Chen Chao's work: Betrayal

The acupuncture room is filled with smoke, and the scent of wormwood permeates every corner, not only the skin, pores, and hair ends. After a few hours here, you will be "pickled" into the flavor, and the smoky mugwort fragrance can follow you for a long time, even into your dreams after falling asleep. Jinhui loves the smell and it lingers in her work environment, relieving patients' worries, meaning a safe, altruistic, orderly and fulfilling time.

Her TCM clinic has two acupuncture rooms, each with 7 or 8 beds crowded side by side, each with a curtain that the patient draws to form a small private space during treatment, because the treatment requires removing clothing to expose the necessary parts, such as the stomach, arms, legs, shoulders, waist or upper abdomen. There are no genders in the treatment room, and when people take off their clothes here, the curtain is a necessary cover, and the young nurses who work in and out of the room will make this cover open from time to time - not so rigorous and absolutely private, in the scent of wormwood and the chatter of the nurses, this is not unsettling, but an inexplicable calm, peaceful, almost genderless freedom. But gender consciousness doesn't go away, it's just more subtle or very easy to emerge in unexpected ways.

The eldest sister who had just arrived closed half of the curtain and quickly took off all her blouses facing the wall, even though the male patient in the bed next to her was still talking. For a few seconds, Jinhui nervous for her—the curtain was still shaking, and her bare back and the scars of her eye-catching underwear on her back would flash under the curtain.

"Xiao Wang, let me tell you, if your parents don't like a man, you must not ask for ......"

"Teacher Xu, I'm not Xiao Wang, I'm Jinhui." Jinhui said with a smile, she was cupping this uncle. He's a familiar face here, coming almost every week, an hour and a half is therapy time and he's talking about it.

"Oh, yes, yes, you're Jinhui, I'll admit my mistake when you wear a mask, I'm sorry." He was lying on his stomach, and he struggled to raise his neck to look at Jinhui, "You guys, you and Xiao Wang's eyes are the most beautiful." But without a mask, you're the most beautiful, and your face looks so good, you know. ”

"Ha, thank you." She felt an offense, not because she was wrong, but because she was evaluated, and it was an offense for an irrelevant man to judge a woman's appearance. She remembered that when she was a child, a friend of her father came to visit her, and when she saw her wearing a skirt, she commented: "Xiaohui has a thin waist and looks good in a skirt." Afterwards, my mother was very angry, "What's the matter with him!" You need him! My father was confused, and did not realize what was worth being angry about.

"You have to persuade her about Xiao Wang. As soon as I came in and saw that something was wrong with her, it was like she had lost her soul. There was inevitably some exaggeration and performance in the uncle's worries—he knew how many listeners there were at this time.

"Teacher Xu, what bad things do you say about me?" Xiao Wang came in, a weak little nurse, with underdeveloped shoulders and breasts like a child, a slightly arched back and a slender waist, making her nurse uniform look empty and restrained. Xiao Wang recently talked about a boyfriend, the family is opposed, and the man is not very positive, only she tastes the sweetness and bitterness of love alone, her mood swings are big, and the whole person has lost weight. She is a local demolition household, an only child, and will inherit six properties from her parents and grandparents, which makes the men who are in love with her naturally seem suspicious. Xiao Wang's love has become a hot topic in the acupuncture room, everyone likes to give her advice, eagerly contribute their own life "golden sentences", everyone feels that as a person who has come over, he naturally grasps the hard truth of life. Xiao Wang listened, and smiled noncommittally and shyly and embarrassedly.

"Xiao Wang, do you want to listen to my opinion?" Before she could answer, the uncle continued, "You have to listen to your parents, that's absolutely right, only your parents are absolutely good for you." ”

Xiao Wang didn't speak.

Jinhui replied for her: "But Xiao Wang likes it herself, and her parents can't live for her." ”

"I don't think there's anything wrong with him." Xiao Wang tried his best to restrain his tone, not in a hurry or slow to appear more objective.

"It's over, it's over, you're already hooked on him." The uncle didn't bother to break through Xiao Wang's "disguise", and shook his head with hatred.

"That's it, Xiao Wang's boyfriend is handsome." Jinhui blurted out, she thought: Falling in love is originally about being fascinated by the other party.

"What's the use of being handsome? You don't know how bad some men are, they go on a date with their girlfriend and then open a room with someone else. I can put it on very much. The uncle was indignant, and these words suddenly shattered the illusion of degendering in the room, and every woman present felt the impact of the embarrassing opposition between the sexes to a greater or lesser extent. The gap in the floating curtain instantly became unbearable.

And it was even more appalling for the young girl, Xiao Wang's face turned red.

The uncle did not give up, said that he would look at the photo, asked to see the boy's photo, and under the strong curiosity, superstition and unwillingness, Xiao Wang showed the photo to the uncle.

"Yo ......" the uncle pondered for a long time - ready to go, "I have seen a lot of this kind of boy, handsome is handsome, there are a lot of flowers, you look at these peach blossom eyes, it is estimated that there are a lot of girls in your hands, Xiao Wang, you want a snack." ”

Xiao Wang laughed dryly, wanting to defend but not knowing how to justify, he was defeated without a fight.

"Hey, a good man like Mr. Xu who is honest, talented and handsome is really hard to find with a lantern, but it's a pity that you are a little older, and you can't catch up. Hahaha! The eldest sister in the next bed teased in a loud voice.

"There is no handsomeness, but there are really not many men like me who go straight and are pinched by their wives now." The uncle was a little complacent and intoxicated - even if he was sarcastic, he also made himself the center of the conversation. He continued to talk eloquently, persuading Xiao Wang to be "sober", and Xiao Wang responded obediently a few times and never said anything again. Jinhui was inexplicably disgusted, and remembered her mother's sentence in her ears, "What's the matter with him!" You need him! In addition, she felt that his malicious speculation and smugness were simply a betrayal, a betrayal of him as a man to other men, and a betrayal of his wife.

A few days later, Xiao Wang really broke up with her boyfriend. When talking about love again in the acupuncture room, she was no longer embarrassed, but she couldn't help but output "golden sentences" as a "person who came over". One of them is: "I will not wait for him to betray me, I would rather betray myself first." "Xiao Wang's righteousness is awe-inspiring and if he has lost.