1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 270 Warm Winter

By December, the temperature in Luberon dropped significantly.

The average daytime temperature is between 6-12 degrees, and the nighttime temperature is between 0-6 degrees.

There are still hunters in the dense forest connected to Ronan's vineyard, but they will not come so early. The people of Provence, who know how to enjoy themselves, do not like to have picnics in the cold wind.

Without the bustling crowds, the fresh air in the early morning becomes more pleasant, and you can better appreciate the vast and tranquil scenery of Luberon.

"Your house is in a good location." Lucas looked at the beautiful Luberon Valley in the distance and asked Ronan, "Did you buy a house outside the village specifically?"

There are vineyards, a large yard, and it is close to the forest. The surrounding scenery is also very beautiful. The environment where Ronan lives is really great.

Ronan shifted his attention away from Xiao Hei and Margaret, shook his head and said:

"No, I was in a hurry to buy it, and I didn't know the surrounding conditions of the house in detail."

Lucas asked doubtfully:
"Are you in a hurry to buy it? Are you in a hurry to move to Provence?"

"Not entirely. Besides wanting to move in early, I was also worried that someone else would buy the house." Ronan recalled the situation with a smile, "The price of the house was not high at the time, and the previous owner was anxious to sell it."

Lucas sighed:

"You are in luck. If it were this year, you probably wouldn't have encountered such a good thing."

Lucas had to pay the high operating costs of artificially cultivated truffles every month, so he sold his boat in Marseille and several cars that he didn't drive.

He also inquired about the house prices in Lourmarin. Although it was almost impossible to sell the house, he was still prepared for the possibility of failure.

Only after asking this did he find out that the house prices in Lourmarin had risen so much this year.

The big house he built a few years ago can now be sold for more than 50 francs.

Ronan nodded in fear:
"Yes. If there was another cheap house in Lourmarin now, the news would have no chance to reach Paris. It would probably be snatched up as soon as it arrived at Menard Village. I can only say that I was lucky and encountered a better opportunity."

You are lucky in more ways than just this, Lucas thought bitterly in his heart.

"How was the sales in Carpentras that day?" Lucas asked in a chatty tone, without any emotion.

Ronan recounted to Lucas his experience in Carpentras:

The top-quality truffles were sent to Paris, and I met a legendary truffle broker, which broadened my horizons and knowledge.

Lucas regretted it even more after hearing this. He wished he had gone with them.

That's a chance to deal with a legendary truffle broker!
If he is lucky, could he even meet a big agent with whom he can collaborate in the artificial truffle business?
“The truffle business is full of traps and unknown possibilities,” he said softly, “This is the charm of black gold.”

"Indeed." Ronan said with a longing tone, "The truffle market in Provence is very large and has a very bright future. The French who love truffles will never give up this ingredient. I heard that the overseas market demand is also very high now."

Ronan's words made Lucas feel that his choice was right, and he should grit his teeth and persevere even if it was difficult.

Lucas half-jokingly, half-to encourage himself:

"I hope that in the future, I can also add the word 'legend' before my name."

"The legendary pioneer of artificially cultivated truffles?" Ronan asked jokingly.

Lucas thought for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed heartily:

"That sounds good."

Ronan laughed with Lucas for a while and asked him:

"How's your forest doing?"

After talking with Ronan about the future of the truffle business, Lucas felt much better and said in a relaxed tone:

"Everything is going well. We took a mycelium sample last month and the data was ideal. If the survival rate can be maintained at 40%-50% next spring, the fungus production will be quite good."

The overall process of artificially cultivating truffles is very complicated. To put it simply, it is to inoculate the mycelium cultivated in the laboratory into the roots of the host tree.

In the laboratory, the survival rate of mycelium will be maintained in the range of 70-90%, but each step of planting in the soil, coexisting with the root system, and growing will cause part of the mycelium to "die".

If the final bacterial production can be maintained at 10%, it would be a very good figure.

A good survival rate last month does not mean that the survival rate will still be good a few months later. Every day a large number of hyphae die due to unknown or known reasons.

