1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 423 Danger! Danger! Danger!

The restaurant's furnishings and utensils captivated Bernard, an art enthusiast.

The food in the restaurant won over Llorente, who wanted to bring all the best culinary resources under his control.

Llorente changed his previous attitude and actively encouraged Ronan's restaurant to participate in more food events in Provence, offering many excellent and insightful suggestions.

Ronan also warmly responded to Llorente's invitations one after another.

Bernard, standing to the side, was extremely anxious.

Hey, hey, hey, I'm still here. Why are you talking about other activities? Talk about the important dessert competition!

By avoiding any mention of this event, is Ronan only interested in other events and subtly declining?

Soon, the waiter placed a dessert in front of each person.

Upon seeing the 'hope' before him, Bernard sighed softly:
"I'm so glad to finally see you."

Bernard arrived in Gold in February late, and unfortunately missed his chance to see 'hope,' only managing to see photos.

This regrettable matter has finally been resolved today.

Looking at the 'hope' before him, and recalling the various positive evaluations of Ronan within the industry, Bernard said with both firmness and sincerity:

“I really want to work with you successfully. If you can attend the first Aix Dessert Competition, I will pay you a separate fee and promise to reimburse your team for all travel and accommodation expenses in Aix in May. I hope you will seriously consider it, Mr. Ronan.”

The shrewd Llorente smiled and pursed his lips.

Ronan is very concerned about the restaurant's exposure, and all the events he asked about had display areas, so he would definitely participate in the dessert competition. Why would Bernard be so foolish as to throw money away?
But that's fine, he likes these 'not very smart' customers.

Llorente could take this opportunity to further improve the relationship between the two sides. In Llorente's view, Ronan was also one of the less intelligent types.

He pretended to be embarrassed and said to Ronan:

“Bernard is very sincere in wanting to invite you to cooperate. You have no idea how much he likes and respects you. I can vouch for that. How about this? I will coordinate with the Aix government to give you more exposure opportunities and try my best to help you win first place in that dessert competition. Of course, a competition needs to have a winner and a loser.”

The underhanded dealings weren't exactly a shocking secret; Bernard simply felt that Llorente was helping him in his efforts.

And since an artist like Ronan went, he naturally has to be number one!
Ronan first patted Llorente's arm with a smile:
"No need, no need. Ranking depends entirely on ability, so don't make things difficult for me."

Then he patted Bernard's arm:

"You don't need to pay any money."

Bernard, unsure of what to do, asked:

"then you--"

Ronan raised his glass to the two men:
"I will definitely go so that I can make friends with you two. I had a great time chatting with you today."

Bernard excitedly raised his glass and clinked it against his:
"I've decided to be your friend!"

Llorente put on a happy expression as if 'finally, everything is perfect,' but in reality, he was extremely surprised.

I never expected Ronan to be such a master of interpersonal relationships.

Is he trying to gain popularity here too?
However, he couldn't immediately understand why Ronan wanted to gain Bernard's trust.

Will Ronan need Bernard's help in the future?

Llorente and Bernard stayed at Ronan's restaurant until after 3 p.m., and their friendship progressed rapidly.

Before leaving, Ronan and Llorente exchanged contact information and agreed to keep in touch.

“We’re all from Paris, so we’ll definitely keep in touch,” Ronan said with a smile as he saw them out of the restaurant.

Bernard thought for a moment:
“If you have the chance, come to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. I’ll introduce you to my other friends from Paris. We all moved from Paris to Provence to do wine-related business.”

Ronan had been waiting for this very sentence, and he gladly accepted it:

"Okay, I'll be going to Papal Newcastle at the end of the month on business. I'll contact you before I go."

After seeing off the two distinguished guests, Ronan happily returned to the restaurant.

Two important things happened that day.

One is that he finally made contact with the new winegrowers in Paris that he had been looking for for a long time, and he will likely need to learn from them in the future when running St. Strasbourg.

With his Parisian identity, achievements in Provence, and Bernard's help, it's quite possible for him to break into that circle.

The second major event was participating in several important exposure activities. With the help of these food events, Ronan believed that the restaurant would definitely do better and better, and wouldn't be too far from becoming the restaurant with queues all year round that Mr. Jacques had.

Thinking of this, Ronan smiled broadly and said to a winery worker who had just finished showing tourists around the vineyards and was resting in the restaurant:

"Marlen, go tell Henry and the others to come to the restaurant for dinner after they finish work today. It's on me."

"Okay!" Maren jumped up excitedly. "I'll go tell everyone right away."

Working in Strasbourg is great! The boss is reliable, the salary is great, and there's always free drinks and meals.

After arranging the dinner, Luo Nan invited Luo Tianhai to the second floor to talk about the food events that the restaurant had confirmed it would be attending this year.

