1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 220: Speak the truth to people and speak lies to ghosts
Luo Tianhai is responsible for all operations of the restaurant, and Ronan never interferes.

However, Luo Tianhai would report the latest situation to Ronan every once in a while.

After referring to the opening activities of other restaurants in the Luberon area, their opening times and the situation in Lourmarin, Luo Tianhai decided to use the week after the opening as a "trial operation" period, offering a 50% discount on all food except alcohol in order to attract more customers.

As suggested by Ronan, the main meals include not only improved dishes that are more in line with the local people's taste, but also 'special' Chinese dishes with authentic flavors but French presentation.

The restaurant also offers a more affordable 'set meal' every day, targeting customers and families who want to try something new or who are not financially well-off.

The format of the set menu is similar to that of the family restaurant at the entrance of Bonnieux village. There is no ordering process and you can eat whatever the chef serves. However, it is absolutely guaranteed that the guests will be full and can taste the essence of Chinese food.

Luo Tianhai believes that two sets of menus plus the daily special set menu are enough to cover any needs of customers in the Luberon area, so that the restaurant's business situation will be more secure.

The pressure to open during the off-season is just too great.

Both Luo Tianhai and Ronan were racking their brains to find ways to attract more customers when the store opened.

"How many people do you estimate will come on the opening day?" Luo Tianhai was calculating the manpower.

Currently there are only four permanent employees in the restaurant: him, Feng Zhen, Ronan and Leah.

In addition, there are four wives of Ronan's friends who will come to help 'temporarily'.

The reason why Luo Tianhai did not increase the number of permanent employees and only hired "temporary workers" was because he was not sure about the business situation in autumn and winter.

If the business isn't going so well, maybe the four of them can handle it, so there's no need to hire anyone, so now they're looking for 'temporary workers'.

Anyway, there are so many acquaintances in the village, and we can always find someone when we are short of people.

However, he still wanted to estimate the customer flow during the opening days so that he could divide the work and make arrangements for everyone. Ronan was in charge of this part.

Ronan gave a thumbs up:

"During the opening days, Theo and Pierre's group of farmers will definitely come to support us. They may not come to eat, but they will definitely come to drink."

Lourmarin is Ronan’s home ground.

Ronan didn't have to do anything, as word of mouth spread among the 800 people in the village and they knew his restaurant would open next Wednesday.

Luo Tianhai took a pen and wrote it down:
“Those guys are familiar with the restaurant and can take care of themselves.”

Ronan raised another finger:
"The customers who often order lunch boxes should come. There should be about a dozen of them."

Ronan was not idle after finishing the decoration.

He specially visited several big customers in the village who often ordered meals, and informed them of the various preferential activities during the "trial operation" period. He hoped that they would visit more often when they have time and give the restaurant valuable suggestions.

Even if Ronan didn't come to inform them, these wealthy people who had already regarded Ronan's house as a "canteen" would still go to support it. I heard that there were even more active opening activities. A newly developed Chinese food fanatic threatened to try the entire cookbook within a week.

Luo Tianhai silently recorded:
"it is good."

Ronan extended his third finger:
"I have some friends coming."

Luo Tianhai raised his head and asked:

"How many specifically?"

Ronan considered for a moment:
"About eight."

Those who clearly stated that they would be there on the opening day included President Ines, Mr. Jacques, Jerome who runs the pink winery, Gabriel, Marini, Lucas, Thomas and Cotillard.

Many people in the Pink Wine Association are watching Astrid's movements, but this lady seems to be a little busy recently. She replied to Ronan that she would only be available in mid-to-late October.

So there is a high probability that those big shots will come to support Ronan after that.

In fact, Ronan did not expect them all to come on the opening day. Being able to come was a victory. After all, opening a restaurant is a long-term endeavor.

It’s also a good thing that Astrid comes later. Ronan will have more time to prepare the rosé wine atmosphere. He has been too busy recently and hasn’t thought of a solution yet.

Luo Tianhai tapped on the notebook:
"Louis and the others will definitely come too."

