1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 485 Ronan's Change

Fifteen minutes later.

On a sparsely populated hillside outside the village of Lurmalan.

Isabelle lay on the grass, propping her head up as she watched Vieri leaning against a large tree in the distance, reading and studying. Her two legs were raised and lowered towards the sky, showing her happiness.

Whether he encountered a difficult problem or discovered a missing piece of knowledge, Vieri looked up from the book, gazed at the sky above, and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Isabel asked, still in her original position, not even having time to pull the smile off her lips.

Vieri said somewhat dejectedly:
"There are still many things I don't know."

In Provence, a score of 10 or higher on the high school graduation exam is required to qualify for university.

However, Vieri's grades in the last semester were consistently in the range of 9-11 points. In the period leading up to the exams, the most important thing was to fill in the gaps in his knowledge, but the more he tried to fill in the gaps, the more uncertain he felt.

Isabel put her foot down, and the smile on her lips vanished.
“But you’ve already tried so hard. You get up an hour earlier and go to bed an hour later. You spend all your time reading except for eating. And you haven’t played football for more than two months, and you don’t watch the games anymore.”

Vieri lay down on the grass, covered his face with a book, and spoke in an even lower voice:

"If you don't get into university, all those efforts will be worthless."

In 1986, the pass rate for the high school graduation exams across France was between 60% and 65%, but the university pass rate in the Luberon region was only 35% to 45%. The quality of teachers in this region was significantly lower than in larger cities, so a larger proportion of students actually failed to get into university.

But every family still hopes that their child will be successful.

Although Vieri repeatedly lowered his parents' expectations, saying that his chances of getting into university were fifty-fifty and that they should not have any excessive expectations.

But deep down, he longed to be a college student like his sister Zoe.

My father, mother, sister, and future brother-in-law are all the most outstanding people in the village.

Vieri also wanted to catch up with these people and prove himself.

Isabelle didn't know how to comfort Vieri, because she hadn't gone to university either and had started working right after graduating high school.

At the same time, Isabelle was unable to help Vieri improve her grades; the knowledge from the books had long since left her.

She could only help Vieri from other places:

"Let's refresh our minds, eat something, and then we'll have the energy to study again!"

Vieri removed the book from his face and saw Isabelle take a pretty picnic blanket out of the picnic box—another new one. This was the fourth new picnic blanket this month. He said in a complicated tone:

"I've already eaten breakfast. I've told you so many times not to bring any more food, I can't eat anymore."

Isabel happily laid out each piece of food onto her carefully chosen tablecloth:
"But I didn't eat it. I like to eat while watching nature in the morning. Isn't that so comforting?"

Vieri sighed, put down his book, sat down opposite Isabel, and picked up a piece of bread that was still warm from the toast:

"I'm going to a restaurant after school tonight."

In the final month, Vieri stopped helping out at the restaurant in order to prepare for his exams.

"Go home and study, what are you doing at the restaurant?" Isabel handed him the cheese and knife, with a napkin carefully wrapped around the knife.

Vieri picked up a knife and cut off a piece of cheese:
"Mom prepared a lot of things for the dessert competition. Today there are two new desserts to taste, and I'm going to go and give her some encouragement."

Vieri was a warm-hearted man, but he was too stubborn.

He had seen how hard Leah had worked during this time; her level of dedication was no less than that of him, a high school student preparing for college entrance exams.

Today is the day to showcase our progress, how could he possibly be absent from such a day?

Vieri had to go and offer his son encouragement and support.

Isabel nodded; she had also heard about it.
That night I asked Joyner to make beef stew.

Joyner is a chef trained by Luo Tianhai. On days when there are no gatherings, Joyner is responsible for cooking everyone's working meals.

"Didn't you just have a hot pot the day before yesterday?" Vieri casually placed the empty cheese box next to him.

Although he hadn't been to the restaurant during this time, he knew everything that happened there, big and small.

Isabel started chattering away as soon as she saw him.

Isabel, one hand on her knee, moved her body toward the village of Lourmaran down the hillside, while the other hand stuffed a piece of bread into her mouth.
“I need to help someone recover. How can they go home and study if they don’t have the energy? They can’t remember anything and are just crying and sighing all day. I don’t want to hear that.”

“You—” Vieri’s first reaction was to retort.

Who are you calling a crying, sighing person?

It's just a feeling, nothing more!

But before he could finish speaking, he suddenly lowered his head, hummed, and stuffed the bread into his mouth, silencing the unpleasant words that were about to escape his lips.

