1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 289 If one person knows, the whole village will know, so it can't be said!

Cornell's eyes gleamed with anticipation, and before Ronan could say anything, he agreed:

"can!"

Ronan gave his mother, Aknina, a higher status in the village than before; she now plays the role that Pires used to play, and earns more.

Cornell also had a lot to say about repaying Ronan's kindness.

Henry waved his hand vigorously to attract Ronan's attention:

"Mr. Ronan, please leave it to me, I can do anything!"

"Don't wave your dirty hands in front of my face!" Theo slapped Henry's hand away in disgust, and said to Ronan with a cigarette in his mouth, "What's up? I've got nothing to do lately, I'll go run errands for you."

Ronan smiled and waved to everyone:
"Cornell is the most suitable candidate for this position."

Theo immediately objected, shouting with an exaggerated expression:

"Who do you look down on?"

Ronan looked Theo straight in the eye:
"Do you know anything about winemaking? Have you ever helped out at a winery or winemaking cooperative?"

Theo immediately fell silent.

Ronan then asked the same question to the others.

Everyone quickly looked away.

Cornell, like a student eager to speak, raised his hand and said:

"I understand! I understand everything!"

Ronan didn't shy away from others and spoke directly to Cornell:
"I'd like you to help me calculate the planting area of ​​each grape variety in the vineyards around us."

“I can do that too, Mr. Ronan!” Henry said, grinning.

Isn't this something that anyone with hands and a mouth can do?
Ronan gestured to Henry to be patient; he hadn't finished speaking yet.
He looked at Cornell and continued:
"We only count the varieties that can be made into rosé wine; we don't need to count the varieties needed for white wine."

Cornell professionals ask:
Are both frequently used and infrequently used items included in the statistics?

Each winery has its own winemaking methods and requires different grape blends.

Ronan may not completely follow Jerome's original recipe in the future, so it's hard to say what grapes will be needed. Therefore, all of them need to be counted.

This task is best left to Cornell, who has some knowledge of brewing and is interested in it.

“Yes, all statistics.” Ronan said seriously.

Cornell nodded emphatically:
"No problem! Anything else?"

Ronan thought for a moment, then shook his head and said:
"No more for now. Let me know when you have the statistics."

Theo asked Ronan with a puzzled look:
"Why are you compiling these statistics? And you only want anything that can be used to make rosé wine, you're not going to—"

Ronan raised his glass, interrupting Theo:
"It can't be anything, come on, have a drink!"

In Lourmaran, news that one person knows will soon be known throughout the entire village.

What if Blanco finds out he was the last person to know Ronan wanted to open a winery? How would Ronan possibly ask for money then?!
But another month has passed. How are Blanco and his team's preparations going?

Have those who went out to study returned?
At the end of the year, Blanco sent all his staff out to learn about the history and culture of rosé wine in order to decorate the museum on the shopping street that was scheduled to open in the spring.

After about a month, in addition to completing their assigned learning tasks, Sylvie and the others brought back a lot of industry news.

"As of the end of last year, there were 45 cooperatives and wineries in the Vaucluse department producing rosé wine. Among them, 18 cooperatives and independent wineries only produced rosé wine, while the rest produced multiple types of wine at the same time. Cooperatives dominated the industry, and there were only 5 'rosé wineries' with rosé wine as their core product."

Blanco asked Sylvie:
How are they doing in business?

Sylvie shrugged:

"Is this even a question? It's not easy to find. Among the statistics, three rosé wine brewing cooperatives opened in the last two years. They thought they had found a 'track' with relatively little competition. But they didn't expect that there was no way out. When we were chatting, I heard them say that the failure rate of brewing cooperatives that only make rosé wine is very high."

Blanco remained completely calm and asked:

"Have you found out how much they invested in starting their brewing cooperative?"

Sylvie nodded:
"Of course, you specifically asked me to inquire about their investment. The investment for small winemaking cooperatives is between 35 and 75 francs, for medium-sized ones it's between 100 million and 200 million francs, and for large ones... I haven't looked into the large ones."

She closed her notebook and said to Blanco:
"Even if we get the budget from the Vaucluse Tourism Board, we still won't be able to come up with that much money to support the Ronanka Rosé Wine Cooperative, will we?"

Claude looked at Blanco:

“If the budget is successfully secured, we fully support your decision to persuade Ronan to build a winery. Just as you said, once the distinctive road is chosen, Lourmaran must have its own rosé production line. The only person who can take on this responsibility is Ronan. Only he has the ability to mobilize the entire village. But Blanco, we have many other places where we need to spend money. We can't invest it all in that winery.”

