The bathhouse is full of fog and the smell of disinfectant water. A monk in his thirties came in wearing a beige cassock and holding an Apple phone. I saw that he had taken off his clothes and was waiting in the big pool. He came forward and said, "Master, do you want to rub your back?"

"If you want, if you want," the monk promised, walking up from the pool, wearing slippers, and lying on the back rub bed. I took a towel and rubbed it carefully from his shoulder along his spine to his waist, buttocks, thighs, calves and toes. The monk did not bathe for more than a month, and the sweat mud was like a black spinning cone.
"You have a lot of oil," I said. "Do you want salt or soap?"
"What's the difference?"
"Five pieces of soap, seven pieces of salt"
"Put salt on it"
I scooped up some water from the big pool, washed the sweat mud out, grabbed the salt and sprinkled it on the monk's back, bent my hands into a nest, and gently patted it.
"Where are you from?" I asked casually
Shanxi
"How can I remember being a monk"
"When I was a child, my family was poor and could not support them. I sent them to the temple to make a living."
"Come on, turn over." I turned him over and began to rub the front.
"Be noble in your work." The monk said, "We monks share the souls of all living beings, and your work purifies the flesh of the world."
I just rubbed my hand near his scrotum and asked jokingly, "Master, I have a question for you. Do you think people like me will go to hell after death?"
"No, no, the tree you planted in this life will have good results in the next life"
"But I introduce the lady upstairs to the guests besides rubbing their backs."
The monk immediately pinched his face and put his hands on his chest. "Sin, sin, don't owe each other."
At this time, the waiter in the lobby came to me and said that a woman was delivering food to me. I couldn't get through to the phone and was waiting for me downstairs.
"Rub your back for eight yuan and apply salt for seven yuan, a total of fifteen yuan. When you leave later, you can tie it at the bar and say Zhou Peng will do. I'm off work now."
I hurried to get dressed. It was late at night when I came out of the second floor. It was raining. There was a Wuling van downstairs. Feng Ting was sitting in the van. I got on and pulled the door.
"Why did you send me food, Chen Wei?"
"He passed the store at night and said he would accompany my brother-in-law to Nanjing to deliver goods and ask me to help deliver food."
I took a few mouthfuls, and then it began to rain heavily. The wiper on the car kept swinging from side to side. The street lamp shone on Feng Ting's side through the dim window. I was a little impulsive. She did some small business of wholesale disposable tableware. Her husband stayed in Inner Mongolia all the year round and never came back several times a year.
"Do you want to take a taxi or do I give you a ride?" Feng Ting asked
"It's so late and it's raining so heavily. You'd better send me."
Feng Ting stepped on the accelerator, turned the car around and drove towards my place.
When the car calmed down, I rubbed my hands. The car was full of the smell of shampoo and solid lemon essence on her head. I sat in the back seat and stared at the lights alternately reflecting her pink ears. After the car passed Shengli Road, Feng Ting noticed that I was staring at her all the time.
"What are you looking at?" Her voice trembled
"Nothing?" I said, "We are alone in the car. I am divorced, and your husband is not at home for a long time. Everyone needs it."
Thinking I was joking, Feng Ting held the steering wheel with one hand, fumbled a hundred from her pocket, handed it back to me from her seat, and said, "Here's a hundred. You can go to the railway station to solve the problem."
I saw her shaking hands and said with a smile, "This is not ready. Why spend money unjustly?"
"Everyone is grown up, so we should not play such jokes anymore." Feng Ting continued to drive past the Longhu Building in the outer ring road.
I waited for a moment, then asked tentatively: "Nothing else, are you lonely?"
Feng Ting stops the car, turns her head and stares at me
"Get out!"
"Come on, you and Lao Yang from Duoweilou, we all know that. That's the same thing, isn't it? He's in his fifties."
Feng Ting leaned over and reached out to open the door of the back seat. I grabbed her hand: "Don't you two feel good? There are people outside your husband. They don't even bring chicken feathers home all the year round. If it weren't for the children, you would have divorced. I promised to treat you well and love you..." She felt her chest at once. Feng Ting was worried and her left hand "snapped" Give me a slap
"Go away!"
Then he covered his face with his hands and sobbed again.
I stayed in the car and froze for a few minutes. Thinking that her brother-in-law was my friend and was afraid of something wrong, I got off the bus and stood in front of Suguo Supermarket under Longhu Building to take shelter from the rain. At this time, it was raining harder and harder, and a layer of water mist had formed on the ground. I saw Feng Ting's car started up again, and the tail lights disappeared rapidly in the rain at night.