Then he noticed the cheese box beside him. After thinking it over and hesitating for a while, he finally put it back in the middle of the picnic mat, in an area that Isabel could reach.

Leah strives to improve herself in order to keep up with Ronan.

She modestly believed that her dessert skills were far inferior to Ronan's, so she did not inform Ronan or Luo Tianhai about tonight's dessert tasting event, but only told her family and a few women in the kitchen with whom she had a good relationship.

She wanted to wait until her dessert skills were good enough before inviting Ronan and his son for a formal tasting.

Unaware of the event, Ronan invited his restaurant owner friends, including Artur, to the evening, hoping to introduce his father, Luo Tianhai, into their circle.

"So soon?" Luo Tianhai was extremely surprised when he learned that someone was coming to the restaurant tonight.

He had just mentioned this to his son yesterday morning.

That's incredible execution!

Ronan was speechless when the topic came up:
“Yesterday afternoon I called Artur and asked him to ask his friends when they would be free, since we hadn’t seen each other in a long time and wanted to get together. I didn’t expect the gathering to be arranged in just one day. If we’re talking about execution, then they should be the ones with the best execution skills.”

"How many of them are there?" Luo Tianhai asked.

If you want to get into the circle, you have to show your utmost sincerity.

We need to prepare this dinner properly tonight.

“Seven,” Ronan said, pointing to a spot near the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the shopping street. “The seats will be reserved here.”

Luo Tianhai revealed a knowing smile.

If you're talking about the best ambiance in a restaurant, it's definitely the outdoor area in the courtyard.

Sitting there eating and enjoying the scenery is truly pleasant.

When the restaurant opens in the morning, everyone rushes inside; they only come inside when there's no room outside.

Ronan reserved this indoor spot for his friends so they could always see the people waiting outside.

"Alright, I'll go get ready." Luo Tianhai patted Luo Nan on the shoulder and left confidently.

Artur and his party arrived around 3 p.m.

Based on Ronan's understanding of the people of Provence, if the friends you invite to dinner arrive before 4 p.m., it often means that they will not leave until after 8 p.m.

Clearly, these restaurant owners were really looking forward to this gathering.

Ronan had met almost everyone in Artur's circle of restaurant owners, and many times over.

This time, in addition to Taylor, Noah, Isaac and a few others he was familiar with, there was another person who didn't often hang out with them.

Olivier had gained weight again, and when he hugged Ronan, Ronan could barely breathe.

“Oh, dear Ronan, I knew you always bring me such wonderful surprises. You’ve become even more successful in the months since I last saw you,” Olivier whispered in Ronan’s ear. “Thanks to you, our restaurant in Lourmaran is doing better and better.”

Olivier's wife, Mrs. Chers, runs a small but charming restaurant in Lourmarin, which used to be one of the places Ronan and Zoe frequented.

However, after Olivier and Lucas parted ways over the truffle business, Mrs. Chers rarely appeared there, and the restaurant, like the other dozen or so restaurants Olivier ran, was handed over to other people to manage.

Later, Ronan opened a restaurant, and Zoe and Ronan never ate there again. They heard that after Mrs. Chers stopped appearing, the quality control there was not as strict, and the taste was not as good as before.

However, with such a large number of tourists visiting Lourmaran now, it's only natural that business there has improved compared to previous years.

Ronan had always been very enthusiastic when he met Olivier; it was his consistent style, and he always gave people a warm and welcoming feeling.

However, this time he changed his personality:
"Thanks to you, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Lucas. This time, we used the world's most advanced seedling technology, which increased the mycelial survival rate by at least 50% compared to last year. The research institutes in Carpentera are very confident in this experiment. I have to thank you, Olivier. If you hadn't withdrawn, how could I have gotten such a good opportunity?"

Olivier's smile froze on his face.

He had certainly heard the news that Lucas and Ronan were collaborating on experiments to artificially cultivate black truffles.

Olivier only dared to believe it after hearing the same answer from five different people!
But he didn't expect Ronan to bring it up to him on his own initiative.

It's clear that Ronan and Lucas have become very close.

His tone and attitude were just like Lucas's brother Theo's, filled with intense hostility!
Olivier wanted to say a few words to ease the 'misunderstanding' between the two parties.

But Ronan didn't give him a second, bypassing the 'mountain of flesh' to greet the next person.

Olivier sighed as he watched Ronan's retreating figure.

In just over a year, the naive young man who had just arrived in Provence and was polite to everyone had gained the confidence to express his true feelings.

At the same time, he kept reminding himself that he could no longer treat this guy with the same attitude as before. From now on, he might have to look up to him every time they met.

(End of this chapter)