National Tide 1980.

Chapter 1276: Mystical Powers

Alain Delon is indeed very powerful and capable in France.

Dinner on the evening of May 5 further demonstrated this.

Alain Delon hosted a banquet for Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko at the oldest restaurant in Cannes, France - Provencal.

Located on rue Saint-Antoine, this restaurant is famous for its traditional French cuisine and country flavors. It is also a gathering place for artists.

European celebrities like to dine here, but because of this, this high-end restaurant requires reservations and it is difficult to get a seat.

In fact, not only are the seats fully booked during the Cannes Film Festival, but all seats are booked out for the entire tourist season.

If you are an ordinary customer, the best you can do is leave your contact information and try your luck.

See if a guest changes his plans so that you can enjoy a meal, otherwise you will have to return home disappointed.

To put it bluntly, the consumption here is high, but it is not a place where problems can be solved simply by spending money.

For most people to be able to eat here, they not only need to be willing to spend money, but also rely on luck, the chances are quite slim.

For Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, they were unfamiliar with the place and the fact that they could eat here was entirely thanks to Alain Delon.

In fact, after returning from Martinez Beach, they first changed their clothes in the hotel, and then called a taxi again to go to the Provencal Restaurant to keep their appointment. Unexpectedly, before they arrived at the place, they heard the driver muttering all the way in the car about how difficult it was to get into this restaurant.

When we arrived at the restaurant entrance, as the driver had said, there was a long queue of people who came without a reservation to try their luck.

Fortunately, they were Alain Delon's guests. When the waiter at the door heard them call out Alain Delon's name, he immediately sent someone to lead them in.

However, there were some embarrassing moments.

Because they followed the Japanese time habits, they arrived twenty minutes earlier than the agreed time. Not only had the host not come yet, but even the seats had not been arranged yet.

It turned out that Alain Delon did not reserve a seat in advance. Although the restaurant was very considerate of him, when the guests really arrived, they could only add extra seats at the last minute.

In this way, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko watched helplessly as the restaurant waiters temporarily brought in tables, chairs and tablecloths, and arranged a seat for them in the crowded restaurant by occupying part of the dance floor space.

So many customers gave them dissatisfaction, with disgust and disgust clearly visible on their faces.

Some people even stopped the waiters and asked them about the matter, as if they were protesting to the restaurant.

This made these two thin-skinned people feel a little uncomfortable staying here.

However, ten minutes later, when the host arrived, everything changed.

As soon as Alain Delon, who was over fifty years old, and his twenty-year-old girlfriend Rosalie appeared, everyone's eyes were focused on him.

As he walked in, at least a third of the people in the restaurant greeted him.

The people who smiled broadly at the big star included not only the waiters but also the guests, and even the guests at the tables around them who had initially expressed their dissatisfaction.

Even some actors and directors who were dining in the restaurant were proud to know Alain Delon.

Alain Delon himself didn't look like he was here to eat, but rather to attend a press conference.

Even after he pulled Rosalie to find a seat, the sensational effect had not ended.

Before Alain Delon had the chance to say a few words to Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, a waiter from the restaurant came up to him on behalf of the guests from other tables and presented him with champagne.

All we can say is that Alain Delon is a real big star, and his influence has already covered the whole world.

Not only is he loved by the French film industry and the French people, he also holds a pivotal position in the international arena, and celebrities and wealthy people are willing to be friends with him.

We have to admit that in this era, even though he is old and semi-retired, the influence of this handsome old French man when he appears far exceeds that of the later "Leo" and "Tang".

It was because he witnessed this scene with his own eyes that Ning Weimin realized that Alain Delon had actually been restrained enough when he was in the capital.

When he celebrated his birthday at Maxim's, he once requested during dinner, "Today is my 50th birthday. Let's put 50 guests in the restaurant and then close the door."

Now thinking about it, it's not that excessive, because this guy is undoubtedly more rampant in France, and his bad habits are actually caused by the people here.

As for the rumors that he was deeply involved with the Corsican gang, the origin of the mafia organization, Ning Weimin was unable to obtain any clear evidence.

But from a feeling point of view, it seems to be quite interesting. Anyway, he himself believes this "rumor" more and more.

It was not for any other reason, but because Ning Weimin took the initiative to expose his family's dirty laundry during the meal, mentioning that they had just been harassed by a few drunkards while walking on the beach.

He also spoke without thinking, revealing his intention to spend money to hire two bodyguards and a car in Cannes.

Unexpectedly, Alain Delon laughed for a while, then agreed and took the responsibility of the task.

Ning Weimin was told that he didn't need to worry about this matter anymore, as someone with a car would pick him up at the hotel early tomorrow morning. He didn't even mention the matter of money.

As a result, the next day, May 5, the two burly men who checked in at the hotel early in the morning were almost scared by Ning Weimin.

