Chapter 218 - 216: Finding a Mama’s Boy

Chapter 218: Chapter 216: Finding a Mama’s Boy

"Sis, with your situation, if you were to call into Hu Zi’s livestream, he’d definitely call you an ’Android person’."

"Let me be objective with you—you kind of have a poverty mindset."

Zhang Zhe knew this woman had a high opinion of herself, so he figured she could handle him being direct.

"The flaw you described about your blind date shows that, in your eyes, the guy was unwilling to spend money on a taxi. That he walked back to his office just to save money."

"But that’s probably not what it was at all."

"He probably just wanted to take a little stroll and walk off his meal after eating."

"I didn’t get it when I was a kid, either. Not until college, when I met this older guy from Yanjing in the dorm next door. He’d seriously walk a couple of laps around campus after every lunch and dinner."

"Some people just have habits like that. It’s not always about money, money, money. Even if he did end up saving money, that was just a byproduct."

"Of course, that’s not really the key point."

"The most crucial point is what the bullet comments are saying: what business is it of yours?" Zhang Zhe had a look of utter confusion on his face. "The guy was willing to spend money to treat you to dinner and a movie. After that, you went your separate ways. Why do you care how he got home?"

"But, in that kind of situation..." The woman was becoming incoherent, unsure how to explain herself. Finally, she said, "It just made me feel uncomfortable."

"I really can’t accept it."

"Why can’t you accept it?" Zhang Zhe retorted. "Is it because he doesn’t have a car? Are you looking down on him because he’s not well-off?"

"He has a car. He just didn’t drive it. He said there were driving restrictions that day."

"Exactly. So there was nothing wrong with what he did," Zhang Zhe told the woman. "Let me correct what you said earlier. This guy isn’t stingy. Even if he was trying to save money, that’s called being frugal."

"Is there a difference?"

"The biggest difference is that frugality is about how you treat yourself, while stinginess is about how you treat others. As long as he didn’t ask *you* to save money for his sake, you have no grounds to call him stingy."

"Alright, that was the issue with the last blind date. What about the one before him? What were you unhappy about?"

"The one before that..." The woman got a faraway look in her eyes. "He was a bit of a male chauvinist. He didn’t respect me much."

"Did he not let you eat at the table with him?" Zhang Zhe asked, feigning shock.

"No, not that. But when he was ordering, he didn’t even ask what I liked. He just made a token gesture of asking if I had any dietary restrictions and then went ahead and ordered the restaurant’s signature dishes."

[Isn’t that pretty normal?]

[I bet the guy asked her what she wanted to eat, she said "whatever," and then she got upset after he ordered.]

[DO YOU NOT HAVE A FUCKING MOUTH? CAN’T YOU SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO EAT?]

[Putting myself in the guy’s shoes, I’m already seeing red.]

[Everyone’s a bit cranky today, but they’ve got a point. This girl is just nitpicking.]

"Fine. What about the one before that one?"

Zhang Zhe didn’t comment further on the woman’s words. There was no need.

’The guys who went on dates with this woman are really pitiful,’ he thought. ’Instead of spending money to treat her to a meal, they would have been better off buying a couple of sausages to feed the stray dogs on the street.’

"The one before that, he was a bit indecisive," the woman recalled. "When we were out shopping, I was basically leading him around. I felt like I was taking care of a little kid. It was so, so tiring."

"..." Zhang Zhe nodded, finding it a struggle.

"The guy before that one..."

"Okay, you don’t need to say any more." Zhang Zhe cut her off. He no longer had any interest in hearing about the men this woman had dated.

He just wanted to hurry up and tell her where she was wrong, then send her on her way.

"Sis, in your situation, my advice is this:

First, go back and have a good, long talk with your parents, or other elders you trust, like your grandparents. Figure out what kind of partner you’re actually looking for."

"What is it that you truly want from a marriage?"

Zhang Zhe pointed to the information written on the whiteboard behind him.

"A person can have all these different traits. If you want to get married, you can only pick a few of them to be your requirements. For the rest, you have to learn to accept them."

"If you can’t accept any flaws, then that means you’re fundamentally unsuited for an intimate relationship. You should just stay single."

[Brother Zhang, she’s not going to understand any of this.]

[Is it possible she just wants to find a perfect man and won’t marry anyone who isn’t?]

[Being with a woman like this, you’d have to walk on eggshells every day, terrified of triggering her.]

[That’s how people from single-parent families are. Super sensitive, tons of triggers, hard to get close to.]

[Her personality is awful. If I were a guy and she nitpicked me like that, I wouldn’t be able to stand it either.]

When even the women in the livestream chat were saying they "can’t stand it," you knew the person on the call had a serious problem.

"Brother Zhang, are you saying that because my goals aren’t clear right now, I can’t find someone suitable?"

"But I’m almost 30. If I don’t find someone soon, it’ll be even harder later on."

"What does this have to do with your age?" Zhang Zhe frowned. ’It’s not just that she’s picky; she’s not very bright either.’

’There’s no logic in what she says.’

But then, he came to terms with it.

’It takes a certain kind of person to be foolish enough to go on a blind date and just fixate on one of their date’s traits.’

"Sis, in your current situation, there are only three types of men you can find."

"The first type is a guy who just wants to play around with you. Because when he gets tired of you, he won’t even have to bother with the breakup. He can just casually trigger one of your pet peeves, and you’ll dump him yourself."

"The second type is someone who can put you in your place. His status will be much better than yours, so you’ll fawn all over him, and he, in turn, will PUA you and tame you until you’re completely obedient."

"But a guy like that usually wouldn’t be interested in you. You’re not worth the effort for him to bother. You’d have to get lucky."

"Maybe you’ll get lucky when you’re seventy or eighty, who knows."

"Then what’s the other type?" the woman asked impatiently.

"The other type is the calculating schemer. You’ll never be able to figure out what he’s thinking, but in return, he’ll see right through you as if you were a little kitten or puppy."

"When he realizes you’re not too bright and easy to deceive, he just might choose you."

[HOLY SHIT, each of those options is a form of poetic justice.]

[Sis, I’ll chip in 50 yuan. You have to find the third type! I want to see a bloodbath!]

[A schemer like that could scam her out of her money and her man, maybe even leave her saddled with a mountain of debt.]

[If she really finds one of these three, it would be a kind of karmic justice.]

The bullet comments were a bit harsh. Zhang Zhe wasn’t that malicious, so he offered some sincere advice instead:

"First, figure out what you want out of a marriage. If you’re after a house, don’t complain that he’s frugal. If you’re after his money, don’t look down on him for being a chauvinist. If you want someone gentle, don’t nitpick that he isn’t a domineering CEO type."

"Got it?"

"Yes, I understand," the woman nodded. "Thank you, Brother Zhang. I’ll get off now and think about it."

"Go on, go on."

Zhang Zhe waved his hand and, without missing a beat, kicked her from the livestream.

"Alright chat, stop flaming her. I don’t usually say much about people like this, because her head is all muddled. She probably can’t even explain to herself why she does what she does."

"To put it bluntly, being this foolish, she’s probably suffering a lot herself."

"Alright, let’s move on to the next caller. This young lady tells me she wants to find a mama’s boy."