Livestream Matchmaking: My Intel Infinitely Refreshes

"It’s not that dramatic, is it...?" Zhang Zhe felt Brother Bai was being a little over the top. His voice was even getting a little hoarse.

"No, Brother Zhang, there are some things you don’t know." Old Bai cleared his throat, having gotten himself a little worked up from his own speech. "I’ve been on blind dates for years. I was about to give up until that last woman showed up."

"Even though you kept asking me if I was just lusting after her body, not using my brain and thinking with my lower half instead, I know that’s not what it was."

"It’s not, huh?" Zhang Zhe held back a laugh.

’A small business owner making 500,000 a year, willing to go on a date with a woman like that... Is it because he’s overflowing with paternal love? Does he want to give her broken self a complete home?’

"It really isn’t," Old Bai argued. "The reason I thought she was okay was because she looks a lot like my first love."

"Her figure might be even better than my first love’s, but I swear, I really didn’t fall for her because of her body."

"Really. Cross my heart."

"Your first love? Well, that explains it."

Zhang Zhe nodded. For middle-aged men, the allure of a woman who resembled an old flame was the hardest temptation to resist—the number one tactic in the honey-trap playbook.

’Waking up in the middle of the night, just the thought of his first love’s face... Tsk, tsk, tsk.’

’A man really couldn’t help himself.’

"Then how are you still clear-headed enough to ask a Matchmaker for an analysis? Your feelings for your first love probably aren’t as deep as you think, are they?"

"You’re right, they really aren’t that deep," Old Bai said honestly. "We were talking about getting married back then, but her family looked down on me for being a locksmith. They didn’t think I was good enough."

"The key thing was, she sided with her parents."

"Later, when this new woman came along, I was ready to talk about marriage with her. But one night, I had a dream about my first love’s parents. They had the same nasty looks on their faces."

"I woke up right then and couldn’t get back to sleep. I just kept feeling that someone with that face shouldn’t think much of me..."

After Old Bai finished his story, even Zhang Zhe felt a pang of bitterness for him.

He thought for a moment and decided to offer some comfort. "In a way, your first love helped you avoid a disaster. If she hadn’t looked down on you back then, you might be married to a bad woman by now."

"Yeah, Brother Zhang, that’s what I was thinking too. But man, if only she had thought I was good enough back then."

"..." Zhang Zhe hadn’t expected Brother Bai to be such a hopeless romantic.

’These types are the hardest to find a partner for.’

’But this was a common problem among wealthy older men.’

Once you had money, it was actually easy to find a female partner. You could buy one or rent one. In short, as long as you were willing to spend, finding a "7-out-of-10" beauty might be a stretch, but a "6-out-of-10" was definitely no problem.

But how should one put it? To be blunt, that sort of thing was still just about satisfying a physiological need. When you were rich, you found a pretty girl. When you were broke, you could buy a slab of pork, cut a slit in it, and make do.

Wealthy older men often wanted to find someone to build a real, steady life with, and that was incredibly difficult.

"Brother Bai, the guys in your club... they aren’t all purists about love like you, are they?"

"What’s ’pure love’?" Old Bai didn’t understand. He shook his head. "Spiritual love and all that, I don’t buy it. For it to be love, a man and a woman definitely need physical contact."

"Otherwise, how could it be called..."

"There you go again."

"What I mean is, are the guys in your club all like you? Looking for someone who isn’t after your money, but after you as a person? Someone who wants to live a steady life with you?"

"Heh, you know, Brother Zhang, a few of them really are like that." Old Bai’s voice grew louder. "But I think those guys are total idiots. There are so many rich men out there. If a woman chooses me out of all of them, how could she possibly only be after my money?"

"She must be after me for who I am, right?"

"Actually, no." Zhang Zhe shook his head, but he didn’t explain in detail. It involved the basic logic of how gold diggers choose their targets, which couldn’t be explained in just a few words.

"It’s not?!"

"Aiya!" Old Bai slapped his thigh. "No wonder we’ve never managed to get married. Our foundational knowledge was flawed from the start."

"Brother Zhang, you really have to come and teach us then."

"That’s what I was thinking, too." Zhang Zhe agreed immediately.

There were many rich people in Qing City, but not many who were still looking for a partner. Take Zhuyin Marriage Agency, for example. According to the information Zhang Zhe had, there were fewer than 200 high-net-worth clients with total assets over 10 million.

Many of them were second-generation rich. If you only counted the self-made, first-generation wealthy, the number was probably only a third of the total.

Although not everyone in Old Bai’s group was a multimillionaire with a net worth in the tens of millions—some were small business owners with assets of a few million—the total number of people was still quite substantial.

For Zhang Zhe to step in now was equivalent to inheriting the most valuable legacy from the matchmaking agency owner who was now doing time.

There was no reason to refuse.

"So you’re saying yes, Brother Zhang? Great, great, great!" Old Bai was thrilled. "We each have our own approved Matchmakers and usually do our own thing. This is the first time we’re bringing someone in to give a talk."

"It’ll be a good chance for everyone to get together."

"Brother Zhang, I’ll add you to the group chat later. A buddy of mine just opened a new beer hall. You can give your speech there, and we’ll listen while we drink."

"A beer hall won’t work." Zhang Zhe had a bad feeling about it; he was worried he’d suddenly sprout a mustache halfway through his talk. "I don’t drink. You guys will be drinking, and I’ll just have to watch."

"How about a barbecue restaurant instead?"

"And I won’t give a ’lecture.’ We’ll all just eat, and anyone who has a question can come find me. I’ll help analyze things while I eat." Zhang Zhe’s tone was sincere. "Everyone has a different view on marriage. If we all just gather to listen to me talk, it’s not guaranteed that everyone will take it to heart."

"Not many middle-aged men like going to class."

"True. We have a few stubborn mules that nobody can persuade..."

Old Bai and Zhang Zhe discussed it a bit more and finally settled on a seafood barbecue restaurant owned by one of the "big brothers" in the club’s group chat. They would book the whole place for the next evening, no outsiders allowed.

After they finished their chat, Old Bai added Zhang Zhe to the group.

When Zhang Zhe joined the group, everyone was in the middle of a conversation. Seeing the nicknames of some of the group members, he instantly lost it and burst out laughing.

[Hui Zi (Almost Married a Man)]

[Brother Qiang (No Out-of-Towners)]

[Young Master Liu (Impotent)]

[Wang Zi (Cucked x3)]

’Are these guys even human?’

Besides Old Bai, the only normal-looking person was [AAA Fishing Tackle Wholesale]. When Zhang Zhe joined, he was calling out in the chat: "Brothers, let’s go fishing tomorrow."

Zhang Zhe later found out that this fishing enthusiast was the only one in the group who had a wife and kids. But as any true fisherman knows, it doesn’t make much of a difference whether you have them or not, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of your fishing.

The fisherman had joined the group only two days before Zhang Zhe. He had been invited by one of the group’s founding members with a simple goal in mind:

Since none of them could find a wife, they might as well go fishing together. After a while, a stream-caught grouper would become more attractive than a woman.

Unfortunately, Zhang Zhe had just joined the group.