Baguettes and Macarons

=======================

Yu Chen has been very ugly these past few days, and Louis guessed it might be because there have been no customers coming to his door since Jean-Luke.Although Jean-Luc faithfully fulfilled the agreed duties, displayed his new clothes among the neighbors desperately, and attracted a lot of admiration and interest with the brand-new style, everyone's interest was nothing more than interest.

The residents of this street are too poor, let alone [-] Euros, even [-] Euros, it is too extravagant to buy such clothes that cannot eat, drink or keep warm.Most of the residents who have had a little bit of interest are also discouraged after seeing the high-end and luxurious storefronts.

Louis stared at the ashen-faced Yu Chen from across the dining table, stuffed a piece of stick bread into his mouth, and thought gloatingly, wouldn't he really be going bankrupt?The rent has been paid for three months, and there is still one and a half months left, which is another loss.

Yu Chen tore the bread with his hands repeatedly, and asked Yan Yan, "How many baguettes is this connected to?"

"About fifteen or six meals?" Louis said guiltily, "What can I do, I can't run out of baguettes lately." When he thought of this, he couldn't help cursing, "Damn, that newly opened supermarket The bread sold here is even cheaper than mine."

Yu Chen's eyes behind the lens were bent: "After all, the industrial bread in the supermarket does not use bio raw materials, and does not need to be fermented three or four times in two hours like yours, and it looks much neater than your shop."

"It's because they don't understand my bread!" Louis patted the table, shaking the spoon and fork, "I went there to try it last time, and the baguettes in the supermarket are like rocks, how can they tolerate that kind of bread?" Something entrance!"

Yu Chen smiled and said: "For the residents on this street, price is the first priority. Faced with the pressure of insufficient necessities for survival, they will naturally not spend money on unnecessary high-quality goods. If you So worry, why not just switch to ordinary flour and lower the quality?"

"No, the bread I make must be of the best quality, this is my belief."

"Your belief is the god of bread?" Yu Chen teased.

Louie snorts down his cereal and ignores him.Yu Chen put down the baguette, rested his chin and said, "Actually, you don't have to worry about it. From my standpoint, I don't want you to lower the quality of bread to fight a price war. It is impossible for a personal bakery to compete on price. To defeat industrial bread in the world, your most powerful weapon is the deliciousness of bread.”

Louis glared at him: "Sometimes you say you want to lower the price, and another moment you say you can't lower the quality, so what do you think I should do?"

Yu Chen said calmly: "It would be good to attract consumers who have extra money and pursue quality. Although this Shepherd's Street is a poor neighborhood, there is a department store and a relatively affluent apartment complex two streets away. , as long as the customers there come to buy, wouldn’t it be fine?”

"It's easy to say, isn't that supermarket next to the department store? Who would run two streets to buy bread?"

Yu Chen smiled and said, "I moved here from the city center just to eat your dim sum, do you still think your bread is not worth their extra two streets?"

"Hmph, nerds can only talk. For more than ten years, my regular customers are almost all residents of Shepherd Street."

Yu Chen draws the tone: "There is an old saying in China called 'the aroma of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley', which translates to that as long as the wine is fragrant enough, even if you don't drink it on the street, customers will chase after the wine to the box. Many of my friends believe in this saying and never advertise themselves."

"The Orientals are indeed very wise, except for you."

Yu Chen continued unhurriedly: "Later, they all died of poverty."

Seeing Louis choking, Yu Chen continued: "If the quality is good enough to attract customers, the advertising companies would have gone bankrupt long ago. No matter how good something is, it needs corresponding packaging and publicity, otherwise the strangers who are not familiar with your store may not even Know that there is a bakery here. Even if someone passes by, they will not have the desire to taste or buy it when they see the messy storefront, and naturally no one will know the quality of your bread.”

Louis suddenly realized: "Going around, you still want to persuade me to come to your shop for beauty treatment."

"...it's image design."

Louis disdainfully said: "Anyway, I dress myself like a woman. I don't believe that I can attract customers by doing this. Jean-Luc bought a whole set of clothes in your store, isn't he begging on the street all day long?"

The electronic doorbell beside the table suddenly sang an old-fashioned chord song, and Louis got up and said, "You continue to eat, and I will open the door. Someone rings the doorbell at the front door of the store."

He walked out of the back kitchen, glanced at the color of the baguettes in the oven, and finally opened the front door slowly.

"Yo, Louie."

"Good morning, Louie."

Standing outside the door was Jean-Luc who had just been talked about all morning. The little boy was full of energy, like a proud little rooster, and greeted him with his head held high.

But today he didn't come alone, he was pushing a wheelchair.A rich, gray-haired lady sat on it, with a reddish-brown rhombic blanket on her legs, smiling kindly.

"Grandma Mary?" Louis raised his eyebrows, "It's been a long time since you came out in the morning."

