Controlled Experiment Chapter 30

Game of Death – 6

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It was pitch black.

Du Yusheng's first thought was that there had been a power cut.

But this was a hospital. Power might go out elsewhere, but how could it go out in a hospital?

The entire ward was instantly plunged into darkness. Du Yusheng had been in this line of work for many years and wasn't afraid of the dark. But a murder had just taken place in this very room. Only a few hours ago, Chen Xin had still been lying on that hospital bed, waiting for someone to discover his death. And now Du Yusheng was standing on a chair, peering into the even darker ventilation duct. Thinking about it like that made him feel rather uneasy.

Du Yusheng wanted to turn around and call for Li Yao.

But Li Yao didn't seem to be in the room.

Du Yusheng stepped down from the chair and stood in the centre of the ward.

The ward, and indeed the whole floor, was pitch black. Apart from the streetlamps outside the window, there wasn't a single source of light. Du Yusheng stared at the doorway of the ward. All of a sudden, he had a feeling, a sense that he was looking at the murderer. That night, the murderer had passed the doorway wearing a white coat and entered the room. He had stood before Chen Xin's bed, staring at the victim. Perhaps he had hesitated for a long time. Perhaps he had decided in a flash. What had he been thinking when he killed? What kind of expression had he worn? Perhaps he had lingered in the room for quite some time, pondering over the best way to kill Chen Xin. In the end, he had chosen a method that prevented him from seeing Chen Xin's final expression, he killed him in the dark.

Du Yusheng looked at the figure drawing closer before him and involuntarily took a step back.

But the person in front didn't seem afraid at all and continued to approach. Du Yusheng reached back, feeling for the gun at his waist, and then the lights came on.

Du Yusheng saw Li Yao standing before him with a look of astonishment, staring straight into the dark barrel of the gun.

"Shit," Du Yusheng cursed, letting out a breath. "You scared me."

Li Yao smiled apologetically and turned to point at the circuit breaker on the wall. "Sorry, I accidentally knocked the switch and cut the power."

Du Yusheng waved a hand, thinking to himself, You really scared the life out of me.

Climbing back onto the chair, Du Yusheng used his phone's flashlight to shine into the ventilation duct. In truth, Du Yusheng was still rattled. If Li Yao had come just a little closer just now, or if the power hadn't come back and the lights hadn't switched on, he didn't dare imagine what might have happened.

Li Yao had been at the hospital for years, he knew the place inside out. The likelihood of him accidentally knocking the circuit breaker, Du Yusheng had his doubts.

However, Du Yusheng felt that the most important aspect of liking someone was trust. Because he liked Li Yao, Du Yusheng was willing to trust him.

Setting aside the strange power outage, the blackout had actually turned out to be rather useful.

Du Yusheng had discovered something. Just before the lights went out, the lighting in the ward had been strong. Once the power was cut, Du Yusheng noticed that the lower wall of the ventilation duct wasn't very dirty, with very little dust. On the other side, however, there was a thick layer of dust, it looked as if it hadn't been disturbed at all. In other words, by following the cleaner path, they could trace the person's crawling route.

"Find something?" Li Yao tilted his head up to look at Du Yusheng.

Du Yusheng pulled his head back, puffed up both cheeks, making them round, and then exhaled.

Watching him, Li Yao thought he looked exactly like a pufferfish.

"I found that someone's been inside this ventilation duct, and there are signs that something's been burned in here too," Du Yusheng pointed to the upper wall of the duct.

Li Yao followed his gaze and saw faint smoke stains on the upper wall. The marks were very light, suggesting that whatever had been burned inside wasn't large or heavy.

Li Yao brought over another chair and climbed onto it, craning his neck to peer inside.

Reaching in, he brushed his fingers lightly along the duct wall and said with a smile, "The surrounding area is all dirty, except for the bottom, it's clean. Looks like someone crawled here from somewhere else. If we follow his trail, we can find out where he started."

Though he spoke casually, Li Yao had a bad feeling about it.

"I think so too," Du Yusheng was a little excited now. He pointed at the path ahead inside the duct. "I'll go first, you follow behind me. If anything comes up ahead, I can shield you."

Even if Li Yao didn't really expect Du Yusheng to be of much help, he still found those words rather pleasing to hear.

The duct was very narrow, just big enough for one person. Du Yusheng took off his jacket and left it outside before crawling in.

