On December 23rd, the big boss behind Richemont, John Rupert, finally made preparations and put down his shelf and came to the Bavarian forest to visit Gu Kun in person.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, Rupert has other entertainment, to host a very high-end private exhibition, but there is no time to talk about business with Gu Kun.

Gu Kun received Rupert in this former Bavarian royal country castle, which had just been renamed "Lanfang Garden".

Well, the name sounds a bit like selling milk tea, but it can't be helped. As the new royal garden of Lanfang, it is normal to add a place name suffix with the word "garden".

Didn't the ancients also have the Summer Palace of the Old Summer Palace, which is a very face-saving behavior and an affirmation of the ancestral grade of the Bavarian royal family.

"Gu, it's nice to meet you, but I often see you on TV. Rupert specially brought the translator, shaking hands with Gu Kun and greeting him, while an interpreter was on the side to help translate.

Rupert speaks French, because although their family used to live in South Africa, they have now moved to Switzerland, and French is also one of the official languages of Switzerland, although it is not the most spoken, but it is the most powerful in the luxury industry and European cultural circles.

(There is no such language as "Swiss" in the world, and the Swiss government has designated German, French, and Italian as the official languages, and the number of speakers is also in the above order, with German accounting for 70%, French 20% Italian, and 10%)

At the end of the '80s, South Africa's Nelson Mandela group was in turmoil, and the local white tycoons were worried. The mining tycoons and wine plantation tycoons represented by the Rupert family transferred their industries back to Europe in those years, lest they would be wiped out by the blacks who turned the world upside down.

And Gu Kun has also done his homework, since he knows that Rupert's line of people all speak French, so he brought his legal adviser, Miss Sophia, and the role of translator.

Rupert had seen Van Bilsson before, and naturally Sophia, but the frequency was much lower and he was not very impressed.

But at this moment, seeing that Sophia had actually abandoned the business of her original firm and focused on defecting to Gu Kun, Rupert was still a little surprised.

This beautiful French lawyer in her early thirties, capable and refreshing, has never heard of anyone in the circle who sells herself in order to make money and is completely attached to anyone. Although Rupert himself did not solicit, his senior executives in charge of specific businesses did not succeed in recruiting forensic service talents for the company's cultural relics and collectibles trading and exhibitions.

"Wheel is rich, when Gu Kun recruited her to his command, he should not be as rich as us Richemont, right? Then why did this Sophia give up the other clients of the firm to focus on serving him? Well, it must be because he is young and handsome, and he is powerful. French women just love to look at their faces and physiques, and when they meet a world record-level macho man, they fall into it, and they have no taste!"

John Rupert was disdainful.

As a self-proclaimed "aristocratic", he has always been disgusted by the values of French women, who "value muscular men and X functions", and believe that women should pursue civilization and elegance.

Where in the world is there a vulgar aristocrat with muscles and some size equal to the caliber of the main guns of a battle cruiser?

It took dozens of seconds to adjust his mood, and Rupert took the initiative to bring the topic to business: "Mr. Gu, I have probably read the list of brands that you want to exchange shares with me, but I don't think it is equivalent." ”

Gu Kun was not in a hurry at all: "We haven't talked about it yet, it's normal to have a gap, we can seek common ground while reserving differences, come, let's talk while playing, I don't know if His Excellency Rupert is more interested in golf or skiing, or sailing." ”

John Rupert is old, and skiing is certainly not a sport for a man of his fifties. However, his son was just about to weaken the age of the crown, and John also wanted to observe Gu Kun more to see if he had an aristocratic temperament, so he pushed the boat along the way:

"I also loved skiing when I was younger, but now I can only look at it, and Inuko is very keen on it, so you can play with him for a while. ”

Gu Kun doesn't care, he doesn't play golf well, and he has practiced a bit of posture this year. As for several other sports, they are already perfect, if you want to say that you can play sailing better than Gu Kun in this world, it is estimated that there are not a few on the whole earth, as for skiing, he also took Zhu Youran to assault double FEI for a few nights, and he got the hang of it.

Everyone played in an idle atmosphere for a morning, skiing first and then golfing, and Gu Kun's performance quickly surprised people.

Especially in the skiing section, Gu Kun played with Anthony Rupert of the same age, Anthony was pretentious at first, but after skiing for a while, he was surprised to find that Gu Kun actually dared to go off the ordinary road even skiing, turning from the gentle standard slope to the side, and directly descending quickly on the steep slope of the cedar forest, almost a slope of 60 degrees.

Anthony was so frightened by this slope that he broke out in a cold sweat, and he didn't dare to argue with Gu Kun anymore, he could only believe that athletic talent was a one-size-fits-all thing.

After skiing and golf, the group went to the small sailing yacht for lunch, while taking advantage of the meal time to talk about some business.

It is still necessary to follow the local customs, so lunch is in the form of French cuisine, with a total of 23 dishes, which can be eaten for three and a half hours, that is, from one o'clock in the afternoon to five o'clock in the dark, and there is no need to eat dinner after eating.

