Chapter 418: Launching an Investigation 

Director Zhou had Xiao Gang’s registration info on file.

It didn’t take long for Wang Yun to get his hands on it. Using that information, he quickly located Xiao Gang’s city and home address.

Turns out, Xiao Gang was indeed from a rather remote mountain village.

Though remote, with today’s advances in society, things like smart home appliances were still fairly common.

The village head was named Mao Xiong.

He was a college graduate who’d moved there ten years ago. He was a simple and honest man. But he was young, and let’s face it, honesty alone doesn’t cut it.

Most villagers shared the surname Mao, including Mao Xiao Gang.

The village chief, being from a different family line, sometimes found himself powerless in the face of village politics.

Wang Yun scanned through every line of data. The Mao clan was large—a big village, essentially.

But almost all the young people had gone out to work in the cities.

So, outside of the New Year season, most of those who remained were children and the elderly.

Through several layers of search and cross-references, Wang Yun soon found a woman in her forties.

She had great rapport with everyone in the village, and her online record described her as “enthusiastic and good at community engagement.”

That phrasing made it obvious to anyone with a brain—she was a matchmaker.

Her name was Mao Hongping.

Wang Yun pulled up her personal info, but there wasn’t much else to go on. After all, not everything was recorded on the internet.  However, he did find her phone number.

Wang Yun gave it a try.

To his surprise, it connected quickly.

“Hello, is this Mao Hongping?” he asked in a formal tone.

“Yes, that’s me. Who’s this?”

A woman’s voice with a thick accent answered the next moment.

Wang Yun had a sudden idea. He instantly slipped into the role of a local radio host. He told her he was from the local radio station, which was about to host a matchmaking show for middle-aged and older adults.

They were selecting participants from surrounding villages.

And according to villagers’ recommendations, Mao Hongping was known as a top-tier matchmaker.

“So we’re hoping you can recommend some candidates, preferably good-looking and charming,” Wang Yun said. “Or some… unusual ones too. You know how shows need something eye-catching.”

He explained in full detail. With his level of IQ, the whole pitch was airtight, no flaws in the script.

Mao Hongping was stunned for a moment. She was in the middle of shelling edamame, but she put them down at once.

Her face lit up with excitement.

She had been doing matchmaking for years. Young folks had told her before that the internet was booming nowadays.

With a phone and livestream, you could earn real money.

She’d been itching to get involved but didn’t know where to start. Now, someone from a radio station had come knocking.

“Oh yes! You’ve absolutely found the right person! I know everyone in this village!”

“You know that show, what’s it called… Skynet or something? One of the guys on that show, the one who follows Wang Yun around, that’s Mao Xiaogang from our village.”

Mao Hongping was so excited she started blurting everything out without Wang Yun even needing to probe.

Wang Yun was thrilled—this just made things way easier.

“You mean the show Skynet Operation, right? The guy who tags along with Wang Yun, Xiao Gang?”

He feigned surprise.

“Yes, yes! That’s him! He’s one of ours. He’s still in the village. I just introduced him to a girl a couple of days ago, he’s thrilled about it. You’ll see when you come interview him.”

Mao Hongping sounded proud. After all, in their whole village, Xiao Gang was the biggest star.

Though his current situation was tricky, that wasn’t her concern.

As long as the match went through and she got her commission, that was enough for her.

“Really! What a coincidence. Could I ask which girl you introduced to Xiao Gang? What’s she like? If the match doesn’t work out, maybe he can join our show, we’d even pay you a referral fee.”

Wang Yun kept steering the conversation.

The moment she heard “referral fee,” Mao Hongping perked up even more.

From that point on, Wang Yun didn’t need to do any digging, she spilled everything.

She had introduced Xiao Gang to Mao Yangyang, the younger sister of Mao Zhuang, who lived at the western end of the village.

Their parents had been miners, but both died in an accident years ago.

Since then, Mao Zhuang had raised his sister by himself.

Yangyang was a smart girl. She had just graduated from college this summer.

Though it wasn’t a top-tier university, she had worked hard, and job prospects were tough, so she’d come home to help with the wheat harvest.

That’s when she ran into Xiao Gang.

He was working in the fields, too. And Mao Yangyang watched variety shows.

With the show’s popularity and Xiao Gang’s face frequently appearing on screen alongside Brother Hu’s, she recognized him immediately.

And Xiao Gang noticed her as well.

He was drawn to her innocent and pure demeanor.

With his parents getting older and only a younger brother at home, Xiao Gang had been thinking about settling down.

Though he’d seen all kinds of women while working in the city…

At heart, he was still a traditional man.

So when he saw Mao Yangyang, he was moved.

The very next day, he approached Mao Hongping, asking her to discreetly look into whether the girl had a boyfriend.

If she didn’t, he was more than willing to make the first move.