Controlled Experiment Chapter 26

Game of Death – 2

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Du Yusheng was woken by the vibration of his phone.

When he came to, Du Yusheng's body and soul hadn't yet fully fused together. The phone was wedged tightly beneath the pillow, and its vibration sounded a hundred times louder than usual, as if even his cerebrospinal fluid was trembling like a waterfall. Du Yusheng sat up in bed with a jolt, forcing one eye open and fumbling for the phone to glance at it. It was his alarm. He muttered a curse under his breath and, in a burst of irritation, hurled the phone across the room, sending it skimming along the edge of the bed. He had a fixed alarm set for seven-thirty every morning.

He sat there dazed, eyes shut, gradually waking up.

Yawning, Du Yusheng estimated he hadn't closed his eyes in over thirty hours. This sleep had felt wonderfully long. He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and grinned. Huh, when did I buy a clock? It looks pretty good up there, actually. Du Yusheng rubbed his face hard, yawned again, and looked down at the bedsheets. He had no idea when he'd bought them either. The colour was a bit plain, but they matched the room surprisingly well. The bed was also nice, really soft. Wow, look at my taste.

Du Yusheng's gaze drifted to the clear glass on the bedside table. It held half a cup of plain water. He touched it, and it was still warm. He picked it up and drank it in one go.

Northern air was dry, especially after the heating came on in winter. If you didn't drink some water first thing in the morning, your throat would be too parched to speak.

With that warm water in his stomach, Du Yusheng was properly awake. He must've slept deeply, because now he sat on the bed with one leg propped up, humming a tune and thinking to himself, There really is nowhere more comfortable than your own home. He was halfway through his little song when he blinked and blinked again.

And then it hit him.

This wasn't his fucking home.

Barefoot, he leapt out of bed and dashed out of the bedroom.

Standing in the middle of the living room, it came back to Du Yusheng, this was Li Yao's place.

He remembered having dinner with him the night before, then somehow falling asleep. Brilliant, I actually ended up crashing at the man's place. He looked down at his clothes, which were still neatly on. Nothing had happened. He felt mildly disappointed.

Du Yusheng had seen Li Yao's apartment before; dull, bland, decorated exactly like something out of a catalogue. The sort of place that looked cold.

He wandered around a bit. Clearly, Li Yao wasn't home. Scratching his brow and stifling another yawn, Du Yusheng picked up his phone, considering what to message Li Yao while also wondering why Li Yao wasn't home.

His eyes landed on the dining table beside Li Yao's living room.

There was a cup of soy milk on the table, a few sticks of fried dough, and some small side dishes clearly bought from outside, your typical northern breakfast. Du Yusheng reached out and tested the temperature. The soy milk was still warm, and the fried dough was steaming hot. Right next to it was an empty glass of soy milk. Du Yusheng blinked a few times before it dawned on him, this breakfast had been prepared for him by Li Yao. Though he was still standing barefoot on the floor, the moment he saw it all, a gentle warmth spread in Du Yusheng's chest.

See? This isn’t me throwing myself at someone who doesn't care.

This is give and take. As he chewed on the fried dough, Du Yusheng let his thoughts wander.

He was just thinking of sending Li Yao a message when his phone lit up in front of him.

A call from Xiao Bai.

That guy still hadn't explained himself properly, and the thought of it made Du Yusheng uncomfortable. He hesitated for quite a while before finally answering the call.

"Brother Yu..."

"If you have something to say, just spit it out!"

"Er..." Xiao Bai choked a little, then said, "Well, the report on that compartment in Luo Yang's apartment is out. Just like you thought, high-concentration nitroglycerin. And that small note stuck on it, it's been confirmed to be identical in length, width, and material to the one found at the crime scene..."

Xiao Bai paused for a few seconds, but there was no response from Du Yusheng's end.

"What do you think..." he tried tentatively.

"What the fuck do I think?" Du Yusheng took a sip of soy milk and snapped. "Go arrest him at the hospital, what else do I need to say? I gave them clear instructions last night, I wanted a report before the day was over, why did they send it so late? What the hell have they all been dawdling over?"

