The bathtub was very large, and Xie Zhao had to carry the tub back and forth seven or eight times with one hand before it was only seven-tenths full.
Xie Zhao closed the door, carefully removed the bandage hanging on his left arm, and soaked in the water. The warm water came up and stung the wound, causing a burst of pain. Xie Zhao closed his eyes and leaned back, resting his left arm in plaster on the edge of the tub.
The barrel wall was smooth, with a woody and faintly sweet scent, which was the usual smell of Cheng Yaoyao. Thinking of Cheng Yaoyao bathing in this barrel, Xie Zhao's blood suddenly boiled.
Just as I was thinking about the unspeakable things, a sweet voice suddenly rang in my ears: "The flower water is ready!"
Xie Zhao stood up abruptly, turned his head, and his ears turned red: "Sister, how did you get in?"
"How else can I bring you water?" Cheng Yaoyao looked at him righteously, holding a basin of water in his hand and pouring it into the bathtub, "It's a little hot, be careful."
Xie Zhao pulled the towel over and covered himself with the water. Cheng Yaoyao looked straight ahead and poured the honeysuckle water boiled in the spiritual spring carefully along the edge of the bucket, then reached out to stir the hot water, "Is the temperature okay?"
"Yes... yes." Xie Zhao said in a tight voice, grabbing Cheng Yaoyao's fingertips. The wound had not yet healed completely: "Don't touch the water. Does your finger still hurt?"
In the days after the injury, Cheng Yaoyao's nails broke and fell off, and the wounds were torn and flesh was exposed, which was extremely scary against her snow-white skin. Cheng Yaoyao had never suffered such pain before, and she kept crying in pain. Xie Zhao applied the remaining rhino horn ointment to her wounds, and gradually her wounds healed.
Cheng Yaoyao watched Xie Zhao kiss the scar inch by inch with his lips. Fearing it would itch, he pulled his fingers back and splashed water on Xie Zhao's shoulders: "It doesn't hurt anymore, it's all healed. How do you feel about soaking in the water?"
This is a remote bathtub. The knowledge alone is enough to make Xie Zhaoru feel like he is in the clouds, so he could only nod his head.
Cheng Yaoyao took the soap and said excitedly, "Lean your head back and I'll wash your hair for you."
Xie Zhao closed his eyes, leaned his head back on the edge of the bucket, and his shoulders were slightly stiff. Cheng Yaoyao said, "Don't be so nervous. I won't get the soap in your eyes. Relax."
Xie Zhao hummed, but his fingers tightly gripped the edge of the bucket. Cheng Yaoyao was right in front of him, her black hair hanging down to touch his cheek, and a warm and clean peach blossom scent lingered at the tip of his nose, making him feel indescribably itchy.
Cheng Yaoyao was unaware of Xie Zhao's sweet torment and was concentrating on washing his hair. He wet Xie Zhao's short black hair with hot water, rubbed soap on his palms to make bubbles, and then rubbed the short hair.
Xie Zhao's hair was thick and black, and the texture was hard. Cheng Yaoyao rubbed it carefully, and massaged his scalp skillfully with his fingertips. Xie Zhao frowned at first, and then couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Cheng Yaoyao pressed his penis and said proudly, "Is it comfortable?"
"It feels good." Xie Zhao gently held her wrist. "Your fingers are not fully healed yet, be careful of the wound."
Cheng Yaoyao worked hard to help Xie Zhao complete the full massage, then scooped up the water and said, "I will help you rinse off the foam now, please close your eyes tightly."
Cheng Yaoyao said as he poured a bucket of water. Before Xie Zhao could close his eyes, he was drenched: "Hiss..."
"Hey, are you okay?" Cheng Yaoyao hurriedly scooped up a few buckets of water to help Xie Zhao wash his eyes.
After a while, Xie Zhao blinked his red eyes and said, "It's okay... You..."
Cheng Yaoyao was also splashed with a lot of water and foam. Her white skirt was wet and stuck to her legs, making her look messy.
"I've already finished taking a shower! I'm fine now, it's all your fault." Cheng Yaoyao looked down and angrily blamed Xie Zhao.
Xie Zhao kept silent. He thought that the fault was his own and that a spoiled child could do no wrong.
Cheng Yaoyao adjusted her skirt and put water on it, muttering, "I'm going to take a shower again. I don't know if the water is hot enough... Oops!"
Cheng Yaoyao's hands tightened and he fell into the tub involuntarily. With a splash, water splashed everywhere and the hot water overflowed the tub: "You... cough cough..."
