Chapter 37 – I Haven’t Been A Gang Leader For Many Years

"Boss, please give the order for our brothers to take the enemy's base." As soon as Hao Ritian regained awareness, he heard a stern and murderous voice beseech him.

A chorus of voices immediately followed, their shouts organized and resonant. He could tell just from the volume that a great number of people were present. Most importantly, the voices were shouting rhythmically, "Boss! Please! Give! The! Or! Der!"

Hao Ritian, "…"

Wait a minute, wait a minute! Wasn't this world supposed to be related to mental illness? Why was he a gang leader again? Had this become an underworld setting?

Hao Ritian urged the system, "Quickly send me the mission details."

Instantly, his mind received the complete mission details and a broad outline of the original owner he transmigrated into. For a while, Hao Ritian's expression was rather difficult to categorise, it was so complicated. In the end, however, he settled on delight. He liked this world.

The original owner, Yu Hao, had a very loving pair of parents. Although his family on his father's side was unknown and his father had reportedly married into his wife's Yu Family, Yu Hao's father was incredibly adroit. He had persistently worked in construction and saved a lot of money, so the family of three lived a fairly cushy life.

Additionally, Mother Yu was a strong, career-focused woman, who opened several apparel stores that did exceptionally well. Many of them were situated in respectable districts.

With his parents' efforts before him, Yu Hao had been living a fulfilled life since his birth. Their family's level of income was considerably high and he had basically never suffered any hardship. According to reason, Yu Hao should be a happy child.

But here came the problem: little Yu Hao –it's a mystery who he took after –grew up with dashing eyebrows and slanted eyes. Individually, his features clearly weren't ugly, but when combined together, he appeared super fierce. No child, since kindergarten, had ever dared to approach Yu Hao.

Any kid, no matter how naughty or troublesome, would become well-behaved when Yu Hao stared at them; the timid ones would cry out of fright. God knew Yu Hao wasn't fierce at all. On the contrary, since no one ever approached him, he was extremely lonely inside and really wanted to make friends. However, reality was cruel like that.

When he reached middle school, movies from Hong Kong became really popular and caused many middle schoolers to become infatuated with the code of brotherhood and the act of becoming sworn brothers. Yu Hao stood out from the crowd and became the boss that many younger brothers wanted to follow. The reason being: he looks really ferocious so it would be cool to have him as their boss.

These brotherhood-worshipping middle schoolers were amoral. When they were bored, they'd either be a pain in the ass and extort money from elementary students, or they'd stand in the way of anyone they disliked and beat them up. Yu Hao had to have eaten a lot to grow to his size and become their boss.

He clearly had the heart of a small rabbit but the face of a big bad wolf. Yu Hao had been vexed about this since the time he could think. Though, his looks weren't all that bad as no one with eyes ever tried to extort money from him.

Once, during his second year of high school, he came across a man who stole a woman's purse and made a run for it. Despite being scared on the inside, the education he received since childhood made it impossible for him to turn a blind eye to the situation. Therefore, he braved his fear, picked up a piece of brick and gave chase. In the end, he turned the robber over.

Who made it so that he was particularly good at sports? Yu Hao had always gotten first place in the 3000 meter races, seeing as he had excellent physical fitness as well as quick reflexes. Besides looking intimidating, Yu Hao wasn't short either. He was already 180 cm when he was in high school and had incredibly explosive strength, so catching the robber wasn't difficult in the slightest.

As luck would have it, school just so happened to end around the same time so many students from his school witnessed his brave act. While they admired his action, at the same time, they grew even more fearful of him. If by any chance they angered him, they'd be the ones that piece of brick would hit; they'd be done for.

From then on, Yu Hao was much more isolated. Despite being renowned and known as the boss at school, he had no friends. He truly was one of a kind.

Because of such experiences growing up, Yu Hao held very deep feelings for his parents since they were the only ones who wouldn't alienate him due to his appearance. Quite the contrary, his parents always saw him as a child, which in turn, greatly compensated for the void in his heart. To a certain extent, Yu Hao's parents were his emotional crutch.

