Controlled Experiment Chapter 10

Controlled Experiment – 10

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Xiao Bai's name has the word white in it, and he himself was fair and clean-cut, so whenever his face turned red, it was especially noticeable.

The air conditioning wasn't on in Du Yusheng's office, but it wasn't particularly hot either. Xiao Bai didn't know why his face was flushed bright red as his eyes darted back and forth between Qin Yan and Du Yusheng. He wanted to read something from their expressions, but unfortunately, Qin Yan was wearing a mask, and Du Yusheng was smoking. He couldn't make out a thing.

"Bronchial spasm?" Qin Yan sounded somewhat doubtful.

"Yes." Du Yusheng nodded. "At the time, Luo Daheng's asthma was quite severe, severe enough that inhaling a large amount of dust in a short period could trigger an attack. I've already confirmed this with his private doctor, Li Yao. So on the day of the incident, Luo Daheng had an asthma attack triggered by dust inhalation. He tried to save himself with salbutamol, but what he grabbed was the bottle that had been tampered with and contained a high concentration of nitroglycerin. And then we saw the result, he died."

Du Yusheng stubbed out the cigarette in his hand, paused briefly, and continued, "There wasn't much left in that bottle of salbutamol he had on him. He thought the dosage wasn't enough, so he tried to open a new one. That explains why there were two bottles of salbutamol found at the scene."

At some point, Qin Yan had taken off his rubber gloves and tossed them into the garbage bin in Du Yusheng's office. He was now standing by the sink, carefully washing his hands using the seven-step hand-washing method, his movements slow and methodical. As he listened to Du Yusheng speak, his mind didn't stop working. He turned around and removed his mask, revealing a somewhat weary face as he looked at Du Yusheng.

"What if Li Yao was lying?"

Qin Yan's face looked tired, but his eyes were strikingly bright as he stared straight at Du Yusheng.

The corners of Du Yusheng's mouth trembled ever so slightly.

"He wasn't lying."

"Who can guarantee that?"

Qin Yan wanted to give him a reminder.

"He wouldn't lie." Du Yusheng's fingers were picking at the edge of the desk, and he lifted his eyelids to look at Qin Yan. "You're a doctor too, you can verify it yourself. Besides, even if Li Yao did lie, the fact remains that Luo Daheng died from a nitroglycerin overdose. The carbon powder on his hands was real. The salbutamol bottle had definitely been swapped. So what exactly are you trying to say, Qin Yan?"

Qin Yan coldly said, "You know perfectly well that Luo Daheng only saw two people that night. His asthma was severe, and he used medication frequently. So once that bottle was switched, there was a high chance he'd use it immediately. He died at home, that leaves only one possibility, the bottle was swapped on the night he died."

Du Yusheng clicked his tongue a couple of times, then curled his lips into a smile.

He particularly disliked seeing people being overly serious, especially around him.

"There are too many questionable things and inconsistencies about Li Yao." Du Yusheng stood up, hands braced on the desk, a cigarette hanging from his mouth. "Every time I meet him, it always feels like his words are scripted. He's smiling, but his eyes aren't."

Du Yusheng pulled out another cigarette. His nicotine addiction wasn't strong, he usually only lit one when something was bothering him, but it had only been an hour since he entered the room and he had already smoked three.

"But you're half right, Qin Yan."

The cigarette in Du Yusheng's hand hadn't been smoked much before he ground it hard into the ashtray.

"That night, Luo Daheng saw two people, besides Li Yao, Luo Daheng also met his illegitimate son, whom I had always overlooked. Because I could never quite figure out how Luo Daheng actually died." Du Yusheng paused for a few seconds, then said, "... And because Li Yao was too eye-catching."

His voice was very soft, barely more than a whisper.

"Luo Yang?" Qin Yan sneered. "Luo Daheng's biological son, what are you trying to say?"

"There's something I've never been able to figure out. The housekeeper said he was driven to kill Luo Daheng after seeing the will on Luo Yang's desk. But if I were the illegitimate son, I would've kept that inheritance document tightly hidden. Most of the estate was left to me, no one should've seen it. So why did the housekeeper see it so easily?" Du Yusheng held up a finger. "I think Luo Yang let him see it on purpose."

Luo Yang had been abroad these past few days. Du Yusheng checked the departure records, Luo Yang went overseas right after seeing Luo Daheng. The official explanation was that he had gone to handle Luo Daheng's foreign trade affairs. After Luo Daheng's death, Luo Yang received the news and was currently on his way back. Looking at the calendar on his desk, Du Yusheng estimated that Luo Yang should be arriving within the next few days.

