Controlled Experiment Chapter 35

Game of Death – 11

---

The corridor was very quiet. After hanging up the phone, Du Yusheng could almost hear his own breathing.

He leaned against the wall, lit a cigarette, and watched as Li Yao walked closer and closer. Du Yusheng reached out and gave him a feeble wave.

"Sorted out your personal business?" Du Yusheng teased.

Li Yao shook his head calmly and said with a smile, "Mhmm, more or less."

Du Yusheng blew out a smoke ring and squinted at Li Yao with a grin. As he took another drag, it felt as though all the frustration he had just been bottling up had been exhaled with that smoke. Du Yusheng felt a little lighter, and his body wasn't so stiff any more. He really wanted to get all the things pressing down on him sorted as soon as possible, then properly confess to the man in front of him, do this and that with him in bed. Li Yao looked like he had a great figure, regardless of who ended up on top, Du Yusheng's mind was already running wild.

Feels like I'd be better on top. I've spent years running around doing fieldwork, definitely stronger than someone who sits in an office all day seeing patients and performing surgeries. Du Yusheng squinted as his gaze travelled up and down Li Yao's body.

But if it's with Li Yao, I'd be fine in any position. Du Yusheng scratched his nose and silently cursed himself, Fucking hell.

Du Yusheng was the sort who blushed easily. A gust of wind or a slight stir would already have his ears bright red, let alone thoughts of such intense activities. Li Yao frowned as he looked at Du Yusheng's thoroughly flushed face. Of course, he had no idea what was going on inside his head.

He couldn't help calling his name.

Du Yusheng turned around with a start, as if struck by lightning.

"You called me?"

Li Yao was slightly thrown by the response, and after a beat, nodded.

"I said I'm heading off now."

Still stuck in the vivid imaginings of his own mind, Du Yusheng hadn't heard a word Li Yao had said, he simply nodded blankly.

It was only when Li Yao disappeared from view that Du Yusheng finally realised he'd been saying goodbye.

Du Yusheng leaned against the wall, grinning so wide it nearly reached his ears.

Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, he chanted three times silently.

Though he looked like someone hardened by experience, at heart, Du Yusheng was just a hopelessly innocent virgin, his willpower was no match for any intense fantasy. Because of that, as long as Li Yao moved even one centimetre forward, Du Yusheng could go a meter forward. To put it bluntly, if the other party didn't respond soon, he'd be the one losing out.

Steadying his mind, Du Yusheng weighed whether to prioritise Chen Xin's autopsy report or the new victim.

After thinking it over for a while, he decided to first get to the bottom of Chen Xin's cause of death.

As for the new victim, Du Yusheng sent a few officers ahead to check the scene.

Du Yusheng found Qin Yan in the lab.

Qin Yan was wearing a surgical cap and a dedicated autopsy gown. In order to determine whether the death was caused by poison, he hadn't put on a mask. He had been holed up here for days, and with the fresh murder in the neighbouring unit, stubble had started to grow along Qin Yan's jawline.

Waving Du Yusheng over with his gloved fingers, Qin Yan stood beside Chen Xin's body.

"Got the results?"

Qin Yan nodded and said, "Just as you suspected, Chen Xin indeed inhaled a sedative before he died."

Du Yusheng's nose felt a little itchy, so he opened the drawer beneath Qin Yan and took out a mask for himself.

In the vast lab, there were only two living people, Du Yusheng and Qin Yan, the rest were all corpses. When he thought about it that way, it did feel a bit eerie.

"Come and take a look at this."

Qin Yan pointed at Chen Xin's neck to show Du Yusheng.

On both sides of Chen Xin's neck, near the Adam's apple, there were two almost symmetrical pressure marks. Du Yusheng stood up and used his thumbs to compare the size, he felt they should be fingerprint bruises. These marks would only appear some time after death. He looked up at Qin Yan.

"Strangled?" Du Yusheng asked.

Qin Yan shook his head, took off his gloves, and threw them into the garbage bin nearby.

Turning on the tap to wash his hands, Qin Yan carefully dried his fingers with a clean paper towel.

Then he pulled out a chair and sat down beside the corpse.

"There's a part of the human body called the carotid sinus, it's located around the upper edge of the thyroid cartilage. The carotid sinus is fascinating, it's extremely sensitive to blood pressure and it's one of the body's baroreceptors, it can cause our blood pressure to drop and heart rate to slow. During paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, we press one side of the carotid sinus and it stimulates a vagal nerve reflex, which slows the heart rate, reduces blood pressure, and provides temporary relief from the arrhythmia."

There were far too many medical terms jumbled together, and Du Yusheng found himself lost in it all. Instinctively, he touched the area around his own Adam's apple.

"What are you trying to say?" he asked.

Qin Yan, for once, crossed one leg over the other and pointed to his own neck. "What I'm saying is that everything I just mentioned involves pressing one side of the carotid sinus." He touched his nose and said. "But what do you think happens if you press both sides of the carotid sinus at the same time?"

Du Yusheng shook his head dumbly.

"In most cases, it causes a person to faint," Qin Yan continued. "But if you keep pressing, it can kill. That's most likely how Chen Xin died."

Du Yusheng touched his own neck and swallowed subconsciously.

"... You can kill someone like that?"

Qin Yan nodded. "So it was definitely a homicide, we suspected as much at the scene."

A chill crept over Du Yusheng.

"In a hospital, it's possible to kill someone using such sophisticated methods."

Qin Yan tilted his head and smiled. "Which is why I suspect the killer has a medical background."

"Someone from the hospital?" Du Yusheng followed his train of thought.

