Chapter 3 third chapter

Two days later in the morning, Mr. Okimoto from "Louis" came to Fukusakura Hall, not for shopping, and asked me if it was convenient for me to go to their store in the evening.It turned out that the chef wanted to thank him in person. Anyway, I was curious about the follow-up development, because after the windbreaker girl and the girls were brought inside, the man who looked like a chef whispered to me: "Leave this matter to us." I had to go back home. After all, it's someone else's business, and I don't want to pry into other people's privacy, but since the other party took the initiative to invite you, that's another matter.

I accepted the other party's kindness, but it was a bit difficult to show that I was on duty.Mr. Okimoto said that their coffee shop still has customers dining at 5 o'clock in the evening, so it is better to go there later. "How about around six o'clock?" I suggested. "Okay, I'll tell the chef." Mr. Okimoto left after speaking. I went to "Louis Chocolate Factory" as promised, and Mr. Okimoto immediately led me to the cafe in their store. There is a little aftertaste left over from the day in the cafe with no customers, a sweet dessert aroma, mixed with the astringent taste of black tea and the bitter taste of coffee.As if liberated from the hustle and bustle of the battlefield, the quiet coffee shop is like the body of a sleeping giant.

I saw a familiar figure sitting by the wall, flipping through a magazine. It's that man. The sharp-eyed man who stopped the girl from escaping from the store, saying something like "Origami is a geometric concept..." and other words that he didn't understand.It feels like today's chef looks more composed.Holding a black pen in his right hand, he looks like he is copying in a notebook from time to time, like a scientist doing research or a literary historian investigating historical materials. When the chef saw me, he immediately got up and greeted me, and I walked towards him accompanied by Mr. Okimoto.On closer inspection, it turned out that he was reading a travel magazine that reported European antiques and miscellaneous goods.

Phones, cabinets, machines and clocks with simple designs, dressers, beds, tables and toys, etc. In my eyes, those things with rounded corners and slightly abrupt colors are really strange. There is a set of 12-color colored pencils on the table, and several designs of cakes and chocolates are entered in the notebook. The chef seems to be conceiving new products while referring to western antiques.No matter wagashi or pastry, they will use animals, plants and architecture as design inspiration, but this person even uses antiques as a reference? The chef closed the magazine and notebook and set aside the pen, which had a golden toucan pattern on the front of the cap.

"My name is Changfeng Hehui, and I'm the chef of 'Louis'. Thank you for your help that day." He is indeed the head chef of this shop. I also return the gift. "You're welcome, I hope I didn't cause you any trouble." "Don't say that, thanks to your help, the matter can be resolved smoothly." Chef Changfeng didn’t smell sweet today, maybe it’s been a while since he left the kitchen, this time I shifted the focus from the taste to his appearance. He has a fair face with three-dimensional facial features, and a pair of big bony hands with long fingers. It is really unimaginable that he can make exquisite desserts.However, it is the hands that make those sculpted pralines that are on display in the display case.

Although the beauty and ugliness of the product depends on the experience and skills of the chef, but when I think of the pair of big hands that are completely out of proportion to the silver tweezers, they can make such a cute dessert, and I have a feeling of "does the chef know some magic?" "a feeling of. "Anyway, it's all because this guy is unreliable." Chef Changfeng glanced at Mr. Chongben, "I specially sent him to the frontcourt to help, but he was so stupid that he didn't know what to do." "It's just because I'm too busy to avoid mistakes!" Mr. Okimoto said with a smile, sounding like he was talking to a friend rather than a boss.In the kitchen of Fuyingtang, everything is obeyed by the master and cannot be argued at will. I think it is the same in the kitchen of the pastry shop.From Mr. Okimoto's tone of voice, it can be smelled that the two have a good friendship, maybe they are good friends called brothers and sisters.

Mr. Okimoto said: "I didn't expect that there would be a group of thieves!" I couldn't bear to ask curiously: "So, you knew that this kind of thing would happen, so you deliberately sent Mr. Chongmoto to the store to help?" Chef Changfeng replied: "It's true and it's not, it's just a coincidence that something unexpected happened." Mr. Okimoto said that he would prepare some tea and got up to leave the table.When he went to the counter to boil water, Chef Chang Feng asked me to sit down and said, "Is it better to call you 'Miss Fu Ying Tang', or is it more convenient to call you by your name?"

