Chapter 24: Obedience is worse than respect

"Squeak..." The white sand in the hourglass kept falling to the lower layer, a very thin line of sand, falling very slowly, but never stopped. Time is sometimes the sand in the hourglass, sometimes the drum sound on the city wall, and sometimes the almanac printed on paper. Zhu Gaoxu lay on the table, stretched out two fingers to pinch the sand line in the glass bottle, as if trying to control time. He thought to himself that he could not control time, but he could try to control the urgency of things.