Controlled Experiment Chapter 9

Controlled Experiment – 9

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Du Yusheng looked at Li Yao's face and smiled.

The two of them stood very close. Du Yusheng originally thought Li Yao was about the same height as him, but looking at him now, he seemed slightly taller. Li Yao's proportions were perfect, his face was handsome, his clothes immaculate, and even the hair at his temples was clean and free of grease. Not even his shoes had a speck of dust. From head to toe, he was wrapped in a kind of scent that Du Yusheng liked.

Du Yusheng stared at Li Yao, completely absorbed. The latter seemed to sense the gaze and, looking slightly embarrassed, pulled out the glasses he had just tucked into his pocket. He wiped them on the edge of his coat and put them back. After finishing this little sequence, Li Yao looked up and saw that Du Yusheng was still staring at him.

Unable to help himself, Du Yusheng coughed lightly a few times. Only then did he snap out of it, his ears red as he scratched his nose awkwardly.

"Is the lady inside all right now?" Du Yusheng took the opportunity to glance inside. "Shouldn't we take her to the hospital for another look?"

Following his gaze, Li Yao looked into the room. The older woman was clearly doing better, she was already up and slowly pacing around.

"We've advised her to go in for a more thorough check-up. But she said she wouldn't go..."

Du Yusheng was puzzled, "Why won't she go?"

Li Yao shook his head helplessly and said, "As a doctor, sometimes all you can offer is just a suggestion."

"How profound."

Du Yusheng gave him a thumbs-up.

If it weren't for Xiao Bai standing nearby, staring at him blankly, Du Yusheng would have clapped for Li Yao. His words sounded smooth to the ear, unlike some specialists who were full of jargon and still failed to get their point across after several sentences. Simply put, even his words were concise and clear. Du Yusheng found it very comfortable.

Li Yao lowered his head slightly and revealed a refined smile.

"Is everything going smoothly on Vice-captain Du's side?" Li Yao glanced at the people arriving one after another. "I heard there's been another murder?"

Du Yusheng nodded. "Murder and arson, an easy one."

Li Yao offered a polite comment. "You guys have got a tough job, you have to deal with all sorts of things."

"We're all the same," Du Yusheng pointed at himself then tapped Li Yao lightly on the chest. "All of us are saving lives in our own ways."

Li Yao paused, looking down at the finger on his chest, then took a slight step back to avoid the touch. Du Yusheng looked a little embarrassed as he pulled his finger back stiffly, a somewhat wounded smile appearing on his face.

"Do you really find me that annoying?"

Du Yusheng couldn't help blurting it out.

Xiao Bai, standing nearby, suddenly realised something and smacked Du Yusheng hard on the thigh. Only then did Du Yusheng become dimly aware of what he had just said, both his ears were red and sticking out. Du Yusheng was the sort of person who usually brought his brain to work, but the moment something involved feelings, he seemed to forget it in his pocket and leave it there.

Du Yusheng himself didn't even understand it. He'd only seen Li Yao a few times, so why did he feel bold enough to say anything at all?

Luckily, Li Yao didn't seem to have caught what Du Yusheng had said clearly. His expression remained calm and composed, carrying a polite, appropriately distanced smile.

At that moment, with the air thick and awkward, a young nurse from the ambulance came running over and spoke a few words into Li Yao's ear.

Du Yusheng could lip-read. Even if he couldn't hear, as long as he saw your mouth moving, he could figure out what you were saying. His gaze stayed fixed on the two of them. In short, the nurse was telling Li Yao that Huan Island Central Hospital needed him back for a shift change, but the ambulance wouldn't be leaving for a while. This area was remote, so it was hard to get a taxi, and after a few back-and-forth exchanges, Du Yusheng could see Li Yao's brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

He had a beautiful smile. Good-looking people should smile more. Du Yusheng didn't like seeing him frown in frustration.

"I'll give you a lift."

Li Yao looked up in surprise and stared at him, confirming, "What did you say?"

