Controlled Experiment Chapter 20

Controlled Experiment – 20

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This was probably the first time Du Yusheng had properly seen Luo Yang in person.

Ever since Luo Daheng had died, this illegitimate son had remained a figure of rumour. Whether it was because Luo Yang hadn't returned after his father's death, or because Du Yusheng hadn't been confident he could take him out with a single blow, finally, Du Yusheng laid eyes on Luo Yang.

Luo Yang wasn't quite what he had imagined.

He had always pictured him as a spoiled second-generation rich kid with a nasty streak. From what others had said, not only did he constantly argue with his father, but he also had a penchant for gambling. So before arriving, Du Yusheng had pictured him as a frivolous young master, wealthy, arrogant, quick-tempered, and lacking in manners.

However, nothing matched the image he had conjured.

Luo Yang sat quietly on the hospital bed. He wore a blue-and-white patient's gown with the top two buttons left undone, exposing two elegant collarbones. He was thinner than expected, and the clothes hung loosely on his frame. His hair was a very light colour, seemingly natural, clean and unstyled, none of that pomade-slicked look common among rich boys. He wore a simple pair of round glasses with no embellishment, giving him a gentle, refined appearance. His hands were folded over his chest, holding a book.

Du Yusheng glanced at the cover. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie.

"Hello." Luo Yang's lips curved slightly as he extended a polite hand. "Officer Du, I've been hearing your name a lot these past few days."

Du Yusheng looked down at the outstretched hand.

Luo Yang's skin was very pale, the blue veins beneath clearly visible. He seemed to have just had an IV drip, the needle was still embedded in the back of his hand.

His hand was icy cold. Du Yusheng gave it a quick shake.

"Hello, Mr... Mr Luo."

"Just call me Luo Yang."

Luo Yang closed the book and placed it on the bedside table.

"Mr Luo enjoys reading?" Du Yusheng pulled out the chair beside him and sat down, making small talk.

"When there's no one around, I like to flip through a few pages," Luo Yang smiled somewhat helplessly. "But I can't really get into it, I keep reading the first few pages over and over."

The edges of the first few pages were curled, suggesting Luo Yang was telling the truth.

Du Yusheng nodded and continued, "What kind of books do you like? Staying in the hospital is dull, after all, best to get a few that actually interest you to pass the time. If Mr Luo isn't keen on this one, ask them to bring you another." Du Yusheng glanced towards the door. "Since you can't go out, just have them send it in."

Luo Yang seemed to feel a chill and pulled the blanket up to just below his chin.

"The book I like... they wouldn't know where to find it." Luo Yang let out a barely audible sigh and raised his head to look up at Du Yusheng.

His irises were as pale as his hair. The man behind those eyes was smiling, his brows curved ever so slightly, revealing a subtle, unreadable expression.

"If Officer Du happens to find it, please bring it to me."

Luo Yang's voice was as cold as his hand, it made Du Yusheng slightly uncomfortable. He stood up and leaned against the window. The sun was shining behind him, warming him considerably.

At the end of the hospital bed hung a card with Luo Yang's name and medical information. Everything is printed nowadays. Du Yusheng took out the slip of paper and glanced at it, it noted the date Luo Yang had been admitted and listed precautions for family members. He put it back where it had been.

"How's your recovery, Mr Luo?" Du Yusheng asked. "Car accidents can be serious or minor. As you said yourself, just got off the plane and then this happens, what timing. I've asked a colleague to follow up on the case, so don't worry too much. As soon as we identify the vehicle involved, I'll let you know."

"Then I'll thank you in advance."

Luo Yang smiled politely and extended one arm from beneath the blanket.

Du Yusheng's gaze lingered on that arm for a few seconds before saying, "I heard that Mr Luo is an illegitimate child?"

Luo Yang nodded with a smile. "That doesn't seem to be much of a secret anymore, does it?"

"Tell me about you and Luo Daheng," Du Yusheng stuck his hands into his pants pockets for warmth. "Your relationship with your father wasn't particularly harmonious?"

"There's always a bit of conflict between father and son." Luo Yang rubbed his fingers together, then raised his head to meet Du Yusheng's eyes. "You're someone's son too, Officer Du, disagreements and arguments between fathers and sons are perfectly normal, aren't they? Fathers and sons who never argue only exist in books."

But Du Yusheng didn't look away. He stared straight into Luo Yang's light brown eyes and lifted one foot, resting it on the edge of the bed.

"There was more than a bit of animosity between the two of you," Du Yusheng sneered. "You were already eyeing up your father's assets. As for the asset distribution, you bribed a lawyer and forged a document."

Du Yusheng tossed a folder onto Luo Yang's blanket. The backup documents he'd prepared in advance landed with a thud. Luo Yang glanced at the brown envelope and smiled faintly.

Luo Yang picked it up, gathered the loose sheets neatly, stacked them in order on the blanket, and placed them properly to the side.

"Officer Du, I know you come from a wealthy family too, but you and I are not the same."

Luo Yang adjusted his glasses. His head was slightly bowed and the corners of his mouth faintly raised. He was polite and calm, like someone giving a talk-show interview.

