Controlled Experiment Chapter 16

Controlled Experiment – 16

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"What? Was I not clear?"

The Li Yao in front of him shrugged helplessly and repeated himself almost word for word, slowly and deliberately.

"I'll pay it back."

Those four words seemed to snap the boss out of his daze. The slightly plump man shifted a little, as if coming back to his senses. He looked Li Yao up and down, then glanced at Du Yusheng. Li Yao's outfit was far too plain, and he had a properly decent look about him, so the boss hesitated.

Raising an eyebrow, the boss said, "You're standing up for him?"

Du Yusheng had just opened his mouth to stop Li Yao, but the latter immediately shielded him, placing a hand firmly on Du Yusheng's arm and pushing him behind him. Then he pulled out a chair and sat down squarely at the gambling table. As always, Li Yao moved with unhurried composure. He gathered the scattered cards on the table into a neat pile, flipped a few over and examined them.

"It doesn't quite count as standing up for him," Li Yao smiled politely. "Shall we play?"

The plump boss pulled out the chair opposite Li Yao but didn't sit. Instead, he placed a hand on the backrest and stood there.

"You know how much he lost?" the boss reminded him.

Li Yao shook his head. "I don't need to know, as long as I win it back, that's fine. If I lose, I can afford to pay."

A man with the look of a scholar saying things like that, it struck the boss as jarring, incongruous, though he couldn't quite say why. It was as if a face like that had no business saying such things or doing such things. Du Yusheng felt the same way. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he sensed that something was different about Li Yao today.

In a quiet, almost covert gesture, Du Yusheng patted Li Yao's shoulder and leaned close to whisper in his ear, "This has nothing to do with you. I know what I'm doing and how to handle it, don't get involved."

Li Yao straightened his sleeves, turned his head and smiled at him. "You go handle your business, and I'll handle mine."

Du Yusheng stood there with his mouth open, not knowing what to say. He thought, Do you even know what I'm about to do, and you're already jumping in? Warmth did rise in his chest, that was true, but Du Yusheng was still worried about what would happen to Li Yao in a moment. None of these people were easy to deal with, what could a doctor possibly do here? But beyond that, another question lingered in Du Yusheng's mind, why did Li Yao step in at all? How did he even know there was a casino here? Du Yusheng didn't believe for a second that Li Yao had barged in just to rescue him, he was self-aware enough to know that.

Thinking about it that way, it was a little heartbreaking. But this time, Du Yusheng had truly misjudged the situation and felt that heartbreak too early. Li Yao really had come to save him.

Du Yusheng looked down at Li Yao, who was currently examining his own palm and wearing an expression that said, Even if you don't say a word, I can wait here as long as it takes, the very picture of patience.

Over on the other side, the boss had been silent for quite a while. He finally looked up at Li Yao.

He confirmed again, "And what if you lose as well? How will you pay? This place isn't your university sports ground, where you can come and go as you please. You're still young, think it through, if you're doing this just to save face, it's not worth it."

As soon as the boss finished speaking, a few brawny men appeared from somewhere and suddenly surrounded the two of them.

Li Yao looked at the scene and unexpectedly chuckled.

"Why do you talk so much nonsense?" Li Yao rubbed his fingers a little impatiently. Du Yusheng was taken aback by the comment and he couldn't help glancing at Li Yao again. He had the distinct feeling that Li Yao had been hiding a part of himself, the person in front of him didn't seem like him at all, or rather, not the version of him Du Yusheng was familiar with.

At that point, the boss no longer seemed inclined to argue.

He ordered the brawny men to take Du Yusheng away, then pulled out a chair and sat back down at the gambling table.

"Came prepared, did you?" the boss said with a grin. "How do you want to play?"

Li Yao, feeling a bit stiff, squeezed his shoulder. He picked up the deck he had just arranged, reshuffled it, then neatly laid it out in a row between the two of them. From end to end, there were dozens of cards. Li Yao swept his gaze over them.

