Chapter 106: You Can’t Even Be Ambitious

Chapter 106: Chapter 106: You Can’t Even Be Ambitious

Sister Zhou had no idea her plan had already been vetoed by Hui Zi.

Hui Zi himself didn’t understand how he’d done it.

It was just a stroke of dumb luck.

While watching Zhang Zhe’s livestream, he asked Old Bai, who was drinking across from him, "Bro, what’s a ’haunted house’? Why would my son have to live in a haunted house?"

Old Bai specialized in below-the-belt humor and could crack a dirty joke at the drop of a hat. But he hated explaining things—if you knew, you knew. "If you don’t get it, just forget it. There’s no point if I have to explain."

"If you don’t explain, how am I supposed to tell my mom when I get home?"

"When you explain it to your mom, of course you should use the reason Brother Zhang gives you," Old Bai said, pointing to the livestream. "Brother Zhang will figure something out."

"What’s he going to come up with?"

"Jeez, you’re so dense. Think about it. Why would Brother Zhang ask, out of the blue, what you would do if the woman couldn’t have a son?"

"Was he trying to see if my situation was the same as Young Master Liu’s?"

"If it turns out I can’t have kids either, then it’s not a problem."

"Can’t rule that out. After all, you almost married a man. But I think the more crucial thing is this." Old Bai took a swig of his beer and let out a satisfied "Ahh." "He probably picked up on something in the girl’s answer."

"Picked up on what?"

"Okay, look. Just now, when you made that idiotic comment about the woman’s ex-husband having major problems, how did Brother Zhang respond?"

"He told me to just worry about myself."

"Exactly. And he didn’t argue with you or say her ex-husband was fine," Old Bai said cryptically. "This whole thing goes much deeper than you think."

"That girl sounds like a total pushover. Her ex-husband abused her to the point of a miscarriage, yet she never called the police or had him put away. Maybe... she was a willing participant."

"You mean, they’re..." Hui Zi pantomimed cracking a whip like a plantation owner. "They’re into BDSM?"

"You got it. You have no idea what she’s been trained into."

"Oh, so that’s what it is," Hui Zi said, nodding in sudden understanding. But then he immediately grew confused. "But didn’t you used to say the ’trained’ ones are better? ’A young man doesn’t know a mature woman’s worth, mistakenly treating a loli like a treasure.’ You said a mature woman just pats her butt and..."

"That’s different," Old Bai said with a straight face. "A girl from the BDSM scene might look like a normal person, but once you trigger a keyword, you have no idea if she’s going to turn into a cat or a dog."

"Whoa... Old Bai, that sounds like a movie plot. You got a title for me?"

"Get outta here..."

To say Old Bai’s analysis was wide of the mark would be an understatement; it had absolutely nothing to do with the facts. But he was a master of risk management. Since Brother Zhang had dropped a hint, following his lead was definitely the right move.

Middle-aged men are the most susceptible to falling into fixed patterns of thinking:

’Brother Zhang helped me figure out the problems with that last blind date, which means Brother Zhang is the man. And since he’s the man, his analysis this time has to be right, too.’

Although Hui Zi didn’t trust Zhang Zhe quite that much, he still had to respect the opinion of Old Bai, his group chat’s admin.

"Well, let’s see what Brother Zhang says now." Hui Zi started a screen recording. He wanted to capture everything Zhang Zhe was about to say so he could study it later. That way, he’d have an answer ready when his family questioned him.

In the livestream, Zhang Zhe almost chuckled just thinking about what he was going to say.

"Miss, we’ve heard back from the gentleman’s side. He’d like me to ask you one more question, this one about your career plans."

"Is that alright?"

"Career plans?" Tang Hong glanced at her parents, then at the Matchmaker across from her, a troubled expression on her face.

She had never worked a single day in her life.

"It’s fine. Just stick to what we discussed," Sister Zhou said, handing over the list of talking points they’d prepared for her persona. At this point, there was no harm in reading straight from it.