Unfortunately, while Yu Hao and his parents were vacationing after the end of the college entrance exams, a chain of car crashes occurred. There were many casualties, including his parents. Yu Hao was protected by his mother's arms and escaped that fate, but suffered a severe concussion.

Though Yu Hao's life was no longer in danger after he received medical treatment, he suffered an enormous psychological shock and abnormalities appeared in his mental state. He was often hysteric and would do some hair-raising things, such as acting as if his parents hadn't died in a car accident at all and had been by his side this entire time.

A patient suffering from abnormalities in their psyche because of psychological trauma had a good chance of recovery if they had relatives by their side to patiently guide and appease them. However, Yu Hao's parents had passed away and he had no relatives on his father's side. The only people who could count as relatives were his mother's siblings; his aunt and uncle.

Yu Hao's parents had left behind a large inheritance after their death. At that time, his uncle happened to be in debt because of gambling. If he didn't repay his debts soon, he'd have his hands chopped by debt-collectors. As for his aunt's family, her son was getting married. Both of them urgently needed money.

Previously, his uncle had asked Yu Hao's parents to lend him money but they weren't blind. They had lent money to his uncle numerous times in the past, but not to mention that he never returned the money, he continued to be addicted to gambling. Yu Hao's parents didn't approve of his unchanging behaviour.

After several back-and-forths, the relationship between Yu Hao's parents and his uncle's family became very awkward. His uncle believed that despite Mother Yu being plainly well-off, she'd leave them to sink or swim, so he secretly hated her family.

With the husband and wife pair dying in a traffic accident, leaving a son who became an 'idiot' after suffering that big psychological blow, his uncle immediately saw an opportunity. Not only was he undepressed about their passing, he was even excited. After discussing with each other, he and Yu Hao's aunt decided to steal the couple's inheritance from Yu Hao.

In order to not seem too conspicuous, they first took Yu Hao home in the guise of caring for him, when in reality, they were letting him stew in his own juices. Afterwards, they expressed that the boy had mental problems and needed standard treatment. Thus, they sent Yu Hao to a psychiatric hospital –a reputable one at that –and took turns visiting him every week in an effort to enhance their reputation.

But in fact, these weekly visits served a different purpose.

In spite of having sent Yu Hao to a mental health facility, they worried that he would really be cured and discharged. In the event that that happened and Yu Hao used the law to get back at them, they'd be finished. Humans gained tremendous strength in frenzied situations and so, Yu Hao's aunt and uncle managed to bribe the doctor in charge of Yu Hao through unknown means. When the doctor was treating Yu Hao, he'd secretly increase the dose of his medication, causing Yu Hao's situation to not only see no improvement, but instead become increasingly dire.

Even then, his uncle and aunt weren't completely assured and actually found three people to pretend to be mentally ill and reside in Yu Hao's ward. They would secretly guide and upset Yu Hao into becoming more and more crazy. Therefore, the illness which should've been curable wasn't able to heal because of such vicious influences and abuse of medication.

That was how Yu Hao, after being saved by his mother, was ruined by his uncle and aunt's evil and selfish motives while they lived a life of extravagance thanks to the large heritage Mother and Father Yu had left behind.

Hao Ritian's emotions were rather subtle. When he first received the memories, he felt somewhat amused. But when he saw what happened later, he was enraged. So this was how Yu Hao's uncle and aunt were dealing with their nephew. A boy who was barely an adult. Those two were simply worse than dogs and pigs.

People like them deserved hell as their retribution.

No matter their reasons for doing this, it was an incontestable fact that the lower-than-low masterminds –Yu Hao's maternal aunt and uncle –and the conspirators, the main doctor and the three roommates faking illness, had all harmed Yu Hao.

But on the other hand, Hao Ritian felt a little angry with Yu Hao. He had such a good hand of cards yet he played them so badly they turned to shit. He really wanted to crack open his head to see what was inside.

Hao was equal to Ritian1. His name was clearly similar to Ritian's, so why did his brain fall so short?!

The time period he crossed over to was a few days after the original owner arrived at the psychiatric hospital. At this time, the original owner's aunt and uncle had just explained their relationship to Yu Hao's head doctor and convinced him into helping them. The three wardmates masquerading as psychiatric patients were arriving today.