Cheng Yaoyao's wet black hair was scattered on her shoulders like seaweed, her snowy skin, red lips and peach blossom eyes made her look like a water demon. He wiped the water droplets from her eyes with his big hands, and her pair of cute peach blossom eyes immediately stared at him: "What are you doing?!"
Xie Zhao said honestly: "There is no hot water, let's take a shower together."
"No!" Cheng Yaoyao climbed up the edge of the bucket with both hands, but his foot was lightly hooked and he slipped, splashing water high: "You!"
Cheng Yaoyao tried to climb out several times, but Xie Zhao deliberately made trouble for him. The wall of the bucket was smooth, so Cheng Yaoyao gave up and leaned on the edge of the bucket, trying to distance himself from Xie Zhao: "Then...then you better be honest."
Xie Zhao just smiled and said nothing, reaching out to pick up a side of hot water and pour it into the bathtub. The water temperature rose again, and Cheng Yaoyao sighed comfortably: "My bathtub is useful, right?"
Xie Zhao asked back: "Your bathtub?"
"Of course it's me! I'm the only one!" Cheng Yaoyao said hurriedly, "I'm only lending it to you once, and you're not allowed to use it in the future!"
"...Okay, be good and don't move." Xie Zhao's eyebrows showed a trace of forbearance, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
The tub was so small that when two people sat in it, their legs and feet were inevitably tangled together, which was a real test of their concentration. Cheng Yaoyao's white skirt bloomed like petals in the water, and Xie Zhao looked away, laughing at himself for asking for trouble.
Cheng Yaoyao added a lot of spiritual spring water to the water, and leaned on the edge of the bucket and closed her eyes comfortably. Xie Zhao's eyes fell on her face, Cheng Yaoyao's eyebrows were relaxed, the corners of her lips were slightly raised, and she looked very happy, which made Xie Zhao happy too.
The tense muscles and bones were stretched out in the hot water, as if every inch of the muscles and bones were soothed, and the stinging wounds had been healed unconsciously. Xie Zhaohun was unaware of it, and suddenly stood up and approached Cheng Yaoyao.
"younger sister?"
Cheng Yaoyao's breathing was even, his cheeks were slightly red, and he actually fell asleep.
…
When Cheng Yaoyao woke up, she was already lying on her bed. She turned over softly and hugged the small bamboo pillow. Thinking of what happened last night, she couldn't help blushing. She didn't remember when she came back, and she didn't know how Xie Zhao sent her back with only one hand left. Anyway, Xie Zhao must have a way.
Cheng Yaoyao lay on the bed and felt lazy for a while before he finally got up slowly and left the room.
Xie Zhao sat in the hall, one foot on a bamboo basket, with the other hand using a file to polish the bamboo thorns on the edge of the basket. Cheng Yaoyao was really impressed by this guy: "Can't you take a break? You can work with one hand?"
Xie Zhao looked up, his deep eyes shining: "Sister."
Xie Zhao's eyes were burning, and he couldn't help but look at her. Cheng Yaoyao's nonchalant attitude collapsed in an instant, and she turned around with a red face, and walked to wash her face. Xie Zhao threw down the file and followed her: "Are you hungry? Have a snack first?"
Cheng Yaoyao splashed cold water on his face and instantly came to his senses: "No, I won't be able to have lunch soon. You don't have to work anymore!"
Xie Zhao said: "I feel much better now, and my bones don't hurt anymore."
"That's not allowed either." Cheng Yaoyao said fiercely, "It takes a hundred days to heal a broken bone. Don't do those heavy jobs anymore."
Xie Zhao nodded good-temperedly: "Okay."
Cheng Yaoyao picked up the water and was about to pour it, but Xie Zhao stopped him and said, "I'm washing my hands."
Watching Xie Zhao wash his hands with the water he used to wash his face, Cheng Yaoyao's face started to feel hot again for some reason. He turned around and ran into the kitchen to see Grandma Xie cooking.
Grandma Xie was washing vegetables, and the rice dumplings were steaming in the pot, giving off a delicious aroma. Cheng Yaoyao saw it and shouted, "Grandma, I want to drink some rice soup!"
Grandma Xie picked up the cabbage leaves one by one and said, "Drink it. It's in the clay pot."
In those days, there were no electric rice cookers. People in the countryside cooked rice with rice porridge. Rice was placed in a pot, boiled with water, and then drained out. The rice was then put into a wooden barrel-shaped rice sieve and steamed. Rice soup was a byproduct of rice porridge. It was thick and had a sweet aroma of rice, and was the most nourishing. Babies who had no milk could also eat rice soup.
Cheng Yaoyao only drank rice soup when he was a child at his grandmother's house. Later, with the popularization of electric rice cookers, rice soup became rare. Rice soup mixed with rice is light and appetizing, and Cheng Yaoyao loves it very much.