Ronan raised his fourth finger, but frowned slightly:

"But that's still not enough, right? We have a total of 140 seats indoors and outdoors."

The goal on the first day of opening was of course to be full, but now it seems...
Luo Tianhai put down his pen and asked with a smile:
"You still want to eat a fat man in one bite?"

"Too little." Ronan tapped the table with his index finger.

Luo Tianhai is now much calmer and not as radical as before:
"It's not the travel season now, so it's good to have half the attendance. You know the situation with Thomas and Cotillard."

After saying this, he put away his pen and notebook and went to do other things.

Ronan called his father back and pointed at his little finger, which he had not yet put down:
"I'm not done yet."

"What else?" Luo Tianhai thought for a moment, "Are you talking about natural customer flow? There's no way to predict that, but I have a rough psychological expectation."

They have been selling boxed lunches at the market for more than a month. Based on the sales of boxed lunches, Luo Tianhai had already made an estimate of this part.

Ronan pouted in dissatisfaction:
"Your psychological expectations are definitely different from mine."

Saturday.

The last Mena Village market before the restaurant opened.

Luo Tianhai arrived at Ronan's stall at 10 o'clock as usual.

Ronan's sweet and sour pork and rosé wine were selling like hot cakes. While working, Vieri and Feng Zhen pointed to the handwritten blackboard in front of the stall to introduce the restaurant's opening event next week to the customers.

Seeing that everyone was busy, Luo Tianhai put down his things and went to various stalls to sell lunch boxes.

Although the role of these stall owners is to act as "billboards" for the people, we cannot rule out the possibility that they come to support the food because they think it's delicious, so Luo Tianhai still introduced it very enthusiastically.

"Hey, are you still having boxed lunches today? We've got a new batch of dishes. By the way, our restaurant will open next Wednesday. The first week will be a 'trial operation' period. Except for drinks, all other dishes -"

The stall owner interrupted Luo Tianhai's introduction with a smile:
"Except for drinks, everything else is 5% off, right? I already know that. I won't eat today. I'll go eat your freshly cooked food on Wednesday."

"Ah. Okay!" Luo Tianhai did not delve into why that person knew that.

Maybe it was because he heard Ronan's shouting?

However, when he reached the end of the market, a few hundred meters away from Ronan's stall, and found that the stall owner still knew the information about the restaurant's opening, Luo Tianhai became uneasy.

“My son is here to promote it?”

This was the only possibility Luo Tianhai could think of.

The stall owner looked at Luo Tianhai's face in shock, then said in a complicated tone:

"Your son doesn't look like you." "No way?" This is a regular customer. Luo Tianhai said with a smile, "My son and I look a lot like each other. Everyone says so."

The stall owner looked even uglier, pointing at a fat white figure outside the market and saying:
"Then your wife's genes are very strong. You can't tell at all that your son is mixed-race."

Luo Tianhai: “???”

"Cornell?!" Luo Tianhai went over to meet his new 'son' and asked in surprise, "Why did you come to Mena Village?"

The fat boy Cornell waved a thick stack of flyers in his hand:
"Ronan asked me to help distribute flyers."

"Flyers?"

Luo Tianhai took one and found that the text on the flyer described the upcoming opening of their restaurant.

He immediately smiled.

This kid Ronan made a big fuss, even using flyers.

"Thank you for your hard work. Give me some. I will help you distribute them when I go to sell lunch boxes." Luo Tianhai said, stretching out his hand.

Cornell smiled and shook his head:

"No, no, if I can't finish distributing them, I'll give them to Theo and Fabian."

"Theo and Fabian are here too?" Luo Tianhai was a little surprised.

"More than that!" Cornell said proudly, "More than 20 people came. All the good-looking farmers were called by Ronan. Haha, you didn't see how Henry looked when he was 'unsuccessful'. He wanted to eat the flyer."

"Do you want to look good?" Luo Tianhai frowned.

Cornell quickly caught up with the two young ladies and handed them the flyers, saying in a gentlemanly manner:

"The first Chinese restaurant in Luberon will open in Lourmarin next week. The atmosphere and decoration there are very suitable for two beautiful ladies. During the trial period, the food is 50% off. Even if you don't eat, it would be a good choice to take a few photos. Take one."