"I'm an illegitimate child," Luo Yang said. "I wasn't acknowledged until I was in my twenties, and my father was married for many years without having a single child. In other words, if he'd had a child of his own, he would never have remembered me. It's pathetic, isn't it? So I worried about personal gains and losses, I wanted to leave something behind for myself."

"Leave something behind?" repeated Du Yusheng.

"Money," Luo Yang laughed. "Once you're used to living in a villa, you can't even bear a normal apartment any more. I had nothing growing up, had never seen anything. Business, real estate, I didn't understand any of it, and I lost a lot of money. There were a few times my dad was absolutely furious. I was scared he'd be so angry he'd leave me nothing, so I bribed a lawyer to draw up a fake will. Looking back now, I was so stupid." Luo Yang lifted his head, his eyes slightly red, and rubbed his nose. "What father ever truly stays angry with his son? What do you think, Officer Du?"

Perhaps it was because Luo Yang wasn't quite the person he had imagined, but for a moment, Du Yusheng felt a pang of pity.

"On the night Luo Daheng died, you went to see him. What did you talk about?"

Luo Yang looked up and rubbed his reddened eyes.

"We argued, I'd lost money again, and he kept criticising me... Later he said he'd send me to handle overseas trade, to sharpen my skills." Luo Yang bit down on his lower lip, his cheeks trembling slightly. "I never imagined our last conversation would be an argument. My father was always like that, he'd use the harshest words to scold you, but at the same time, he just couldn't help giving you everything he had. He yelled at me, but he also entrusted the overseas trade to me. I knew he'd spent the past few years building that business, that was all his hard work. He said I was useless, but deep down he trusted me the most..."

"My dad had heart problems and asthma, he always kept his medicine on him. When he was in a good mood, he'd remind me to look after my health, because I hadn't yet made anything of myself and he couldn't rest easy." Luo Yang wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and looked out the window with a sigh. "I knew he was ill, I should have stayed with him. If he scolded me, then so be it. I just never imagined that nitroglycerin, which was supposed to save his life, would become a poison that killed him. He always said, once I could stand on my own, he'd retire, find a place to really enjoy life. Why didn't he keep his word?"

Du Yusheng tried to interject. "Your father..."

"He knew I had a gambling problem and that my luck was terrible, so he cleaned up after me. He said he owed me for the past, and now he was making it up to me. He even said that between father and son, money's the least important thing. Officer Du, I had nothing before, and now... I've lost it all again..."

Luo Yang looked at his empty hands and covered his eyes.

His emotions surged so suddenly that it caught Du Yusheng off guard and he took a step back. The slight trembling of Luo Yang's shoulders seemed to speak of deep, surging grief. Du Yusheng stood there. He raised his hand, meaning to pat Luo Yang's shoulder in comfort, but halfway through, his open palm curled into a fist and clenched tightly.

Because he had just heard Luo Yang ask him, "Du Yusheng, did I do a good job acting?"

Lowering his hands, Luo Yang wiped his face and suddenly smiled. Apart from the traces of tears on his cheeks, all the redness that had come from his earlier agitation and sorrow had vanished. What remained was a polite, composed face. That face was still smiling.

Du Yusheng froze.

"I've acted the part so many times, even I've started to believe it."

Luo Yang picked up the document folder Du Yusheng had brought, the one he had just neatly arranged, wiped his damp hands on it and then tossed the used items onto the floor.

Looking at the man in front of him, a chill crept up from the soles of Du Yusheng's feet. He was reminded of someone.

The night he received news of Luo Yang's car accident, he had been at Li Yao's home. At that time, Li Yao had given Du Yusheng the exact same feeling, cold, from the scalp all the way to the soles of his feet. Li Yao hadn't felt like Li Yao then, he'd seemed more like someone else entirely.

Taking off his glasses, now smudged from his hands, Luo Yang began to wipe the lenses with the hem of his shirt.

Without the barrier of glass, those pale brown eyes looked even clearer.

"You still haven't answered me, did I do a good job?"

Luo Yang chuckled softly as he cleaned the lenses at an unhurried pace.

"Forged the will?"

"Yes."

"Argued with Mr Luo on the day of the incident?"

"Yes."

"Gambling?"

"Yes."

"Consequence of an overdose of nitroglycerin?"

"I know."

"You killed your father with your own hands!"

"......"

Luo Yang didn't answer the final question. Instead, he put on his cleaned glasses and gave Du Yusheng a meaningful smile.

And Du Yusheng understood exactly what that smile meant.

Luo Yang was asking him: Where's your evidence?

Du Yusheng clenched his fists and, in a childish gesture, raised his middle finger at Luo Yang.

If he could, he truly wished he could put a bullet between this man's eyes, execute him a hundred times over.

Without solid, irrefutable evidence, there was no point asking anything else. No matter what he said, nothing valuable would come out of Luo Yang's mouth. Luo Yang even seemed a little disappointed. He pulled the blanket aside, revealing white socks, and swung both feet lazily, as though testing the limits of Du Yusheng's patience.

Just as he was about to leave, Luo Yang suddenly called out to him.

"Officer Du, do you know what a controlled experiment is?"

Du Yusheng turned back to look at him coldly as the other man crossed his legs.

"You'd better hurry up," Luo Yang urged. "I'm planning to shift all of my father's businesses abroad, just in the next few days. I may never come back again."

‿︵‿︵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 24, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 12, 2025 by Angel