"It's still fucking stubborn," I scolded in my heart, looking around at the taxi. It was almost one o'clock in the morning, and there was not a car hair on the road.
The supermarket is still in business. I went in and bought some peanuts and some bags of instant chicken legs, carried a bottle of wine, and sat on the bench outside the supermarket.
"It seems that I can't go back." On the chair, I thought about whether to find a small hotel.
Maybe I smelled the fragrance, a cat "Meow Meow" hiding under the air-conditioner outside the supermarket bent its head to me, and its beige fur on its back was wet in the rain, and its tail was drooping. It was a female cat.
I saw that he was poor and threw a few peanuts. He went to smell them like a dog and didn't eat them. He threw away some leftover chicken leg bones and just licked them.
I suddenly got very excited and wanted to play tricks on it. I split the chicken leg into several pieces, dipped each piece with wine, tried to throw one piece and ate it. I threw a few more pieces one after another and ate them all. Then I threw one piece and swallowed one. In the blink of an eye, I ate all my two bags of chicken legs. It seemed that it was nothing. I began to feel distressed and stamped my feet to drive it away. I didn't know whether the cat was drunk too much and had a fat gall. It looked at me blankly and had no intention of leaving.
I gave myself a few mouthfuls and got up from the bench. At this time, I seemed to see Feng Ting coming back, sitting in the car waving to me. I walked to the cat, who saw me approaching it, and seemed to realize that I was going to be serious this time. Then I started to take a step and stagger up to walk. As a result, I stumbled and fell on the steps under the bench. I laughed, and then I clearly heard someone calling my name. Through the rain and fog, I saw that Feng Ting had just left my place, and the car was back.
I threw the empty wine bottle away, ran to the car, pulled open the door, sat down on the passenger side, and asked excitedly, "Got it?"
Feng Ting waved her hand and looked disgusted.
"I knew that all of you women like to act like that at the beginning."
"If you talk nonsense again, believe it or not, I will slap you"
"I know, I know, I don't want to say, I don't want to say." At this time, the wine force came up, and I pretended to be calm and straightened my left arm, gently hugged Feng Ting's shoulder.
"Take it away" Feng Ting waved her right hand
"What do you mean? I'm cultivating feelings."
"My brother-in-law and Cheng Wei had an accident."
At this time, the bus had reached the expressway entrance. Feng Ting rolled down the window and took the card and receipt from the toll collector.
I was surprised: "When did it happen?"
"Just now, Cheng Wei called to say that the car hit the high-speed guardrail"
"How are you?"
"I don't know yet. Cheng Wei should be fine. My brother-in-law is still unclear."
Wang Chen, Feng Ting's brother-in-law, is half my boss. In winter, I rub my back in the bathhouse. In summer, when I have nothing to do, I go to her brother-in-law's shop to sell.
"This dead Cheng Wei hung up before he finished talking, and my brother-in-law couldn't get through again." Feng Ting complained anxiously
"Call one more"
"Yes, the phone is off"
"Did you say where it was?"
"Coming to G31 exit"
"Did you call your sister?" I suddenly thought that her sister had just given birth to her second child. Even if she knew, she would not be able to come.
"My sister is contacting the hospital"
At this time, our broken Wuling van for delivery had already soared to 90 yards on the highway, and the rain still did not stop. It was slapping on the window, the area where the high beam lights shone was foggy, and the carriage was quiet. From time to time, several trucks covered with green canvas roared past, the wheels rolled up the rain, and sometimes a dull sound like winter thunder sounded.
"Nothing, nothing," I comforted: "Your brother-in-law is very lucky. This is not the first time."
Wang Chen and I had a car accident when we were electricians in the textile factory. He lost a leg. Later, he stayed on without pay and went out to open a shop.        
Feng Ting did not speak again, holding on to the steering wheel. I stared at her side face, and then looked at the winter sky. Remembering that Cheng Wei and I had a drink the other day, and when we were half drunk, Cheng Wei held the bottle in his hands and said, "I went to pick up something at the store of Feng Nizi that day, and I opened the rolling gate at dawn." Cheng Wei blushed and asked mysteriously, "Guess what I saw."
"What?" I actually guessed and pretended to be particularly curious
"Wang Chen wears pants and a stiff face. His brother-in-law and sister-in-law" Cheng Wei's tongue is already slightly curled: "Little, my sister-in-law is half his ass."
I heard some gossip between Feng Ting and Lao Yang and tried to get Cheng Wei to say, "Do you know that Lao Yang?"
"Which Lao Yang?"
"The chef of Duowei Restaurant often introduces business to Feng Ting."
"He, I know." Cheng Wei dragged the sound of "he" for a long time, and suddenly stared at me again: "You can do something about it. You are a bachelor anyway."
