1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 508 What a knowledgeable patron!

Fortunately, Ronan contacted the Provence Truffle Research Center before going to Carpenter, otherwise he would have been disappointed.

The person who answered the phone said that Professor Fernand had led a team to be stationed near the experimental forest, and they had been there for more than a week.

Having located the person, Ronan drove to the forest that Lucas had bought.

This time he went by himself, while Lucas was still developing the market for Stella by the sea, and Cherno introduced him to new friends.

Ronan had visited the forest that Lucas had bought several times, but always in Lucas's car. He only knew that the forest was located in the northwesternmost corner of the province of Vaucluse, belonging to a small town called Pioranc with more than 5000 residents.

In 1987, there was no navigation, and in remote areas there were no road signs at all. The forest that Lucas bought was very "deep". Ronan first asked several helpful citizens in Pioranque, and then stopped several cars coming from the opposite direction before he finally found the right way.

The Vaucluse province has vast forest areas, with contiguous forests mainly growing around two areas: the Luberon Mountains and the shady side of the western foothills of the Ventour Mountains. The rest are scattered small forest areas.

The forest that Lucas bought, and the forest near Lourmaran, both belong to the latter.

"If I had the chance to buy vast forests in the Luberon Mountains or the western foothills of Venturi to cultivate truffles, I would never have to worry about anything for the rest of my life." As the road narrowed and the buildings on both sides gradually became deserted until they were all replaced by forests, Ronan couldn't help but dream.

At the same time, he couldn't help but think that 70% of those forests were privately owned.

There are so many rich people in Provence.

"I wonder who's selling the forest in Lourmaran? Do they even live in the village?"

"Bruno said that the private forest was most likely passed down through generations, so why would he/she sell it?"

"Which noble family has fallen into decline yet?"

Lost in thought and constantly asking for directions, Ronan walked and stopped for more than two hours before finally stumbling to his destination—an abandoned small logging camp.

Seeing this logging camp means we've arrived at the forest Lucas bought.

At this moment, there were many cars parked in the yard of the logging camp, and some people had set up temporary tents inside. When Ronan came before, there were only some equipment parked there, and nothing else.

“The experimental center has made this their ‘headquarters’.” Ronan turned off the engine and got out of the car.

Not far behind the logging camp is an ecological buffer zone, and further behind is an experimental forest. This logging camp is indeed the best choice for a base camp.

Ronan randomly picked a tent, crawled inside, and asked Professor Fermín where he was.

Professor Fermín's student said that the professor was leading a group of people in the experimental forest.

This place wasn't close to Lourmaran, and Ronan wasn't familiar with the roads. Waiting for people to return might delay his return trip, so he decided to go in and look for them.

The student gave Ronan some instructions, and after Ronan thanked him, he left through the back door of the logging camp and entered the forest.

After Ronan left, the student said to the people around him:
"The benefactor's timing today is really bad. The professor won't treat him with any courtesy just because he paid for the experiment. He'll probably only be met with the professor's wrath when he goes in."

"Alright, stop chatting and get back to work," another person urged. "If we can't come up with a solution that satisfies the professor, we'll be the ones bearing his brunt of his anger."

Ronan walked cautiously, afraid of damaging the plants along the way.

Don't underestimate any of the plants in the buffer zone; they were all transplanted or newly cultivated by Lucas last year at his own expense. Ronan was truly heartbroken if he trampled on them.

After Professor Fernand's team took over, they spent some money to upgrade the buffer zone, making it even more effective.

The ecological buffer zone has two main functions: physical isolation and ecological regulation. However, these two functions are difficult to achieve in the same way, so a stratified structure is required.

The outermost layer is a windbreak made of trees, including wild olive trees and Chinese pistache trees. Its function is to reduce wind speed and reduce rain erosion. At the same time, these trees can also block the invasion of large animals.

The second layer is a deep-rooted shrub barrier, mostly composed of rosemary, lavender, and rock rose. Some of these aromatic plants can secrete insect repellent substances, while others can strengthen the odor barrier. Their function is to prevent the invasion of weed roots, reduce the spread of competitive fungal spores, and repel insects, while also masking some of the truffle scent to prevent animals from digging it up.

The innermost layer is the green manure rotation zone. The purpose of this area is to increase soil organic matter. However, because the plants native to Provence that can grow organic matter are seasonal, different plants are planted in this area in spring and autumn.

After passing through these three areas, Ronan finally arrived at the actual experimental forest. However, the forest that Lucas had bought was very large, covering 10 hectares. Ronan searched for a long time before finding the group that was conducting experiments there.

