Chapter 604: Chapter 603: Smoking
Lu Bingjun didn’t mind Li Hui’s shocked expression and continued:
"You have been trying every possible way to cover up your crime. Each time when you chose to copy content on the drawing board, you preferred to transcribe those that severely deducted points in the ’health’ aspect, rather than reveal any information related to the crime.
"But do you think you’re safe like this?
"During the preparation time before the game officially started, the reasoning of the three audience members actually provided us with three extra pieces of information.
"Among them, ’exercise’ and ’diet’ have already been verified. But the third, ’smoking’, has not corresponded with any crime of the Inner Court players.
"We have Lawyer Lin to thank here; if he hadn’t derived the ’smoking’ conclusion from this third piece of information, you might have actually gotten away with it.
"It’s quite obvious this is not an insignificant piece of information. It suggests that someone present is directly related to the deceased’s smoking.
"Li Hui, that person is you, isn’t it?
"Tang Qing obviously already realized the third piece of information was related to smoking, but he deliberately concealed it. This indicates that this information must be connected to a player in his community.
"Tang Qing knows you have a smoking habit and guessed that this is very likely related to the crime, otherwise, his behavior can’t be explained.
"Of course, there is evidence:
"Your index and middle fingers have dark yellow stains at the fingertips and fingernail creases, and your teeth are noticeably yellow as well.
"However, from your attire and accessories, you seem to care about your image.
"So this is not a lack of hygiene, but a sign of long-term heavy smoking.
"You once copied the sentence on the drawing board: ’I am not keen to share my hobbies with friends.’
"This sentence did not pass the lie detector test, which means you likely tried every possible way to coax the deceased into becoming addicted to smoking like you.
"You might be schoolmates, childhood friends, or possibly real-life friends.
"But this makes it even more unforgivable.
"The likelihood of a smoker experiencing sudden cardiac death is 2 to 3 times higher than a non-smoker, and for heavy smokers, the risk can increase up to 10 times.
"Smoking may trigger malignant arrhythmias, accelerating cardiovascular damage, all of which have ample medical evidence.
"Without the influence of smoking, even overexertion during exercise would merely lead to fatigue, requiring a few days of rest, not resulting in sudden death.
"So, between smoking, excessive exercise, and pre-made meals, which one poses the greatest danger? Surely, everyone has a clue?"
Li Hui’s expression froze instantly, but he quickly reacted, retracting his right hand behind the drawing board.
"You’re talking nonsense!
"Everyone here could be smoking, just because I dye my hair, does that mean I’m the smoker?
"With your profession, status, and age, you must have had many occasions where you needed to smoke socially. I think you’re just calling the kettle black, deliberately smearing me!"
Li Hui made every effort to argue, but the expressions of other players said it all.
Regardless of whether he showed his right hand, other players had already made up their minds.
Unless he revealed an even worse crime, such a defense was utterly meaningless.
Second by second, time passed, and Li Hui suddenly realized that he unexpectedly had ample time.
A full 4 minutes.
According to game rules, each round of the game has a set 12-minute free discussion period. When all 6 players are alive, each player gets 2 minutes.
But after a player dies, ordinary players still get no more than 2 minutes to speak, leaving extra time free.
Now it seems all this extra time belongs to the host.
This gave Li Hui extra time to think.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to throw caution to the wind.
"Fine, I admit, I did persuade him to smoke!
"But so what? I smoke too!
"Everyone knows smoking is harmful to health. Did I force him to smoke? No, it was his own choice!
"Think about it, why did he smoke? Wasn’t it because of too much work pressure, needing cigarettes to stay alert?
"So I didn’t hide information or deliberately harm him. I just did what all smokers do, sharing cigarettes out of politeness!
"Similarly, why did he exercise? Why did he consume so much coffee and energy drinks? Wasn’t it because he was overwhelmed by work stress?
"The real culprit here is, of course, Lu Bingjun!
"Look at what he wrote on the drawing board, he used to be strung along by his boss, working overtime for promises that were never fulfilled.
"This shows that in his work environment, such things are commonplace! So after he became a manager, did he correct this or did he perpetuate it, using the same methods on the deceased?
"You must have an idea!
Finally, the speaking time ended, and the players each bowed their heads and pressed the voting button on the drawing board.
Deng Xiao felt his heart becoming increasingly uncomfortable. He instinctively touched the back of the drawing board to feel the beating heart quicken.
Given the current situation, predicting the players’ votes was already impossible.
Because this round of the game did not impose restrictions on voting, the players could freely vote according to either ’crimes’ or ’health’ standards.
Even with a unified standard, as players’ crimes became fully exposed, different players had different ideas.
The Lie Detection Mechanism’s constraint was becoming less effective.
With the added factor of community, the final voting results would only become more chaotically extreme.
Finally, voting ended.
But what no player expected was that all five swords on stage came down in unison!
As the swords pierced the circular stage, all players’ expressions changed abruptly, their bodies stiffened, clutching their chests tightly, unable to move.
Five players suffered the penalty of heart pain.
It seemed like an eternity before Deng Xiao finally came to his senses, his chest heaving violently, heart pounding as if ready to jump out of his throat.
"What’s going on... What’s going on!
"Five-way tie?!"
This was the only explanation Deng Xiao could think of.
The swords and heart pain indicated everyone had received the same highest number of votes, meaning one vote per person.
Deng Xiao looked at Li Hui, only to find the other also looking at him.
"Why hasn’t this Huang Mao gone down yet..."
Deng Xiao was speechless. If Li Hui were dead, though the game probably would not end, at least there would be one less sudden death ticket in the next round.
Surprisingly, after all players underwent heart pain, there were still no deaths.
Of course, this also indicated they indeed received very few sudden death tickets, as the number of tickets directly affected the extent of vascular blockage.
Deng Xiao glared at Li Hui and Shi Guoliang. Obviously, both sides were now locked in a deadly grip.
Lu Bingjun and Deng Xiao belonged to Community 2, while Li Hui and Shi Guoliang belonged to Community 7.
It’s unthinkable for players from the same community to vote against each other.
This round of games had no restrictions on voting criteria, so the voting options were quite free. These four players divided into two groups to attack each other, indeed, could result in one vote for each.
"But there’s a question, what’s going on with Xu Guangxin?
"He comes from Community 11, his crime should be just ignoring someone in peril. Neither I nor Lu Bingjun should have voted for him...
"Got it, based on health criteria, indeed, you could vote for him!"
