Baguettes and Macarons

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"Monsieur Legrand?"

Louis was awakened by Yu Chen's voice, only to find that the latter had already completed the measurement and was writing down a memo.Jean-Luc, dressed in white cloth covered in pins and pins, was unusually shy like a hedgehog, with slumped shoulders wishing he could shrink himself up.

Yu Chen asked: "Is there something wrong, Mr. Legrand? You have been looking at me."

With a smile on his lips, his expression was teasing, and he asked the question knowingly.Louis put on a straight face, and said stiffly: "It's nothing, I just didn't expect that you are quite serious about your work."

"This is an industry principle. Compared with this," Yu Chen stepped aside and showed him Jean-Luc's new look, "do you think this suit is still suitable?"

Louis said at a loss: "Does it have something to do with me? I'm not his father."

Yu Chen was blocked by him for nothing, so he turned to Jean-Luc and asked, "Are the joints tight, and are they easy to move?"

It was the first time for Jean-Luc to put on such finely crafted clothes. He was at a loss and didn't dare to move. He didn't know that Fang was inconvenient to move around. The clothes must be very expensive, I definitely don't have the money to buy them..."

"It's okay, it's the grand opening ceremony now, you are my first customer, so there is a special discount." Yu Chen patted his head, "In return, after the clothes are made, you can wear them for three days. Show my skills to the neighbors and help me advertise, okay?"

The corner of Louis' mouth twitched: "You are really honest."

Yu Chen put away the tape measure and shrugged: "It's nothing shameful to advertise."

Jean-Luc pondered for a moment, then raised his head again: "Of course I will show it to my neighbors, especially Jacques and Philippe, those idiots who laughed at me for not having new clothes. But how much should I pay you?"

"It's only one euro after the discount is over." Yu Chen said with a smile on his face, "But if not more than half of the people on this street have seen the new clothes, I will arrest you and come here to work."

Jean-Luc took off the sample clothes carefully, changed back into his fat T-shirt and short pants, and stuck out his tongue: "What a special calculation method. But one euro is also very expensive, and you can buy bread for ten days. Why don't you just let me go."

Yu Chen patted him on the head: "It's my freedom to give you any discount, but you can't think about getting something for nothing. It's only one euro—by the way, this euro must be neither stealing nor robbing or touching porcelain. It's a return to work."

Jean-Luc froze for a moment, and clicked his tongue: "Sir, I'm just a suburban kid who didn't even go to school well and doesn't speak French very well. Where do you ask me to find a job?"

The so-called suburban teenagers are poor teenagers like Jean-Luc whose native family is a foreigner. The whole family does not speak French very well, and their education level is not high, so they can only live in the suburbs.Because there are many children in the family, they have no money to go to school, and they can't find a job without a diploma. Most of them are like Jean-Luc, doing nothing on the street, and occasionally get some small money by stealing and robbing, so that they and a long list of younger siblings survive.

Louis agreed with Jean-Luc's rhetoric very much in his heart, and said, "Okay, Yu Chen, he can't afford it. He has never bought more than one euro of bread in my store. It's a huge sum of money for him. It’s gone. It’s useless for you to make clothes for him, even if he goes to show it to the group of fur kids, how many of the group of brats can afford clothes.”

He intended to rescue Jean-Luc, but unexpectedly, the latter gave him a hard look.Louis immediately realized, could it be that this brat really wants this dress, and is he bargaining for the price?

After all, one euro may be a week's income for him.

Thinking of this, Louis sneered, spread his long arms and legs, and comfortably occupied Yu Chen's leather sofa, not getting involved in the conversation between the two of them.

Yu Chen picked up the topic with a hypocritical smile: "But adults who know Jean-Luc will also see this new dress. They will come to buy it." He pushed his glasses and added, "After all, this It is cheap and high-quality clothes that Jean-Luc can afford. I believe that everyone has a heart for beauty."

Louis snorted: "You have a pretty good idea, just don't give it away for free and send it to bankruptcy."

Yu Chen confronted him tit for tat: "If Mr. Legrand continues to be careless, I'm afraid you will be the first to go bankrupt."

Jean-Luc interjected unwillingly: "I am more concerned about whether this dress can be given to me for free than the question of which of you will go bankrupt first. Sir, since it is tailored according to my shape, don't you want to give it to me?" You can’t sell it if you give it to me, isn’t it a waste of material?”

"Do you know what the farmers had to do with their milk if they couldn't sell it in the past?" Yu Chen asked without answering.

Jean-Luc shook his head blankly, Yu Chen said with a smile: "If you can't sell it, throw it into the river. I don't need the money for this piece of clothing. If you can't afford the euro within a month, I will send you the money." It was placed in the window as a model, and no one gave it away."

"Monsieur," Jean-Luc straightened his back, "are you a devil?"

