God's Imitator

Lu Xinyi looked unsurprised, ”I said before, Wang Yongxin may have been waiting for exactly this kind of opportunity to face Lin Sizhi in a game.

”He may feel that teaming up directly with Lin Sizhi would make the game too lopsided. He wants to apply some pressure.

”Or he may simply be going with the strategy he thinks gives him the best chance of winning.

”Under the rules, only the ’Detective’ and ’Wealthy Merchant’ can submit evidence. That gives them a natural and inherent advantage.

”So if Tang Qing and Wang Yongxin cooperate, that advantage doubles.

”And within this dynamic, Wang Yongxin’s position is the safest of all.

”He only needs to find evidence that supports Tang Qing’s theory. Tang Qing will naturally treat him as an ally and take care not to implicate him when reconstructing the case.

”And even if something goes wrong, Tang Qing is the one who bears the brunt of it first. Wang Yongxin’s own safety is protected.

”From what I can see, Feng Yuguang is also something of a fence-sitter. In the worst case, Lin Sizhi could end up facing all three of the others.”

Cheng Wen looked shocked, ”Then what’s the point of playing?”Lu Xinyi shook her head, ”That doesn’t mean he’s completely without options. The role of Lawyer is itself an advantageous card.

”Don’t forget: this story takes place in a parallel world. The rules never said it would follow real-world legal systems exactly.

”In other words, Lin Sizhi holds the authority to interpret legal provisions.

”My guess is that even if his interpretation of a law doesn’t perfectly match real-world practice, as long as it sounds plausible enough, it stands a good chance of being accepted as valid.

”That’s a right the rules give to him.

”Besides, Wang Yongxin’s strategy couldn’t be as simple as just ’sitting on the fence.’ He would certainly be keeping something in reserve.

”Let’s keep watching.”

Cheng Wen glanced at the current odds. From highest to lowest: Feng Yuguang at 3.2, Lin Sizhi at 2.5, Tang Qing at 2.4, Wang Yongxin at 2.1.

Compared to after the first Recess, the odds had shifted somewhat. Tang Qing’s and Wang Yongxin’s had dropped, while Feng Yuguang’s had risen noticeably.

Clearly, Feng Yuguang appeared the weakest of the four, so fewer people had bet on him, which pushed his odds up.

Tang Qing and Wang Yongxin looked more likely to win, and Tang Qing had spoken the most, so even with many bets placed on him, his odds had only dropped by 0.4 and were still holding at a relatively high level.

Lu Xinyi had not given any direct instructions about how to bet. In her view, a decision involving real visa time was something players needed to work through themselves to truly learn from.

For Cheng Wen, the choice wasn’t particularly difficult. He was certainly going to bet on either Lin Sizhi or Wang Yongxin. The only question was timing.

”I’ll put 10,000 on each of them for now. I’ll save the last 10,000 for after the next Recess, to see if the odds shift significantly.

”Come on, Brother Lin.”

The Recess ended and the trial resumed.

Tang Qing was first to the speaking platform again, presenting his next piece of evidence.

”Esteemed members of the jury, while reviewing the evidence, I happened upon this item.

”It surprised me somewhat, and even made me instinctively question its authenticity. But I believe verifying whether it is genuine could prove a significant breakthrough in this case.

”This is a third-party insurance policy.

”Its contents are similar to the previous policies: the policyholder and beneficiary are again the husband. But the insured person is a different woman’s name.

”This policy was signed three years ago.”

He then added, ”Because I am uncertain of its authenticity, I ask the esteemed members of the jury to verify it in due course.”

Wang Yongxin followed Tang Qing to the platform and displayed another piece of evidence: a large collection of photographs.

”Esteemed members of the jury, the evidence I present today consists of photographs the wife posted regularly on social media.

”These photographs were taken at different years and locations. After the police gathered them as evidence, they were printed and preserved as part of this case.”

Wang Yongxin took the photographs from an envelope and displayed them one by one.

