Li Ye held the grass stalk in his mouth, lying on the edge of the stream, looking at the spring in boredom.

His stomach growled as he reminded him that he hadn't eaten all night, and he sighed and turned to look up to the sky, his brow furrowed together.

When I was in the Central Plains, it was common to be hungry for two or three days, and I didn't think it at the time, but now, I just didn't eat all night, so I didn't want to move.

The reason why he starved was because he escaped from Yuzhang Villa.

He voluntarily sold himself, originally to get food and clothing, but he didn't expect to be sent all the way from the Central Plains to Jiangnan. Just send it to Jiangnan, but this master of Jiangnan is too difficult to wait, since ancient times, I have never heard of forcing servants to read and learn words!

He was originally a prodigal man, he liked to be idle, and he hated being serious, so he didn't stay long before he was constantly punished, and he was pulled out almost every day to be the chicken that killed the chicken and the monkey. Either because he failed in his studies, or because he was naughty, Zhao Yong broke three bamboo whips on him. It's okay to be scolded and beaten down, Li Ye has not been beaten since he can remember, and the most embarrassing thing for him is that every time he is punished in front of all the children, and he is seen by Sister Xiaocui every time. In order to intercede for him, Xiao Cui was also reprimanded several times by the eldest young master.

At first, he wanted to make the young master happy, so that he could get an easy job, but he didn't expect that this young young man would be more difficult to serve than anyone else.

There was a rumbling sound in his stomach again, and Li Ye scolded, a little nostalgic for the braised pork in Yuzhang Villa.

Yuzhang Villa not only usually has three meals a day, there are vegetables at noon and night, and there is a full braised pork every month, so far he has eaten twice, the oily piece of meat bites into his mouth, making people want to swallow it with their tongues. When Li Ye was in the Central Plains, he had also seen those big families, but he had never heard of any family that provided food and clothing for their servants in this way. If he is not forced to read and count, then this kind of life is almost no different from fairyland.

Although he escaped from Zhuangzi, he did not flee far, firstly, because he was not familiar with the place and did not dare to run around, and secondly, he still missed the food and clothing in Zhuangzi a little, especially the care of Sister Xiaocui. His mother died young, and his father was a drunkard, so no one had ever cared for him so much before.

"If Sister Xiaocui knew that I had escaped, I don't know if she would be sad, or she would scold me like the rest of the people."

Thinking of this, his stomach became more and more hungry.

However, he didn't want to go back cheekily, and after the fugitive slave who escaped like this, after the master's family caught him, he beat him up and sold it. Instead of suffering that sin, it is better to think of escaping, this rich place in the south of the Yangtze River is to make flowers, and there is always something to eat.

He tightened his belt and got up from the rocks, his stomach rumbling again, and now he had to get some food to put on the mat.

Li Ye looked around, but he didn't see any figures, only a shed in the distance. On the other side of the stream, there is a melon field, in which cold melons are planted to cool off the heat (Note 1), and Li Ye once ate it, so he didn't feel that his cheeks were full of relish.

There should be a melon watcher in the shed, as long as you avoid the eyes and ears of the melon watcher, you can steal one. Li Ye also did petty theft before selling himself, so he got into the car lightly, lay on the ground, and crawled into the melon field inch by inch.

The prey had already been picked, and it was a large melon, the size of an adult's head. Li Ye licked his lips, he seemed to have felt the sweetness of the cold melon, and when his fingers touched the vines of the big melon, he forgot all the unhappiness in Yuzhang Villa.

Just then, the barking of dogs sounded.

"Little thief, dare to steal my cold melon!"

The angry sound also sounded at this time, Li Ye jumped up, looked back, and found a young man with two big dogs, glaring at him angrily.

"This ...... The master didn't steal, which of you little guy saw the master steal the melon? "This is not the first time Li Ye has been caught stealing, he already has a set of countermeasures, if it was an adult who caught him, he would have knelt down and begged for mercy, but this young man looks younger than him, but about eleven or twelve years old, the same age as him, although with two big dogs, but what is there to be afraid of!

"Thief!" Seeing that he still dared to quibble, the young man immediately became anxious, and he waved his fist: "Are you begging for a fight?" ”

"Come on, try if the master was afraid of you!" Li Ye was still a little worried about the two big dogs, but he was not afraid of this young man at all.

The young man roared, and when he saw that he was about to rush, he suddenly stopped: "Catch this thief and send the official hard!" ”

Li Yezheng was strange, and suddenly saw two big men with crooked hats and shirtless bodies rushing out of the melon shed, he knew that something was wrong, although this young master came out alone, he was not alone here! He turned around and ran, and when he fled, he didn't forget to kick the big cold melon, and said in his heart, I can't eat it, and I can't let you eat it.

"Ban Dingyuan, Huo Bixiao, on!"

The boy shouted behind him, and then the two big dogs barked wildly, they were not very well trained, and the real trained dogs should be silent when they attacked, but they barked all the way, lest they not make much noise.

However, it was enough for such a big dog to scare Li Ye, he screamed and accelerated, these days the nutrition has kept up, and he has to exercise in the morning every day, so he runs extremely fast, and the two dogs will not be able to catch up for a while. Although the two shirtless men shouted loudly, they never really chased after them, after all, this is just a trivial matter of stealing melons, and it is worth getting into a lawsuit for this.

Li Ye didn't know how long he had been running wildly, and he dared to slow down and turn around when he heard the barking of dogs behind him. The boy and the two dogs stopped and did not chase him any further, but picked up a piece of mud from the ground and smashed it back with all his might, cursing with a clean mouth.

If it weren't for the hunger in his belly, he felt that such a day would not be bad, at least it would be better than the strict discipline in Yuzhang Villa.

"Pride in the face of ten thousand waves...... The red sun is like the blood...... Courage like iron and bones like steel...... Broad-minded...... Vision......"

felt unrestrained and unhappy that he couldn't steal melons, and he was left behind by Li Ye in an instant, he put his hands behind his back and sang a tune. This song was taught by Zhao and Ju when he was learning arithmetic at night, compared to the literacy in the morning, Li Ye prefers to count a little, he can now count to one hundred smoothly, and the addition and subtraction within one hundred can barely be calculated, although it is not as good as Chen Zicheng and Chen Ren, but it can also be on par with Long Twelve, tied for the penultimate among boys.

"In addition to teaching arithmetic, the eldest young master occasionally teaches singing tunes, this tune is good, I sing the best, but the eldest young master never lets me sing it."

Note 1: That is, watermelon, native to Africa, introduced into our country in the Han Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and other sayings, no matter which statement, the Song Dynasty Central Plains and Jiangnan already had watermelons, which is beyond doubt.