Controlled Experiment Chapter 29

Game of Death – 5

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On that Sunday evening, Xiao Bai went home early.

Lately, he hasn't been sleeping well. He found it difficult to fall asleep, and even when he managed to drift off, he would always wake up in the dead of night.

Recently, Du Yusheng had been catching him off guard with sudden probing questions, which kept Xiao Bai on edge the entire day. He didn't understand why Du Yusheng had suddenly started linking him with Luo Yang, nor did he understand how he had guessed that he knew Li Yao. Xiao Bai believed he had been flawless in covering his tracks, unless Du Yusheng had been monitoring him or had tapped his phone, there was no way he could have known things in such detail.

At that thought, Xiao Bai took a new phone from his drawer, inserted his SIM card, and turned it on.

Then he stripped off all his clothes, rolled them into a bundle, and threw them into the garbage bin outside, before going into the bathroom to take a shower.

Better safe than sorry, Xiao Bai didn't want to take any chances.

Xiao Bai's home wasn't in a busy part of the city. It was a very old residential area, mostly occupied by elderly residents. By midnight, there were very few lights still on. Xiao Bai wrapped a bath towel around himself and sat on the sofa in his living room. He didn't turn on the lights and just stared blankly out the large floor-to-ceiling window.

The shower had only made him more awake. He fetched a bottle of drink from the fridge, opened it, and downed it in one go.

The cold liquid hit his throat, sending a shiver through his body. Xiao Bai cursed under his breath and shut the fridge door.

Li Yao's call came five minutes later.

There was a tacit understanding between Xiao Bai and Li Yao; unless it was urgent, it was best for the two not to meet, let alone call. Li Yao was a cautious person, and when Xiao Bai saw his number appear on the screen, he figured something must have gone wrong on Li Yao's end.

"Dr Li," Xiao Bai said, "I'm home alone, whatever it is, go ahead and say it."

Xiao Bai was clever. In one sentence, he made clear where he was and what his surroundings were like.

The signal on Li Yao's end was poor, and there was a lot of background noise.

"Xiao Bai, I need your help with something," Li Yao said. "It's two-thirty in the morning. Du Yusheng is currently asleep at my place, and before he wakes, around six o'clock, you need to do three things. First, go into the bedroom where Du Yusheng is sleeping and adjust the clock on the wall so that it shows the correct time. Second, go downstairs and buy two freshly made breakfasts, and place them on the dining table in the living room, you need to make Du Yusheng believe I had breakfast before leaving the house. Finally, put on my clothes and walk past the security cameras downstairs to pick up the car, then park it in the underground parking garage at Huan Island Hospital. From the moment you leave home, you'll have less than four hours. Although Du Yusheng took something to help him sleep, he could wake up at any moment, and if he finds you in my home, you..."

"This whole thing was entirely my idea, it has nothing to do with Mr Li," Xiao Bai said, taking a deep breath. He gripped the phone tightly in his hand and cut Li Yao off.

Li Yao was very satisfied with Xiao Bai's answer and reminded him, "You've got less than four hours, you need to hurry."

The call ended on the other end. Xiao Bai took another deep breath.

Xiao Bai opened the alarm app on the phone and set a three-hour countdown timer for himself.

It would take him at least half an hour to get from his home to Li Yao's place, which meant he'd have only two hours left. Xiao Bai wiped the water droplets from his face, grabbed the jacket and joggers off the sofa, and quickly put them on.

He didn't usually drive while at the bureau, and the car he was using was registered under someone else's name. Even if the surveillance picked him up, they wouldn't be able to trace anything back to him. Once in the car, Xiao Bai stepped on the accelerator. Glancing at himself in the rearview mirror, Xiao Bai thought that there was only one thing left to do now, race against time.

Xiao Bai and Li Yao had known each other for years and trusted each other, but this was actually Xiao Bai's first time visiting Li Yao's home.

Before coming, Xiao Bai had received surveillance maps of the entire residential area. He avoided any cameras where possible, and where he couldn't, he kept his head down to stop them from catching his face. Before leaving, he'd deliberately chosen an outfit with no visible logos whatsoever, making sure there were no identifiable features about him.

