How can I bow my head and serve the powerful officials?

The place where the carriage stopped was Yuji Mountain, located on the east bank of the Minjiang River.

The mountain is so high and steep that someone once wrote a poem saying "When the sky is clear and you look down, all the peaks seem low", which shows that the mountain is so high that even a mountain torrent cannot flood it.

It is also because of this that Yuji Mountain blocks the eastward flow of the river, resulting in the current situation of drought in the east and flooding in the west of the Jiangdu Plain. The counties in the east lack water for farming, while the counties in the west are affected by floods all year round. Both sides are suffering.

Xie Chengze stood at the foot of the mountain, took off his outer robe, then bent down, lifted the hem of his inner robe, rolled it up around his waist, and then tied a knot.

Two long and straight legs were exposed, and Xie Chengze did some warm-up exercises to avoid sports injuries while climbing the mountain.

Shen Yuan looked at his posture and asked, "You want to climb a mountain?"

Xie Chengze nodded, "Lord Shen, do you want to prepare as well?"

The mountains are very rugged and it is not easy to walk in an outer robe.

Shen Yuan shook his head. "I have Qinggong skills, so there is no need to go through so much trouble."

Xie Chengze showed an envious look, "That's great, I really want to chop off your legs, Lord Shen, and put them on my body."

Shen Yuan: ...

What nonsense is he talking about again?

After warming up, Xie Chengze carried the small water bag and bag he had prepared, and stepped onto Yuji Mountain with high morale. "I am on the road to becoming an immortal!!!"

Two quarters of an hour later.

Xie Chengze collapsed on a rock beside the mountain road, like a rotten dried fish fillet, unable to move even when poked.

Shen Yuan stood aside, glancing at him and sneered, "Your Highness has not climbed halfway up the mountain when you ran out of strength. Now it is midday and your legs are exhausted. This is truly a dangerous path to becoming an immortal."

Xie Chengze:?

Why are you talking about classical Chinese? I can do it too!

"I ask you to carry me up the mountain. If you fail, I will punish you. I will tell you, I will tell you..." Xie Chengze was stuck. He looked around and his eyes lit up. "I will tell the spirit of the mountain ant you stepped on to death!"

Shen Yuan: ...

childish.

"Lord Shen." Seeing that Shen Yuan did not move, Xie Chengze stretched out his arms towards him with a longing look in his eyes.

Shen Yuan shook his head, "Second Prince, it's not that I don't want to carry you, but I haven't had lunch yet and my strength is limited. I can only guarantee that I can climb to the top of the mountain alone."

"Then why did you come out with me?" Xie Chengze said with disdain, "It was supposed to be our Wuji who carried me up the mountain!"

He shouted at the top of his voice, "We Wuji are so tired, but we can still carry me up the mountain. You can't do it!"

"Can you please——"

"Is it not possible——"

“No—”

"what--"

Xie Chengze's contemptuous questions continued to echo in the mountains, and a few birds chirped along, as if they were also laughing at Shen Yuan's incompetence.

Shen Yuan: ...

Shen Yuan turned his back and said, "Come up."

Xie Chengze came back to life, and with a somersault, he flew onto Shen Yuan's back, stretched out his arms and shouted, "Let's go!"

Shen Yuan then realized that he had been deceived by Xie Chengze again.

It's not that he can't climb anymore, it's that he's just too lazy to climb, and wants to use his lightness skills to climb the mountain easily!

With a sigh in his heart, Shen Yuan resigned himself to his fate, crossed his legs, and climbed up the mountain road.

Qinggong is good for climbing the mountain, because it is fast. The cool mountain breeze brushed past the ears, drying a lot of the thin sweat on the forehead of the handsome young man. He squinted his eyes in comfort, put his hands naturally on Shen Yuan's shoulders, and said with emotion, "Master Shen, you are so easy to ride."

Shen Yuan staggered.

He gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, be careful with your words!"

Why did he always speak so frivolously in this life? Could it be that he praised Xie Chengze too much in his previous life, so he was taking revenge on himself like this?

If he thought so, then Shen Yuan would definitely not do as he wished.

Shen Yuan's big hands that were holding up his buttocks tightened slightly upwards, and whether intentionally or casually, he gave him a slight shake, secretly provoking, "I will take it seriously."

