Controlled Experiment Chapter 44

Game of Death – 19

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Du Yusheng had received all sorts of strange messages in his life, countless bizarre texts, emails of shapes and sizes, and even some utterly nonsensical phone calls. But never before had he broken out in goosebumps just from staring at a few lines of English letters like this. The chilling sensation began at the soles of his feet and shot straight up to the crown of his head, leaving his entire body cold to the touch. Du Yusheng couldn't explain why he felt that way, perhaps it was precisely because he didn't know that the feeling arose.

Game.

Translated, it meant game.

Just four letters, so simple that it wouldn't even appear on a level four English test.

He scratched his nose. As the fear gradually faded from his heart, Du Yusheng lifted his head to look at Li Yao across from him. The other man was clearly unaware of the internal struggle Du Yusheng had just experienced, as Li Yao wore a faint smile, looking at him calmly. In its place, a new curiosity began to stir within Du Yusheng, he suddenly wanted to know exactly what kind of game this message referred to.

Of course, it could easily have been just another spam message.

But Du Yusheng hoped it was real.

Because it could very well be the answer.

The answer to everything.

Li Yao noticed Du Yusheng still frozen in the same position and paused for a moment. Then he stood up and walked over to the water dispenser, turning his back to Du Yusheng. The dispenser was still heating, and the red indicator light was on. Li Yao stood there waiting for the orange light to switch on, then poured a cup of warm water.

He turned and handed the paper cup to Du Yusheng.

The latter looked at him, licked his lips, and accepted the cup, taking a small sip.

"What is it?" Li Yao's eyes scanned Du Yusheng's phone for a few seconds. "Something wrong?"

"No," Du Yusheng shook his head nonchalantly and smiled. "Just a spam message." He glanced at Li Yao and added, "Annoying to look at."

Li Yao nodded.

Du Yusheng took small sips of the already meagre amount of warm water, his eyes blankly fixed on the calendar atop Li Yao's desk, and the smile on his face gradually faded. For the first time he could remember, Du Yusheng found himself at a loss for words in front of Li Yao. And yet, even in silence, Du Yusheng felt content, just sitting there quietly with the two of them together, as though his heart could gradually find peace.

"I've got one bit of good news and one bit of bad news to tell you."

Du Yusheng held up two fingers across his chest and smiled. "I'll give you a choice, which one do you want to hear first?"

Li Yao lifted his eyelids and glanced at him. Even though he already knew what the good and bad news were, he still played along calmly and cooperatively, uttering just one word.

"Good."

Du Yusheng chuckled and said, "The good is that Chen Xin and Old Qian's cases have been solved."

"And the bad?"

"The bad is that the suspect has disappeared."

With a thud, Du Yusheng dropped his chin onto the desk, let out a long sigh and cursed, "It's fucking strange. On the surveillance footage, he got a phone call, walked off, and never came back home, and now there's not a trace of him anywhere he could've gone. Let alone witnesses, there's nothing."

"Committed murder and fled?" Li Yao asked.

Du Yusheng shook his head. "Doesn't seem like it." After pausing for a few seconds, he added, "I think he's dead."

Li Yao looked momentarily taken aback, he clearly hadn't expected Du Yusheng to arrive at that conclusion so quickly.

"This Zhao Liang was previously up to his neck in debt, borrowing from loan sharks," Du Yusheng explained. "But when we went to his place to investigate, he didn't look like someone deep in debt, in fact, he even started a wine collection. And it all happened within the span of a year. With the kind of compound interest those loan sharks charge, where did he get that kind of money?"

"You think someone paid him to kill?"

"Exactly," Du Yusheng continued, "and then he got killed in return."

"Alive, we need to see the person, dead, we need to see the body," Li Yao said. "So where's the body?"

"If you can't find it, then it must've been hidden."

Li Yao shook his head and said, "Until the body is found it's all just your speculation."

"That's true," Du Yusheng frowned slightly, "but this is the second case now involving the controlled experiment, right? I've found the killer in both cases, but when it comes to those two words, I've neither found the head nor the tail. On the surface, it looks like we've found the killer, but in reality, we're just going around in circles. In other words, Li Yao, I think someone else is going to die."

Du Yusheng knew he probably shouldn't have said so much to Li Yao.

But whether it was out of trust or suspicion, there was a foolish voice inside Du Yusheng urging him to do it.

A lot of the current clues were tangled up in the middle of the case, fragmented and superfluous, making it feel as though there was nowhere to start.

"I sent you a message today," Du Yusheng said. "I asked if you knew someone with the surname Jing, why didn't you reply?"

Li Yao didn't say anything.

The office door was closed, as Li Yao wasn't on shift tonight. The on-call rooms and offices were in separate locations. There were only two people in the office, a single yellow desk lamp casting a dim glow. The corridor outside was unusually quiet, and the office blinds were tightly shut, barely allowing even a sliver of the streetlights outside to seep through, making the room feel all the more still.

Li Yao maintained the same posture, looking at Du Yusheng.

There was nothing particularly expressive on his face, but when Du Yusheng looked into those eyes, it felt like he was being interrogated.

"Don't look at me like that."

Du Yusheng turned his face away and stared down at the tips of his shoes.

"If you know him, say you know, if you don't, just say you don't." As he spoke, Du Yusheng's voice grew quieter and quieter. "... Li Yao, don't look at me like that."

