Chapter 126: A Traffic Thief

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: A Traffic Thief

"Speaking of not getting married, I was just about to ask you, why are you only thinking about marriage now?" Zhang Zhe looked puzzled. "If you were ten years younger, you could have easily found the kind of girl you were just describing."

"But now you’re too old."

[The streamer discriminates against every old, single loser equally.]

[If he were 25, he could have a different woman every day. Why would he even think about getting married?]

[I didn’t even want to get married when I was 25, let alone him.]

[Who thinks about this stuff when they’re young?]

"I wasn’t thinking about that stuff back then, and I wasn’t very good at maintaining relationships..." The man gave a long-winded explanation, but it contained none of the details Zhang Zhe was looking for.

The entire explanation boiled down to one central idea:

He hadn’t had enough fun yet.

After listening, Zhang Zhe offered some very pertinent advice:

"Bro, your situation is actually a lot like most of the women who’ve returned from studying abroad. Very few of them manage to marry up. That’s because while they can hide their lifestyle abroad from ordinary people, they can’t hide it from wealthy people of a similar social and economic standing."

"So you’re in the same boat as them. Your only option is to find an honest, simple person and get yourself married off."

"However, my stronger recommendation is for you to focus on polishing your career."

"You have a good foundation. If you work a little harder and double your assets by the time you’re 40, you can turn right back around and still find the kind of girl you’re looking for now."

"So, for a man, is there really not much difference between being 35 and 40 in the dating market?" the man asked, a little confused. "I thought this was my last chance."

"For a man... if you take care of yourself, there really isn’t much of a difference between 35 and 40."

"Either way, you’re at an age where people only look at your status. Nobody’s looking at your face anymore."

"Hey, chat, don’t just blindly follow my advice. This only applies to this bro who’s already well-off. With his current status, he could find a pretty girl among ordinary people and marry her."

"For some of you bros whose finances aren’t as solid, it’s better to get married as soon as possible."

A guy in his early twenties looking for a partner can still find a good girl, also in her twenties, who believes love is more important than anything else. They’re rare, but they exist.

Once the partners a Matchmaker introduces you to are all over 25, you’ll only hear one word from those girls’ mouths:

Money.

"Okay, thank you, streamer."

"I just got back to the country, and my parents have been pushing me to get married first. I was a bit hesitant and didn’t really understand the current situation. After hearing what you said today, I think I have a clearer idea now."

"I should focus on making myself stronger first."

The bro on the call let out a long sigh. He was genuinely different from those older, leftover women; he actually listened to advice.

Even though he was also making a wish, the impression he gave was much better.

"Teacher, I’ll come find you again when I’ve achieved something more."

"I hope your business is doing better and better by then, too."

"Guaranteed. Don’t you worry," Zhang Zhe said, looking spirited as he flashed a peace sign at the camera.

[By the time he comes back in five years, this streamer will probably be totally washed up.]

[Seems like aside from XXBB, no streamer lasts for five years, right?]

[He shouldn’t be worried about getting washed up, but about not getting thrown in jail. Being a streamer is a high-risk profession these days.]

[It’s fine. If all else fails, the streamer can always go back to his offline business.]

"This bro named Detective Conan, you hit the nail on the head." Zhang Zhe keenly caught a key comment and immediately seized the opportunity to elaborate. "This streamer does, in fact, have an offline business."

"Perfect timing to drop an advertisement here today."

"Next Monday at 12 PM noon, my Mei Man Marriage Agency will be open for business. The location is the same as Granny Xu’s old matchmaking place. Friends in Qing City can just search for it online to find it."

’Why open it in the same place?’

"You can think of it as a renovation."

"Any curious bros can come see for themselves on Monday."

Zhang Zhe briefly mentioned the marriage agency before ending his stream. He was just casually advertising; he certainly wasn’t counting on viewers from his livestream to be his first customers.

There were others who would be supporting him then.

"One more important announcement."

"Tomorrow, I’ll be streaming on the ’Brother Zhang of Qing City’ account. Don’t go to the wrong one, bros."

’Why switch accounts? I have no choice. If I always stream on one account, I’ll be too big of a target. Ever heard the saying "a crafty rabbit has three burrows"?’

...

「The next morning」 Zhang Zhe asked Xia Yi out again.

There was no third wheel this time, but there was no movie to watch either.

The two of them browsed around the mall for a bit, then went to a cat café to pet some cats, just like a normal young couple on a date.