The photographs clearly came from different locations: a beach, an aeroplane, a high-end restaurant, among others. The woman in them was stylishly dressed, and the image quality was high throughout.

Wang Yongxin explained, ”I believe these photographs should help demonstrate that the wife came from a comfortable background and was in a favourable financial position. She also appears to have been sheltered by her family, which may suggest she was relatively inexperienced in the world, and correspondingly more susceptible to being deceived.”

He paused briefly and turned toward Tang Qing, ”May I take a look at that new policy?”

Tang Qing nodded, rose, and handed the policy over, ”Of course.”

Wang Yongxin gave it a brief look over and said, ”This policy, as Tang Qing described, was taken out by the husband three years ago for a different young woman.

”This may suggest the husband has done something like this before.

”He may have attempted a similar scheme three years ago and succeeded in the claim, which is why he is repeating the same method with a new victim.

”But then, if he had already succeeded three years ago, how could he still purchase this kind of insurance?

”I’m not clear on the details here. Lawyer Lin, you are the professional. Would you be able to shed some light?”

Lin Sizhi shook his head, ”The likelihood is essentially zero.

”All insurance companies share access to an industry-wide database. Even if the husband’s first wife’s death was ruled accidental and the claim was paid out normally, he would no longer be able to purchase further policies.

”Under the big-data risk models used by insurance companies, he would no longer be classified as a preferred customer but as a high-risk associated individual.

”Taking out large accident insurance policies for two successive spouses would be flagged as an extremely high moral hazard.

”When he attempted to purchase a policy for his current wife, the insurance company would have received an immediate alert, and in all likelihood would have rejected his application outright.

”Beyond that, this behaviour would have drawn the attention of law enforcement, prompting a reinvestigation of the earlier death.

”In short, I tend to believe it would be impossible for both of these policies to be genuine at the same time.”

Bai Zhilan considered for a moment, ”Yes, that does raise a valid concern.

”In that case, I ask the esteemed members of the jury to verify the new evidence.”

The other three Jury Representatives said nothing further. They appeared to have concluded that waiting for verification before speaking was the more reliable approach.

The verification results came through shortly after.

[The ’Third-Party Policy’ contains false information.]

[The policy was forged by the husband. However, the beneficiary is indeed the husband’s ex-wife, who is currently alive and well.]

[The ’Wife’s Social Media Photographs’ contain no false information.]

[The wife posted these photographs across various social media platforms at the stated times and locations. Visible signs of retouching and enhancement are present throughout.]

Tang Qing’s expression showed genuine surprise, ”The policy is a forgery?

”But why would the husband forge it?

”That’s hard to make sense of.”

Chen Yumei pressed her speaker button, ”Perhaps as a rehearsal?

”The husband may have had the idea of murdering his wife for insurance as far back as three years ago, but his first wife was shrewd enough to sense the danger and promptly divorced him. So his plan came to nothing.

”Or perhaps he was using it to check the specific clauses in the policies.”

In Community 3’s audience section, Cheng Wen kept shaking his head.

”That makes no sense. Even I can see that Chen Yumei’s argument doesn’t hold together.

”The verification result is very clear: the policy is a forgery.

”If the husband’s ex-wife had uncovered something, how would the policy have her signature on it?

”And if it’s a fake signature, then it’s completely meaningless. There’s no way to explain what this forged policy was actually supposed to accomplish.

”The husband couldn’t have expected to fool an insurance company with something this crude. And his ex-wife is alive and well.”

Lu Xinyi explained, ”The focus isn’t on what she’s saying. It’s on what her position is.

”Do you think she doesn’t know her reasoning has holes in it?

”She certainly does. But she still says it, because she has firmly sided with Tang Qing and is convinced that ’murder for insurance’ is the truth.

”So even if her argument has obvious problems, persuading even one additional jury member has value. Not everyone in this game is sharp-minded.

”The players in her community will also follow her lead without hesitation.”