Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 323 - 318 Where Did It Go Wrong?

Yan Yan couldn’t help but feel anxious—it might be because Insensitive Shoes were going on sale tomorrow.

She seemed to be experiencing this feeling for the first time.

If the popularity of the Y·Y fashion brand had previously been an unexpected success, then launching this new line of sneakers was a deliberate effort.

Yan Yan had no idea whether the flowers she’d deliberately planted would bloom or not.

After giving it some thought, Yan Yan decided to simply eat at a restaurant near the Y·Y flagship store in New York and see if there really were people lining up a day in advance, as the rumors suggested.

Yan Yan suddenly needed some confidence, and certainly, the length of the queue outside the store was the best way to give that to her.

When Y·Y opened new stores, there were definitely a lot of people queuing, but the number dwindled with each subsequent reopening.

After all, young people always chase the newest trends.

Every time Y·Y opened a new store, there would be many fan benefits.

Those who cursed and those who loved fiercely, Y·Y treated all equally.

The first Y·Y fashion store in New York was located in a hard-to-find alley.

Back then, they hadn’t set out to achieve anything in particular, they just felt like opening a store and did so on a whim.

The newest and largest Y·Y flagship in New York was opened after the decision to launch the new sneaker line.

When Yan Yan visited New York back in May, this flagship store wasn’t open yet.

The flagship store was located on a street-facing storefront towards Fifth Avenue at the Rockefeller Center.

Last month, when the flagship store opened, more than 200 people queued up a day in advance, and the scene on the opening day was unprecedented. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The change in location also represented the growth of the Y·Y brand.

Opening the New York flagship at Rockefeller Center was Yan Yan’s idea.

She had always had a special fondness for Rockefeller Center.

Initially, it was because of its architectural style and its portrayal in movies.

But now, it was also because the outdoor skating rink there was chosen by her as the site for her and Qi Yi’s first romantic date in New York.

Though, ultimately, the date wasn’t quite romantic since the skating rink didn’t exist during the summer.

But Yan Yan was still fond of the place that had captured her imagination since childhood.

It was still summer in July, still no skating rink.

But this time, Yan Yan came to witness "the long line," and there would be plenty of opportunities to see the rink some other time.

Full of anticipation, Yan Yan and Qi Yi arrived at Fifth Avenue.

The Y·Y logo was strikingly visible, and Yan Yan could see it from afar.

However, below this conspicuous logo, Yan Yan didn’t spot the expected queue of people at the store’s entrance.

A flicker of disappointment crossed her eyes, and she decided to eat somewhere else.

"Why don’t you want to go to any of the restaurants on the sunken plaza’s lower level?" Qi Yi didn’t understand why Yan Yan suddenly changed her mind.

"Yes, I don’t feel like going anymore," replied Yan Yan, her mood rather flat.

This was Yan Yan’s first time visiting a Y·Y store reopening, and the Rockefeller Center location had only had one reopening to date.

The store opened on June 1st, closed for half a month for renovation, reopened on July 1st, and here it was now.

Yan Yan wasn’t on-site either on June 1st or July 1st, but the photos sent to her by Yan Ling and Ye Mo were enough to give her plenty of confidence.

If the online hype was unprecedented, why was the on-site response so lackluster?

The internet really couldn’t be trusted, and it seemed like the worrisome situation Yan Yan had feared was really happening.

She would have been better off staying in bed eating rather than coming here and ending up in a foul mood.

"When you came to New York for the first time, you owed me a kiss in public right here—I’ve been keeping that in my little notebook all along, and you wouldn’t try to bail on it, would you?" Qi Yi wrapped his arms around Yan Yan.

When Yan Yan said she wanted to visit the Rockefeller Center, Qi Yi had already booked the restaurant.

The sunken plaza at the Rockefeller Center is quite small.

Being sunken, it doesn’t have street-level visibility.

The good restaurants at Rockefeller Center all face the "plaza."

The restaurants that sink into the ground level of the plaza have floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

In the winter, you can sit in these restaurants enjoying a meal while watching people ice skate in the plaza.

In the summer, you’re relegated to enjoying the sight of people having coffee or meals at the outdoor café.

Compared to winter, the Rockefeller Center’s sunken plaza in summer lacks a certain je ne sais quoi for dining out or romancing.

All of Y·Y’s stores were closed today for business, including the one on Fifth Avenue.

Yan Yan, worried that her presence might cause a commotion among fans, specifically chose to approach the Y·Y store from across the street.

Sneaking past the Y·Y store, Yan Yan could only see a few people lining up.

Moreover, those few seemed casually engaged with their cell phones at the doorway, not the sort you’d expect to be queuing up for the long haul.

The size of this queue was nothing compared to any of the reopening queues Yan Yan had seen in pictures before.

Even though it was just the evening of the 15th, such a reality was just too cruel.

Yan Yan began to question whether her insistence on acquiring the patent for the new material and launching Insensitive Shoes was the right decision.

Qi Yi wanted to dine here, but seeing Yan Yan’s evident unhappiness, when it came to his girlfriend’s mood, he immediately compromised without principle.

As the two planned to leave Fifth Avenue, Ye Mo called to say that all the shoes had been delivered to the stores, including those in Singapore, and they were ready to start stocking the shelves and preparing the "window displays."

In addition, the limited edition shoe uppers had arrived in Australia yesterday, so the stores in New York and Australia were a step ahead of the others, with all the stocking complete.

Ye Mo sent Yan Yan photos of the store he was personally overseeing the stocking process, asking if she wanted to check out the New York flagship that had completed the last preparations for the upcoming launch.

To bring enough surprise to the launch tomorrow, the staff covering up all the street-facing windows of Y·Y with the new shoes.

Only at the official unveiling at 10 a.m. tomorrow will they reveal themselves to the world like unveiling a mysterious veil.

But right now, it seemed the secrecy may have been overdone; even those who might queue up were out of sight.

Yan Yan remembered the four words combining Chinese and English – "No Zuo No Die" (you won’t die if you don’t seek trouble).

What had gone wrong?