When the number "two million" was mentioned, everyone’s expression remained unchanged, but Brian Johnson was clearly shocked and asked, "Two million?"

"That's right, two million. People always say lawyers are the most impartial and selfless, but we have our own personal feelings too. That man took out a high-interest loan just to support his family, which is really worrying. But illegal lending is another case, unrelated to me."

"When the earthquake happened, I was driving to meet a client on Qingyang Avenue. I had just passed Du Fu Thatched Cottage and was near Wuhou Shrine. I remember... I wasn’t driving fast, about forty miles per hour, when suddenly I saw the ground ahead crack open."

"I immediately hit the brakes and stopped steadily in front of the crack, but I didn’t expect the car behind me couldn’t avoid it and there was a chain collision."

"I only heard a few loud crashes, my car was pushed into the crack, and then I lost consciousness and ended up here."

Another story ended, and at this point, only three people had yet to tell theirs.

"Wuhou Shrine..." Dr. Harris thought for a moment and said, "Is that the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"

"Yes, I work in Chengdu."

It seemed this earthquake had spread across the whole country.

Just from these unfamiliar stories, it was really too hard to guess who was lying.

"It's my turn next." Officer Thompson looked at everyone. "I already mentioned my name earlier. I am Mark Thompson, a criminal police officer from Inner Mongolia."

"Before coming here, I was staking out a fraud suspect. According to reliable information, we had already pinpointed the suspect’s exact whereabouts."

"This suspect had committed a huge fraud, amounting to two million yuan. It was the first major fraud case our city had received this year."

"My colleague and I had been monitoring from the car, just waiting for the suspect to appear."

"But the suspect was even smarter than we thought. He seemed to sense some kind of danger and didn’t show up for three days straight."

"For those three days, we ate, drank, and did everything in the car. We were on the verge of a breakdown."

"But do you know what’s even harder for a grown man than having no food or water?"

"Having no cigarettes."

"Neither of us had a single cigarette left. By principle, we absolutely couldn’t leave our post, but the craving for cigarettes was unbearable."

"So I had my colleague run out to buy some, while I kept a close watch on the entrances and exits of the suspect’s residence."

"But what I didn’t expect was that not long after my colleague left, the whole ground started shaking violently. I wanted to get out of the car to see what was happening, but suddenly someone looped a thin wire around my neck from behind."

"Although we’re both skilled in close combat, it’s extremely hard to deal with a wire coming from the back seat. I couldn’t reach the person behind me at all, nor could I remove the wire from my neck."

At this point, everyone looked at Officer Thompson and saw that there was indeed a red mark on his neck.

"So I immediately reclined the seat and managed to breathe again, but I couldn’t turn around—after all, I’m a big guy and my legs were stuck under the steering wheel."

"While I was lying down, the person behind me took the chance to hit me hard on the head with something, and I lost consciousness."

After hearing Officer Thompson's story, everyone couldn’t help but start to doubt.

He described a completely different situation. Before him, all the participants had been injured and knocked out by accidents.

Only he was attacked and ended up here.

If you had to pick the most suspicious person among them, wouldn’t it be him?

Chapter 7: Odds of Winning

"Cop, you’re lying," Brian Johnson said coldly.

"Hmph, I knew you’d say that, but what evidence do you have that I’m lying? Just because someone attacked me?"

"Of course not." Brian Johnson smiled slightly. "I don’t know the reason, but all the previous stories are more or less connected. There are many shared characters in these stories. If you ignore the locations, everyone’s accounts are reasonable."

"So what?"

"That’s exactly the problem." Brian Johnson pointed at the lawyer Chris Brooks. "There’s a common character in your story and the lawyer’s—the 'fraudster who scammed two million.' But your stories contradict each other, which means one of you is lying."

Officer Thompson paused as well and asked, "Where’s the contradiction?"

Brian Johnson shook his head and looked at Officer Thompson, saying, "Attorney Brooks was already preparing for court, which means in her story, 'the suspect has been caught.' But you were still staking out, which means in your story, 'the suspect was still at large.' Isn’t that a contradiction?"

Officer Thompson thought for a moment and said, "I have to admit, you make a good point. But I think you’re being misled by this 'game.' First, you need to understand a major premise: all the storytellers were in different cities. In other words, even if our experiences sound similar, they absolutely can’t be the same event. Since they’re different events, naturally there will be different outcomes."