Grandma Mary smiled and said, "Winter is here, and it's very troublesome to go out. I try not to go out. Fortunately, Jean-Luke came to see me today and was willing to push me out for a walk."

Louis sighed very blindly: "It's not easy to be a widow without children and companions."

Mary is the only clothing store owner on Shepherd Street. She has a nephew who runs a cheap ready-made clothing store in the city. At the end of every month, she will transport the hoarded defective products and purchased old clothes to Shepherd Street, like disposing of garbage. The same is sold to Mary, and Mary sells it at a low price.

Although the clothes in Marie's store are ugly and old, and there are other problems, they have fed many poor children like Jean-Luc.

Jean-Luc touched the back of his head. He was wearing a brown peaked cap today, and he took it off as soon as he touched the back of his head.He quickly took the poorly made hat in his hand, and replied bluntly: "I didn't come to see you on purpose, anyway, I will deliver the newspaper to your home. After work is over, I will push you out for a walk."

"Delivering newspapers? Are you still working?"

Jean-Luc stuck out his tongue: "As far as these few streets are concerned, I heard the owner of a newsstand nearby said that he had a back pain and wanted to find a child to deliver the ordered newspapers, so I tried it. Unexpectedly, the boss directly pointed out that I'm here to deliver the newspaper."

Grandma Mary smiled and said, "Maybe it's because you've been very energetic recently, and you're very conspicuous among the children."

Jean-Luc chuckled.Louis watched coldly: "So, why are you pushing Grandma Mary here?"

Jean-Luc hurriedly said: "I almost forgot, I'm here to find Mr. Yu Chen!"

"What did you ask him to come to my store for?"

"He will definitely come to your shop for breakfast at this time." Jean-Luc said confidently, "Grandma Mary also wants to meet the new owner of the tailor shop."

"I don't run a clothing store." Someone behind Louis picked up the words. "Good morning, Jean-Luc, good morning, ma'am."

Grandma Mary smiled and nodded: "Hello, I am Mary. You are Yu... Yu..."

"Yu Chen." Yu Chen completed for her, "I can't pronounce my name in French, it's hard to pronounce. I'm very sorry. It's a bit cold outside, why don't you come in and talk?"

He regarded the bakery as his own home, gracefully opened the door sideways, and let Grandma Mary's wheelchair pass around Louis to enter the shop and stop at the table: "Ms. Mary, Jean-Luc, did you come here after breakfast? "

Jean-Luc immediately replied: "We didn't eat anything. Grandma Mary said she wanted to see you, so I brought her here right away. Did Louis cook anything delicious today?"

Yu Chen said without hesitation: "I should be making new desserts this afternoon, but he hasn't started work yet. Mr. Legrand, can you help me make three sandwiches? I want a croque-monsieur."

Croque-monsieur, or Mr. Croque, is a hot sandwich to be fried with egg custard, which is quite troublesome in a sandwich.

Louis closed the shop door, took off the apron and threw it on his lap: "I don't get up early to be a croque-monsieur."

Yu Chen said: "This is not more troublesome than a baguette, is it?"

Louis ignored him and asked coldly, "What do you want to eat?"

Grandma Mary said kindly, as if she didn't see the dispute just now, "A cup of coffee and a ham and butter sandwich. I haven't eaten your sandwich for a long time."

Louis said "Oh" and looked at Jean-Luc: "What about you? You can't sit in my chair without ordering something."

In the past, Jean-Luc would definitely make a face, curse and run away clutching his pocket, but today Jean-Luc said triumphantly, "I want a croque-monsieur."

Louis glanced at him: "This one costs four euros, are you sure you can afford it?"

Jean-Luc snorted and said, "I earned ten euros delivering the newspaper yesterday. Of course I can afford it."

Louis turned around and walked towards the back kitchen: "Mr. Crunch and ham butter, right, come here."

He took out the raw materials from the refrigerator in the back kitchen, returned to the cooking table at the front desk, cut a few slices of toast, began to put ham on it, and finally rolled the cheese and ham with custard, and fried it in a pan until golden brown. Served on the table, in front of Marie and Jean-Luc.

Yu Chen: "Excuse me, what about my share?"

Louis said with a stinky face, "I haven't finished breakfast, but I want to eat something else. If you were my brother, I would spank your ass."

Yu Chen sighed: "Understood, Mr. Baguette."

Louis' face suddenly turned blue: "What are you talking about..."

"Why do you call him Mr. Baguette?" Grandma Mary asked.

Yu Chen said with a normal expression: "Because he is as tough as his baguette every day, especially when he wakes up early, he always blames me, saying it's because I change clothes in front of him."

This time Grandma Mary's expression also became complicated, Yu Chen didn't notice anything unusual, and continued to complain: "After losing my temper, he always forces me to eat his baguette."