“She was cursing the neighbor’s dog~” Fu Miaoxue thought back to her childhood and laughed happily. “Back then, there was a dog next door that always peed by our front door. We scolded it so many times but it never stopped — the smell was awful!”

Du Lai teased her: “That’s territorial marking. Even if the owner tries to train it, it won’t work. You should’ve gotten a dog of your own to reclaim the territory — then the neighbor’s dog wouldn’t dare pee there anymore.”

Fu Miaoxue burst out laughing. “That’s exactly what our housekeeper said! So we ended up getting a really big dog! This big—” She gestured with her hands. “I could ride it like a horse!”

Du Lai smiled and asked, “So what happened after that? Did the neighbor’s dog still pee everywhere?”

Fu Miaoxue paused, then fell silent. After a moment, she said quietly, “I don’t know. Later, they all died — the dog was gone too. My grandfather came to take me to Singapore…”

Du Lai stilled, recalling the rumors about the Fu family — Fu Miaoxue’s parents had been tortured to death by Fu Lisheng’s enemies.

With her parents meeting such an end, the housekeepers and servants of the household had likely not been spared either.

“Hey, why did we end up talking about me?” Fu Miaoxue caught herself and asked Du Lai, “Where were we before?… Oh! The ‘gentleman above the beam’! What does that mean?”

Since he had brought up her painful past, Du Lai didn’t mind exposing a bit of his own, and replied, “A ‘gentleman above the beam’ is a metaphor for a thief.”

“A thief?” Fu Miaoxue’s eyes went wide, staring at him in astonishment. “What kinds of things did you steal?”

“All kinds~” Du Lai said lazily. “Wallets, phones, cars… With a partner, you could steal even more.”

“How did you learn?” Fu Miaoxue asked, full of curiosity. “Can you teach me?”

Du Lai laughed helplessly. “Why do you want to learn everything? You’re a young lady who lacks for nothing — what would you steal things for?”

“It sounds fun~” Fu Miaoxue replied.

“Stealing is not fun.” Du Lai thought of the past and let out a low sigh. “I started learning at age seven. It took three years before I was considered trained. Before that, I had to practice every day — our master would set up a large incense burner filled with lit incense and needles sticking out everywhere. You had to pull the needles out without burning yourself… Then there was picking eggs out of hot coals to train speed and precision. Whoever did best became a senior apprentice.”

“There were senior apprentices?” Fu Miaoxue grew even more amazed. “So you were part of a thieves’ organization! How impressive! Were there many people? Were you considered skilled among them?”

“You’ve actually stumped me…” Du Lai thought carefully. “At its peak, our master had taken in about twenty-seven or twenty-eight children — all strays picked up from the streets.”

Fu Miaoxue marveled, “With that many people, why bother being pickpockets? Just rob people outright — so much more efficient!”

“Not everyone could become a thief…” Du Lai’s smile faded as he spoke slowly. “Our master said that this craft depended on whether heaven gave you a talent for it. If you couldn’t grasp the basics within a month, your hands and feet would be broken, or your eyes burned blind, and you’d be dragged to the streets to beg. Our master didn’t keep anyone who couldn’t earn their keep.”

Fu Miaoxue felt a chill run through her at those words. She thought Du Lai’s hands were beautiful, and couldn’t bring herself to imagine them broken, his body thrown onto the street to beg.

“Your master was truly terrible — even worse than my grandfather,” she said, then asked, “Did you go to work on the cruise ship to learn magic because you couldn’t take it anymore?”

Du Lai was silent for a very long time.

Because the answer was somewhat ironic.

“The reason I went to find work on a cruise ship was because he died…” Du Lai closed his eyes and said calmly. “I used to hate him with everything I had, but after he died, there was no one to protect us — and we ended up worse off than before.”

Du Lai no longer wanted to talk about himself.

He felt dirty.

—