Sent to the countryside, I turned the health center into a top-tier hospital.

…………

Cui Ying's dormitory!

The table lamp was on in the room, casting a warm yellow light on the bed.

Cui Ying stood by the bed, gathering her hair into a loose bun, revealing the back of her neck and ears.

Her ears glowed a thin pink under the light, and a few stray strands of hair fell behind them, swaying gently with her movements.

The dormitory was quiet. Zhou Xiaohe hadn't returned; she was outside admiring the scenery.

The lamp's light illuminated a small area around the edge of the bed, leaving the rest of the room in darkness.

With her back to Chen Ping, Cui Ying slowly unbuttoned her clothes. Because of her back injury, she couldn't bend her arms back as far as she could. She frowned after unbuttoning just two buttons.

"I'll help you."

Chen Ping stepped forward.

Her cardigan was unbuttoned, revealing her close-fitting undergarment.

Chen Ping helped her take her coat off her shoulders and draped it over the back of the chair.

Cui Ying rolled up the hem of her inner garment, revealing a bright red bra underneath. Two thin straps ran from her collarbone around her shoulder blades and crossed at her back in the shape of the letter X.

The light shone on her bare back, making her skin appear almost blindingly white. Her shoulder blades protruded slightly, and the grooves of her spine stretched from the back of her neck to her lower back.

The wounds were covered with white dressings, running diagonally from the shoulder blades down to the side of the waist.

The adhesive tape on the top dressing was a bit loose, with the edges curling up, revealing the dark red sutures underneath.

"You lie face down on the bed."

Chen Ping placed the medicine box on the bedside table, unscrewed the cap of the iodine bottle, and a pungent smell of medicine wafted out.

Cui Ying lay down on the bed, turning her face to the side and resting it on her arm.

Her back stretched out because of this posture, the grooves of her spine became deeper, and the curve of her waist slumped down and was tucked into her waistband.

The bra straps were positioned directly above the dressing, obscuring the area where the top wound needed changing.

When Chen Ping reached out and his fingers touched her back, Cui Ying's shoulders trembled slightly.

He carefully removed the bra straps from her shoulders, trying not to let his fingertips touch her skin.

But the strap was too thin, and when it was pulled down, it inevitably touched the skin on her shoulder blade. Her skin was warm and delicate, and when I touched it, I could feel the slight tension in the muscles underneath.

Several pieces of old dressing were torn off, revealing the stitched wound underneath.

The wound is healing better than expected. The skin edges are aligned neatly, there is no redness or swelling, no oozing, and a very thin, transparent scab has formed around the sutures.

Chen Ping dipped a cotton swab in iodine and applied it in circles from the center of the wound outwards, his movements extremely light, like a brush drawing lines on rice paper.

"Does it hurt?" Chen Ping asked.

"It doesn't hurt, it's a little cold." Cui Ying's voice was muffled in her arm, indistinct, with a slight upward inflection at the end, carrying a slight, unintentional tremor.

Her back was spread out completely in front of Chen Ping's eyes.

The light shone from the side, illuminating the fine hairs on her skin clearly. The curves of her waist flowed smoothly into her trousers, and her shoulder blades rose and fell slightly with her breath.

Because she was lying face down on the bed, a small, soft curve of her chest peeked out from her armpits, gleaming delicately under the light.

Chen Ping's fingers continued to move along her back.

When the cotton swab reached the deepest wound on her side, he gently pressed his hand against her exposed lower back, his palm against her skin, which was particularly thin, and he could feel the warmth of her body and the slight throbbing of her muscles.

"And here?"

"A little bit."

Cui Ying's voice became even softer, so soft that the last word was almost a hum from her nose.

After she finished speaking, she bit her lip, and the color of her ears changed from light pink to deep red.

That soft hum, like a feather, burrowed into Chen Ping's ear and traveled down his spine.

He sensed some changes in his body and quickly focused his attention on the cotton swab in his hand.

The more she tried not to think about it, the more noticeable the temperature of the skin under her palm became. Her body temperature was transmitted through her palm, warm and cozy, like holding a cup of hot water in winter.

His breathing became heavier.

He knew he shouldn't do this, but his body wouldn't obey him.

When he's getting stitches in the operating room, his mind is only focused on technical parameters like the wound, stitch length, and alignment; he never has any random thoughts.

But this wasn't the operating room. The lamplight was warm, and there was a faint, refreshing scent of laundry detergent in the air. Cui Ying was lying in front of him, her back bare, her shoulders rising and falling gently.

After Chen Ping applied a dressing and withdrew his hand, he realized that his mouth was dry and his heart was beating faster than usual when he stood up.

"Not ready yet?" Cui Ying turned her head, revealing half of her profile, her eyes looking at him from under her eyelashes.

Her lips were slightly upturned, and her expression didn't seem to be reminding the doctor, but rather as if she was saying something that they both wanted to confirm but hadn't yet said aloud.

Her face was still red, her forehead resting on her arm, a position that completely exposed the back of her neck to his eyes, a few strands of hair sticking to her skin, glistening with sweat.

"I'm going to wash my face." Chen Ping threw the cotton swab into the trash can, turned around, opened the door, and went out.

A cool breeze from the yard poured down on him. He walked to the tap, turned it on, and splashed a handful of cool water on his face.

Water dripped down his chin and into his collar, making him shiver from the cold.

He took another handful and poured it directly onto the back of his neck, then vigorously rubbed his face with his hands.

He looked up at the moon in the sky. The moon was still the same moon, round and bright, hanging on the top of the poplar tree.

He took a few deep breaths to suppress the anger, wiped his face with his sleeve, and then turned to walk back.

Back in the room, Cui Ying was still lying on the bed, but she lifted her face from her arms and turned her head to watch him walk in.

Her face was still a little red, but the smile on her lips showed no sign of hiding it; in fact, it was even a bit bigger than before.

"Your face is covered in water," she said softly.

There was no complaint in his tone, but there was something else that was not easily noticed, as if he knew something but considerately did not point it out, and covered it up with a very common-sounding sentence.

Chen Ping took a tissue from the bedside table, wiped himself, sat back down on the bed, and picked up a new dressing.

After the inner dressing is applied, it's time to apply the outer, larger dressing.

He tore open the packaging, placed the dressing over the row of stitches, and gently pressed it with his fingers from the middle outwards to make the dressing adhere tightly to his skin.

"Adhesive tape." He cut the adhesive tape into several pieces and stuck them one by one to the edge of the dressing, sealing the wound tightly.

After finishing, he hooked Cui Ying's bra straps back up from her back, trying to be as gentle and steady as possible with his fingertips.

Her shoulder twitched slightly, as if responding to his movements, or perhaps as a natural reaction to the slight chill.

He helped her put down her undergarments, then took the cardigan draped over the back of the chair and draped it over her shoulders.

"alright."

Cui Ying slowly sat up, put on her coat, and buttoned it one button at a time with her head down.

Her face wasn't so red anymore, but her ears were still red, from her earlobes all the way down to her auricles.