Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 187 - 184 Dinner (4)

"I know you always say you hate politics the most, but living abroad,

you should be the clearest about the real meaning of the word ’homeland.’

Take tonight’s dinner, for example. Without the backing of a strong economic homeland, and without the prospect of signing huge orders, how could we possibly have so many top designers here?

It’s called a designers’ dinner, but in reality, the main characters today are not the designers, but the brand directors from all over.

China’s luxury goods market has been leading the world in recent years.

The directors of these luxury brands are here at the dinner mainly to gain more support so that their brands can develop better business in China.

Otherwise, who would be interested in pressuring their own brand’s design directors to interact with China’s up-and-coming designers?" Lei Pili analyzed as he walked Yan Yan into the banquet.

It was the first time Yan Yan had seen Lei Pili analyze a problem with such a tone and perspective, so serious, so diplomatic, so spot-on.

Yan Yan looked at Lei Pili and then burst into laughter.

Yan Yan didn’t know why Lei Pili’s words just now had hit her funny bone, whether it was the expression, the tone, or the content, or perhaps a combination of all three.

Yan Yan laughed heartily, while Lei Pili was made a little uneasy by her laughter.

"Is something wrong?" Lei Pili had never been quite able to figure out what tickled Yan Yan, ever since university.

Lei Pili couldn’t understand why Yan Yan was laughing, just like he never could grasp what her next reason for rejecting him might be.

But who says there must always be a reason to laugh? Laughter doesn’t need one, and actually, neither does rejection.

"Of course, something’s a bit off.

I don’t speak Italian, then people get offended when they hear me speaking English.

Under such circumstances, you still ask me not to stand too far away.

So what should I do? Should I speak Chinese with the brand directors?" Yan Yan thought hard and managed to come up with a reason why she’d just laughed so hard.

"Right, you greet them in Italian, then you can speak Chinese," Lei Pili tried not to let Yan Yan lead him astray.

Lei Pili felt that only by maintaining a serious and professional demeanor could he prevent his fondness for Yan Yan from becoming too obvious.

"You said earlier that they are very talented linguistically and that their Chinese is good, so that should settle it, right?" The tone Yan Yan used to speak with Lei Pili now had a hint of those days back in college.

What Yan Yan implied was that if a matter could be settled in Chinese, why fuss over it extensively.

"Brand directors don’t speak Chinese," Lei Pili corrected Yan Yan’s misconception.

"Huh? Are the brand directors born in the year of the ox? Are you setting me up to ’play the lute to a cow,’ or what? You want me to speak Chinese to an Italian who doesn’t understand it?" Yan Yan became even more confused by Lei Pili’s explanation.

"You speak Chinese to him and I’ll translate for you," Lei Pili told Yan Yan the solution. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"Do we really need to go through all that trouble? Wouldn’t it just be easier to apologize and say I only speak English and Chinese, and ask if we can communicate in English?" Yan Yan started to feel somewhat speechless.

"You won’t get any response from him if you speak English to the brand director in Italy," Lei Pili had specifically sought out the actual situation from others.

"Ah? Is it that exaggerated? So, are you saying that if there wasn’t a diplomat to escort me, I might have been kicked out directly today?" Yan Yan began to understand why Lei Pili was waiting for her at the entrance.

"You should speak Chinese, as long as you have enough understanding of the Ferragamo brand you’ll be interning with. Once the director starts communicating with you in English, it’ll be your success," Lei Pili’s "diplomatic intelligence" was very detailed.

"Don’t you have other official duties to deal with?" Yan Yan looked at Lei Pili with slight confusion.

From Yan Yan’s understanding, Lei Pili should not have had the time to stay by her side to translate for her all evening.

"My official duties are almost handled. After I finish translating for you, I’ll see if there are any tables, chairs, or stools that need attending to." Lei Pili said this, and his originally stern face unconsciously broke into a smile, probably infected by Yan Yan’s recent laughter.

"How could that be? If you get called away to deal with tables and chairs while translating for me, won’t I have to start communicating with people in sign language?" Yan Yan’s normal way of speaking was completely at odds with the style of clothes she was wearing at the moment.

"No, that won’t happen. I just confirmed that the director accompanying you will arrive in about 20 minutes. According to the design director, she’s quite satisfied with the sample shoes and portfolio you sent over. Once she arrives, she should create some opportunities for you," Lei Pili seemed to understand the design director’s opinion of her even better than Yan Yan did.

On the other hand, Yan Yan was baffled. Did all this information Lei Pili provided really fall within the realm of diplomacy?

If so, the meticulous level of this intelligence gathering was incredibly impressive.

Even if the situation wasn’t so sudden, even if Yan Yan had all the time in the world to research on her own, she couldn’t possibly understand these people’s relationships and preferences as clearly as this.

For attending a dinner event of such caliber, Yan Yan felt she was still too green.

Fortunately, due to being targeted from a young age, Yan Yan had a much stronger psychological quality than the average person, and the words "stage fright" were not in Yan Yan’s dictionary either.

.........

Upon first meeting the brand director, after Yan Yan greeted him in Italian, she indeed felt a strong aura that kept people at a distance.

Once Lei Pili helped explain that Yan Yan came to Florence because she loved Ferragamo and was about to intern at Ferragamo’s shoe-making department as a designer, the director’s dismissiveness became even more evident.

He had come to the dinner tonight with the hope of reaching some consensus with the fashion association, not to exchange pleasantries with interns, and the line "coming to Florence because of love for Ferragamo" sounded a bit false.

He had already met more than one or two designers who claimed their love for Ferragamo and their desire to work there upon meeting him.

Those who had shopped around and bought a pair or two of shoes from the brand also said they loved Ferragamo.

But this kind of love was defined too broadly; the brand director had long since grown disdainful of speaking with such people.

Since she had already successfully secured an internship spot at Ferragamo, there was even less need to seek him out; he was not in charge of design anyway.

If the brand director knew Yan Yan got into the Ferragamo internship through "backdoor" means, maybe he would be interested in understanding that backdoor a bit more clearly.

In the current situation, the director had no interest in a conversation. Each year, many designers intern at Ferragamo, and of those, only a handful remain.

However, since Lei Pili spoke in Italian, the brand director did not adhere to the Italian custom of not responding to Italian.

The brand director gave Yan Yan a question that sounded very simple, but was actually imbued with clear rejection and was hard to answer.

Only after Lei Pili translated it did Yan Yan know what the director had asked: Which specific styles of shoes do you like from Ferragamo that prompted you to come to Florence?