On the Official Road outside Hangzhou Prefecture, a donkey slowly ambled out.
The donkey's coat was a bright bluish sheen, and its eyes held a sharp gleam. It looked even more divine and spirited than an average tall steed.
Leaning back on the donkey's back was a Little Daoist Priest dressed in an Azure Blue White Bottom Daoist Robe.
He looked only in his teens—perhaps a little older, though it was hard to tell with that baby face. His skin was fair and clean, his phoenix eyes long and narrow, and he carried a faint air of casual ease. A Daoist topknot was pinned askew atop his head, and he was currently dozing against the donkey's back.
On both sides stretched endless green grass stirred by the wind; in the distance were blue mountains with ridge lines rolling one after another. Together with the Little Daoist Priest riding the donkey, it painted quite a freehand scroll.
But a burst of urgent hoofbeats shattered that freehand scene.
The Daoist frowned lightly and narrowed his eyes to look, only to see a group of youths on horseback shouting as they caught up from behind.
These people were probably all sons of rich families. Dressed in brocade and mounted on great horses, they galloped wildly without restraint, stirring up a flurry of chickens flying and dogs jumping right at the city gate.
When they passed by the Little Daoist Priest, someone looked mockingly at his donkey and let out a few jeers. Worse still, one of them deliberately cracked a whip right beside the donkey's ear, trying to frighten it.
After they had gone by, the Little Daoist Priest seemed not to care at all and closed his eyes again to doze.
But as this group of horse-riding youths continued ahead and galloped