My name is Liu Longze, and this is a story about how I transformed from an ordinary teenager into a con man. I was born in 1995 in a small town in Guangdong Province, China. It was a small place, but life was hard. My father, Liu Tianming, was a gambler, and my mother, Li Meihua, left us when I was five years old. I don't remember much about her, I just remember that she was very beautiful and always had the fragrance of jasmine. My father was often away from home, either at the gambling table or chased by creditors with nowhere to hide. I lived with my grandma most of the time. Grandma always loves to tell me stories about my grandfather. Grandpa was a well-known crook, calling the shots in a small local casino. He could defraud anyone out of money with a deck of playing cards, but grandma said that grandpa had his own principles: never cheat the poor and never cheat honest people. One day I lost really badly and went home feeling depressed. My father was at home for the rare occasion. He noticed something was wrong with me and asked, "What's wrong, son?"
I told him I lost money.
He smiled: "So, you also discovered the charm of gambling?"
I nodded.
"If you want to gamble, you have to learn it well," he said. "Gambling is not just about luck, it's about skill."
He introduced me to his friend Lao Li, a master of scamming. Lao Li agreed to teach me, and so my learning journey began.