Cheng Yaoyao opened the lid of the earthenware jar, revealing a bowl of snow-white, thick rice soup with a layer of crust on top. Cheng Yaoyao deliberately peeled off the crust and ate it, then scooped up a bowl of rice soup and gulped it down, sighing happily: "It tastes so good."
Grandma Xie said, "Leave some room in your stomach for a delicious meal later."
"What's delicious?" Cheng Yaoyao came over to take a look.
Grandma Xie smiled and said, "Fei Fei's mother sent me some pig brains yesterday. It was so hot that I couldn't keep them. I cooked them with some ginger shreds and we finished them in one meal!"
"Pig brain?" Cheng Yaoyao said happily, "It's a waste to cook it, why not steam it? Pig brain is the best when mixed with rice!"
Grandma Xie asked, "Won't it smell fishy if steamed?"
"It won't smell fishy when it's done." Cheng Yaoyao rubbed his hands and said, "Grandma, you go cook. I'll cook the pig brain!"
After seeing Cheng Yaoyao's cooking skills, Grandma Xie handed the pig brain to her with confidence and went to make other dishes.
Cheng Yaoyao took the pig brains out of the well. Four or five of them were still fresh. Cheng Yaoyao carefully picked out the blood with a bamboo stick - this is the secret to keeping the pig brains from smelling fishy. Without picking out the blood, the pig brains will not rot even after being cooked for a long time, and there will still be a fishy smell. The unauthentic hot pot restaurants outside often do not pick out the blood, which leads to many people having a prejudice against pig brains.
Cheng Yaoyao carefully cleaned the pig brain, soaked it in cooking wine and Lingquan water, cut ginger into thin strips, mixed soy sauce, cooking wine, a little sugar, pepper and salt. Take out the pig brain and put it in a large bowl, then pour in the mixed seasoning and drizzle with a little sesame oil.
The rice was cooked. Cheng Yaoyao took the rice steamer away, and the water in the pot was still boiling. Cheng Yaoyao put the pig brain into the pot, and after steaming it for 20 minutes, sprinkled it with chopped green onions, and a strange fragrance spread.
The lunch was very rich. Thanks to Zhaofu Xie, the parents of the rescued children always sent food home. Grandma Xie felt sorry for her grandson, so every meal had meaty food. Today's lunch was crucian carp soup, minced meat, eggplant, and tomato scrambled eggs. But the whole family's attention was attracted by the bowl of steamed pig brain.
The steamed brains were hot, white, fragrant, and soft. When mixed with the sauce and added to the hot rice, they gave off a rich and tempting milky aroma, and tasted smooth and rich. Xie Zhao didn't even reach for other dishes with his chopsticks, and ate three bowls of brains mixed with rice.
Xie Fei was afraid of pig brains at first and didn't dare to eat them with her chopsticks. But after Cheng Yaoyao forced a chopstick of pig brains into her mouth, she ate two bowls of rice with relish without anyone's persuasion.
Grandma Xie picked up some pig brains and sipped them, praising: "In the past, Zhao Ge'er would also bring back pig brains from killing pigs, but the two brothers and sisters always complained about the fishy smell and swallowed it with their noses pinched. Yaoyao's pig brains are steamed deliciously, without any fishy smell at all!"
"Sister Yaoyao's cooking is delicious!" Xie Fei praised highly.
Cheng Yaoyao shook his head proudly: "I have a secret!"
Xie Zhao took in her smug look, and couldn't help but smile.
Grandma Xie said casually, "Yaoyao, be careful when you take a bath next time. When I got up today, the floor of the utility room was full of water."
"..." Cheng Yaoyao was silent for a second. He wanted to bury his face in the bowl, revealing his two red little ears.
Xie Zhao said calmly, "Grandma, I don't have to go out to work recently. I'll study with my sister."
Grandma Xie's attention was immediately diverted, and she nodded repeatedly: "This is a serious matter. I was too busy recently, and I didn't study well for a while. Now that I have some free time, I should take the opportunity to study hard! Yuanyao, Yuanyao?"
"Ah?" Cheng Yaoyao came back to his senses, looking at Grandma Xie in a daze with red cheeks, "What's the matter?"
Grandma Xie said, "What are you staring at? I'm telling you, you and Zhao'er need to come up with a set of rules for your studies. It's called... it's called..."
Grandma Xie was stuck, trying desperately to think of the word. Cheng Yaoyao asked tentatively, "Schedule?"
"Yes, that's it." Grandma Xie said, "Don't be like before, thinking about things one by one and sleeping until noon every day."
Cheng Yaoyao pouted immediately: "It's hot, I want to sleep!"