"Your game's far too complicated, I wouldn't know how to play it, let's do something simple," Li Yao raised his head and smiled politely. "Ten cards, we compare who has the highest value..."

"Trying to cheat?" the boss cut him off before he finished, laughing slyly. "I've been running this place for a few years, I've seen it all, think you can outsmart me?"

Exactly as planned.

Li Yao shook his head and sighed. "If you don't trust me, that's fine. Since my friend lost money first, you can swap out my cards. That should be fair enough, shouldn't it?"

Fingering the cards in his hand, Li Yao looked across the table and smiled at the boss's slightly plump figure.

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Just as Li Sidian had said, the underground casino really did have a backyard.

A few men shoved Du Yusheng forward while swearing under their breath. Du Yusheng glanced at the silver gleam of the handcuffs on his wrists, thinking that this was probably the first time he'd ever worn such a thing. They were rather uncomfortable, and he made a mental note to suggest they line them with fleece or something next time, as they really chafed the wrists.

Compared to the front, the backyard was much quieter.

The casino was on the basement level, but the rear exit led out onto the ground floor.

Many small operations were set up this way, to leave themselves an escape route. If anything really went wrong, it'd be easier to run.

The fenced-in area wasn't large, but there were a few rooms. What surprised Du Yusheng was that, from the outside, these rooms looked filthy and run-down. They also seemed small. Luo Yang was a second-generation rich kid, even if gambling didn't discriminate between big or small places, he wouldn't be so undiscerning about where he lived, would he? This felt a bit too down to earth.

Right beside the exit was a parked car. Du Yusheng had seen this car at a car show before, there were probably no more than three of them on the entire island. It was worth a fortune. Du Yusheng once thought about buying one himself, but it felt too ostentatious in the end, so he gave up on the idea. He hadn't expected to see it here today.

"Your boss is doing some serious business, huh," Du Yusheng said in mock admiration. "That car, pretty nice."

The man behind him let out a few strange chuckles.

"Good eye, that was lost to our boss by some rich kid a while back," the man said. "We only take RMB here, but the boss took a liking to that car, so he kept it. From the time it was used as collateral till now, the boss hasn't touched it once, just waiting to sell it off cheap. He's looking for a buyer."

"Even at a low price, that's still a lot of money," Du Yusheng's chin started to itch, but his hands weren't free, so he rubbed his chin with both at once. "That rich kid must've gone in hard, must've lost a ton, huh? You guys are really making a killing."

"That's the son of our island's Luo Daheng. That Luo Yang's a fucking joke, loses nine times out of ten and the more he loses, the more he gambles."

Du Yusheng was about to ask something else, but before he could open his mouth, someone shoved him into a dark little room.

Those men clearly didn't trust him, they uncuffed Du Yusheng's hands only to reattach the cuffs to a water pipe on the side, and only then did they lock the door and leave.

Du Yusheng waited until he heard their footsteps fade into the distance before finally opening his eyes.

This was a proper little blacked-out room, no windows, no lights, no illumination at all. Even the gap under the door had been sealed up with black duct tape, blocking out the tiniest sliver of light. A fully enclosed dark room. Du Yusheng felt as though he'd been shut inside a box. In here, there was no difference between opening and closing his eyes, so he simply kept them shut, feeling around at the handcuffs while fishing out the tool he'd hidden in his pocket, trying to jimmy them open. As his hands worked, his mind didn't rest either, he was thinking about Luo Yang's car.

Du Yusheng had looked into the vehicles registered under Luo Yang's name before. He only had one car, and aside from leaving the scene of the crime that night and later going to the airport, there had been no further movement.

So what was the deal with that car parked outside the yard?

Luo Yang came from money, he had no need to borrow someone else's car, which left one possibility. Du Yusheng considered that perhaps Luo had paid for the car, but it wasn't registered in his name.

Why hadn't he made himself the legal owner? As he finally popped the handcuffs open, Du Yusheng gave his nose a satisfying rub and began to tease out a line of thought.