Although he was full of concerns about Lucas's artificially cultivated truffle business, Ronan still gave it enough emotional value:
"That's good, as long as everything goes well."

Lucas would take Margaret into the mountains soon. As they were about to return to Ronan's house, he mustered up the courage to tell Ronan the purpose of his trip:
"If there is—"

On the other side, Ronan was also thinking about Lucas's artificial truffle cultivation business, and he spoke almost at the same time as Lucas:

"I know--"

The two men looked at each other and smiled.

Lucas lit a cigarette and pointed at Ronan with his chin:

"You speak first."

Ronan looked ahead and said:
"I know you are under pressure. If I can think of a good solution or find a way to help you, I will come to you right away."

Ronan thought that the proud Lucas would habitually say things like "I'm not under much pressure", "Don't worry", "I have a way", etc., because Lucas always acted like this every time they talked about the topic of artificially cultivated truffles.

Unexpectedly, Lucas's personality suddenly changed:

"Thanks, mate."

Thank you for still being willing to help me. Thank you for not letting me bow my head.

Thank you Ronan, you opened my eyes to the possibility of miracles.

"Why are you being polite?" Ronan tilted his head and asked him, "What did you want to say just now?"

Lucas took a long puff of his cigarette, looked at Margaret and Xiao Hei chasing each other in the vineyard and said:

"Nothing, just wanted to say that Margaret seemed to really like your dog."

Ronan took it home and gave it some water, saying he was worried Margaret was thirsty.

While Lucas wasn't paying attention, Ronan secretly gave Margaret a "truffle test", and the result shocked Ronan.

Margaret is indeed sensitive to the smell of truffles, but it is definitely not top-notch.

Ronan stroked Margaret's soft fur and murmured to himself:
"Even the top-level truffle dogs are this powerful. How terrifying must the most powerful truffle dog be?"

After more than five weeks, Ronan's oil heater was finally completed.

It's funny to say.

Although they meet the workers every day, the Paris family still does not know the full name of any of them.

Because these people work according to their "positions".

Every morning, these people meet like this:
"Morning, plumber."

"Good morning to you too, electrician."

When they were working, they were like: "Where is the bricklayer? Did he make such a big hole in the wall so that I could put my head in it?"

"Electrician, come and help me pull a wire!"

And their "boss" Mr. Simon has taken this strange trend to the extreme.

When he addressed these workers, he used to solemnly and complicatedly combine their last names and positions.

"Martin Lapierre, the plumber, please give the water lines one last check. Leclerc Dubois, the tiler, and Klein Poser, the electrician, follow me to the boiler room."

Feng Zhen, who was listening silently at the side, did not dare to speak loudly:
"It's like a bunch of medieval nobles have come to our house."

A long name is a 'sign' of nobility.

Ronan sighed:

"This old man is really good at making trouble."

Every time I dealt with Simon, whether it was installing a heater or buying a toilet, it was a torture.

But today, it was not just Ronan's family who were tortured. The workers who came to deliver oil were also severely tortured by Simon.

Lourmarin is a small mountain village and there is no place to sell oil.

The oil needed for Ronan's fuel heating needs to be added regularly by a professional tanker truck. According to the area of Ronan's house, it needs to be added about 3-4 times a winter.

But the tanker driver who came all the way from Apt was not treated well.

"Be careful!" Simon pointed at the worker delivering the oil and said, "You know, a tiny impurity can clog the burner and hinder the electrode. You can't afford the consequences. I advise you to filter it again before filling the oil."

When Simon spoke, it felt like the oil deliveryman was also part of his "noble" team.

But who can stand being taught a lesson by a stranger?
The oil delivery worker pushed Simon's finger away and said loudly:
"My oil has been double-filtered, so there is no way it could go wrong. Do you think I'm a small workshop?"

Simon looked at the nozzle that had not yet been inserted into the oil barrel with suspicion, as if he saw something "dirty":

"Then who knows?"