Du Yusheng's head was still bowed, the crown of it facing Li Yao.

Ever since quitting smoking, Li Yao had very rarely lit a cigarette, but in that moment, Li Yao very much wanted to pull open the drawer below and take one out.

Even though the hospital had a strict no-smoking policy.

"Why did you ask me if I knew someone surnamed Jing?"

"I found a photo," Du Yusheng muttered, without lifting his head. "There's someone in it. The two of you look... very alike."

"Is the person in the photo connected to these cases?"

"Yes."

"So you think I'm connected to the controlled experiments?"

Du Yusheng slowly lifted his head.

"... Are you?"

Li Yao didn't answer.

He stood up and slowly opened the blinds.

Outside the office was a large bridge, the edges dotted with lights. In the glass, the reflection of Du Yusheng's face appeared, he was watching Li Yao's back, waiting for an answer. But Li Yao still said nothing, he stared at the lights outside. In that moment, with that view, the office seemed to gain a bit more life.

To be honest, under such a blunt and direct question, Li Yao didn't know how to respond.

He didn't want to lie to him, but he was afraid that if he told the truth, he'd see disappointment in Du Yusheng's reaction.

Once a person had something they cared about, they could no longer live as if they didn't care about anything at all.

Li Yao didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing for him.

At that very moment, the phone in his pocket vibrated.

Still with his back to Du Yusheng, Li Yao took out his phone and unlocked it.

It was a message.

There were a few lines of English inside:

"Welcome

Please enter room 4"

=========

Jing Mo looked at himself in the mirror.

His home was in the suburbs, far from the city centre, small and remote.

Jing Mo was used to drifting from place to place. He had spare money on hand and had bought several properties, some under his own name, some under others'. But regardless of whose name they were in, Jing Mo rarely stayed in any one place for very long. He called this lifestyle "born to drift, destined to wander."

The man in the mirror wasn't wearing anything. Jing Mo felt a bit cold and couldn't help but cover his mouth and cough a few times.

His health hadn't been good lately, he either had a fever or, like now, fits of coughing and chills he couldn't suppress. Compared to his older brother, Jing Mo was noticeably paler, so much so that at times, the bluish veins in his arms were faintly visible.

He gave a few cold chuckles. Jing Mo didn't know how much longer this body of his would hold out, maybe one night he'd close his eyes and never wake up again. And no one would know he had died, no one would care. Perhaps he wouldn't be found for months. Jing Mo had imagined countless such endings during his bouts of insomnia.

The man in the mirror was expressionless. In moments like this, Jing Mo would sometimes forget who he really was. They had exactly the same face, so why were their fates, personalities, even their endings, all so different? Weren't identical twins supposed to be the same in every way?

Jing Mo gave a bitter smile to the mirror.

He silently opened the wardrobe.

His wardrobe had two sections. The top half was full of clothes that matched Li Yao's style, while the lower half contained his own. His hand hovered over the lower section for a moment. Jing Mo looked at his reflection again, and in the end, selected something from the upper section.

Once he'd changed, he did indeed look more like him.

Jing Mo reached out and traced his own face in the mirror with his finger, smiling faintly.

Although most of the time he utterly hated his older brother, Jing Mo also understood that in this world, the only person who shared his blood was him. That awareness made Jing Mo hesitate when making certain decisions.

Jing Mo didn't like that about himself.

=========

This small apartment had been bought by Jing Mo and then renovated by him. It was indeed a bit cramped, but it had a basement.

The basement had been dug out on Jing Mo's request. Back then, he'd simply wanted one without any particular use in mind. But now, it had finally come in handy.

Because of his poor health, Jing Mo changed into a pair of cotton slippers. Then, hunching over slightly, he opened the basement door.

Of course, there were no windows in the basement. Aside from this door, there was no way to communicate with the outside world. Even the oxygen supply depended on opening this door from time to time. It was perpetually damp and dark. As soon as the door creaked open, a musty odour wafted out. The pitch-black basement gradually came into view, and as Jing Mo imagined the scene inside, he almost felt like singing.

Taking a candle from the drawer and lighting it, Jing Mo slowly descended the stairs.

In the basement, there was a man bound by ropes, a middle-aged man.

Jing Mo had almost forgotten his name. After a lot of effort, relying on a group photo and his memory of the other person's face, he finally managed to find out his name.

Bathed in the faint candlelight, Jing Mo slowly descended the stairs.

Unable to resist, he called into the darkness, "Hi."

The man tied up with rough rope lifted his head almost instantly.

After being trapped for several days in the hot, airless dark, his strength was all but gone.

The dim candlelight gradually illuminated Jing Mo's face.

Spitting out that person's name, he said, "... Li, Li Yao? You are Li Yao?"

Jing Mo didn't say anything. He brought down a chair from upstairs and fixed the candle firmly to the ground.

"My name isn't Li Yao." Jing Mo crossed one leg over the other and lifted the man's chin slightly with his toes, forcing him to meet his gaze. Smiling, he spoke slowly and deliberately, "My name, is Jing Mo."

The terror in the man's eyes greatly pleased Jing Mo.

"What's wrong, did you all think I was dead?"

‿︵‿︵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 13, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 3, 2025 by Angel