"I'm Akari Ayabe," it's fine to tell her full name, so she continued, "I'm a clerk at Fukusakudo." "So that's the case, no wonder I know the gift box well." "As long as you pack it for the customer, you will be able to notice it immediately. By the way, the gift box in your store is the same as the one used in our store, and the wagashi gift box is also designed in one piece." "That's a gift box called 'floats', right? Fold circular paper with radial folds clockwise, and you can make tea towel twists (tea towel twists: wrapped in cloth towels to make twisted packs of stuffed food) A kind of packaging method.) of chestnut gold balls (chestnut gold balls: sweet potato mash and chestnuts.) shape, a box with a unique and simple beauty.”

"You know very well." "When I go to the wagashi store to buy some small sweets, I sometimes use those boxes." Sure enough, the gift box of "Louis" was also ordered from the same manufacturer.This manufacturer has always only made one-piece octagonal boxes for wagashi, so Chef Nagamine specially ordered boxes for pastry from them, and replaced them with paper that can hold the characteristics of chocolate and desserts. Recently, the pastry industry has actively used the ingredients and fruits for making wagashi to develop various creative products, but even the box is used as a reference. It seems that Chef Changfeng has a special taste.

I have been in the Kobe branch of Fukakudo for three years, and I have no memory of Chef Nagamine ever visiting.When I confirmed with him, it was true what Mr. Okimoto said, he always went to the main store in Kyoto to buy. Chef Nagamine has been visiting herb gardens in Kyoto for several years in order to find new varieties of vanilla that go well with chocolate.Sometimes on the return trip, he would drop by the Fukusakodo Kyoto Main Store to buy some wagashi, which is one of his pleasures. Chef Changfeng is not in charge of the store.The boss here runs a French pastry specialty shop elsewhere, and separates the chocolate workshop there into "Louis".The reason why this store has achieved impressive results not long after its opening is due to the accumulation of regular customers since the time when it was a French pastry specialty store.