The car slowed down when it was almost at the G31 exit. From a distance, we saw Wang Chen's car wedged into the guardrail. A wheel rolled under the protective green belt not far away. Cheng Wei waved to us in the rain with a piece of clothes on his back. We hurried out of the car and approached the broken windshield. Wang Chen was unconscious, his head was full of blood, and one leg was squeezed on the shift panel.
"What happened? Didn't you drive?" I asked Cheng Wei
"If he is sleepy, he will take some cold medicine and feel dizzy."
"Hurry to grab the handle" Feng Ting got into the car, put one hand on Wang Chen's shoulder and one hand on his waist, and slowly moved out. Cheng Wei and I quickly grabbed one of his legs and carried the wilting Wang Chen to another car
"Did you call for help?" I asked
"It should be here soon"
"Zhou Peng, Cheng Wei and I will send my brother-in-law to the hospital. You can wait here for rescue."
So I worked all night in the rain. It was not until the next afternoon that I finished all the formalities and hurried back to the bathhouse to work. The monk hasn't left yet. He does things around here and sleeps in the bathhouse. I saw him chatting with several bathers who were also bare chested. One bather handed him a cigarette, and he waved his hand. The other frequenter in the bathhouse had a luxuriant beard as well as chest hair. We called him hairy, and he had a cigarette in his mouth to make fun of the monk
"Don't be guilty." Long Mao asked, "There's a lady upstairs. Don't you try?"
The monk flushed and shook his head.
"Stop pretending. Go up the stairs over there and turn left on the second floor, and someone will greet you. It's not expensive. You can find No. 19. I know that girl. She has a big chest and a cocky butt, which makes you feel cool." Changmao patted the monk's chest and said.
The monk got up to leave, and Changmao quickly pulled him: "Well, let's stop talking, can't we stop talking?" He had a pair of triangular eyes, and his eyes were rolling.
"I'm just curious." Long Mao took a big breath: "Do you want to run or not?" Several other people were already chuckling: "Is that what happened at night when you were confused and dreaming?" Long Mao put his arm around the monk's shoulder to prevent him from running again.
The monk was so frustrated by the long hair that he bowed his head and murmured, "Yes, there are..."
"Do you want to miss a girl after running a horse?"
"I, we all confess to the Bodhisattva..."
I had already taken off my clothes and came over with a towel. Seeing the monk's embarrassment, I gave him a way out: "Master hasn't left yet? Do you want to rub your back again?"
The monk nodded as if he saw the savior: "Get it, get it"
There is no one in the bathhouse yet. I asked the monk to lie down on the back rub bed again. He had done it last night, so this time I just put some water, salt and knock on his back.
"Who can tell you the truth, I will do the rough work in this way, and the young lady's hands are very delicate." I continued to try and recommend a guest with a 50 yuan rebate. I am precocious in this skill.
The monk lay on the bed and didn't speak. I felt that he was suffocating
"Right, men have this need." The monk still didn't say anything, and then he exhaled again after a long time.
"The monk is also a person. He has seven emotions and six desires. Don't be afraid of jokes. It's normal for people to be bald now. If you don't tell me, the lady won't know. There is a blind date show host who is also bald. Now bald people are successful." I increased my strength, and the monk was a little out of breath.
"If you are afraid of being seen, I can take you through the secret door. Don't worry. I won't tell you. To be honest, I have a commission for your consumption."
The monk moved his hands from the back to the front, folded them together and put them under his forehead.
"In fact, it's not expensive, and there's a lot of service." I continued. The monk bent up like an earthworm with the strength of his arm, and the mosquito snorted to the bed board and asked, "How much is it?"
"Different services have different prices, up to 500"
"I'm afraid I can't" The monk's voice is so low that I can hardly hear
"It's OK. Take your time. They have time limit. They will leave when they arrive."
The monk hesitated for a moment and asked, "Which secret door?"
"Don't worry," I said, "the lady hasn't gone to work yet. You live here anyway. I'll go upstairs to find a good one for you when you get off work, and let you charter the night."
The bathhouse was getting more and more crowded. I took the monk to the lounge chair in the hall to watch TV. By the time I got off work, I rubbed my back more than 100 times. After settling the monk down, I was tired of spending the night directly in the bathhouse.
The next morning I went to the hospital to see Wang Chen. At the door of the emergency room, I saw Feng Ting. She was calling her husband "Great Xia", the nickname we gave him. Probably to ask him to come back for a look. I learned from the doctor that Wang Chen was nothing serious, but that his injured leg would have to be observed in the hospital for a few days.
