Controlled Experiment Chapter 68

Two Missing One – 18

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"Li Yao swapped out my SIM card?"

Qi Lei looked at Du Yusheng's stunned and furious face, then turned away to scratch his head and sighed with deliberate arrogance. "Ai, Li Yao told me not to tell you this, but I couldn't help it. How am I supposed to explain this to him?"

Du Yusheng's brows knitted so tightly they almost formed a '川' shape. His hair had long since dried completely without him noticing, but now, the wind blowing from the ground made Du Yusheng feel a chill on his scalp.

"No way." Du Yusheng walked towards the staircase at the front, speaking without looking back. "I have to find Wang Zhe, the only reason Li Yao did all this was to track down Wang Zhe. He's the last one, I can't let anything happen to him. I'm doing this to draw Jing Mo out. Although Wang Zhe is a bastard, I can't sacrifice Wang Zhe's life for it, I can't let anything happen to Wang Zhe."

Hearing this, Qi Lei suddenly laughed.

In the quiet basement, that cold and icy laugh was especially jarring.

Halfway up the stairs, Du Yusheng wanted to curse Qi Lei, saying, "How the hell can you still laugh at a time like this? Someone's going to die!"

He had barely got the words halfway out when Qi Lei lit a cigarette and cut him off.

"You really think Li Yao really cares about whether that man lives or dies?" Qi Lei said with a smirk. "He cares about you."

Du Yusheng froze.

"Don't be fooled by his brother's interest in you. If you've got Wang Zhe and refuse to say where he is, the only thing Jing Mo can do is kill you and then go find Wang Zhe himself. His brother is capable of anything," Qi Lei took a deep drag on his cigarette and looked directly at Du Yusheng.

Seeing the disbelief still lingering on Du Yusheng's face, Qi Lei added, "In the grand scheme of this whole mess, you, Du Yusheng, are an outsider. The real players are Li Yao and his brother. His brother might be unable to let go because of his extreme views, so he killed one person after another. But do you think Li Yao can let go and not hate? If you knew what Li Yao had to survive, would you still be able to say that?"

Could it be that Li Yao doesn't hate?

Du Yusheng felt as if he had suddenly seen the light.

Because of Jing Mo, Du Yusheng had completely overlooked the actual person at the centre of it all, Li Yao.

"He cares... about me?" Du Yusheng looked at Qi Lei in disbelief. "Li Yao's heart is made of stone, no matter what he's been through. I, Du Yusheng, have never hidden my feelings for him. But how did he treat me? He lied to me, used me, let his brother play me like a fool. My patience only goes so far. If he wants to die, I won't stop him. At most, I'll tell myself never to fall for scum like that again, and come New Year's or Qingming, I'll go burn him some paper offerings. But I'm not sacrificing Wang Zhe's life for him. I have to bring him back."

"Idiot," Qi Lei chuckled, rubbing his nose and reminding him, "If Li Yao thought you were nothing to him, he wouldn't even bother to look at you. That man's emotionally distant and completely closed off... I'm fucking jealous of you, you idiot."

A look of exhaustion appeared on Qi Lei's smiling face.

After spending so many years with Li Yao, he knew all too well how well the man could hide his feelings. But it was in front of Du Yusheng, this so-called "outsider", that those cracks had begun to show.

"I don't believe it."

After a long silence, Du Yusheng finally spat out four words.

Qi Lei had half a mind to tease him, "You're just being contrary."

But before the words left his mouth, the sound of footsteps from upstairs interrupted him.

The two of them were still in the basement. Though small, it was fully equipped and furnished with expensive materials.

For the footsteps to be this audible through the costly flooring upstairs could only mean one thing, someone wanted them to be heard down here.

Du Yusheng was the first to react. He signalled for Qi Lei to keep quiet, then gestured towards the ceiling.

There was a small door leading to the basement. Du Yusheng originally intended to open it just a crack to peek outside, but as soon as his hand touched it, the door was opened from the other side.

