The End of Ten Days

Chapter Vol. 1 Ch. 6

"Stop trying to sow discord," Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin, his tone stern. "You’re a loan shark, and I’m a police officer. Who do you think everyone here will trust?"

Qi Xia glanced at the arguing group. He believed Officer Li wasn’t lying—he truly was a criminal investigator.

But his approach was flawed.

Perhaps it was his professional instincts, or maybe his sense of justice, but he was determined to organize everyone into an orderly group.

The intermission was already halfway over, and the room gradually fell silent.

Qi Xia had repeated the phrase "My name is Li Ming" countless times in his head by now, to the point where it was starting to irritate him.

After all, there was a corpse with a shattered skull lying right next to him, making it nearly impossible to focus.

Blood dripped from the table onto the floor with a steady "drip... drip...". The group had been trapped in the same room with the body for almost an hour, and a strange, putrid odor was beginning to fill the air.

Qi Xia glanced absentmindedly at the corpse beside him. His pants were already stained and filthy.

When a person dies, various bodily functions cease suddenly, leading to loss of muscle control and involuntary excretions.

Before the stench of decomposition fully sets in, the sharp smell of bodily fluids already assaults the senses.

Qi Xia and a young woman were seated on either side of the corpse. The woman, clearly disgusted by the smell, kept her hand over her nose and mouth.

Another ten minutes passed, and finally, Goathead spoke again: "The twenty-minute intermission is over. The game will now resume."

The young man named Han Yimo steadied himself, took a deep breath, and began: "My name is Han Yimo. I’m an online novelist."

"Before I arrived here, I was at my rented apartment, working on the final chapter of one of my novels. Since the finale involved a cast of over a hundred characters, I was intensely focused on writing and didn’t notice anything happening outside."

"In fact... I didn’t even realize when the earthquake struck or when I lost consciousness."

Han Yimo’s story was concise and vastly different from those before him. His account seemed completely "independent" and ended in just a few sentences.

"That’s it?" The muscular man blinked in surprise. "You’re just going to end with ‘I don’t know’?"

"Because I can’t lie, I don’t need to fabricate an answer just to cater to everyone," Han Yimo replied calmly. His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an inexplicable sense of credibility.

"Fine... Let’s move to the next person," Officer Li said, still visibly skeptical. He turned to the next individual. "It’s the lady’s turn."@@@@

"Hey, cop." Qiao Jiajin looked displeased with Officer Li’s attitude. "We’re all ‘participants’ here. Stop making it seem like you’re the team captain."

"Someone has to organize everyone," Officer Li retorted. "I’ve already said, there’s only one enemy among us. The other eight have to work together."

"Before coming here, I was staking out a fraud suspect. We had reliable information and had pinpointed the suspect’s location."

"The suspect had scammed someone out of two million yuan. It was the first major fraud case in our city this year."

"My partner and I had been sitting in the car, watching the suspect’s residence, waiting for him to show up."

"But the suspect turned out to be even smarter than we thought. He must’ve sensed danger because he didn’t show up for three days."

"During those three days, we stayed in the car, eating, drinking, and even relieving ourselves there. It was mentally exhausting."

"But do you know what’s worse for a grown man than being hungry or thirsty?"

"Running out of cigarettes."

"Neither of us had a single cigarette left. Technically, we weren’t supposed to leave our post, but the craving was unbearable."

"So I sent my partner to go buy cigarettes while I kept watching the suspect’s residence."

"But just after my partner left, the ground started shaking violently. I was about to get out of the car to see what was happening when someone suddenly wrapped a thin wire around my neck from behind."

"Even though I’m trained in close combat, it’s incredibly difficult to deal with a wire coming from the back seat. I couldn’t reach the person behind me, nor could I remove the wire from my neck."

Everyone stared at Officer Li. They noticed a visible red mark around his neck.

"I immediately reclined my seat to regain my breath, but I still couldn’t turn around. My large frame was stuck under the steering wheel."

"While I was down, the attacker struck me hard on the head with something. I blacked out and woke up here."

After hearing Officer Li’s story, suspicion began to rise among the group.

His account was completely different. Before him, all the participants had described accidents that led to their injuries and unconsciousness.

He was the only one who claimed to have been attacked.

If they had to choose the most suspicious person, wouldn’t it be him?

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