Chapter 187 Pennant

After learning from Cortana that his muscle strain was the mildest kind, Zhou Yi immediately felt relieved and prepared to get up from the sofa.

But Cortana held him down. "What are you doing?"

"Resting, recuperating..."

"You think if you do nothing, the minor muscle damage will automatically heal?" Cortana asked.

"Doesn't it?" Zhou Yi retorted. "It's not a serious problem..."

"However minor it is, you're still injured. The next step from minor damage is a muscle fiber tear," Cortana said coldly, looking at Zhou Yi.

"Uh..." Zhou Yi didn't dare get up. "Then what should I do?"

"After yesterday's game, did you ice the areas that felt uncomfortable?"

"No..."

"Did you take a cold or hot shower when you got back?"

"Cold water, definitely cold water."

Ever since Cortana suggested to him in the youth team that cold showers could help the body recover, Zhou Yi had made it a habit to shower in cold water, whether it was the dead of winter or the height of summer. Sometimes, he would even soak in cold water.

Cortana finally nodded, signaling Zhou Yi to slowly get up from the sofa and sit down on a dining chair.

Then she crouched down in front of Zhou Yi, asking him to slowly move his right thigh, lifting it up and making a cycling motion.

"Stop when you feel pain," Cortana told Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi did it slowly, stopping decisively when he felt discomfort.

"Stretch slowly and gently within this range, holding each stretch for ten seconds, repeating ten times."

As Cortana spoke, Zhou Yi did as instructed.

While Zhou Yi was doing this, Cortana got up and went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out ice cubes, and packed them tightly in a plastic bag.

She also took out a roll of plastic wrap from a drawer.

After Zhou Yi had done ten repetitions, Cortana crouched down and placed the ice pack on the strained area, tightly wrapping it with plastic wrap, layer upon layer, very tightly.

Zhou Yi hissed and sucked in air throughout the process, inhaling every time Cortana wrapped another layer.

Finally, after it was all wrapped up, Zhou Yi felt like the area where the ice was pressed tightly against his thigh was about to lose all sensation...

"How long do I have to ice it for?" he asked.

"Twenty minutes," Cortana replied.

Zhou Yi looked down at the layers of shiny plastic wrap on his left thigh and suddenly felt like he was a wrapped ham...

"How do you know how to treat this kind of injury?" he asked.

"I studied sports medicine," Cortana replied.

Zhou Yi finally remembered that, so he became even more curious. "I've always wondered, why did you study sports medicine when you hate athletes so much? Doesn't that mean you have to deal with athletes all the time?"

"I like it," Cortana stood up, answering stiffly.

"Never mind if you don't want to talk about it," Zhou Yi pouted, then said to Cortana's departing back, "But still, thank you! If it weren't for you, I might have torn it."

※※※

During this day of rest at home, Zhou Yi spent his time either resting or doing restorative treatment under Cortana's guidance.

In addition to stretching within a pain-free range and applying ice, Cortana also massaged Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi realized for the first time that Cortana's massage skills were excellent, not at all inferior to the physiotherapists in the club's medical team. Only then did he realize that Cortana was actually a very capable person...

According to Cortana, as long as this kind of very minor muscle strain was treated well and precautions were taken in normal times, it wouldn't become the kind of recurring ailment that Zhou Yi feared.

But even though it was minor, Zhou Yi would still inevitably miss at least one league game. Because he wouldn't be able to resume normal training until five days later. Before that, he could only do some aerobic exercise, and the intensity couldn't be too high, to avoid pain.

And ice and massage were also essential.

※※※

After Cortana's treatment, Zhou Yi felt that his muscle stiffness symptoms had significantly lessened by the evening.

This made Zhou Yi ecstatic—as a player, the most worrying thing was getting injured. So when he realized that something was wrong with his muscles, Zhou Yi had been frowning. If it hadn't been for Cortana, he would have been completely ignorant and might have missed the opportunity for treatment, and then gone to the team for normal training the next day, until... the muscle fibers tore.

