"Who would believe someone who says nothing but lies, who does nothing but acts and pretends?" 

everyone, if she is good. 

-- andy griffith 
 

•before•

She wasn't a saint to start with; any innocence that she might have left was stripped bare at a very young age. Growing up alone with both of her parents barely around, she had no choice but to grow up quick.

chapter i. the start

Neighbors, teachers and social workers had supported her, bringing her food and daily necessities so she could still have sort of a nomal life. Though, the lack of money had compelled her to venture into the society when she was still too young. She began to steal, at first it was only snacks from grocery and convenience stores, then it was her classmate's money, then their wrist watches, smart phones. Anything that could be valuable and could be traded in for money, she would steal them all.

She was only ten when she finally learned of her mother's true nature. She was caught by her homeroom teacher one day, having found her classmate's missing wallet inside Jieqiong's school bag. And the teacher had contacted her mother, who was drunk when she came to school. Strangely, the woman only laughed, much to the teacher's disgust and Jieqiong's bewilderment. When they went home together, the woman only did one thing with her daughter for the rest of the day, which was to lecture her on the correct ways of pickpocketing and stealing stuff. if anything, she was proud of Jieqiong's rules-breaking action.

And there was no going back after that.

Jieqiong would soon learn that her mother who would come home with different men each time, who would occasionally bring home cash that she would soon spend all on booze, drugs and other stuff that fancied her, was a con artist. A ruthless criminal preying on innocent people, lusting after money, using her beauty and charming words to her advantage. She would also soon realize that from her mother's constant brainwashing and lessons, she was slowing growing into someone just like her mother, in all the good and bad ways. Deprived from a mother's affection and love ever since she was young, she had thought if she followed through with all her mother's requests, she would receive the love that she had yearned for so much. And so she did, willingly step into the wrong side of law even when she was still a kid, all in the name of love.

So she spent the next few years falling deeper into dark side, led by her mother who had wanted more and more from her. She was taught how to 'read people and their behaviors' to figure out their background or other information. She had to learn how to act, talk and play around with her words to gain trust from people. She learned how to use her beauty to her advantage, charming her way into people's hearts. It wasn't long before Jieqiong eventually started stealing from people's homes, or playing along with her mother's schemes, manipulating and lying to people just for money. The ultimate motive was always money, and she would do anything for it, if it kept them happy.

chapter ii.

When she finally learned who her father was after all these years, her mother had been the one to leave her this time. She had just started high school, when he came looking for her in school. He soon revealed that the woman she called mother was dead, murdered in cold blood by some unknown suspects for unknown reasons. It didn't take long for Jieqiong to put bits and pieces of the story together, that she was a child born out of a regrettable night between a police detective and a criminal.

He didn't take her in, instead he had sent her to the system claiming that it would be better for her, but she knew he was only trying to protect his reputation, scared that she would ruin everything for him. He wasn't even surprised when he found out about her involvement with her mother's crime. To keep an eye on her, he visited her weekly and tried his best to fill her head with talks of importance of bringing justice and keeping the peace of the society. She had played along, finding his attempts to stop her from possibly committing more crimes pathetic.

So she interacted with him in fake curiosity, pretended to be good, acted in total fakeness whenever he was around. Though, it was his stories of solving crimes that intrigued her the most, she had been interested in profiling criminals and the techniques that came with it. and he had been nothing but glad to tell her everything, thinking that she was interested in the crime fighting field, even teaching her new knowledge and skills. And she had then used everything to her advantage.

chapter iii.

It was one normal boring day just before summer break that she saw the deck of tarot cards that were used as props for the school's theater play. She watched the play, intrigued by the way how the cast members' actions were all seemingly affected by results of the card readings.

Her first encounter with tarot cards both fascinated and confused her, and that night, she stole a deck of cards from one of the local antiques shop. The rest of her summer was spent between her usual petty crimes for extra cashflow, and researching on tarot cards, memorizing the different meanings as she silently anticipated and prepared for whatever that was to come.

When she went back to school, it didn't take her long before she started making money off her schoolmates. It was her, her years of trained manipulation tricks and deduction skill, and her tarot cards that granted her the extra cashflow. She would give her schoolmates card readings, spewing total nonsense— or advices in this case on what they should do based on their problems. It only required some attention paid to the minors details of a person's behavior and actions, and she could make the entire story believable. Years of practice with her con artist mother and detective father had only made her into an expert too.

chapter iv.

She spent the next few years doing the same, her list of crimes only growing longer but on a positive note, she was intelligent and careful enough to have never been caught and she did manage to graduate high school after all. Her father hadn't even begun to suspect anything, he thought she was changing for good, the sense of justice finally growing in her.

After high school, she landed another part time job in the same exact antiques shop that she had previously stolen from, the owner hadn't suspected anything and was more than willing to let this quiet yet pretty girl take care of everything. From there, her con scheme only got much bigger as she secretly set up a tarot reading booth in the back of the store, decorated it with fake props and wore fake costumes to make the entire play more believable. Her clients base expanded too, from students to rich middle aged women or even business people, all of them coming to her hoping for an advice or two.

you would be surprised at what people would do if you give them something to believe in, especially when they are desperate. and that's how she earns the trust of people, feeding them lies disguised as beautiful words and smiles, giving them hope hidden behind horrendous schemes. everything, just for the sake of money.  