This was all thanks to Professor Fernand's loud voice.

Ronan could hear him yelling at the students from two kilometers away.

"This is your ventilation solution? The mycelium needs to wear an oxygen mask in the ground, believe it or not? Even cacti in the desert have a higher respiration efficiency than here!"

"Antibacterial? I asked you to find ways to inhibit bacteria, not to research how to make blue cheese! There's no need for sampling experiments; I can see with my own eyes how lush the bacterial flora is growing here!"

"And this potting soil you're carrying. Throw it away, throw it away now. Sending this soil back to Carpentertra will only make people laugh their heads off."

"I suggest you apply to switch groups. What I need here are more responsible students. More than a month has passed, let's see what you've produced in your experiments?"

Despite being scolded, one of the students immediately alerted Professor Fernand when he saw Ronan arrive.

We can't let the client know about this embarrassing thing, what if he wants a refund?

Professor Fernand was furious and not only continued his tirade, he also included Ronan in the insults.

He asked:

"Who let you in? We're conducting a sterile experiment. You came in without proper protective gear and disrupted our experimental environment. Are you going to take responsibility for that?"

Ronan's innocent, flat hands:
“I’m not deaf. Your experiment isn’t going very well, is it? You just said that the environment here is good enough to make blue cheese.”

If they can make blue cheese, what difference does my little bit of 'bacteria' make?

Professor Fernand frowned and said:
"That was a metaphor! No matter how bad the environment here is, it's impossible to make blue cheese. Our sterilization rate is already over 65%, but it hasn't met my requirements yet. Besides, these two environments are completely incomparable. Blue cheese requires—"

Ronan had no time to listen to the professor's long-winded explanation. He gave him a 'spare me' look and spoke up quickly:
"I understand, I understand. The core microorganism needed for blue cheese is Penicillium loudi, which requires lactic acid bacteria and Bacillus. This environment simply cannot produce these two types of bacteria."

Professor Fernand and his students, who were watching Ronan with sympathy, widened their eyes in surprise.

This investor is quite knowledgeable!
"Speak, what brings you here?" After dismissing the students, Professor Fermín asked Ronan about his purpose in a relatively calm manner.

Even when dealing with a wealthy patron who understands what he is doing now, what he plans to do in the future, and what his purpose is, he can still remain calm and control his attitude.

Ronan didn't beat around the bush; he said it directly:

“I want to buy a new forest in Lourmaran. It’s not a large area, and I’ll also conduct truffle cultivation experiments there. Do you have the energy to take over that area as well?”

A few months ago, Juliet told Ronan that fewer and fewer people in Provence were willing to invest money in the artificial cultivation of truffles.

The "artificial cultivation of truffles" project, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, was launched in response to the cold wave at the beginning of the year. The goal was to cultivate 300 hectares of forest, but after several months, they have not even managed to raise enough funds for half of it.

In that case, having more manpower for that small patch of woods should be enough.

Professor Fernand shook his head without even thinking:

"We can't take over. Our energy is limited. We are currently focusing all our efforts on overcoming two technical challenges. If we can't solve these two challenges, it will be futile to take over any more forests."

During their last meeting, Professor Fernand told Ronan about their plans for the next few months—to find effective ways to improve soil sterilization and aeration before planting in the fall.

Ronan had clearly heard everything the professor said to the students, and it all revolved around these two issues. Clearly, the technical difficulties the professor was referring to were these two. Knowing Professor Fernand's personality, Ronan asked directly:
"No improvement at all?"

Professor Fernand stated bluntly:

"There has been improvement, but it is still not enough to reach my goal."

Ronan looked at the soil at his feet, which had clearly been turned over recently, and asked:

"May I ask what your current research direction is?"

As the financial backer, Ronan had the right to know what the lab was doing, so Professor Fernand gave a concise and to-the-point answer:

"Regarding soil sterilization, my goal is to create a clean and ideal basic environment, and to eliminate all potential threats as much as possible so that each operation after planting can be guaranteed."

Seeing Ronan remain silent with his head down, Professor Fernand said a few more words:
"The main experimental direction is to expose the soil to the sun's ultraviolet rays through large-scale chemical fumigation, steam sterilization, or deep sun-drying. The success of the experiment is judged by the survival rate of fungi, bacteria, and nematodes. The ultimate goal is to create a relatively sterile or low-bacterial blank environment through experiments, reduce competition, and allow the inoculated black truffle strains to have more room to grow and a higher survival rate."

After a few seconds of silence, Ronan suddenly looked up at him and said:

"I'm listening, please continue."

