Fifty-two, as expected.

Bai Zongnan rubbed his head and checked his body. Fortunately, there were no wounds. His phone was still there, the screen frozen on the same message, but the signal bars in the upper left corner were empty. A sense of foreboding welled up in Bai Zongnan’s heart.

Had he been kidnapped?

Bai Zongnan tried hard to recall what had happened; his head ached. The last thing he remembered was leaving work and heading home...

Then he’d lost consciousness, and when he woke, he was in this strange room.

“Hello everyone, welcome to the ‘Truth and Lies’ game. The rules have been sent to you by text. Now, I wish you all an enjoyable game!”

The male voice, tinged with static, didn’t belong to this room. Though unclear, it passed through the door and landed directly in Bai Zongnan’s ears.

That must be a voice from outside.

Unsurprisingly, Bai Zongnan tugged the handle again and the door opened.

Almost simultaneously, the door opposite swung open as well, and a girl with short golden hair stared straight at Bai Zongnan.

They locked eyes for several seconds, as if each saw their own fear reflected in the other’s gaze.

Bai Zongnan swallowed nervously and stepped through the doorway.

“Who are you?”

The girl didn’t answer, still staring intently at Bai Zongnan. Her eyes moved slightly with his, letting him know she was no corpse.

Soon, the doors beside and diagonally across from Bai Zongnan opened one after another, and a man and a woman each stepped out.

“Where is this? Are you the kidnappers?” The man from the adjacent room looked around, his voice loud and anxious.

“Not at all! I woke up here, just came out when I heard voices,” Bai Zongnan replied.

The girl diagonally across seemed farther away, and for a moment, Bai Zongnan couldn’t tell who had spoken. Only when he saw the expressionless face and unmoving lips of the girl opposite did he realize the speaker’s identity.

Bai Zongnan looked around. The space was a square atrium with a high ceiling, a chandelier hanging directly in the center above the four rooms, large and bright. Each room occupied a corner of the square.

“Hey, kid, I’m talking to you. What’s your story?” The man in the room next to Bai Zongnan, burly and half-hidden behind the door, barked at him.

Bai Zongnan snapped back to reality and looked at him.

“I woke up in the room too and only came out when I heard voices.”

The burly man nodded, stepping out. “Yeah, same here. I heard something and came out.”

The woman across seemed to relax a bit, stepping forward and standing her ground.

“I was scared and didn’t dare open the door when I first woke up. Only when I heard you all open your doors did I come out,” she said.

Now closer, Bai Zongnan could see her—a woman in a short dress, thickly made up.

“What kind of person does this? So bold—drugging and dragging us here. What does he want?” the burly man said, giving the woman across from him another glance.

“I heard from the voice outside, seems like we’re supposed to play some kind of game...” Bai Zongnan began, but the man cut him off with a gruff voice.

“Game, my ass. If I find out who did this, I’ll kill him.”

He even swung his fist in demonstration.

At this, Bai Zongnan instinctively glanced at the girl opposite. She remained expressionless, unmoved by the others’ reactions, head bowed in silence.

The other two, sensing Bai Zongnan’s gaze, also looked over.

“Miss, are you in the same predicament as us?”

“Yeah, aren’t you scared? Why haven’t you said a word?”

The girl kept her head down, silent, though Bai Zongnan noticed her eyes trembled slightly when the burly man spoke.

The man and woman exchanged glances, suspicion flitting across both faces.

Just then—

“Ding-dong—”

After a brief electronic chime, the same man’s voice returned.

“After your brief exchange, you should have some understanding of each other. Now, the game officially begins: Round one.

The first question is...

The voice paused, then deepened, suddenly real and grave: ‘Did Gu Xiaoxu take the fountain pen from her own pencil box?’

Now, Player One, please answer!”

The moment the words fell, the burly man’s hat lit up, a golden light flashing three times.

Gu Xiaoxu—

At the mention of this name, Bai Zongnan’s mind exploded, a loud buzz resounding in his ears.

The glamorous woman couldn’t help but scream, “It’s her, it really is her—she’s come for revenge!”

The burly man was clearly stunned, taking ages to recover. At last, he slowly squeezed out a few syllables, as if each word pained him.

Bai Zongnan watched him, voice trembling, “You... what did you say?”

The man slowly squatted, holding his head in his hands.

“I’m Xu Guangliang, Class 14, Senior Year 2, Lishui No. 2 High School, 2011. You... do you know me?”

As he spoke, the scene shifted—the vast room shattered and reassembled, time halted and reversed, memories from a decade ago resurfacing piece by piece.

—

—

2

Bai Zongnan’s real name was Qin Zhen, Deputy Section Chief of the Criminal Investigation Division, LS City Public Security Bureau.

Before him lay a thick stack of files—the case file of the Lishui No. 2 High School murder case from ten years ago.

Had it not been for the boy in the next room, these files might have lain undisturbed in the archives forever.