Since Xia Yi had to go to her maternal grandmother’s house for dinner that evening, they parted ways at four in the afternoon. Seeing that it was still early, Zhang Zhe decided to check out the nearby marriage agencies.

There were quite a few marriage agencies in Qing City.

Filtering by a three-kilometer radius, there were eight of them around the Mei Man Marriage Agency alone. Instead of visiting them directly, Zhang Zhe decided to read their reviews first.

After reading them, he felt relieved.

Most of the reviews were like this:

"Don’t come here, it’s a total scam. A dozen people will trick you into paying. After you pay the membership fee, they arrange a few actors to play along with you, and then they stop replying after two days. The Matchmaker even says it’s your fault."

"I’m fucking speechless. They were all nice when I was paying, but then it’s suddenly all my fault that I can’t find anyone. I paid all that money and couldn’t even get a smile, and on top of that, I got personally attacked by the Matchmaker."

"Bros, steer clear of this place. All the girls they matched me with after I paid were shills. I tried to sue them but failed. The court is in on it with them too."

"I fell for the Matchmaker, but she said she has a husband. Fine, you have a husband, but then you should give me a refund! But they wouldn’t refund my money. Total garbage, one star!"

"..."

Zhang Zhe had initially been a little worried about the prospects of his marriage agency.

After reading his competitors’ reviews, all he could say was that anyone who wasn’t laughing had to be severely depressed.

It seemed he didn’t have to worry about competitors causing trouble at all.

It appeared that in Qing City, the matchmaking industry was a bit like sales. It was all about who was better at using scripts to trick clients into paying, then hiring a few actors to put on a show.

After finishing his online research, Zhang Zhe visited a few marriage agencies in person.

90% of them were completely deserted.

A few of his competitors were downright scary. He was just walking by when someone came out and asked if he was looking for a partner.

Their eyes screamed desperation for business.

But there was an exception. The "Xixiangfeng Marriage Agency" at the entrance of an old residential complex was doing very well. There were old people, young people, and some were even sitting on stools by the door, queuing up as if waiting for their number to be called.

With so many people, Zhang Zhe of course had to go in and take advantage of the chaos to learn a thing or two.

But as soon as he walked in, he came face to face with a very familiar woman:

"Teacher Wang?"

"Xiaozhang, what are you doing here—"

Teacher Wang stopped short, glanced around furtively, and when she saw that no one was paying attention to her, she quickly grabbed Zhang Zhe and started pulling him outside, whispering as they walked:

"What’s your deal? Are you trying to poach employees all the way out here?"

"I’m not here to poach anyone. I was just passing by to see what all the commotion was about."

"Cut the crap. I saw you were about to go take a number."

"Er..." Zhang Zhe gave an awkward laugh and had no choice but to admit he was there to steal some of their techniques.

Hearing that he was there to learn their secrets and not to poach staff, a look of disappointment appeared on Teacher Wang’s face.

"I thought you actually had the guts to poach someone. Turns out you’re just here to ’steal.’ I was hoping someone could finally teach our boss a lesson."

"But, if I were you, I definitely wouldn’t be in the mood to learn any secrets right now."

"Why?" Zhang Zhe looked down at himself. ’Is something wrong with me?’

"Do you know your own house is being robbed?"

"Huh? What house?"

"The Zhuyin Marriage Agency," Teacher Wang said, taking out her phone. "I just saw someone streaming on the agency’s account!"

"!!!"

Zhang Zhe was completely shocked. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

He quickly pulled out his phone to check, and sure enough, someone was live.

And it wasn’t just anyone streaming—it was Jiang Qi, the one who had been coveting his clients.

Right now, she was on a call with a girl, pitching the marriage agency’s packages to her.

Zhang Zhe glanced at the bullet comments, and his face darkened.

’This idiot is ruining everything!’

[Finally couldn’t resist cashing in?]

[You’re guaranteeing a leftover woman like her can marry into a rich family? Who are you kidding?]

[What is this crap? Where’s Brother Zhang?]

[You’ve been on the call for 10 minutes, and 9 of them were spent trying to scam this girl. Have some decency.]

Fortunately, Zhang Zhe had previously logged into the livestream account on his phone to make it easier to reply to private messages.

He quickly logged into Douyin and shut down the livestream directly.

Then, without a second thought, he hailed a cab and rushed straight to the marriage agency.