Controlled Experiment Chapter 1

Controlled Experiment – 1

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Du Yusheng hadn't always been called Du Yusheng. (杜宇生)

He had originally been named Du Yusheng. (杜宇声)

Although Old Master Du was a businessman, he carried with him a distinct cultural air typical of that era. The name had been chosen with poetic intent: "How unbearable it is to watch the sun set behind the Red Mansion, all the more so with the mournful cry of the cuckoo." Later, however, Madam Du felt the name was inauspicious, it sounded rather sorrowful, so she changed the last character.

From sound to life.

The meaning became: to find life at the brink of death.

As the old saying goes, a person lives up to their name. Du Yusheng turned out to be a perfect example of this, not that he was ever found clinging to life by a thread, but he was certainly full of life and energy. Backed by his family's influence, he often acted recklessly and defied the rules. That was how the leadership at the bureau described Du Yusheng.

Fortunately, Du Yusheng himself wasn't particularly bothered by such things. He still felt pretty good about himself at the bureau and was thriving there.

When Qin Yan from the forensics team entered the office, Du Yusheng was staring at his computer screen, utterly absorbed.

Qin Yan coughed a few times, and Du Yusheng snapped out of it and glanced in his direction.

"Something up?"

His head remained down, eyes barely open, his attitude made Qin Yan want to smack him.

There were three cups on the desk, each containing a different liquid: tea, plain water, and a black substance of unknown origin. Qin Yan guessed it was coffee. Most of the contents had dried up, looking like they'd been left there for quite some time.

Frowning, Qin Yan rolled up his sleeves and picked up one of the cups.

"Mind doing the decent thing and washing these?"

Du Yusheng scratched his nose and yawned.

"It's fine, there's no rush, there are three spares in the cabinet."

Seeing that Du Yusheng hadn't moved a muscle, Qin Yan snorted, resigned to his fate. He rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, tossed all three cups into the sink beside him, and began rinsing them.

Du Yusheng grinned as he watched Qin Yan's back while he worked. He opened a drawer and pulled out a box of premium maojian tea. Old Master Du received it last month from his poker friends; apparently, only a few small handfuls were harvested from hundreds of acres of land. Du Yusheng didn't know how to appreciate fine tea. After opening the box, he'd forgotten to close it, leaving the expensive maojian exposed to all the moisture in the air. But he couldn't tell the difference anyway and drank it happily all the same.

"Perfect timing, make us a cup of tea."

Qin Yan tossed the clean cup onto the desk and glanced around the room.

"Where's the hot water?"

Du Yusheng gave an apologetic smile and looked toward the kettle in the distance. "... Might as well wash that while you're at it."

Qin Yan rolled his eyes.

"One day I'm going to set fire to you."

Du Yusheng smacked his lips. "Should've bought two kettles last time..."

The water still needed a bit of time to boil. Qin Yan pulled a paper towel from the drawer and wiped the droplets off his hands. While he was at it, he glanced at the computer screen. He was standing close, close enough to hear Du Yusheng's breathing. Despite his sloppy habits, Du Yusheng usually dressed decently and looked quite presentable, almost respectable.

All show and no substance. That was exactly the type he was.

"... What's this?"

Du Yusheng scratched the tip of his nose. "An anonymous email."

The computer screen displayed a yellowed, old photograph. The photo was black and white, clearly from a bygone era. In the photo were two children, who looked like twins. They were wearing identical plaid dungarees, holding hands, and beaming as they stood in a square.

"You've had your fair share of anonymous emails over the years, haven't you?" Qin Yan chuckled. "Violent, obscene, which ones haven't you received?"

Du Yusheng nodded, got up from his executive chair, and stretched lazily.

"I have had quite a few, but I've never received one about myself."

Qin Yan stopped smiling. He turned back to take another look at the photo on the screen.

Young children often looked alike, sometimes it could be hard to tell if they were boys or girls. But Qin Yan had studied medicine, he could pick up on certain details. He examined the aged photo, then looked over at Du Yusheng's face. Du Yusheng had a very attractive face. None of his features stood out on their own, but they were all neatly arranged and proportioned. Together, they formed a face that left nothing to criticise. Though the children in the photo were small, their not-yet-fully-formed features still gave a rough sense of resemblance.

"You're a twin?"

Du Yusheng snorted.

"What do you think?" There was a plate of cherries on the desk, left by someone, who knew when. No one could say if they'd been washed. Du Yusheng grabbed one and popped it into his mouth. "I've been enjoying the treatment of being an only child for years."

Qin Yan shook his head.

Seeing the serious look on Qin Yan's face, Du Yusheng couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter. He spat the cherry pit into the garbage bin, walked over, and patted him on the shoulder.

"It's just junk mail. You're really treating it like a proper case? Stop overthinking it."

Qin Yan remained unconvinced. "Don't you find it odd?"

Du Yusheng nodded theatrically. "Even if I do, I can't do anything about it. It's an anonymous email, what can it prove?"

The kettle finished boiling. Du Yusheng took his cup, which already had some tea leaves in it, and poured in half a cup of hot water. Then, finding it too hot, he went to the water dispenser and topped it up with cold water, making it lukewarm. Qin Yan stood by, watching but saying nothing. That wasn't how tea was meant to be drunk. He thought to himself that Du Yusheng had absolutely ruined his dad's prized maojian.

It seemed Du Yusheng noticed the look of disdain in Qin Yan's eyes. He smacked his lips, "I just want the taste of it."

Qin Yan shook his head and turned away.

