"What, what do you mean the second young master is missing?"
The dark waiter lowered his head and cupped his fists, and said in a panic: "After the second young master went down the mountain alone that day, let us not follow..."
"Tell you not to follow, you won't follow?!" Shen Qionglin slapped the table violently and cursed angrily, "Go and search carefully, if you can't find the second young master, you don't have to go back to Tianque Villa!"
The dark waiter took the order, and hurriedly summoned people to find Shen Yushu.
After much deliberation, the dark servants always felt that young master Shen could go anywhere, except for the singing and dancing workshop, there was only Hualou.
However, they searched every singing and dancing place in Baidi City, and knocked on the door of every friend of Young Master Shen.
But everyone said they had never seen Shen Yushu.
Shen Yushu just disappeared out of thin air.
In the blink of an eye, it was late at night again, and the sky was completely dark. In the bustling Baidi City, which was full of music every night, fish and dragons were mixed, and the undercurrent was surging, as if it was a colossal monster that could swallow people who were looking for pleasure.
There was no news from Shen Yushu for a long time, and Shen Qionglin was fidgeting in Tianque Villa.
Usually, when Shen Yushu went out to play, he was always accompanied by dark servants and domestic servants. Since he was a child, he had never been like this, and no one knew his whereabouts.
Shen Qionglin called the servants who saw Shen Yushu last that day, and interrogated them one by one.
The servants all said that they saw Shen Yushu leaving angrily, but they didn't know where Shen Yushu had gone.
It was another night in a blink of an eye, Shen Yushu still had no news, Shen Qionglin was completely anxious, like ants on a hot pot, he cursed the dark servant's incompetence, and walked quickly to the outside of Tianque Villa.
-
At this time, Shen Yushu was wearing tattered burlap clothes, being trampled on the ground and scolded.
Shen Yushu was actually in Baidi City these days, so it wasn't hard to find him at all.
It's just that the dark servants didn't believe that the dignified second son of the Shen family would rather sleep in the alley than go back to Tianque Mountain Villa, so they kept looking for people in the luxurious Fengyue pleasure ground without even looking into the streets and alleys.
On the first day Shen Yushu left home, he found a woodcutter on the road and changed clothes with him.
Seeing that Shen Yushu was dressed in brocade clothes, the woodcutter agreed without hesitation.
Shen Yushu put on the hard and prickly sackcloth. Although he felt uncomfortable all over, he gritted his teeth and endured it, and then wandered around the streets and alleys of Baidi City.
Being swayed by Shen Yushu on the first night, it was quite peaceful.
On the second night, Shen Yushu couldn't hold on any longer. He was penniless and squatting in the dark alley, hungry and sleepy, his mind was full of Shen Qionglin scolding him, not to mention how sad he was.
Unexpectedly, God made it worse. In the evening, it was windy and rainy.
The defenseless Shen Yushu was drenched.
The little boy was so angry that he was about to yell at God, but a gust of night wind blew by, and he shivered, and all the scolding words stuck in his throat.
The little boy has always had a stubborn temper since he was a child.
This time too, it's all like this, and he doesn't plan to go back to Tianque Villa.
Shen Yushu couldn't stay in the alley, thinking about finding a place where there was no rain to hide.
It was raining heavily and the street was dark. Shen Yushu walked along the road and found that the firewood door in the backyard of a family was unlocked, so he sneaked in and hid in the woodshed for a sleep.
As a result, the next day, the family regarded him as a thief, dragged him out of the firewood shed, pressed him to the ground and scolded him.
Shen Yushu has been used to being a master for so many years, and he doesn't know how to clear himself up when he encounters such a thing. He just keeps saying that he didn't steal anything.
The words were unfounded, and others didn't believe them, but the family did not lose any valuables. The owner of the family ordered Shen Yushu to be scolded, and then threw him out.
Shen Yushu fell and gnawed on the mud, his knees and elbows were all worn out, the little boy gritted his teeth, stood up without saying anything, and limped away.
After two steps, Shen Yushu couldn't move anymore.
He is so hungry.
Shen Yushu rubbed his stomach, thought for a while, and slowly moved to the outskirts of the city.
In the early morning, travelers and businessmen on the outskirts of Baidi City hurriedly, with the sound of horseshoes.
Shen Yushu walked a few steps towards the deserted path, and found a towering tree with wrinkled and cracked bark, covered with moss.
Shen Yushu scratched his head in confusion, reached out and took off a small piece of bark, and put it in his mouth to chew.
"Bah, bah, bah!" Shen Yushu spit it out as soon as he put the bark into his mouth.
The bark was so astringent, bitter and dry that it could not be chewed at all.
"How do I eat the bark..." Shen Yushu muttered aggrievedly.
"The bark of this kind of tree is not edible." Suddenly a voice sounded in Shen Yushu's ear.
Shen Yushu was startled, turned around and saw an old beggar in ragged clothes standing beside him.
The old beggar said with a smile: "It is better to eat the leaves than the bark now. Come, come with me."
The old beggar brought Shen Yushu to a willow tree. It was warm spring, and the willow leaves had just sprouted and were very tender. The old beggar broke off a willow branch and handed it to Shen Yushu: "Here, eat the leaves."
Shen Yushu hesitated, picked a few willow leaves and stuffed them into his mouth.
The willow leaves are sweet and tender, and are indeed much tastier than the bark, but to Shen Yushu, they are still tasteless.
"Is it delicious?" The old beggar asked with a smile.
"It's not tasty." Shen Yushu said bitterly.
"It's delicious when you're hungry." The old beggar smiled.
"But I'm very hungry now, and I still don't think it tastes good." Shen Yushu said, he paused, and then said to himself, "But it can fill my stomach..."
As he spoke, Shen Yushu picked a few more willow leaves and chewed them in his mouth. He swallowed the willow leaves and said to the old beggar, "Thank you for teaching me to eat leaves."
The old beggar waved his hand with a smile, and walked towards the city with a bamboo pole and a broken bowl.
The old beggar had just entered the city, and found that the streets were covered with notices of missing persons with large sums of money, and many guards were asking people entering and leaving the city if they had seen a young man in a fine attire.
The old beggar didn't care at first, until he saw the portrait on the missing person notice...
-
After Shen Yushu and the old beggar parted, they didn't go far. They sat by the tree, took the willow branch, picked the leaves and ate them.
After eating for a while, Shen Yushu couldn't eat anymore.
It wasn't because he was full, but the willow leaves really didn't look like something edible to Shen Yushu.
Shen Yushu pouted, put the willow branch aside, thinking about what he had done these two days.
I have also eaten the bark, and worn the burlap clothes. Although I didn’t sleep in a stable last night, the woodshed should be similar...
Shen Yushu was thinking about it when he suddenly felt a severe pain in his elbow. He looked down at the place where his elbow was scratched, and found that the wound was covered with mud and sand, and it hurt so bad even if he touched it casually. The same was true for his knee. It hurt even more when he was rubbed by the sackcloth.
Shen Yushu sighed, supported his head, thinking about what to do.
Anyway, he just didn't want to go back to Tianque Villa.
Shen Yushu was thinking with his head down, when he suddenly noticed a black shadow pressing down in front of him.
Shen Yushu raised his head in confusion, and when he saw someone coming, he got up suddenly, turned his head and left.