This was the closest Du Yusheng had ever been to Li Yao. No, he should say it's the closest he'd ever been to Li Yao's face.

That face, eerily identical to Li Yao's, was now magnified before his eyes. Du Yusheng nearly slipped off the stairs.

Qi Lei froze as he looked at this face.

This is the first time he formally faced this face.

Jing Mo wore a pair of round-framed glasses, a high-necked white jumper, and a heavy black down jacket, and there was still a faint scent of cologne clinging to him.

Behind the glasses, his eyes swept across the basement and offered a warm greeting.

"It's cold outside," Jing Mo said, narrowing his eyes with a smile. "Could I trouble you to let me warm up in your room for a bit? Do you mind?"

Jing Mo took off his cotton gloves, pulled out a chair, and sat down, rubbing his hands together as though genuinely chilled.

The smile on his face was faint, as though nothing at all had happened. The two faces were so uncannily alike that, apart from their expressions, they were almost impossible to tell apart.

"Why are you both standing?" Jing Mo pushed up his glasses and said, "Sit down, both of you."

The first to move was Qi Lei. He swiftly picked up the gun Du Yusheng had just left on the table and, without hesitation, pressed it against Jing Mo's forehead.

The latter clicked his tongue. In fact, Jing Mo rather hated Qi Lei, this man was the sort who reached for a knife or gun at the drop of a hat, a thuggish loan shark, uncultured and uneducated. By comparison, Jing Mo found Du Yusheng far more to his liking.

Because Du Yusheng was interesting.

Jing Mo unhurriedly pointed upstairs and smiled. "I'm not in very good health and walk slowly. Your courtyard is large, it took me twenty minutes to walk in from outside. Every minute along the way, I planted a bomb or a detonator along the wall. You can shoot me if you like, and we'll all die together. I know you don't care whether you live or die, but you're willing to do anything for my brother." Jing Mo looked at Du Yusheng. "What about him? If my brother finds out he died because of you, do you think he'll build you a memorial or burn paper offerings for you?"

"Or, I've got a better idea. I could fake it, make it look like we died together." Jing Mo suddenly smiled, his face was slightly pale and his smile looked a bit eerie.

"A while ago, a person was burned to death, and you police determined it was suicide. The scene of the incident was undoubtedly a suicide, a fire caused by improper handling of kitchen appliances." Jing Mo scratched his eyebrow, his eyes fixed on the dark muzzle in front of him, and said, "I taught him. I taught him how to kill himself, it's a very easy thing to do, do you guys want to learn?"

Qi Lei's grip on the gun slackened.

Jing Mo was right. He wasn't afraid to die, but he was afraid that Du Yusheng might die with him.

Jing Mo gently pushed Qi Lei's gun aside, stood up, and walked over to Du Yusheng. "Didn't you say this game was just between you and me? So why did you give the phone to my brother halfway through? What were you thinking? Actually, I only realised afterwards that my brother was here too. Lucky, really... I can't bring myself to kill my brother."

Du Yusheng laughed softly and said. "Li Yao wants to see you, he stole my SIM card. If I were Li Yao, the first thing I'd do when I came back to this country would be to shoot you."

Jing Mo nodded, as though agreeing with that statement. If Li Yao really shot him as Du Yusheng said, then everything that followed wouldn't have happened.

At the end of the day, he hated too.

Jing Mo slowly paced in a circle inside the room.

When he reached the centre, he turned back and looked at Du Yusheng. "Did you really kill that man?"

"Do you want him dead?" Du Yusheng replied.

Jing Mo nodded. "Yes, of course I do. If he's alive, I want to see him, if he's dead, I want to see the body, you have to tell me where he is. If he's alive, I'll kill him myself, if he's dead, I'll dig him up and whip his corpse."

"You..." Du Yusheng started to speak, but Jing Mo suddenly raised a finger and cut him off.