However, there are many innovations in specific dishes, and Gu Kun did not let the chefs he brought only French food, but added a lot of cooking elements of Chinese food.

To put it bluntly, it is just borrowing the etiquette of the French meal system, and the process of eating one dish and then another.

Many mainland officials who don't know much about French and Japanese food will always complain that the amount of each dish in the three-star Michelin three-star French and Japanese dishes is too small, and they can only be fed to chickens or even pigeons, and they can't eat enough at all.

But in fact, this is because there are more than 20 dishes in the whole process of the top French Japanese food, so you can only press the minimum amount of each dish, otherwise you won't be able to eat the latter ones at all.

I can't eat enough just because the people who order food don't order enough fancy dishes.

The appetizer has sliced charcoal-grilled matsutake mushrooms with asparagus foie gras, Rupert is used to seeing the delicacies of various countries, and it can be seen at a glance that matsutake mushrooms are roasted in Japanese cuisine, but the grade is also sufficient, asparagus foie gras is a typical French food ingredient, and the original appetizer is a combination of French and Japanese.

And the pre-dinner soup in the back gradually began to be fused with the Chinese cooking, which was an extremely clear clear soup.

Gu Kun borrowed the template of the matsutake mountain soup for the state banquet in later generations, and asked the cook to replace the matsutake mushroom with an Alpine white truffle, or a white truffle produced in the southern foothills of the Alps, near the South Tyrol region of Italy, which can be said to be poor enough.

White truffles are known to be found all over the Alps, along the borders of Germany, Sweden and France around Lake Constance. But the best ones are still on the south slope. Because this is the place of origin, if you don't want to keep improving the local materials, then you will have to do it from Italy.

As for the other ingredients such as bamboo sunflower and black chicken, they have hardly changed, but at the end, a small pinch of saffron flavor, commonly used in French chicken soup and clear soup, has been added to replace the original Chinese spice purple sprout and tender ginger in this dish.

When it was first served, Rupert's eyes didn't even see the mystery of this dish, but he recognized the white truffle at a glance and smelled the fragrance of saffron. After the clear soup was eaten, I realized that it was extraordinary.

"I didn't expect that Chinese food can become so high-end just by changing etiquette, and I admit that as long as Chinese food is exquisite and elegant, it still tastes very good. Rupert wiped his mouth after eating a few appetizers and admitted.

Gu Kun immediately opened his mouth to correct: "No, no, no, this is not a change of etiquette, we have always had such a similar meal sharing system and rotational etiquette there." We have been eating like this since the Song Dynasty, but later on the invasion of foreign races, the etiquette gradually became secularized, and fewer people used it.

Although our Lan Fang is in a remote place, it is also a Ming dress, and the traditional etiquette has been continuous for more than 400 years, and it is still the 'well-dressed Tang system, the etiquette and music of the Han monarchs', but the country is weak and weak, and it has been suppressed by Breton dogs for more than 120 years, you don't understand. ”

Gu Kun's words really hurt Miss Sophia, who was interpreting.

What he said was all in Chinese, and the words before were all good to say, but the key is that this paragraph is mixed with ancient poems written by himself, how do you let people translate them into French?

Fortunately, Sophia is also a high-level intellectual, racking her brains and improvising a flash of inspiration, translating Gu Kun's words in the style of a French sonnet, which is a rhyme.

Gu Kun's French skills were too poor, and he barely understood a few words, but he was really satisfied, and secretly thought: "Go back and give this female lawyer a hard raise." ”

After hearing this, Rupert finally stood in awe and completely corrected his attitude towards the cooperation with the Lan side.

Lanfang people also have the heritage of aristocratic style.

Gu Kun observed the words and realized that the other party was impressed, so he put forward the topic appropriately: "Mr. Rupert, I once again sincerely propose to exchange the shares of Lanzi, Fendi and other companies that I have on hand for the shares of Giorgio Armani and Gucci held by your company.

I can make up the difference in cash, or if you are interested in Girard-Perregaux or Tiffany's shares, I can make up the difference as hard currency. ”

This time, Rupert did not directly show resistance, he just lifted the corner of the napkin and wiped his mouth: "I would like to know your overall layout strategy, money and shares are actually not the core issue, but your entry into the luxury field is too abrupt, and it is not friendly enough, and it does not indicate who you want to compete with and which product areas you want to focus on." ”

Gu Kun's face did not change and said a lie that wiped the ball: "I think you are too worried." The reason why I was the first to work with you, without considering LVMH and Kering, is because I know very well that men in this world, if they need to buy watches in the future, will only trust 'Swiss watches', so I work with you with the least conflict in the core business. ”

Rupert's guard relaxed a little.

Without selling watches, there would be no competition for more than half of the men's market.

Who let men practice it so much, and it seems that there is only one trick to force it with luxury clothes.