The tattooed man raised his voice, addressing the goat-masked figure: “Hey, judge—how do aliases count? Is that considered a lie?”The Man-Goat’s mask remained expressionless. “I’ll no longer interfere. Decide for yourselves. Remember: the rules are absolute. The loser will face… sanction.”The word hung in the air like a bde.“Then I’m telling the truth!” Tian Tian protested, her voice trembling. “If I lied, I’d be dead already, right? ‘Tian Tian’ is my real stage name!”Silence. In this life-or-death moment, no one dared comfort her.“Next,” the tattooed man, Qiao Jiajing, grumbled. His broken Mandarin made his story choppy but urgent.“A debtor refused to pay. I took him to a rooftop for a lesson. Then the ground shook. He pulled a knife, pushed me off. Hit a billboard…”“Earthquake?” Tian Tian interrupted. “You copied my story! I was in Shaanxi, you in Guangdong—same earthquake? Same billboard? Liars!”“World’s full of billboards,” Qiao snarled.Qi Xia’s mind raced. Earthquakes spanning three provinces?He’d been in Shandong. If their stories were true, this was no ordinary quake.The next woman, Xiao Ran, her voice a whisper: “I’m a preschool teacher. A child’s father never showed up to pick him… We waited until an earthquake hit. A car crashed. I bcked out…”Her mention of the Three Pagodas of Chongsheng Temple—in Yunnan—froze Qi Xia.Three provinces, one earthquake. Connected.His fingertips brushed the card in his palm: Liar.The rules said one liar only.If others told the truth… this quake was real.But how?The b-coated man stood now, his turn to speak.