How was he so unlucky today?

He’d been on the verge of making a fortune, and now he’d stumbled into this lunatic.

Du Lai flashed an ingratiating smile and said: “It is my honor to perform for you. However, I did not bring my prop box with me — might the young miss allow me a moment?”

The young miss frowned: “A prop box? You need something like that to do magic?… So it’s all fake, then? How dull!”

Du Lai: “…”

If it’s not fake, are you saying it’s supposed to be real?

I am a magician, not a wizard, my dear young miss!

“Michael, go fetch the magician’s prop box,” the woman beside them said. “The magician stays.”

The tone was one of command, leaving no room for discussion.

The black-clad man addressed as Michael responded with respectful compliance, then turned briskly and walked straight out the door.

Du Lai cursed inwardly without pause, but kept a smile on his face and waited quietly to one side.

He had plenty of experience catering to this type of wealthy client. The key was to act like a compliant subordinate.

……

While they waited, the young miss continued to voice complaints from time to time — the gist of it being that the ship was dull, she couldn’t move about freely, the travel plans were terrible, and so on and so forth.

The woman beside her remained silent for most of it. Occasionally, when the young miss let slip a profanity, the woman would coolly interject, reminding her to mind her manners.

Du Lai listened quietly for a while and managed to piece together two things.

First: this young miss had apparently never traveled far from home before — or, put another way, her previous life had been relatively sheltered — and this cruise journey was her first time venturing out. Perhaps because her expectations had been too high, the disappointment was equally great, and she now found the vacation on the cruise ship utterly tedious.

Second: the woman who followed the young miss around was named Joanna. She was both the young miss’s governess and her head housekeeper, and was responsible for every aspect of the young miss’s daily life and personal safety.

People in the world love to talk about this or that tycoon — but in truth, many of the most powerful and wealthy individuals are entirely unknown to ordinary people, who would have no means of learning their names.

Just as now — Du Lai had been listening all this time and still couldn’t make out which family this young miss belonged to.

The sound of footsteps came from outside the door.

The door opened, and the black-clad man who had just left came in carrying the prop box — and in his other hand, he was leading a monkey on a leash.

“Ah! The little monkey’s here!” the young miss’s eyes lit up. She immediately jumped up from the sofa and ran over happily.

Du Lai was also taken aback, and blurted out: “Bobby?”

Wasn’t this the clown’s monkey? The one that never left his side at meals, baths, or sleep — how had it ended up being brought over in the middle of the night?

“Bobby?” The young miss took the thin chain connected to the monkey from the bodyguard’s hand, and asked Du Lai curiously: “You know it?”

Du Lai replied: “Bobby is a little celebrity on our ship — everyone knows it. Frank has had it for many years. There was once a wealthy businessman who offered three hundred thousand to buy it, and even he was turned down.”

He added with a not-unfunny smile: “Bobby is like Frank’s own son.”

The young miss asked: “Who is Frank?”

“The clown who sold us the monkey,” the governess answered coldly.

Du Lai: “…”

So it was sold… Hadn’t Frank always said he wouldn’t sell it for a hundred million?

“Never mind~” The young miss was feeding the monkey peanuts with great enthusiasm. “Anyway, this monkey is mine now. I need to give it a new name. Hmm… let’s call it Alice!”

Du Lai: “…”

This is a male monkey, you realize?

“All right, Alice, dance for me~”

The young miss gave the monkey its orders and watched it with eager anticipation.

—