The ventilation duct was a useful thing, it was like a window that could never be shut. Along the way, you could see into every office, every ward. Du Yusheng held his phone between his fingers, cautiously illuminating the marks on the ground. The dust was difficult to spot, so he had to stay very close to the surface.

After crawling out through the ventilation duct from Chen Xin's room, Du Yusheng had no idea how long he'd been moving, he only knew that his hands could no longer hold onto his phone, and the trail of crawling marks ahead had suddenly vanished.

It seemed they had reached their destination.

Du Yusheng let out a breath of relief, removed the vent cover below him, and crawled out from inside.

The moment he saw the room, Du Yusheng felt like a complete idiot.

It was an office. The lights weren't on, only a small desk lamp on the table was glowing faintly. Not only that, there was also a bowl of completely cold beef noodles on the desk, with a pair of disposable chopsticks resting beside it. On the chair lay the book that Du Yusheng had just been reading earlier.

This was fucking Li Yao's office.

Du Yusheng turned to look at Li Yao, who was equally dumbfounded.

"This is fucked up," Du Yusheng sat his ass down on the sofa. "The killer wasn't just wearing your clothes, he crawled all the way from your office through the ventilation duct to Chen Xin's ward, I really don't get it."

He must have been truly anxious, Li Yao noticed that even Du Yusheng's face was flushed slightly.

Pouring some water from the thermos behind him, Li Yao handed the cup to Du Yusheng.

Li Yao poured another for himself, held it in his hand, and brought it to his lips. With a slight curve of his brows and eyes, he said with a smile, "Actually, there's no need to be surprised. You noticed it too when you came, this office is a blind spot in the surveillance system. That's probably why the person chose it. They took my clothes and even used my ventilation duct." Li Yao frowned slightly and looked up at the vent cover that had been removed. "Looks like I'll have to ask the maintenance department to seal that up, it's not safe."

Du Yusheng took a sip of water to moisten his throat.

"If this person knows your office is a surveillance blind spot, it means he's very familiar with both your office and the hospital," Du Yusheng scratched his head in frustration. "Yours isn't the only office with a blind spot, why did he choose yours specifically? Have you thought about that?"

Li Yao followed Du Yusheng's line of thought for a moment and said, "You mean, someone's targeting me?"

Du Yusheng nodded.

He stood up, braced both hands on the desk, and looked down at Li Yao from above, asking, "Think carefully, have you really never offended anyone?"

Li Yao turned his back to refill his glass with plain water.

"We still don't know how Chen Xin died," Li Yao took a sip. "Some things can't be concluded just yet."

Du Yusheng was really afraid that something might happen to Li Yao. In that instant, a flurry of thoughts flashed through Du Yusheng's mind, including Zhuang Hao, Xiao Bai, and even Luo Yang. Zhuang Hao had once been involved in the underworld, why did Li Yao know him, and why had he gone to find him? Xiao Bai worked at the police bureau, and yet Li Yao actually knew him too. All these scattered stories tangled together, and Du Yusheng couldn't shake the feeling that Li Yao had gotten himself into serious trouble. It wasn't until much later that Du Yusheng realised how stupid that thought had been, he really had been a total idiot.

"So what do you think now?" Li Yao asked.

Du Yusheng sighed, his fingers tapping noisily on the desk. "I think the person in the ventilation duct is most likely the killer. I mean, what normal person hangs about in a vent? But here's the thing, why the hell were they burning stuff in the vent? Burning incense for a spa session?"

Li Yao snorted out a laugh.

"If an average person is being attacked, they'd definitely struggle, sometimes even fight to the death. That kind of struggle usually leaves skin tissue on the bed. But I had a close look just now, there was no trace of skin or anything like that on the surface." Li Yao added, "I'd guess your colleagues noticed that too."

Du Yusheng scratched his cheek and nodded.

"If we assume the person in the vent is the killer," Li Yao raised a finger, "then either they changed the bedsheets after the attack, or Chen Xin didn't struggle at all."

These were things Du Yusheng had considered earlier as well. Hearing Li Yao say it gave him some reassurance, at least someone else had reached the same conclusions.

"If Chen Xin didn't struggle before he died, then whatever was being burned was probably some kind of sedative."

Li Yao nodded. "Exactly."

"Would a sedative be fatal?"

"No," Li Yao said.

Du Yusheng rubbed his large forehead and let out a heavy sigh. "Then how the hell did Chen Xin actually die?"

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Author's Note:

So exactly how did Patient Chen die?!

‿︵‿︵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 31, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 17, 2025 by Angel