Controlled Experiment Chapter 42

Game of Death – 18

---

Zhao Liang is missing.

Du Yusheng received the news while he was sitting on the toilet, about to relieve himself.

He had already sent people to search every place Zhao Liang might have gone, his assigned residential compound, the milk delivery company, even all the possible entertainment venues he might frequent, but there was still no sign of him. The most recent sighting was on the surveillance camera at the entrance of Zhao Liang's own residential compound, showing him leaving in the afternoon. After that, he never returned.

Staring at the message on his phone, Du Yusheng clenched the toilet paper in his hand. He couldn't decide whether to carry on or stop altogether.

The possibility of Zhao Liang running away was not high, as his ID card, passport, and even his household necessities were all still at home. There were absolutely no signs he was planning a trip.

Still sitting on the toilet, Du Yusheng called Xiao Bai.

"Where else do you think he could've gone?"

Xiao Bai sounded like he was eating, Du Yusheng could hear the smacking of his lips loud and clear in his ear.

"I went over the surveillance footage very carefully," Xiao Bai said. "Zhao Liang left in the afternoon while talking on the phone. He wasn't carrying any luggage or bags, so I think it's more likely he was meeting someone, it doesn't look like he was trying to run off."

Meeting someone?

Du Yusheng suddenly remembered the last webpage Zhao Liang had visited on his computer.

"This user has been deleted."

A terrible feeling crept over him.

It was entirely possible that Zhao Liang would never be found again.

"I think it might be connected to that webpage he visited."

Xiao Bai stopped chewing on the other end. "Brother Yu, what do you mean?"

"The webpage we found was the last one Zhao Liang visited before he died," Du Yusheng twisted his body slightly to flush the toilet and said, "What we know so far is that Zhao Liang owed a large sum in loan shark debt, but when we checked his apartment, we saw it belonged to him. The wine was his too. So now we're looking at a situation where Zhao Liang no longer had any debts and he even had a sizeable amount of spare cash. He owed a lot, how did he go from being in debt to becoming part of the middle class?"

At this point, Du Yusheng scratched his face. He didn't believe three words on the webpage, "Game of Death," were just a string of emotionless letters. A simple web page, perhaps even a popup from some tasteless prank game, might actually have something to do with a real life taken.

"I don't think we're going to find Zhao Liang."

Du Yusheng spoke slowly, voicing his own hypothesis. "He's probably already..."

Dead.

Du Yusheng didn't finish the sentence and hung up. Coldly, he stared at the reflection of his face on the dark phone screen.

Game of death.

Where have I heard those words before?

That day I went to see Luo Yang, he said those very words too.

What exactly had he said?

That day, Luo Yang had asked him:

"Officer Du, have you ever heard of the game of death?"

=========

Pulling up his pants, Du Yusheng went to the sink and washed his hands, then tidied his hair in the mirror.

Zhao Liang wouldn't just vanish into thin air. If he was alive, they had to find him alive; if he was dead, they had to see the body.

Du Yusheng glanced at his phone. A message from Xiao Bai had just come in on WeChat.

It was a photo.

The photo showed a slip of white paper, with two lines of seemingly random combinations of English letters, Chinese characters, and numbers, completely incomprehensible. The note had been wedged beneath a flowerpot on Zhao Liang's balcony, and it was only discovered during Xiao Bai's second inspection of the apartment that afternoon.

Two lines that didn't spell shit.

Du Yusheng scratched his nose and opened the webpage Zhao Liang had visited using his mobile browser.

It was still a stark black-and-white screen, the words "Game of Death" glaringly bright and jarring.

The bottom two fields on the page remained blank. After thinking for a moment, Du Yusheng typed in the two lines of text from the image Xiao Bai had sent.

Then, a popup appeared.

"Please enter your mobile number for verification."

The layout of the site screamed cheap web game design. For a few seconds, Du Yusheng felt like he was being messed with.

Frowning, he keyed in his phone number.

Then, nothing else loaded.

"Fuck," Du Yusheng cursed. "Is this fucking thing messing with me?"

Irritated, he closed the page.

If Du Yusheng had just doubted the quality of the site's design, now he was convinced that this so-called "Game of Death" was all smoke and mirrors, probably nothing more than a random popup Zhao Liang had stumbled across while browsing.

And he'd actually treated it like valuable evidence.

Right now, Du Yusheng felt like the words "fucking idiot" were written all over his face.

After calming down in the car for more than ten minutes, Du Yusheng glanced at his phone again.

The WeChat message he'd sent Li Yao that morning still hadn't received a reply, and Du Yusheng was starting to grow restless. Whether you know him or not, just say something.

He turned the car around, deciding to head to Huan Island Hospital and check in on Li Yao.

Strangely enough, every time he had a chat with Li Yao, he always came away with some sort of insight. Du Yusheng thought that it'd be great if this time he could gain some insight related to the case.

Li Yao was still seeing patients in the clinic. After speaking briefly with the young nurse at the door, Du Yusheng went in and waited for him in his office.

It was his second time in that office. Though Zhao Liang's status as a murderer remained unchanged regardless of whether he was ever found, Du Yusheng couldn't help but feel a lingering unease. His eyes were drawn upward to the air vent in the ceiling, which had now been deliberately sealed shut. A security camera had also been installed in the hallway outside Li Yao's office to eliminate any blind spots.

That reassured Du Yusheng quite a bit.

According to the nurse at the door, Li Yao had been busy all day. With the New Year approaching, most patients were hoping to see a doctor before the holidays to avoid dealing with illness during the festive period.

That made Du Yusheng feel quietly pleased.

He was glad that Li Yao hadn't ignored his WeChat on purpose, he simply hadn't had the time to check it.

When Li Yao returned, he found Du Yusheng dozing on his sofa.

Li Yao glanced at him, and silently threw a blanket over Du Yusheng.

That was when Du Yusheng woke up.

Still bleary-eyed, he looked at Li Yao.

Li Yao smiled and asked, "Been waiting long?"

Du Yusheng's mind was still foggy, and just as he was about to grin in response,

he received a text message that wiped the smile clean off his face.

Hardly anyone sent texts these days.

Du Yusheng glanced down at his phone.

The sender was a string of gibberish.

He opened the message, and it contained only one sentence:

"Welcome to my game."

Du Yusheng's head buzzed as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over him in the dead of winter, feeling frozen from head to toe.

‿︵‿︵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 13, 2025 by Angel

Edited: June 26, 2025 by Angel