But now Cortana had solved most of his problems for him. Although he still couldn't participate in normal training the next day, he wouldn't have to be out for too long.

So, in order to express his gratitude to Cortana, Zhou Yi specially made a special gift to give to her.

Then, before going to bed, he knocked on Cortana's door.

"What?" Cortana looked at Zhou Yi standing at the door and asked.

"Uh, I'm here to express my gratitude," Zhou Yi said, his hands behind his back.

"You already said that this morning."

"I know, so it's not just gratitude." As he spoke, Zhou Yi brought out his hands from behind his back. In his hand, he was holding a piece of paper, a piece of A4 paper that had been cut into an isosceles triangle. The edges of the two equal sides were also covered with many small triangles, forming a serrated edge.

There were two small holes at the top of the paper, with a string threaded through them.

Two lines of words had been blacked out on the white paper with a pen, and they were... in German.

The right side of the phrase actually translated into Chinese was "Skillful Healing Hands," and the left side was "A Doctor with a Benevolent Heart."

These two sentences were the most eye-catching. At the same time, in the upper right corner, a line of small words was written in German: "Presented to the Divine Physician Cortana."

In the lower left corner was the signature and date of the presenter.

"What... the hell is this?" Cortana stared at the piece of paper in Zhou Yi's hand for a few seconds, then asked with a confused expression.

"This is a *jinqi* (a silk banner), a Chinese custom," Zhou Yi said to Cortana very seriously, holding his homemade "*jinqi*." "When their illness is cured by a doctor, patients will give the doctor such a *jinqi*. But my conditions are limited, so I can only use paper to replace it. The real *jinqi* is made of red velvet, and the words on it are all golden..."

Cortana re-examined the piece of paper in Zhou Yi's hand. Relying solely on Zhou Yi's verbal description, it was really difficult for her to imagine what the so-called "*jinqi*" should actually look like...

But if it was just what she was seeing now, she felt that it was more like a primary school student's handicraft project.

"That was just the mildest kind of strain. Even without me, the team doctor would have helped you deal with it when you went to the club tomorrow. And they would have treated it the same way I did," Cortana felt that Zhou Yi was making a fuss about nothing. She wasn't sure if Zhou Yi was playing a prank...

"Of course, but who knows what would happen if I delayed it for another day? Anyway, you helped me. So I want to thank you." Zhou Yi handed over the *jinqi*, and he wouldn't take it back if Cortana didn't want it.

Seeing his resolute attitude, Cortana reached out and took the piece of paper.

"Okay, I accept your gratitude," she said.

"Okay, good night." Zhou Yi also said goodbye to Cortana very simply, turning around and returning to his room.

Cortana turned her head to watch him go back, then close the door. She leaned against the door frame, pondering everything that had just happened.

Next, he wouldn't rush out with his phone to take a photo of her by surprise, would he? A photo of herself looking pitiful and comical holding this "*jinqi*"...

But Cortana waited for a minute, and Zhou Yi didn't come out again.

Was he serious?

Cortana lowered her head to look at the *jinqi* in her hand. It really was... very simple.

She picked up this gift of thanks and also turned around and went into the room. Sitting at the table, she placed the so-called *jinqi* on the table.

At first, she just placed it there casually, but after a while, she still picked it up and re-examined it in the yellow light of the desk lamp.

Although the materials were very simple, almost childish, if you looked closely, you could see the pencil marks on the white paper, faintly visible along the edges of the "serrations." Obviously, Zhou Yi had drawn the outline beforehand and then cut it out according to it...

Looking at the bold black letters, they were also carefully outlined and then filled in with black ink.

The materials were really simple, but every part of this simple material was not simple. Or rather, Zhou Yi had put in a lot of effort, it wasn't something he had drawn casually to play a prank.

So he really wanted to thank her.

Thinking about how that Chinese boy would actually lie on the table, making this "*jinqi*" stroke by stroke in order to thank her... it felt like a child hand-drawing their first birthday card for their mother.

Extremely childish.

But also a little cute...

Cortana looked at the *jinqi* in her hand and smiled.

Silly and cute.