Controlled Experiment Chapter 48

Game of Death – 23

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Coming out of the room, Du Yusheng reached back to close the door of the private room and leaned against it, letting out a long sigh.

Du Yusheng previously imagined that there might be something significant behind this Jing Wen, including the people in the photograph, that group photo. He had speculated all sorts of stories: perhaps those people had a vendetta, or maybe they were once friends who later turned against each other. But no matter how he imagined it, Du Yusheng hadn't expected the truth spoken from Boss Lu's mouth to be so brutal.

It was despicable enough that the group had colluded to cheat money, and Jing Wen treating his own son as merchandise was even worse.

Du Yusheng lit a cigarette and held it between his fingers.

The story had taken a turn he hadn't anticipated, leaving Du Yusheng breathless.

He felt an oppressive weight in his chest.

He felt a little heartache for those two children.

But judging from what Boss Lu had said, if those two children were still alive, they should have been a few years older than himself by now. Young men, capable of bearing the weight of everything. And yet they had been born into such a family, handed into the care of such an awful father. It ruined their entire lives.

Luo Daheng, Chen Xin, Jing Wen.

All three were in that group photo, and all three were dead. It was far too much of a coincidence. Even though Du Yusheng still couldn't fully grasp the meaning behind the term controlled experiment, this photo and the story behind it were certainly related to it, perhaps it was even the trigger for the killings.

Whether it was Luo Yang or Zhao Liang, they were both murderers, but to put it plainly, they were merely tools. The one who truly used them was connected to that photograph.

Du Yusheng rubbed at his phone, feeling not only overheated but also a pounding pain in his head.

The most likely suspect now was that child who may still be alive. If it really was him, Du Yusheng felt a bitterness rise in his throat, unsure how he ought to feel when facing him.

The corridor wasn't long, but Du Yusheng walked slowly. By the time he reached the end, his cigarette had burned down and the noise of the bar's nighttime revelry had begun to flood his ears.

He Shen was still seated at the bar, that bastard grinning as he watched the performance on stage and looking utterly carefree and unruly.

Du Yusheng raised a hand to signal him.

There weren't many quiet corners in the bar, so Du Yusheng had no choice but to settle for a tucked-away seat. He glanced around, both sides were filled with groups drinking and chatting nonsense, no signs of any threat. He Shen shot a glance over, picked up a drink from the bar, and strolled over unhurriedly.

He Shen could hold his liquor well, but even just a bit would flush his face, making him look like he was completely smashed.

Two men, two red faces.

One flushed from alcohol, the other from a fever.

Under the dim lighting of the bar, it almost looked absurd.

"How was it?" He Shen narrowed his eyes and grinned smugly, "Got what you wanted, didn't you?"

Unexpectedly, Du Yusheng shook his head.

"Still not quite enough," Du Yusheng said, scratching his cheek. "I don't think he told me everything, there's a bit left, isn't there, hidden with you?"

He Shen drew in a sharp breath, thinking to himself that Du Yusheng really was a crafty bastard.

Although Boss Lu had said he would only speak to one person, the truth was, He Shen had asked him quite a few things as well. Boss Lu was an old hand in the game; out of caution, he had told He Shen the things he couldn't say with his own mouth. Originally, He Shen figured if Du Yusheng didn't ask, he wouldn't bring it up, but he hadn't expected Du Yusheng to be this sharp.

"I do still have a bit of material," He Shen stroked his chin and swirled the drink in his hand, his whole manner that of a cocky, infuriating rogue. "I like to listen to gossip, you know, nosing around. How else do you think I managed to dig up someone like Boss Lu, who's retired from the scene? That business about Jing Wen you're looking into, I've got a pretty thorough grasp on it now."

Du Yusheng understood too, what He Shen was saying now were the things Boss Lu wasn't in a position to say himself.

Du Yusheng nodded, waiting for He Shen to continue.

