Chapter 41 – Schemed Against

Tan Xi appeared ecstatic as he accepted the medical records. With the director residing in the hospital for half a month, Tan Xi could ask him advice on certain issues he was facing, which would help him a great deal.

Zheng Yue, however, could no longer hold himself back. Despite knowing that the manager didn't want him to stir up trouble in the director's presence, he stepped forward and plucked up the courage to say, "Director, Yu Hao is a patient I've been responsible for since his admission. His family also prefer my treatment method. I don't believe there's any problem with my treatment plan, but yesterday, Dr Tan snatched away my…"

"It's you again, lowly maid servant! You, an insignificant palace maid, are actually causing trouble and quarrelling in Zhen and the Empress' presence. Someone, come grab him." Hao Ritian, who had managed to remain quiet for some time, turned his head and made the gesture of flicking his sleeves while sitting on Li Yi's lap. His expression was so cold, it was frightening.

The two imperial guards who were previously as silent as chickens reacted immediately. Both of them stood on either side of Zheng Yue as they dragged him outside; firmly believing themselves to be Hao Ritian's imperial guards, they were sincerely dutiful.

Having lost his dignity in such a big way in the director's presence, Zheng Yue's face flushed.

Naturally, Hao Ritian had done this on purpose. Moreover, he knew Zheng Yue loved his reputation and excelled at putting up a facade—every time he deliberately called him 'lowly maid', it was to jab at Zheng Yue's sensitive nerves. If repeated enough times, he would eventually tear off Zheng Yue's hypocritical face.

After giving the order, he kissed Li Yi with a loud 'mwah', taking him by surprise. Without even turning his head, he said, "Everyone else may withdraw as well. Having not seen the Empress for a long time, Zhen misses him and wishes for him to tend to Zhen."

That resounding smack really shocked everyone. Te… tend to?

Their ears must definitely be malfunctioning!

Before that, Hao Ritian had merely been taking advantage verbally, but now it'd evolved into practical action. Director, are you alright? Even Tan Xi couldn't help but wonder.

Half-kneeling on the bed, Wei An placed his clenched fists at his chest and stared at Li Yi and Hao Ritian with sparkling eyes. Inwardly, he thought, His Majesty and the Empress are so affectionate, this is wonderful!

This scene shocked Zheng Yue to the point of being unresistant when Wei Jing and Tang Bao dragged him out, his face going lifeless. By the time he came to his senses, disgust filled his eyes. He absolutely loathed homosexuality.

In contrast to Zheng Yue's strong emotional reaction, Li Yi's reaction, as the party involved, was flat. He held Hao Ritian down and, without even frowning, warned, "Behave."

To the manager and the on-call doctor's infinite admiration, Li Yi sounded like he was speaking to a normal person. In any case, if a patient suddenly forced a kiss on them, they wouldn't have been able to tolerate it.

"My God! How dare you speak to Zhen like this!" Hao Ritian grumbled with extreme displeasure. Unfortunately, he was being restrained very firmly, and when he secretly tried to push away, he was actually unable! To! Get! Free!

Excellent. Li Yi's strength was up to his standard. Not only was Hao Ritian not discouraged, his interest rose.

Li Yi, in the interim, calmly lifted his chin and motioned to the others in the ward, "Please wait outside for a moment."

His words were like an order of amnesty. The three responded simultaneously, and as they left, the on-call doctor was even walking with synchronised hands and feet. Once they exited the ward, they barely managed to breathe a sigh of relief when they saw Dr Zheng being chased around by two patients who looked like they wished to beat him up. Meanwhile, the security guards and nurses were attempting to pull the patients away and pacify them. It'd turned into pandemonium.

Ah, he nearly forgot. There's still two patients who insist on carrying out the orders of that difficult one in the ward. Tan Xi slapped his forehead. Alright, his patients should be his responsibility to handle. As he ran to Tang Bao and Wei Jing, he yelled, "It's okay now, it's okay! The Empress interceded and asked that he be pardoned. His Majesty agreed."

One had to give credit where credit was due—Tan Xi really had a way with handling these situations. As soon as he spoke, Wei Jing and Tang Bao quickly stopped making trouble.

—After all, they could all see His Majesty's love for the Empress.

The commotion from a moment ago drew people from other wards into poking their heads out and taking a look at the situation. Upon seeing this scene, those who had experienced 'imperial court' the previous day were extremely calm, merely a little curious as to where this empress came from. Those who hadn't experienced it were curious too, but since the director was still in the midst of his inspection, they didn't reveal their curiosity.

Standing by door, the manager and on-call doctor wore expressions of melancholy. Being a doctor at a psychiatric hospital sucked!

Meanwhile, only Hao Ritian, Li Yi and Wei An – who was lying face-down on top of the bed, quietly pretending to be part of the background, and even covering his head with a pillow – currently remained in the ward.

Li Yi didn't mind the additional person in the ward. He simply relaxed his arms around Hao Ritian's shoulders and looked at Hao Ritian with calm eyes as he spoke with a straight face, "Your Majesty, Chenqie's menstrual period has come. Chenqie fears that he is unable to serve His Majesty for the time being."

Even the domineering Hao Ritian was stupefied by Li Yi's answer, so much so that he involuntarily betrayed a small trace of surprise on his face. Nevertheless, when he swiftly noticed the consideration and sharpness hidden deep in Li Yi's eyes, his heart tightened and he showed an expression of extreme displeasure. He got up from Li Yi's lap and waved his hand in disregard, "That's disappointing. You may withdraw."