Grandma Xie is very insistent on studying, and this time she won't get used to it. After Grandma Xie left the table, Xie Fei cleaned up the dishes and went to wash them, but Cheng Yaoyao was still sitting on the small stool with a pout on his face.
Xie Zhao suddenly said, "I'll put a stick on your mouth."
"..." Cheng Yaoyao jumped up and chased him around the yard, beating him.
Xie Zhao had one hand broken, but he was still walking briskly, chasing Cheng Yaoyao around the yard. Cheng Yaoyao chased him for a long time, waving his fists, but he was so tired that he was out of breath and could only say a very weak and harsh word: "You... you are disgusting!"
No matter how much he hated Xie Zhao, he still had to make a study plan. Cheng Yaoyao took a piece of red paper and drew a table and wrote a course schedule. He studied from 8:30 to 11:30 in the morning and from 3 to 4:30 in the afternoon. He did homework and reviewed in the evening.
Grandma's attitude towards studying is still at the stage of "hanging one's head on a beam and pricking one's thigh with a needle". She requires the two of them to get up at 5:30 in the morning to study, which almost scared Cheng Yaoyao to tears. He quickly said that we are now living in a new society, and we don't need the old society's persecution of scholars.
Seeing Cheng Yaoyao's frightened face turn pale and she kept winking at him, Xie Zhao finally agreed to the time of 8:30. Grandma Xie also knew that Cheng Yaoyao was spoiled and that she was just trying to scare her by setting the time of 6 o'clock, so she agreed.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the countryside was silent except for the chirping of cicadas. The Xie family's yard was cool, and the bright sunlight was filtered by the window panes and cast on the ground, turning into diamond-shaped shadows, and even the sound of people talking was tinged with laziness.
Cheng Yaoyao was lying on the table, solving math problems on a piece of paper, and mumbling to himself, "Put the formula in like this, and you see... eh?"
Cheng Yaoyao was confused, wrinkled her nose, picked up a pen and started to calculate again. The more she calculated, the more confused she became. She secretly glanced at Xie Zhao and met his deep gaze.
Xie Zhao looked at her patiently with a hint of smile in his eyes: "Teacher, what's wrong?"
The word "teacher" was emphasized, which sounded like a mockery to Cheng Yaoyao. She excused herself by saying, "This question is wrong. It doesn't make sense!"
Cheng Yaoyao turned the page after she finished speaking. Xie Zhao held her hand and said, "Let me see."
"Look, look, you won't be able to understand it even if you look at it!" Cheng Yaoyao pushed the book to him angrily.
Xie Zhao looked at her with a half-smile: "What if I can do it?"
Cheng Yaoyao had suffered many losses. He thought carefully for a while and finally shook his head and said, "...You won't."
Xie Zhao said: "I bet on taking a one-hour nap."
This bet was too tempting for Cheng Yaoyao. Her eyes lit up and she lost her ability to think: "Okay! The premise is... the premise is that you have to write down the solution to the problem completely. Just remembering the answer doesn't count!"
The lesson in the melon field is still fresh in Cheng Yaoyao's mind. He will learn his lesson wisely this time.
Looking at her self-righteous look, Xie Zhao lowered his eyes to hide his smile, took the paper and pen and started to calculate.
This question was not easy. Xie Zhao thought seriously, writing and stopping, crossing out several lines of calculation process. Cheng Yaoyao held his face and watched him write, and gradually became proud: "If you don't know how to do it, just admit defeat. I'm going to sleep first!"
Xie Zhao was very serious when doing the questions, and ignored her messing around. Cheng Yaoyao took the opportunity to run to the bed, hugged the small pillow and lay down comfortably, swinging his legs proudly.
Xie Zhao's brows suddenly widened. This topic was a formula that Cheng Yaoyao talked about, but it was slightly modified. He transformed the formula into the question and quickly came up with the answer. He wrote down his problem-solving ideas and answers neatly on the paper, and couldn't wait to raise his head, but the seat next to him was already empty.
Cheng Yaoyao was lying on the bed, hugging a small bamboo pillow, and had actually fallen asleep. Her rosy lips were slightly parted, with a suspicious sparkle hanging from the corners of her lips. She looked so sweet and naive while sleeping, and it was almost impossible to wake her up.
Xie Zhao half-sat on the edge of the bed and said expressionlessly, "You've gained weight."
Cheng Yaoyao hummed, turned over and leaned on Xie Zhao's wrist, resting his cheek on his hand, and continued to sleep soundly.
As expected, she fell asleep. Xie Zhao gently lifted the thin blanket and covered her up, then scratched the tip of her nose with his finger: "I'll bet with you again when you wake up."
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