After the two ladies left, Cornell said to Luo Tianhai:

"The 'talking skills' given by Ronan."

After saying that, he turned around and handed the flyer to a housewife in her forties:

"The first Chinese restaurant in Luberon is opening in Lourmarin next week. If you are tired of cooking, you can take your family there. The daily set menu is affordable and filling, and you can take the kids out for a trip at the same time. Take one, ma'am."

The lady wanted to leave immediately, but after seeing Cornell's clean white skin, she accepted it.

Cornell winked at Luo Tianhai quietly, as if to say:
Am I attractive?

Luo Tianhai was not in a hurry to go back. He walked around the market carefully and found that this kind of propaganda of "speaking differently to different people" was being carried out in many corners of the Mena Village Market.

There were guests around, so Luo Tianhai was embarrassed to ask Ronan anything.

The morning market was over. As they were moving their things to the parking lot, Luo Tianhai pointed at the discarded flyers on the ground and asked Ronan:
"You have completely infiltrated Mena Village."

This place is already out of the market area, but there are still many flyers, which means that Ronan not only asked his friends to distribute them in the market, but the whole village was distributing flyers.

Feng Zhen just listened to Luo Tianhai's description and asked distressedly:
"Does this cost a lot of money?"

Ronan smiled and said:
"It's not expensive. Sylvie introduced me to a very cheap printing factory. It only costs 1000 francs for 150 copies."

"So cheap?" Feng Zhen curled her lips.

It's Provence prices.

"That's not right. My father also often printed flyers. I remember the cheapest one was 220 francs per thousand sheets." Vieri was sensitive to this information.

Ronan put the things in the trunk and touched Vieri's head:
"You are quite impressive. You know all this. Normally it is 220 francs per thousand sheets, but I printed a lot, so they gave me a discount."

The windshield wipers of Luo Tianhai and Luo Nan's cars were all covered with flyers of their restaurant. Luo Tianhai said with some distress:

"Mena Village can't use so much, it's a waste."

"Don't waste it." Ronan waved to Fabian and the others who were smoking in the distance, and then said to his parents and Vieri, "You guys go back. My friends and I are going to the next village."

"Are you going to the next village?" Luo Tianhai asked, tilting his head.

Ronan got in his truck:

"Yes, otherwise how can I distribute all the tens of thousands of flyers I printed?"

"Tens of thousands?!" Feng Zhen's scream echoed in Mena Village.

Bonnieux.

Mr. Jacques, who was about to drive to buy something, saw a flyer under the windshield wiper and was about to throw it away, but when he found many tempting hand-painted pictures of food on it, he picked it up and took a closer look.

After a few seconds, he smiled, folded the flyer and put it in his pocket:

“The hand-painted patterns are very pretty.”

Gold.

Astrid was sitting in an outdoor cafe with a few other people in formal attire.

She yawned out of boredom, picked up the wine glass and found that it contained red wine. Anger immediately flashed in her eyes, and when she listened carefully to the conversation of these people, her anger became even greater.

"Ma'am, there's a very beautiful restaurant opening in Lourmarin. During the trial period, the food is 50% off. Even if you don't eat, it would be a good idea to take a couple of photos. Take one."

If it were any other time, Astrid wouldn't even offer her hand, but now she just wanted to find something to distract herself from this boring party.

She took the flyer and began to read it lazily, and soon a slight smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

Aix.

Business at the art store is so bleak during the off-travel season that Cotillard has returned to Aix to spend the winter and will reopen next year.

She slept until the afternoon and went to have dinner with her friend. As soon as they met, she was attracted by the flyer in her friend's hand.

"A restaurant flyer, right? The hand-painted picture on it reminds me of a friend who owns a restaurant."

The friend on the other side said:

"Is this your friend's restaurant? The address written on it is Lourmarin."

"What?" Cotillard's afro exploded instantly, "Ronan sent flyers to Aix?!"

(End of this chapter)