Did this director suspect him?

He carefully considered it. He'd crossed over only yesterday and had used the simplest and most convenient way to pass himself off as a patient till now. The situation had been going so smoothly that he'd started to exaggerate. It seemed this Li Yi lived up to his fame in the professional field!

However, Li Yi ought to only be in the beginning stage of suspicion, and it wasn't as if he had evidence. From the looks of it, he would have to be extremely prudent in his dealings with this director from now on. He absolutely couldn't show any flaws.

Li Yi stood up, his expression remaining unchanged, "Then, Chenqie will excuse himself."

Afterwards, he actually turned around and left.

The interest in Hao Ritian's heart reached the pinnacle in that instant. Who knew how charming it would be if he made such a calm and ascetic sort of man reveal an expression entirely controlled by lust in the midst of a sensual struggle?!

Waiting outside, the manager and on-call doctor were utterly impressed by how quickly the director managed to escape from the patient's grasp. It must've taken him just a couple minutes to come out?

The inspection continued and Li Yi asked the head doctor about the complaint raised by Zheng Yue earlier. Upon learning the sequence of events, he didn't raise any dissatisfaction at the manager's decision. Rather, he made the final decision to have Yu Hao be completely handed over to Tan Xi's care.

...

In the blink of an eye, the time for afternoon activities arrived. Nearly all the patients from yesterday's group were released for activities. It was 'nearly' because several patients weren't suitable for release and thus were temporarily detained in their wards.

Hao Ritian finally saw yesterday's three new patients. Only, compared to yesterday, they appeared a lot worse for wear, their spirits downcast.

Hao Ritian, currently enjoying Wei An's ministrations on his legs, narrowed his eyes and scrutinised the trio. He had to say, the people Yu Hao's aunt and uncle had picked were quite ordinary. Their only commonality were their large statures. He supposed this was to ensure they could protect themselves in the hospital, maybe?

No matter whether this was the reason or not, Hao Ritian couldn't muster any goodwill for them, even knowing their life stories.

In fact, you could say these three 'had their own troubles' too. Among them, one's daughter was seriously ill and needed money for surgery; another's elderly mother was in poor health and needed money for hospitalisation; the last one needed money for his wife who'd been in a traffic accident. In short, they were all in urgent need of money for their families. It was then that Yu Hao's aunt and uncle had come to them, offering them a sum of money to complete but a small task. Though they'd hesitated and struggled with it, they'd ultimately accepted the offer.

No matter how difficult their situations, it wasn't an excuse for them to hurt others for the sake of money. What's more, there was no ill will between Yu Hao and the three of them, so these actions were a complete violation of conscience, and more than that, it was against the law. This wasn't something that could be erased with the excuse of them having their own troubles.

Their bodies were clearly fit and healthy, why didn't they have a mind to work instead of seeking to harm people?!

Since they would rather pretend to be mentally ill to harm people, they couldn't blame him for being ruthless.

Unfortunately, before he could take care of them, he was inexplicably screwed over.

As he was contemplating how to teach that trio a lesson without causing suspicion – after all, he'd quickly become cautious since taking note of Li Yi's unexpected skepticism towards him – he found it funny, now that he thought about it. Others hoped to be discharged as soon as they became well, yet he didn't want to be discovered and instead wished to remain in the hospital. He really had no words.

Before he could think up a good plan, those three patients suddenly imitated his routine and started performing—performing an act where a driver ran someone over. After the performance ended, one of them fished out a red handkerchief from god knows where and covered up the 'dead person's' face.

At that moment, his body seemed to go out of control and his mind too became fuzzy and blank. Without his conscious awareness, Hao Ritian leapt over to the guy who'd ran over the other person and started desperately beating him up.

What happened afterwards, he himself wasn't quite sure. He simply felt a ton of pain in his head once he woke up, and when he turned his head, he saw that a needle had actually been inserted into his hand. He was evidently having an infusion.

For a brief moment, Hao Ritian was confused.

"System, what happened to me?" Hao Ritian hated situations where he wasn't in control.

"…Host, you'd better see for yourself."

Following the system's words, Hao Ritian perceived images replaying in his mind, as if he were watching a film. He saw himself pounce on someone and vigorously beat him to a pulp; he saw the face of the man he was beating up so hard turn bloody; he saw Wei An standing at the side, so shocked that he'd become paralysed. And then, he saw the security guards anxiously try to pull him away, but they couldn't do it even with several people. In the end, he was tranquilised then sent back to his ward.

Hao Ritian, "…"

Oh, crap.

His mood was shit. Extremely shitty. So shitty that he wanted commit murder.

In his mind, he knew that he'd been schemed against. He was actually schemed against by people he had held in contempt. This fact was an even harder pill to swallow than him going crazy. How should he kill those bastards?

Yu Hao's mind had been fragile and sensitive from the outset, and it was due to his parents' death that his psyche became unstable. His parents had died from a car accident and his mother had been hit so hard that her entire face had become bloody when she'd shielded him. This had all caused scenes relating to his parents' deaths and the colour red to traumatise Yu Hao. No one was allowed to rashly upset him or he would go crazy.

And everything that had happened was almost like a simulation of the scene from when Yu Hao's parents had died. To top it all off, there was even a red handkerchief. If this wasn't a deliberate machination, Hao Ritian would twist off his own head and use it like a football.

"…Host, are you alright?" The system feebly asked once more.

The sound of the system's voice in his head finally calmed Hao Ritian down again.