Mental Illness Evolution Manual - Chapter 78

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Tan Yiyuan pretended to casually look at the dance floor, using his peripheral vision to look around.

A desperate man with blood on his hands, even if he had retired and gone straight, he still had a different aura than others.

He had been in the underworld, he knew what such people were like.

Tan Yiyuan quickly locked his gaze on a burly man.

The man had a crew cut, he was wearing a white tank top with some stains, and a loose black jacket over it. His work pants had bulging pockets, he didn’t know what was in them. There was a bulge on his side, it must be a holster.

He first looked around the corner, finding no seats, he came to the bar and sat next to Tan Yiyuan, bumping his arm.

“Hahaha, I bumped into you. Are you okay?” The man said with a rough smile on his face.

“It’s okay, it’s nothing. Don’t be so polite.” Tan Yiyuan said with a smile.

“Xiaozhen, get me a Blast Ball Fruit, with ice.” He shouted to the bar.

The bartender with purple highlights walked over, “I’ve told you eight hundred times, Jeffiel! My name is Jeffiel, not Xiaozhen. Feng Tao, are you doing this on purpose?”

“My tongue can’t twist around it, just bear with me.” Feng Tao scratched his head and laughed.

“How are things going lately? Business is good? I haven’t seen you in a while.” The bartender asked as she mixed the drink, her tone was familiar.

“It’s alright, just making ends meet. I took on a job a while back, I had to transport something really far, I even went out to sea.” Feng Tao took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and took a comfortable puff, “I wasn’t allowed to drink while transporting goods, afraid of messing things up. It was killing me.”

“You’re doing well, you even went out to sea. Big business.” The bartender gave him a look, “Just a Blast Ball Fruit, nothing else? Firelight Cobra, Thunder Tail Dragon, anything like that?”

As she said this, she couldn’t help but mutter, “The names our boss comes up with are ridiculous. He’s obsessed with his games, he’s so childish. Every time I introduce the menu to new customers, I want to disappear into the ground.”

The people around them couldn’t help but laugh teasingly.

Someone chimed in, “Yeah, why don’t you treat us all to a drink?”

“Go to hell!” Feng Tao laughed, “If you want to drink, buy your own.”

They didn’t get angry, they seemed to be very familiar.

The Blast Ball Fruit with its red-purple liquid was brought over. Feng Tao picked it up and took a big gulp, he said with a sigh, “It’s still the best, it’s got a kick!”

“Hey, brother, you look new. New here?” He flicked his cigarette ash and bumped Tan Yiyuan lightly with his arm.

The bartender snorted, “He’s famous lately. He’s been causing trouble at the Night City all the time. He’s always been let off, he hasn’t even been beaten once.”

Underground bar gossip spreads quickly, it’s not surprising that she would know about this.

Tan Yiyuan chuckled, “It’s not that exaggerated.”

Feng Tao said in surprise, “What? Did someone cheat you at the casino?”

“No, it’s…” He was about to give a perfunctory answer, but Tan Yiyuan suddenly stopped. He wanted to win Feng Tao over, so he had to tell him the truth, especially to show his strength and determination.

Besides, he had made a lot of noise lately. Anyone who wanted to could find out. This wasn’t a secret. It didn’t matter if they saw Yan Xianchuan’s identity.

She was a member of the Yan family, she was born with a get-out-of-jail-free card. It wasn’t strange for her to do anything, and no one dared to gossip about her.

But what Tan Yiyuan didn’t know was that the relevant surveillance footage had already been tampered with by Black. After Lu Mingqiu married her, she had Black check on Yan Xianchuan, and he had cleaned up her tracks.

All the surveillance footage related to Yan Xianchuan had been blurred, no one could tell who it was.

Later, the Yan family also did a clean-up, now even the gods couldn’t find out. Anyone who was smart would see this footage and wouldn’t pry.

Even if Yan Xianchuan had said before that he was an old friend, no one knew that they knew each other because of this.

He sighed and said, “I destroyed the Black Tiger Gang with my benefactor. The Black Claw Gang wanted to get revenge, so they killed my wife and daughter. Boss Qian wanted to recruit me as his subordinate, so he let me off repeatedly. But he said it was the last time.”

Thinking of his dead wife and daughter, Tan Yiyuan’s eyes reddened, he finally said, “It’s thanks to a kind person, they felt sorry for me and gave me a warm meal. Otherwise, I might still be looking for cardboard boxes under the overpass.”

Feng Tao listened, his face also turned ugly. He said in a low voice, “The rules of the underworld, don’t harm family members. Qian Hu is becoming more and more of a beast.”