"That photo you gave me," He Shen pulled out his phone and held it up to Du Yusheng, "I know you were cautious and blurred out everyone else's faces before giving it to anyone, but I'm a curious guy, I restored all the faces. Here, these are the names and birthdates of the people in the picture, I've looked into them for you."

As he spoke, He Shen tapped on two of the people in the photo and said, "This is a death photo. Of the people in it, whether from accidents or illness, only two are still alive."

A chill crept into Du Yusheng's chest.

Just as he had suspected, the killer was murdering according to this photo. That child, the one who might still be alive, now looked even more suspicious.

"... Are there any others?" Du Yusheng asked, pointing to the photo. "Anyone else not in the picture? Someone who wasn't involved in the photo at all?"

He Shen didn't quite understand this question.

He frowned slightly and asked, "...What do you mean?"

Du Yusheng thought of the old man.

There were only supposed to be seven people in that group, and his old man wasn't one of them, so why had he also died in a manner consistent with the controlled experiment?

"I mean, could the photo be incomplete?" Du Yusheng asked.

He didn't want to tell He Shen about the old man's death, this guy loved gossip and had a big mouth, who knew when he might let it slip?

He Shen still didn't quite get what Du Yusheng meant. His eyes swirled around as he thought, then shook his head to indicate no.

"I never showed this group photo to Boss Lu, but the names he recalled all match the people in the photo," He Shen said. "So this should be everyone, no one extra, no one missing. It really is a death photo, it's fucking terrifying."

Du Yusheng didn't even hear the rest of what He Shen was saying.

Because he had just thought of something even more terrifying.

Who took this photo?

Back then, there were no selfie sticks, no cell phones with cameras, not even widespread access to cell phones.

The photo was undoubtedly taken by a person holding a camera.

So who was that person?

Du Yusheng stood frozen, staring fixedly at a single spot. He Shen couldn't help but wave a hand in front of his face and gave him a light slap to snap him out of it.

He Shen picked up his phone and flipped to the second image.

It was a yellowed photograph, aged and heavy with the passage of time. The equipment used to take it was most likely very old, and the image resolution was poor. In the photo were two small children, wearing identical plaid dungarees and holding each other's hands.

The two children were very young, both wearing matching masks, so only half of their noses and their eyes were visible. From the slightly upturned corners of their eyes, one could tell they were smiling.

Du Yusheng stared at the photo in stunned silence, his blood almost freezing in his veins.

It was a suffocating image.

"What the fuck," Du Yusheng cursed. "This is the photo I received in that anonymous email back then, it really was doctored, the person who sent the email swapped one of the heads with a childhood photo of me. At the time I nearly thought my only-child certificate was fake." He looked up at He Shen and asked, "Where did you find the original photo?"

"......" He Shen paused for a moment, then took a deep breath and said, "This is the only photo ever taken of Jing Wen's twin children."

Boom.

Du Yusheng felt like his brain had exploded.

"You remember what I told you before," He Shen carefully looked at the look on Du Yusheng's face, "this email account was a proxy, the same sort of proxy used for those monthly transfers to Li Yao. And the email to you? It was sent several months early by mistake. Young Master Du, I don't know what that means to you."

He Shen took a sip of his drink to moisten his throat and continued, "Based on the timestamp, nothing had happened yet when you received that email, you probably thought it was spam and just ignored it, but after these few cases, you started to revisit it, started linking it to what's going on. But let's suppose you had received that email on the scheduled date, which would be now. Given everything that's been happening lately, you definitely wouldn't treat it like junk mail, you would investigate that photo. And maybe, you would have discovered what the photo originally looked like, namely, Jing Wen's twin children."

Du Yusheng rubbed the rim of his glass. "What's the point of the sender wanting me to know about these twins at this time?"

"One of the twins is dead, and the other, well, chances of survival aren't high. So what's the point of sending you a photo of two people who are both likely already dead?" He Shen took a breath and said, "Unless..."

"Unless the people in the photo are both still alive," Du Yusheng nodded. "The sender wants to tell me that both twins are still alive."