Du Yusheng pointed towards the Bentley parked a little way up the street and said, "I said, I'll give you a lift, we're heading back anyway."

Li Yao looked at Du Yusheng for a moment and was just about to speak when Du Yusheng cut him off.

"Just think of me as a rideshare."

At this point, there was really no good reason to turn him down. Li Yao thought for a moment, then nodded and agreed.

While Li Yao was taking off his white coat and changing back into his own clothes, Du Yusheng stood a short distance away watching him. His hand was gripping the phone in his pocket tighter and tighter. Xiao Bai, squinting at him, elbowed him in the ribs.

"Brother Yu..." Xiao Bai muttered, "You're acting strange today."

Du Yusheng didn't respond, but gave him a look that said, What's strange about me?

"Why do you care so much about him?" Xiao Bai mimicked his expression. "Your eyes are practically glued to him."

Du Yusheng sniffed and replied irritably, "I'd fucking like to know that myself."

This is bad, really bad, Du Yusheng thought anxiously to himself.

Xiao Bai went off to fetch the car first. Du Yusheng saw that Li Yao was nearly done changing, so he took a few steps in that direction. Because he changed his clothes, Li Yao's hair was slightly messy and he looked a little rumpled, perhaps from rushing. The creases in his clothes lent him a more down-to-earth air.

Du Yusheng walked up beside him and said, "Ready?"

Li Yao turned back, tugged at his clothes, and nodded. "Sorry to trouble you."

"It's no trouble, I'm heading that way anyway."

Du Yusheng walked behind him, pointing to the Bentley parked at the end of the street and motioning for Li Yao to go ahead. He followed behind, watching the man's back. The murder and body-burning crime scene was just to their right, with colleagues coming and going in a steady stream. Behind to the left was the white ambulance. Yet somehow, to Du Yusheng, it felt like the whole road held just the two of them. His lips were stretching into an increasingly wider grin.

He didn't know why, but he really wanted to smile.

This was a transitional area between the city and the countryside, it was not particularly developed, and that Bentley of his parked at the street corner stood out like a sore thumb.

"Seems like the Luo Daheng case didn't have much impact on Dr Li's life..."

Li Yao glanced at Du Yusheng, his expression cooling slightly.

"And what sort of impact should it have had?" he said. "Should I be losing sleep? Struggling to eat? How many more times do I need to tell Vice-captain Du that it has nothing to do with me?"

Annoyed?

It's really beautiful.

Du Yusheng touched his chin and quickly changed the subject. "Don't call me that. My name's Du Yusheng, you can call me..."

"A'Du?"

"......"

"A'Du, nice to meet you."

"......"

Looking at the hand stretched out towards him, Du Yusheng wasn't sure whether to shake it or not.

Crafty little devil, Du Yusheng looked at the faint smirk tugging at the corners of Li Yao's mouth and these three words flashed in his mind.

Du Yusheng's Bentley exploded thirty seconds later. At that moment, the cell signal inside the car was weak. Xiao Bai had just started the engine when he stepped out to take a call, and before getting back in, he'd called out to the two who were strolling over, telling them to hurry up.

They were still five or six metres away from the car when Li Yao suddenly grabbed Du Yusheng's arm. As far as Du Yusheng could recall, Li Yao always wore a polite smile, but for the first time, he saw an unprecedented seriousness on Li Yao's face. Du Yusheng's body froze for a second. He looked down at the fingers clutching his arm with such force that the nails had turned white. Just as he was about to make a teasing remark, there was a sudden, deafening boom from Xiao Bai's direction. Du Yusheng's mind went completely blank, and the acrid stench of burning filled his nose.

The Bentley was instantly engulfed in flames, and within seconds, all that remained was a burning shell.

For the first time in his life, Du Yusheng felt as if he had come face to face with death.

=========

Du Yusheng returned to the bureau that afternoon.

At the time, Qin Yan had just come out of the lab. He'd been working there the entire day, his hair was damp and almost stuck to his surgical cap, the rubber gloves soaked through with sweat, and he had no idea how many masks he'd changed. Without time to wash up or change clothes, he was still fully kitted out when he ran into Du Yusheng, who had just come back from outside.