Not only were these two men carrying guns, they also looked cold and ferocious, and had tattoos.

The key point is that both of them have scars on their heads and faces. They are obviously people with stories and are definitely not bodyguards in the ordinary sense.

Even if they were all wearing black suits, it wouldn't be the case.

To use the Beijing dialect, these two guys are not good people. Anyone who sees them on the street will try to avoid them.

Ning Weimin regretted it very much. He felt that he lost his sense of security when he went out with them, as if he was kidnapped.

From this we can see that Alain Delon's background might not be that clean.

The heroic demeanor he displayed on the screen might not have been acted out at all.

To paraphrase what a certain small-eyed star in China said decades later, it would be, "What's so hard about playing a gangster? I have a life."

So Ning Weimin had no choice but to return to the room and call Pierre Cardin's assistant Takada Mei, asking her to help contact bodyguards and rent a car.

After thinking about it, he felt that it might be difficult to find a job in Cannes, so he added that it would be fine even if someone was transferred from Paris, and he didn't care about the cost.

He didn't even dare let Keiko Matsumoto get in the car with him. He went to the appointment alone, riding in a car with two "bodyguards" to meet Alain Delon.

But to be honest, Alain Delon sometimes does things a little too aggressively.

Just like these two bodyguards, the candidates were not quite what Ning Weimin wanted.

But his decisive and independent style of doing things still made Ning Weimin quite satisfied in some matters.

Like the arrangement of the screening of "Li Xianglan" and the purchase of a booth in the underground market of the Palais des Festivals.

When Ning Weimin arrived at a cafe near the Palais des Festivals, Alain Delon had already basically negotiated all the specific terms for him.

The screening will be held on the third day after the opening of the film festival. The morning show will be in a screening room with 80 seats, and the afternoon show will be in a room with 300 seats. The morning show will cost 100,000 francs, and the afternoon show will cost 200,000 francs.

The earliest a booth would be available would be four or five days later, and a standard booth would cost between 200,000 and 300,000 francs.

Ning Weimin had no objection to this. Although it was a little expensive, that was for filmmakers with limited funds, and it was not a big problem for him.

After all, this is a temporary job, and it's good to settle the matter so quickly. It's much better than carrying a pig's head and not being able to find the temple gate.

So after he arrived, he got to know a Frenchman in charge of the screening work of the organizing committee through the introduction of Alain Delon, and then they sat together to have breakfast and chatted about a lot of gossip about the film festival.

After eating and drinking, several people went back to the organizing committee office of the Festival Palace. Ning Weimin came to sign and pay the money. The matter was basically settled without any setbacks. The only thing worth mentioning is that Ning Weimin discovered an incredible unspoken rule of the film festival through Alain Delon.

It turns out that for real international celebrities, the Cannes Film Festival Organizing Committee has stipulated paid interviews as a way to make money.

For example, the interview fee for American director Barbet Schroeder in this year's competition unit "Wine and Love" was 10,000 francs, while last year when Martin Scorsese came to Cannes with "Eight Hours Outside", the interview fee reached 15,000 francs.

As for people like Alain Delon who don't have any films participating in the exhibition and are just here to join in the fun, as long as they are big enough, each reporter will have to pay a fee of 5,000 francs.

However, this part of the interview fee is only for journalists outside Europe and the United States. Interviews for European and American journalists are free.

There is no doubt that this is a form of regional discrimination based on cultural discourse power.

In fact, while accompanying Ning Weimin to do business, Alain Delon was interviewed by more than a dozen reporters.

Sometimes, because there were several people interviewing together, it would take less than half an hour, and he could easily earn 30,000 or 40,000 francs.

I have to say that European and American celebrities of this era live a very comfortable life. They can earn in half an hour what an average French person earns in half a year.

Just considering this half hour, he made money faster than Ning Weimin, who earned 1.2 million francs in interest every day.

Next, of course, it’s entertainment time again.

At this point, we have to say that the French people’s nature of enjoying pleasure is truly unquestionable.

In fact, there was no need to find another place. With the guidance of Alain Delon, an old bird, Ning Weimin realized that there was a casino with the nature of a nightclub in the Festival Palace.

Downstairs was a serious cultural event like a film festival, and upstairs was a decadent den of money. Such ridiculous things actually happened.

With his eyes wide open, Ning Weimin didn't know what to say. He could only use traveler's checks to buy 200,000 francs in chips like Alain Delon did, and follow this playboy to see the world for himself.

People like Alain Delon certainly wouldn't gamble in the lobby, he would have to go into the VIP room.

There is no threshold for the VIP room, but the minimum bet is higher. The hall outside has different starting points of one hundred, two hundred, five hundred, etc., while the VIP room has a minimum of one thousand francs per round.

