Nine out of ten gamblers lose; I've run into a jerk!

Chapter 34 Heaven and Earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs.

On the seventeenth day of the mission's southward journey, Jingchuan finally had the entire carriage to himself, but thinking about yesterday's cliff fall, he suddenly felt unsafe without Shen Qingxi.

Unfortunately, Shen Che had seen through her identity, so he naturally wouldn't allow them to ride together anymore. Thinking of the chilling look Shen Che gave him this morning, he could only put his hands in his sleeves, look up at the sky, and pretend to be stupid.

Even if he said he was coerced by a female hooligan, Shen Che probably wouldn't believe him, just like his classmates in the palace academy were deceived by Shen Qingxi's ladylike appearance.

Jingchuan suddenly felt like he was the only one who was sober while everyone else was drunk.

Now that Shen Qing is in the open, he no longer needs to hide. In addition, by wearing a disguise, he no longer needs to behave properly and maintain the airs of a high-ranking noble family in front of others, and can finally unleash his true nature.

Looking out the car window at the scenery along the way, it was actually all barren and not much to see. But for the past two weeks, I'd been living a nocturnal lifestyle, afraid to even show my face during the day for fear of being discovered. I was really going stir-crazy.

Shen Qing looked at the barren land by the roadside, where traces of past reclamation could be vaguely seen; this must have been farmland.

"Brother, why are all the fields along this route abandoned and uncultivated? Shouldn't it be the season for spring planting now?"

"This place is within the territory of Yunzhou. Last year, there was a severe drought and no harvest. The people even ate the seeds to fill their stomachs and fled to other places to escape the famine."

So this is the Yunzhou I've often heard about. Shen Qing sighed softly, thinking of the disaster victims she met on the way to Anguo Temple. Have they found a place to settle down and make a living?

Will they come back later?

"Most of them will re-establish themselves in new places. Nature has its own course, and this place will eventually recover its vitality, at which time people will move in."

Those who come then will probably be refugees from other places, a cycle with no solution, as if the way of heaven is rotating the plow and the herd.

Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and all things are dogs.

During a rest stop, Shen Qing strolled along the roadside to digest her food, gazing at the endless wilderness and wondering when it would rain, since the waste system couldn't artificially induce rain.

[...] Don't be so ridiculous.

Lost in thought, Shen Qing didn't notice her footing. With a "crack," she seemed to have stepped on something and crushed it. Looking down, she saw that Shen Qing's face had turned green.

It was the skeleton of an infant, with ashes left from a fire nearby, making it impossible for Shen Qing to deceive herself that it had been eaten by wild animals.

The phrase "exchanging children to eat" is no longer just four words in historical records, but a piece of meat in a pot not long ago.

Shen Qing touched her stomach. She had never gone hungry; it must be a very lucky thing in this world.

With a heavy heart, Shen Qing returned to the group and continued their journey for seven days. Finally, he saw proper farmland, or rather, wheat seedlings growing in it.

As the carriage passed by, she saw several furtive figures in the field. They immediately crouched down and hid when they saw strangers. Were they so shy? Could it be that this village had been attacked by bandits before?

Because the next post station was still quite far away and they couldn't reach it before dark, the mission decided to spend the night in this village.

When Shen Qing arrived at the village chief's house, she realized what it meant to be poorly clothed and starving.

It turns out that the reason why people working in the fields during the day had to hide was because they weren't wearing clothes. The village chief's family was relatively well-off; they had a set of clothes that they could wear in public, which the whole family took turns wearing.

Had she ended up in some primitive tribe? Shen Qing, who came from Xuandu, suspected that they didn't live in the same country. He knew that the lives of ordinary people were hard, but he didn't expect them to be this miserable.

Was it because industry was underdeveloped that cloth was still too expensive for ordinary people?

Until he saw the village chief's spinning machine.

"The cloth woven was used to pay taxes, sir."

The village chief said this, and Shen Qing found it unbelievable. The people were already in such dire straits, yet they were still being taxed heavily. How could this country not be finished?

“This is true for all countries,” Shen Che explained. “In previous years, when war raged, grain was collected to pay the army’s wages, and cloth was collected to make clothing for the army. Now that all countries are too exhausted to fight, they have temporarily stopped fighting to recuperate. That is why the Fifth Prince was sent as a hostage to the Yu Kingdom.”

Are all sixteen countries this bad? No matter where the people go, they will never have a good life. He finally understood what it meant to have bandits that could never be eradicated.

Shen Qing always felt that the world was in a strange state of chaos. The world is bound to be united for a long time and divided for a long time. The last unified dynasty, Daqian, had been destroyed for nearly forty years. The original territory was becoming more and more fragmented. So far, no great ruler has emerged who can unify the world. There is not even a hint of it. This is unreasonable.

No, it's too much of a coincidence that the Phoenix Lord and Situ Yanli both had the potential to unify the country back then, but they both died too young.

Shen Qing felt a chill run through his body. He couldn't think about it anymore. Even if there was a truly earth-shattering plan, it was definitely not something he could get involved in at his current level.

Shen Qing exhaled a breath of stale air and strolled around the village to calm herself down.

Watching a few naked children playing in the mud at the village entrance, I couldn't help but sigh, "Youth is carefree."

Well, not entirely. An eight or nine-year-old child sat on the edge of the field, far from the crowd, lost in thought, neither playing nor making a fuss, exuding a sense of world-weariness beyond his years.

Shen Qing, feeling curious, took advantage of her male attire to go and tease the child.

Why don't you play with them?

"It's boring."

"That's interesting."

"Neither of them are interesting."

Wow, so young and already so cynical.

"How old are you? How many places have you been to? There are so many interesting things in this world!"

“I couldn’t go very far anyway.” The child pointed south. “Ahead, our village passed through Yancheng when the government relocated us here.”

"I know Yancheng. We'll head there tomorrow. Are there any problems there?"

"It took us two whole days to get here from Yancheng, but in my life I only need half a day to get to the town."

Shen Qing seemed to understand something. The child realized that his maximum spending was limited to the small town, and there was no need to go to the city at all.

He had already witnessed the grandeur of the city, yet he could never return there in his lifetime; it was not a matter of distance.

He foresaw his own life, which he could see the end from the beginning, and thus he despaired.

Shen Qing didn't know how to comfort him. Everything seemed too light. Should she just tell him to work hard and improve himself? Opportunities are for those who are prepared, but most people never get them.

"I wish I could become a wild goose and see the vast mountains and rivers," the child murmured to himself, gazing at the sky.

Shen Qing looked up at the wild geese flying by, and a thought suddenly struck her. She said, "Do you know that legend has it that wild geese are messengers of the gods? If you silently make a wish to them, they will come down if they grant it, and your wish will eventually come true."

"That's for kids."

"Let's give it a try~ Let's try it together, just to keep our brother company."

Although the child didn't believe it, he had nothing better to do, and Shen Qing was really annoying, so he followed suit and prayed with his hands clasped together.

When he opened his eyes again, the flock of wild geese in the sky had actually landed on the branches and were looking at him!