"Oh, right, two officers have been transferred in from the local station, one's been assigned to you. I'll bring him over in a bit so you can have a look."

Du Yusheng nodded readily. His office really could do with someone to keep it clean.

His office wasn't large and the furniture could be counted at a glance: one desk, two executive chairs, a big bookshelf filled with oversized file folders, each labelled in neat, small black script. The labels were detailed, but the folders themselves were empty, all props for Du Yusheng to deal with inspections. Below the window was a small cabinet, where Du Yusheng kept his personal belongings. Altogether, there were fewer than five pieces of furniture, Du Yusheng somehow managed to turn the place into a mess worthy of fifty people working there. The cabinet was a sham, and whatever files he actually used were scattered across every visible surface, left wherever he happened to put them. From a distance, the room looked like an abandoned paper mill.

At the moment, there wasn't much going on with the forensic team, so Qin Yan brought the new transfer, Mu Bai, over to Du Yusheng.

Mu Bai had a youthful face that didn't match his age, and he was very tall. He looked like a decent, upright person.

Du Yusheng was in the middle of making coffee. When he saw the newcomer, he downed a whole cup in one go, then casually set it down on the windowsill. Qin Yan's eyes darkened. Brilliant, I just finished washing them, now there's another one.

"Hello, I'm Mu Bai, everyone calls me Xiao Bai."

Mu Bai's name suited him, he was fair-skinned and clean-cut.

Du Yusheng looked at the pale arm and fair hand extended towards him. He grasped it firmly, lips curling into a smile. He seemed quite pleased with this newcomer.

"Xiao Bai is it?"

Du Yusheng nodded, pulled open a drawer, and strapped on a blue watch.

"Right, go report in first, and later clean up this room for me."

Xiao Bai's eyes lingered briefly on Du Yusheng's watch, then he nodded, looking a little awkward.

Qin Yan led Xiao Bai out of Du Yusheng's office. Xiao Bai didn't look too pleased. Although Du Yusheng was cheeky and flippant, when you didn't know him well, he did come off a bit aloof, almost cold, even.

"Don't take it to heart, that's just how he is, he puts on a front with strangers."

Xiao Bai shook his head. "That's not it, Brother Qin. I've seen his watch before, it's worth several hundred thousand..."

Qin Yan blinked, then burst out laughing. Right, so that’s what Xiao Bai has been getting at. He probably suspects Du Yusheng takes bribes.

"A few hundred thousand? Never mind a watch worth that much." Qin Yan pulled Xiao Bai over to the corridor window and pointed towards a newly built high-end residential complex not far away. "The money in Du Yusheng's family is counted by the building. Back in the day, you couldn't walk a few steps in the city centre without running into a property owned by his family."

Years ago, when real estate had just started booming, Old Master Du got into the game and made a fortune. He was one of the wealthiest businessmen on the island. Later, when the property market cooled down, the old man withdrew early, barely took a loss, and set up a small company, investing a bit of money to maintain its daily operations. Though he hadn't been in business for many years, the Du family still ranked among the top three most well-known names in the area, and it was precisely because of this that the family remained prominent on the island.

"Huh?" Xiao Bai blinked his wide eyes, baffled. "If Brother Yu's that rich, why's he a police officer, risking his life and all?"

Qin Yan chuckled. "He's an idiot."

He asked Du Yusheng this question after they became familiar with each other, and Du Yusheng replied with a single sentence. 

"How could a sparrow understand the aspirations of a swan?"

Xiao Bai's expression froze, and then he burst out laughing, swallowing down the words "Is he crazy?" before they left his throat.

"But don't go thinking he was able to climb to this position because of his family background," Qin Yan explained. "He's got his own crooked ways."

Xiao Bai adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose.

"Last year, a drug addict we cornered got desperate and took a police officer's family member hostage on a rooftop. The addict had a gun, was mentally unstable, and wouldn't let go of it. The sniper didn't dare take the shot, and the negotiators spent hours talking to him with no success." Qin Yan sniffed. "That family member was part of Du Yusheng's team. He got pushed too far, so he went to a casino, grabbed one of the addict's relatives, brought them to the scene, and right in front of him, shot that family member in the leg. The addict panicked, swung the gun towards Du Yusheng, and in that moment, the sniper took the shot and killed him."

Xiao Bai swallowed hard. Now he understood why Qin Yan called it crooked.

But Qin Yan didn't tell Xiao Bai the rest. Afterwards, Du Yusheng was publicly criticised throughout the bureau, made to write a statement of reflection and read it out for three days straight, was suspended for several months to reflect at home, and nearly lost his badge. The reason he still held only a vice-captain position even after all this time was precisely because of that incident.

However, there was something odd about their team. Although Du Yusheng was technically the vice-captain, no one had ever seen the captain.

Qin Yan asked him about it once. Du Yusheng's answer was, "He's a good person," which implied that no one apart from Du Yusheng himself had ever met this so-called captain.

Back in the office, Du Yusheng sneezed twice, then looked up to see Qin Yan and Xiao Bai returning.

Qin Yan pointed towards the door.

"Let's go, Island Villa, male victim."

Du Yusheng pressed his lips together and muttered a curse.

"Who?"

Xiao Bai chimed in, "That big real estate tycoon, Luo Daheng. He was on TV a few days ago."

Du Yusheng had just been putting on his coat, but when he heard that, he paused, looked at Qin Yan, and then at Xiao Bai.

"What a coincidence," said Du Yusheng. "That man was my old man's mortal enemy back in the day."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: May 11, 2025 by Angel

Edited: May 15, 2025 by Angel