By the time Xiao Bai was standing in the living room of Li Yao's apartment, it was already quarter past three in the morning.

The apartment was completely dark. Xiao Bai gently pushed open the bedroom door with his fingertips, just enough to create a small gap.

There were no voices, only the steady sound of Du Yusheng's breathing. Xiao Bai let out a sigh of relief and edged sideways into the bedroom.

Just as Li Yao had mentioned on the phone, the clock on the wall was running several hours behind. Xiao Bai took it down, set it to the correct time, and placed it back.

Du Yusheng was still fast asleep, his breathing deep and heavy. There was no sign that he was about to wake up.

Xiao Bai let out a soft chuckle and thought to himself, You've got the nerve to be sleeping? I could fire a shot right into your head right now, and you'd die without ever knowing who did it.

Xiao Bai formed a finger gun with his hand and mimed aiming it at Du Yusheng's head, then grinned and turned to leave.

Afterwards, he changed into Li Yao's clothes and drove the car to the underground parking garage at Huan Island Hospital.

Once everything was done, Xiao Bai sent Li Yao a message.

When the message came through, Li Yao was on the way back with Zhuang Hao. Zhuang Hao was driving like mad, terrified they'd miss the moment Du Yusheng woke up. But once Li Yao read the message, he told Zhuang Hao to take him straight to Huan Island Hospital instead, Du Yusheng's side had already been handled by someone else.

Zhuang Hao glanced at Li Yao in disbelief.

"You've already sorted everything?"

Li Yao nodded and let out a long sigh of relief. "Jing Mo didn't give me a chance, so I had to create an alibi for myself. He knows how Du Yusheng feels about me... As long as there's the slightest link between me and Chen Xin's death, Du Yusheng will definitely fix his eyes on me, so why not get the man himself to provide my alibi? He's not going to suspect himself, is he?"

Zhuang Hao responded with a grunt, thinking to himself, Your mind really is dark.

=========

As Li Yao recalled everything Xiao Bai had done, the corners of his lips lifted into a faint curve.

"What did you just say?" Li Yao frowned. "You said someone wearing my clothes killed Chen Xin?"

Du Yusheng nodded. "I can't make sense of it either. Have you offended anyone recently? Or has anyone suspicious turned up looking for you?"

Li Yao suddenly laughed.

"Suspicious people..." Li Yao pointed at Du Yusheng. "Like you."

It was rare for Li Yao to crack a joke. Du Yusheng chuckled as well.

With his arms crossed and resting on Li Yao's desk, Du Yusheng laid his head between them. From that height, under the warm yellow desk lamp, Li Yao could see Du Yusheng's features clearly at close range. Those eyes, bright and free of any deceit, smiled as their owner blinked at Li Yao.

"... You know, why is it that everything lately seems to be aimed at you?" Du Yusheng rubbed his chin on his arm, "It's too dangerous, I need to hurry up and move into the new place to ensure your safety."

Li Yao glanced at him, thinking, Just take care of yourself.

"I don't actually think this suspect was targeting me," Li Yao gestured towards the door of his office. "My office is at the end of the corridor, out of view of the security cameras. No matter whose office it was, the suspect would have chosen this room to take a piece of clothing. The identity of the owner doesn't matter."

This explanation isn't far-fetched, Du Yusheng agreed.

"Chen Xin was admitted on your referral," Du Yusheng said. "What illness does he have? The forensic report isn't out yet, so we cannot rule out the possibility that he died suddenly due to illness."

Du Yusheng glanced at the bowl of beef noodles in Li Yao's hand. Though the noodles were being stirred again and again, Li Yao hadn't taken a single bite.

"Precordial pain for two months," Li Yao clicked his mouse to glance at the medical record on the computer screen. "I ordered an ECG, but it didn't show any organic issues. At first, I didn't recommend hospitalisation, but he insisted. And given how inconsistent the test results were with his reported symptoms, I was concerned there might be an underlying primary condition, so I admitted him."

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Du Yusheng scratched his cheek and stared at the bowl of beef noodles that had gradually gone cold.

"Do you know much about Chen Xin?"

Li Yao shook his head. "All I know is that he's a car dealer."

