In truth, Liu Ze was not a professional scammer.
He had originally been a second-rate professional magician, but he earned little money and had little talent for magic. He was not even as popular as some amateur magic streamers on short-video platforms.
After Xiao Yu became famous and even gave related industries such as fortune-telling, feng shui, and exorcism a boost, Liu Ze began entertaining some crooked ideas.
He called himself a Taoist from Mount Mao and, imitating Xiao Yu's title, dubbed himself Master Liu.
Clearly, he had more talent as a scammer than as a magician.
Liu Zheng was not the first person Liu Ze had scammed, but he was the one he had swindled the most money out of.
Liu Ze had actually only started scamming a month earlier, even later than Xiao Yu. At first, he used magic tricks to pass off as immortal spells and Taoist Arts, deceiving poorly informed farmers in mountain villages.
But although these people were easy to fool, they had little money. Swindling a few dozen or a hundred yuan out of them already counted as a big job, and that naturally could not satisfy Liu Ze's appetite.
Then, through a chance opportunity, he set his sights on Liu Zheng: someone from Liu Ze's hometown worked at Liu Zheng's company.
Liu Ze persuaded his fellow townsman to help him pull off a big score. The man then stirred up trouble and made up stories at the company every day, leaving everyone on edge. Everyone thought something unclean was haunting the company, and at that point, the townsman introduced Liu Ze, Master Liu, to Liu Zheng.
After Liu Ze made a show of performing two magic tricks, flying through the air and walking on water, Liu Zheng was utterly awestruck and believed in