Chapter 46 Enjoy
There was a thermos with a black iron shell next to the tea table. The waiter took the thermos out and came back after a while, and asked respectfully: "Comrades, do you want a teapot or a teacup?"

"Teacup."

Heat the cup, pour the tea, wash the tea, rinse the water, and cover the lid.

"Comrades, please have some tea. I will clean the tub for you two."

He went out again and came back a few moments later with a wooden bucket and a thin white towel draped over his shoulders.

With the door to the inner room open, the waiter quickly flushed and cleaned the two already clean bathtubs.

Then he asked, "Comrades, do you need me to add water and adjust the temperature for you now?"

Wang Deming waved his hand and said, "Please help us get the takeaway food from the door. Let's have a cup of tea and some food first."

"Okay, you two, wait a moment."

After a while, the waiter came back with two mahogany, round, double-layered food boxes, each with different patterns carved on the outside. When opened, the lining was found to be made of coarse flannel for insulation.

Donglaishun’s stir-fried lamb, honey-like stew, fried lamb tail, and assorted vegetarian dishes; Fengshenggong’s milk skin.

The waiter helped to arrange the dishes and put away the bowls and chopsticks before leaving the room.

"Come on, Master Chang, we don't drink alcohol, so let's have tea instead. I'll toast you first."

"Haha, let's not try this as men."

Although Old Man Chang said this, he honestly raised the teacup and held it up from a distance.

As the saying goes, you can't take a bath when you are hungry. After eating takeout, I waited half an hour before asking the waiter to fill the water and adjust the temperature in preparation for a bath.

Wang Deming's taking off of his clothes startled Old Man Chang and he said, "Hey, Deming boy, you can't tell when you wear clothes normally."

"You have really nice tendons and muscle lines."

“It’s almost the same as when I was young.”

"Haha, don't I often do farm work in the countryside?"

"No, you can't have such muscular body from farm work. You must have practiced wrestling."

"Well, I just play around with people in the countryside."

Wearing a pair of wooden slippers that did not distinguish between left and right, Wang Deming first tested the water temperature with his big toe, then put both feet in. Sitting on the edge of the tub, he picked up a gourd-shaped scoop and poured water on his arms and thighs. He waited until he had adjusted to the temperature before sinking his entire body into the water.

"Oh" I couldn't help but say: "Comfortable!"

"Haha, why else would there be so many bathhouses in Beijing?"

"Hey, buddy, make another cup of tea with the Longjing tea on the coffee table."

"Okay, wait a moment."

Old Man Chang told his good servant to wet the towel beside the tub, cover his face with it, and lean back on the tub. "This bath will relax your meridians and activate blood circulation. Hey, once you sweat, you will feel light. This bath won't be cold in winter, and it won't be hot in summer."

"And you can't just soak in the bath for a while. If you soak in the bath for a while, it's not a bath anymore."

"At the beginning, the skin starts to itch and numb. This is called burning skin, and you have to endure it. Hey, after you get through this, the flesh will be soaked. "

"Wait until the meat is almost flossy before soaking the bones."

The hot water taps of the two bathtubs were always open, constantly maintaining the water temperature in the bathtubs. Wang Deming and Old Man Chang chatted while taking a bath and drinking tea, and occasionally Old Man Chang sang a few lines of Peking Opera.

Wang Deming also learned for a while.

"Deming, you haven't trained your voice, you haven't opened it up, you can't just shout."

"There are four basic skills in singing Peking Opera: singing, reciting, acting and fighting. When singing, you need to pronounce the words clearly and the intonation should be round. The high notes should be bright and the low notes should be far-reaching. You need to make sure that everyone in the back seat can hear you."

"In other professions, apprentices have to work for three years. But it's not the same for Peking Opera. It takes six years. It's very hard."

"No matter what kind of singing you do, you have to do the top of your head, bend your waist, kick your legs, do the splits, do the front and back bridges, as well as the flying kicks and the spinning spins every morning, and you have to do it all the time, every day."