He Shen shrugged and said with a grin, "I'm just throwing out wild guesses, talking out of my ass. There's no basis for any of it, so don't take it seriously. But as your not-so-close brother, let me still remind you, Young Master Du, the proxy who sends money to that Li Yao every month is the same one behind the email."

He Shen only said half of his words, he figured Du Yusheng had already grasped what he meant.

Li Yao must know the sender.

Or, he was the sender himself.

It seemed as if things were gradually becoming clearer, and yet not quite.

Du Yusheng looked up and turned toward the entrance of the bar.

Li Yao was still standing not far from the bar in a black coat, the streetlamp casting a long shadow behind him. Once again, Du Yusheng couldn't see through him. Had he really been played by Li Yao all along? Manipulated from the start? The thought chilled Du Yusheng to the bone.

Rather than believe Li Yao was the sender, he preferred to think that Li Yao simply knew who it was.

Whether that was a form of comfort or just instinct, Du Yusheng couldn't say, but it was what he believed.

He Shen had drunk more than half the wine in his glass. Looking at his troubled friend, he smiled.

"Hey, don't take it all to heart. But let me just be clear, I really couldn't track down those two kids. I've turned over every stone, exhausted every trick I've got. It's the same conclusion as everyone else, one dead, one possibly still alive, so maybe thinking they're both still alive really is just me getting carried away." He Shen patted Du Yusheng on the shoulder and grinned. "By the way, when you saw Boss Lu just now, you didn't say who you were, did you?"

Du Yusheng blinked and shrugged with a smile. "I said my surname's Du."

"Fuck," He Shen swore. "You bastard, fucking sold me out."

Originally, Du Yusheng had planned to leave as soon as he'd got what he needed, after all, Li Yao was still waiting outside.

But after that whole chain of analysis just now, whether or not Li Yao had anything to do with it, a thought of revenge had crept into Du Yusheng's mind.

Let that bastard, who never says a single honest word, wait out there.

Let him freeze to death for all I care.

He Shen's glass was nearly empty now. Du Yusheng glanced around, most of the drinkers on either side had already dispersed, leaving him with some space.

"That text I sent you, did you crack it?"

He Shen grinned. "This is all your fucking business. Cracking codes? What were you doing at school all those years? Why are you asking me about this?"

Du Yusheng had sent He Shen the text with two lines of numbers.

When it came to picking locks, there wasn't one Du Yusheng couldn't open, but when it came to cracking codes and encryption, he really was a novice. He'd only taken this on reluctantly in the first place, decoding that message was way beyond him.

He Shen was hopeless when it came to serious matters, but when it came to all sorts of random and obscure tasks, he knew more than a few tricks, thanks to the excellent genes of his father.

He Shen pulled out his phone and pushed it over to Du Yusheng.

"xx Month xx Date xx:xx xx:xx Location xxx White."

He Shen looked rather pleased with himself as he caught sight of Du Yusheng's dumbfounded expression. He grinned and said, "That message you sent me, it looked like a ridiculously long set of coordinates, long enough to point to outer space, so I did a bit of subtraction, broke it down, and turned out it was a time and a place."

Du Yusheng paused for a moment, then said, "Two time stamps? And what's with the colour?"

He Shen shook his head. "The times, I think they're a time range you're supposed to be at the location. The first is the start, the second the end. In other words, you're supposed to stay at that point for the whole duration. As for what white means, no clue. It's an extra detail I couldn't figure out, so I left it on its own. Might be something you'll only understand once you get there. By the way, what is all this anyway? Young Master Du, you're not getting mixed up in any anti-social activities, are you?"

The time decoded by He Shen was set for two days later.

Du Yusheng rubbed his fingers together and said, "I need to go to this place."

"You're going on your own? Don't be ridiculous," He Shen laughed. "I don't even know what you're going there for, but what if something really happens? You're a police officer, just take your team with you, problem solved."