What of his present predicament?

Hao Ritian swiped his lips. He was in a psychiatric hospital and the people around him were, of course, his psychiatric wardmates. Nothing a person with mental illness did was surprising, and currently, there wasn't a major problem with this group of wardmates. They simply performed 'Underworld Boss, let me bask in your glory' scenarios everyday. The doctors and nurses saw that they were just engaging in recreation and not actually committing crimes, so they acquiesced. This situation also made it easier for the nurses to supervise them.

Yu Hao's gangster-like face immediately produced a marked effect and his wardmates all agreed to recognise him as their boss. On top of that, Yu Hao himself really did have a problem when he first came in, so after being called 'Boss' by so many people, Yu Hao was weak-willed and actually believed he was a gang leader.

Before he was completely destroyed by the head doctor and his three roommates, Yu Hao possessed 'power and prestige' in the ward for a period of time. He had more than ten 'capable subordinates' under his command and could 'command the wind and rain'.

Hao Ritian didn't think this was all that bad. Speaking of which, this world of mental illness was better than the previous two. Here, everything he did was 'right' so he could do whatever he wanted. So long as the doctors and nurses didn't think his illness was recurring, he could use this loophole to tackle more matters during the activities period.

However, he haven't been a gang leader for so long in many years. A gang leader was all well and good, but—

"Shut up." His body was already super vicious-looking from the start. Now that he put on a cold face, the row of younger brothers before him were all, one by one, shocked into stopping.

The younger brothers hesitantly asked, "Boss?"

"It seems Zhen has been too indulgent with you. There isn't one ounce of respect to be seen. You must address Zhen as 'Your Majesty', who gave you the guts to call Zhen 'Boss'?" Hao Ritian's disdainful attitude was extremely frightening.

He didn't have to be a boss. He could also be an emperor.

The younger brothers looked at each other, Hao Ritian thought that some would resist. After all, the world of mental illness was rather crazy. Anger was simple and sometimes, one would even become violent and injure someone. Apart from that, the majority of them had paranoia and would live in their own bubble. But to his surprise, not only did they not resist, an expression of realisation appeared over each of their faces.

"Your Majesty, this subject has made a mistake, this subject begs your pardon." A fair-skinned man immediately knelt down and performed a kowtow for Hao Ritian.

The others followed the fair-skinned man's lead and uniformly knelt down, "We beg Your Majesty's pardon."

Hao Ritian, "…"

Heh, I've really underestimated you all. Interesting, you've successfully captured my attention.

System, "…" Host, are you alright?

Hao Ritian simply couldn't be better. This place really appealed to him.

Pressing his fist against his lips and coughing twice, Hao Ritian pretended to flick his sleeves, "You may rise. Zhen will excuse you just this once, but there won't be a next time."

The group noisily stood up.

Hao Ritian pointed at the fair-skinned man who responded the quickest, "What is your name?"

The light-skinned man who was called out was delighted. His Majesty had actually chosen him. He suppressed his excitement and tried to reply calmly, "Responding to Your Majesty, this subject's name is Wei An."

Hao Ritian nodded, "Not bad. For your quick-wittedness, Zhen will bestow you the title of 'Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace'. Little An Zi, Zhen specially gives you the favour of serving Zhen by his side."

The Imperial Palace's Chief Steward, Little An Zi, was just a glorified palace eunuch.

But Wei An said with a look of pleasant surprise, "Little An Zi thanks Your Majesty for your gift."

Afterwards, being especially absorbed in the play, he walked over to stand by Hao Ritian's side, ready to wait on him, hand and foot. When Hao Ritian looked back at the others, they were all staring at him with expectant faces, hoping His Majesty would bestow them equivalent gifts.

Hao Ritian swept his eyes over them. Whenever his eyes landed on someone, that person would be very excited, their eyes seeming to shine.

System, "…"

That's quite enough.

The system hurriedly suggested in Hao Ritian's mind, "Host, because the previous world's rating was S, System gained another ability. Doesn't Host want to know what it is?"