"I know you don't want to tell me, but I could do what he said," Jing Mo gestured at Qi Lei, "kill you first and then slowly look for him. But I don't want to do that. I won't live much longer anyway, and it's a waste of time. So I've thought of another way, I'll let my brother find Wang Zhe and bring him here. I bet he's already got it out of you, where Wang Zhe is, whether he's alive or dead, I want to see him either way. What do you think, will he come?"

Jing Mo pulled an old, worn photo from his pocket. Seven men with their arms around each other's shoulders, seemingly close, but in truth, they had ruined two children's lives in the filthiest of ways.

The controlled experiment had made it this far, now it was time to see the results.

This pain, Jing Mo could never let go of it.

He raised the gun and pointed it at Qi Lei. "I don't like this place of yours, shall we go somewhere else?"

Jing Mo changed his posture, leaned forward, and added, "Tell me some stories about my brother, I'm afraid I might not get another chance to hear them."

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By the time Li Yao arrived at He Shen's garage that Du Yusheng mentioned, the sky had already begun to lighten.

He Shen, rubbing his eyes, was still in his pyjamas and yawned as he led Li Yao to his home's underground parking garage.

This villa wasn't somewhere He Shen visited often, it was usually his parents who stayed here. Every now and then, he came along to spend a few days with the old folks, out of filial duty.

The elders rarely drove the cars in the garage.

There were quite a few cars parked there, lined up in order of their number plates.

Yawning, He Shen opened the Porsche that Li Yao had named.

"Why do you need to borrow a car?" He Shen said while yawning and opening the car door. "I heard from Du Yusheng that your family doesn't have... a car..."

Seeing the person lying in the car, He Shen cursed, "Du Yusheng, you motherfucker!"

Wang Zhe's hands and feet were tied up with coarse hemp ropes, his eyes were covered with a black blindfold, and even his mouth was tightly taped shut.

He Shen stood with his hands on his hips, taking in the scene. He felt as if he'd abruptly woken up and smiled bitterly. "I see that Du Yusheng won't be satisfied until he's landed me in prison. Li Yao, take the man and go. I haven't seen you this morning, and I haven't seen the person in the car either. This person is someone you found yourself, we don't know each other. My parents are counting on me to carry on the family line, so I won't be involved in such thrilling matters. You two go ahead and play."

As he spoke, He Shen reached out, intending to rip the tape from the man's mouth and untie him, but Li Yao stopped him.

"No need to take it off," Li Yao said. "Do you have any cotton in the house? Block his ears as well."

Qi Lei had been right about one thing.

Even if Li Yao wasn't as extreme as Jing Mo, it didn't mean he was capable of kindness or of letting go of hatred.

Just then, Xiao Bai's call came through.

While He Shen was still rummaging for cotton, Li Yao stepped outside to answer the phone.

"Mr Li, have you found him?"

Li Yao glanced at his watch, nodded, and replied, "I've already found him."

"... Where did you find him?" Xiao Bai asked.

"I don't know the area well," Li Yao said coolly. "There aren't any road signs nearby either. Where this is, I can't really say."

Xiao Bai licked his lips on the other end and laughed dryly, "Mr Li, you really haven't seen Brother Yu? You really don't know where he is?"

Even knowing the other couldn't see him, Li Yao still shook his head. "I don't know, do you know where he is?"

That stumped Xiao Bai for a moment.

He said, "All right then. In that case, please bring the person back, or I can send someone over to pick him up now."

"That might not be possible just yet."

Li Yao thought of the message on his phone and added, "I still need him for something. Let's wait a little longer."

"Mr Li," Xiao Bai said, "there's something I feel I should make clear to you in advance. In this case, Brother Yu is the suspect. If anything happens to that man, whatever the reason, whatever occurs, Brother Yu will be the one doing prison time."

The implication was clear, Wang Zhe must stay alive.

Li Yao rubbed his fingers together and didn't reply to Xiao Bai, he simply hung up.

He looked at Wang Zhe, who was still writhing and struggling.

If he could, Li Yao would have liked to put a bullet through that man's skull.

‿︵‿︵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 25, 2025 by Angel

Edited: August 7, 2025 by Angel