Dawang, “…how did you guess it?” Most people would look for it in his right sleeve.
Han Qingsong, “You should practise for another decade if you don’t want me to find it.”
Dawang, “Um…picking locks?”
He took out a small coil of wire from his pocket, stretched it out and bent one end, “.”
Han Qingsong, “When did you learn it?”
“Two years ago, I think…I followed Fourth Uncle and Zhao Jianshe…” Dawang told the truth.
He followed Han Qinghua around as a follower since he was a child. Later, since he went to the County Town to study, the child went there often as well. At first, he was demanded to send items to the youngest aunt and uncle there, but later on, he wanted to go on his own accord.
Especially when Han Qinghua got to know Zhao Jianshe and accidentally met a bunch of new people. Most of them were gangsters and the like, but they all had their own unique skills. Two of them, in particular, were rather skillful.
He described it a bit, “Some people can change their appearance, and no matter what they do, you can’t tell that something’s amiss. Some of them have nimble fingers, making them capable of picking up soap flakes from boiling water and taking things out of people’s pockets without feeling anything. Some are able to pick open a lock with just a metal wire in two or three moves. There are also those who can tell fortunes of the future and the past with certainty. That person is very powerful, but he said that their Grandmaster(1) is even more amazing. If I were to be better than them, he said that he’d bring me to meet him.”
(T/N: A direct translation of the word would actually be ‘great-great grandfather’, but in slang language, it refers to someone who started an organisation or a team. It’s also only used if the person is highly thought of by their subordinates)
“Do you think they are very good?” Han Qingsong asked.
“Mmhm, but only one or two of them are pretty skillful. The others aren’t that good,” When he was a child, he did think that they were all pretty amazing. After he learned it, he found that he was learning the skills at a faster pace.
“How do you feel about that person?” Han Qingsong considered his vocabulary, “Did you want to be as powerful as he was?”
Dawang truthfully said, “I thought about it, I thought that if I were that amazing…” At that time, Dawang’s father was not at home, his grandparents were biassed, his mother was causing a ruckus all day long and the house was in a mess, so he wished he could stay out every day.
He was particularly envious of those people and even thought about bringing some people and leaving the village in order to seek the Grandmaster’s guidance.
However, those people said it was not possible, and as to why it was not possible, he did not understand back then.
Now that he was older, he knew that it was indeed impossible. Since they were being cracked down everywhere, the gang’s skills must not be exposed, otherwise they will be arrested and sentenced or shot as bad seeds. It was said that they used to have a very large team, but unfortunately all the leaders were punished to the firing squad whereas most of the members were dismissed into labour camps.
Currently, there are no more beggars. Everyone was part of the Commune, which meant that it was forbidden to beg.
Hence, the previous beggars were all gone as well.
“What about now? Do you still want to?” Han Qingsong asked him.