Controlled Experiment Chapter 39

Game of Death – 15

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When Du Yusheng returned home, he was surprised to find that he was still feeling remarkably alert.

Looking down at his watch, the three dials on the expensive timepiece showed that it was already half past midnight. Du Yusheng was astonished that he wasn't the least bit sleepy. With a trace of resignation, he wiped the watch face with a piece of velvet cloth, then took it off and placed it in the drawer.

He had only just moved house and Du Yusheng wasn't yet familiar with the arrangement of the furniture.

After walking around to get his bearings, he lay down on the new sofa he had bought for the home.

The sofa had been chosen by Madam Du. It was very long, just right for Du Yusheng to lie there listlessly.

Looking at the empty coffee table, Du Yusheng pulled a few photographs from his pocket.

Luo Daheng, Luo Yang, Chen Xin, Old Qian, along with two photos of Li Yao that had been tucked into Luo Yang's book, and the last two were of Xiao Bai and Zhuang Hao.

After a moment's thought, Du Yusheng set Old Qian's photo to one side. Then, arms crossed, he stared silently at the remaining photographs.

It was like a matching exercise; among these people, nearly every one of them was somehow connected to another. Their network of relationships was almost completely interwoven, and yet on the surface, they appeared not to know each other at all. Du Yusheng couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't that simple. He had a faint sense that these people could, in fact, be linked together.

There had to be something, some event, that connected them.

Or rather, something that had happened to all of them.

Feeling a little irritated, Du Yusheng scratched his head and held the two photos of Li Yao in his hands.

"I've never understood," Du Yusheng muttered to himself, staring into Li Yao's eyes in the photograph. "I don't understand why Luo Yang kept two photos of you, obviously one should've been enough. And he drew a red cross on one of them. I just can't figure it out."

There was a box of cigarettes in the bottom drawer. Du Yusheng took one out and lit one between his fingers.

As the smoke filled his lungs, Du Yusheng felt even more awake than before.

Still holding the photographs, Du Yusheng scratched his chin and murmured, "Unless, unless one of the people isn't you."

The thought startled Du Yusheng. Irritated, he stubbed out the barely-smoked cigarette in the ashtray.

In the corner of the coffee table lay the scalpel Li Yao had given him. Du Yusheng picked it up and turned it over in his hand, then sighed and gave a helpless laugh. "Li Yao ah, Li Yao, why the fuck did I fall for you, worrying so much for nothing. If you're using me, deceiving me, I'll kill you with this thing."

It was probably just as Er Zhuofan had said, Du Yusheng was the kind of person who, once he liked someone, liked them with all his heart. But the moment that person crossed his bottom line, cutting ties forever would be the least of it.

It wasn't exactly being petty. As a prime example of a pure-hearted, little virgin, Du Yusheng simply couldn't tolerate any speck of betrayal.

Just as his mind was beginning to fog, the phone on the table rang.

Du Yusheng had only just begun to feel drowsy, and the call woke him completely. He picked up with a tinge of anger in his voice.

"Du Yusheng, the matter you asked me to look into last time, there's something now."

It was He Shen calling.

He Shen was Du Yusheng's childhood friend, he was a few years older than him and also a bit of a playboy. Ever since Du Yusheng had gone straight and joined the police force, the two of them hadn't kept in close touch and rarely hung out like they used to. But good friends were the kind you could talk to about anything, even after not seeing each other for ages.

"Do you know what time it is?" Du Yusheng rubbed his eyes and cursed, "I was just starting to feel sleepy."

"All right then, I'll hang up."

He Shen was the type to say what he meant. He made to hang up, and Du Yusheng hurriedly stopped him.

"You... you bastard, always getting your way," Du Yusheng muttered, rubbing his face and sitting up.

It sounded a bit noisy on He Shen's end, like he was out somewhere having fun.

He spoke several sentences that Du Yusheng couldn't make out properly. It took a while before He Shen managed to find a quiet spot.

"That anonymous email you begged me to trace last time," He Shen deliberately stressed the word "begged", then continued, "I found it. As you know, there's tech these days that can generate email accounts in batches. This email address was created through a proxy, and as for the data, I've got that too."

Du Yusheng could tell the bastard wasn't finished, so he didn't interrupt.

"And then, it was just a coincidence for me too." He Shen went on, "Remember you told me about some friend of yours who gets tens of thousands of dollars wired to his account every month? Always in US dollars, always to the same bank card. That account was also a proxy account. Normally, you wouldn't be able to trace it, right? But I compared the IP data from the anonymous email with the data from that account, and guess what, I found they're the same."

Du Yusheng gripped his phone tightly, a chill suddenly shooting up from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.

"There's something even more interesting," He Shen chuckled on the other end of the line and said, "That anonymous email account was only logged into twice. The first time was when the email was sent to you. The second time was last month. Last month, the person logged in and set that email to be sent on a timer, the scheduled sending time is on this day, next month. Now, by normal reasoning, if this person simply wanted to harass you anonymously, they've already done that, there's no need to log in again and send the same email, especially since logging in makes it much easier to trace their real address. Do you know what that means?"

Du Yusheng exhaled deeply.

"It means the sender got the timing wrong. I was supposed to receive this email next month, not a few months ago."

He Shen snapped his fingers on the other end and praised Du Yusheng a few times.

He still had people waiting on him, so the two didn't exchange further pleasantries, He Shen ended the call.

Staring at the pitch-black phone screen, Du Yusheng felt his mind was even more awake.

The friend He Shen had mentioned was none other than Li Yao.

Li Yao received a fixed sum in US dollars every month from overseas, transferred directly into his account.

Now, the proxy data from that account was the same as the data used by the anonymous email. Not only that, but the sender had mistakenly scheduled the email for the wrong time, causing Du Yusheng to receive a photo of twins with faces identical to his own earlier than expected.

Du Yusheng cursed under his breath. "Fuck."

Either someone is trying to mess with Li Yao, or trying to mess with me.

Or the email was sent by Li Yao himself.

But Li Yao is so clever, why would he use a proxy?

Unless, Du Yusheng had an unsettling thought.

Unless Li Yao did it on purpose.

He is waiting for me to discover it.

Whatever the reason, the correct time for that email to reach me should have been next month.

Next month, why next month?

Du Yusheng couldn't sit still.

He suddenly had the feeling that something was bound to happen soon and that whatever it was, it would be connected to that email.

The feeling of being manipulated by some invisible force made Du Yusheng's skin crawl. He looked toward Li Yao's apartment, just on the other side of the wall. He didn't know why, but a foolish sort of illusion took hold of him. He felt that Li Yao would never hurt him. No matter what he had done, his intentions had never been to cause him harm. The wall was thick, but Du Yusheng felt as if he could see straight through it, as if Li Yao might still be sitting in the living room, reading his textbook.

Du Yusheng clutched his head, burying it between his knees.

"What the fuck is your secret?"

Du Yusheng let out a muffled cry.

It seemed that unless he uncovered the truth before the email's intended time of arrival, there would be no way to stop what was coming.

‿︵‿︵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: June 10, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 26, 2025 by Angel