When she wasn't busy telling her clients some fake-but-believable advices, she would get herself involved with her other partners. People in her line of work, all stealing, cheating and betraying their non-existent conscience for a living. They would plan and carry out some heists, all for money.

It was only when two of her father's colleagues in the precinct came to her for a card reading did she get exposed for all her lies. They had recognized her, having seen pictures of her father with her before and they had seen through the entire fake setup. She went on the run for quite some time, before she was eventually arrested, but her life was far from over.

chapter v. the fall

Her father had been furious, but he did pull some strings for her. Facing multiple charges that could result in her sitting in jail for the rest of her life, an offer was made to her. She was to help the police track down wanted criminals with her various skills and contacts in the underworld, or face jailtime.

And so her journey with the cops began. She still wasn't allowed to travel to far places alone, but in return of helping the cops, at least she had her freedom. She would be shown investigation files, and with her expertise in 'behavioral reading' she was expected to deduce the suspects' following moves or whereabouts. Much to her own surprise, she seemed to have a talent for solving crimes too, eventually cracking more cases and catching criminals for the cops, earning their reluctant trust. She began to gain more freedom, even allowed to go on her own investigations, as long as she reported back to the precinct and kept her tracker on her at all times.

The more she learnt about all the shady stuff that happened behind the scenes of the society, the dirty deeds that cops were involved with, the unspeakable and untouchable pact between dirty cops and criminals like her, the longer her enemy list grew.

She was the one threat that both cops and criminals were wary of, for she had the power of exposing and destroying them all with only her words.

Though, she hadn't expected to see her father in the shady part of town, in some sort of immoral business. And she certainly hadn't expected him to be the one who ended her life.

•after•

chapter vi. the end

Jieqiong has no memories of what really happened in her past, or the real reason behind her death.

Her only memories of her past life are of her working for the cops, a puppet of theirs. She remembers chasing down criminals and cracking cases with them, but she had oh-so-conveniently forgotten the part where she had very much been involved in the crimes too. she remembers being shot in the head, and was in coma for a few days before the universe decided her time was up. 

Barely remembering the details of how she died or the face of her murderer, there is nothing she wants more than to find out the real truth.

Though, she would soon find herself having glimpses into her past life in the forms of random flashbacks or both nightmares and dreams. Or her usual antics of conveniently stealing something, or lying and charming her way out of various situations. All of these would only serve to confuse her more as she desperately wantsto know who she was, and what she has done to even deserve being murdered.

the brief memory flashbacks are enough to make her uneasy, would she ever be ready to face the past version of herself that seemed so dark and anything but innocent, or would she be ready to face the consequences of whatever her past self did? It remains a question that she both wants and dreads to know the answer of.

No matter what, nothing could be worse than being dead, not when she's already in heaven, right? 

personality junk 

•before•

She has no fixed attitude, her demeanor changes when she's facing different people. Though the only thing that remains unchanged is her charming and captivating self, aiming to make people like her enough to trust her, so she could proceed to take whatever she could from them. Manipulative and cunning, she has her own way of using her words, her wits or her various skills so she could get what she wanted. She would do anything to get money, as she views it almost as important as her life. Pretentious and deceitful, she doesn't even believe in tarot cards or anything spiritual and she is most certainly not a god-believer; she has learnt that with her cards, it's one of the easiet ways to gain people's trust and if she has to create a whole world of lies and feeds it to her clients? She's more than willing to.

Lying is her second nature, something that is as natural as breathing, she's not someone who tells the truth or reveals her true self and emotions. She lives behind a mask, keeping the façade of a perfect young lady with an captivating personality. Though her real self comes out when she's around the very few that she dared to trust. With them, she is much more blunt, sassy, rude and anything but kind.

•after•

Perhaps it's the idea of being in heaven, or perhaps it's due to her lack of past memories, she doesn't remember who she used to be, or how she would behave. Her previous fake pretense of a pretty young woman with a soft captivating personality has been adapted into her entire persona now. Soft-spoken, kind, friendly, she is nothing but happy to know that she's now here in heaven, thinking that her past job as a civilian consultant to the police had granted her a ticket through the gates of heaven. Any traces of her real self erased along with her memories, but as she slowly starts to get more memory flashbacks of her past, she would soon delve back into her old self. The real version of herself who was the exact opposite of who she is now.
 

Likes money, the colors black and cold, cards (tarot + playing), stargazing, city lights, crime/action films, cold weather, weapons, food

Dislikes authority figures, being chased/followed, bugs/insects, hot weather,  

Hobbies tarot reading, watching movies, reading, 

Secrets oh, wouldn't you want to know? 

Fears unable to get her memories back, her lies getting exposed, 

The Quirks Fun Facts About her

—  tends to psychoanalyze people at time and work on her deduction skills by always observing behaviors of people.
— learns a lot of her skills from her parents + watching films
— criminal records: b&E, theft, shoplifting, homicide, gamble, GTA, offensive weapons act, counterfeit and forging, frau, scamming,  
— keeps a butterfly knife on her at all times
— more TBA
— Quirk here.