Lao Yang also came, carrying two boxes of supplements, standing beside Feng Ting. I wanted to listen to what they said, but Cheng Wei took me to accompany him to the insurance company.
"What do you want to know about the couple?" Cheng Wei told me in the taxi
"I tried it the night before yesterday." I patted Cheng Wei's thigh. "Feng Ting doesn't look like that."
"What do you know?" Cheng Wei said, "Do you know how much money Lao Yang introduces to Feng Nizi in a year?"
"Five hundred thousand yuan" Cheng Wei pointed out five fingers: "That's not enough. Lao Yang said hello to some of his disciples. It's said that after the New Year, there are several big restaurants using Feng Nizi's goods. What is he? God of Wealth!"
"Tell me, how did you do it?" Cheng Wei asked
"Even if mine is over, I can't get it. That Lao Yang, have you seen them having an affair?"
"Nobody can see such things with their own eyes unless they are caught in bed."
"So don't just lie. I tried twice that night and got slapped."
Cheng Wei smiles: "So money is the best aphrodisiac."
"I think she's pretty fierce. It's all rumours, and there's no evidence at all. Lao Yang, who is in his fifties and in his sixties, doesn't seem to have the ability to do so. There are many wrong people in front of the widow's door, and people are not widows."
The monk suddenly called me, choking and pleading with me: Brother Zhou, I'm trapped, come and help me!
It turned out that the monk overslept in the morning. Last night, the door I took him upstairs through a secret passage was locked by the cleaning staff. He dared not go downstairs from the stairs, and was so worried that he was about to cry.
I hurried to the bathhouse. In the corner of the wall on the right side of the secret door, I saw the monk holding his head and huddled together.
"Just take the stairs. What are you afraid of?"
"I dare not" the monk raised his head, his face full of tears.
I handed him a cigarette, comforted him and said, "Smoke one, calm down. Ouch, wipe your eyes."
The monk didn't refuse this time. In the dim light, I lit a cigarette for the monk. The monk smiled at me embarrassed.
"How about the girl I found for you?"
"Not bad"
The monk looked at me and looked at me as his best friend
"How much do you do for a day?"
"From two thousand to five thousand, those with money need more"
"How can you make money?"
"It's OK. I plan to stay here, but I have to pay half of it back to the temple."
"That's a lot. Do you want invoices when you go back for reimbursement?"
"You can get it"
"Give me two hundred and I'll get you a thousand"
The monk finally agreed with me to exchange three hundred for one thousand, which is like completing some major business cooperation and holding my hand tightly.
The following week, I got a receipt of 3000 yuan for the monk, and the monk gave me 1000 yuan. I changed the girl upstairs every night, and called him in the morning to open the door for him. When the monk was about to leave, he asked me to have dinner. Unfortunately, Wang Chen left the hospital that day and booked a table in Duoweilou early.
I went to the private room on the second floor early, and I heard two people arguing in the private room. It was Feng Ting and his husband
"Don't hear the wind is the rain, I'm not as bad as you" is Feng Ting's voice
"How can I bear it? I know what I have done."
"What's the number? As a woman, I have to take care of my children while doing business. It's good for you. How much money have you earned in recent years?"
"How many times have I told you that my money has been invested. You are in business, and you are almost in bed"
"It's not that you should not force your face. Your money is invested in bottomless holes, right?"
"Whether to do it or not, everyone knows"
At this time, I heard Feng Ting crying, as if she had been greatly wronged. Then I saw Wang Chen coming up with a crutch supported by his wife, and hurriedly raised her voice to say hello.
I, Cheng Wei, Feng Ting and his husband, Wang Chen and his wife, and some other friends of Wang Chen are the cooks of Lao Yang Zhang. When all the dishes are served, Lao Yang rubbed his hands and incorporated them into the table
When he was half drunk, Lao Yang suddenly took up his glass and asked the Great Xia to drink.
"I didn't mean you." Lao Yang blushed after drinking. "You are a big man. You don't earn a penny all the year round. You rely on a woman to show up."
The fake smile on the Great Xia's face could not stop, and began to redden.
"It's not like you can't earn money. The children are in junior high school, and there is no house yet. Do you have any face as a father?"
"In middle age, there is an old man and a young man." Lao Yang seemed to teach his son a lesson. "It's time to take care of his family!"
Great Xia suddenly stood up, took up his glass, and blushed to his neck
"Thank you, I thank you all, thank you for taking care of my wife when I'm not here." Then he slammed the door and came out.
Then I received a message from the monk:
Brother Zhou, thank you very much for your care.
I looked at the table full of food and the extremely embarrassing meal caused by the Great Xia, and couldn't help laughing.