Chapter 188 - 186: The Only Daughter Inherits the Family Business
"What is it?" Zhang Zhe followed her gaze and glanced over.
He saw Xia Yi looking their way, waving happily.
Zhang Zhe was about to wave back when the woman beside him spoke first. "Excuse me, Brother Zhang, a friend of mine over there is saying hi."
"A friend?"
"Yeah, we live in the same neighborhood. We used to be classmates, but we’ve rarely seen each other since we started working."
"Is your friend...?" Zhang Zhe quietly muted his stream’s microphone before continuing, "Xia Yi?"
"Yes," the woman answered subconsciously, then snapped back to her senses. "Brother Zhang, you know her?"
"I don’t just know her. We’re currently dating," Zhang Zhe said with a small smile.
"Huh?"
"You two are..."
"We met through matchmaking," Zhang Zhe said, still smiling.
"Really? Uncle Xia would find a matchmaker for Xia Yi?" The woman was a bit too blunt, but she immediately realized her words could be hurtful.
"Brother Zhang, I don’t mean you aren’t a great catch. I mean, Xia Yi is so lucky to have found a handsome guy like you."
"It’s fine, it’s fine. You’re just digging yourself into a deeper hole." Zhang Zhe didn’t mind at all. ’For a guy trying to date up, this kind of pressure is nothing.’
"Let’s get back to you. Go on, I’ll help you analyze everything clearly."
"Okay, thank you." The woman nodded and continued her story. Only then did Zhang Zhe unmute his microphone.
[Did I go deaf?]
[Did the sound just cut out for a second?]
[I can hear it on my Huawei.]
[Must be a problem with Brother Zhang’s equipment, or maybe the network is unstable.]
"My family’s assets, not including real estate, should be around five million."
"That’s not that much." Zhang Zhe did a quick calculation. ’A high-ranking official’s monthly salary is about 50,000, which is 600,000 a year. Even if her family could only save one person’s income, this is less than ten years of accumulation.’
For a family with two mid-to-high-level civil servants, it’s quite conscientious of them that their assets haven’t reached the A9 level.
’No, to be precise, the fact that their daughter is even at a matchmaking event already shows they’re conscientious.’
’Normally, a daughter like this should be studying abroad in Australia.’
"What about you?"
"I’m also in the system. I work under my dad. My annual income, with everything included, is probably around 130,000, which averages out to a little over 10,000 a month."
"That’s pretty good. Are you in the city?"
"No, my dad has me ’exiled’ to a village right now. This event happens to be near my village, so they called me over."
’Exiled...’ Zhang Zhe was speechless for a moment. It was obvious. The girl had secured a permanent position, and her dad wanted her to get some grassroots experience so she could get promoted later.
’So he sent her to a village. After a few years, she’ll go back and get a nice promotion.’
If you could call that being exiled, everyone in the system would be fighting for the chance. Working as a resident official in a village means higher pay, fewer restrictions, and most of the time, it’s way more relaxed than working at your original unit.
You could tell just by looking at her. She had clearly let herself go in the countryside. If she were still in the city, her parents wouldn’t even let her out of the house without tidying up.
"Your circumstances are already better than most women in the system."
"You’d even rank among the top marriage-aged young women in our city," Zhang Zhe told her earnestly. "All you need to do right now is lose some weight, clean yourself up a bit, and marriage won’t be a problem for you at all."
"I don’t think losing weight is important." The woman shook her head. "Brother Zhang, you don’t understand. My parents are pushing me to get married because they want me to marry someone they’ve arranged."
"To put it bluntly, it’s a strategic marriage alliance."
"But I don’t really want to."
"You’re an only child, right?" Zhang Zhe confirmed.
"That’s right. I was born in ’98. Almost everyone in my generation is an only child. The policy was very strictly enforced back then."
[I was born in ’99, and I’m an only child too.]
[Looks like her parents are rule-followers in the system. Lots of people secretly had a second child.]
[Do her parents want their daughter to inherit all the family’s resources?]
[Whoever marries this girl will be set for life. Wouldn’t his father-in-law move heaven and earth for him?]
[The chat can’t possibly think just anyone has a chance to marry a girl like this, right? Even if she’s overweight, it doesn’t matter one bit.]
"If you’re an only child, you really have to weigh your options carefully."
Zhang Zhe’s opinion was very direct:
"From the looks of it, you need your family’s help. You can’t accept them cutting you off or withdrawing their support."
"Otherwise, you would have just rebelled against your parents long ago."
"You’re right," the woman admitted, looking uncomfortable. "I work under my dad. If he decided to make things difficult for me, I wouldn’t last a single day."
"That’s why I find it so strange. You were willing to enter the system. To an outsider like me, that looks like you tacitly agreed to inherit your parents’ resources."
"So why are you having second thoughts now?"
Zhang Zhe truly didn’t understand. ’I just don’t get what she’s thinking.’
If she, an only child, hadn’t entered the system, her parents might have already started liquidating their resources or found her a good husband from within the system long ago.
For instance, they might have picked her father’s protégé, or a colleague’s son. Confirming a son-in-law early would mean they could start grooming him early. She wouldn’t have been left single until she was 27. Normally, at her age, she should have kids already.
But this girl had entered the system herself. Didn’t that mean she intended to inherit the family’s resources?
"I don’t actually like my job in the system." The look on the woman’s face was as miserable as could be. "My parents might have discovered how I feel, so they want to marry me off as soon as possible."
"But the more they push, the more uncomfortable I feel."
"I get it. You’ve gotten yourself all twisted up." Zhang Zhe understood this mentality well. Many of the callers who came on his stream were like this. ’As they approach 30, they suddenly start to rebel.’
’This is actually caused by excessive, long-term stress that has no outlet.’
"Are you willing to listen to my advice?"
"I am. I’ll definitely trust what you say. I know you won’t steer me wrong." The woman’s eyes were filled with trust as she looked at Zhang Zhe.
She had good reason to trust him. Zhang Zhe had already laid his relationship with Xia Yi bare. Later, she could privately confirm it and would know whether he was telling the truth.
"Alright then, listen closely."
"What you need to do now is lose weight and go on matchmaking dates at the same time." Zhang Zhe held up both hands. "Losing weight will improve the quality of your potential matches. At the same time, the results of failed dates will motivate you to keep losing weight."
"While you’re overweight, your parents can only find you the sons of their colleagues, or even their subordinates. But once you slim down and dress yourself up nicely, the sons of your parents’ superiors could even be on the table."
"I know you resent the idea of a marriage arranged by your parents, but right now, you can’t live without their resources. So you have to put on a show of being proactive about matchmaking to ensure that support doesn’t get cut off."
"Once you’re truly capable on your own and it doesn’t matter whether your family supports you, then you can choose not to get married."
[Makes sense. She can just think of it as placating her parents. Get the promotion first, worry about the rest later.]
[So even high-level officials are like this with their own daughters. I suddenly feel a sense of relief.]
[A family like this seems incredibly competitive, suffocatingly so. If she doesn’t get married, all her relatives will probably try to work on her.]
[How can you get promoted in the system if you’re not married? Who would dare put you in an important position if you don’t have a family?]
"Not get married?" the woman repeated, hesitating. "But... I should still get married, right?"
"Oh, so you wanted to get married all along?" Zhang Zhe asked, feigning surprise. "Then what are you conflicted about? You don’t actually believe that you can find someone with better prospects on your own, without your parents’ resources, do you?"
"By looking in the village? Or by relying on a matchmaking event like this one?"