Chapter 2: Planting Rice is not Nice

“Out.”

Adriel bit her lips at the sound of Zeth’s voice. She glanced one more time at the handsome man and internally cursed with how good he looked. 

‘If only he wasn’t rude, then he’d totally be my type,” she thought in her head. 

“I said—out. We’re here.”

“Alright. Alright. Geez. I’m getting out.”

Adriel opened the door and got out of the truck. She held the door open and waited for Zeth to carry her bags. 

“Well, aren’t you going to get my bags?” she asked in an obvious tone. 

Zeth raised one of his eyebrows. 

“No. It’s your bags. You carry them.” 

Adriel blew a stray piece of hair away from her face and went to the back of the truck to get her bags. She struggled to get all of them out, but she eventually did it. 

“There. Now help me carry them to the villa,” she ordered, wiping the sweat off of her brow.

Her eyes widened in surprise when Zeth closed the door from inside of the truck and threw her a wink. Without any warning, the truck accelerated, leaving Adriel alone with her six large bags and her Jimmy Choo shoes covered in mud. 

“Ugh!” she screamed in disgust as she tried wiping away the mud from her expensive shoes. 

She looked at the truck from a distance and sighed in frustration.

“I fucking hate you,” she muttered under her breath as she carried all her six bags inside the villa.

***

After what felt like forever, Adriel finally arrived in front of the villa. She placed her bags down on the tiled floor while looking at the villa’s exterior. 

Now that she wasn’t carrying over ten pounds of clothes, she could admire the view in front of her. 

The villa was a two-story house that was approximately 600 square meters long. It had a garden leading to its door, and it was decorated with colorful plants and flowers. 

She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in some fresh air. However, her face quickly morphed into a scowl when she remembered what happened just moments ago. She would have enjoyed her arrival better if it weren’t for that scumbag farmer.

She shook her head and decided to just forget about the farmer. She’ll probably never see him again—which made her kind of disappointed because she honestly wants to see his handsome face one more. 

She opened the door to the house and was greeted by countless maids and butlers standing in one line. In the middle of them all, stood an esteemed old man with a welcoming smile on his face. 

“You must be Adriella. Welcome to the Gray’s farm. I am Earl Gray, the owner of this humble abode.” 

Adriel shook his hand and gave him a polite smile. “Adriel is fine. Thank you for inviting me to your home.”

“Well, Adriel. This is our main helper, Francine, and my youngest grandson, Milo.”

Adriel knelt down to Milo’s level and greeted him with a warm smile. One thing that most people don’t know about Adriel is that she likes children very much. Milo reciprocated her smile with a toothless grin, making her chuckle in delight.

“You’re certainly not what your parents made you out to be,” Earl said.

Adriel stood up and tilted her head to the side in confusion. 

“They said you were much more...bratty.”

Adriel looked down on the floor in embarrassment. 

“But don’t worry. I only have good impressions so far. Do you want to proceed to your room?”

“Yes, please,” Adriel said softly.

“Francine will lead you to your room, and afterward, she will tour you around the farm.” 

"Thank you,” she bowed her head and followed Francine up the stairs. 

Francine was a simple yet pretty girl, not that older than Adriel, and she was a woman of few words.

Adriel tried striking up a conversation with her on the way to her new room, but she would just respond with casual nods.

‘Are all the people here hostile?’ she thought to herself. 

She sighed in relief when they finally made it to her new room. Francine helped her carry her bags inside while she observed the place. 

Not bad. 

“I will wait for you in the living room in fifteen minutes. We would be going around the farm, and I would be telling you your tasks.”

“Tasks?”

She ignored Adriel’s question and just bowed her head and left. 

“Weird,” Adriel muttered under her breath as she organized her things. She didn’t know what “tasks” Francine was talking about, but she already knew that she was not going to like it. 

After fifteen minutes, Adriel went down to the living room and saw Francine waiting for her. 

Francine looked her up and down and raised one eyebrow. “You’re going to wear that to the farm?”

Adriel looked down on her outfit—a white sundress paired with sandals. 

“Why? What’s wrong with it?” 

Weren’t these the types of outfits that people wear when they’re wandering on a farm or vineyard?

Francine shrugged her shoulders. “Alright. Suit yourself.”

Again, Adriel didn’t understand her, so she just followed her outside of the villa. 

The first thing that Adriel noticed was the heat of the sun. It’s a good thing that she was wearing sunblock; otherwise, she would have been sunburnt by now.

“How much farther are we going to walk?” Adriel asked, annoyed. Her legs were already itching from all of the plants and dry grass along their path. 

Francine stopped in her tracks, causing Adriel to sigh in relief. 

“This is our strawberry farm,” she said, gesturing to the plentiful fruits embedded on the ground. 

Adriel looked at it in awe, but her amazement quickly vanished because of the heat of the sun. 

“Can we move on? Preferably to a place with a shade.”

Francine merely nodded her head and led Adriel to another place.

Adriel frowned when they went to a muddy rice field. Alright. Maybe the strawberry farm was actually better. 

“And here we have the rice field. This is where you’re going to be working today.”

Adriel did a double-take. “Working?” 

On her first day on the farm?

Francine nodded her head. “Yes. Mister Earl told me to assign you some tasks to get you used to the farm life.”

“And you gave me this?” she said in a disgusted tone while looking at the wet and muddy rice field.

Francine turned away from her and got her some equipment. After that, she led her to the rice field, causing her to gasp in shock.

The mud entered her sandals, and both of her feet were submerged. 

"Ah, fuck," she muttered under her breath as she navigated her way through the muddy field. 

Just then, she heard squeals and giggles of delight not far from where she was. 

She glanced in the direction of the sound and almost fell down to the mud in shock. 

In nothing but Calvin Klein boxers and a cowboy hat—there she saw Zeth, the rude farmer she met earlier today, planting some rice only a few feet away from her.