“4月底梅纳村的面包大赛、5月份艾克斯的甜品大赛、6月份阿维尼翁举办的陶罐料理大赛、7月份阿尔勒的香肠特色烹饪大赛和8月份在圣特罗佩举办的烹饪大赛我们都可以参加一下，人手够吗？”罗南问父亲罗天海。

Llorente said that some events would last for as long as half a month, and Ronan was worried that participating in them would affect the restaurant's normal operations. Luo Tianhai thought for a moment:
"That should be enough. We have more manpower now, and these kinds of activities are mainly for you, Leah, and me, so it won't interfere with things at the restaurant. Which one can you participate in?"

Ronan's schedule is unpredictable, and he might suddenly be distracted by other things, so Luo Tianhai needs to prepare in advance.

Ronan spread his hands out:

"I can only guarantee that I will try my best to participate in the entire dessert competition; for the other events, I can at least show my face."

Participating in these events is meant to bring exposure to the restaurant, but there's not much point in Ronan spending his time there; he should be using his time for other, more meaningful things.

Luo Tianhai first nodded, indicating that he understood, then suddenly shook his head:
"You'd better participate in the bread competition as well. This will be our restaurant's first appearance at the Provence food event, which is very important. Especially since I don't know anything about bread, and Leah's expertise is in cakes and desserts, it might be a bit difficult for her to participate."

Ronan agreed after only a brief moment's thought:

“Okay, then I’ll take Thor with me.”

With recipes in mind, Ronan wasn't afraid to bake bread.

However, the bread-making competition happened to be around Easter, and Ronan was worried that if he participated, it would interfere with his trip with Thor.

But then he suddenly remembered that Thor had cooked every meal carefully during the few days he stayed at his house last year, and he had heard that Thor had been helping in the kitchen the whole time on the day of the proposal. Maybe Thor had a lot of fun at the bread competition?
"When is Thor coming?" Not only Ronan and Zoe were looking forward to Thor's arrival, but Feng Zhen and Luo Tianhai were also very grateful to Ronan for this friend.

Ronan said with a smile:
"Thor took the day off two days before Easter."

Perhaps it wasn't just Ronan's family who were looking forward to the meeting.
Thor too.

Luo Tianhai walked downstairs with his hands behind his back:

"I ordered the seafood in advance, and I wanted the best and freshest."

Ronan followed his father downstairs and ran into Cornell, the chubby boy.

When Cornell saw Ronan appear, he strode over to him.

Ronan unexpectedly asked Cornell:
"Why are you here? Don't you have a lecture this afternoon? Don't worry, we'll wait for you to arrive before we eat."

An unnatural flush appeared on Cornell's fair face, and he said anxiously to Ronan:

"The lady has arrived!"

Ronan joked:

"You're on par with Barty, how would I know which lady you're referring to?"

Both Cornell and Batty have an unusual passion for women, but they express it differently.

Batistuta is the proactive type; no matter how much the other person dislikes him, he will definitely take the initiative to get close to them.

Cornell is the "closet pervert" type. He doesn't dare to do anything when he sees a girl he likes. As soon as she leaves, he starts sighing and lamenting that he has missed out on love again.

Cornell slapped his arm a few times:

"That woman who likes to hit people is the one I've been thinking about all along!"

Ronan lost all interest in joking and suddenly became tense:

Where did you see her?

Cornell pointed behind him:

"The Rosé Wine Museum? I can't go out while I'm at work."

"Is she still there?" Ronan strode out, then suddenly stopped, as if remembering something, and asked Cornell, "You didn't tell her that Stellagasa is related to me, did you?"

Ronan hasn't told anyone in the association about taking over St. Scotts.

At first, he wanted to wait until Stella had developed in Lourmaran before making any moves, but he was too busy and forgot.

If the guess is correct, Astrid secretly helped Ronan after he learned that Ronan had 'missed out' on Stella.

This further proves that this woman has "connections to the highest levels," as she can even influence the government's budget figures!

If such an important person discovered that Ronan had actually bought Stellagas, what would she think?
God, the consequences would be unimaginable!

Cornell, in his naive and innocent way, said:
"I did tell her, but she asked me about it. I was afraid she had forgotten about you, so I added that you had eaten at Ronan's house."

Ronan gritted his teeth and said:

"I'm so grateful to you, she'll probably never forget me, even in her next life!"

Ronan sprinted to the rosé wine museum, splashing water on his face and body before entering to simulate being very 'busy' and 'hardworking', as a prelude to his explanation later.

However, the moment he saw the person in question, cold sweat immediately poured down his face; there was no need to pretend at all.

Dressed in an expensive champagne-colored suit and exuding aristocratic manners, Astrid gave Ronan the most 'radiant' smile they had ever had since they met.

That smile made Ronan feel incredibly dangerous!

Ronan nervously swallowed.
"Please don't be angry. Listen to me."

(End of this chapter)