Single middle-aged and elderly people look for a partner through the matchmaker’s live broadcast room. Some people leave the singles and some are cheated; success or failure is only three to five minutes away
old man on blind date in live broadcast room
"No. 71573, 58 years old in Zhengzhou, divorced, owns a house and a car, cadre of a central enterprise..." Sister Xu, the matchmaker, repeated these words in the live broadcast room as if introducing a product.
On the right side of the live broadcast page, there is a row of old faces.
At nine o'clock in the evening, these single people who have never met before stand in front of their mobile phones, waiting for the anchor to connect.
Within two minutes, if someone is satisfied with the conditions, Sister Xu will invite both parties to appear on camera.
If no one answered, she read the message from the next suitor.
This kind of live broadcast room specially designed for middle-aged and elderly people to introduce objects can be successful or not within three to five minutes.
The information in the live broadcast room is updated quickly, and Deng Liangyuan also jumps quickly.
Every night, this 75-year-old man would sit in his small courtyard, switch the phone interface back and forth between the live broadcast rooms of Xu Jie, Ying Jie and other matchmakers, and a yellowed light above his head made him feel empty. His head was gleaming.
Sometimes in order to squat to watch the live broadcast, I don't even care about eating.
He listened carefully to the personal information of each female guest, just to find a good wife for himself.
According to the data of the seventh census, my country's elderly population has exceeded 264 million.
According to data from the "China Aging Society Tracking Survey", including widowed or divorced elderly, the number of single elderly people in China accounts for 25% to 30% of the total number of elderly people.
Getting rid of loneliness is the reason for most middle-aged and elderly people to enter the live broadcast room for blind dates.
Here, there are rounds of screening, and the conditions are clearly laid out.
If they are lucky, they can find love in the live broadcast room, but before that, they may also encounter "hypocrisy" and "liars".
"speed dating"
"I'm so old, I'm here to find my wife, not to find hardship."
"I'm rich. I can get 30,000 to 40,000 yuan a year as a pension, and I even have a two-story courtyard built by myself."
After Deng Liangyuan finished speaking, the live broadcast room fell silent.
On the right side of the screen, a short-haired woman with wool curls adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses. She opened her mouth, but did not speak in the end.
It was faintly visible in the small box, and behind her was a wooden bookcase, neatly filled with books.
According to the matchmaker, she is a retired teacher over 60 years old.
And behind Deng Liangyuan, sometimes there are flickering dim lights, and sometimes there are courtyard walls with exposed bricks.
He is a native of Linyi, Shandong Province, with a rural registered permanent residence. He was an electrician and used most of his life savings to build this two-story house. Ten years ago, his wife died in a car accident.
The result is not surprising, the retired teacher did not take a fancy to Deng Liangyuan.
In the live broadcast room, the conditions are all on the bright side.
"Sister Xu" Xu Meiying started working as an online matchmaker after she retired.
According to her observation, when middle-aged and elderly people remarry, they often have to look at the family conditions of the other party first. Only when the material conditions can be guaranteed can they look at whether they can get along well.
After all, when people reach their twilight years, stability is the best sign.
Urban hukou, retirees within the system, are the most popular.
This group of people generally has a house and a car, and their pension and medical insurance are sufficient to guarantee their life in their later years.
Those who are married and have children are the most worry-free. If the children are young, it is better to bring a daughter than a son-the son will buy a house and a car when he gets married in the future, which means that the marriage seeker will have to pay more.
The other half's ex-partner is also a hidden "thunder". It's easier to find a widow than a divorced one.
According to Xu’s analysis, no one is willing to go to Deng Liangyuan’s self-built house in the countryside, no matter how big it is.
It is even more difficult if there is no pension or medical insurance.
This means that there is no guarantee. If you marry such a person, you will have to bear half of the risk for him if he gets sick or encounters other accidents in the future.
Another online matchmaker, Yingjie, discovered that there is still a "hidden rule" for middle-aged and elderly people to find a partner, and they cannot be too old.
In December last year, an uncle from Qingdao appeared in Sister Ying's live broadcast room.
The uncle introduced himself inarticulately, as if he had a mouthful of soup in his mouth.
Sister Ying asked many times before confirming the information, "79 years old, from Qingdao, widowed, living in low-rent housing, and now the health is not very good."
Uncle doesn't know how to play video, sister Ying makes an exception and keeps him.
As soon as he opened his mouth, the three female guests on the field stopped talking, and someone in the comment area bluntly said, "Are you here to find a partner, or are you here to find a free nanny?"
Although she said "I'm old, it's pitiful to be alone", Sister Ying still removed his connection screen.
