Controlled Experiment Chapter 50

Game of Death – 25

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Du Yusheng watched as Xiao Bai left his office.

It was still early, and Du Yusheng stood up to open his blinds. The sunlight outside shone directly onto the opposite window and then reflected back, warming him up. Du Yusheng felt comfortable. Squinting his eyes, Du Yusheng lit a cigarette and watched the pedestrians outside the window. People are always hurrying along, and the movement of people on the street can be said to be completely random. Du Yusheng watched them but was thinking about what "white" meant in the message that He Shen had deciphered.

Clothing could be white, buildings could be white, even garbage bins could be made white.

Or perhaps "white" wasn’t referring to a colour at all, but to a person.

A white person?

Someone with the surname Bai?

Du Yusheng slowly exhaled a ring of smoke.

He turned back to his desk and opened his computer, once again pulling up the map and marking the coordinates with a red circle. His shoes seemed a little dusty, so Du Yusheng lowered his head and gave them a quick wipe, then crossed one leg over the other, a cigarette dangling from his lips. He still wasn’t sure whether that website he had found on Chen Xin’s computer really was just some bullshit game.

What kind of game is this?

A website, mysterious messages, it’s eerie and strange.

Du Yusheng squinted through the smoke at the map in front of him. He had a nagging feeling that all the dead were connected to this game somehow.

Rather than the game of death, Du Yusheng felt it was more like a murder game.

He glanced at the expensive watch on his wrist, less than twenty-four hours remained until the scheduled time. Du Yusheng shut his laptop and tugged at his collar. It was risky going alone, but he didn’t want to miss this opportunity, if it truly turned into something beyond his control, it wouldn’t be too late to bring others in then.

Besides...

He still didn’t know whether that person would actually turn up.

Du Yusheng stubbed out his cigarette and left the office.

He wanted to head to the appointed location a bit early to have a look.

When he reached the car park, Du Yusheng hesitated for a moment as he looked at his two vehicles, and eventually chose the beat-up old car. Once inside, Du Yusheng let out a sigh. This driver’s seat had belonged to the old man, and now, in the blink of an eye, he had been gone nearly two years.

It wasn’t quite what Du Yusheng had imagined. When he’d passed by in the morning, he’d assumed the place would be somewhere around the shopping mall. But when he arrived at the exact coordinates, he realised the location wasn’t above ground, but below it. The second basement level of the shopping mall was a large parking garage. It was a weekday, so there weren’t many cars, and green lights blinked overhead in many empty spots. Du Yusheng parked and got out.

The parking garage was so empty and deserted that standing there felt as if he were the only living soul around.

It was terrifyingly quiet.

Du Yusheng rubbed his fingers together and took a deep breath.

It was strange, parking garages weren’t usually this quiet, yet today it felt uncannily so, not even the buzz of a fly in the air.

As Du Yusheng crouched down to tie his shoelaces, his phone suddenly rang in his pocket.

The sudden noise in the stillness made Du Yusheng jump.

It was a call from He Shen.

It's only been one night since we last met, why's the bastard calling at this hour?

Du Yusheng glanced around, then answered the call.

"Hey, you..."

"Du Yusheng, where are you?"

Before Du Yusheng could finish his sentence, He Shen cut him off.

As a typical idle and reckless young master, He Shen rarely called Du Yusheng by his full name. It was also rare for him to speak to himself in such a formal and serious tone. The background noise on the other end of the phone was so quiet, and combined with He Shen's strangely tense voice, it sounded as if he were gasping for breath.

"What’s wrong?" Du Yusheng teased. "Speaking to me all properly, it feels a bit strange, doesn’t it?"

"Cut the bullshit, Du Yusheng, where the hell are you?" He Shen repeated, then added, "You didn’t go to the place I sent you, did you?"

"... What’s wrong?" Du Yusheng raised his eyebrow.

"Wrong," He Shen said, taking a deep breath. "I got it wrong."

"What did you get wrong?" Du Yusheng glanced around with a laugh. "You got the location wrong, didn’t you? I thought as much, sending me coordinates for a fucking parking garage. I’m looking around and there’s nothing here. Come on, where is it really?"

"The location’s right, but the time is wrong," He Shen said seriously. "The correct time is today, at x o’clock x minute."

Du Yusheng's smile froze on his face, and he couldn't smile any more.

The time He Shen mentioned, was now.