"Well, let's hear it." Hao Ritian's finger hovered over several people standing in front of him but didn't point at anyone, making them so anxious they could scratch their lungs and heart.

System, "This time you can explore a person's life. As long as you lock on to someone, you can scan their life story."

This could be said to be a very amazing ability.

Hao Ritian considered, "Oh? Then help me check Wei An's life."

System, "…"

It really shot itself in the foot. It felt like this wasn't a very fitting occasion to use such an ability.

Despite its thoughts, the system, nevertheless, diligently scanned Wei An and soon gave an answer, "Wei An. Male. 26 years old…"

"Stop. Just tell me how he got into this psychiatric hospital."

The system was stumped at being interrupted. After regrouping itself, it put forward the key points in accordance to the host's demands. Thus, Hao Ritian finally learned why Wei An was here.

This boy's backstory was no better than Yu Hao's. As a child, he grew up looking fair and cute, so he was often bullied. He and Yu Hao were practically two extremes. Because he was bullied as a child, over time, Wei An developed the personality of a doormat, causing his parents to dislike him as well. Upon having their second son, they focused all their care towards the other boy.

When he was in high school, Wei An realised his sexual orientation but was afraid to come out of the closet. So, he hid this information well and no one ever found out about it until he entered university and a senior discovered his sexual orientation. The senior looked after Wei An in every possible way, giving him warmth which he'd never experienced before. Because of that, Wei An easily and quickly fell for him, sticking close to him everywhere he went and acting more attentive than a young married woman.

After his family learned that he was gay, they rained curses on him, calling him shameless and sick. In order to be together with his senior, Wei An endured it all. But in the end, it was all for naught.

After graduating, the upperclassmen hooked up with the daughter of some company's department manager. However, the woman he was dating absolutely despised homosexuality, so in order to climb the corporate ladder and prevent her from discovering that he'd been with men before, he broke up with Wei An using the cruelest manner possible. He humiliated Wei An into feeling worthless and used horribly malicious words to attack him. Being treated like this by the person he loved most intensified Wei An's mental stress and something went wrong in his mind.

With his last remaining compassion, the senior notified Wei An's family to pick him up, then cut all ties with him.

Wei An's parents possessed completely different personalities from his submissive one. When they inadvertently learned that the senior had dumped Wei An to marry a woman, they actually used this information to blackmail a large amount of money from Wei An as hush money. Afterwards, afraid that his madness would affect his younger brother, Wei An's parents sent Wei An straight to a psychiatric hospital, leaving them to assume responsibility for him.

Unexpectedly, after a problem occurred with his mental state, Wei An's previous submissive personality completely changed and he became a busybody. Wherever there was excitement, his figure could be seen forever rushing to the front line.

There was a saying, 'where there is oppression, there is resistance'. Wei An had tried to resist, but he'd done it too late. If he could've been so capable sooner, maybe he wouldn't have ended up in his current situation at all.

Hao Ritian himself was a domineering and fearless guy, so he couldn't understand how Wei An could be so submissive that he'd court his own death. He looked at Wei An with both sympathy and vexation, causing the newly promoted Chief Steward Wei to tremble with fear, under the impression that he'd done something wrong and annoyed His Majesty.

Fortunately, His Majesty soon looked away. Chief Steward Wei breathed a big sigh of relief and smiled. He'd do his best to serve His Majesty well in the future.

—As expected, the submissive trait in his bones hadn't been completely removed. Otherwise, he wouldn't want to wait on other people.

Similarly, Hao Ritian learned the life story of each and every person standing in front of him. Since he only just arrived, he didn't know these wardmates' habits and characteristics. Hao Ritian tentatively bestowed official positions to everyone and intended to allocate them again later once he got to know them more.

Just like that, everyone who obtained an official post became ecstatic; it was as if they won the lottery.

For Hao Ritian, today's main agenda was to handle the three incoming 'wardmates'. Though he wouldn't fall into their trap, he still didn't want to room with three guys who were ready to trip him at any given moment. Just looking at them would make him nauseous. So long as they entered the psychiatric hospital, he had many ways to deal with them. So why should he disgust himself?

