Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 308 Li Yin's Verification

Li Yin frowned, his gaze once again falling on the honest-looking Zhou Qiang. Given the current lack of information, Zhou Qiang, the first person to choose fruit, might be hiding an important clue.

The apartment will not issue any missions that are guaranteed to lead to certain death. In other words, from the very first time you choose a fruit, there is always a "sure way to win".

Li Yin walked up to him and asked in a calm tone, "Master Zhou, think back carefully. When you were choosing lemons in the store just now, did you hear any unusual sounds or anything else? Or, do you think we in the warehouse could hear the sounds you made when you were choosing fruit? For example, which shelf your footsteps were heading towards?"

He wanted to verify a crucial point: to what extent were the ghost's sensory abilities restricted by the apartment? Since sight was completely blocked inside the warehouse, then... what about hearing?

If the ghost's true form is mixed among the residents, and it possesses extraordinary hearing, could it possibly deduce which area a resident went to and what fruit they picked up by listening to the footsteps of the residents outside the warehouse as they walked towards the shelves, the sounds of them touching the fruit, or even subtle changes in their breathing, thus narrowing down the scope of the identification?

Upon hearing Li Yin's question, Zhou Qiang subconsciously raised his hand and scratched his head, causing the sleeve of his short-sleeved shirt to slip down a bit.

At that very moment, Jiang Jin, who was standing behind Li Yin, suddenly narrowed his eyes, and Li Yin also noticed that Zhou Qiang had a rather conspicuous and hideous scar on his elbow!
It looks like an old injury, but the shape is unusual and doesn't seem to be from a regular fight.

“Master Zhou, your arm…” Li Yin pointed to it.

Zhou Qiang was stunned for a moment, then quickly pulled down his sleeves and forced a simple smile: "No...it's nothing. I was young and didn't know any better. I often got into fights, and these are old injuries."

Li Yin nodded, not delving into the matter, but keeping the detail in mind.

Jiang Jin had worked as a grassroots police officer for a long time and had come into contact with many street thugs, so he had some understanding of various injuries.

The shape of Zhou Qiang's wound made him vaguely feel that it was neither caused by an ordinary fight nor by a laceration from a sharp weapon. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean anything; many people may have some unpleasant experiences when they are young.

Jiang Jin realized that one of the nine people must be a ghost. Therefore, the identity, background, and past experiences of the "resident" that the ghost was impersonating were most likely fabricated or altered by the apartment building.

If Zhou Qiang is a ghost, his explanation about the wound might be fabricated. However, this is only a minor point of doubt and cannot be used as evidence.

Jiang Jin planned to find an opportunity to "talk" with Zhou Qiang again to see if he could find more illogical flaws in his words.

Just then, Li Yin paced back and forth, and everyone assumed he was about to feed the animals and was considering which fruit to choose. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he took a deep breath, walked to the center of the fruit shop, right next to the gruesome corpse, raised his voice, and clearly said, "Everyone, come here and listen to me!"

His voice sounded particularly abrupt in the quiet shop, and everyone was stunned, their eyes all focusing on him.

Li Yin looked around and said with unusual firmness, "Listen carefully, I'm going to feed them apples next!"

"what?"

"apple?"

"He just said it outright?"

"are you crazy?!"

For a moment, whispers and incredulous glances mingled together.

Everyone was stunned, completely baffled as to what Li Yin was trying to do. In a game where every step was a matter of life and death, how could he willingly expose himself?
Wu Qian couldn't help but whisper, "Li Yin, are you... are you planning to pull a trick of feigning reality while pretending to be serious? Are you deliberately saying you'll choose apples, but actually choosing something else?"

Zheng Jie, who was standing next to her, quickly said, "You're such a naive girl! If you guessed it, don't say it out loud! Wouldn't that let even ghosts hear it?"

"Ah, yes, I'm sorry! Li Yin!"

Even Jiang Jin was puzzled at this moment; Li Yin's move was far too unusual. Did this male protagonist have some kind of strategy? Was he simply using feigned innocence to mask his true intentions? Did he think no one would believe he would reveal his chosen fruit, so he went against the grain and chose to feed the fruit with apples?

Despite the questioning looks from the crowd, Li Yin remained calm: "I just need to do some verification. I need to confirm some things about the 'rules' and the 'ghosts'."

He paused, and to increase the credibility of his words, he even raised his hand and swore a solemn oath: "I'll say it again, this is a verification, and we need to select apples, so I, Li Yin, will definitely choose apples to feed them! Otherwise, may my intestines rupture and my body rot, and may I die a horrible death, never to be reincarnated!"

This solemn oath instantly silenced the shop.

You know, once inside the apartment, no one will be a pure materialist anymore. Isn't he afraid that the oath will come true? Now, everyone is starting to frantically speculate about Li Yin's true intentions.

Jiang Jin's mind raced: What was he planning? Publicly declaring he would choose the apple could mean several things: First, he might genuinely choose the apple, playing a ruse; second, he definitely wouldn't choose the apple, he was misleading the ghost to identify it, thus ensuring his own safety; but what if the ghost also thought of this? Third… was he testing something? Testing the ghost's perception? Or testing some loophole in the rules?

