My name is Chen Laoyao. I am very old and sick, huddled in a dilapidated mud house. The half piece of faded maltose paper on the table is like a scar, engraved with the absurdities and sins of my life.
I was kidnapped into a beggar gang in troubled times. I relied on reading people's hearts and designing scams to transform myself from a child who was bullied by others to the leader of the gang. I used fake blood scabs to win mercy, used fake goods to make huge profits, defrauded wealthy gentry out of their charity money, and also coaxed the poor out of their living money - the pension money hidden in blue cloth and the life-saving money to save my children were all crushed by my lies.
It wasn't until I wanted to abolish the evil rule of kidnapping and selling children in the gang that I was framed and imprisoned by my most trusted "third uncle", Masan. After three years in prison and looking back at the cold wall for half my life, I was shocked to realize that I had already fallen into the quagmire of evil. Those burn scars that had been ignored and the special way of weighing silver coins all spoke of the greed of human nature.
After I was released from prison, I washed my hands in a golden basin, but when I came back from my dreams at midnight, the face of being deceived always kept me awake. I have deceived others all my life, and I have been deceived by fate for half my life. Ma San's triple disguise is just the epitome of deception in the world: kindness will be exploited, and trust will be trampled on.
Now that I don't have much time left, I only want to warn the world: deception is always a shackles, and people's hearts are unpredictable. Only by keeping one's heart and refusing to do evil is salvation. Don't be like me, spending half your life cheating for a lifetime of guilt. By the time you wake up, you will already regret it.