To be honest, the underworld also needed a good reputation, okay? When the Pan Snake Gang was still around, they never did anything like bullying women. Now that Qian Hu was in charge, the whole gang had expanded, but it was full of chaos, all kinds of people, and they didn’t even care about morality.

Those in the underworld, the law couldn’t touch them, they relied on morality. Now he was doing whatever he wanted, breaking the rules, ruining the good reputation of the Pan Snake Gang.

Tan Yiyuan sighed again, “Just me alone, I’m afraid I won’t be able to avenge them in this lifetime. But if I just let myself live a miserable life…”

He shook his head and didn’t say anything else, but everyone knew what he meant.

This person was definitely not willing to live alone, he was determined to fight to the death.

Feng Tao also sighed, he clinked glasses with him, “Come on, brother, let’s drink.”

One of them was eager to get close, the other was easygoing, and they quickly hit it off, they put their arms around each other’s shoulders, they were like brothers who wore the same pants.

Feng Tao patted his shoulder, “You don’t have a place to stay tonight, you can’t always sleep outside. Why don’t you come to my place? No one’s home, it’s just me. I have a spare room, it’s just empty.”

Tan Yiyuan was overwhelmed with gratitude, “You, Brother Feng, I don’t know what to say.”

Feng Tao waved his hand, “Come on, brothers, don’t be so polite. Cheers!”

The two of them drank a few more rounds, they were both drunk and dizzy, they helped each other out the door.

Feng Tao said with a slur, “My, my, place is, is right, next door. Come, with me, come!”

Tan Yiyuan’s drinking capacity was better, he put his arm around Feng Tao’s shoulder and followed him unsteadily.

This man was big and strong, he was built like a bull. Tan Yiyuan, on the other hand, had been wandering and starving for so long, he had become as thin as a stick. It was hard for him to support the other man.

He was sweating, and the cold wind blew on him, making him feel refreshed. He sobered up a lot.

He began to ponder the possibility of winning Feng Tao over.

From what he had said, he seemed to be very dissatisfied with Qian Hu. He was more supportive of the old leader’s way of doing things. He must have been very capable to have escaped from the Black Tiger Gang unscathed.

Besides, this person was quite righteous and easygoing, he had a wide network. Even if his current appearance was an act, but he could act so naturally, how could it not be real?

He should try.

The drunk Feng Tao led him stumbling through a few streets, he arrived at his place, opened the door, and threw himself onto the sofa.

Tan Yiyuan helped him move, so he wouldn’t fall to the ground. He thought for a moment, then went to the kitchen to pour a glass of ice water. As he walked over, his wrist was suddenly grabbed by the other man.

He was startled, he looked up and met his eyes. There was no trace of drunkenness in them.

“You’re not drunk.”

Feng Tao sat up straight from the sofa, he took the glass from his hand and drank the ice water in one gulp.

“Of course I’m not drunk. Just a few drinks, it’s hard to get me drunk.”

He twirled the glass in his hand, “I know you want to get revenge on Qian Hu.”

Tan Yiyuan’s expression became serious, he asked back, “Don’t you?”

Feng Tao put the glass on the coffee table, the glass bottoms touched, making a crisp sound. “Of course I do. That’s why I brought you here.”

“Qian Hu, that treacherous bastard. I won’t be able to rest until I kill him.”

“That shameless traitor, how dare he live in this world.”

As he spoke, he showed a sinister smile that didn’t match his easygoing nature, “The Black Tiger Gang is powerful. To get rid of it, it would be harder than a daydream to rely on one or two people. To get rid of Qian Hu, you need a force that’s even bigger than his.”

“I have an opportunity,” Feng Tao stared intently into the other man’s eyes, “A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take advantage of the situation.”

Tan Yiyuan’s eyebrows jumped, “What are you trying to say?”

“I know you might not trust me,” Feng Tao said, “You don’t know me very well. I lost my father when I was young, my mother was a prostitute, but she still worked hard to send me to school.”

“Haha, you wouldn’t believe I went to school.”

“It was when I was eleven years old, I met the leader.” His eyes gradually became distant, he fell into his memories, “I don’t know which classmate found out about my mother’s identity, so he would always scold me, bully me, throw stones at me. Later, he invited me to an alley and said he was going to beat me up. I ended up beating him up, he bled, and his head was broken.”

“The leader saw it, he took me by his side and adopted me. He thought I had a ruthless streak, but I also had loyalty.”

“Few people in the gang know about this, because I was young and arrogant at the time. I thought that if I didn’t make a name for myself, I would be embarrassing my adoptive father. Later, I studied during the day and fought at night. I earned this position as deputy leader bit by bit.”

