Chapter 231 - 229: Don’t Worry, I’m Not That Kind of Proper Matchmaker

Chapter 231: Chapter 229: Don’t Worry, I’m Not That Kind of Proper Matchmaker

"It’s true that fewer people are getting married," Zhang Zhe nodded. "But the number of people seeking advice on marital issues hasn’t decreased at all."

"Actually, many people take a look at the matchmaking market, realize they can’t find a normal person, and then just give up."

"There are very few people who genuinely don’t want to get married at all."

"Take me, for example. Before I met Xia Yi, I felt like it would be difficult for me to ever get married. But after meeting her, I started to reconsider the idea of marriage."

"Haha..." Mother Xia gave a very subtle laugh, but it was clear that Zhang Zhe’s words made her, as a mother, very happy to hear.

She glanced in Xia Yi’s direction, then suddenly leaned forward and whispered:

"Actually, Yiyi thinks the same way, hehe. She used to always say she’d rather not get married."

"But look, once you meet the right person, things change, don’t they?"

"Mhm, same here," Zhang Zhe agreed, blinking emphatically and nodding.

Using himself as an example was quite convincing.

Mother Xia, after all, was a layperson with little understanding of modern relationships among young people. Xia Yi, on the other hand, had no such doubts. She knew a Matchmaker would never be out of business.

Because all the women around her, her colleagues at the kindergarten, wanted to change their destinies through marriage.

And in Zhang Zhe’s live streams, there were also many, many people who wanted to get married, but they struggled either to figure out their own place in the market or to find the right person.

Some had broken down after matchmaking failures, while others had temporarily given up on the idea of marriage due to the pressures of life.

These people were all potential clients for the matchmaking market. As long as the market improved slightly, free from the dual threats of "sky-high bride prices" and "warnings of false accusations," they would come back.

After hearing Zhang Zhe’s explanation, Xia Yi’s mother was still a little worried. From her personal perspective, the marriage market wasn’t going to get better anytime soon.

Some of the people making the decisions have their own wives and children living abroad; they couldn’t care less whether the youth of today can get married or not.

Anyway, after they’ve made their money and transferred their wealth, they’ll either go abroad or end up in prison. Either way, they don’t lose.

However, Mother Xia also knew her perspective wasn’t necessarily correct. No one could say for sure what the future would hold.

Even the most powerful people in Qing City—they’re impressive, right? Aren’t they all just watching to see which way the wind blows?

"Xia Yi told me that working online as a Matchmaker, you earn about the same as you did as a programmer in Shencheng City?"

"Right now, yes. A little more, even."

"Hm, that’s already very good. One year of your work is like three years for someone else. At that rate, what you earn in a decade or so is what others earn in a lifetime."

"But there’s no end to making money. You need to look after your health too. Your body is your most important asset."

Mother Xia’s viewpoint was identical to Xia Yi’s; it was clearly a belief passed down from mother to daughter.

"I have one last question."

"Don’t laugh when I ask."

"It’s fine, ma’am, go ahead and ask." Zhang Zhe had already guessed what Mother Xia was about to say. It had to be the thing Xia Yi had warned him about.

Sure enough, Mother Xia whispered conspiratorially:

"In our village, there used to be a fortune-teller who said that everyone’s life is a thread."

"A Matchmaker’s job is to pull two threads together. If they get entangled, the couple gets married. If they don’t, they don’t see eye to eye and break up."

"The fortune-teller said that while a Matchmaker is very skilled at this, a person’s allotted fate is fixed. When he helps others find their destined partners, he loses some of his own destiny in return."

"If a Matchmaker is already married, then their children must bear the consequences instead."

"That’s why the children of Matchmakers usually have a hard time getting married. Like me—before, I was always setting people up, but Xia Yi couldn’t find a boyfriend."

"It’s not like she’s lacking in any way, but she just had no luck in love."

"So after I consulted a fortune-teller, I stopped introducing people for a long time. And guess what happened?"

"You showed up."

Mother Xia pointed at Zhang Zhe. Apparently, he was the "consequence." His arrival had completely validated her theories about a Matchmaker’s luck.

"Ma’am, are you worried that me being a Matchmaker will affect my relationship with Xia Yi, and even our future children’s marriages?"

"Actually, it won’t..."

Before Zhang Zhe could finish, Mother Xia quickly explained, "This isn’t entirely superstition. There’s a bit of scientific reasoning to it."

"Think about it. As the child of a Matchmaker, he would see marriage more clearly than the average person. Through his parent’s work, he’d witness so many of the bad sides of marriage that, over time, he might just lose interest in it altogether."

"What’s it called... the influence of one’s family of origin."

"Yes, that’s right. That’s a possibility." Zhang Zhe nodded calmly. With Xia Yi as his "inside woman," he had already prepared his answers.

"But you don’t have to worry, ma’am. I’m not a proper Matchmaker who sets people up."

"You’re an *improper* Matchmaker?" Mother Xia looked shocked. She instinctively glanced toward the room Xia Yi was in, as if hesitating whether to ask her daughter what was going on.

"I mainly work as a consultant."

"Didn’t you just say a Matchmaker ties threads together? Well, I’m the one who, before the threads are tied, helps people find the ends of the threads and tells them where to start tying."

Zhang Zhe explained the difference between himself and a regular Matchmaker.

Simply put, he mainly helped people with their relationship positioning. As for whether they could find a partner after being positioned, he made no guarantees and generally didn’t help with that part.

Compared to a regular Matchmaker, he accrued much less karma.

To convince Mother Xia, he showed her a private message from his account backend.

The most recent one he’d replied to was from a guy asking:

"Brother Zhang, my first love was a five-star prospect in high school and played for multiple teams in college. Now, after a major injury, she’s come back to me looking to ’return to her roots.’ Should I agree?"

Zhang Zhe’s reply was:

"You can consider this kind of player on a veteran’s minimum contract with no signing bonus. After all, players ’returning to their roots’ tend to have a stronger sense of belonging."

"The correct move is to sign her to a 10-day, two-way contract and see how she performs. If she puts in the effort on the court, has good positioning, and is willing to do the dirty work, you can try offering a minimum contract. But absolutely do not sign a max contract; you want to avoid locking up your team’s salary cap."

After reading the private message, Mother Xia turned to look at Zhang Zhe. "Are you guys talking about marriage using basketball analogies?"

"Is this what young people are like nowadays?"

"Yes. That’s why I said I’m not a proper Matchmaker."

"I don’t help them find wives. I just help them analyze the situation."

Zhang Zhe smiled and explained:

"Besides, ma’am, you might not know this, but I don’t just advise people to get married. To balance things out, I often advise people to break up and get divorced, too."