Jiang Jin's gaze followed Li Yin closely, vaguely catching the direction he might want to verify—was he testing the ghost's thinking and cognition in order to conduct a "criminal psychological profile"?
As a police officer, Jiang Jin is very familiar with the concept of criminal profiling. Especially in this situation where it's necessary to find the ghost's identity, the more he understands the ghost, the more likely he is to find him!

"It's time, let's go into the warehouse." Jiang Jin didn't say anything more and took the lead towards the inner warehouse.

Filled with questions, the residents once again flooded into the dark and oppressive little warehouse. Outside the warehouse, inside the fruit shop.

Li Yin stood between the shelves, not immediately heading towards the area where apples were piled up.

He first listened intently to the sounds behind the warehouse door, then walked to a shelf, lowered his voice, and muttered to himself in a volume barely audible to himself: "Hopefully that ghost is stupid enough to believe me... If the oath could come true, how did Cao Shuang die? How could I possibly choose apples? That's too dangerous. Hmm, I'll choose bananas. The ghost guessed bananas just now, so it probably won't guess bananas again..."

After muttering these words to himself, he reached out and, without hesitation, picked up a plump, orange-yellow tangerine from next to the pile of bananas!

He then walked to the corpse in the center of the shop. The corpse still had its mouth wide open, like an eternal, terrifying container waiting to be filled.

Li Yin, enduring his physical discomfort, held the orange in his hand to the dark, gaping mouth and then let go.

As before, the orange fell into the corpse's mouth and disappeared instantly, as if swallowed by an invisible passage.

Immediately afterwards, another circular bulge appeared on the corpse's neck, slid down the esophagus, and finally disappeared deep into the torso.

After doing all this, Li Yin walked to the warehouse door and knocked: "You can come out now."

The warehouse door opened, and the residents poured out eagerly.

"You...you didn't really choose Apple?" Sun Miao pushed up his glasses and asked in a trembling voice.

Li Yin did not answer directly, but only said, "Wait until the ghost has finished identifying itself."

The atmosphere became heavy again, and the waiting time seemed to stretch on indefinitely.

Everyone was uneasy because of Li Yin's previous oath, wondering how the ghost would react this time.

Soon, the time was up, the lights flickered again, and a faint sound, like bones grinding, came from behind the watermelon shelf!

Everyone looked on in horror and saw the shadow behind the shelf begin to wriggle. Then, the rotting ghost clone, this time, did not emerge from the checkout counter, but from behind the shelf!
Its twisted limbs moved even more bizarrely, its murky white eyes swept over the crowd, and the stench it brought seemed even stronger than the previous two times.

This unexpected entrance startled everyone, their hearts nearly leaping out of their chests! The girls screamed wildly.

The ghost clone stiffly raised its head, and its rotting finger, carrying an undeniable meaning, slowly rose and then firmly pointed to a pile of bright red apples!
It identified the apple!

"Ah!" Wu Qian gasped in fright and covered her mouth tightly.

Wang Tianba also gasped.

However, the expected scene of Li Yin being killed did not occur. A few seconds later, the ghost clone's figure began to fade, carrying a seemingly even stronger resentment, and slowly disappeared into the air.

"call……"

"Missed!"

"Great!"

The relief of surviving the ordeal spread once again, but this time, it was accompanied by even more doubts.

Li Yin finally let out a long sigh of relief, a look of relief mixed with a sense of accomplishment on his face. He calmly announced, "I chose oranges."

Wu Qian patted her chest, saying with lingering fear and confusion, "Li Yin, I thought you would play the empty city trick, deliberately saying you would choose an apple, and then actually choosing an apple! That way, the ghost might not be able to guess the apple."

At this moment, Jiang Jin spoke up, his eyes filled with admiration for Li Yin: "The premise for the Empty City Stratagem to succeed is that if Sima Yi had chosen to enter the city, he might have faced the enormous risk of being ambushed and having his entire army wiped out. Therefore, Sima Yi preferred to play it safe rather than take the risk."

He paused, looked around at everyone, and focused on the residents who were still confused: "However, in our game, there is no risk or punishment for the ghost to make a wrong guess. It will not be harmed for guessing wrong, nor will its identity be exposed. So, for the ghost, whether it is 'stupid' and directly believes Li Yin's oath and points to the apple; or it is 'smart' and thinks that Li Yin may be playing a trick of 'deception,' believing that Li Yin's public statement about choosing the apple is actually misleading, so it is more likely to point to the apple... Both of these thought paths could ultimately lead it to point to the apple!"

Jiang Jin's analysis made some people suddenly realize the truth.

“That’s right,” Li Yin nodded and continued, “Similarly, why did Cao Shuang believe Sima Yi’s oath of poison at Luoshui? It was because he didn’t have enough confidence to contend with the Sima family and withstand the possible backstabbing from Shu Han and Eastern Wu. If he had enough strength, he would have just killed Sima Yi.”

Then, Li Yin revealed the core purpose of his adventure: "But that's not all. When I was choosing fruit, I also muttered to myself in a volume that only I could hear that I would actually choose bananas."

His words stunned everyone, including Jiang Jin!
(End of this chapter)