Seeing this, the oil delivery man angrily took a dirty oilcloth and wiped the barrel exaggeratedly, as if Simon's eyes had tarnished his beloved partner.

While the workers were cleaning the oil drums and filling them with oil, Simon gave his customary 'speech'.

In addition to explaining the internal structure and functions of the burner and boiler, he also kept reminding the Paris family with his eyes - bad oil will also affect the operation of the machine. If anything goes wrong, you can't just blame me.

Ten minutes later, the tanker driver left Ronan's house cursing.

"Let's go! Let's go to the boiler room!" Simon entered the equipment room on the first floor of Ronan's house like a soldier about to go to the battlefield.

This unused room on the first floor has become the nerve center of the heating system.

The boiler, furnace and water tank are arranged in sequence, connected by a copper main switch and pipes of different colors. Several pipes of different sizes and thicknesses stick out from the boiler like arms, extending to the ceiling and disappearing.

Various water valves, dials, and switches are dotted on the rough stone walls of the room, either explicitly or implicitly, making it look very complicated.

Simon spent another ten minutes demonstrating to the Paris family how incredibly simple the instruments were.

He kept turning switches and water valves and fiddling with the instruments, and Ronan saw that his mother's eyes were beginning to glaze over again.

"I think this is really simple. We can light it and give it a try." Ronan stopped Simon's speech.

Simon nodded and said to a poor nobleman in the same tone as he was lecturing an oil tank worker:
"Martin Lapierre, the plumber, go and light it up! But be careful. If you don't operate it properly, the machine won't work properly. Don't keep our customers waiting too long!"

Ronan held his forehead speechlessly.

This old man is really cunning.

After turning on the switch, the boiler woke up like a wild beast, making an increasingly loud creaking sound.

"Burn more, burn more!" Simon said loudly. After seeing the Paris family discussing whether they should take off their clothes, he said to the workers with satisfaction, "Yes, yes, that's it, this is the real burning!"

His excited tone was not like starting a boiler, but more like starting the world's first airplane:
"In less than 10 minutes, the radiators in every room will be scalding hot. Follow me!"

Under Simon's leadership, the Paris family began to inspect their house.

He insisted that Ronan and his family touch every set of heaters in the house, and then said proudly:
"Perfect! This is perfect, it's such a successful construction!"

The Paris family looked at each other, as if to say with their eyes:
This old man is a bit of a bad person, but he does a good job, right?

At this temperature, you can wear short sleeves and shorts at home.

"We are very satisfied. This is a perfect construction." Ronan praised, "We can close it now. It's more than 10 degrees outside, Mr. Simon."

"Oh, no, no, no, that won't work." Simon took off his scarf and unzipped his down jacket. "We need to leave it open for 24 hours so that we can check if there are no problems with it. We will come to check it at this time tomorrow."

"What?" The three people in Paris widened their eyes.

Simon patted his chest and said:

“We are very professional!”

While seeing Simon and his group of sweaty nobles off, the Paris family heard the second bad news.

"Don't turn it down. Make sure to keep every valve at maximum. OK, then we're leaving."

Simon and a few others trotted out.

Outside the door, the little old man gave everyone a third blow.

He asked several people in the room:
“Who should I call when the second and third floors of the restaurant are under construction next week?”

"Him!" Ronan and Luo Tianhai pointed at each other.

Simon had limited nobles under his command and could not support the installation of three heaters at the same time.

From November to December, they completed the installation of the heater in Ronan and Zoe's home. Ronan's dining room would be installed after that, but it was a large open space so the construction would be quick.

Simon nodded and politely closed the door:

"Understood, you two together, goodbye ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the warm winter in Provence."

Luo Tianhai and Ronan kept arguing in the room filled with hot iron pipes and baked dust and garbage.

"Go and meet this weird old man."

"It's your restaurant, you should be responsible for it."

"You run the restaurant, so you should be there."

"Then the upstairs might be your wedding room, so of course you have to go and take a look."

"Zoe and I talked about it, and we decided to live here after we get married."

“When was the decision made?”

"It's now!!"

(End of this chapter)