Unexpectedly, tonight, the suspect had come to turn herself in. But her confession wasn’t about the ten-year-old case, rather, a recent missing persons case opened just a week ago.

Next door was the interrogation room.

A week ago, Criminal Investigation received orders to officially open a case for four missing persons—two men and two women.

Perhaps because one of the missing was the son of the bureau chief, the investigation file had landed on Bai Zongnan’s desk by the afternoon, just after the morning briefing.

Missing persons:

Xing Xin, female, 26, bar singer.

Xu Guangliang, male, 25, unemployed.

Zhen Zhiyan, male, 26, murder-mystery writer.

Lin Panpan, female, 24, graduate student.

The four young people had disappeared almost simultaneously. Beyond the closely matched report times, there was little else linking them.

Until today...

Bai Zongnan flipped through the file, listening to the “suspect” next door.

“Name.”

“Lu Nanying.”

“Age.”

“Year of the dog.”

“Age!”

“Twenty-six.”

“...”

“Officer, I’m a law-abiding citizen. I just invited the four of them to my house as guests, to play a game.”

“They weren’t deprived of their freedom—the door wasn’t locked. They could leave whenever they wanted. But I don’t think they’d want to...”

“In fact, the four of them are old acquaintances. They already ‘collaborated’ on another game together.”

“A nobody like me, they probably don’t even remember.”

“Now, where was I... Right, under normal circumstances—‘normal circumstances’—they won’t be in any danger, unless they do something rash like bite their tongues, ha ha ha ha.”

A truly vexing character, Bai Zongnan thought with irritation, standing up to peer at him through the one-way glass.

He didn’t look like the dangerous criminal Bai Zongnan had expected—a harmless face topped with neat bangs, perfectly ordinary, just as he claimed.

At that moment, a flush of excitement colored his cheeks. If not for the handcuffs, he might have started to dance.

“If you want to know what danger there is, it can only come from here...” He struggled with the cuffs, eyes glittering with excitement, pointing at his chest.

“Be more specific!” said his colleague Xiao Liu, stern-faced.

“The hats! Those hats are the only things on them that don’t belong to them. Amazing invention, lie detectors. Honestly, these could help you with your own investigations—I hope we can cooperate in the future...”

“Enough! Do you understand your situation? You’re a criminal suspect! Get it?”

“You just mentioned danger—what danger?”

Unexpectedly, the mild-mannered Xiao Liu burst out. The suspect calmed himself, then said slowly, “These are very dangerous hats. If they lie, the hats will kill them.”

3

The empty room echoed with the shouts of men and the wailing of women.

After a long time...

“So... it really is you all.” The woman, exhausted from yelling, sighed weakly.

Bai Zongnan too felt dazed. Who could have imagined that after all these years, a reunion of old classmates would happen like this?

The girl opposite looked stricken with grief, but still said nothing.

Suddenly, Xu Guangliang, who’d been squatting, sprang up and strode toward the woman diagonally across, grabbing her by the throat and shoving her against the wall.

“Xing Xin, this is your doing, isn’t it?” His eyes were fierce.

“Don’t think I don’t know—you were following me at Huixin Café the other day, weren’t you?” he growled.

Xing Xin, caught off guard, flushed deep red and struggled to say, “If... if I had done it... I wouldn’t... be here... now!”

“Guangliang, what are you doing? Let go! Keep this up and someone’s going to get—” Bai Zongnan instinctively reached out to help, but when he met Xu Guangliang’s murderous glare, he fell silent.

“Zhen Zhiyan, don’t pretend to be the nice guy. During that fire, you were the one who locked the door last!” At that, Bai Zongnan’s heart clenched. He quickly glanced at Lin Panpan across the room—her face changed slightly, then quickly returned to calm.

“If I hadn’t listened to you two back then, no one would have died, and I wouldn’t be here today!”

“Let me tell you—if Gu Xiaoxu really is out for revenge, she’ll kill you three first!”

The veins on Xing Xin’s neck bulged visibly, her mouth gaping but no sound coming out.

“Calm down! You’re going to strangle her. Do you want another trip to the police station? This time, it won’t be juvenile detention!” Lin Panpan suddenly interjected.

Xu Guangliang let go, leaving Xing Xin coughing violently, clutching her neck.

But soon, Bai Zongnan noticed something wrong.

Xu Guangliang seemed to be in terrible pain, now clutching at his own throat, eyes bulging as if about to burst.

“Look, what’s happening to him?” Lin Panpan, her body pressed close to Bai Zongnan, gripped his arm in terror as they watched Xu Guangliang writhing on the floor.

Somewhere in the room, the deep male voice sounded again.

“Time’s up. No response in time—initiating first round punishment!”

Xing Xin recovered slowly, now staring at the convulsing Xu Guangliang in horror.

“Ahhh, help... help me, it hurts, it hurts so much...” he wailed.

No one dared approach.

“It hurts... it hurts...”