"After practicing martial arts, some people would tune their voices, while others would ask the teacher to tell them about opera. The actors who sang old male roles and painted faces had to wear thick-soled boots, while the actors who sang female roles had to wear stilts. They could not take them off for the whole day. Only when they went out to perform in the theater could they take off their thick-soled boots and stilts."

"For example, Tan Fuying from the Peking Opera Troupe No. 2, who I listened to last time, was from a family of Peking Opera performers, but he was still sent to the Fuliancheng Society to learn opera. Why?" "Because if it was at home, the family couldn't bear to let the child suffer."

As he was talking excitedly, Old Man Chang started to sing a passage from Dingjun Mountain: "This letter came at a good time. God helped Huang Zhong to succeed. He worked hard to beat the drums, prepared a battle meal, beat the drums twice, and tightened his battle robes."

Then he called the waiter at the door and said, "Please ask the Jixiang Theater downstairs, who will be performing tonight?"

The waiter didn't go out, so he smiled and replied, "Old comrade, tonight is Mr. Tan Fuying's show."

"Deming, do you have enough money in your pocket?"

Wang Deming smiled and replied: "Uncle Chang, don't worry, it will definitely be enough!"

"That's a coincidence. Please go buy two tickets for the theater. I want the front seats."

"Then please ask the bath master to come in."

"Okay, comrades, please wait a moment."

After the two bath scrubbers came in, Wang Deming and Old Man Chang stood up from the bathtub. Both of them were as red as cooked shrimps.

Lying on a long bed about 1 meter wide, the bath scrubber wet the towel, tied it around the wrists and elbows regularly, and then began to scrub the two of them.

The bath scrubbers are all from Dingxing, Hebei. They scrub from head to toe, no more, no less than 108 times.

Then pat your back to your calves, also 108 times.

After scrubbing their bodies, the two of them put on some soap and used loofahs to rub their bodies until they were covered with bubbles. Soap boxes and loofahs were ready next to the bathtub.

After drying it with a fine cloth towel, he asked the waiter to call a pedicure master and sat on a chair to do his pedicure.

The pedicure masters in Tsinghua University are all from Yangzhou. They come in carrying a small box, which contains various pedicure tools. They sit on a small stool and first remove the dead skin outside the little toe and then the heel.

After removing everything, check again to make sure there are no dead corners that have not been cleaned thoroughly.

He then changed the knife and started trimming the toenails, as if he was carving, trimming each toenail to make sure all the edges were visible.

I have to mention here that for a long time, corns on the feet have been removed by pedicurists.

After the pedicure master finished his service, Wang Deming and Old Man Chang tied bath towels around their waists and went downstairs to the barber shop.

There are three barber shops downstairs in Tsinghua University, with 11 barber chairs, and all the barbers are from Hubei.

The barber chairs are all large leather chairs with gears. First, wash your hair using a special P&G shampoo.

Then I used hand clippers and scissors to cut my hair alternately.

After cutting the hair, the barber used Lighthouse brand soap to make bubbles and applied them evenly on Wang Deming's face. Then he took out a willow-leaf razor and swung it back and forth on a wide piece of leather. He tested the sharpness with his thumb before starting to shave.

Just use a razor like this to scrape off all the soap foam on your face, and then wipe your face dry with a towel.

Is this the end? No, there is still the most important step: massage!

Lay the barber chair flat, and the barber will start to massage from the head (mentioned earlier that there are three types of people who can set bones, and one of them is the barber).

The head, neck, and arms, some parts will even make a crackling sound when pressed; turn over and continue, the last item is a back massage.

Tap rhythmically "pa, pa, pa" with different strengths on different parts of the body.

The whole process took more than an hour.

"Excuse me, Master!"

“It’s so comfortable!”

"Deming, how is it?"

"After loosening the bones, do you feel more comfortable?"

"Haha, let's go back and get dressed. It's almost time. Let's go to Dong'an Market to have a bite to eat and then go to the opera."

(End of this chapter)