Feng Tao rubbed his crew cut, he chuckled, “Don’t look at me, I look older than I am. I’m only twenty-five this year.”

“My mother’s health wasn’t good, she died young. My adoptive father was my only family. I hate Qian Hu no less than you.”

“Just talking like this isn’t very convincing. Wait a minute.”

As he spoke, he stood up and went to the bedroom. He came back a moment later with a photo album, his face was filled with melancholy and nostalgia.

“My adoptive father only had one daughter, Xiaoshu. He didn’t have a son, he treated me like his own son.”

Feng Tao handed the album over, “Every year on my birthday, we would take pictures together. You’ll know I’m telling the truth when you see it.”

Tan Yiyuan took the album and flipped it open. The first page didn’t have a photo, only a sentence written in pen: Hope my good son is happy every day—Lu Feng

He flipped to the next page. It was a warm picture of a family of three, it was also a history of a boy’s growth. Later, the three became four, with a baby. The baby grew up, became a girl, then the woman disappeared, and it became three people again.

The photo album wasn’t full yet, time stopped three years ago, and there was nothing after that.

Tan Yiyuan looked at it, he believed eight-tenths of what he said.

Because he was a man who had nothing, besides his life, what else was there to scheme for? And in this day and age, human life was the cheapest thing.

To deceive him, he went to the trouble of making this photo album and saying so much. It was quite a big deal.

But there was one important question, “Your identity isn’t ordinary, why did Qian Hu spare your life?”

Feng Tao laughed as if he had heard a joke, he laughed for a long time, until tears came out of his eyes.

“Qian Hu, he’s a villain. He thought I liked my adoptive father’s daughter, Xiaoshu. He also knew my identity, so he deliberately spared my life, so I could watch Xiaoshu fall in love with him, marry him, and then be killed by him.”

“He thought I would definitely be the next successor. But I didn’t want to be the leader at all. When my adoptive father died, I was going to quit the gang and go guard his grave.”

He laughed intermittently, he was amused, “He thought everyone was like him, a dog of power. Even when I told him my thoughts, he never believed me. He saw me as a thorn in his side.”

“And a person’s victory, if there’s no place to show it off, no loser to compare it to, how boring would that be?”

“So I’m not only alive, but I’m doing well. Otherwise, how would he satisfy his vanity?”

Tan Yiyuan was silent, he watched the big, burly man casually wipe away his tears, and he also clearly saw the intense hatred and mockery in his eyes.

“What opportunity did you just mention?”

Feng Tao said in a deep voice, “I’m a delivery driver now, I deliver all kinds of goods, so I’ve met people from all walks of life.”

“My last job was to go out to sea to deliver Blue Ice. I got some information from the people I picked up the goods from. The Polov family is hiring.” His eyes shone with a fiery light, “They’re hiring people who can kill. This was supposed to be a secret, but the contact and I are good friends, and he knows I want to do something big, so he deliberately told me.”

“They say that little people have narrow horizons, but I don’t think so.”

“What kind of people are the Polov family? I don’t know if you’ve been watching the news lately. The old head of the family died, and the new head of the family took over. He’s a military man.”

“He’s suddenly hiring people, and he wants to hire people who can kill. Isn’t this an opportunity?”

Tan Yiyuan’s face showed a clear look of hesitation and thought.

Feng Tao wasn’t annoyed, he continued, “I’ve thought about it. I’m not just trying to trick you. I’m going too. Not just me, but a few brothers I know, they also hate Qian Hu to the bone. We’re all going, we’ll have each other’s backs.”

“No matter what we do, who we kill, as long as we’re alive, we’ll have borrowed the Polov family’s power. Once we gain their trust, we’ll smear the Black Tiger Gang and lure them to destroy that beast, Qian Hu. If we succeed, we’ll naturally get our revenge. If we fail, we’re just dead anyway, we’re going to die sooner or later.”

“It was them who told me about your situation. I came to approach you tonight on purpose.”

He looked sincere, “I know you’re a good man, so I want to invite you to join us.”

Tan Yiyuan hadn’t spoken yet, he was clearly hesitant.

Feng Tao wasn’t in a hurry, he had spoken the truth, he gave him a string of numbers and letters, “This is my contact number. If you really have nowhere to go tonight, sleep here. If you’re not comfortable, I won’t stop you from leaving.”

“We’re leaving the day after tomorrow afternoon. Think about it, and contact me if you decide. I’m sincere.”

Tan Yiyuan opened his mouth, “I, I do need to think about it.”

“I understand,” Feng Tao said.

“I have a place to sleep tonight,” Tan Yiyuan said.