"... You can't really blame them," Xiao Bai said, a little sheepishly after being barked at by Du Yusheng. "The equipment broke down and they had to borrow some from somewhere else overnight. The moment the report came out, I called you straight away."

Du Yusheng accepted that answer for now and grunted over the line.

"Mu Bai," Du Yusheng called Xiao Bai by his full name, "Have you thought out how to explain yourself yet?"

"......"

Xiao Bai cleared his throat on the other end.

"Brother Yu, I don't know how to explain it," Xiao Bai said. "I have nothing to do with Luo Yang, I have no idea why he suddenly said all that, I don't even understand why you're suddenly asking me like this. I, Mu Bai, have a clear conscience about everything I do, I've never done anything to harm your interests. If I say I haven't done it, then I haven't."

Du Yusheng smiled.

"Alright, let's say there's nothing going on between you and Luo Yang. But between you and Li..." Du Yusheng glanced at the still-warm soy milk beside his hand and said, "Fine, we'll deal with this later. If he really is a fox, that tail's going to show eventually. For now, sort out Luo Yang properly. Go to the hospital and bring him in, send someone else."

Xiao Bai nodded and replied with a simple, "Okay."

It seemed the Luo Yang case was finally about to be wrapped up. Stretching his back lazily, Du Yusheng looked at the breakfast on the table and thought about the double harvest of career and love.

Is this Li Yao's way of responding to me? If the man truly disliked me, he wouldn't have brought me home, let alone made me breakfast. Lowering his head, Du Yusheng chuckled to himself like a fool.

However, there were two unanswered questions in the Luo Yang case. Why did he want to kill Luo Daheng? That was one. And the other was the matching paper slip from the controlled experiment, what exactly did it mean? It looked like only Luo Yang himself could explain these two questions. He wondered what kind of expression the man would wear once confronted with irrefutable evidence.

Barely five minutes after Du Yusheng put down his phone, it buzzed again.

It was Xiao Bai's number.

Impatient, Du Yusheng picked it up, but just as the word "hello" was about to leave his mouth, he was cut short by Xiao Bai's voice on the other end.

"Brother Yu, something's happened, Luo Yang isn't at the hospital, he's gone to the airport, he's trying to leave the country."

"... He's too impatient." Du Yusheng scratched his nose.

That bastard moved really fucking fast.

Du Yusheng hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket, then went to the entrance hall to find his shoes. Grabbing his coat from the table, he threw it on in a hurry. He knew perfectly well that if Luo Yang got away today, he'd never come back again in this lifetime. Just before leaving, Du Yusheng glanced at the half-finished soy milk and, after a moment's thought, decided to take the rest with him for the road.

The taxi he had hailed only got halfway before it met up with Xiao Bai, who had come to pick him up. After settling the fare, Du Yusheng switched cars.

The moment he got in, Xiao Bai spotted the soy milk in Du Yusheng's hand.

He was stunned, "Brother Yu... you drink that kind of thing now?"

Du Yusheng cursed. "Drive properly, keep your eyes on the fucking road, not on me."

He clutched the soy milk tight in his hand. Du Yusheng knew all too well that heading to the airport now was a massive gamble. It'd be easy for the police to alert airport security and have someone stopped at immigration, which meant that either Luo Yang had two passports or his purpose for going to the airport wasn't to leave the country at all.

The airport was enormous, wanting to cover every exit was easier said than done.

Feeling cold, Du Yusheng rubbed his hands together and turned up the heater in the car.

Xiao Bai was flying down the airport highway while Du Yusheng sipped his soy milk one mouthful at a time. Halfway there, Du Yusheng felt bored, pulled out his phone and played a song. As the soft, lyrical melody floated through the car, Du Yusheng even hummed along to a few lines.

Xiao Bai glanced at him and reminded, "Brother Yu, if Luo Yang gets away, we'll never catch him again."

"He can't run away," Du Yusheng scratched his chin, looking as though he were about to doze off.

Xiao Bai smacked his lips, he had no idea where Du Yusheng got this level of confidence from. They were already at the critical moment, and he was still acting like this.

