Chapter 217 - 215: Stingy

Chapter 217: Chapter 215: Stingy

"Haven’t some of you ladies been saying that our stream is the only one on Xiaohongshu that’s dominated by men?"

"Well, this time, I’ve specifically invited a beautiful lady to join us. That way, we can balance out the yin and yang of the stream."

"Come on, assistant, why don’t you say hi to everyone?"

"Hello, hello! Good evening, everyone," Xia Yi said with a laugh from off-camera.

[???]

[Is that Sister Zhang talking?]

[Sister Zhang’s accent doesn’t sound local.]

[Brother Zhang, promise me you’ll let her go after the stream, okay?]

[The streamer has a girlfriend? Then why do you say such misogynistic things?]

Zhang Zhe guessed the chat would go wild for a bit, but it didn’t matter. With Xia Yi here, he was sure he could keep the atmosphere under control.

Before going live, he’d specifically told Xia Yi to treat the audience sending bullet comments like they were children in her class, squabbling during recess.

"Today, we’re first going to connect with a young lady from Yanjing who has a government job. She DMed me her photo yesterday."

"She’s a 6 out of 10," Zhang Zhe said with a sly grin, but he quickly wiped the smile off his face when he remembered Xia Yi was next to him.

’I need to be more serious today. Better keep my little antics in check.’

"Hang on, I’ll get her on the call."

Zhang Zhe contacted the young woman from yesterday in his DMs. She replied that she was already in the stream.

Soon, the woman joined the call.

The woman was very confident. She turned on her camera right away and even fixed her hair for the viewers.

[She’s a 6?]

[This is rigged! It’s definitely rigged!]

[Can the streamer please share his rating scale? I think she’s a 4 at most.]

[Brother Zhang, be honest, did you take money for this?]

Zhang Zhe was also taken aback when he saw her face.

Facing the chat’s skepticism and Xia Yi’s questioning gaze, he quickly pulled out his phone to confirm if it was the same person.

The photo and the real person, one could only say they bore a slight resemblance. It was like the difference between a Pro Max version and a budget model.

"Ma’am? Don’t you think that photo you sent me was a bit deceitful?"

"Not at all," the woman said with an innocent look, even flipping her hair. "This is just how I look."

"Maybe I’m just not very photogenic. I’m really a 6 in real life."

"Is that so?" Zhang Zhe had his own unique way of dealing with overly confident women like her. "Then let me ask you, how long has it been since your last relationship?"

"Four years."

"Ah, a four-year dry spell."

"So, during this time you’ve been single, how many guys have pursued you? And how many are pursuing you right now?"

"A lot."

"How many is ’a lot’?" Zhang Zhe wasn’t going to let her off the hook, because this woman was making his reputation take a nosedive. "How many are pursuing you right now?"

"I guess about three."

"I’m actually not very good at socializing. I’m a bit cold and aloof, so most guys don’t dare to pursue me."

"Haha." Zhang Zhe couldn’t help but laugh. "Miss, you really underestimate men."

"Let me put it this way: a genuinely beautiful woman, a 6, will never be short of suitors, even if she’s married with kids. Being ’cold and aloof’ doesn’t affect that at all. You probably just lack experience in that department."

"The shamelessness of some guys is beyond your imagination."

["Cold and aloof beauty"? Yeah, right. It’s gotta be an act.]

[Let me put it this way, if Liu Yifei were my classmate, I’d be writing her love letters every single day.]

[This is a classic case of an average girl fantasizing about a beautiful woman’s life. There’s a certain kind of beauty to her brain-dead logic.]

"How about this: DM me the chat logs with those three guys who are supposedly pursuing you, and I’ll send you 500 yuan."

"Miss? Hello? Did you disconnect?"

"..."

The woman was completely still, not even blinking.

(This is not a frozen frame.)

"Alright, alright, let’s just move past this. Just do your host a favor and pretend you’re an average 3-out-of-10 person, okay?" Zhang Zhe said with a sigh.