“I hope you don’t leak this out,” the other man said.

“I won’t,” Tan Yiyuan shook his head, “I’m not that kind of person.”

He left and walked onto the evening street. The night wind blew, carrying with it all kinds of complex and unpleasant smells.

To be honest, he wasn’t unmoved. But he didn’t know what the Polov family was planning, he didn’t know what would happen to him if he went. The future was completely unknown. Would he really succeed if he gambled on a hope that he wasn’t even sure of?

But Tan Yiyuan also knew that he couldn’t get rid of the Black Tiger Gang by himself, or with just a few people. There were indeed many people who had a grudge against the Black Tiger Gang, but how many people dared to take revenge on them without regard for their lives?

He walked on the road where he couldn’t see ahead, he fell into a long period of confusion.

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The funeral was over. Lu Mingqiu pretended to be weak and rested in the mansion for a while. When it was time for lunch, she came out of her bedroom.

In the afternoon, she went to the back of the house to see her mother.

Since the former head of the family’s suspicious illness became more and more serious, he had placed all his lovers in the main house, under his own eyes.

But these lovers weren’t allowed to go to the main building. After the last mistress died, the head of the family didn’t remarry, so only the descendants lived in the main building.

After the former head of the family died, the back of the house was shrouded in gloom. The new head of the family, Azberto, would definitely not accept them. He wasn’t interested in having stepmothers, and they were waiting for the eviction notice that would come at some point.

Besides, without the Polov family’s money to support them, these people who were used to a life of luxury and didn’t know how to support themselves, could they really live out the rest of their lives on their severance pay?

Lu Mingqiu called a servant to lead the way. When she walked into the room, her mother was crying her eyes out.

Her sadness was so obvious, her eyes were red and swollen, her voice was hoarse. When she saw someone at the door, she rubbed her eyes for a long time before she could see who it was.

“Inola, you, your father…” She said, then covered her face and sobbed again.

The servant retreated, Lu Mingqiu closed the door. Her mother’s appearance hadn’t changed much, she was well-maintained, she could pass for a young woman in her twenties. She was like a lily flower that had been stopped in time.

“I came back just to attend the funeral,” she said.

“He’s gone, what am I going to do?” Her mother said with tear-filled eyes, “I’m all alone, how am I going to live?”

The words she said were definitely not about worrying about her livelihood, but completely from her emotions.

Lu Mingqiu didn’t speak, and as expected, she heard her continue to sob, “He was my heaven, my everything. He’s gone, my heart and soul are scattered.”

“How could it be so sudden? Just the other day, I saw him, he was still so strong, so handsome. I really can’t accept it.”

She threw herself on the coffee table again, crying so hard that she couldn’t catch her breath.

Lu Mingqiu suddenly felt a little sad. Her mother was standing right in front of her, the daughter she had carried for ten months, and such a big thing had happened. Her mother hadn’t asked about her situation once since she got married.

Even when she came home and stood in front of her, she didn’t say a word about “how are you doing?” Her heart was only with the husband who didn’t love her at all.

Although she had known and understood her mother’s nature, at this moment, she couldn’t help but think of the butler’s concerned face. Then she looked at this woman who was sobbing, and she felt absurd.

“After you leave here in two days, you can go back to your old place. I’ll send you money every month, don’t worry about your life,” Lu Mingqiu said.

Her mother said with tear-filled eyes, “Can’t I stay here? I want to be closer to him.”

Lu Mingqiu shook her head, “Azberto is the head of the family now, there’s no reason for him to keep supporting you. They’re going to replace everyone here.”

“Then I’ll go beg him, okay?” She looked unwilling to accept it, “It’s not for anything else, it’s not about the money here. It’s just that I really can’t bear to leave him.”

“Don’t be delusional,” Lu Mingqiu frowned, “Azberto doesn’t like to be disturbed. If you go ahead and do your own thing, don’t even think about staying here, you won’t even be able to save your life. He’ll definitely kill you.”

Her mother was startled, she stammered, “What? Would he really do that? I’m, I’m your father’s person!”

“He will.”

Her mother still couldn’t believe it, but under her daughter’s gaze, she still whimpered, “I won’t go.”

She was startled, she stopped crying, but she didn’t stop talking. She started talking about her love story with the former head of the family. As she spoke, perhaps she was too tired, she lay down on the sofa and fell asleep.

Lu Mingqiu sat quietly for a while, her expression calm, she didn’t know what she was thinking.

Then she gently got up and left the room. She called a servant, “Tell the bodyguards not to let anyone from here go to the main building, did you hear me?”

The servant nodded quickly.

Then she left.

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