Once they arrived, Xiao Bai immediately got out of the car, while Du Yusheng followed behind at an unhurried pace.

Two minutes earlier, Xiao Bai had taken a call. Now, glancing back, he called out, "Brother Yu."

Lifting his eyelids, Du Yusheng yawned lazily.

"Yellow shirt, black pants, white shoes," Xiao Bai pointed towards the airport terminal. "He went in just five minutes ago. I'll take a few men to the surveillance room, and I'll arrange for the rest to be stationed throughout the terminal. I've arranged for customs too. Anything else you want done?"

Du Yusheng shook his head and waved Xiao Bai off.

Seeing Du Yusheng's attitude, Xiao Bai silently cursed him in his heart.

Taking a few people with him, Xiao Bai headed to the airport's surveillance room. Staring at the crowd-packed monitors, Xiao Bai couldn't help but think that Luo Yang really was a clever bastard.

The surveillance footage was full of people dressed in yellow shirts, black pants, and white shoes. Men and women alike, walking in pairs or small groups near the boarding gates. Countless similar figures, it was impossible to tell who was who. And not just the ones on the screen already, there were more still entering the terminal by the minute.

A buzz rang through Xiao Bai's head, as if all the blood had rushed to his skull at once.

Using this method, even if they brought in every officer on the island, they still might not find him.

Xiao Bai wiped a hand down his face and looked at Du Yusheng, who had only just arrived.

"Brother Yu, what do we do?"

Du Yusheng shrugged, tossed his empty soy milk cup into the nearby garbage can, and said, "I'm going to the bathroom, take your time to find him."

Watching Du Yusheng's retreating figure, Xiao Bai clenched his fists. He honestly wanted to walk over and give him a good slap or two.

Du Yusheng genuinely needed to pee. He drank a large cup of warm water in the morning and had just finished off the soy milk without leaving a single drop. Even the best bladder couldn't hold that much liquid. There were plenty of bathrooms in the airport, every few dozen metres there was one. Along the way, he passed quite a few people in yellow shirts and black pants. Glancing at their outfits, Du Yusheng thought to himself, Luo Yang really doesn't have an empty head after all.

He found a quieter bathroom with fewer people.

Du Yusheng went in and relieved himself with great satisfaction.

When he came out, there was a man at the sink turning on the tap to wash his hands.

Du Yusheng stood behind him, tidying his hair in the mirror. Xiao Bai had been rushing him earlier, and he hadn't even had time to fix his hair before leaving the house.

The airport was bustling with people. The man in front, having washed his hands, discovered there were no more paper towels left. Helplessly, he began flicking the water from his hands into the sink.

Du Yusheng patted his own pockets, he happened to have some leftover toilet paper from earlier. He tapped the man's shoulder.

"Need some tissue?"

Du Yusheng smiled and handed the paper over.

Then said with a chuckle, "Luo Yang, you head out without even bringing a tissue, how were you planning to leave the country?"

Luo Yang, who had his head lowered, froze for a moment. Then he calmly took the tissue Du Yusheng offered and dried the water from his hands. He had just changed clothes in the bathroom, the yellow shirt and black pants were still in the suitcase beside him.

"How did you find me?" Luo Yang smiled, adjusting his glasses.

Du Yusheng clicked his tongue, pulled his phone from his pocket, unlocked it, and showed it to Luo Yang.

Grinning, he said, "That day I visited you in the hospital, I left something on you." Du Yusheng looked at the little red dot on the screen and continued, "Zhuang Hao's tracker is really something. I think even if you'd made it out of the country, I'd still see you blinking on my screen."

Xiao Bai was the last to arrive. Du Yusheng tossed him the key to the handcuffs and went to sit in a nearby waiting area, yawning. He had expected Luo Yang to try and escape, so he'd come prepared. Luo Yang still wore that enigmatic expression, while Du Yusheng signalled for Xiao Bai to take him back to the bureau to await further instructions.

Five minutes later, Du Yusheng's phone rang.

It was Xiao Bai again.

"Brother Yu, a patient's family just reported something at Huan Island Hospital... They said someone died mysteriously in the ward."

‿︵‿︵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 28, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 17, 2025 by Angel