He didn't greet Du Yusheng. Instead, Qin Yan looked past Du Yusheng and stared behind him for a few seconds.

It seemed he had brought someone back with him.

"That's Li Yao."

Xiao Bai was wiping the dust off himself in a panic, still visibly shaken. "We've got him to thank this time, otherwise we'd be burning incense for Brother Yu right now."

Qin Yan didn't quite follow, he watched as a colleague led Li Yao into another room. Meanwhile, Du Yusheng slumped heavily into his executive chair with a loud thud, grabbed the leftover boiled water on his desk from the day before, and gulped it all down in one go.

Du Yusheng had never feared death, but he feared others dying because of him.

"Someone planted a bomb in Brother Yu's Bentley," Xiao Bai explained. "It missed by this much." He gestured with his fingers to show just how close it had been. "I was almost caught too."

Qin Yan felt a chill run through him hearing this.

"There were officers all around, who would dare do that?" Qin Yan added, "Who could do that?" The second question sounded far more like a question.

Xiao Bai shrugged.

"There's no surveillance, and everyone was busy with their own tasks. Our car was parked at the end of the street, who could've kept an eye on it the whole time?"

Qin Yan looked over at Du Yusheng. The latter said nothing, picking up a half-empty pack of cigarettes from his desk. He lit one with practised ease, took two deep drags, and then let it hang from the corner of his mouth for a few seconds before transferring it to his fingers. He was smoking heavily, and the cigarette burned down quickly, yet Du Yusheng still didn't speak, his eyes fixed on the large words on his computer screen: Controlled Experiment.

"Get someone to investigate, we've got to find out what really happened." Qin Yan said, his voice muffled by his mask, making it hard to hear clearly, but there was a sense of urgency in his tone.

Xiao Bai got up from his chair, pretending to leave.

"Sit down!" Du Yusheng cut him off sternly. "I said sit down!"

Qin Yan looked puzzled.

Du Yusheng stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, then lifted his head and looked at Qin Yan.

Qin Yan had always thought Du Yusheng's eyes were beautiful, deep and captivating, but those beautiful pupils were completely black, exactly the colour of death.

"I know who it was."

Du Yusheng glanced at Xiao Bai, then at Qin Yan, before finally fixing his gaze on Xiao Bai.

"I know who it was."

He repeated it again.

With the second cigarette pinched between his fingers, Du Yusheng was just about to light it, then paused, thinking better of it, and put it back.

Looking up, he said, "Oh, I didn't even get a proper look at you just now." Du Yusheng turned to Qin Yan, his expression suddenly filled with belated recognition and an air of apology.

His face shifted quickly, within seconds, he was back to that familiar, lazy nonchalance they all knew.

"Have the results come out?"

Qin Yan nodded.

"Just as you expected, that empty salbutamol bottle found near Luo Daheng once contained high-concentration nitroglycerin."

Du Yusheng asked, "What about the toner on the thumb?"

"It also matches the composition of toner from the cartridge."

Xiao Bai didn't follow. He blinked at the two of them, eyes wide and innocent.

"What does that mean?"

Du Yusheng went ahead and lit another cigarette after all.

This time, he smoked slowly.

"Luo Daheng met with two people that night, let's set those two aside for a moment. Here's something we all know: when your printer runs out of ink, you take out the toner cartridge and shake it side to side, and then you can usually get a few more prints out of it. But doing that leaves toner on your thumb. So now we can confirm one thing, Luo Daheng definitely opened the printer and checked the toner cartridge that night."

"......" Xiao Bai said, "So?"

"Printers are electronic devices, and electronic devices are prone to collecting dust. Luo Daheng suffered from severe bronchial asthma. Dust might mean nothing to us, but to him?"

The cigarette burned between Du Yusheng's fingers, the glowing orange tip facing Xiao Bai. It flickered like a pair of eyes watching him.

Xiao Bai suddenly felt a chill.

‿︵‿︵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