While they were joyously and harmoniously playing, rows of black lines were running down the foreheads of the nurses and security guards encompassing and supervising the activity room. When patients were free to move around the activity room, guards and nurses would stand on one side to keep an eye on them. In case something went out of control, the guards would be able to put a stop to them in time and the nurses could immediately give first-aid. After all, every one of these patients had a specific nurse, who possessed a detailed understanding of their condition, assigned to watch them.

Forget how they always watched these patients go 'Boss' here 'Boss' there before. Now, they were even staging an imperial court drama and kneeling around with little persuasion. It was dumbfounding.

However, as long as the patients' illness wasn't recurring and they didn't display any signs of aggression, the staff couldn't control their actions. Otherwise, an opposite effect would occur. These were all words spoken from experience. In light of this, everyone endured their dumbfounded feelings and pretended they didn't see anything.

Meanwhile, another group of wardmates had been waiting for a long time for their opponents to arrive and trash the place with them. When they didn't show, they immediately became worried. The quality of this psychiatric hospital was considered top grade in this city. The inpatient department alone had 12 entire floors to themselves and the activities zone was divided into more than 10 areas. The activities period were all scheduled. If it wasn't, suddenly letting out all the patients would be chaotic.

Those who were released were the patients who behaved well that day and who their attending doctor indicated could go out for some fresh air. The activity area that Hao Ritian's group was at belonged to Area 3, the size of which was comparable to a university's sports field. But unlike the open space of a sports field, several large yet harmless activity equipment separated the venue into several small areas.

The group of wardmates waiting to wreck the place with them were on the other side of the partition.

When they couldn't wait any longer, they finally organised a team to rush over to their opponents. But after they came over, they discovered that their enemies had changed strategies and became confused. Their enemies were well organised and even had an emperor to lead the charge. In comparison, they seemed quite low.

How was this acceptable?

Thereupon, they followed the other's example and before long, another batch of emperor and subjects were born. They proclaimed themselves as a hostile country who had travelled here to discuss the next war with His Majesty, Emperor Hao Ritian.

Hao Ritian, "…"

Very good! They played even better than he did!

His Majesty, Hao Ritian, temporarily handed over the responsibility of the empire's diplomatic relations to the 'prime minister'. The person he specially appointed to this position was a beefy man who could keep the place under control. If Yu Hao had a super fierce-looking face, then this man had a super fierce-looking build.

After a series of chaotic games, the activity time for their group of patients was finally over. The nurses and security guards in charge of looking after them also finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.

But when they returned to their wards, a new problem cropped up.

"How audacious! Zhen's chief steward and imperial guards will naturally reside with Zhen to be responsible for Zhen's daily life and safety. Where are you servants taking them?" Already standing at the door of his ward, Hao Ritian roared with anger at the nurses taking Wei An, Wei Jing and Tang Bao away.

Wei Jing and Tang Bao were the 'imperial bodyguards' he selected. Hao Ritian based his decision on the two's comprehensive life experience and the distance between their wards and his. His super menacing appearance was made even more frightening when he was angry.

The nurses who were originally about to return the three to their wards were almost frightened out of their wits by his shout. These were extremely courageous nurses who had become used to working in a psychiatric hospital. They were nurses with an excellent ability to adapt. If they'd been regular nurses, they probably would've started crying on the spot.

From this, it could be seen how formidable Yu Hao's face combined with Hao Ritian's temper when riled could be.

The nurses responsible for Hao Ritian exchanged a look, then the one with a relatively gentler appearance stepped forward to comfort him, "Your Majesty, it's time to rest. The chief steward and the imperial guards are all servants and aren't qualified to reside with you."

Under normal circumstances, calming patients only worked if one had their cooperation, and the nurses were all very well-experienced with this.

Hao Ritian's expression stilled and became thoughtful. It seemed like he'd been convinced and the nurses responsible for him rejoiced. Did it work?

But who would've thought that a doctor and another few nurses would appear the next moment, leading three new men wearing patient clothing to Hao Ritian's ward. Evidently, these three patients were going to live there. The nurse who nearly talked Hao Ritian over made a face. Their efforts were ruined now.