"Could also be someone close to you," Qin Yan added. "Someone close to you, with a medical background."

Du Yusheng rolled his eyes. "You mean Li Yao, don't you?"

Qin Yan shrugged, as if to say, I didn't say it.

Although Qin Yan hadn't said it outright, Du Yusheng reacted as if someone had stepped on his tail. He slapped the autopsy report on Qin Yan's desk.

"You were allowed to suspect him last time, but this time, this time it really has nothing to do with him, I can guarantee that."

Qin Yan didn't get annoyed. Instead, he replied calmly, "And what are you basing that guarantee on?"

"I was with Li Yao when Chen Xin died." Du Yusheng took a deep breath and swept the fringe from his forehead. "I'm his best alibi. We were together the entire night. I had suspected him before, thought he might be involved in Chen Xin's death, but we were together the whole time, he didn't have the opportunity to commit the crime."

His tone was so unequivocal that Qin Yan could only raise both hands in mock surrender.

Then, in his heart, he cursed Du Yusheng, calling him a fucking idiot.

After leaving the forensic department, Du Yusheng was still touching his neck. He never knew there was such a method of killing, and it left him feeling as if his neck were constantly cold. With snowflakes drifting down that day and the thin clothes he had on, he felt the chill even more. Though it wasn't common for men to wear scarves, Du Yusheng still grabbed one at random and wound it around his neck.

Du Yusheng was usually a bit rough around the edges and didn't know how to wear a scarf nicely like others might. He simply looped it twice around his neck, doing a good job of protecting his carotid sinus.

When the car stopped at the scene of the crime, it came to a halt right next to Xiao Bai's feet.

Xiao Bai stared in disbelief at the bright red scarf around Du Yusheng's neck.

"Brother Yu," Xiao Bai pointed at the thing with a look of utter dismay. "Are you getting married or something?"

Du Yusheng rolled his eyes. "I've got to protect my carotid sinus."

Xiao Bai didn't get it. He blinked a few times and asked blankly, "Huh?"

Unfortunately, Du Yusheng had already walked off.

This murder happened shortly after Chen Xin's death, and the victim died at home.

Du Yusheng poked his head in for a look. It was an elderly man, hair already white, lying peacefully in bed as if he were asleep. There was no vomit on the bed or floor, and no trace of any poisonous odour.

Inside, the crime scene investigators and forensic team were busy photographing and collecting evidence. Du Yusheng didn't feel like hanging around any longer than necessary.

The old man's home was simple and modest, very different from the rest of the housing estate. The furniture was all very old, looking about the same age as the man himself. Du Yusheng walked back out to the corridor.

Just as Xiao Bai had said, the apartment number and floor were exactly the same as the previous victim, Chen Xin. The only difference was the building number, one in front of the other, directly adjacent. This estate had a rather curious design, the architect must have been a bit of a perfectionist; apartments on the same floor with the same number faced each other, and when you opened a window, you could see the opposite apartment with the same number as your own. Du Yusheng realised this as soon as he opened the window in the corridor.

In other words, this elderly male victim's home and Chen Xin's home faced each other directly, the windows aligned almost in a perfect line.

What sort of trick is this?

Du Yusheng kicked Xiao Bai.

"Have you got a clear picture of the situation?"

Xiao Bai rubbed his ass, nodded, and said, "The deceased inside was a widowed old man. He had one daughter and two sons, but none of them visited much. The neighbours said they sometimes didn't come by for three months at a time. His wife died many years ago, and he'd been living alone ever since."

"Who found him?"

"It was the milk delivery man," Xiao Bai said. "He saw that the milk in the box outside hadn't been touched for three days, so he got suspicious and asked the property management to open the door. That's when they found the old man had already passed away."

Du Yusheng glanced back at the old man's body in the room and asked, "Three days' worth of milk?"

Xiao Bai nodded. "Yeah, the old man died four days ago."

Four days ago?

He died a day before Chen Xin.

Du Yusheng looked at Xiao Bai and then asked, "What about the cause and time of death?"

Xiao Bai sighed. "The forensics team said it was probably the night three days ago, but there were no suspicious marks on the old man or at the scene. At first glance, it looks like some kind of sudden illness. They're still contacting his family to check if he had any chronic conditions. So far, there's nothing major."

Basic.

Nothing major?

Du Yusheng didn't agree.

At the scene, the team inside was still busy. Du Yusheng stepped in and had a look at the bedsheet underneath the old man.

Apart from the shape of the body, it was perfectly tidy, almost identical to the sheet under Chen Xin.

Du Yusheng could already guess what the findings would be in the coming days. They'd find a controlled experiment slip in the old man's stomach, and eventually determine that it was a homicide, once again related to the carotid sinus in the neck. Du Yusheng clutched at his bright red scarf, his throat moving slightly.

He felt as if he was being pushed around, and that was a terrible feeling.

Xiao Bai was at the door on the phone with the victim's family. Du Yusheng walked over and gave him a look.

"The old man died the night four days ago, do you remember when Chen Xin died?"

Xiao Bai, phone in hand, said, "He died the night three days ago."

Du Yusheng held up a finger and pointed to Chen Xin's apartment visible through the window. "It's too much of a coincidence, almost identical layout, same apartment number, why?"

"... You mean to say, these two, were done by the same person?"

Du Yusheng rolled his eyes and gave Xiao Bai a look that said, What do you think?

Running through Chen Xin's case in his mind again, Du Yusheng thought, Unless something unexpected came up, swapping out Chen Xin for the old man would give you an almost identical situation. With that, Du Yusheng began to re-examine the crime scene.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

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: June 6, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 24, 2025 by Angel