The blind date in the live broadcast room is about "speed dating".
The matchmaker will not stay for one more second for anyone, and everyone knows in their hearts that only when the conditions are right can the two parties proceed to the next step.
That day, Deng Liangyuan wanted to say something more, but it was too late.
The voice in Sister Ying's live broadcast room paused for a few seconds, and she knew what it meant.
Without further ado, she stretched out her finger and tapped lightly on the screen, and the frame of Deng Liangyuan's picture disappeared.
"Up, up, up!" Sister Ying said as she randomly pulled in a person, and a new round of screening began again.
"Take a step forward"
Getting rid of loneliness is the reason why most middle-aged and elderly people enter the live broadcast room for blind dates.
Deng Liangyuan didn't know before that the excitement was only exclusive to holidays.
Five daughters and one son are all married and have children. Deng Liangyuan is now full of children and grandchildren.
But throughout the year, he stayed alone in the empty house.
The small yard was empty, except for the vegetables he had grown in the field, there was no other life.
After retiring, Deng Liangyuan had nothing to do all day long.
He tried to bring himself a sense of freshness through travel, asked his children to sign up for senior travel groups, and began to travel to southern cities such as Guangdong and Fujian.
However, in the elderly tour group, many couples travel together.
Taking pictures at the scenic spot, one person poses, and the other holds the camera and takes pictures non-stop.
Deng Liangyuan likes to clock in and take pictures, but he is too embarrassed to interrupt, so he can only ask for help after everyone has finished taking pictures.
There is no time to pose, and sometimes before I can stand still, my legs are bent like a circle, and the picture is frozen.
Deng Liangyuan wanted to have someone to travel with him more than once.
One day two years ago, the short video platform seemed to have communicated with him and pushed a live broadcast of the blind date of the elderly.
He didn't pay the membership fee, and has been lurking in the live broadcast rooms of various matchmakers. When someone who suits his eyes appears, he will immediately broadcast it for free.
Yu Meiqin, from the Northeast, is more determined than him to get out of the singles.
Four years ago, when Yu Meiqin was 66 years old, her husband passed away.
She began to live alone in a small house in Daxinganling, "doing whatever she wanted".
She doesn't have to care about another person's joys, sorrows, sorrows, and all the choices in life are given back to herself. When buying groceries, she only buys what she likes to eat. Occasionally, if she gets lazy, she doesn't want to cook and doesn't cook.
Although it can feel empty at times, freedom is very relaxing.
With nothing to do, Yu Meiqin often went to the park for a walk. An old sister saw that she was alone, and offered to introduce her to someone.
Yu Meiqin refused without thinking, "I'm getting old, what else are you looking for?"
After being single for three years like this, Yu Meiqin completely changed her mind due to physical ailments.
The night of her illness she could not sleep.
Yu Meiqin wanted to sleep, but her heart felt uncomfortable, and she was afraid that she would not wake up.
Just in case, she put the two bottles of medicine she usually took beside the bed, but she still couldn't fall asleep after tossing and turning.
She kept the medicine bottle by her hand, and was afraid of a sudden onset of the disease, so she didn't have the strength to unscrew the medicine bottle, so she simply took out two pills in advance and put them beside the pillow, within reach.
It was the first time she felt intimidated by living alone.
Several of Yu Meiqin's children are businessmen, and they are busy with work. After having their own family, they have less time to spend with her.
"I'm fine now, so I can't call all the children to accompany me in the middle of the night, can I?" Yu Meiqin thought.
It was dawn, and Yu Meiqin also figured it out, it was time to take a step forward.
"something is wrong"
But the studio has never been a calm place.
Before Yu Meiqin officially started looking for a partner, she discovered "something was wrong" in the live broadcast room.
One night, as soon as she entered the matchmaker's live broadcast room, she saw a man clasped his hands and kept making "please" gestures towards the screen, repeatedly saying "please! please!" Seeing that the anchor didn't want to let go, the man even wanted to kneel down and kowtow.
After listening carefully, I realized that the big brother with a thin head in front of me was cheated of 50,000 yuan.
The girl who "held hands" with him in this live broadcast room a few days ago disappeared out of thin air after receiving 50,000 yuan in gift money.
He has no pension, and 50,000 yuan is not a small number for him.
This is not a rare thing in the circle of live blind dates.
Both Sister Xu and Sister Ying have heard of many blind date scams.
"Marriage entrustment" is the most common type. Some matchmakers find fake clients in advance and make an appointment to connect with each other via video in the live broadcast room.
The fake customer pretended to agree to continue to understand, and at the same time encouraged the other party to buy gifts with the matchmaker.
