The Mint That Wouldn't Let You Lie with a Straight Face

But the power soon escaped control. Customers demanded each other's salaries, romantic histories, and passwords. Some used “truth” to humiliate a waitress. Mirror-Tongue grew waist-high; everyone touched by its long tongue lost the ability to remain silent. “Kill the streams!” Su Jianwei shouted. “The platform will call that an admission,” Xiaoman said as she unplugged three audience cameras. “And Luo's rig has backup power.” Mirror-Tongue caught a young woman whose mother was demanding to know why she had left university. The woman trembled as her most painful secret was dragged toward the cameras. Chen ate a mint and faced the mirror. He answered the beast's silent question: “What am I most afraid of?” Cold cut through his tongue.