Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 46 - 44: Not Seeing You Off at the Airport

"Are you two getting a bit off-topic? The person whose character needs auditing is Qi Yi, not the relationship between us two, right?" Yan Yan clearly posed it as a question, asking what they were up to.

"The thing about character, of course, you have to audit it yourself, ah. We’re not so full and bored that we need to audit someone’s character for them," Shen Xi was always heartless and mindless.

"If the last time you two didn’t break up over a bad relationship, then there’s no reason now to be together just because you’re on good terms," Bao Bao still thought there was something wrong with Qi Yi’s logic.

"If being on good terms isn’t a reason to be together, then what else can be?" Qi Yi responded to Bao Bao’s question. Although it was a rhetorical question, it carried no aggression, as if he truly was asking for Bao Bao’s opinion.

In reality, it’s the debate masters who aren’t necessarily the aggressive ones that come out victorious.

In international collegiate debate competitions, there are many teams that perform well and base their arguments on Confucian debate. Xiamen University’s debate team is one of them; however, Yan Yan only stayed at Xiamen University for one year and never joined the school debate team.

Time difference and distance are issues that Yan Yan and Qi Yi couldn’t ignore, and even if it wasn’t for the current "audit," these two issues were something they had to discuss thoroughly.

"Qi Yi, let’s discuss later how to handle the issues that distance brings," Yan Yan said, seeing that no one else was speaking, so she brought up a topic herself.

"Mmm, I like that you use the word ’discuss.’ If you used to like this word, maybe we’d always have been together," Qi Yi looked at Yan Yan with affectionate eyes, as if those two glaring "light bulbs" weren’t there at all.

"Bao Bao, do you think it’s appropriate for them to be showing their affection in front of us like this?" Shen Xi looked overly shocked.

"Let them show off. See how many hours they have to show off," Bao Bao spoke with a tone that was dismissive of everything.

"That’s sensible. Starting today, the two of us will show off three times a day in front of Xiaoyan. Let’s see what she has to be so proud of," Shen Xi expressed this with a bit of schadenfreude.

"Show off your love, and you’ll die fast. You two are welcome to include afternoon tea and late-night snacks in your display. Showing off once a meal, that’s a poor quality of life. If you don’t show five meals a day, it’ll be insufficient to prove the strength of your SB couple," Yan Yan started bantering with the two people under the same roof again.

"Xiaoyan, aren’t you afraid we’ll step up the auditing of your school hunk by talking like that?" Shen Xi was quite dissatisfied.

"Not afraid at all. Bring an army and I’ll block it; bring water and I’ll dam it up. They’re really not afraid of the two of you auditing them, okay!" Yan Yan’s speech style didn’t change because of Shen Xi’s dissatisfaction.

"I’m afraid though. I have to ask the two of you to keep an eye on her for me later. Just because I’m not in Melbourne doesn’t mean other handsome guys can take advantage," after saying this, Qi Yi picked up his glass and clinked it with Shen Xi’s in a friendly manner.

"See? Your school hunk gets it. Xiaoyan, you should learn from him," Shen Xi was satisfied with Qi Yi suddenly siding with her.

Just with a small gesture like this, Qi Yi had managed to pull Shen Xi onto his side, making her a helper in "watching over" Yan Yan.

Yan Yan had always admired Qi Yi’s ability to win people’s hearts; this was why she felt that no matter where he was, he would always do exceptionally well.

But Yan Yan failed to notice a simple fact: Qi Yi never tried to win over anyone who wasn’t around Yan Yan.

Qi Yi’s principle was always very simple: he "buys over" anyone who is on good terms with Yan Yan.

For irrelevant people, Qi Yi never had any desire to maintain good relations.

If your girlfriend has a bunch of best friends who hate you, that’s definitely the most fatal blow to a relationship.

This was a lesson Liu Siyan concluded when he first got together with Lu Ying.

Later, when Qi Yi consulted with Liu Siyan about controlling the college entrance exam scores, Liu Siyan passed this lesson on to Qi Yi.

...

After finishing the private Japanese meal, Bao Bao and Shen Xi planned to take the train back by themselves (note 1).

"You drive us to the train station, then take your school hunk to the airport," Bao Bao said to Yan Yan.

Bao Bao, who was especially good at planning itineraries, had outlined the best upcoming schedule for Yan Yan.

"No need. You drive and drop off Qi Yi at the airport, then we’ll go home together. I don’t want to go to the airport with Qi Yi," Yan Yan rarely protested against Bao Bao’s planned itinerary.

"You can’t be that ruthless, can you?" Shen Xi doubted her own ears.

"Yeah, really, what else could it be, boiled?" Yan Yan assured Shen Xi not to doubt what she’d just heard.

"Qi Yi, would it be okay if I don’t go into the airport to see you off?" After speaking with Shen Xi, Yan Yan turned to ask Qi Yi, who was sitting next to her.

"Okay," Qi Yi had no objections to Yan Yan’s suggestion.

"That straightforward, huh? Could it be there’s another beauty waiting to bid you a lingering farewell at the airport?" Yan Yan teased.

"If you’re not at ease, you’re welcome to come to the airport to check on my post," Qi Yi looked at Yan Yan very seriously.

Qi Yi knew that Yan Yan didn’t want to go to the airport because she didn’t want to face an abrupt farewell.

"Let it be. You can check for a moment, but not for a lifetime. Some things still have to rely on self-discipline," Yan Yan responded with a smile.

Yan Yan believed that even if she said nothing, Qi Yi would understand why she didn’t want to go to the airport today.

"I’ll write you a letter on the plane.

We’ll start with emails first, sorting out things that need discussing.

Then give me your schedule, and I’ll give you mine. We’ll see if we can find more common time in our schedules.

At least, I’ll be there for Liu Siyan’s wedding and your graduation," no one could refuse the affectionate Qi Yi.

"Okay, then later on, you can ask me one question every day, and I’ll ask you one too. If you have nothing else to do on the plane, you can write a longer letter and then ask me a question. That way, when we write letters later, we’ll just have one question and one answer, and you won’t have to think about what to write every day," Yan Yan also made her suggestion.

...

Note 1:

In Melbourne, the trains and metros are actually integrated. In the city center, it’s an underground metro system, and outside the city center, it becomes an above-ground train system.