Only after paying money can the men get the contact information of the "marriage trust".
But soon, the "marriage trust" will disappear.
Some live broadcast rooms do not have an audit mechanism, which attracts many scammers.
These people make money through blind dates, and as soon as they "hold hands", they go to ask for a gift or three gold, and when they get the things, they pull the gangsters and leave.
There are also some people who come here for "color".
Sister Ying has received complaints from several female clients. As soon as she added WeChat, the old man on the other side of the screen led the topic to "those things in bed", and she didn't explain herself clearly.
What's more, they directly said some "edge" words in the live broadcast room.
Miss Ying had no choice but to ask these people to leave after the reminder was invalid.
There are also some people who are not single at all, and secretly come to the live broadcast room to have fun.
Sister Xu once met a client from Shandong who claimed to be widowed, but during a video chat in the group, a woman suddenly broke into the camera and scolded him.
Only then did everyone know that he had concealed his family.
Over time, matchmakers have become the gatekeepers for maintaining the order of blind dates.
Ms. Xu has been on the live broadcast platform for many years and has accumulated 529,000 fans. Matchmaking has become her business.
Now, she often teaches female clients to identify whether the other party is single by making a phone call.
If the person on the phone always hangs up first and then calls back later, then he has a wife.
You can also try calling at night. If the other party is around, they will not answer.
She also strictly controls the information on the documents.
To ask Ms. Xu to help introduce someone, you need to connect with the host through video, provide your ID card, single certificate and relevant pension certificate, and then pay the membership fee of 199 yuan before you can join the group or live broadcast room.
If you can't provide a divorce certificate or cremation certificate, you can only enter the "ID group" and "Hukou group". People in the group cannot provide proof of singleness.
Yingjie’s matchmaker business is carried out in another way. The live broadcast room can be connected for free at any time. After paying 50 yuan to become a member, she will store the information in the database to help keep an eye out for suitable candidates.
When Sister Ying found out that something was wrong, she immediately canceled Lianmai.
In order to prevent married people from mixing into her blind date market, those who are unwilling to show their faces normally in her live broadcast room will not be given a chance to connect.
However, in the live broadcast room, anything is possible.
During the live broadcast that day, a man and a woman with their faces exposed were having a good chat, when a woman suddenly appeared in the man's frame, Sister Ying and everyone were stunned.
She asked for a long time, but the man's answer was ambiguous, "She is a neighbor, come to my house to play mahjong" "She is my sister-in-law, and has nothing to do with me."
The blind date came to a standstill, and Sister Ying invited him out without saying a word.
"This is Love"
If you are lucky enough, you can really meet love in the live broadcast room.
Yu Meiqin is that lucky one.
A year ago, she was 69 years old. After watching the short video platform for a while, she finally chose to pay 199 yuan and asked sister Xu to help introduce her partner.
She had figured it out a long time ago that she would get married for the second time in her life without a bride price or three gold coins.
What Yu Meiqin wants is not money, but a person who can accompany her for the rest of her life.
She didn't want to show her face in the live broadcast room, and joined the three blind date groups created by sister Xu, and she didn't send her resume.
But as soon as she entered the group, the tall girl with big waves in her avatar received a lot of warm greetings.
There were more and more friend verification messages, Yu Meiqin clicked in one by one to see, if the other party was not from the Northeast region, or was younger than her, she would directly refuse.
She didn't speak much, and only answered those who were interested.
It didn't take long before a person named "Youth Is Always" on the Internet found her.
He is Liu Chengyin. It has been seven or eight years since his wife passed away. Someone helped him get married offline, but the negotiation failed.
He was two years older than Yu Meiqin, perhaps because he was both from Heilongjiang, and both of them had retired from business, so the conversation immediately opened up, and the two quickly started video chatting.
In front of the camera, Liu Chengyin's smiling face came closer.
Aging has loosened his skin, but the outline of thick eyebrows and big eyes can still be seen. Although his temples are gray, his hair is thick.
Yu Meiqin was satisfied with his appearance and felt that he hit it off.
The two of them made video calls when they had nothing to do, chatting from morning to night.
After chatting for ten days, they made an appointment.
Yu Meiqin went to Jiamusi, and before she left, she told the child that if she got it right, she would come back in two or three months, and if she didn't get it right, she would go home in two or three days.
Yu Meiqin doesn't know what love is like.
Her last marriage was arranged by her parents.
For a long time after marriage, her husband was still a stranger to her. She was embarrassed to face him, and would walk over with her head bowed when she met him.
Over time, the two became family members.
Yu Meiqin never thought that love at first sight would happen in her later years.