He stuffed the unlocked handcuffs into his pocket, then fumbled his way to the door of the blacked-out room. The moment he unlocked it, light from outside flooded in. Du Yusheng let out a long breath. Damn, I really was close to suffocating in there.

The guards weren't around, likely assuming that with both a dark room and handcuffs, Du Yusheng couldn't possibly escape.

The yard wasn't big, the number of rooms could be counted on one hand. All of them looked the same from the outside, the only difference was that the outermost room had a half-open window. It was late autumn now, and the nights were chilly, no one would need to keep a window open. Seeing that window, Du Yusheng suddenly had a bad feeling.

Du Yusheng picked the lock and shut the door behind him. The room inside was a mess and thick with the foul stench of smoke and alcohol. The furniture was all in tatters. A crooked sofa sat by the door, piled high with clothes that hadn't been washed in days. The remote for the television was missing its battery cover and lay discarded on the floor. The place was so cluttered that the bed was barely visible. The garbage bin was overflowing, and the garbage nearly reached Du Yusheng's knee. A few pornographic magazines lay tossed beside it. Rather than looking like the boss's place, Du Yusheng felt it was somewhere one of his lackeys might live.

However, even in such a place that resembled a junkyard, Du Yusheng still caught a whiff of something strange.

It was a familiar smell, he'd caught the same one in Luo Yang's home last time. The smell of fresh renovation.

At the very back of the room, tucked away amidst a heap of odds and ends, there was a narrow staircase. Du Yusheng climbed it and pushed open a concealed hatch in the ceiling.

Immediately, the pungent smell of paint and fresh wood furniture hit him.

Du Yusheng took just one glance before coming back down.

He could now be sure of two things. First, the hidden room upstairs definitely belonged to Luo Yang. Second, just as he'd suspected when he saw the open window, this place where Luo Yang had once stayed had also been renovated, everything inside was brand new. Du Yusheng almost laughed out of sheer anger. This hidden room was even newer than Luo Yang's own house. At least that house still had a few old clothes lying around, but here, there wasn't a single fucking trace that anyone had ever existed.

So the question now was, who renovated this place?

Du Yusheng was certain of one thing: the same person renovated both this place and Luo Yang's home.

Could it have been Luo Yang himself?

Letting out a long breath, Du Yusheng stepped outside.

As he looked up, his eyes landed directly on that high-end car.

Most cars came with alarms, but thankfully, Du Yusheng had read Vehicle Maintenance and Repair more than once in his quest to keep his old banger running. He managed to open the door and get inside. Looking around at the interior, Du Yusheng suddenly laughed. The car was old. If you have the ability, why don't you refurbish my car too?

The interior of the car was minimalist. On the surface, there was nothing to see apart from the in-car air freshener and a box of tissues.

Du Yusheng opened the glove compartment.

Inside was only a single book. It had been well protected, wrapped in a white book cover. The pages inside were crisp and new, but clearly the book had been read many times, as many of the page corners were curled, giving the impression that its owner was rather fond of it.

Could this book have belonged to Luo Yang?

Du Yusheng flipped through a few pages but didn't spot anything unusual, so he simply peeled off the cover.

As the book cover came off, a few things that had been tucked inside slid out.

Du Yusheng bent down and picked them up.

They were two photographs.

Rather than being identical copies, they looked more like two consecutive shots capturing a moment in motion from the same person.

One was crossed out with a red pen, while the other was left untouched.

And the person in the photographs was someone Du Yusheng recognised.

It was Li Yao.

Du Yusheng's heart suddenly lurched.

A bad premonition crept over him.

The Bentley that exploded that day, perhaps the intended target hadn't been him after all, it had been Li Yao.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

I guess it really was Li Yao, not Jing Mo... I'm starting to have trust issues here. Did anyone else think that this was Jing Mo not Li Yao? I was so damn confident it was Jing Mo that I would have bet on it...

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

Translated: May 20, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 12, 2025 by Angel