Chapter 24 – Are You Avoiding Me (2)

Zhao Xi, out of concern, followed it to its nest and emerged only after it fell asleep. She was just about to boil water, when she heard the man say.

“Go to sleep. There’s no hurry for a bath.”

His voice was really wonderful, like the sound of collision between pearls and jades. Zhao Xi, often, liked to deceive him into talking more. For instance, she would sometimes ask him to explain the meaning of a word to her, which she already knew, just to hear him talk.

After the explanation, he always asked her if she understood. Her reply was always the same.

No, tell me again.

Unsuspecting, he, patiently explained it to her over and over again.

Presently, he did not want to take the herbs and deliberately wasted time, which Zhao Xi didn’t mind in the least. His voice: sweet and intelligent, came to her and she listened, as if hopelessly addicted to it.

“That’s all right. It’s morning now.”

In the mornings, Zhao Xi usually cooked meals and concocted the medicinal herbs. Then she cleaned up, walked down the hill and opened the shop, where if she didn’t have any customers, she would sleep for a while.

“I waited for you all night and I’m sleepy. I want to wash tomorrow,” Shen Fei said, closing his eyes, as he snuggled comfortably in the quilt to sleep.

Zhao Xi was suspicious of his sudden change of plans. Didn’t he just say that he wanted a bath? He’d been waiting all night for one, and now wants to delay it?

“I also need to take a bath.”

She was the dirtier of the two of them. Even if Shen Fei could do without a bath, she couldn’t. Thus, Zhao Xi boiled two pots of water and added another small pot.

Initially, she had decided to live there for a long time, so she had bought everything she had deemed necessary for a comfortable living: furniture, two pots: a big and a small, and a stove for both concocting the medicinal herbs and heating meals for Shen Fei.  Heating water using firewood was easy for Zhao Xi, she continued to add the firewood to make water boil, then she would add more cold water.

When the water was hot enough, she scooped less than half a bucket of hot water, then mix it with cold water to make the temperature optimum. She would take a bath with this bucket and did not forget to add some cold water into the burning pot.

Zhao Xi decided to take a bath quickly in the courtyard.

The room was too small, and it was light already. She, personally, did not mind washing in the room, but was afraid of Shen Fei misconstruing her intentions as promiscuous.

Shen Fei, however, could also watch her washing in the courtyard through his wide-open window. He could view all her activities as long as he slightly raised his head. Perhaps if it were someone else, he may have done so. But Shen Fei was not interested in watching her and stretched out his hand to close the window instead.

Although the window was closed, he could clearly hear the sound of her ladling water being poured. He couldn’t see it, but he could vividly imagine it.

Zhao Xi was slim and taller than the average woman. She could pick him up easily, which proved her strong foundation of Kung Fu. When she wore clothes, she looked lean; when she took them off… she must have well-sculpted muscles.

Inexplicably, Shen Fei felt agitated; he struggled to sit up, picked up a book to read for a while, waiting until the feeling in the heart became weaker.

*

Zhao Xi had already finished her bath and her wet hair were wrapped in a pocket square. She wore clean clothes with the lapels wide open.

Living alone with the beast for so long, she did not seem to realize that she needed to do some things privately, such as bathing and changing clothes; she just never bothered to. It didn’t help that she rarely interacted with people. The only living beings she came in contact with were either the beasts in the valley or her patients who often needed to reveal a part of body to her.

She looked at them very calmly, as if she were reading a book, and could also get close enough to touch and pinch without any shyness. She was not the least bit feminine.

“I am clean now. You can get ready for a bath.” Zhao Xi rolled up her sleeves and went out to prepare the water for his bath.

Shen Fei pushed aside the quilt and sat up to take off his clothes, a task not very convenient for him with one hand.

When Zhao Xi came back, he had not even untied the lapel of his shirt. Zhao Xi, accustomed to this, helped him take off his clothes, before moving the bench outside. She helped him bath, lying on the bench.