Du Yusheng got a message on WeChat, sent by someone from the team. The gist of it was that they'd brought Chen Xin's wife, the woman who'd caused the disturbance at the hospital earlier, to the bureau, and someone would soon be questioning her about the relevant details. Du Yusheng replied with a simple "Mhmm" and then sent another message instructing them to look into Chen Xin's personal connections.

There was still no result from Qin Yan's side, and at the moment, the only thing Du Yusheng had to work with was the surveillance footage of someone wearing Li Yao's clothes.

Du Yusheng scratched his nose and stood up, glancing at Li Yao. "Chen Xin's ward is just upstairs, how about you and I go take a look together?"

Li Yao chuckled awkwardly. "Wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

Du Yusheng shook his head. "When it comes to hospitals, you know your way around better than I do."

=========

A cordon had already been put up around Chen Xin's hospital room. Not only that, half the floor had been locked down to prevent any patients or hospital staff from entering the area by mistake. From his ward to the next medical unit, the corridor was entirely sealed off. In other words, once they passed through the door separating the two wards, Li Yao and Du Yusheng were the only people on the entire floor.

No one had entered Chen Xin's room since the forensic search earlier that morning, and everything remained just as it had been.

Du Yusheng picked up a pair of disposable shoe covers and handed them to Li Yao.

"Have you been in Chen Xin's room before?"

Du Yusheng switched on the light at the door to the room.

"I came in a few times during rounds," Li Yao walked up to the bed and continued. "But this is the first time the room's been empty."

There was an outline on the mattress marking roughly where Chen Xin's body had been. Aside from the depression in that area, the bed surface was flat and undisturbed. Li Yao noticed it, bent down and leaned close to examine it. Chen Xin had clearly not died a natural death.

"I already felt something was off this morning," Du Yusheng opened Chen Xin's wardrobe with gloved hands for Li Yao to see. "It's like he came here to stay at a hotel, he even brought three bottles of shampoo."

Li Yao chuckled dryly twice.

"How did he die?"

Du Yusheng sighed. "It's very strange, there wasn't a single mark on his body, it was as if he'd just fallen asleep. No signs of a struggle in the room either, and it looked like the killer came prepared. Even the footprints on the floor had been dealt with. It was like a gust of wind, came and went, leaving nothing behind."

Li Yao picked up the schedule sheet from Chen Xin's desk and glanced over it. It was obvious that even while in hospital, he had still been working, still fighting for his career, still trying to earn money.

On the lower shelf of the wardrobe were a few pairs of Chen Xin's shoes. Li Yao opened them one by one, then turned each pair over to inspect the soles. The shoes he'd brought were mostly suitable for the current season, and the soles were all fairly clean, except for one pair.

Rubbing at the dirt on the sole, Li Yao said to Du Yusheng, "Looks like there's some reddish soil stuck to this..."

A jolt went through Du Yusheng's chest. That reddish soil, so far, he'd only seen it in one place: Luo Daheng's villa.

Could their deaths be connected?

Du Yusheng scratched his head, unable to figure it out.

At the entrance of Chen Xin's room was a ventilation duct. Tilting his head back, Du Yusheng examined it.

The vent was a neat square, just about large enough for an adult. He pulled over a chair, stood on it, and, with gloves on, removed the vent cover. It was a little dark inside, so he switched on his phone flashlight and shone it into the duct. The beam of light revealed nothing but swirling dust.

Du Yusheng couldn't help but sneeze. And then he noticed something.

There was plenty of dust suspended in the air, but the inner walls of the duct weren't particularly dirty.

Not only that, Du Yusheng also spotted a half-blackened circular mark inside.

Mrs Du had once bought him an aromatherapy diffuser. Du Yusheng used it once or twice but found the scent cloying and unpleasant. The bases of those diffusers were just about the same size as this circle. Which meant that something had once been burned in there.

A small breakthrough.

Du Yusheng turned around, just about to show off to Li Yao.

Suddenly, the entire floor was plunged into darkness.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Angel: Was anyone else thinking Xiao Bai was working for Jing Mo? I was convinced he was...

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

Translated: May 31, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 17, 2025 by Angel