When they arrived in Jiamusi, Liu Chengyin came to pick her up. He was 1.8 meters tall, with a straight back and a smiling face.
At first glance, the two sides recognized each other.
Money did not become an obstacle for the two of them, and Yu Meiqin did not accept any gift from Liu Chengyin.
In the past six months or so, once when the two of them went shopping together, Liu Chengyin secretly bought a dress for her, and Yu Meiqin was so angry that she complained to him for the first time, "I said I really don't want it, I have enough for everything."
When I was sick, I finally had someone to rely on.
At the end of last year, two people got the new crown one after another.
There was a difference of three days in the time of their fever, and they happened to take care of each other.
Yu Meiqin no longer worried about not waking up, Liu Chengyin was by her side, regularly taking care of her body temperature, and from time to time brought alcohol-containing cotton pads to wipe her body.
After confirming the sincerity of each other, Liu Chengyin sold the house and replaced it with a house with more rooms.
Yu Meiqin also contributed money, and the house was written with two people's names on it.
He planned the lives of the two of them until they were 80 years old. At that time, if their children wanted to visit them, the family would be able to live there.
Recalling these days, the two old men couldn't stop laughing.
Yu Meiqin always sighs that her life is getting better and better, this is the love she has been waiting for for a long time.
High-speed live broadcast room
But not everyone is as lucky as Yu Meiqin, there are many things that hinder fate.
For example, children may object to their parents remarrying.
Ms. Xu has a client from Northeast China who joined the group to seek marriage just after turning 60.
As soon as the "holding hands" succeeded, they lost contact with everyone.
Not only quit all the blind date groups, but also blocked all the friends in the blind date groups, and even sister Xu couldn't be contacted.
A few months later, the client reappeared.
It turned out that the online blind date was discovered by the children, and they did not agree with her finding a new wife, so they "cut off the Internet" for her.
In those days, she "struggled" with the children every day, and finally let go: Even if she went on a hunger strike and severed the parent-child relationship, she would still find a partner.
There are many such examples.
Some people do not allow their parents to remarry because they are afraid that their family property will be divided.
There are also children who feel chilling, "How long has it been since Mom left, and he started looking for a new wife so soon?" When the help call is made to Sister Xu, she sometimes gets involved, "Do you want your old man to leave this old man behind?" Unhappy for several years?" She asked those children.
Sister Ying hardly cares, she thinks it is the client's housework.
In Sister Ying's opinion, the prerequisite for going on a blind date is to handle these things well. "You can't even handle your own family affairs, and you still want to start a family with someone else?"
In fact, even if everything is taken care of, online blind dates may not go well.
Deng Liangyuan's blind date was not so smooth.
Two years ago, he contacted the first person.
The other party was originally from Heilongjiang, and he followed him to live with him in Shandong.
This person likes to smoke, Deng Liangyuan will not listen to her advice.
Not long after, the prospective wife went home to visit relatives and fell ill on the spot.
She called and said she had lung cancer.
Deng Liangyuan transferred 6,000 yuan to her, but she passed away not long after.
After resting for a period of time, Deng Liangyuan was no longer shy, and started looking for a partner in various live broadcast rooms.
Last year, he managed to find another one, but he couldn't meet each other because of the epidemic.
One day, the woman sent him a WeChat message, asking if she could give her 40,000 yuan for renovations at home.
Deng Liangyuan felt something was wrong, "I haven't even met, how could she have the nerve to ask me for money?" After declining, the relationship disappeared.
"I'm getting old, so I won't look for it anymore." After leaving the live broadcast room, Deng Liangyuan kept these words on his lips.
He complained about his failures over the years, and changed his words when he got excited, "I don't believe it anymore, can it be that I can't find an ideal partner?" The interface of the live broadcast room jumps back and forth, looking for the object that suits my eyes.
The live broadcast room for middle-aged and elderly people has also been running at high speed.
At 7 o'clock in the morning on February 13th, Sister Ying started broadcasting.
At first, Sister Ying didn't speak. She wore glasses, clipped her hair, wore a necklace, and put on lipstick. She groomed herself one by one in front of the camera.
The comment area became popular, and "Ms. Ying, good morning" was posted.
Ten minutes later, the number of people in the live broadcast room increased to about 170.
"A 60-year-old man from Panjin has no burden, has dual insurance, and is looking for a rural worker."
"Single, Jilin Liaoyuan."
...
A new round of marriage seekers are waiting for the broadcast in the live broadcast room.
(Deng Liangyuan, Yu Meiqin, and Liu Chengyin are pseudonyms in the article)
Beijing News reporter Wang Chang