Volume One: Rhapsody of the Setting Sun Mountains

Chapter One: The Paranoiac

　　Henry Clark had a not-so-severe illness: paranoia.

　　One day at the age of fourteen, he suddenly stood on the rooftop of the Tianjin International Building wearing a canvas raincoat, claiming to be the last disciple of the Grand Supreme Elder Lord, one of the seven leaders of the Wealth Corps, the king of assassins in the Triad, the world’s greatest detective, and the direct superior of the Howling Celestial Dog...

　　So he was sent to a mental hospital. Everyone knew he was talking nonsense—after all, the direct superior of the Howling Celestial Dog was clearly the Erlang God.

　　Although he had paranoia, it didn’t affect his intelligence at all. Henry Clark was truly smart. Three days after watching a soccer match, he could recount every detail of the game for over a hundred minutes straight, even repeating the halftime commercial slogans word for word, more meticulously than a live radio commentator.

　　Aside from talking nonsense, Henry Clark’s greatest interest was soaking in the reading room with books. After he escaped, the hospital finally made up its mind to permanently close the patients’ reading room, because the consequences of letting a high-IQ paranoiac read were just too serious:

　　After reading "The Young Flying Fox," Henry Clark organized the first Kowloon Cup Martial Arts Tournament in the hospital. Hundreds of patients ran around in circles under his command, and everyone who saw him would bow and cup their fists, shouting, “Leader!”

　　After reading "Sherlock Holmes," he would bite on a plastic straw pretending it was a pipe, leading dozens of ‘Watson assistants’ around the hospital solving cases. The results were actually pretty good—they caught three groups of thieves who had snuck into the hospital to steal sedatives. When they were caught, the thieves were baffled: since when did the police change uniforms...

　　The most terrifying was after he read "The Godfather." He single-handedly established three major families in the hospital: the Dong Family, the Yang Family, and the Dongyang Family. The three families used every trick in the book to compete for resources like outdoor time, toiletries, and braised pork—anything that could be obtained in a mental hospital. When necessary, they even engaged in armed conflict. From that day on, the hospital knew no peace. It was common to see groups of three or five patients either lying in ambush or meeting head-on, dueling with plastic spoons. Whoever’s spoon broke would shout and fall to the ground, playing dead until the bell signaling the end of outdoor time rang, at which point the patient would sheepishly get up and run back to their ward...

　　This situation lasted for two whole years, until one day while watching TV, a news story caught Henry Clark’s interest: a German thief used hypnosis to rob a bank, hypnotizing the teller in just a few sentences. In the end, the teller stuffed the thief’s backpack full of money, and the thief walked away with ease.

　　After seeing the news, Henry Clark immediately disbanded the three families and dove back into the reading room. He even actively cooperated with the doctors to earn internet access for research, leading his followers in building a harmonious hospital together. Eventually, the doctors believed he was gradually returning to normal. In reality, Henry Clark’s illness wasn’t that serious—as long as he could hold back from voicing his thoughts, he was just like a normal person. Of course, most of the time, he just couldn’t help himself.

　　After a full year of research, Henry Clark smiled, triumphantly tossing aside his books on psychology and hypnosis. He knew he was about to leave this hospital where only lunatics would stay.

　　At seventeen, Henry Clark taught himself hypnosis.

　　On a stormy morning, Henry Clark smiled and, using a drowsy, hypnotic voice, ‘persuaded’ three doctors and more than a dozen burly nurses to open the doors for them. Henry Clark, leading seven or eight of his most loyal followers, swaggered out of Tianjin Wujiayao Mental Hospital, all wearing jumpsuits with ‘Tianjin Anding Hospital’ printed in big characters on the back.

　　Staring at the endless stream of cars on the road, a white-haired Little Henry asked blankly, “Boss, where are we going?”

　　Henry Clark spun around on the spot, determined the direction, and pointed west: “Head west, to London, to participate in the next Olympic Games!”

　　“But boss, the next Olympics are still years away.”

　　“No worries, we’ll go first—first come, first served!”

　　The Little Henrys erupted in cheers, crowding around Henry Clark, singing the athletes’ march at the top of their lungs. Just as they were about to stride westward, a blinding bolt of lightning suddenly shot down from the gloomy sky, shattering their Olympic dream.

　　A muffled thunderbolt struck Henry Clark squarely on the head. The group of lunatics screamed as they were flung away by the tremendous force. By the time they got up, Henry Clark had vanished without a trace.

　　The white-haired Little Henry stared blankly for a moment, then cried, “Boss... was struck by lightning...”