Livestream Matchmaking: My Intel Infinitely Refreshes

"So what if I don’t have a height requirement and I’m willing to consider someone with a bachelor’s from a top-tier university? Would that make it easier to find someone?"

"And it doesn’t have to be a super handsome guy. Someone about as good-looking as you, the streamer, would be fine."

"?" Zhang Zhe was about to reply. The fact that she was lowering her standards meant there was still hope, but something suddenly felt wrong.

’Why does it feel like she’s targeting me?’

He quickly changed what he was about to say. "That would raise your chances a little, but there are no guarantees."

"So even if I lower my standards this much, it’s still not enough?"

"It’s a little better than before."

"No, that’s not right. I don’t agree," the woman objected. "I believe that if a woman is financially secure, with no issues covering her basic needs, there’s no reason for her to lower her standards."

"As women, we can’t let reality or external pressures—like being told we’ve reached the ’right age’ to get married, or our families nagging us—force us to constantly settle for less."

"Because everyone knows there are plenty of single men who can’t get married. As long as a woman is willing, she can definitely get married."

[Starting the sermon already, sis?]

[You’re in the wrong place. This isn’t Xiaohongshu, and it’s not a stand-up comedy open mic.]

[This is all nonsense. If guys lowered their standards, they could get married too. Uncle Fan could find his Ma Yun, and Brother Cheng could have a bunch of kids.]

[Oh, so she’s here to do some feminist grandstanding.]

Zhang Zhe had been waiting for a while, and it had finally come.

’This lady really does know a bit of "boxing".’

In fact, you could tell whether someone was arguing a point logically or just mindlessly spouting feminist talking points by listening to the subject of their sentences.

A normal person would say "I," but this woman was saying "we, as women."

Zhang Zhe wasn’t about to coddle someone like her. Besides, his sponsor from Xiaohongshu had told him not to hold back.

"If you’re going to speak, speak for yourself. Stop starting every sentence with ’as women...’ This has nothing to do with your gender. Even if a man had your standards, they’d still be unreasonable."

"The reality is, if you want to get married, you have to lower your standards."

"And what if I’m not willing to lower them?" the woman shot back stubbornly. "Why should I find someone short or less educated and dilute the quality of my genes?"

"Then don’t get married," Zhang Zhe said with a shrug. "It’s not like there’s a shortage of single people these days."

"Your priority right now isn’t finding a date. It’s figuring out for yourself whether marriage is a necessity for you. If it’s not, then don’t come to the dating market and cause a scene."

"Seriously, life’s hard enough for everyone."

"Imagine if some guy gets matched with you. He thinks you’re serious about getting married, so he tries to talk things through nicely, only for you to hit him with, ’Sorry, marrying you would dilute my gene pool.’ That guy would be in for some seriously bad luck."

[He’s not wrong.]

[For real. Do whatever you want on your own, just don’t come out here and torture other people.]

[If my blind date talked to me like that, I’d honestly want to punch them.]

"No, no, no, Brother Zhang, you’ve misunderstood me."

"What I’m trying to say is that there’s a problem with the dating market today. It’s pushing all of us to settle for less..."

"Got it. So you want to enter the fray yourself and change the market?"

"That’s the idea."

"Are you in Qing City?"

"No, I’m in Lin’an."

"Well, in that case, go for it," Zhang Zhe said with a nod. "Go give it a shot. I also think the current dating market is terrible. On what grounds can a Matchmaker ask me if I’m dreaming when I say I want to find someone like Gao Yuanyuan?"

"A good market should be all-inclusive, right? It’s obvious they’re not leaving any room for us perfectionists to survive."

"Exactly," the woman said, actually thinking Zhang Zhe had a point. "I feel the same way."

"Right, right. Good luck."

Zhang Zhe thought it was actually a good thing for this woman to hit the dating scene.

Her standards were high, which would mainly be a headache for the matchmakers who had to deal with her. The good news, however, was that her family was wealthy. Taking her money meant putting up with her attitude, which wasn’t a big deal for a professional matchmaker.

’As long as I don’t have to run into her in real life, it’s fine.’

The "lowered" standards the woman had mentioned sounded suspiciously like a description of Zhang Zhe himself, which was why he had to confirm she wasn’t in Qing City.

[Brother Zhang, how could you unleash a woman like that onto the dating market?]

"You guys in the comments give me too much credit. I’m not the Demon-locking Tower. If she wants to go ’fix’ the dating market, there’s nothing I can do about it."

[Oh crap, I’m actually in Lin’an.]

"It doesn’t matter if you’re in Lin’an. This woman is only interested in handsome guys over 178cm with A8-level assets, and they can’t have just a vocational degree. If you meet all those criteria and still end up on a date with her, well, all I can do is wish you two a lifetime of happiness."

[Hahaha, there can’t be more than a handful of guys like that in all of Lin’an City, right?]

[Thank god I only have an associate’s degree. My degree has never felt safer.]

[Good thing I’m not A8. Guess it’s true that gold diggers can’t get you if you’re broke.]

...

At 7 PM, the matchmaking agency was already closed for the day.

But the lights in Zhang Zhe’s streaming room were still on. He was leaning back in his chair, playing a game while waiting to meet Xia Yi.

A moment later, a new message popped up on WeChat:

[I’m here.]

[Teacher Zhang, are you off work? I saw that the door to your agency is closed.]

’The door is closed?’ Zhang Zhe suddenly had a bad feeling.

’When he’d spoken to Boss He earlier, she seemed busy. She had agreed readily enough, but what if she hadn’t really been listening?’

’And... locked him inside the office?’

The door was secured from the outside with a U-lock, which was impossible to open from the inside.

Zhang Zhe scrambled to his feet and dashed to the entrance. He flipped on the light and looked at the main door.

Sure enough, it was locked.

"Boss He, don’t do this to me! I have a date!"

Zhang Zhe grumbled under his breath.

He called through the door, "Miss Xia, are you out there? It’s Zhang Zhe."

"Yes, I’m here."

"It looks like your door is locked from the outside," Xia Yi said with a soft chuckle. "Teacher Zhang, you didn’t lock yourself in, did you?"

"That appears to be the case," Zhang Zhe said with a wry smile.

"So what do we do now? Can you get out?"

"I think so. Give me a second, I’ll contact my boss and ask her to open the door."

Zhang Zhe quickly sent a message to Boss He on WeChat, begging for help. She replied promptly, saying she was on a business trip and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.

She told him to just call a locksmith and get reimbursed by the finance department later.

It was a solution Zhang Zhe could reluctantly accept.

He quickly searched online for a locksmith’s contact information.

"Miss Xia, the locksmith I found said it’ll take him half an hour to get here. Are you free to wait? If not, you can go ahead and head home first."

"I have time. Half an hour isn’t long at all."

"I’ll just sit on the steps here and wait." Xia Yi found a step, wiped it clean, and sat down.

People often sat waiting at the agency’s entrance, but this was the first time anyone had done so this late at night.

"Alright. I’m really sorry about this." Zhang Zhe also grabbed a stool and sat down by the door, the two of them separated by the large entryway.

"Teacher Zhang, are you busy right now?"

"Not at all, not at all."

"Why don’t we chat through the door? It’ll be like a confessional in a church. As it happens, I have a marriage-related question I wanted to ask you about anyway."