On the day I was kicked out of my uncle's house, I first kowtowed to my aunt, thanking her for adopting me all these years. Then I told my uncle that if he dared to hit my aunt again, I would kill him.
My name is Chuliu, and since I was born, my parents have sent me to live with my aunt.
At first, my uncle treated me very well.
Of course, it wasn't because he liked me so much.
It was because my parents would send him money irregularly to thank him and my aunt for taking care of me.
There was a lot of money, so much that every time my uncle got drunk, he would happily say with bleary eyes that I was his cash cow.
I was young at that time and didn't know what my parents did.
It wasn't until one summer day when I was six years old that my father came back.
But he didn't walk back, he was carried back by people.
My father on the stretcher had lost his arms and legs.
The white bandages wrapped all over his body had long been soaked in blood, glaring red.
At that time, my father was already at death's door.
In his last moments, he left me with only one sentence:
"Be an ordinary person, live an ordinary life, never get involved in gambling!"
That day, I cried all my tears.
And from that day on, it seemed like I never smiled again.
After my father passed away, my mother never appeared again.
Without my parents' remittances, my uncle treated me worse and worse.
From verbal abuse in the beginning to later physical beatings.
And his cousin, Li Dabiao, who was five years older than me, also joined in.
I remember clearly that over the years, the two of them slapped me 2,436 times, kicked me 3,487 times, and punched me 2,329 times.
The number of times they whipped me with a whip or a stick added up to 336 times.
If it weren't for my aunt protecting me, I think I would have been beaten to death by them a long time ago.
I hate them, and I hold grudges.
Otherwise, I wouldn't remember so clearly.
At that time, I didn't know how to fight back, and I didn't dare to resist.
But I learned how to take a beating.
When I was driven out of the house, I wasn't homeless, I followed Sixth Uncle.
Sixth Uncle is not his real name; he has never told me his real name.
The reason I call him Sixth Uncle is that after he learned that my name was Chuliu, he asked me to call him that.
He came to our town in the second year after my father's death.
When I met him, he told me that he was the world's greatest magician.
And he was willing to teach me all of his magic.
Indeed, his magic was incredible.
Playing cards, mahjong, dice, Pai Gow, they flew around in his hands, sometimes visible, sometimes invisible, appearing and disappearing mysteriously.
That's how I started learning his so-called "magic" when I was seven years old.
Sixth Uncle was an extremely free-spirited person.
Apart from supervising my practice of "magic" every day, he would drink and enjoy himself, as well as seek the company of women.
He seemed to have an unusual obsession with women.
Even at over sixty years old, he would almost revel every night.
Once, he even had three women in one night.
Sixth Uncle also found women for me.
They were young, around eighteen or nineteen years old.
Their chubby faces were smeared with thick rouge and powder.
When she brought out her professional fake smile and posed coquettishly in front of me, taking off her first piece of clothing.
I gave her one word: "Get lost."
It's not that I don't like women, it's just that I don't like this kind of woman.
My woman must be gentle, obedient, and loyal. They must depend on me and treat me as their king.
Just like the "King" in a deck of cards.
But later, one day, a woman, sweaty and exhausted, lying in my arms, told me that the "King" in a deck of cards actually means "Joker."
On my twentieth birthday, Sixth Uncle took me to Drunken Xianglou.
It was the best restaurant in our town.
In the quaint private room, Sixth Uncle, with his silver hair, still carefree and unrestrained, smoked a golden sandalwood pipe.
"Pour the wine..."
The blue-and-white porcelain bottle contained thirty-year-aged Bamboo Leaf Green liquor.
As the wine flowed into the emerald glazed porcelain bowl, the wine blossomed and the fragrance filled the air.
"Xiaoliu, how long have you been with me?"
Sixth Uncle took a puff of the pipe, blowing out smoke rings, and asked me.
"Thirteen years, two months, and twenty-two days!"
"What did I teach you?"
"Magic!"
"What is magic?"
"The art of deceiving others to achieve the goal of changing day and night!"
Sixth Uncle nodded slightly.
He seemed satisfied with my answer.
After tapping the pipe, Sixth Uncle picked up the bowl and said to me, "After drinking this bowl of wine, you will graduate! From now on, you don't have to follow me anymore..."
I knew this day would come sooner or later.
I just didn't expect it to be on my twentieth birthday.
The thirty-year-aged Bamboo Leaf Green liquor entered my throat, and a spicy sensation shot from my stomach to the top of my head.
After putting down the bowl, Sixth Uncle said again, "Xiaoliu, remember this. What you have learned is magic, what you are entering is a thousand doors, and what you are walking is the Blue Path. From now on, you are no longer an ordinary person. You are a Blue Path hustler!"
The so-called Blue Path refers to all gambling cheats.
As long as you gamble, the path you walk is the Blue Path.
Thinking of my father's dying words, telling me to be an ordinary person and never get involved in gambling.
But I didn't expect that over a decade later, I would become a Blue Path hustler.
This is perhaps the ever-changing world and fate playing tricks on people.
"Xiaoliu, let me ask you again, do you want to be the boss or the grandson from now on?"
"The boss!"
I think in this world, no one willingly wants to be a grandson.
"Good, since you want to be the boss. I want you to use what you have learned in the past decade to let the whole Blue Path know that there is a Sixth Uncle, Chuliu, among them!"
Three years?
Can I do it?
I felt a bit lost.
Over the years, although I accompanied Sixth Uncle to countless gambling games and casinos, I never gambled myself.
I had no idea how good my cheating skills really were.
But I still nodded and agreed.
Sixth Uncle once told me that the most difficult thing about being a hustler is not the technique but the psychology.
Whether you can fully utilize all your lifelong learning in front of thousands of people, that is the essence.
"All right, from now on, you will venture into the world of the Blue Path on your own!"
Sixth
Uncle's tone was calm.
But in his eyes, I could still see his reluctance.
"The world? Where is the world?"
I looked out the window in confusion and asked softly.
"The world is right outside the door!"