After Ronan responded, Professor Fernand continued:
"There's not much to say about air permeability. It's the same method you used in your experiment last year: adding coarse sand or fine rock fragments to heavy soil to increase large pores. Now the experiment focuses on the ratio of coarse sand to fine rock fragments and the depth of deep tillage."

Another brief silence followed; Ronan simply lowered his head in thought, not uttering a single word.

Professor Fernand's anger surged again.

Do you know how precious my time is?

I stayed to talk to you, but you kept getting distracted. That's so disrespectful!

Professor Fernand stormed off in anger, without even saying goodbye.

He had only taken two steps when Ronan behind him spoke:
"I recently heard something new from a truffle hunter. Would you like to hear it?"

Ronan wasn't just spacing out; he was listening very attentively.

He not only listened attentively, but he also multitasked.

When Ronan upgraded [Planting] to level 5, he gained two skills.

One is a 'simulator'—by setting specific planting information such as crops and environment, you can deduce numerous possible endings.

It was through this ability that Ronan found a way to cultivate Merlot in Provence.

As for the second skill, even after two months, Ronan still hadn't fully mastered it. After leveling up, something like a 'Yellow Pages' appeared in his mind.

But this 'Yellow Pages' is far too obscure and difficult to understand compared to the 'Yellow Pages' for cooking.

After obtaining this item, Ronan would flip through a few pages almost every day. Except for a very few entries and pieces of knowledge that he could understand at once, he could only get a rough understanding of most of them and needed to study and digest them repeatedly to fully grasp them.

In order to make use of this ability quickly, Ronan changed his approach. Instead of getting bogged down in a single entry and spending a lot of time on it, he quickly skimmed through it to get a general idea of ​​the contents of the entire 'Yellow Pages'.

We'll tackle them one by one when we need them.

Sure enough, Ronan was flipping through a book when Professor Fernand mentioned soil sterilization and air permeability.

The 'Yellow Pages' were presented as entries and were quite obscure. Ronan wasted some time before finding a possible way to overcome these two problems.

Why do I say it's possible?

Ronan hadn't fully understood these two terms yet, so he didn't dare to make any rash statements.

Ronan had previously used the same excuse to help Fernand find a more advanced method for mycelial colonization, which had almost doubled the success rate.

How could he not be interested when he heard that Ronan had heard something new from the truffle hunter?
"Is it some kind of advanced technology?" he asked seriously.

Ronan squatted down, grabbed a handful of dirt, and carefully rubbed it a couple of times:
"It's not advanced technology, but a way of thinking."

Ronan looked at the professor not far away:

"Your goal is to create a clean and ideal environment for truffles to grow safely, but does such an ideal state really exist? Probably not. In that case, why not try to create a specific micro-ecological environment that supports a symbiotic relationship? For example, coexisting with certain healthy microorganisms?"

The long silence began for the third time.

But this time it was Fernand who remained silent.

After a very long time, he asked Ronan:
"Did that truffle hunter mention where this experiment was conducted, or where the experimental data can be found?"

Last time, he verified the feasibility of the method by searching for experimental data.

Ronan shrugged and said apologetically:
“No this time, but I don’t think we need to experiment. Our mycelium and the host tree have a symbiotic relationship.”

Fernand shook his head seriously:

"A single word makes a world of difference."

Ronan encouraged them, saying:
"Then you can take the lead in this experiment and not rely on others."

Ronan was very self-aware. With the system's help, he could have many, many identities, but 'scientist' was definitely not one of them.

It was difficult enough just to read the knowledge in the Yellow Pages; he simply didn't have the ability to put it into practice. You have to understand that there's a huge gap between knowledge and practice, and theory doesn't equal success.

Even if we take a step back and assume Ronan doesn't want to waste his youth in the lab, his life shouldn't be like this.

He needs an assistant, and also a team that can continuously experiment, try, and turn theory into reality.

Ronan continued his shameless self-recommendation:
"For example, how about finding a new plot of land, like the one I just bought?"

Fernand's expression was serious, as if he was weighing something.

Seeing that his 'helper' remained unmoved, Ronan said in a highly persuasive tone:
“My land is in Lourmaran, right in the village where I live. It’s close by, so I can visit it more often and help you out. Pioranque is too far from where I live.”

Professor Fernand turned and left without hesitation:

"Let's go take a look at that piece of land."

Do you think Fernand's silence was a reflection on the validity of this new approach?

Wrong, dead wrong!

He was thinking about how to swallow his pride and get Ronan to come and visit more often.

This extraordinary client got to know a group of amazing truffle hunters!

(End of this chapter)