To prevent a repeat of the last incident, she deliberately made a noise to let Zhao Qingyun know that someone was coming upstairs, so that she could be prepared and not be shirtless again.
She knocked on the door and only turned the doorknob after hearing someone say "come in."
Zhao Qingyun was sitting at his computer desk, still shirtless. It wasn't that he didn't have time to put one on, but rather that he couldn't; his back ached whenever he moved.
He initially thought it was an old lady coming up and was about to say that she was alright, but when he turned his head, he was surprised to see Xu Lai. He coughed lightly and asked, "What brings you here?"
Xu Lai was a little embarrassed to be on his turf. “I heard from Grandma Jiang that your back was uncomfortable, so I bought you some ointment.”
Zhao Qingyun stood up, grabbed a piece of clothing and put it on. Xu Lai noticed a red mark on his shoulder, but there were no visible injuries on his waist.
She felt a little guilty, after all, he had gotten all these injuries while helping her family with their work.
Xu Lai approached and smelled the scent of safflower oil on him. She asked, "Did you apply the medicated oil yourself?"
Zhao Qingyun nodded: "I applied it after I took a shower when I got back, but there were some areas I couldn't reach."
Xu Lai stood there for a while, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "How about I help you apply it?"
Zhao Qingyun looked at her in surprise, but Xu Lai's tone became more firm, "I'll help you."
He didn't mince words, pulled off his clothes to reveal his upper body, and Xu Lai took out some safflower oil, first rubbed her palms together to warm them, then poured some into her palms, rubbed them a few more times, and then used her hands to apply it to his waist.
Zhao Qingyun felt his cool skin touch her hot palm, and a tingling sensation ran down his scalp. Xu Lai pressed on his waist with just the right amount of pressure.
As she pressed, she said, "It might hurt a little, but it seems like you're pulled here, so I need to rub it out."
She applied the ointment three times, then put a plaster on her side. Zhao Qingyun thought it was all better, and her tense nerves finally relaxed.
Xu Lai touched his shoulder again; the area was red from being pressed down by a heavy object, but the skin wasn't broken. She poured some more safflower oil and applied it to his shoulder.
Zhao Qingyun struggled to suppress his body's reaction, and the veins on his neck bulged out.
Xu Lai was also embarrassed, a faint blush rising on her face, her muscles bulging. She had to admit that Zhao Qingyun had a great figure; he looked slim in clothes but muscular when undressed, the kind of slender, toned physique she liked.
She secretly despised herself; she was supposed to be applying medicine to someone, but it turned into admiring their body.
After pressing it one last time, Xu Lai closed the cap on the safflower oil and said, "Okay, press it again yourself tomorrow."
Zhao Qingyun's voice was hoarse, "Thank you for your trouble."
Xu Lai sensed something was wrong with his voice. "What's wrong? Your throat feels uncomfortable."
Zhao Qingyun coughed and said, "The air conditioning might be a bit too cold."
Seeing that she had finished her work, Xu Lai said, "Then you can continue with your work. I'm going back now."
After she left, Zhao Qingyun finally caught his breath. Heaven knows how hard he had been holding back. The person he liked was right behind him, so close that it was hard for him not to react.
Even after lying in bed, Xu Lai felt warm all over. She patted her face and smelled a medicinal oil scent, which lingered even after she had washed her hands.
That night she had another dream. She dreamt that she was applying medicine to Zhao Qingyun that afternoon, and she couldn't help but wrap her arms around his neck, touch his abs, and the two of them kissed passionately.
Xu Lai didn't see anything wrong with it at all; in fact, she seemed to be enjoying it immensely.
She was woken up by the rooster crowing, and her whole body ached. It seemed she had strained her muscles from working too hard yesterday.
She sat up and felt a warm flow below her. Her intuition told her that something was wrong. She ran to the bathroom and saw a red stain on her underwear. Sure enough, it was her period.
Zhao Qingyun didn't sleep well either. Because of his back pain, he could only sleep lying down. He also had a dream in which Xu Lai sat on him and did whatever she wanted, but because of his back pain, he didn't have the strength to resist.
Xu Lai got up and made herself a cup of brown sugar water. It wasn't a good day to work in the fields, so her grandparents went to harvest the rice themselves. Xu Lai was worried that the two of them wouldn't be able to finish, so she asked Xu Shen for help.
In just one morning, all the rice for this year has been harvested and threshed; all that's left is to dry it.
She left all the millet to dry on the road; she had essentially taken over the entire road in front of her house.
Grandma was busy threshing the dried grass, sifting out the millet with a sieve, and throwing the grass to the ducks to eat.
Xu Lai would occasionally take the rake used for drying the grain and turn it over so that it could be evenly exposed to the sun.
Around 10 a.m., a rice milling machine came to the village, and someone with a loudspeaker shouted, "Rice milling is here! Anyone want their rice milled?"
Grandma quickly ran out: "My family needs to grind rice."
Grandma asked Grandpa to bring out last year's glutinous rice. Xu Lai asked, "Why do we suddenly need to mill rice? Don't we still have rice at home?"
Grandma said, "I'm using this rice to brew wine."
Xu Lai understood that Grandma had a habit of brewing wine every year. Grandpa loved to drink, so Grandma brewed wine, and sometimes people would come to their house to buy wine to drink.
The rice milling machine driver drove the machine onto the clean road. There would be a lot of dust from milling rice, and the road was covered with drying rice, which would easily get the rice dirty.
The worker untied the bag, placed it on the machine, and the rice came out as soon as the machine was turned on.
Grandma took a basket and filled it with rice. After grinding a bag of glutinous rice, it filled exactly one basket.
The rice husks would turn into bran, which my grandmother would keep when she raised pigs. She would stew them with sweet potato leaves, radishes, and cabbage for the pigs to eat.
Now that we don't raise pigs anymore, the bran is no longer needed. The miller collects the bran and includes it in the cost of milling rice, so he doesn't charge extra.
There was also a pile of empty grains. Grandpa swept them up, piled them together with the straw, and set them on fire. The ash from the fire could be used as fertilizer.
After the driver drove off to other homes where rice needed to be milled, Xu Lai turned around and went home. She tied on her apron and prepared to cook lunch.
Because of the busy farming season at home, she hasn't updated her cooking videos for a while. She mainly posts daily life updates, and her fans are urging her to update her videos and teach how to cook.
Xu Lai is going to make stuffed winter melon today. The winter melon is homegrown and has grown quite long. She gave half of it to Xia Ning, peeled the winter melon, cut it in half again, and then sliced it into pieces.
Roll up the winter melon, stuff the middle with the mixed meat filling, place it on a plate, crack an egg in the center of the plate, and then steam it.
After steaming, add chopped scallions, drizzle with hot oil, and then drizzle with soy sauce. The stuffed winter melon is now ready.
Previously, her family would either make soup with winter melon or stir-fry it, but this was a new way of eating it that she found online.
She also stir-fried an eggplant dish and then called her grandparents to eat.
Xu Lai glanced outside and saw a chicken pecking at the grain in the yard. "Hey, it's fine to eat, but it's picking at the grain too."
She walked over quietly and kicked the chicken in the rear end. The chicken screamed in fright and quickly flew away, half-flying and half-running.
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