Chapter 597: Chapter 596: Offense and Defense

The sentences that appear on each player’s board are different, and relate to personal crimes, professional experiences, and living habits.

For some players, both sentences carry risks, so they can only choose the lesser of two evils.

But Shi Guoliang is different; both times he has absolutely safe options.

The first is "has a professional medical team," and the second is "eats healthy vegetables from his own farm."

These two pass the lie detector, which means other players have absolutely no reason to vote him a Sudden Death Ticket.

In this situation, saying too much might leak one’s own information, leading to a slip of the tongue.

Therefore, Shi Guoliang simply repeated the contents on the board, just going through the motions.

Because Shi Guoliang’s speech was too brief, Deng Xiao unconsciously zoned out during the following time.

He only realized he had been chosen to speak second when the mechanism at his mouth unlocked.

Deng Xiao hurriedly lifted his board slightly and began to explain.

[To enhance training effectiveness, I frequently drink large amounts of coffee and energy drinks. (Black)]

"I drink black coffee after getting up in the morning to do aerobics; it’s nothing strange, right?

"Black coffee can promote fat breakdown, save muscle glycogen, delay fatigue, and improve exercise performance.

"Although it can briefly increase heart rate, it only poses a risk to those with heart problems.

"Normal healthy people are not affected.

"After all, who hasn’t had a few cups of coffee? What do you all think?"

The third player to speak was Wei Hongbing, a middle-aged woman with wavy curls. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

[Most tenants are quite satisfied with me. (Red)]

"Oh, you guys may not have rented properties, not knowing how many weird tenants there are now!

"I don’t have many houses, but they’re always causing trouble, so I generally don’t look after them, as long as they pay rent on time.

"But the young people today are too much!

"Take the room that was vacated last week, I went in and, my god, trash everywhere, lunch boxes, plastic bags, used tissues all over, you can’t even find a place to step on. The fridge was full of unfinished dishes and expired fruits, moldy and smelly, yet they didn’t throw them away!

"My perfectly good TV was moved to the balcony, and when I checked, it wouldn’t turn on anymore, I don’t know if it’s because of exposure or rain.

"Tell me, can I not be angry with tenants like this? Can I make them satisfied? Huh?

"Not only that, the electric bill, water bill, gas bill, property fee, all were owed, I checked, collectively 600 plus, and then the people just disappeared.

"Oh, what do you all think of this..."

Wei Hongbing seemed to be getting emotional as she spoke, but since the speaking time was limited, the mechanism quickly relocked, quieting her down.

Lu Bingjun’s mouth mechanism unlocked, making him the fourth player to speak.

Deng Xiao couldn’t help but frown slightly, this was not a good sign.

This means Li Hui and Xu Guangxin would be the last two players to speak.

As the host, Xu Guangxin certainly put himself in the last spot, giving him a lot of strategic freedom.

And the situation seemed somewhat tricky for Lu Bingjun:

If he no longer attacks Huang Mao Li Hui, then Li Hui might still retaliate against him later, and it would be too late to counterattack then;

But if he attacks Li Hui, then in Li Hui’s eyes, he would be more reprehensible than Xu Guangxin, creating a "no rest until dead" scenario that unwittingly benefits Xu Guangxin.

Upon introspection, Deng Xiao thought if he were in this situation, he might feel a bit torn.

"What does Brother Lu plan to do?"

However, to Deng Xiao’s surprise, Lu Bingjun neither purely defended nor continued attacking Huang Mao Li Hui.

Instead, he looked at the just-finished speaker, Wei Hongbing, with an intriguing expression.

"This lady, you don’t seem very honest."

Deng Xiao was a bit surprised, reflexively glancing at the board in front of Lu Bingjun’s chest again.

[I rarely have vacations where I completely put work aside. (Black)]

Lu Bingjun continued: "Each of us sees two sentences on our board, as you all might have noticed, the first involves criminal acts, mainly related to our profession, and the second relates to our health, primarily concerning our physical condition and living habits.

"Clearly this lady is a landlord, and she complained to us about bizarre tenants, which is normal, but does it really explain ’most tenants are dissatisfied with her?’

"There surely are bizarre tenants, but how prevalent are they?

"I think, among tenants, the normal ones are still the majority. They are innately the vulnerable group, and most of the time don’t want more trouble, as long as the deposit deductions aren’t too large, they generally don’t bother arguing with landlords.

"If most tenants are dissatisfied with this lady, is it her problem, or the tenants’ problem?

"Clearly, we’re all related to a certain sudden death case, and the phrases the Imitator designed for us are bound to have clear meanings.

"This lady is a landlord, most tenants are dissatisfied with her, and she often argues with people.

"Drastic emotional swings are, in themselves, one of the key factors of sudden death.

"She claims she always wins the arguments, I believe that, but what about those who argue with her?

"Besides that, there’s something more worth noting:

"This lady shouldn’t be unaware that her statements are full of loopholes, right? So why choose that phrase?

"If the other piece of information is about her health, and if she is as healthy as she claims, she should have chosen that one, which would be less risky.

"Yet she takes a risk choosing this one, trying to bluff her way through...

"Is it because the information about her health is far more dangerous than her liking to argue with others? Even possibly directly deciding the vote outcome of this game round, so she has to try every possible way to cover it up?

"As for myself...

"Frankly, as an executive, my work pressure is not low; even when on vacation, I must keep my phone on, ready to deal with unexpected situations.

"But as everyone knows, executives have far more flexibility than regular employees, with plenty of chances to slack off during daily work.

"Thus, one cannot gauge it with a regular employee’s workload."

...

This sudden provocation left Wei Hongbing very surprised, her face turned red as she glared at Lu Bingjun.

But like Li Hui in the last game round, she couldn’t speak because the mechanism hadn’t unlocked.

With a "click," Huang Mao Li Hui’s mechanism unlocked, making him the fifth speaker.

[My schedule is extremely irregular. (Black)]

He looked at Lu Bingjun, then looked at Xu Guangxin, who had not yet spoken.

Xu Guangxin’s board read: [I often move houses or travel long distances due to work location changes. (Black)]

In the last round, Li Hui’s chaotic schedule was exposed, causing him to receive the most ’Sudden Death Tickets.’

But it also meant that ’chaotic schedule’ had become a safe piece of information, and writing it wouldn’t make things worse.

He could use this piece of information to cover other pieces he didn’t want exposed.

But in this game round, he must attack back and convince enough players to genuinely vote the Sudden Death Ticket to someone else.