Xie Chengze didn't believe him, and was unwilling to be left behind. He blew gently into his ear, his voice soft and charming, "Your Highness is serious too~"

Warm breath rushed into Shen Yuan's ears, and his neck stiffened. A strange feeling of numbness and itchiness spread throughout his body, causing his ears to ring slightly and his mind to become dazed. The mountain road under his feet became soft and he almost lost his balance.

He bit his tongue and regained a trace of rationality. He countered: "Then how serious can Your Highness be?"

"It depends on how much Lord Shen can accept~" Xie Chengze continued to be a masochist, "Lord Shen is heroic and majestic, I have admired him for a long time~ Ouch! Don't pinch my leg! It hurts--"

The two straight men competed openly and covertly, and finally reached the top of the mountain amidst the noise and silence.

Shen Yuan put Xie Chengze down like throwing away a burden, and walked quickly to the shade of a tree nearby, not wanting to talk to him anymore. "Your Highness, please do as you please. I will be waiting here!"

Xie Chengze was the best at pushing things too far, so he immediately took advantage of the situation and ran towards him happily, "Sir Shen! I want to climb the tallest tree!"

Looking at the lively Xie Chengze, Shen Yuan began to regret that he should not have left the house today.

Wouldn't it be better to stay in the government office and bully Liang Wanda? Why did he have to come here to work like a cow and a horse for Xie Chengze, and be...

Recalling the other party's teasing and provocation at that time, a tingling sensation flowed through the skin on his neck and throughout his body again. The sudden unfamiliar emotion made Shen Yuan uneasy, and he could no longer see what Xie Chengze was trying to do.

He is like the little wild cat you picked up when you were traveling as a child. He will tease you a little when he is in a good mood, and leave quickly when he has had enough fun. Occasionally, he will suddenly turn against you and scratch you a little, but will then stick out his tongue to lick your wounds.

If you say he is good, he is not good; if you say he is bad, he is not bad enough.

This kind of him makes him feel confused.

For some reason, Shen Yuan did not choose to carry him on his back this time. Instead, he stretched out his arms to hug his waist, and with one leap he carried him up the tree.

"Fuck!" Xie Chengze was startled and subconsciously closed his eyes. He wrapped his whole body around Shen Yuan like an octopus, with his legs tightly wrapped around his waist. "Brother! Hold on tight! Don't let me fall!"

"Relax." Shen Yuan felt like he was about to be strangled to death, and growled, "You won't fall!"

Xie Chengze then opened his eyes. At this moment, the two of them were standing at the top of a tall tree. Shen Yuan was hanging on a branch, his silver-white robe fluttering in the wind, his high black ponytail blowing in the wind, making him look handsome, elegant and graceful.

Xie Chengze had to admit that this guy was damn handsome.

But... he patted Shen Yuan on the shoulder, "Brother, the direction is wrong, turn it over."

Shen Yuan: ...

Shen Yuan turned around and changed direction, and Xie Chengze saw it. In the vast view that only those who live on the top of the mountains can have, the water of the Minjiang River roared and rushed towards the direction of the Jiangdu Plain. The earth-yellow flood carrying mud and sand was like a ferocious tiger. Even on the top of the mountain, one could hear its low roar as it rushed past, as if it would not stop until it swallowed up the entire Jiangdu Plain.

Trees fell, fields were flooded, houses collapsed, and people died.

Just like the greedy Taotie, people have no way to deal with it and can only kneel down and pray to God for mercy and give them, the common people, a way to survive.

But nature is cruel and treats all things as straw dogs.

Heaven and earth are not emotional and have no favoritism. They treat all things equally, allowing them to flourish and wither on their own without asking for anything in return.

Sages are also unkind and treat the people as straw dogs. They let nature take its course without any preference, believing that it is the right answer for the people to follow the natural development, so they will not interfere with the behavior of the people and let them survive or perish on their own.

This is a sentence said by Lao Tzu in the fifth chapter of "Tao Te Ching", which can be summarized as "unkindness" is the embodiment of "benevolence" of heaven, earth and saints in the world.

But looking at the fertile fields being swallowed up, the innocent dogs and cattle and sheep being washed away, people kneeling and crying in front of the bodies of their relatives and friends, and some people may not even be able to find the bodies of their family members. Is this "unkindness" kind or unkind?

If heaven and earth were unkind, all things would become as lowly as straw dogs.

If a sage is unkind, the people will become as lowly as straw dogs.