Chapter 33: The Strategists Pool Their Wisdom

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: The Strategists Pool Their Wisdom

The other two girls hadn’t seen Chen Jingle’s photo before. Seeing it now for the first time, their eyes widened, and they practically drooled as they expressed their immense jealousy.

"He’s gorgeous!"

"We’re so jealous!"

Li Yuting couldn’t help but smack her lips; she had only caught a fleeting glimpse earlier.

Zhong Qing stammered, "My sister introduced us. Honestly, I don’t know much about him."

"Don’t worry, I’ll help you!" Li Yuting thumped her chest confidently with a resounding THUD.

"Me too!"

"Same here!"

"..."

Zhong Qing was so moved she almost shed tears. However, the realization that none of these three had boyfriends either made her hesitate. No matter how she looked at it, relying on them didn’t seem very dependable.

Li Yuting spoke first. "Since your sister introduced him, she must know him pretty well, right?"

Zhong Qing shook her head. "My sister actually doesn’t know him that well because he’s a classmate of her husband. But he should be a reliable guy; apparently, they’ve known each other for over a decade."

"That still counts as knowing him. Just ask your sister directly."

Li Yuting counted on her fingers. "Find out if he’s still in school or already working. What’s his height and weight? How’s his personality and temper? How many siblings does he have? What do his parents do for a living? Are they retired? What’s their pension like? Does he have an ex? Has he cut all ties with her? Why did they break up? Does he have any hobbies or bad habits? And what’s his political affiliation?"

This barrage of questions dumbfounded not just Zhong Qing, but the other two girls as well. Good heavens, was all that really necessary?

"Why do we even need to ask about his political affiliation? It’s like running a background check," Zhong Qing said, utterly overwhelmed.

Li Yuting shot her a sideways glance. "Don’t you have to strictly vet people when dating nowadays? It’d be best to ask for his medical checkup report too. If you get tricked, you’re the one who suffers!"

Ye Zixing, the girl with the small round face and glasses, muttered softly, "Just looking at his photo, I don’t feel like you’d be the one suffering."

"What the hell do you know! You all better take notes so you don’t get deceived by men in the future and come crying to me. I won’t have any sympathy for you!" Li Yuting glared, scaring the three of them into silence.

She cleared her throat and continued, "Looking for a partner is a screening process. The more criteria you list, the more people you filter out. In the end, even if the person you like doesn’t fully meet all your standards, hitting three out of five marks still makes them much better than average. It’s about raising your upper and lower limits. But you have to understand that these questions are just to gather information, not to set rigid requirements. Don’t get your priorities backwards.

"There’s no rush to chat with him right now. First, ask your sister for all his details. As the Art of War says, ’Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will emerge victorious in a hundred battles.’ Striking rashly will only put you at a disadvantage."

You had to admit, she made a lot of sense. Even though Li Yuting was permanently single herself, her theoretical knowledge was incredibly systematic and sounded highly plausible. Zhong Qing nodded profusely and started messaging her sister, Zhong Jing, for answers. She felt Li Yuting was right about one thing: it was always better to have clarity than to go in blind.

"Next, let’s analyze this photo." Li Yuting tapped on Zhong Qing’s phone screen, gesturing for her to bring the picture back up.

"Whose child is this in the photo?"

"My sister’s."

"He’s holding the child. What does that signify?"

"That he doesn’t hate kids?"

"Exactly!" Li Yuting nodded emphatically. "And look at the kid’s expression. There’s no struggle; in fact, the kid is smiling. This shows the child doesn’t dislike him either. He’s most likely a kind-hearted person. If he were the vicious, intimidating type, his aura wouldn’t attract children."

Zhong Qing realized she was right.

"Now back to the main subject of the photo," Li Yuting continued. "His hairstyle isn’t flashy, but he clearly took the time to style it before going out. That alone puts him miles ahead of most sloppy guys.

"Then there are his facial features. Needless to say, anyone with eyes can tell he’s very handsome and has great presence. While his skin isn’t particularly fair, it’s very clear, which indicates good lifestyle habits and good health. Otherwise, his face would definitely be oily and covered in acne.

"His clothes are ordinary, not designer brands. Considering you can never judge the wealth of someone from Guangdong or Guangxi by their attire, we’ll skip that part. However, the fabric looks like good quality, and his outfit certainly doesn’t lose him any points. Overall, I’d give his appearance a solid 7.5 to 8 out of 10. He’s an absolutely top-tier hunk!"

After this thorough analysis, everyone agreed that her points made perfect sense. Excellent, excellent. CLAP CLAP CLAP. Li Yuting truly lived up to her title as the dorm’s top strategist! They all showered her with admiring gazes.

"Um..." Yang Qiuyun, the girl with twin tails, asked weakly. "Do we even have any 8-out-of-10 guys at our school?"

Li Yuting racked her brain, recalling all the talented young men she had encountered over the years while running around for the student union and various clubs. She gave a slight nod. "If we’re just talking about faces, there are a few. After all, we have over thirty thousand students. But they all have flaws to some extent. Besides, aesthetics are entirely subjective."

At this moment, Zhong Qing finally received a reply from her sister. Since she had decided to help play matchmaker, Zhong Jing was naturally going all out; at the very least, she had to provide solid support. She knew a few basic details. And whatever she didn’t know, she could easily deduce.

"He’s already working," Zhong Qing read aloud. "Over 1.7 meters tall, around 60 kilograms. His personality and temper are fine, though he’s a bit of a lazy slacker. He’s an only child, and his parents are ordinary working-class employees who haven’t retired yet... Hmm, honestly, his background is pretty average."

Li Yuting took the phone and analyzed it with absolute seriousness. "No ex-girlfriends?! Having no exes is very suspicious. You need to ask about this clearly. He might be gay! Watch out for a sham marriage! He doesn’t smoke, drink, or play cards, and has no bad habits? That’s even more outrageous. I strongly suspect he’s impotent and then turned gay!"

"What?!" Zhong Qing was dumbfounded. "Your imagination is way too wild."

"It’s not wild at all, okay?" Li Yuting said with absolute certainty. "If I were a guy and that handsome, I’d change girlfriends every week! But look at him—he’s several years older than you and doesn’t even have a partner. If that doesn’t scream impotent or gay, what does?"

Yang Qiuyun raised her hand again and offered weakly, "Logically speaking, even if he were gay, shouldn’t he still have an ex? After all, a bottom with his looks would be very popular."

"..."

Yikes. Zhong Qing glanced back and forth among her roommates, seriously doubting whether she could actually succeed by relying on these three.

Meanwhile.

Just a two-kilometer straight-line distance away from Chen Jingle’s home in Liang City, at Panshan Manor, Li Beixing was lying in bed, idly playing on her phone. She had the day off work today but didn’t feel like going out. From the layout of the room, it was easy to see that the house was luxuriously decorated without being ostentatious.

Panshan Manor was the only single-family villa community in the urban district. Built on the southern foothills of Gougong Mountain—the only mountain in the urban area, located in North City—its scenery and topography were top-notch. In a third-tier city like this, they had the audacity to sell properties for twenty thousand yuan per square meter. For a prefecture-level city where the average monthly salary was only three thousand yuan, that was considered an astronomical price.

It was safe to say that those who lived here were essentially all well-known local tycoons. There were real estate developers, beach tourism managers, supermarket chain owners, and livestock feed moguls. Other than a select few people, no one knew that the Beixing family lived in Panshan Manor.

At this moment, Li Beixing was holding her phone, engaged in a battle of wits with someone.