I was planning to teach him a lesson. I took him up to the rooftop of a tall building, but then suddenly there was an earthquake. I didn't originally want to kill him, but this guy pulled out a knife in the chaos and tried to kill me!"

"In the midst of all the confusion, he pushed me off the rooftop, and I crashed into a billboard. As for what happened after that... I can't remember any of it."

Everyone frowned after hearing the man's story.

Tian Tian seemed to have spotted something and laughed angrily: "See? That's why you were trying to throw dirt on me! You're the real liar!"

"What? What makes you say I'm lying?" Qiao Jia Jin snarled fiercely.

"I'm in Shaanxi, and you're in Guangdong!" Tian Tian pointed at him. "Your whole story is just a copy of mine! I had an earthquake, and so did you. I got hit by a billboard, and you crashed into one too! If that's not lying, what is?"

"I don't care where you were. I just had an earthquake." Hua Bi Nan glared at her. "If I had hidden it, that would be lying! As for the billboard, there are plenty in the world, right?"

"You're definitely lying!" Tian Tian pointed at Qiao Jia Jin. "Your job is something only shady people do, so lying comes naturally to you!"

"Hah, and your job is so much better?"

Qi Xia watched the two arguing intensely and felt that something was off about the situation.

It wasn't because one of them was lying; it was because he had experienced an earthquake too.

He wasn't in Shaanxi or Guangdong—he was in Shandong.

Could there be an earthquake covering such a vast area in the world?

This earthquake spanned half the country, affecting three provinces.

If what they said was true, it would be an unprecedented disaster.

"Stop arguing and just get it over with." The muscular man sitting across from them interrupted them and glanced at the next woman. "It's your turn. If we're going to judge who's lying, we should wait until everyone has spoken."

The two fell silent after hearing that, both letting out cold hums.

The woman next to Qiao Jia Jin nodded timidly and began: "Um... I-I'm Xiao Ran, and I'm a You Shi."

The girl named Xiao Ran looked terrified; her voice was soft and trembling.

"Before coming here, I was waiting with a child for their parent to pick them up. The child used to be picked up by their mom, but I heard the mom had a serious illness—something growing in her brain that required surgery... So these past few days, it was the dad coming instead. But he seems to forget a lot..."

"Yesterday, it was already past six in the evening. I should have been off work by then, but for some reason, the child's father wasn't answering his phone..."

"I didn't know the child's address, so I couldn't take them home. I just stood with them at the street corner, waiting."

"Truth be told, I had things to do that night too... I had an appointment with a psychological counselor. I wasn't really enjoying my job and hoped the counselor could help me sort things out."

"But I ended up waiting for hours, and my evening appointment fell through."

"Just as I was spacing out, the ground suddenly started shaking. I was scared out of my mind... It took me a few seconds to realize it was an earthquake..."

"The feeling of the earthquake wasn't what I'd heard—it wasn't the ground jumping, but swaying side to side. It felt like I was standing on a table, and someone was shaking it back and forth..."

"I immediately hugged the child close, but I didn't know what to do. I saw the three pagodas of Chong Sheng Si in the distance cracking apart... Luckily, we were standing in an open area."

"Then, I saw an out-of-control sedan speeding toward us... I tried to run to the side with the child in my arms, but the shaking ground made me stumble with every step."

"In the end, I fell and hit my head... Then I blacked out, and when I woke up, I was already here."

It was a straightforward story without any standout points.

The only thing that struck Qi Xia as odd was the "Chong Sheng Si San Ta."

Those three pagodas were in Dali, Yunnan.

Qi Xia gently touched the cards on the table, covering the three words with his hand, but he knew what was written there: "liar."

So, could there be more than one liar?

If "the rules are absolute," then what Shan Yang Tou had said—"there is and only one liar"—must be absolute.

Since he had drawn "liar," that meant no one else could be the liar; there was only one.

Their stories must all be true.

But these tales spanning three provinces were strangely connected.

Not just the earthquake—their accounts were linking up in ways that seemed too coincidental.

Now, everyone's attention turned to the next person: the middle-aged man in the white coat.