Peninsula: I run a bed and breakfast on Jeju Island

Chapter 67 Stiff Neck

"Splash, splash—"

Li Ran was awakened by the sound of rain.

Still feeling a bit sleepy after just waking up, he rubbed his eyes and glanced at the time.

6:17 PM.

I slept for quite a long time.

He looked out the window and could see the torrential rain pouring down outside through the gap in the curtains.

Li Ran sat up.

There was a dampness in the air, seeping in through the window cracks, carrying the smell of earth and wet leaves.

He stood up in his slippers, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains.

Li Ran lowered the curtains and walked towards the door.

"Were you also woken up by the sound of rain?"

As soon as he entered the living room, he saw Lee Ji-eun sitting blankly on the sofa.

She turned and glanced at Li Ran, pouting, "You left me to sleep on the sofa, then went to sleep on the big bed in the bedroom yourself. You're really something!"

He blinked. "I just saw you were sleeping so soundly! I can't exactly wake you up and tell you to get up and go back to sleep, can I?"

She rolled her eyes and then rubbed her neck.

I feel a bit stiff from overeating.

"Is your neck uncomfortable?" Li Ran asked when she saw her movement.

Lee Ji-eun tilted her head slightly and rubbed the side of her neck a couple of times. "Maybe my sleeping posture was wrong. My neck felt a bit stiff after I woke up."

She lowered her hand, turned her head slightly to the left and right, but when she turned to a certain angle, her brow furrowed slightly.

"It's probably because the sofa armrests are too high; I've been using them for a long time and it's given me a stiff neck."

1

Li Ran walked over and stood next to her.

Lee Ji-eun looked up at him; one side of her hair was flattened.

"If I had known, I would have just gone to bed in the bedroom." She pouted.

Li Ran sat on the sofa next to her, glanced at her, and said, "Mainly because you didn't mention it at the time."

Lee Ji-eun looked at him, her eyes filled with a wistful resentment, like someone who had just woken up. "You said you were lying on the sofa, what could I say?"

"I was just worried that it wouldn't be convenient to go to the bedroom!" He scratched his eyebrows.

Lee Ji-eun put her legs off the sofa and placed her feet on the floor. "Why didn't you just ask me first?"

Li Ran glanced at her neck and changed the subject, "Which side of your neck hurts?"

"What's wrong on the left?"

He opened his phone and searched.

"Reach your left hand behind your back and firmly grasp your right elbow. Place your right hand against your abdomen and slowly turn your head to the right until—"

He read the method he found online, then looked at Lee Ji-eun, "Why don't you give it a try?"

Lee Ji-eun glanced at him, her expression somewhat skeptical.

But she still stood up from the sofa and, following his instructions, reached her left hand behind her back and groped to grab her right elbow.

"Gotcha. And then?"

"Place your right hand on your abdomen. Yes, like that. Then slowly turn your head to the right."

Lee Ji-eun slowly turned her head to the right. When it reached a certain angle, she took a breath and stopped moving.

"It feels like we're being led by the hand."

"Then stop there," Li Ran continued, looking at her phone screen, "stay still, look down and behind you."

"Look behind you?" Her voice was a little doubtful, but she did as she was told.

She maintained that twisted posture, head down, eyes glancing behind her.

"Hold this position for thirty seconds." Li Ran put down her phone and stared at Li Zhi'en.

He silently counted down thirty seconds in his mind.

Brin woke up at some point and stood up from her cat bed.

Perhaps finding her posture a bit strange, it quietly moved a little further away from Lee Ji-eun.

Luckily, she didn't see this, or she would have been furious.

Is Brin treating her like she has mental problems?

"How much longer?"

"About fifteen seconds."

She kept her mouth shut and didn't say anything, her shoulders trembling slightly.

"Alright," Li Ran said.

She breathed a sigh of relief and slowly turned her head back.

Lee Ji-eun moved her left shoulder and then tried to rotate her neck, with a significantly wider range of motion than before.

"It seems a little better." There was a hint of surprise in her voice.

She turned left and right again, "At least it didn't hurt as much when I turned to the left."

"I reckon you'll get it after repeating it a few more times." He put his phone back in his pocket.

Lee Ji-eun nodded; she felt the same way.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

At that moment, the shouts outside the door caught his attention.

Li Ran stood up and walked towards the door.

"My goodness!"

He frowned as he looked at Xiao Hei, who was soaked to the bone by the rain.

Little Black's fur was completely plastered to its body, and its black fur had turned a deep black from being soaked by the rain. It stood at the door, shivering.

It tilted its head back, its pink tongue dangling out, and water droplets trickling down the tip of its tail.

A small puddle of water had already formed on the ground.

Li Ran squatted down and patted its head. "I told you not to run around outside. Now look what happened, you're soaked to the bone."

"

Xiao Hei took a step forward, probably trying to rub against him.

"Hey! No, no, no," he held out a hand to cover the dog's head, "My clothes are still dry."

"Woof."

Little Black cried out again, looking aggrieved, but stood still and didn't lunge forward again.

Lee Ji-eun peeked out from behind him and glanced at the soaking wet Xiao Hei. "Oh my, how did you get so wet?"

"It's been running outside a lot lately, but it's learned its lesson now." He gently nodded Little Black's head.

"Won't it catch a cold like this?" Lee Ji-eun said with some concern.

"Could you get me a towel? Just grab any disposable towel from the bathroom shelf. A used one is fine too," Li Ran said, supporting Xiao Hei who was trying to jump up.

"Inside."

She turned and went to the bathroom to get a towel.

After a while, Xiao Hei lay down, looked up at him, and made whimpering sounds.

"How dare you whine? Who told you to run around outside in the rain?"

Li Ran tapped its nose with her index finger. "Next time you see it raining, run home, okay?"

Xiao Hei licked his fingers.

At this moment, Brin also came over, sniffed it, and then left with a look of disgust.

Lee Ji-eun came out of the bathroom with two disposable towels in her hand. She handed one to Lee Ran and squatted down with the other towel in her hand.

"Come here, Little Black."

Xiao Hei hesitated for a moment, then took half a step forward.

Lee Ji-eun simply placed a towel over its back and began wiping it.

Her wiping movements weren't very skilled, but they were very careful. She wiped from the back down along the direction of the fur, the towel sliding from the black dog's spine to its side, absorbing the water seeping from the fur.

Li Ran also squatted down and used another towel to wipe Xiao Hei's head and neck.

Xiao Hei, being rubbed by two people simultaneously, squinted his eyes in pleasure. His legs went weak, and he was about to lie down on his side when he cried out, "Hey! Don't lie down! The floor is still wet!"

Li Ran grabbed its collar and pulled it up, saying, "Don't turn around and get covered in dust again after you've just dried it off."

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