Du Yusheng almost laughed at He Shen's naïve suggestion.

What did a text message prove? You couldn't exactly go file a case based on a text.

Still, Du Yusheng had a vague feeling that maybe everything he wanted to know was hidden at those coordinates.

"Did you hear what I just said?" He Shen repeated. "Don't go alone. What if something really happens?"

Du Yusheng smiled and said, "I don't think I'll be going alone, there's someone else, he should be there too."

Li Yao was still standing outside. Du Yusheng glanced at the tall figure under the streetlamp. Whether you are man or ghost, Du Yusheng thought, I'll soon find out.

Hopefully, it would be something they could both handle.

He Shen had no idea what Du Yusheng was talking about, so he simply nodded along and muttered "Yeah, yeah." Du Yusheng never quite did things by the book, but he was the kind of fool fortune smiled upon. He always managed to turn danger into safety, just like his mother had named him: Du Yusheng, surviving against the odds.

That was when Xiao Bai's call came through.

It had been a while since he'd heard Xiao Bai's voice. Only when he picked up the call did Du Yusheng realise that they hadn't spoken in a few days. Because of the unclear relationship between Xiao Bai and Li Yao, he'd always felt a certain wariness and discomfort about it. But ever since Li Yao admitted to having been raised by a drug lord, Du Yusheng had somehow accepted that he knew Xiao Bai, though he still didn't feel great about it and was left with a few lingering doubts.

"Brother Yu..." Xiao Bai called out.

Du Yusheng gave a grunt through his nose and said, "Have you found that milk delivery guy, Zhao Liang?"

Xiao Bai sighed and replied, "No, we've searched everywhere. There's no record at the train station, and I've contacted the airport too, he didn't leave. I even checked the long-distance buses, nothing. We've set up checkpoints along the highways. Zhao Liang should still be on the island, he hasn't left. But where could he have gone? Where else is there for him to go?"

At this point, Du Yusheng was even more convinced that Zhao Liang was dead.

Game of death.

Once again, Du Yusheng thought of that webpage and the pop-up message from the deactivated account.

"There's one more thing, Brother Yu. Strictly speaking, this doesn't fall under our team's responsibility," Xiao Bai said, "but I thought I had to tell you. Do you remember that case I mentioned last time? The one where the homeowner supposedly caused a fire by mishandling something and ended up burning to death inside?"

Du Yusheng hummed in acknowledgement.

"Just to be clear, that case has been thoroughly investigated," Xiao Bai continued. "It really was an accident on the homeowner's part, not a homicide. But there's something really strange. In the charred corpse's stomach, they found remnants, partially burnt, of what looks like paper. Brother Qin said the paper's too damaged to restore, but we all think it's odd for someone to have something like that in their stomach."

Du Yusheng remained silent.

"... Brother Yu, I know what you're thinking. It's exactly what I thought."

Du Yusheng said grimly, "Controlled experiment."

Xiao Bai sighed. "Right. Even though it can't be restored, I really think that bit of paper was from the controlled experiment. I mean, it can't just be a coincidence that someone has paper in their stomach. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I couldn't shake it, I had to tell you, otherwise I wouldn't be able to sleep."

Du Yusheng looked at his phone, almost wanting to laugh.

He thought to himself, Well, now I'm not the only one losing sleep, I can't sleep either.

Li Yao was still waiting outside, but Du Yusheng had completely lost the urge to go out and find him.

If it really was like he and Xiao Bai suspected, then there was only one explanation, this homeowner had swallowed the controlled experiment slip of paper and had "accidentally" set their own house on fire. Barring coercion, Du Yusheng couldn't think of any other reason for such a thing.

How many victims had there been now? Du Yusheng counted on his fingers.

But unlike the other cases, this one didn't have a killer.

Fucking perfect, Du Yusheng clenched his fists.

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Author's Note:

Next chapter, Du Du's finally going to the coordinates, I'm so anxious.

‿︵‿︵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 15, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 15, 2025 by Angel