Livestream Matchmaking: My Intel Infinitely Refreshes

While Zhang Zhe was live streaming, in the living room of a home also in Qing City, 27-year-old Xia Yi was forcing her younger cousin to join a call with a handsome streamer.

"Sis, is this really necessary?"

"My private business doesn’t need to be discussed online. It’ll just make me a laughingstock, won’t it?"

"Then who are you going to discuss it with?" Xia Yi retorted, crossing her arms. "You want to discuss it with your mom and dad? Would you like that?"

"N-No, I wouldn’t."

"Then let’s try someone else. How about I have my dad talk to you?"

"No, no, please don’t," her cousin muttered. "Can’t you, as my cousin, just discuss it with me?"

"Fine. Then give me your girlfriend’s WeChat."

Xia Yi held out her hand.

Her cousin immediately backed away two steps in protest, sighing. "Ah, when you’re under someone else’s roof, you have no choice but to bow your head."

"To think that someone as brilliant and heroic as myself is being coerced into joining a call with some streamer."

"But why? You have to at least give me a reason."

"A reason? Heh." Xia Yi pouted slightly. "Did you know my kindergarten is holding a matchmaking event in a few days?"

"What? Cousin, you’re finally getting married off—" Halfway through his sentence, he realized something was wrong and quickly shut up.

His cousin’s marriage was a huge, long-standing problem for the Xia Family.

Xia Yi was completely uncooperative. She wouldn’t date, and she wouldn’t go on blind dates. Whenever anyone asked, her answer was always, "I’m not in a hurry. I’ll see when I meet the right person."

For the past two years, Father Xia had been dealing with plenty of headaches at work over the declining marriage rates.

He’d come home from work, and—good grief—his own daughter was still single!

He could never win an argument with her, and he couldn’t bring himself to scold her. The frustration was unbearable.

Which led to the matchmaking event scheduled for the end of the month:

A group matchmaking event between unmarried teachers from all the city’s top kindergartens and a selection of unmarried bachelors from within the public sector.

"The idea for this matchmaking event came from this streamer—he’s the one who suggested it to my dad." Xia Yi pointed to the tablet on the coffee table, where Zhang Zhe’s handsome face was displayed, a charming smile on his lips.

"This guy has that much pull?" her cousin marveled. "A streamer can influence Uncle?"

"Who knows? All I know is that I asked the Matchmaker at the agency handling the event, and she told me it was his idea."

"Ah, I get it now."

"Alright, Sis, just you watch." Her cousin snapped his fingers. "I’ll go stir up some trouble for him."

"Who said anything about stirring up trouble? I want you to get a consultation."

"Huh? A real consultation?"

"Yes, a real one. If you don’t, I will. It’s not like I don’t know all about your little problems."

Xia Yi stared her cousin down, and he shrank back, a little intimidated.

It couldn’t be helped. She had bullied him so much when they were kids that even now, as a nearly six-foot-tall man, he was still afraid of her out of pure muscle memory.

...

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

"Good evening, Brother Zhang."

"Hey, man," Zhang Zhe replied. Hearing a guy’s voice, he let out a long sigh of relief.

’Finally, I can take a breather.’

He’d just dealt with five women in a row, all of them asking such suffocating questions that even a handsome guy like him was left breathless.

’With another guy on the line, I can finally let my brain go blank for a minute.’

"Alright, bro, what are your stats?"

"I’m 25 years old, five-foot-eleven, 176 pounds. I graduated from a regular private university, and now I work a civilian post in a certain unit."

"I’m not sure what our family’s asset class is, A-something or whatever. We have one apartment in the provincial capital and two in our hometown, a county-level city. I don’t know how much they’d sell for, but it’s not like we’re planning to sell."

"My parents are both in the public sector. One works in the provincial capital, the other is in our hometown..."

[This guy is a classic public-sector kid. His parents are, too. They must want him to find a girl who’s also in the system.]

[He’s the ideal man for a lot of the girls watching this stream.]

[Girls, you can call in later and list your own stats to see if you get picked.]

