Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 174 - 171: Escorting Luggage

Antonio had been on the phone ever since he called out Wai—Wai, and after handing Yan Yan the hot dog, he passed his mobile to her as well.

"Why didn’t you call me right after you got off the plane?" Qi Yi’s voice came through the other end of the line.

"Ah, don’t even mention it—I had so much luggage that I almost collapsed; I couldn’t free up a hand. I was planning to call you once I got in the car," Yan Yan replied. Besides those four huge suitcases, she had bought a lot of stuff during her layovers in Hong Kong and Switzerland.

Especially at Zurich Airport, where she didn’t need to handle a second luggage transfer, Yan Yan had an hour or so to kill. With nothing in her hands, she strolled into a couple of shops and came out with a bag, a pair of shoes, and a bunch of chocolates.

By the time she arrived in Florence, with her carry-on and checked luggage combined, she was thoroughly incapable of making a phone call.

"Antonio only found out you were coming to Florence today. Even though I said someone was picking you up, he insisted on coming. Besides hot dogs, you seem to be the only thing he’s interested in," Qi Yi quickly explained.

"Why should he be interested in me? Could it be that just by looking at my photo, he has hopelessly fallen in love with me?" Yan Yan began joking with Qi Yi without missing a beat.

"No, he probably wants to see what his love rival looks like. After all, we’ve been living together for quite a few years," Qi Yi didn’t mind escalating Yan Yan’s joke even further.

"Oh, is that so? Well then, let’s see if we will come to blows over who owns you later," Yan Yan replied, barely suppressing her laughter to Qi Yi’s self-deprecating humor.

"I sent him to give you a hand. You’re my master, I’m his master. There are several insurmountable class barriers between you and him. Even if you lent him ten thousand courage, he wouldn’t dare fight you." If it had been Qi Yi himself, he would only need a hundred courage.

"Grandpa is still the best to me, knowing that what I need most right now is a strong man," Yan Yan remarked, preparing to return the phone to Antonio.

Given the circumstances, it wasn’t good for Yan Yan to keep holding onto Antonio’s phone to chat with Qi Yi, especially with a beautiful woman standing nearby.

"Hm? Was the man your cousin sent to pick you up just a pretty face, incapable of the heavy lifting? I also had Antonio check out how dangerous he might be," Qi Yi’s phone call still had an unanswered question that concerned him.

"He’s super handsome, so handsome that it shocks the heavens and astounds spirits, so handsome that I got completely dazed," Yan Yan truly meant every word when she said she was ’dazed’.

"Ah? So should I rush over immediately to avoid risking your life?" Qi Yi sounded utterly worried.

"No need for that. Bao Bao didn’t manage to turn me, it’s even less likely for any other woman, so you can be completely reassured," Yan Yan reassured him, even though she knew Qi Yi had just affected a worried tone.

"Your cousin had a girl pick you up at the airport?" Qi Yi was a bit surprised.

Actually, Qi Yi was well aware that his close friend rushed over to the Florence airport because he heard a handsome guy was picking up Yan Yan, specifically to hold the fort for Qi Yi.

"Yeah, I thought Brother Ling was preparing to find you a competitor in Florence, to keep you from getting too arrogant.

Turns out, he just wanted to show off his charm with a beautiful lady. How come my brother trusts you so much?" Yan Yan couldn’t help feeling a bit indignant for herself.

"So it seems. It looks like I misunderstood our brother. Next time I see him, I must thank him properly," Qi Yi was even more cheerful after realizing that the imagined competitor was nothing but a fantasy.

"Let me stop you here, Antonio is based in Rome, right?

He certainly wouldn’t have driven to the airport either.

I need to see how to get all this luggage, and your adoring Antonio, to where I’m staying."

"If I leave the strong man behind at the airport, when I get to my place, I won’t have cheap labor to help me with my luggage," Yan Yan really wanted to chat with Qi Yi for a bit longer, but she had urgent matters to take care of.

While Yan Yan was on the phone with Qi Yi, Antonio and Allegro had already started chatting in Italian.

Seeing Antonio now, Yan Yan realized that what Qi Yi said about Antonio being interested in nothing but hot dogs and Yan Yan was purely nonsense.

Antonio’s interest in the beautiful Allegro obviously surpassed his interest in Yan Yan, and it might have even surpassed his interest in hot dogs.

Allegro was Yan Ling’s classmate, which meant that she was several years older than Antonio.

The preferences of the Hot Dog Youth Antonio for older women were blatantly obvious.

When Yan Yan handed the phone back to Antonio, she had no clue whatsoever about what those two were enthusiastically discussing.

"Allegro says that there’s a guest room in the house she found for you, and if I want to stay in Florence tonight, you could take me in," Antonio explained a bit in English the content of his chat with the beauty. (note 1)

"Eh? Are you kidding me? A man and a woman alone in the same room, and in all of Florence, with hotels all over the place, they can’t find a single empty room?" Yan Yan’s disdainful face seemed to have a line written all over it: How could Qi Yi possibly treat you like a brother?

"Wai～Wai, how can you pick on the truth like that? If you say that, I won’t be able to humbly voice my true thoughts," Antonio looked utterly dejected.

"You have heartfelt words to say?" Yan Yan expressed disbelief.

"If you’d just say it’s inconvenient for you, without mentioning that there are many hotels in Florence, then I could ask Allegro if her family has a spare guest room and if it would be convenient to take me in," Antonio put on the serious face particular to engineering students.

"Aiyo, turns out the wine is not what you’re after, huh? In that case, when you were talking to her just now, you shouldn’t have spoken in Italian; if you spoke English, I could’ve picked up on your hidden meanings. Speaking Italian made me think you two were plotting to sell me off," Yan Yan thought it was best to push any blame she shouldn’t carry as far away as possible.

"Then how do we get there now?" Allegro asked Yan Yan.

"Let’s stick to the original plan, and then Antonio will be in charge of transporting the luggage. I’m afraid if I look after the luggage myself, I wouldn’t know how to tell the driver the address or follow along if they didn’t keep up," Yan Yan quickly made arrangements.

Yan Yan was originally worried that her luggage might get lost if it took a cab separately.

It was okay to lose other stuff, but the loss of manuscripts and shoe molds would be irreplaceable.

Although Yan Yan had been drawing many designs using software, she still preferred hand-drawing more often than not.

Transporting the luggage was something Yan Yan originally planned to do herself, but now with Antonio around, he was naturally more suitable for the task.

.........

note 1:

I originally wanted to write this dialogue in English, but some readers said that too much English is hard to read.

Alright then, I’ll just stick to translated Chinese as much as possible, because Xiao Mo is such an understanding author.

If you want to read in English, come to Xiao Mo’s book friends group, group number 454173.

Hmm, and it seems Xiao Mo’s class has been missing for a while, is anyone missing it?