God's Imitator

Lu Qi looked completely bewildered, ”But I don’t understand at all. The insurance policies and Lawyer Lin’s testimony, how can both be true at the same time? Isn’t there an obvious contradiction?”

Ye Lin shook her head, ”There’s no fundamental contradiction. Under specific circumstances, both can hold simultaneously.

”As Lawyer Lin said: if the wife was a high-net-worth individual, such as a senior executive or a wealthy heir, then the coverage amount would be reasonable. And under those conditions, the possibility of ’murder for insurance’ would actually become even stronger.

”In other words, if Tang Qing and Wang Yongxin can produce evidence proving the wife was a high-net-worth individual, Lawyer Lin’s challenge could easily backfire.

”At that point, another Truth Vote could well push ’murder for insurance’ past sixty votes.”

Lu Qi was still puzzled, ”But then what? Even if that’s the truth, the culprit would be the deceased husband. None of the four suspects in the room have anything to do with it.”

Ye Lin explained, with a slight note of exasperation, ”Think one step further.

”We have no idea what’s actually in the Evidence Room, but there are almost certainly items that implicate each of the four suspects.

”If there weren’t, the suspects would be in an unassailable position. The Imitator would never allow that.

”So once ’murder for insurance’ is established as the truth, Tang Qing and Wang Yongxin can immediately retrieve evidence from the Evidence Room that implicates Lawyer Lin and submit it.”And based on what we’ve seen so far, almost no evidence has turned out to be forged. The only exception was the third-party policy.

”Everything else has been authentic.

”Tang Qing could absolutely use some specific piece of evidence to accuse Lawyer Lin of being the husband’s accomplice: providing legal advice for the fraud, or helping strip the wife of her premarital assets, and so on.

”Once that evidence is verified as genuine and forms a chain with everything already on the table, it would lock in Lawyer Lin’s guilt at the level of the game’s mechanics. There would be no coming back from that.”

Huang Shengjie looked genuinely alarmed, ”What? So Lawyer Lin’s situation is actually extremely precarious.

”This is a stitch-up. This game has to be rigged. I think the Imitator designed it specifically to target him.”

Qin Cheng raised a finger to his lips, ”Keep your voice down. We’re extras here. We can’t break character or say things that obviously don’t fit.

”Either way, there’s nothing we can do right now to help.

”If we had one of the Jury Representative roles, maybe we could say a few things on Lawyer Lin’s behalf. As it is, all we can do is keep voting for him.”

Ye Lin’s expression was also serious, ”In the worst case, we’d just have to accept the outcome and then use the immunity voucher to save Lawyer Lin.”

Qin Cheng thought for a moment and then said, ”Actually, I don’t think the situation is quite that bad yet. Lawyer Lin may still have cards he hasn’t played.”

Huang Shengjie looked up, ”Hmm? What makes you say that?”

Qin Cheng explained, ”Did you notice that when Lawyer Lin spoke, he deliberately split his insurance-related points across two separate rounds?

”In the previous Recess, he already argued from three angles that this kind of insurance fraud would have a very low chance of succeeding. The key focus was that the wife would have become suspicious when presented with large insurance documents to sign and would never have agreed willingly.

”After the Recess, Tang Qing produced the forged policy and argued that the husband could exploit the wife’s jealousy to get her to sign.

”But then Lawyer Lin immediately raised a new point: the issue of the wife’s assets. Without sufficient assets, ten million in coverage simply isn’t obtainable.

”Lawyer Lin’s mind moves quickly. He couldn’t have only thought of this during the Recess.

”He clearly held it back deliberately.

”If he had raised both issues before the previous Recess, presenting them together, wouldn’t that have been more persuasive?”

Huang Shengjie blinked in mild confusion, ”That does seem to make sense. But what’s the purpose? I don’t follow.”

Qin Cheng didn’t offer a definitive answer, ”I can’t say for certain. Everyone has their own approach, and it’s hard for me to guess exactly what Lawyer Lin is thinking. But I don’t believe he did this without purpose.

”Splitting those two insurance-related pieces of information apart looks like a deliberate way to draw out a specific response from Tang Qing’s evidence. Or perhaps to verify certain information.

”Of course, this is only my reading of it.

”What matters is what evidence Tang Qing produces after this Recess.

”Lawyer Lin’s latest challenge is actually quite risky. It could very easily shake the foundations of ’murder for insurance.’

”To prove the wife could legitimately hold ten million in coverage, as Lawyer Lin outlined, there are only three possible routes.

”First, proving her annual income was in the millions.

”Second, proving she had assets of ten million or more registered in her name.

”Third, proving she was an executive, business leader, or other high-value professional.”

Lu Qi instinctively asked, ”Aren’t the first and third the same?”

Qin Cheng shook his head, ”Not quite. Some professions can produce annual incomes in the millions, such as a social media influencer or streamer with a large following. The income is just much less stable.

”The critical issue is whether any new evidence would conflict with what’s already been established.

”Since the policies in the wife’s name have already been verified as genuine, and it’s highly probable the husband deceived her into signing them, the possibility that the wife was a shrewd executive, business leader, or senior lawyer is effectively ruled out.

”Someone at that level of professional acumen would not be fooled by tactics this crude.

”If Tang Qing produced evidence showing the wife was a company executive, it would likely cause the entire logical chain to collapse. I can’t predict exactly what would happen at that point, but it would be a very bad result for Tang Qing.

”If he wants to find more coherent evidence, it would have to start from the premise of ’the wife’s actual capabilities didn’t match her wealth,’ and work from one of two angles.

”Either the wife did earn millions annually, but through something like being a social media personality or streamer who made quick money.

”Or the wife genuinely had large assets, but those assets came from her family, and she was sheltered so thoroughly by her parents that she was naive about the world.

”If it’s the latter, there might need to be one more piece to the picture.

”If her parents were self-made entrepreneurs who doted on their daughter, they would certainly not have stayed out of her marriage decisions.

”Unless both parents were dead, leaving her a large inheritance.

”I’m curious which angle Tang Qing will take.”

Ye Lin asked, ”Qin Cheng, when do you think Tang Qing and Lawyer Lin will be ready to show their hands? This Recess, or the next one?”

Qin Cheng shook his head, ”Hard to say. But to be safe, I think now is actually a good time to bet.

”Lawyer Lin might want to drag things out one more round, but Tang Qing may not give him that opportunity.”

Ye Lin nodded, ”Right now, Feng Yuguang’s odds are at 3.4, the highest in the game. That means the fewest people have bet on him.

”His odds might go even higher if he says a bit more, but it doesn’t matter. He’s the weakest of the four suspects, and his chances of winning are minimal.

”Most of the people betting on him are just taking a long shot.

”Tang Qing and Wang Yongxin are sitting at 2.3 and 2.1. Wang Yongxin hasn’t said much, which might push his odds down a little, but his position really does look the most secure, so there’ll probably be a lot of bets on him later, which could keep pushing the odds lower.

”Lawyer Lin is at 2.7. That’s a noticeable increase from when we checked after the first Recess, because he’s been speaking a lot, and many audience members can see that once Tang Qing’s theory is established, Lawyer Lin’s situation becomes very dangerous. So fewer people are now betting on him.

”This is probably near a high point for his odds.

”Let’s bet now.

”All of us bet 30,000 on Lawyer Lin, in one go.

”And of course, if any of you feel confident enough, you can put in more.”