Seeing the cheat sheet, Tang Hong felt much more at ease. "Please, ask your question, Teacher."

"Okay. I want to ask you, if after you marry into the family, you were needed to help run the hotel, would you have the drive for that?"

"As you know, my parents are getting older, and the family’s business empire will be in my hands sooner or later."

"It’s a business worth hundreds of millions, with an annual revenue in the tens of millions. That’s too much for me to handle alone. I’m hoping my other half can help share the burden."

"Could you handle that?"

"I can," Tang Hong replied, then began reading straight from the script. "I studied e-commerce in college, and my grades were in the top five of my class. A lot of my classmates who weren’t as good as me are already managers at major hotels now."

"My skills are no worse than theirs. I’d just need a little time to adjust, and then I could help you run the company..."

"My parents started from nothing and built a fortune of tens of millions. They would be a huge help to our enterprise as well."

Tang Hong rattled it all off in one go, then waited quietly for Zhang Zhe’s response.

[Sis, you giving your thesis defense or something?]

[Totally reading from a script. She was stammering before, and now suddenly she’s so smooth.]

[An e-commerce major from a community college becoming a manager? You mean manager of the janitorial department, right?]

[Everyone knows that every graduate claims to be in the ’top five.’ Only the ones who claim to be number one are actually number one.]

[That major is useless. It’s for being a junior assistant at some online store. You can’t even land an internship at a major company with that.]

"Your answer..." Zhang Zhe said with a faint smile, "...is a little disappointing."

"Huh?"

"But why?"

"My mother is a very controlling person. When she’s doing business, she allows zero outside interference—she’d kick a dog just for walking by. Our family’s company is her one-woman show. She doesn’t need her daughter-in-law helping with the business."

"What I just said was a test of your ambition. I didn’t expect that not only are you ambitious, but you even want to bring your parents into the picture."

"You really don’t understand what kind of daughter-in-law a wealthy family is looking for."

"We’re not a good match."

"That’s fine, too," Tang Hong replied naively. "If your family doesn’t need me to work, I have no problem being a full-time housewife. That’s what I was doing before. I was just saying I have the ability, that’s all."

"The way you rattled off that answer just now wasn’t just to prove you have the ability. You might as well have asked me for a hotel to manage on a trial basis."

"You have ambition. That’s a deal-breaker."

"You can’t even *want* what my mom won’t give you." Zhang Zhe gave a goofy little laugh and shook his head. "So, let’s end today’s matchmaking session here."

"Wait, wait, wait," the woman pleaded, trying to take back her words.

Zhang Zhe taught her one last lesson. "I wasn’t asking for your opinion. I was informing you. It’s just a courtesy."

...

"I told you this wouldn’t work!" The moment Zhang Zhe disconnected, Sister Zhou, the "strategist," immediately shifted the blame. "I’ve told you countless times, when she marries into that family, she can’t have any ideas about their business!"

"Wouldn’t it be much nicer to just quietly make some money off a false accusation?"

"Well..." The Tang Family’s parents looked conflicted. They were respectable people with their own business, after all. If their daughter married into the family, getting money legitimately was obviously the best-case scenario.

How could they go for a scorched-earth approach right from the start?

"Teacher Zhou, do you think there’s any way to salvage this?"

"Salvage my ass," Sister Zhou said, fuming. "I knew from the start you weren’t good people, but I never imagined you couldn’t even be competent villains."

"Well... if it can’t be salvaged, then according to the contract, you have to issue a refund." Father Tang’s tone grew firm. Since he couldn’t count on her anymore, there was no need to be polite. "The contract says that if my daughter fails to marry into the Jin Family, you have to provide a full refund."

"Refund my ass," Sister Zhou scoffed. "The contract states a marriage alliance between our two families. It doesn’t specify that your *eldest daughter* has to be the one to marry in."

"And now, I’m going to fulfill that contract." Sister Zhou pointed at Father Tang. "You and your wife, hurry up and get a divorce. I’ll introduce you to Jin Hui’s mother. That still counts as a marriage alliance."