Petit à petit, Yuan fait son nid.

Lesson 67 A silent lesson

This is a true story.

Years ago, when I wanted to buy a house in Saint-Bruno, José accompanied me to visit some properties nearby.

One day, after we finished visiting a house, we saw a “Visit libre” sign by the roadside, there was a condo for sale.

We have friends whom are living in that kind of condo, and the environment is always quite appreciated, so we decided to stop and take a look.

There was a man that came down the elevator and that opened the door in the hall for us, an experienced real-estate agent, of course.

He threw a glance up and down at me, without saying anything. And then he led us going upwards to the condo directly.

It was quite correct as a condo, 2+2, with a large and pleasant balcony.

It didn’t take much time to go around the rooms and details.

And then, when we came back to the living room, the real estate agent asked me a question, “What kind of expectations do you have?”

I said,”Quietness, beautiful environment, garage, space… and of course, within the budget, it is very important also.”

I didn’t believe at that time that I said something abnormal, I mean as a potential buyer, right ?

But suddenly, even today, I didn’t understand why, this guy began to throw out a lot of comments, blablablabla…

In the end, he said, “As for the budget, it is normal. You know, it is in Saint-Bruno. If you don’t have enough budget, I suggest that you look elsewhere, like Saint-Basile, Sainte-julie, Saint-Hubert, Chambly….” blablablabla…

He mentioned a few other names of the places around. In fact, each word he pronounced, was like a stick added to the fire which began to burn in my mind…

And then, he said, “But for Saint-Bruno, you don’t have the choice, Saint-Bruno is like that.”

He shrugged his shoulders while he was saying that.

His voice was slow, his gesture was leisure, his attitude was arrogant.

And of course, I became to be very angry at that exact point.

And he continued, saying that he had two condos there, and that this one is the best one in Saint-Bruno downtown.

But I already lost the interest.

I wanted to leave, right now !

I turned around and asked José to leave.

José picked up two pieces of the printed publicity which were laid on the kitchen counter, saying, “Do you want to take a look at the informations about this condo later?”

I said coldly, “No need. I don’t think I will have the honour to be this monsieur’ neighbour.”
Short and cool, the atmosphere was somehow freezing…

José smiled, he put the papers back on the counter, one by one, made them tidy.

And then, he bowed to the real estate agent, saying, “Thank you very much for your time, monsieur, and I wish you a good day.”

Then we left.

The guy didn’t move at all or said anything.

There was a silence.

Suddenly José said, “Yuan, you need to be sorry.”

I immediately jumped up, “Sorry ?! Me ?! Why do I need to be sorry, it was he, he need to feel sorry, not me. He was arrogant, and rude, not me.”

José said, “Yes, all true. But you could do it better. You have lost your control. And you know you could have controlled yourself better because you are stronger than him.”

Puff…

Honestly, guys, the “bow” José made to the monsieur, is still very vivid and remarkable in my memory.

It was worthy a thousand of words in fact, a good silent lesson I got.