Mr. Okimoto heard that he also worked at the patisserie over there in the past.And when the new store opened, the chef who was supposed to take up the job resigned due to illness, and the post of chef suddenly became unavailable. Later, after the recommendation of the chef, it was decided to promote Mr. Changfeng as the chef. I heard that there were also rumors that Mr. Okimoto would take over at the beginning, but it was confirmed after some twists and turns. Mr. Okimoto came back from the counter. There were tea sets and desserts on the tray. I saw him neatly place the tea sets and desserts on the table with his deft movements when making chocolate. "Won't Okimoto-san sit down and enjoy it?" I asked. "I have to go back to the kitchen to prepare for tomorrow's work." Mr. Chong replied and left. I glanced at the dessert, an Angus sauce in a shallow bowl dipped in a scoop of white ice cream halfway drizzled with chocolate sauce.There is a piece of almond biscuit instead of a wafer in the mouth of the bowl. Although it is a very simple dessert, it uses the chocolate of this shop, so it must be delicious. I picked up a small spoon, took a bite and put it on my tongue. The warm chocolate sauce was fully integrated with the ice cream, and the vanilla taste filled my teeth.The ice cream is mixed with stick fruit pieces, and the two create a smooth taste.I took another sip of the chocolate sauce, as if trying to dispel the sweetness of the ice cream, the rich cocoa bitterness melted in my mouth, with a layered honey aroma. Chef Changfeng asked, "Would it be better if it was a little sweeter?" "No!" I immediately retorted: "I think the sweetness is just right, and the combination of bitterness is just right. The ingredients are really well selected!" "Vanilla sauce and ice cream use domestic fresh milk and eggs, vanilla pods are produced in Tahiti, a variety with a strong aroma; chocolate sauce is based on Valrhona's chocolate, and then seasoned with Japanese honey .” "How is it different from ordinary honey?" "Western honeybees only collect nectar from one kind of flower, such as lotus honey, acacia honey, etc. Japanese honeybees collect nectar from various flowers, so beekeepers can only collect honey from the hive once a year, mixing dozens of flowers Fragrance, forming such a layered taste." "It also smells like foreign wine!" "I did use a little brandy, Miss Ayabe likes to drink?" "How do you know?" "Because most of the chocolates you bought in our store were foreign alcohol and chocolate, Okimoto remembers which flavors you bought, as a reference for adjusting the taste today." Thanks to Chef Changfeng for his thoughtfulness, I just indulged in chocolate and ice cream.Chef Changfeng barely spoke, quietly eating the cold dessert on his plate. Just after I finished my dessert and took a sip of sugar-free milk tea, I took the initiative to ask: "How will we deal with that matter afterwards?" "After the police arrived at the scene and gave them a reprimand, they let them go. I think they should leave a record of their punishment so that they can learn their lesson." "It turns out there's no way to do that, is there?" "The parents who came to the scene after being notified were either crying or swearing. The scene was chaotic at that time, and some parents forced me to make amends with a stack of 10,000 yuan bills, hoping that the matter would be settled. Of course, I didn't take any money." It's really dumbfounding, to try to bribe the clerk in front of the child, what kind of nerve is missing? Chef Changfeng said: "They repeatedly emphasized that the children are first-time offenders, and hope that I can forgive them and give them a chance to reform themselves." "First offender? I don't think so! Their attitude is so calm, they must have done it several times, but they were not caught." "Because they have no previous convictions, they dare to say that they are first-time offenders, and those children are all wearing gloves, so no fingerprints can be collected on the box, which can be seen as a premeditated crime." "But... those girls seem to be from a good family background!" "That seems to be the motive." "what?" "The girl with the hair band is still cheating. Only the girl who tried to escape confessed. They are a group of children from a wealthy family who have no worries about food and clothing. As long as they open their mouths since they were young, they can eat cakes of various well-known brands at home and abroad as a matter of course. , chocolate, biscuits. But for them, no matter how expensive desserts are 'tired', they can't help their appetite. Perhaps it is because of this that they are desperate for more delicious things! But after all, they are just Junior high school students do not have the ability to travel around the world and eat delicious food from all over the world, so they decided to 'change the way they eat'. Since spending money on desserts can no longer satisfy the excitement, why not steal it and taste the delicious pleasure of fulfilling the plan '." "Meaning, the stolen ones are better than the ones bought with money?" "Whether the dessert is delicious or not depends not only on the taste, but also on the appearance, packaging, etc. We use these conditions to make customers willing to pay for it. I think Ms. Qibe who is in charge of the store should be very aware of the importance of this spiritual value. .Those girls want to add value to 'ordinary dim sum' in their own way to achieve a more delicious taste." "It's not that there are other ways! If ordinary desserts can't satisfy you, then try to make them yourself, or try to become a dessert chef and develop new flavors. There's no need to take risks!" "I think they find it more interesting to steal than to work hard. There are quite a few people like this from ancient times to the present." Just when I was full, Chef Changfeng asked me if I would like another cup of black tea, but I politely declined on the grounds that I was full.Chef Changfeng poured himself a cup of black tea, and said: "Their hands and feet are really neat. A group of people first surrounded the cabinet to form a blind spot, and the person in charge of the wind inspected the situation in the store, and one person started to steal. First cut open the bottom of the box, another pulls up the coat to catch the things, and the others quickly stuff the desserts into their bags." "They must have bought a box of exercises first!" "It should be! No matter how clever the child is, they will still panic on the spot. I believe they have come several times to detect blind spots that the shop assistants can't see." Chef Changfeng picked up the notebook on the side, opened a new page, and drew a circle with blue and black ink with a pen, which turned out