Alain Delon was obviously a regular customer here, so he sat down at the blackjack table and started playing.

Ning Weimin stood beside him and watched for a while, then thought it was boring, so he leisurely went to another gambling table.

Decades later in the information age, it is almost universally known that Chinese are a world-famous group of gamblers.

Standing in the casino and looking around, you will see that at least half of the faces are Asian. You don’t need to go up and ask, nine out of ten times they are either overseas Chinese or Chinese.

So decades later, most casino managers always give special treatment to Chinese people and are particularly attentive to people with Oriental faces.

Because everyone here knows that the Chinese, called "Lao Zhong", are the best gamblers. They never blink an eye when giving tips at the gambling table and are very generous.

No matter what profession they are in, even if they are from a restaurant or a garment factory, from the boss to the workers, from the chef to the sewing woman, they will all give their hard-earned money to the casino.

Some old overseas Chinese worked hard all their lives and spent all their income on the gambling table.

If you ask them why they do this, they will smile and say, "I'll get it back sooner or later."

However, in this era, the gambling nature of the Chinese has not yet been widely recognized by casino owners around the world.

Ning Weimin was one of the few Asian faces here, and he did not attract much attention whether he was standing in front of the blackjack, roulette, baccarat, or dice tables.

And Ning Weimin is indeed an alternative figure among the Chinese.

With God's blessing, he knows all the details about how the world will change in the next few decades, and can easily treat the stock market as an ATM.

If he is still interested in the "bloodless killing" game in the casino, that would be weird.

I'm afraid he would be the most boring and uninteresting person in this world when it comes to any gambling game.

So he walked around for a while without placing any bets, and finally ran out to the hall to drink free drinks and watch the performances of the showgirls.

After feeling bored, Ning Weimin returned to Alain Delon and discovered that the 30,000 or 40,000 francs that this guy had just earned, along with his own tens of thousands of francs, had all run out and would soon be lost.

So he simply was generous and put all the chips of 100,000 francs in front of Alain Delon as a favor.

Alain Delon was stunned. "Ning? You..."

"Nothing, I just don't want to play anymore, so you don't have to change it again."

Ning Weimin even joked, "My friend, calm down and take your time. You might as well try my chips. Maybe with the help of the magic of the East, your luck will change soon."

"Haha! That's true. That's great."

Alain Delon burst into laughter and without further ado, bet 10,000 directly.

Unexpectedly, Ning Weimin's words really came true. This time, he actually won a grand slam of blackjack.

Before he even opened his mouth, the dealer had already given him one and a half times the chips, and four chips of two thousand five became ten.

Just like that, his luck really started to improve.

Because he was talking happily with Ning Weimin, he had not had time to collect his chips before the dealer had dealt all the cards.

When he lit the cigarette and took a puff, just when he was about to exhale the smoke, the ten chips turned into twenty-five again.

Another grand slam of blackjack.

This is so smooth.

  It's so smooth!

So he was completely excited.

  In less than a few minutes, the ten thousand francs he had thrown on the table had turned into sixty-two thousand and five thousand!

Can you imagine it?

At this time, when Alandron looked at Ning Weimin again, his eyes were shining, and he regarded him as his lucky boy.

And strangely enough, once the gambling luck comes, it can’t be stopped.

In the next hour, Alain Delon lost less and won more, and it seemed that whatever he bet, he won several hundred thousand francs without realizing it.

This made Alain Delon so happy that he forgot everything. He forgot that his model girlfriend Rosalie was still waiting for him in the hotel, and he also forgot that he had promised Ning Weimin to take him to meet Catherine Deneuve today.

Until Ning Weimin looked at his watch and urged him for the third time, "If you don't leave now, the Eastern magic on the chips will dissipate."

He stopped out of superstition, and then the beautiful bikini lady brought him cigarettes and wine.

Even the casino manager came up to congratulate them on their victory.

He also shook his hand and said, "Mr. Delong, you are a lucky man today!"

Then he enthusiastically gave them two cards, one for each person, which were good for a free meal at the Cannes Film Festival Palais.

When Alain Delon exchanged the chips for cash, he not only returned all Ning Weimin's money to him, but also gave him half of the winnings.

However, Ning Weimin refused and said with a smile, "I don't want any money, I just want you to promise me one thing."

"What's up?"

"Don't gamble today. Gambling is all about luck. The casino gives us free meals because they're afraid you'll leave and hope you'll come back. Don't be fooled. Irrational people are always losers and are the most popular people in casinos. There are so many enjoyments out there, let's find another way to entertain ourselves."

This was an absolutely perfect reminder. Alain Delon was stunned for a moment and said, "My friend, you are right! Okay, let's go eat now! Call your wife and Rosalie too! I want to buy them gifts!"