Chapter 227 - 225: Is It Too Late to Regret?

Chapter 227: Chapter 225: Is It Too Late to Regret?

"You’re really planning to come?"

"Of course! I think it’d be so interesting to watch you analyze people’s marriages."

Xia Yi tugged on Zhang Zhe’s arm, her voice taking on a wheedling tone:

"There won’t be any strangers here anyway, so just let me come, please? I’ll just be your assistant."

"Just bring me along when you go live online or meet with clients in person."

"Ummm..."

"I’ll come on the weekends. I don’t have anything to do then anyway."

"Alright then." Zhang Zhe nodded. ’If Xia Yi comes over on the weekend, I can just think of it as a unique kind of date.’

Having received Zhang Zhe’s approval, Xia Yi finally broke into a satisfied smile. She sat back down quietly and went back to watching Zhang Zhe edit videos.

The atmosphere was peaceful for a while.

At 6 p.m., just as Zhang Zhe was getting ready to take Xia Yi home, a client suddenly arrived at the matchmaking agency.

She was a plainly dressed, middle-aged woman with a dejected expression, and she looked to be over thirty.

On seeing the woman, Xia Yi, who had been about to leave, turned right back around. She quickly set her bag down inside the matchmaking agency, clearly planning to stay and keep Zhang Zhe company until he was finished with the client.

"Brother Zhang." The woman clearly knew Zhang Zhe and had come specifically for him. "You haven’t gotten off work yet, have you?"

"No, no."

"Please, come in." Zhang Zhe gestured for her to enter so they could speak inside.

After they were both seated, the woman stated her purpose. "I wanted to consult with you, Brother Zhang, about some marital problems."

"My situation isn’t something I can easily talk about on a livestream. I feel like people would just tear into me."

"So I had to come find you in person."

"Don’t worry," Xia Yi chimed in, comforting the woman. "Whatever it is, you came to the right person. My Zhang Zhe will definitely give you an objective analysis."

"Assistant, why don’t you go get the payment QR code first," Zhang Zhe said, inventing an excuse to temper Xia Yi’s enthusiasm.

’In this agency, you aren’t a client until you’ve paid.’

’A woman who’s too scared to talk on a livestream... I can’t even imagine how explosive her story must be. I have to charge her. The fee might not even cover the emotional damage.’

After the woman paid, Zhang Zhe handed her a form. "Do you want to fill out a matchmaking profile? Or are you just looking for an analysis?"

"Just an analysis will be fine." The woman gave a slightly awkward smile.

"Alright, then go ahead."

"Assistant, come sit over here and help take some notes."

"You got it!" Xia Yi sat down next to Zhang Zhe, feeling very involved. ’This is way more interesting than taking notes during the kindergarten director’s speeches.’

"Brother Zhang, can our conversation be kept confidential?" the woman asked, glancing worriedly at Xia Yi, clearly having reservations.

"Of course. You don’t have to worry about that. Since you’ve specifically asked, I’ll absolutely guarantee your privacy."

"Okay, then I’ll start with my situation."

"I was born in ’93, and I’m already married."

"I met my other half on campus. We got together when we were still students."

"Neither of us are from Qing City originally. We’re both from smaller county-level cities, and we stayed in Qing City for work."

"We’ve been married for three years now and don’t have any children yet."

Xia Yi looked surprised. The woman was describing the ultimate fairy-tale romance—the "from school uniform to wedding dress" kind of story.

But her tone as she said it didn’t convey any sense of happiness at all.

The woman quickly explained why she felt that way:

"Because we got together during our school days, we didn’t know each other’s family backgrounds at the time, nor did we know what it would be like after marriage."

"The result is, after we got married, he chose a job that requires frequent business trips. He’s traveling all year round. Sigh. It feels like being married is no different from being single."

The woman spoke with a listless sort of dejection that was exhausting to listen to. It even dragged Zhang Zhe’s own tone down.

"You’re starting to have some regrets, aren’t you?"

"A little." The woman nodded, a conflicted expression on her face. "When I was younger, I didn’t think it mattered."

"But now I’m older, and we still haven’t had kids... Actually, even if we did have a child, it would be ’widow-style parenting.’ Life would probably be even worse than it is now."

"So, I’m just a little dissatisfied with my current situation."

"I’ve talked to my parents about it, too. They think my situation is already very good and told me to just hang in there, that things will be different once I have a child."

"But I can already foresee that after having a child, my life will be just like this for the next ten, or even twenty years. It won’t change."

"But this isn’t the life I imagined before I got married."

"Sigh—"

Zhang Zhe listened and sighed as well. "A campus romance that lasts until today... You’re the epitome of a woman who ’married for love,’ the happiest kind of person in the eyes of hopeless romantics."

"If you’re not happy, how is anyone else supposed to manage?"

"I think the problem is with how you’re defining your own situation."

Zhang Zhe could tell the woman wanted a divorce. ’If they weren’t compatible, they couldn’t just tough it out.’

’But discussing divorce in a matchmaking agency is a bit surreal. It feels like encouraging someone to commit suicide at a crematorium.’

’So I have to find out what’s really going on first. After all, it’s better to tear down ten temples than to ruin one marriage.’

"To put it simply, your life after marriage isn’t meeting your expectations."

"In that case, there are only two possibilities. One, the situation is genuinely bad. Two, your expectations are too high."

"Let’s analyze the first possibility."

"Your husband is often on business trips, but does he contribute his income to the family?"

"He does. He hands over his entire salary every month, except for some spending money, and I save all of it."

"What are your two incomes, roughly?"

"I’m a public sector employee with an annual income of 150,000. He’s in the private sector and makes a bit more, around 300,000 a year."

"Your husband makes that much? Then it’s perfectly normal for him to travel a lot for work."

Zhang Zhe rarely encountered a salaried worker in Qing City who could earn 300,000 a year. The few he’d met who earned that much were all small business owners.

"But his job isn’t stable enough," the woman retorted. "In the private sector, there’s a risk of being laid off once you reach a certain age, and he’s not far from thirty-five."

"So we’ve been saving money constantly, because after thirty-five, the pressures of life will be immense."

"But that’s a pressure every ordinary person faces. The fact that you didn’t think of it before marriage is on you for not thinking it through; it’s not a problem with the marriage itself."

"Yes, but..." The woman sighed again. "Maybe I really didn’t think it through back then. Actually, when I graduated, there were other options with better prospects."

"When I was younger, I thought we could solve these problems by working hard, but I might have underestimated how difficult the struggle would be..."

"You’re trying to say you made the wrong choice." Zhang Zhe gave a helpless smile. "You want to ask me if it’s too late to regret it now, right?"