Most bosses were the same. On one hand, they wished their employees would work for free, or better yet, even pay the company for the privilege.
On the other hand, they worried that low salaries would make employees irresponsible, or that they might deliberately mess things up and ruin everything.
It was a classic case of wanting it both ways.
Boss He was one of the smarter ones among them.
That’s why she opted for a plan where Zhang Zhe would "contractually operate the account."
In this plan, money wasn’t the most important thing.
An account with forty thousand followers? If it was ruined, it was ruined. No one would lose any sleep over it.
Even if they claimed a forty thousand yuan penalty, that small amount of money wouldn’t make the agency rich.
The key was the ability to cut ties at any moment.
Zhang Zhe was kind of like a temporary worker in a state-owned enterprise—someone who could take the blame when things went wrong, minimizing the damage.
The consignment contract she had Zhang Zhe sign was evidence to make cutting ties easier later on.
Zhang Zhe, however, didn’t care.
He was just here for a blind date. He hadn’t thought much about it, let alone about making money.
He was willing to agree simply because the Zhuyin Marriage Agency was well-known, and it was always good to stand in the shade of a large tree.
Even considering the most extreme, unexpected scenario—that he’d get incredibly lucky, and his livestreams would somehow take off and make him a huge influencer...
...he had absolutely no fear of doing all the work just for someone else to reap the rewards.
He could just start a new account.
It was like that food vlogger and that movie commentator on Douyin. Both had gotten famous on their original company accounts, and when they left to go solo, they could still capture the audience that was rightfully theirs.
Zhang Zhe signed the contract without a second thought.
Boss He was very satisfied. She immediately pulled him aside, calling him "one of us" over and over.
She even thoughtfully sent him the agency’s new employee tutorial, saying she looked forward to his rapid growth.
"Although your situation is different from the other Matchmakers, I consider you one of us, so your office conditions will be exactly the same."
"You can stay in this office for now. When you livestream, go to the conference room. There’s a backdrop and equipment ready for you over there."
Zhang Zhe was temporarily assigned to the "Seniors’ Group" office.
There were six workstations in total; his was the one next to the water cooler.
The other five were all occupied, though no one was at their desks at the moment.
"They’re out on a group assignment."
"A while ago, the marriage registration numbers for the first quarter came out. They dropped quite a bit compared to the same period last year. It’s really difficult to get you young people to marry. You’re all so picky, who knows how long you’ll keep searching."
"So, as you can see, we haven’t had a full house in this office all year."
’So the matchmaking business for seniors is this good!’
Zhang Zhe knew that some places encouraged elderly people to marry to boost statistics. He just hadn’t expected Qing City to be the same.
No wonder Boss He said they weren’t short on business. The number of people getting married had indeed decreased, but the number of people going on blind dates might have actually increased.
"Our business is indeed doing well, so don’t feel any pressure, Xiaozhang. I don’t expect you to bring in a ton of clients for us by running the Douyin account."
"The key is to make the account a little more active."
"I reckon that in a while, this marriage issue will attract a lot more attention. By promoting our marriage agency online, we’re essentially encouraging people to get married. You could say it’s our company’s contribution to society."
Just like that, Boss He elevated the nature of Zhang Zhe’s work.
Fortunately, Zhang Zhe had received this kind of education since he was a child, growing up with slogans like "Devote your limited life to the limitless..." and "Study for the sake of..."
The talk of "making a contribution" didn’t make his heart race with excitement. Instead, it just made him more certain of one thing:
He could really do whatever he wanted with the agency’s account.
So, as soon as Boss He left, Zhang Zhe went straight to the small conference room she mentioned, the one used for livestreaming. While checking the equipment, he assessed the state of the [Qing City Zhuyin Marriage Agency] account.
The account’s most recent video was posted last month.
The content was a recording of a local community’s group matchmaking event.
It was a three-minute video that had been up for two weeks. It had 372 likes, 42 comments, and 101 shares. Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought it was a post on someone’s Moments.
These were definitely not normal stats for an account with over 40,000 followers.
It looked like most of them were "zombie followers."
But Zhang Zhe wasn’t worried at all. He’d find out what the real situation was as soon as he went live.
Since he was new, Zhang Zhe still notified Boss He before starting his stream.
After all, this might be the only time he’d ever notify her.
Hearing that Zhang Zhe was about to go live right now, the older woman subconsciously glanced at the time. It was only 10 AM.
"You get into the swing of things quickly. That’s great."
"But is anyone even watching livestreams at this hour? We usually stream at night..."
"The main purpose of my stream isn’t to be watched by people," Zhang Zhe explained. "It’s to reposition and analyze the value of the account. I need to collect enough sample data in the short term to fully understand our agency’s account."
"Ohh..." Boss He seemed to understand, but not completely.
Still, she was sharp. She immediately pulled a file from her drawer and handed it to Zhang Zhe.
"You’re new to the industry, so there are some things you don’t understand yet."
"You can use these charts to get a basic understanding first."
"Remember one rule: for any customer who consults you about matchmaking during a livestream, always recommend they look for someone in the same social class. If you encounter someone hoping to climb the social ladder through marriage, don’t take them seriously, but don’t mock them either."
"You absolutely must keep a good attitude. Even if you run into some lunatic who’s just there to make a wish, you have to keep smiling."
"No problem." Zhang Zhe confidently gave her an OK sign.
He had already encountered a matchmaking hopeful who was just there to make wishes. For him, it was just part of completing his matchmaking task, and he had no problem dealing with it.
Returning to the small livestreaming room, Zhang Zhe spent over half an hour carefully studying the materials the older woman had given him.
The documents simply divided people into different classes.
Based on family assets, people were divided into five tiers, from A5 to A9.
A5 was the poorest category, most likely from a rural area, with fixed assets totaling only a few tens of thousands of yuan. They were at the very bottom of the matchmaking market.
A6 was the subsistence level.
A7, and its derivative A7.5, represented lower-middle-class families with stable jobs, or small business owners.
A8 were major bosses in third-tier cities or natives of first-tier cities.
A9 generally came from families that owned companies, mostly the wealthy second generation.
There were actually higher tiers, defined all the way up to A12, but even a tycoon like Leibusi was only an A11.5. Anything higher was meaningless.
Besides family assets, appearance was also scored.
It was a nine-point scale, from 1 to 9, with illustrated examples for each score.
Zhang Zhe looked at the rating chart for women and almost laughed out loud.
A 1 was Qiao Biluo with no makeup;
A 2 had obvious facial flaws;
A 3 was an average girl with no standout features;
A 4 was the turning point. A girl with this score could look very pretty if she dressed up and could reap the benefits of her looks;
A 5 was at the "prettiest girl in class" level, the kind a man would fondly remember long after a relationship;
A 6 was "campus belle" level, the pinnacle of what an ordinary person could look like without makeup;
...
The highest was a 9, roughly the level of Gao Yuanyuan or Liu Yifei, and specifically during their youthful prime.
There was also a rating chart for men.
Zhang Zhe compared himself and figured he could probably score a 4, the level of a "handsome male streamer who can scam money out of girls."
What a coincidence. He was, in fact, a male streamer about to go live.
’Perhaps this was destiny.’