Blanco took a sip of his coffee, his eyes as calm as a still lake:
“What we’re talking about now is the ‘best-case scenario,’ what might happen, and these figures are for the investment required by private wineries. The government’s budget to support villagers in building wineries is not calculated that way.” “You’re just too ‘spoiling’ Ronan!” Sylvie shook her head speechlessly, then muttered in a complicated tone, “But Ronan is definitely worth the investment we made. All the bets we placed on him before were right.”

Blanco's gaze softened:

“Ronan has done so much for Lourmaran. Without all that he did, what would the proposal look like a month from now? Would we be here confidently ‘preparing’ for the work after we’ve secured the budget?”

The Lourmaran government is confident of securing the budget in the next application.

If Lourmaran, with its current state, can't even attract the attention of the tourism board, then there are no other villages in the Vaucluse department worth investing in!

Their only concern now is whether the budget is too much or too little.

Blanco continued to assign tasks to several people around him:

"The next step is to continue learning about the rosé wine industry, and also to explore the possibility of acquiring a well-performing wine cooperative or independent winery. If investing more can make development easier, this is a direction worth considering."

Claude let out a long sigh:

"Aren't you planning to get Ronan to contribute something too? He's so rich."

Blanco also sighed:
“It is precisely because Ronan is rich that he might reject our proposal. He has too many ways to make money, why should he open a winery? Let him spend less effort and time, and the ‘negotiation’ will go more smoothly. In this matter, we have no alternative plan and must take a gamble and make Ronan accept it.”

Sylvie asked Blanco:
"So, we still have to keep our information about the Pink Winery a secret from all the villagers until the day the budget is secured?"

Blanco nodded solemnly:

“Yes, if one villager knows, all the villagers will know, and Ronan will know too. He can find countless ways to prevent this from happening to him. To be absolutely sure, we must keep it a secret until the very last moment!”

Thinking about how Lucas had spent the afternoon helping out at the vineyard, Ronan had been planning to invite Lucas to dinner or drinks sometime.

But once he enters the mountains, he forgets the existence of time, because the prospect of making money is just too tempting. Ronan doesn't want to waste any time and come back early.

The upgraded [Gathering] greatly improved his efficiency in harvesting truffles. This year is another bumper year for truffles, and Ronan can bring back a big bag of truffles every day. On the best day, he had as much as 7 kilograms!

Although truffle prices are not as high as last year, 7 kilograms can still sell for 1 francs.

If he occasionally finds a high-quality truffle, coupled with income from restaurants, weaving, and street stalls, Ronan could very well earn 300,000 francs or more in January and February.

In this way, he might have been able to raise 800,000 to 900,000 francs by March.

If they're even luckier, this year's truffle harvest season will be longer, lasting until mid-March, and Ronan will have a chance to recoup the money he spent on buying the Strasga winery!
Thinking about it this way, he wanted to go into the mountains every day even more!

Finally, Friday arrived. As soon as the market in Lourmaran closed, Ronan called Lucas, wanting to ask him out.

Unexpectedly, Lucas's wife said that Lucas had already left home, and his destination was Ronan's restaurant. Judging by the time, he should arrive soon.

About three minutes later, Ronan met Lucas at the restaurant entrance, who was carrying two pheasants.

"You went hunting?" Ronan asked in surprise.

Lucas, waving the pheasant in his hand, laughed and said:
“Margaret takes one day off each week, and since she has nothing to do at home, she goes hunting with her friends on that day.”

Ronan was even more surprised and pointed to what he was holding, asking:
"You hit it?"

There are actually people in Lourmaran who can actually get things?

Lucas frowned:
"Of course, I also caught some partridges, doves and wild ducks this morning, but I delivered them to my parents and Theo's house."

He placed the pheasant in front of Ronan:

"These two pheasants are for you."

Ronan didn't reach out, and said shyly:
Why are you bringing me wild game?

Lucas went to Ronan's house to help prune the grapevines, and before Ronan could even thank him, he was being given something again.
Lucas laughed heartily, shoving the pheasant into Ronan's hand and saying generously:
"Of course it's to thank you, what else could it be?"

Ronan frowned in confusion:
"Thank me? I haven't helped you with anything."

Lucas's smile faded slightly, and his voice lowered. He didn't dare look Ronan in the eye, instead looking elsewhere.
"Thank you for always helping Special Olympics, and thank you for making Special Olympics better."

Ronan looked surprised for a moment, then patted Lucas on the shoulder:

"Let's go in and have a couple of drinks today."

Lucas felt unfamiliar with Lourmaran.

Didn't Ronan also feel that Lucas was a stranger?
However, this sense of unfamiliarity made Ronan very happy and touched.
In Ronan's mind, Lucas has always been a truly respectable man.

Now, this real man is even more voluptuous and three-dimensional.

(End of this chapter)