No one knew how much time passed before Xu Guangliang’s sobbing and sniffles faded, his breath barely audible, his body limp as mud, still twitching slightly on the ground.

His hat had fallen askew but remained firmly attached to his head. The golden light flickered a few more times, then vanished.

At that moment, the man’s voice sounded again.

“Second round question: Did Gu Xiaoxu like Zhen Zhiyan? Player Two, please answer!”

Bai Zongnan heard his own name; his heart skipped a beat.

Lin Panpan, who had been clutching his arm, jumped away as if startled, casting a look at him as though she were seeing a corpse.

Not far away, Xing Xin also looked up, eyes full of fear.

Bai Zongnan forced a bitter smile, instinctively touching his head—the fabric of the hat brushing against his fingertips.

He couldn’t see it, but he could guess that the yellow light was now flashing atop his head, just as it had for Xu Guangliang.

Steeling himself, Bai Zongnan closed his eyes and recalled the message:

1. When answering, tell the truth as much as possible.

2. If you lie, the indicator on your head will shine red.

3. If a player’s red light flashes twice, elimination!

What did elimination mean? Had Xu Guangliang been eliminated?

There was no time to ponder. If he missed the time limit, he’d be the one writhing on the floor this round.

Did Gu Xiaoxu... like Zhen Zhiyan?

He was swept back in time, to that quiet, sunlit afternoon ten years ago.

A girl in a white dress approached the sleeping Bai Zongnan at his desk, hands behind her back, smiling brightly.

“Zhiyan, you haven’t had lunch again, have you? Here, take this.” She held out a lunchbox, her smile undiminished.

Bai Zongnan, flustered, was about to stand and accept it when laughter erupted from the doorway—sharp, piercing.

“Oh, skipping the dorm at noon to meet your ‘little white writer’ boyfriend, huh?”

“What’s this, then?”

A group of girls, led by Xing Xin, just as he remembered—her makeup a little lighter than now—ran in, snatched the lunchbox from Gu Xiaoxu, and joked loudly.

“What, not interested in Guangliang’s type anymore? Like this one instead?”

Bai Zongnan’s hand froze in midair, his face reddening. He fled the classroom, leaving Gu Xiaoxu with her head bowed almost to the floor.

...

...

On the sports field, the class bell had just rung.

A group of boys surrounded Bai Zongnan, faces unfriendly.

Xu Guangliang faced him, scowling, and punched Bai Zongnan hard in the stomach.

“Stay away from Gu Xiaoxu—understand?”

There was no chance to fight back—the blows rained down like hail.

Clutching his head, Bai Zongnan curled up, so battered he couldn’t even cry for help. Through his fingers, he saw the “bullies” dusting off their clothes as they swaggered away.

...

...

In the classroom that night, during self-study.

Gu Xiaoxu, in a wrinkled white uniform, trembling, handed Bai Zongnan a fountain pen.

He turned to look at his deskmate—her face streaked with tears, her expression desolate.

“Today, during math, I didn’t mean to waste everyone’s time...”

“I don’t know why Mr. Liang got so angry. I just blurted it out when I saw the answer was wrong...”

Her voice faltered, her head drooping.

“They’re not doing this because of that, are they?”

She tugged her skirt to cover a dirty footprint.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this. Sorry. Um... happy birthday!”

“Thank you.”

Bai Zongnan, aware of the malicious glances from the back row, replied in a barely audible whisper and turned away from her.

...

There couldn’t be much time left—Bai Zongnan felt a sour ache in his chest, but the answer was clear.

Did Gu Xiaoxu like Zhen Zhiyan?

She did.

Bai Zongnan spoke solemnly into the center of the room, “Gu Xiaoxu liked Zhen Zhiyan!”

A brief silence, then the electronic tone sounded again.

“Player Two has answered—lie!” The deep male voice followed, pronouncing Bai Zongnan’s fate like a judge.

“You... you... the red light!” Lin Panpan clapped her hand over her mouth, horrified.

Bai Zongnan smiled bitterly. Was that not the right answer? Did he only have one life left?

LS City Public Security Bureau, Interrogation Room.

Watching the man in the interrogation room, calm as though telling a story, Bai Zongnan could no longer restrain himself. He yanked open the door and stood in the doorway.

Their eyes met—Lu Nanying’s gaze was so open and honest, Bai Zongnan could hardly believe he was a kidnapper.

“Captain Qin, your thoughts?” Xiao Liu stood up and looked to Bai Zongnan. He’d worked with Bai Zongnan for ten years—ten years ago, they’d investigated the Lishui No. 1 High School case together, back when Bai Zongnan was just a team leader.

Bai Zongnan signaled for him to leave.

Everyone took a deep breath—if nothing changed, only oblivion awaited them.

Bai Zongnan, aware of the hostile glances from the back row, replied in a barely audible whisper and turned away from her.

...

There couldn’t be much time left—Bai Zongnan felt a sour ache in his chest, but the answer was clear.