Du Yusheng hung up and drew in a sharp breath.

This was fucking intense.

Rather than waste time cursing He Shen out over the phone, Du Yusheng felt he ought to be focusing on other things. What he could do now was reassess the parking garage. There were three emergency exits, four if you counted the one leading into the mall. Du Yusheng glanced over and sure enough, the door leading to the mall was already locked. There were lots of mirrors in the parking garage, mostly for reversing. Normally, they were just harmless fixtures, but now, in this vast, silent space where he was the only one breathing, the reflections in the rearview mirrors, with his own face staring back at him, made it feel like there were two of him. It was downright uncanny.

Five tense minutes passed. Then, once again, Du Yusheng’s phone rang.

This time, Du Yusheng had the sense to switch it to vibrate, so it buzzed away silently in his pocket.

He slowly took his phone out.

It was an encrypted number.

Du Yusheng stared at the word "encrypted" for a moment, stunned.

He answered the phone.

Held his breath.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

There was no sound at all on the other end of the line.

Not even the sound of someone breathing.

Du Yusheng fiddled with the phone’s volume button and tentatively called out, "Hello?"

Then, he fell into complete darkness.

In an instant, a black hood was yanked over Du Yusheng’s head. The next moment, his hands were forcefully pinned behind him by someone from behind, and he couldn’t move an inch.

He tried calling out a few more times, but got no response. Instead, someone else came over and pressed down firmly on his shoulder.

Then Du Yusheng felt himself being shoved into a vehicle.

Next came the sound of an engine starting.

Inside the hood, Du Yusheng suddenly let out a soft chuckle and said, "You guys were already in the parking garage, weren’t you?"

There was a short pause, but no answer.

If it weren’t for the sound of breathing nearby and the strong pressure on his wrist, Du Yusheng might have believed he’d been put into a self-driving car.

"Where are you taking me?"

No one answered.

"Surely a game ought to have an opening line?"

Still no reply.

"You’re not taking me straight to the chopping block, are you?"

After several questions went completely unanswered, Du Yusheng simply gave up speaking altogether. He leaned back in the seat and let out a long sigh, seemingly helpless, but in reality, his mind was carefully recording every turn, every set of traffic lights the vehicle passed.

That was the smart thing to do.

However, Du Yusheng hadn’t anticipated that midway through, they would actually change cars.

Changing cars means the possibility of the car changing direction. For Du Yusheng, all the effort he had just put into memorising those directions was fucking wasted.

Roughly ninety minutes later, the vehicle came to a stop.

Du Yusheng was escorted into a room.

Then, for the first time, one of the silent men finally spoke three words.

A low, deep, steady male voice.

"Get changed."

=========

When Li Yao returned to Boss Lu’s bar, it was two in the morning.

An hour had passed since Du Yusheng had taken the pills and left his apartment.

Li Yao parked the car at the street corner, looked up at the bar’s neon sign, then turned and walked inside.

It was almost exactly as it had been when he left, save for a few new faces and a change in drinks, nothing had changed. Even the show on stage looked nearly identical to what he’d seen earlier. Li Yao had changed into a plaid jacket, walking with a straight posture and looking completely out of place; he looked rather like a university professor who had wandered into the wrong lecture hall.

The face was strikingly bold, yet the attire was somewhat reserved.

That sort of look caught He Shen’s attention. He hadn’t left yet. After Du Yusheng left, He Shen had remained in his seat, sipping his drink and occasionally joining the crowd in cheering at the stage. When he saw Li Yao heading down the same corridor Du Yusheng had just disappeared into, he narrowed his eyes and quickly snapped a photo.

This is fucking sensational.

He Shen grinned quietly to himself.

Li Yao walked slowly down the corridor, following Du Yusheng’s path from memory.

The noise gradually faded. When he could no longer hear the bustle outside, Li Yao reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, sensing that he’d found the place.

Li Yao paused at the door, straightened his collar, and opened it.

Inside, Boss Lu was visibly startled by the uninvited guest. A beautiful young woman was sitting on his thigh, holding up a wine glass, and they were just about to clink their glasses together for a drink.

Li Yao stood at the threshold, and Boss Lu froze.

After so many years, there was no way Boss Lu could recognise who he was.

Li Yao stepped forward a few paces and gave a polite smile.

"Hello, Boss Lu."

‿︵‿︵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 16, 2025 by Angel

Edited: July 15, 2025 by Angel