Chapter 92: Bachelors’ Club
["LMAO, the streamer is so savage!"]
["If he loved his kid that much, he wouldn’t have let his ex-wife have custody."]
["I’ve been watching for so long, and I’ve finally learned something useful from this stream. I’m off to a dating agency to trick some girls."]
["Bro, don’t even think about it. Her marriage agency probably specializes in setting up mistresses."]
"How could I be a nanny?" The woman’s voice turned shrill with anger. "After marriage, it’s normal for the man to work and the woman to manage the home."
"He makes two million a year. I don’t need to work."
"So you are just after his money," Zhang Zhe sighed. "Since we’re from the same hometown, I’ll tell you one last thing."
"Do you know why your little brother started following relationship bloggers back in high school?"
"Because he probably realized his big sister was about to completely ruin her reputation when it comes to marriage."
"Get a clue. The man isn’t even divorced yet, and you’re already bringing him home, setting a bad example for a minor."
"When you’re out and about, don’t you dare say you’re from Qing City."
"Pah, what a disgrace."
After saying his piece, Zhang Zhe mercilessly disconnected the call.
’What can I do? My stupidity allergy was acting up.’
"I see some people in the comments suspecting that the man has no intention of divorcing his wife. All I can say is, you can drop the word ’suspecting’."
"There’s no way he’s getting a divorce. His wife isn’t an idiot."
"He makes two million a year. In theory, one million of that belongs to his wife. Add in child support for their son, and she could walk away with 1.3 million."
"And that’s not even counting fixed assets like their house and cars."
["I trust Brother Zhang’s deductions. He’s basically never wrong."]
["That woman just now... even as a woman myself, I think she’s a total moron."]
["She’s going to get targeted by a pig-butchering scam sooner or later."]
["Streamer, do you think it’s possible the man is a shill for the marriage agency?"]
["From the sound of it, the woman’s parents are actually normal people."]
"You guys say her parents are normal, but she definitely thinks they’re the ones holding her back. Didn’t you hear her? She thinks her parents are old-fashioned."
"She’s already a homewrecker. Who could possibly be more ’open-minded’ than her?"
Zhang Zhe pursed his lips, not wanting to discuss the topic further. He planned to edit the clip as a cautionary tale for posterity.
He especially wanted to post it on the Zhuyin Marriage Agency’s account.
That way, if this woman failed to land a sugar daddy in Yanjing, she wouldn’t come back to her hometown of Qing City and plague the locals.
Zhang Zhe planned to develop his matchmaking business in Qing City, so the fewer undesirable candidates that flowed in, the better. It would save him the trouble of having the local market ruined.
It wasn’t just Zhang Zhe the Matchmaker who had this idea.
The single men of Qing City were thinking the same thing.
The locksmith, right after Zhang Zhe ended his stream, gave him a call on WeChat.
His first words were:
"Brother Zhang, that girl from Yanjing who failed at being a mistress just now? I’ve already doxxed her."
"?" Zhang Zhe had been a little drowsy, but now he was wide awake.
’This guy’s ability to get things done is insane,’ Zhang Zhe thought. ’Not only that, but his ability to mobilize resources must be pretty good, too.’
"Thief Saint, do you know this girl’s parents?"
"No, no, no, Brother Zhang, just call me Old Bai."
"Is your surname really Bai?"
"Yeah, I picked the nickname because my surname is Bai," the man explained. "I know this girl’s mother."
"Her mom is quite pretty; a friend of mine used to pursue her. She used to run a dance studio on the third floor of the Wanda Plaza. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, Brother Zhang?"
"I didn’t, but I know you really did dig up all her info."
"Of course." Old Bai chuckled. "It was mainly because she said she was pretty. I immediately figured out who she was."
"I have to be on guard against this type of woman."
"My friends and I... when we run into young, beautiful gold-diggers like her, we can’t control ourselves. We might just fall for it."
"Er..." Zhang Zhe thought for a moment. "Brother Bai, I don’t get involved in the affairs of rich people like you."
"Just don’t drag me into this doxxing business," Zhang Zhe said cautiously. "That woman will find out sooner or later that she was scammed by the guy from the dating agency."
"If she comes home and finds out her reputation in her hometown is ruined, she might come after me. I use my real name online, and my face is pretty recognizable around here."
"Brother Zhang, don’t worry, I guarantee it!" On the other end of the line, Old Bai thumped his chest loud enough to shake the heavens. "This girl’s information will only be circulated within our club as classified material. It will absolutely not be leaked."
"If anyone dares to spread it outside, I’ll make sure they regret it."
Old Bai spoke with such ferocity that anyone who didn’t know better would think he was some kind of gang boss.
But in reality, it was just a local bachelors’ club.
He was the club’s founder.
The club members were all local businessmen, bosses, and contractors from Qing City. They had only two things in common:
They had a bit of money;
And they were single and wanted to find a wife.
Old Bai told Zhang Zhe, "This club was actually the client group for a former marriage agency."
"We were all high-quality single men who had paid a hefty fee."
"In January of last year, the agency skipped town. So, we all spontaneously organized, and now we just hang out in the group chat, shooting the breeze. Whenever someone runs into a real piece of work on a blind date, they post about it in the group to warn everyone else."
"The agency just skipped town? Didn’t they give you a refund? Didn’t you call the police?" Zhang Zhe asked curiously.
He thought he might have just discovered a new get-rich-quick scheme.
It was the same business model as opening a gym.
"Useless," Old Bai laughed on the other end. "The owner of that agency killed someone and got a life sentence. All the money in his account was used to compensate the victim’s family and pay the agency’s employees."
"We didn’t get a single penny back."
"So I insisted on keeping this group chat from disbanding. After paying tens of thousands in membership fees, this group is all we have left."
"That makes sense." Zhang Zhe recalled how Old Bai had acted like he was possessed by Scrooge when he collected that 80-yuan fee from him.
This kind of behavior fit his character perfectly.
"So when you said in the comments today that you wanted me to give a lecture, you meant for the people in your group?"
"Yeah, that’s them." On the other end, Old Bai sounded excited. "I was just about to bring that up."
"Our group originally had 34 people."
"In the year or so since the agency disappeared, 11 of the guys have gotten married."
"Now there are 41 people in the group."
"You guys recruit new members?"
"Yeah, but it’s not just new members," Old Bai said with a laugh. "Of the 11 who got married, four of them got divorced at the speed of light and came back."
"Two of them were victims of marriage fraud from out of town."
"The woman got the marriage certificate, then went back to her hometown and hid, forcing the guy to divorce her."
"Another one only found out after getting married that his wife had come back from Thailand, and her ID card still listed her as male."
"But the worst one was my cousin."
"He married a divorcée. The day after the wedding, the woman said she was going out to get her hair done, but ended up ’fainting’ in her ex-husband’s bed."
"Brother Zhang, I know... I was almost in the same boat." Old Bai’s voice on the other end was thick with emotion. "If it weren’t for you, I would have married a prostitute."