Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Spring had arrived.

Everything was coming back to life.

My mother had come back to nagging me about marriage.

And I had come back to going through the motions on blind dates.

My mom was great in every way except one: she was way too competitive.

Ever since her mahjong buddies started becoming grandmothers one after another, my mom said nothing on the surface, but behind the scenes she was so anxious she was practically foaming at the mouth.

The first thing she asked me every morning when I woke up was whether I’d found a boyfriend yet.

When I was little, I wanted a dog.

My mom: “No.”

Now, she wanted a grandchild.

Me: “No.”

I was only twenty-five.

But judging by the way she arranged ten blind dates for me a week, anyone who didn’t know better would think I was fifty-five.

She had a fiery temper. I was stubborn as a mule.

So in order to maintain family harmony and avoid unnecessary mother-daughter conflict…

I went to every blind date.

And came back empty-handed every time.

It really wasn’t because my standards were high.

The main problem was that matchmakers these days truly had no standards when it came to the men.

As long as the money was right, they could talk up a corpse like it was still breathing.

Every sentence out of their mouths, taken on its own, could count as fraud.

The last blind date, the matchmaker said, “He runs a company with tens of thousands of employees under him.”

When I got there, I found out he raised bees.

The one before that, she praised the guy for being “a master in the kitchen.”

When I got there, the man only had one arm.

The one before that, she said, “He’s six feet tall and loves sports.”

When I met him, he was basically a Kinder Joy egg.

She was completely justified about it too. “Sure, he’s only five-three when he’s standing, but when he jumps, he’s six feet!”

Me: “…”

You shouldn’t be a matchmaker. You should go run a pyramid scheme.

And it only got more outrageous from there.

She said, “He’s honest and doesn’t talk much.”

Turns out the guy was in a vegetative state.

That wasn’t “doesn’t talk much.” That was “can’t talk at all.”

The most ridiculous time of all…

She introduced me to a murderer.

And even swore up and down to me:

“He’s changed. He doesn’t kill people anymore. Look, he didn’t even kill me on the way here.”

“…”

In conclusion, matchmakers had zero credibility.

But my mom refused to believe it.

As always, she arranged another blind date for me.

I hadn’t even stepped out the door when her video call came in.

She was smiling in a way that meant there was more to it.

“Sweetheart, make sure you dress up nicely. This one is definitely a quality man!”

“Ha-ha.”

I pulled the corner of my mouth into a perfunctory little curve.

See? At least before, the matchmaker could close her eyes and exaggerate a little.

This time, she was too embarrassed to exaggerate at all.

Which meant he was probably terrible beyond imagination.

Seeing my expression, my mom’s brows drew together.

“Hold your phone farther away. Let me see what you’re wearing today.”

Considering I had a prior record of going out in my grandmother’s clothes and scaring off the man, she wasn’t about to relax.

I did as I was told.

A khaki trench coat paired with beige kitten heels.

My mom nodded in satisfaction.

I looked at the ended call and revealed a smile full of hidden meaning.

You have your schemes. I have my ways around them.

Going didn’t mean it would work out.

Talking the other party out of it was what I did best.

I reached up, pulled my coat closed, and buttoned it tightly.

A faint flash of bright red showed beneath it.