Applying it might help the swelling subside faster, but not applying it won't cause any problems. After all, she wears so many clothes every day, so apart from being at home, no one would notice anything unusual.
But Chai Qianning insisted on applying the ointment for her, so she had no choice but to reach out to take it. However, Chai Qianning pulled her hand away, saying, "You've been working all day. How can you do such a small thing yourself?"
Back in the bedroom, the curtains were drawn.
Sheng Muxi took off her pajamas, lay face down on the bed, and let the other person apply the medicine to her.
Chai Qianning knew exactly where to start. She carefully applied the ointment, tucked Sheng Muxi's pajamas in, and screwed the cap back on. She then took another bottle of ointment and pressed her fingertips against the other person's pajama bottoms.
“There’s no need to apply it here,” Sheng Muxi said.
"Really not going to?"
"Need not."
"Let me take a look and check it out."
Sheng Muxi changed her mind: "Then I'll do it myself."
Chai Qianning didn't let go, raising her eyebrows slightly and teasing the other person's chin with her fingertips: "Hmm? Are you shy again?"
"No," she said, but the blush on her cheeks betrayed her.
"I'm just putting some medicine on you. I'm not doing anything to you. Besides, it's not convenient for you to apply medicine there yourself, right?"
Sheng Muxi leaned against the pillow, feeling the delicate touch of Chai Qianning's fingertips, which were covered in ointment, gently applying it to her skin. Staring at the ceiling, she imagined Chai Qianning watching her carefully apply the ointment to a certain spot. Thinking of what happened last night, her ears felt unnaturally hot, and she turned her head to bury her face halfway in the pillow.
——
On the eve of New Year's Day, the school will hold a New Year's Eve party, and each class will have to perform a program.
The class taught by Sheng Muxi originally wanted to choose a large chorus performance so that all students could participate in the program. However, since other classes had already signed up, they had to choose a group traditional Chinese dance instead.
In addition, the teachers also need to put on a few performances.
Compared to the students' enthusiasm in this regard, the office staff are quite troubled by it.
The office's comedic relief, Teacher Ouyang, volunteered to perform a hilariously absurd dance at the party, but no one wanted to team up with him. After all, most teachers can speak eloquently on the podium, but they're not really comfortable performing on stage. So Teacher Ouyang had to drag his younger brother along.
Several other middle-aged male teachers chose to sing the national anthem for convenience, but they still couldn't gather enough material for a performance. So Sheng Muxi was pulled up to join in, becoming one of the participants who were there mainly for the experience.
"What? You're going to sing?" Chai Qianning immediately agreed, "I'll definitely go to the New Year's Eve party. I've never heard you sing before."
Sheng Muxi took a sip of water, looking utterly dejected: "I'm not good at singing at all. They couldn't think of anything else to do, so they dragged me up on stage."
"You're singing all by yourself."
"Originally, I was going to sing with another female teacher. But that female teacher is tone-deaf. She said that if she sang on stage, she would probably just be making a joke. It would be better to just perform a comedy to make everyone laugh. So my program has not been decided yet."
Chai Qianning rested her chin on her hand: "Singing alone is quite nice. I'll record you singing later."
"No way!" Sheng Muxi almost choked on her water. "I'm planning to sing a simple song."
Chai Qianning's eyelashes trembled: "Sing Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?"
In Chai Qianning's mind, simple songs are roughly equivalent to children's songs.
Sheng Muxi glared at her: "Sing counting ducks."
I can already picture that scene.
Chai Qianning laughed so hard she couldn't straighten up.
After some back and forth joking around, Chai Qianning finally chose a song for her called "A Little Happiness".
With limited rehearsal time and the program needing to be finalized as soon as possible, the teachers in the office were either worried or calling for help. One teacher with considerable influence at the school was extremely dissatisfied with the school's absurd decision to require every teacher to participate in the New Year's Eve gala performance, so he even dragged in the usually strict dean of students to perform.
A middle-aged teacher suggested that her daughter should be enrolled to perform, as she simply couldn't perform on stage and lacked the artistic talent.
Another teacher joked, "Are you going to drag your daughter up to sing nursery rhymes?"
"If the school agrees, it's not impossible for my daughter to sing children's songs in my name."
"I reckon after this party, my image in front of the students will be completely ruined."
Hearing the children's song reminded Sheng Muxi of Chai Qianning.
"Hey, Teacher Sheng, are you singing 'A Little Happiness'?"
"Um."
"Would you like Ms. Xie to accompany you? She plays the piano."
When Teacher Xie heard her name called, she turned around and said, "I'm not good at the piano. I can only play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. If Teacher Sheng is willing, how about we sing a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star together to make up the numbers?"
When asked to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in front of her students, Sheng Muxi herself couldn't bear to watch: "How about I play the piano and you sing?"
Teacher Xie imagined herself singing and couldn't help but laugh so hard she fell onto the table.
In the end, the matter was dropped, and Sheng Muxi continued to sing "A Little Happiness," but it gave her an inspiration.
The thought that Chai Qianning was coming to watch her sing and record a video that day, and would use her phone to record this embarrassing moment of her past, gave her the idea of dragging Chai Qianning onto the stage to "make a fool of herself" together.
When she got home that evening, Sheng Muxi discussed it with her.
"Who told you I can play the piano?"
"That wouldn't be good; we'd both embarrass ourselves."
Chai Qianning: "..."
