The Matchmaker

Li Wei glanced at the number on the gate of the small manor before him, then lowered his eyes to the address Li Ming had written for him.

161 Ziguang Street. That was right. This was the councilor's house, where Li Ming's niece had been sold into servitude.

Before officially going to collect the debt, Li Wei planned to fulfill his agreement with Li Ming first, so things wouldn't become harder to handle if they got out of hand later.

After finding the address, he didn't act rashly. Instead, he leaned against the wall in a nearby alley and kept watch on the gate of Number 161.

He waited until around ten in the morning, when a woman dressed as a maid finally drove out through the manor gates. It looked like she was going to buy ingredients for the manor that day.

Just as Li Wei memorized the car's license plate and walked out onto the street, raising his hand to flag down a taxi so he could go straight to the nearest market, a middle-aged woman with a curvy figure and thick, wavy hair suddenly stopped him.

The woman smiled as she sized Li Wei up, as if she already knew what was going on.

"Sir, are you here to meet a friend?"

Li Wei raised an eyebrow. He met the woman's gaze but neither confirmed nor denied it.

"What do you want?"

"Sir, this is our line of work. I've seen you standing here for a long time, and you don't look like you're waiting for anyone. Men come to this street either to seek a brighter future or to find a match. The councilors handle matters of advancement, but if you're looking for a match, perhaps I can help."

She took Li Wei by the arm and led him back into the inconspicuous alley. Then she pulled something like a photo album from her clothes and handed it to him with a mysterious look.

Suspicious, Li Wei opened the album. Inside were photos and information about a number of young women.

The profiles were thorough. They listed not only their ages, names, heights, and weights, but even whether they had siblings, what they did, and roughly where they lived!

At that, Li Wei finally understood what the middle-aged woman did.

She was a matchmaker!

Seeing his surprised expression, the woman assumed he was impressed by the girls' excellent backgrounds and couldn't help boasting proudly.

"Don't worry about these girls' backgrounds, sir. They're all from respectable families in Yaoguang and have signed proper employment contracts with employers on this street. You don't have to worry about running into any lowlifes—those money pits who dream of marrying up but don't have what it takes!"

Li Wei quickly finished flipping through the thick album. He could tell that the matchmaker's contacts were all maids working on this street.

Being a maid was an awkward position. Their social status was low, but they had a daily taste of the good life. Men with good prospects looked down on them, while they looked down on men with poor prospects.

As a result, most of the maids on this street could only rely on matchmakers like her.

Once he understood the situation, Li Wei changed his mind. He had originally planned to approach other servants at the councilor's house and ask about Li Ming's niece.

He closed the album and looked at the matchmaker.

"I'll be straight with you, sis. I fell for a woman on this street at first sight. Now I can think of nothing but finding her. I came here today hoping I might run into her. Do you have any information about her?"

His friendly "sis" made the matchmaker beam.

"Oh! With a face like yours, sir, any young lady you set your sights on would be yours in no time! Tell me her name. Even if I don't know her, I'll help you make an introduction!"

"Su Ya. She works at the councilor's house at Number 161."

At the name Li Wei gave her, the matchmaker furrowed her brow. She searched her memory, then shook her head.

"That can't be right. I know most of the girls at Number 161. Did you get the name wrong? There isn't a maid named Su Ya in that councilor's household."

"She probably isn't from Yaoguang. She came from Yuguang."

The matchmaker's expression changed at once.

When she looked up at Li Wei again, her face was full of disdain and impatience.

"I help girls find good families. I'm not a pimp! If you're looking to hire one of those lowlifes from that place, then I'm sorry, I asked the wrong person. You should go find Yan on Hongle Street!"

She turned to leave, no longer willing to give Li Wei the time of day. But just as she did, Li Wei grabbed her arm. As the matchmaker prepared to curse him out, he pulled out ten hundred-yuan bills and slipped them into her hand.

"I don't mind hiring one, either. Just help me out. Could you introduce me to that intermediary surnamed Yan?"

With the money in her hand, the matchmaker found she couldn't bring herself to walk away. Her smile returned.

She figured Li Wei was now thinking with his pants, beyond all reason. He was willing to go after a woman from Yuguang—he even wanted to know her well enough to hire her!

But no one turned down money, especially when Li Wei was so generous. The matchmaker personally took him to Hongle Street, where she found the young man surnamed Yan at a place called Human Resources.

When he heard who Li Wei was looking for, his expression turned wry and strange. But he quickly pulled a photo from a stack in his desk, held a cigarette in one hand, and slapped the photo down in front of Li Wei with the other.

"Take a look. Is this her?"

The woman in the photo had beautiful features and a gentle, serene air, but she looked gloomy and utterly worn out. Li Wei nodded.

"What a coincidence. Her? The Wang family sold her to us a year ago. Apparently, she seduced the master of the house, then slept with the driver and had his child. Most of the women from Yuguang are like that, but at least they're good in bed and up for anything. We charge a fair price: five hundred a night, and you can do whatever you want. Just don't kill her, cripple her, or disfigure her. Otherwise, you'll have to pay three times what we bought her for."

Hearing the pimp's words, Li Wei slowly lowered the photo in his hand. His voice was calm as he asked, "Can I see her during the day?"

"Can't wait, huh, brother?" The pimp stubbed out his cigarette. "But I get it. Every day you wait is one less day to enjoy yourself. Daytime's fine, of course. We charge by the hour—eighty an hour. I'll give you the address. When you get there, have that whore start the clock. Just pay her directly."

The man's words were strange, but Li Wei didn't ask any questions. He took the slip of paper from him and left. Following the address, he went to the end of Hongle Street, where he found the house amid a cluster of ramshackle huts just like those in Yuguang.

The door was ajar. He didn't knock, but pushed it open and walked in.