to be a gift box. "Whether it is a square or an octagon, this principle applies to any polygon with even-numbered sides. As long as it is cut diagonally along the bottom of the box, no matter how thick the carton is, it can be easily scratched and flattened, and the bottom of the box will appear like a bird. A hole like a gaping mouth." Chef Changfeng drew the front view and side view of a diamond-shaped hole in the bottom of the box.If it is a regular octagonal box, it will form an equilateral right-angled triangle shared by the two hypotenuses; if it is a rectangular box, it will be two unequal-sided right-angled triangles. The bottom of the seed box will be broken, and the two triangles will be folded outward to form a beak-like opening. Chef Changfeng put the pen on the table: "If the bottom of a one-piece carton like this is not coated, even if you don't make a scratch, you just need to press the bottom of the box to form an opening. Ms. Ayabe must have noticed this. ?” "That's right! But the gift boxes in your store are all packaged, and you can't steal the contents by simply pressing the bottom of the box." "That's right. So you have to use a knife. Cutting the wrapping paper along the diagonal line that bisects the bottom area is the fastest way. After those children took the things, they pretended to pick the products at the bottom of the cabinet, and quickly put them away. Flattened cartons are stuffed into the gaps. Plus none of the gift boxes in our shop have lids, so it’s more convenient to use that.” "Wouldn't it be more enjoyable to just steal a box with a big bag?" "The problem is, it's too risky to do so. No matter how busy the store is, it's easy to be targeted by the shop assistants. Besides, stealing things with a little trick can satisfy their desire for excitement." "No matter how neat your hands and feet are, it will take more than ten seconds! I remember the time when those children stole the gift box, and the lady in the windbreaker yelled to catch the thief. It happened almost at the same time." "What they stole was not the gift box Miss Ayabe saw, but the gift box whose bottom had already been cut open." "what?" "Isn't there a girl with a hair tie? She is the head. To reduce the risk, she instructed other people to 'steal that box' before entering the store. Unexpectedly, some people thought it was too simple, ignored the head's instructions, and started elsewhere. In the end, she was caught by Ms. Ayabe and the lady in the windbreaker. The girl knew that her crime was discovered by the lady in the windbreaker, so she hurriedly put the gift box back on the shelf under the cover of her friends, but she couldn't help herself after all. Get angry, run away..." When we were about to move the cabinet, it was this girl who couldn't help running away, and her best sister, Tao, chased after her.For the girl wearing a hair band, it was undoubtedly a big miscalculation, so why did she show that wry smile? "What is the relationship between that lady in the windbreaker and them?" "Although they don't know each other, they have one thing in common, that is, the lady in the windbreaker is also a habitual thief. The person I asked Chong Ben to keep an eye on is actually her." "How is this going?" "That lady's name is Izumi Kazuyo. Recently, several pastry shops in the vicinity know about this person." "how to say?" "Usually, thieves who target non-chain stores like ours will steal relatively expensive desserts or gift boxes, but Ms. Jingsumi mostly steals small things that can be stuffed into pockets, such as madeleine cakes and mini sandwich chocolates , or a small bottle of milk jam or something." Although it is to steal some small things, stealing is stealing, and it has been done many times, causing the store to suffer a lot of losses. Ms. Jingcheng was captured alive in another French pastry shop, so many shopkeepers recognize her.Since her evil deeds were exposed, she has obediently bought things with money, so it is hard to say that she is a guy who only steals but does not buy. She also got into an argument with a store clerk who suspected her of stealing, and the store had to apologize for lack of evidence. Mr. Chongben has suffered from her before, so he recognizes her.Since she guessed that she would probably take advantage of the busy period of Valentine's Day, I asked Mr. Okimoto to go to the store to watch. Unexpectedly, he patronized Miss Jingcheng and didn't notice the crimes of the girls... "Did Ms. Jing Cheng think that she stole some small things anyway, and the punishment was not serious?" I asked.Chef Changfeng shook his head, and I asked again: "Then why did she steal again and again? Is it the same reason as those girls?" "She said that because she couldn't stand the pressure of work, she had to steal to vent her emotions. Ms. Jing Cheng seems to work in a small office. Because she is the only employee, she is responsible for all the chores and dealing with customers. Like calling Pay fees, deal with customer complaints, etc., and each branch has performance pressure, and sometimes has to help the boss run business, and even clean the office. When no one can divide the work, it is impossible to ask for leave. Although every job is not It was so heavy, but the long-term accumulated pressure and fatigue made her unable to bear it... In short, the nature of her work is like this." "But you can't vent your pressure by stealing!" "She said that stealing can relieve stress, so that she gets deeper and deeper. She knows it's wrong, but she can't quit. Many habitual offenders have this mentality." "Then why did she report those girls? In this way, wouldn't she even be targeted?" "Judging from the fact that she sometimes pays for it, she should have a deep sense of guilt for her actions! Therefore, seeing someone doing the same thing, who is younger than me, and committing crimes without shame, what does she feel like in her heart?" How do you feel?" "It's impossible to feel very friendly! Or disgust? It's like seeing the thing you hate the most." "Miss Jingcheng reported it for this reason." Seeing the incomprehensible look on my face, Chef Changfeng said again: "Although it is all about theft, the motive and inside information of the crime vary from person to person. Some people regard stealing as a game and take pleasure in it; Some people commit crimes unconsciously in order to vent pressure, and even steal purely to satisfy desire like a child. Although Ms. Jingsumi did this to vent pressure, she is actually very remorseful, so seeing those girls doing the same thing, It was like looking in a mirror, and seeing my ugly side was a huge shock to my heart." When the police questioned Ms. Jingcheng's motive for committing the crime, she sadly said these words——