She suddenly curled her lips into a sly smile and sat down next to Sheng Muxi: "But, I really have studied it."
Sheng Muxi glanced sideways and blinked.
However, when Sheng Muxi actually went to the piano room to practice, she realized that Chai Qianning's so-called learning had only lasted for less than a month.
Chai Qianning learns a wide variety of things; she'll learn a little bit of whatever interests her and ignore what doesn't. She knows a little about everything, but she's not very good at anything.
If she remembers correctly, Chai Qianning first encountered the piano in elementary school. She saw a girl playing the piano in a piano room and suddenly felt inspired to tell He Xiaoying that she wanted to learn too. So He Xiaoying hired a piano teacher for her, but she only studied for a few days before giving up. In order not to waste the money spent on a private tutor, Chai Qianning was still forced by her parents to grit her teeth and finish the basic introductory lessons.
She had some basic knowledge, but after so many years of not having touched it, Chai Qianning had completely forgotten it.
When you sit down on the piano bench and try to place your fingers on the keys, you feel awkward and unfamiliar, much like a lumberjack sawing a bed leg.
Therefore, Chai Qianning had something to keep her busy during this period. Xu Yuan had a piano at home, so she would go to Xu Yuan's private villa every day and sometimes practice until evening before returning home.
The last evening self-study period on Mondays and Wednesdays for the second-year high school students was used to rehearse a performance. Sheng Muxi was going to sing a solo, so he could practice at home by himself.
After arriving at the apartment complex, while waiting for the elevator, Sheng Muxi opened WeChat. A little over ten minutes earlier, she had sent Chai Qianning a message saying "I'm home," to which Chai Qianning replied with a bunch of emojis.
[Hugging and kissing JPD.]
[JPD file filled with flying kisses]
【Kitten Kissing (jpd)】
[Patting and kissing JPD.]
[Runs over to kiss JPD.]
.
Seeing the screen full of elaborate kisses, Sheng Muxi couldn't help but smile.
When she got home, changed her shoes, and went into the living room, Chai Qianning was curled up on the sofa playing games. Just as a game ended, she stood up, rushed to Sheng Muxi, and kissed her.
How's your piano practice going?
"good."
Looking into her eyes, Sheng Muxi recalled the bunch of kissing emojis that flooded her WeChat feed and casually chatted with her, "How do you have so many weird and wonderful emojis?"
"Do you like them? There are a few more that are a bit more explicit, but I haven't posted them yet." Chai Qianning's eyes held a teasing smile. "Do you want to see them?"
Where did you get all these things?
"Of course, it's collected."
As Chai Qianning spoke, she tapped her phone and swiped her fingers across it a few times. Immediately afterward, Sheng Muxi felt her phone vibrate. She opened WeChat and saw a figure wearing a pink dress and a white skeleton running in the wilderness, blowing a kiss with its stick-like hand as it ran. The scene was extremely offensive.
Hmm...it really is very explicit.
Sheng Muxi's eyelids twitched: "Do you often send this kind of message to others?"
"How could that be?" Chai Qianning put away her phone.
Sheng Muxi stared at her.
“Okay, I’ve sent them to some friends.” Chai Qianning admitted, “But that was before, just for joking around and to liven things up with friends. If you don’t like them, I won’t send these kinds of emojis to anyone else anymore.”
"Yeah, you shouldn't send such intimate emojis to other people."
"Okay." Chai Qianning nestled against her and touched her cheek with her finger: "I'll only send it to you."
Sheng Muxi went to take a shower first, and after warming up the bathroom, she urged Chai Qianning to go in and shower. She sat on the sofa, and was about to pick up her phone from the table when she saw that Chai Qianning's phone was also on the table.
They both knew each other's phone passwords, and Chai Qianning had said she didn't mind Sheng Muxi looking at her phone. But Sheng Muxi trusted her completely and had never looked at her phone.
But then, as if possessed, she picked up Chai Qianning's phone, unlocked it, and took a look. She found that the other party indeed had a lot of WeChat stickers, including various kissing and hugging stickers, as well as animated GIFs of two girls doing this and that.
Seeing this, Sheng Muxi couldn't help but bite her knuckles. This person was indeed quite "impure" in private.
Just as she exited WeChat and was about to turn off the screen, she saw a familiar green social networking app on the interface.
Her heart skipped a beat.
She had downloaded this app before to check if Chai Qianning was using it, and then uninstalled it. But she didn't expect that Chai Qianning's phone still had the app.
After hesitating for a few seconds, Sheng Muxi finally clicked on the screen.
She was a little nervous when she clicked on it. What if she saw Chai Qianning's chat with other people? But it turned out she was just overthinking it. She was the only contact in the chat, and she was even saved with the nickname "Sheng".
Sheng? This nickname is too obvious, and this account is indeed the one she chatted with Chai Qianning about before.
But at that time, didn't Chai Qianning not know that this person was her? Why was she still noted down as "Sheng"?
Sheng Muxi pursed her lips, as if she understood something.
Chapter 50 Ineffable
Chai Qianning's phone had a lot of apps, all kinds of strange and unusual ones that Sheng Muxi had never seen before, and they weren't categorized. Sheng Muxi couldn't help but marvel at how much storage space Chai Qianning's phone had, with games alone taking up a lot of space.
The sound of water in the bathroom gradually stopped, and Chai Qianning came out, bringing with her a few wisps of mist.