[Don’t tell me the streamer is just going to be a stand-in for public-sector guys again today?]

After writing down the caller’s details, Zhang Zhe immediately had a thought. ’Isn’t this a classic "County Brahman"?’

"Let me guess, bro. Your parents want you to find a girl who’s also in the public sector, don’t they?"

"Yeah!"

"And then you found out that the girls they introduce you to from within the system aren’t very attractive."

"Whoa, how did you guess that, Brother Zhang?" On the other end of the call, the cousin glanced over his shoulder, suspecting his cousin had ratted him out.

But Xia Yi was busy typing in the live chat, discussing the call with other viewers.

Her own cousin was on a live matchmaking call, and she could finally discuss him with everyone else from a bird’s-eye view. The feeling was incredible.

It was like taking a test with her classmates, except she already knew all the answers.

"That’s not hard to guess," Zhang Zhe said with a slight smile. "The truly beautiful girls within the public sector generally look down on a profile like yours. The women your family introduces you to are suitable for marriage, but not necessarily for dating."

"Yes, yes, exactly!" The cousin felt like he’d found a kindred spirit. "I’m not ugly, you know? You could even say I’m pretty handsome. But for some reason, they always set me up with *those* kinds of girls."

"It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s just a feeling... I feel like I’d look better in drag than they look, period."

[Hahaha, savage.]

[Marriage isn’t just about looks. You’re the one being shallow.]

[If you want pretty girls, go to a nightclub. And you have the nerve to complain about the ones you’re being set up with?]

[There are plenty of cute girls in the public sector, but nobody can be all sweet and cute toward their colleagues. Who acts like that at work?]

[I’m also in the public sector, and trust me, nobody picks a wife based on looks. If a really beautiful girl shows up, the bosses have their own sons and grandsons to set her up with.]

"Because pretty girls can marry up," Zhang Zhe analyzed.

"You don’t seem like a dumb guy, bro. Think about it. If there were a female version of you—parents in the public sector, and she was also very good-looking—would she really look for a partner within the system?"

"Frankly, if she only found a guy with A8 assets, that would be considered her being down-to-earth."

"If she’s got high emotional intelligence and her parents hold more critical positions, even landing an A9 wouldn’t be a problem."

"Hmm..." The cousin fell silent.

Because everything Zhang Zhe said was true. He had seen it with his own eyes: a girl who had started the job at the same time as him hopping into the passenger seat of a Maserati.

Xia Yi, who was next to him, patted his shoulder and whispered, "Talk about your own business. Or do I need to start exposing you in the live chat?"

"Oh—"

"Brother Zhang, I’m actually seeing a girl right now. She’s not in the public sector, but she’s very pretty, and she provides me with a lot of emotional value. She’s completely different from the girls I’ve been set up with from within the system."

"Seriously, it feels like they’re not even the same species."

"I know what you mean." Zhang Zhe laughed, already able to guess the general situation. "Just tell me her weaknesses. If she can provide you with ’emotional value,’ then she must fall far short of you in other areas."

"Uh, yeah."

"She’s a nail technician. I think she graduated from a vocational college, and she’s from a rural area. I’ve been pursuing her for about a month, and we’ve pretty much settled our relationship..."

Something about the guy’s tone made Zhang Zhe suddenly recall a line from a movie: a man with ten billion dollars tries to pick up a manicurist on the street, and he still can’t get her.

Nail care is part of the service industry, and women in that field tend to have high emotional intelligence. Zhang Zhe wasn’t at all surprised that one could sweet-talk this guy into a daze.

’But the guy’s parents definitely wouldn’t see it that way...’

"Your parents found out you’re seeing this girl, and they haven’t killed you yet?"

"Not yet," the cousin said, shaking his head. "My mom didn’t say much, just told me to be safe. My dad had a much stronger reaction. He said if I dare bring her home, he’ll break my legs."

"I feel like my dad’s a bit old-fashioned."

"True," Zhang Zhe nodded. "So, are your legs broken yet?"