Obviously, no matter when Luo Daheng died, Luo Yang would be his heir, so why go to the trouble of killing him?

Du Yusheng couldn't make sense of it.

Qin Yan's deduction had been correct, once the method of murder was confirmed, there were only two suspects left.

It was either Li Yao or Luo Yang.

After Qin Yan and Xiao Bai left, Du Yusheng remained alone in his office. Suddenly, the room felt a little too big. Behind one of the cabinets was a small blackboard that hadn't been used in years, now covered in dust. Du Yusheng wiped it down with a paper towel, then took out a chalk marker from the drawer.

The housekeeper was the first suspect to be found. He admitted to having an affair with Mrs Luo and also confessed to swapping the nitroglycerin with cold medicine, intending to make it look like Luo Daheng had died of a heart attack.

Later, cyanosis was found around Luo Daheng's mouth, confirming that he had not died from failing to take nitroglycerin in time. On the contrary, he had died from an overdose.

In Luo Daheng's autopsy report, a slip of paper referencing a controlled experiment had been found in his stomach. That was why Du Yusheng went to see Li Yao, one of the last two people Luo Daheng had seen before he died. At first, Li Yao denied being at the scene of the crime, but after watching the surveillance footage, he changed his statement. He broke into Li Yao's house at night, Xiao Bai had clearly seen Li Yao leaving from downstairs, yet when he picked the lock himself, he discovered that Li Yao had never left at all. Li Yao was a doctor, but his bank account looked more like a capitalist's, money was deposited into it every month. He owned a villa and a luxury car. He was always smiling, yet never seemed truly happy. After several rounds of questioning, Du Yusheng simply couldn't figure this man out.

Then, Zhuang Hao died.

Zhuang Hao had been the person with the weakest connection to Luo Daheng in this whole story, yet it was at this point that he died.

He himself nearly died, too. Du Yusheng rubbed his chin and drew several long lines on the blackboard.

Li Yao nearly died as well.

So why would someone want to kill him? In other words, who was the real target?

The key to discovering Luo Daheng's cause of death had been the toner on his hands, that bottle of salbutamol, and the health report provided by Li Yao.

Li Yao was a doctor. He knew how to save lives, which meant he also knew how to take them. He had the most favourable conditions for committing the crime, but no motive, and no evidence.

Luo Yang was Luo Daheng's illegitimate son. Without having met him in person, Du Yusheng couldn't draw a conclusion yet. As it stood, Luo Yang not only lacked a motive, but also didn't have the means. Luo Yang hadn't even graduated from university and knew very little about the lethality of nitroglycerin. Killing Luo Daheng would only serve to get him his inheritance a little sooner, and that gain alone wasn't reason enough.

Why did Li Yao provide him with information about Luo Daheng's physical condition at that moment? Now that he thought about it, saying something like that in such a context did indeed seem abrupt.

Du Yusheng scratched his head and doodled aimlessly on the blackboard with his marker. Suddenly, a troubling thought crossed his mind, What if Li Yao knows who the murderer is?

All of these people had barely any real connection to one another, so why had they all surfaced at this moment?

Why did Zhuang Hao die?

Why did someone set up the explosion?

None of it had anything to do with Luo Daheng, so why did it all happen now?

What exactly did that note about the controlled experiment mean?

Could it be that, after planting the note, the perpetrator took no further action?

Staring at the now-smudged mess of black and white he had drawn, Du Yusheng sighed. He really wasn't cut out for diagrams.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Displeased with how the board looked, Du Yusheng smeared it a few more times and called out for them to come in.

"Brother Yu, that guy called Li Yao, are you the one who brought him back?"

Du Yusheng nodded but said nothing.

"He's finished the counselling session," the person said. "Shall I let him go?"

The explosion right in front of him wasn't particularly big, but not small either. No matter what kind of person Li Yao truly was, if something like that left a psychological scar, Du Yusheng didn't feel right about it, so he'd arranged for a counselling session. He knew it was probably unnecessary, but he still wanted to leave something behind with Li Yao.

"Tell him to wait for me a bit."

Du Yusheng tightened his grip on the marker in his hand and sighed heavily.

Looking at the half-erased diagram, Du Yusheng realised something, everything that happened formed a kind of circle, and he was standing right at its centre.

‿︵‿︵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 16, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 5, 2025 by Angel