Yu Chen was very interested: "Then do you want to sign a contract with the devil? Now I have a part-time job and I can't find an employee. Do you want to try it?"

Jean-Luc said alertly: "Sell a kidney?"

"No, it's not such an exciting job." Yu Chen gestured to him to sit down, "Wait a minute, I'll take out the things you want to process right away. You can take a look and decide whether to accept this job or not." Odd jobs."

After he finished speaking, he ducked into another door. Louis secretly guessed that behind this door might be his warehouse or something. Behind is the kitchen.

Jean-Luc stood at the original position, probably stupefied by the smell of Yu Chen's perfume who passed by, Louis pointed to the empty single sofa next to him sympathetically: "Come, sit, don't stand on."

As soon as Jean-Luc's butt touched the sofa, Yu Chen came out carrying a cowhide suitcase, gently placed it on the coffee table, and used the key to open the combination lock on it.

Seeing his careful look, Louis thought it contained the store's turnover.But there are all kinds of buttons inside, which are stored in different acrylic storage boxes according to material and size.

Yu Chen took out the smallest box from it, and there were only less than fifty 10-cent buttons in it. The color was pure white, and with the shaking of the box, it shone with a blue-purple luster, which was very beautiful.

Yu Chen looked at the box, but heaved a long sigh.He took out a pair of plastic gloves from under the table and put them on, then opened the box, twisted out a button, and showed it to the two of them: "This is a genuine shell button I received from a craftsman in Nice. on the gown, but when I got it back I realized that the buttons, while beautifully shaped and made of good material, hadn’t been polished enough.”

He pointed out the sides of the buttons to Jean-Luc: "Many of them are not polished smooth, they are very rough to the touch. Because shell buttons are fragile and cannot be sanded with a grinding wheel, I would like to have someone sand them all by hand." Smooth, you only need to come to my shop every afternoon and polish it by hand with sandpaper, and it will be finished in two or three days. A button is worth ten euro cents, and here are fifty, which is five euros. What do you think?"

Jean-Luc curled his lips: "Then I'll give you one euro, and I only earn four euros. There's still eight euros an hour serving dishes on the street."

Yu Chen smiled and said, "If you don't do it, I'll find someone else to do it. A restaurant probably won't hire a 14-year-old kid to serve the dishes."

"Wait," Jean-Luc looked reluctantly at the sample clothes standing aside, "I'll just do it, and you'll pay me by the day."

Yu Chen clapped his palms and said, "Then it's settled, we'll go into the studio now, and I'll teach you how to polish buttons." He turned his eyes to Louis, "Mr. Legrand doesn't need to look at his shop. Are you done? You have been sitting with me all afternoon."

Louis salivated and said: "The baguettes in the store are finished, and there is nothing to do. Your sofa is very comfortable, so I will sit on it for a while."

"Please feel free, but I don't have refreshments here, please forgive me."

The work of polishing the buttons seemed very complicated. The two of them didn't come out after entering. Only Jean-Luc's vulgar words complaining about the complicated process came from the crack of the door.Louis stared at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling in a daze for a long time, and suddenly felt that it was no fun to sit in other people's shop, so he left the shop door for Yu Chen and went back to his own shop door.

With nothing to do, he leaned against the street lamp at the door and smoked a cigarette.After finishing the cigarette, the door of Yu Chen's store opened with a bang, and it was the owner who sent Jean-Luke out.

The kid was listless, more spiritless than usual.Obviously, the delicate work of polishing buttons tortured his spirit more than fighting porcelain on the street.When he saw Louis, he didn't even make a sound. He glanced at him and then turned and walked in his direction.

Louis asked leisurely: "If you do it yourself, you must be faster and better than him to polish the buttons?"

Yu Chen spread his hands and said: "But my profession is not a craftsman. If I polish every button myself, I won't have the energy to design the overall image for customers."

Even a blind man could tell that he just wanted to find a job for Jean-Luc, but Louis didn't bother to poke him, and said maliciously: "Then it's your job to tailor clothes for each customer?"

Yu Chen replied: "Yes, in order to obtain accurate size data, this is a necessary work."

"If you come to measure it yourself, I'm a little interested in taking care of your business."

Yu Chen raised his eyebrows: "Oh?"

Louis threw away the cigarette butt, stamped it out with his foot, took a step closer, and pressed the back of his head with the palm of his hand: "You should look pretty nice when you kneel down and measure me."

Yu Chenbo said calmly: "It seems that your business is not good, not only because of the problem of dressing - since you haven't paid yet, I have no obligation to measure your size for the time being, so we don't need to discuss any further."

He pushed Louis' hand away, went back to his shop and locked it.Louis rubbed his palms together and clicked his tongue again.

The reason why he said that was not just to ridicule Yu Chen.He looks really good-looking when he takes the measurements carefully, and his hair is easier to touch than expected.

It looks like hard and bitter dark chocolate, but it feels soft like mousse.