Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 179 - 176 Emphasis on Work

Even with an elevator, the difference between having a strong man and not having one to help with luggage—as big as the "four major pieces"—was clearly night and day.

Before Yan Yan even finished exploring her "new home," Antonio had already carried all four pieces of luggage neatly to Yan Yan’s doorstep.

Yan Yan invited Allegro and Antonio into the house, only to discover, rather embarrassingly, that she knew less about her own home than her "guest," Allegro.

For simple things like what drinks were in the fridge, Yan Yan had to ask her "guest."

When Yan Yan met Allegro at the airport, their encounter was quickly disrupted by the appearance of Antonio and Lei Pili.

Right after that, Allegro was caught up in a conversation with the overly enthusiastic Antonio.

Yan Yan, back in the car, had been on the phone with Yan Ling the whole time.

In total, the actual words exchanged between Yan Yan and Allegro didn’t amount to much.

Yan Ling claimed he had no special thoughts about Allegro, which made Yan Yan very curious about what kind of relationship it had to be for him to take such meticulous care of the house intended for his sister.

"Are you and my brother really just classmates?" Without beating around the bush, Yan Yan directly voiced her question; that was just her personality.

"Are you and Yan Ling really siblings?" Instead of answering Yan Yan’s question, Allegro asked another, his face carrying a hint of anticipation.

"We don’t have the same father, but we do have the same grandfather," Yan Yan explained their relationship as cousins in a rather confusing way, as if the word "Cousin" wouldn’t have sufficed. (note 1)

"So, that’s how it is. Looks like I’ve been busy for nothing," Allegro said with a face full of regret.

Initially, Yan Ling asked Allegro to find someone, the kind who gets paid, to help Yan Yan find a house and appropriate furniture, and to take care of the cleaning and such.

Yan Ling sent Allegro a document that listed dozens of detailed requirements.

Allegro was convinced that, with this level of detail, Yan Ling had to be helping his girlfriend or potential girlfriend find a place.

Allegro said that no matter what, Yan Ling wouldn’t admit it and insisted it was for his sister, so the two of them ended up at odds.

Two Wharton Business School students made a wager; Allegro said that if the meticulous requests were indeed for his sister, he would help for free.

Yan Ling also said that if it wasn’t for his sister, he would pay Allegro triple the rent.

After hearing the full story, Yan Yan still felt something was off.

If Allegro could be convinced by as little as Yan Yan’s mere word, without needing something like a DNA report, then why wasn’t she willing to believe Yan Ling?

Was there really no story there?

"Antonio, did you really plan on staying over at my place tonight?" Only now did Yan Yan remember Antonio’s earlier comment, which she wasn’t sure was a joke or serious.

"I’m here in Florence on business, and I’ll be heading back to Rome soon. I’ve got two tasks to complete this afternoon. I’ll probably be leaving in about an hour," Antonio wasn’t someone with nothing to do.

"Really? Didn’t you also say you were thinking of finding a way to stay at Allegro’s place?" There was a teasing tone in Yan Yan’s words.

"I thought about it, but she’s even busier than I am. She’s headed to the airport now. Next time I visit, if she won’t let me stay, I’ll come to your place as a couch surfer," Antonio showed no reaction to the obvious teasing in Yan Yan’s words, and when he talked about being a couch surfer, he seemed all too serious.

"So, you mean to say that you both have already agreed on when to meet next time?" Yan Yan interpreted Antonio’s words of his plans. freёnovelkiss.com

"Not at all. The next time I come to Florence will, of course, have to depend on your boyfriend’s schedule," Antonio meant that he would come when Qi Yi was in town.

Antonio and Allegro both left shortly afterward.

The enthusiasm of the Italians was something Yan Yan found a bit hard to grasp.

The two individuals who had struck up a fiery conversation at the airport, even if they were leaving, should have departed together. Instead, they left one after the other, nearly half an hour apart.

Yan Yan was originally worried that if Allegro had gotten sidetracked by Qi Yi’s roommate after coming to pick her up, she wouldn’t be able to explain to her cousin. Now, it seemed that the "Hot Dog" young man’s inner world was quite different from what it appeared to be on the surface.

There are many things in this world that others can’t understand, understood only by those involved.

If you don’t understand, then don’t bother looking; Yan Yan was not interested in other people’s inner worlds.

Yan Yan didn’t wish to make many friends, nor did she wish to understand many people.

However, the "others" Yan Yan was not interested in did not include Yan Ling.

Although Yan Yan and Yan Ling have always been close, after Yan Ling became an adult, he always stayed in the United States. Yan Yan never truly had the chance to understand what kind of person he was when it came to relationships.

If his former sister-in-law was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed American, would her future sister-in-law also need to be blonde-haired, blue-eyed?

At this thought, Yan Yan felt an additional pang of sympathy for her cousin.

If he still insisted on finding a foreigner, he would probably have to sever the father-son relationship.

Yan Yan thought about it seriously and realized that she had never truly understood what Yan Ling’s real thoughts were.

Yan Yan felt a bit ashamed, realizing that she not only complained on the phone about Yan Ling not understanding her character but had even added, "never want to deal with each other again."

Now it seemed that Yan Ling understood her much more than she understood him.

When Yan Ling had come to Melbourne to "take refuge," because he appeared to be someone without a care, Yan Yan never had a heart-to-heart chat with her cousin.

If Yan Ling could be so meticulous even when helping her find a house, then he couldn’t possibly be the rough and ready person he appeared to be, who could easily let go of a past relationship.

Yan Yan wanted to give Yan Ling a call, to express her satisfaction with the graduation gift and to retract the statement of "never want to deal with each other again."

But Yan Yan had only just spoken harshly. Caving in so quickly was not her style.

Yan Yan thought it over and decided to make it her "work focus" to have a candid chat with her cousin in a few days, and then to take on the task of helping her cousin find his future sister-in-law.

.........

note 1:

[Xiao Mo’s class]

In English, there are simple yet somewhat strange words.

Because they are overly simple, the weirdness often goes unnoticed.

For example, uncle is used for uncle, great-uncle, and maternal uncle alike.

Similarly, aunt is used for both aunt, great-aunt, maternal aunt, and aunty.

That’s not too bad, but the word "cousin" not only lacks a distinction between "maternal" and "paternal", it even lacks gender distinction.

Both "maternal" and "paternal" siblings are encompassed by the single term "cousin."

However, if we talk about strangeness, the real oddity is actually Chinese.

The lack of distinction for terms of cousinhood is not only common in most Western languages, but also in Japanese.

Among the languages that are often in contact, it seems that only Chinese and Korean go into such detailed classification.