Electronic Nezha

Chapter 65 Fur
Ma Chaoran's method worked very well.

Less than half an hour later, two government officials appeared before us. One of them, a man in his mid-thirties, was wearing a short down jacket over an administrative jacket. The other looked younger and was probably an escort.

Ma Chaoran, wearing an administrative jacket, raised his hand to greet us: "Director Xu." He then introduced us to each other: Director Xu was the director of the deputy mayor's office, and the younger man was one of his staff members.

We all thought Director Xu would look bitter and resentful when faced with this situation, but he was actually very amiable. Seeing that Lao Sun seemed to be in charge on our side, he suggested, "Let's go to the office here to talk. You can choose two or three representatives to share your thoughts."

Finally, Lao Sun is one, I'm one, and Sister Zhao is the most popular person today, replacing Lao Wang and also entering the list of feudal lords.

As we walked towards the cold storage office, Ma Chaoran received a phone call. Her expression changed slightly as she asked, "Who are you talking about, Huang Jiaoming?"

I hurriedly asked, "What's wrong with Huang Jiaoming?"

Ma Chaoran glanced at me and said, "Go ahead and do your own thing—" She said to Director Xu, "The station has other urgent tasks, so I can't accompany you." After saying that, she nodded to me and left.

Ma Chaoran was somewhat one of our own, and I felt uneasy after she left. The cold storage office was a small two-story building. We three were supposed to be the representatives, but when we got downstairs, everyone else from the fruit market wanted to go in and listen, and it became noisy again.

Director Xu stood on the steps and waved his hand, saying, "Everyone, don't rush. If too many people go in, it will only make things more chaotic and no one can say a word. I'm not Tang Sanzang; you can't do anything by eating me."

The lame joke elicited awkward laughter, which did ease the atmosphere considerably.

In the end, it was the three of us who followed Director Xu and that clerk into the office. Before Sister Zhao entered, the fruit market vendors gave her all sorts of encouragement and advice, like parents sending their children to the college entrance examination with heartfelt words of advice.

This is the first time I've ever been inside the cold storage's office in all these years. In such a prime location, the office occupies a very cramped area. You can tell from the names "cold storage" and "opposite the cold storage (fruit market)" that the fruit market is like the domineering CEO's little wife. Today, the people from the fruit market are causing trouble, and they have to use the cold storage's office, making their husband laugh at them...

In the small conference room, Director Xu sat on one side of the round table instead of in the main seat. The staff member sat behind him with a recorder on his lap, while the three of us sat on the other side.

Director Xu looked at the three of us and said with a smile, "Well... who wants to go first?"

Sister Zhao said bluntly, "Boss, just tell us if it's true or not that they're going to set up a second fruit market in the cold storage. If you say it's fake, the three of us will just walk away. We still have to do business!"

Director Xu pondered for a moment and said, "We didn't expect it to cause such a big reaction." It seems it's true.

Sister Zhao said coldly, "You should have expected this!"

Old Sun said, "Little Zhao, let Director Xu finish speaking."

Director Xu said, "It's definitely inaccurate to say that we're going to build a second fruit market in the cold storage area."

Sister Zhao said, "Then we know, they're definitely going to set up an unmanned fruit supermarket."

Director Xu said, "That's how it is... The unmanned fruit supermarket relies on a few express delivery lines set up by a few bosses from the south, and its main business is rare and expensive fruits."

Old Sun couldn't help but say, "It's precisely because it's expensive that we make money. With the government doing this, have they thought about what will happen to our revenue?"

Sister Zhao said, "Does that mean we're not qualified to sell expensive fruit?"

Director Xu said, "Listen to me. The unmanned mode is a new form. Whether it can be implemented or not depends on the results. If it is implemented and the scale is larger, the impact on you will be smaller."

Old Sun asked, "How so?" "The bosses in the south go to great lengths and invest money, not just to sell a few more durians. Once the logistics channels are opened, our goal is to radiate throughout the entire province—in the future, all the high-priced fruits in the province will be sent from our city's cold storage, and we can even take care of neighboring provinces."

Sister Zhao said, "Then won't we have even less of a way to survive?"

Director Xu said, "No, traffic is business opportunity. Who knows what new channels will open up for us? The daily fruit needs of citizens will still mainly come from you. Besides, would people who are not good at operating mobile phones queue up for half a day to get used to the machine just to save a few dollars?" It turns out that the problem my dad thought of had also been considered by others.

"Yes, it will!" Sister Zhao said confidently. "The spice market was having a clearance sale. I bought two big bags of spices, and they were only two yuan cheaper than usual, even after waiting in line for ages." She then held up the two large bags of chili powder, pepper, and other spices in her hand…

"Well, it's still different," was all Director Xu could say.

Sister Zhao said, "How about this, the fruit supermarket has a rule that it's not allowed to sell retail, so we can discuss it with everyone when we get back."

Old Sun said, "That won't work either. It would be more suitable if three or five families bought together and went into wholesale. That's how we've made our money over the years."

Director Xu asked, puzzled, "Did I not explain myself clearly?"

Actually, I understand. The government wants to use the influence of the cold storage distribution center to monopolize the expensive southern fruits in the province, or at least make it an important transit point for the north. The government's goal is the stars and the sea. Now, in the place where the spaceship is being built, some people are worried that your spaceship is too big and will block my sunlight.

You can't blame the market; blocking the sunlight will also have a significant impact on life!
Some people are dreaming of a happy life after the spaceship is built, while others are worried that it will disturb the people. But isn't the main problem that the spaceship simply cannot be built?
I finally asked, "Director Xu, how much has our government invested in this project?"

Director Xu dodged the question by saying, "That's a problem the leaders are considering."

"Yes, such a big project can be launched so easily. The leaders must have done a risk assessment. So the biggest investment is the land for the condiment market. No matter how profitable or unprofitable the project is, the land will not lose money."

Director Xu laughed and said, "That's not what I said."

"As for the costs of getting the logistics in place and the labor, those were all paid for by those bosses from the south."

Director Xu said, "This doesn't need to be kept secret. What else do you know?"

I said, "The most crucial part here is the establishment of the supporting facilities and database for the unmanned mode, which was provided by a man named Chen Bing, and all the expenses were naturally paid by the Southern boss."

Sister Zhao said, "Isn't the most crucial thing logistics?" She said indignantly, "Speaking of which, let me ask you this: if you're going to do logistics, just do logistics. If you're going to kill us all by undercutting prices, we'll know how we died. Why do you have to bring up unmanned operation?"

I said, "Because the unmanned mode can theoretically save more than 80% of the money, including data feedback for order fulfillment, notification of ground transportation, storage temperature, isolation of damaged goods, and recording of members' consumption preferences and habits. The unmanned machine in the supermarket is just the most inconspicuous part of the unmanned mode."

Old Sun said, "No wonder we didn't do it before."

Director Xu asked in surprise, "Mr. Liu knows so much?"

I said casually, "My child is learning programming, and I've dabbled in it a little bit myself."

The junior clerk with the studious look behind Director Xu couldn't help but say, "Programming and this... aren't the same thing, are they?"

Well, these are all things that Liu Zhenhua and I casually mentioned when we were making the third episode of his "King of Bad Jokes," and he was basically not lying.

(End of this chapter)