"Fine." The woman finally nodded.

Following the template Zhang Zhe had given her, she began to describe her current situation:

Born in ’96, 29 years old, already at the threshold of being an "older leftover woman." You could say she’d reached the "Half-Step into the Old-Maid Realm."

Height 5’3", weight 116 pounds, which is considered short in the north.

Parents divorced, from an ordinary working-class family. Both have pensions, so their retirement back in their hometown isn’t an issue, but by the same token, the help they can offer her is also very limited.

If she wanted to settle down in Yanjing, her parents could support her with 500,000 yuan at most, which wasn’t even enough for a down payment.

She herself was quite hardworking, having tested her way from a small northern county town into a government position in Yanjing. Her current annual income was around 170,000 yuan, which was only enough to get by in Beijing, but her job had the advantage of being stable and came with the prestige of a government post.

[Divorced parents? Pass.]

[I knew it. Girls with good stats in the public sector don’t end up single. As expected, even her basic qualifications are problematic.]

[Don’t forget she used photoshopped pics to trick Brother Zhang. Seems like she has issues with self-awareness too.]

[Listening to her talk is so grating. She gives off that "I work for the government so I’m better than you" vibe.]

"With your current situation, are you hoping to use marriage to settle down in Yanjing directly?"

"Looking for a man who already owns a home?"

"Yes." The woman nodded. "Actually, I could buy a home on my own, but it would have to be one of those joint-ownership properties where you only get half the equity, and I’d still have to pay a mortgage of over 5,000 yuan a month."

"So I figured, I might as well just marry a man who already has a house."

"There’s nothing wrong with that line of thinking." Zhang Zhe nodded. Her situation was at least a little better than those women who buy a house, take on a mortgage, and then look for a man to help them pay it off.

"Have you been on any blind dates in the last two years?"

"Has anyone at your workplace tried to set you up? I remember the government offices in Yanjing are full of enthusiastic older folks who love to play matchmaker."

"Yes, I’ve been constantly going on blind dates for the past two years."

"I’ve met ten or so guys, one after another, but none of them felt right."

"They all didn’t have homes in Yanjing? That’s impossible." Zhang Zhe frowned. He was already realizing this woman was a bit picky—a common affliction, of course, among older single women.

"They all had homes, but they always managed to hit one of my dealbreakers. I just couldn’t choose any of them."

"For example?" Zhang Zhe prompted. "Can you give me an example from a recent blind date? I want to see if your ’dealbreakers’ are reasonable."

"Let’s take the guy from my most recent blind date. He also has a government job, is also from out of town, but he’d already bought a house in Yanjing."

"His ’hard stats’ were good, but our spending habits were just too different."

"The last time we met, he treated me to a movie and dinner. But afterward, when he had to go back to his office to handle something, he actually told me he was going to walk back."

"Seriously! I was just... shocked. The guy is so cheap! I really can’t stand stingy men."

[Isn’t him being frugal a good thing? Do you want your future husband to be a big spender?]

[Walking back is a bit lame, I agree. I usually just strap a rocket to my ass and fly back.]

[What does that mean? The guy doesn’t have a car?]

[How he gets back is none of your business, is it? It’s not like he crawled back through a sewer pipe.]

[He’s cheap with himself, not with you! Are you fucking crazy?!]

[You’re such a bitch. He treats you to dinner and a movie, you don’t spend a dime, and you still have the nerve to complain about him?]

The woman’s words had thoroughly pissed off the chat.

Xia Yi saw that some of the bullet comments were getting too vicious, so she carefully tugged on Zhang Zhe’s sleeve from the side, gesturing for him to look. She was asking him: ’Should we do something about this?’

"It’s fine. This is all just part of a normal conversation." Zhang Zhe waved his hand dismissively. "There are some things it’s not convenient for me to say. The chat is just venting for me."

"But that said, none of them have hit on the real issue."