Twenty years of cold chain

As evening approached, two cars drove towards Tongxing with their backs to the sunset.

The setup was somewhat impressive, but in the end, only Li Shenglong sat down in front of Hu Shutong. It was customary to always bring gifts when discussing business; such a rule was never ambiguous. Li Shenglong brought Hu Shutong two packs of cigarettes costing seven yuan a pack, as well as some good wine worth three to five hundred yuan.

These people acknowledged Tongxing's scale and momentum, but when it came to interpersonal relationships, they looked down on Hu Shutong. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sent an insignificant person to discuss matters with Hu Shutong last time. Not only did they look down on Hu Shutong, they also scoffed at his various actions since the park opened. This person was not only "uncooperative" but also reckless and impulsive, only caring about charging forward blindly, and actually thought that the vegetable business in the five counties was like two parallel tracks.

But man proposes, God disposes. Before the old men of the martial arts world could figure out how to deal with this simpleton, garlic had already ridden over his head.

Li Shenglong wouldn't personally handle even minor matters. This time, if Tongxing refuses to step in, the so-called "Master Long" might be doomed.

Li Shenglong always had a cigarette in his hand, and when he smoked it, he would take a deep breath, making a very satisfying slurping sound. He would only smoke half a cigarette before putting it in the ashtray, then strike a match and light another one.

The room was filled with smoke and fire. Li Shenglong remained silent, and Hu Shutong didn't raise his hand either. Instinctively, he wanted Hu Shutong to say something to offer a way out, even if it was just a pretentious gesture of getting to know each other after a fight. But Hu Shutong preferred to watch him smoke and tend to the fire, remaining unmoved.

Li Shenglong didn't want to say anything like "I only realized how well Tongxing lived up to its reputation after seeing it," which was quite unpleasant. He also subtly implied that whoever spoke first would lose the upper hand. So, it was a rather awkward situation, and they sat there for about ten minutes.

"Boss Hu, how do you rent out Tongxing's cold storage?" Finally, Li Shenglong, who needed a favor from the man, couldn't hold back any longer and realized that the guy in front of him was a bit shrewd.

"Master Long is joking. There's no warehouse in Tongxing that you can rent."

"That's not right. I've heard that rent is a major part of the business for those of you who build cold storage facilities! I won't rent more than that; I'll just rent the whole warehouse. How about we discuss the rent?"

Hu Shutong couldn't help but smile. Tongxing only had six warehouses in total, and it was simply unrealistic to make room for this person in front of him. Even if the rent was high, it would be a loss to disrupt Tongxing's operations.

But no matter how many times you spoke, how eager you were to leave no room for argument, Hu Shutong still shook his head.

Li Shenglong, holding his breath, said, "To be honest, Boss Hu, I have 20,000 tons of garlic to store. The rent won't be unfair to you, and I'm doing this as a favor. If you help me with this, everything will be easier to discuss in the future."

"But as far as I know, Master Long has a special warehouse for storing garlic, right?"

Li Shenglong gritted his teeth, his cheeks bulging like iron blocks, "The garlic in that warehouse is all old stock; I plan to hold out for another six months!"

"So, you've harvested new garlic?"

"We've taken it, all 20,000 tons."

Hu Shutong frowned, inwardly crying out that this shouldn't be happening. If the price of garlic was purchased at the beginning of the year, the cost of 20,000 tons of garlic would be over 2.5 million! But when Li Shenglong thought of this, it wasn't a matter of right or wrong anymore. He wished he could tie a corn cob with a rope, carve a little person out of it, and take it out in the middle of the night to tie it up to vent his anger.

Relying on his reputation and local influence over the years, Li Shenglong had frequent and close relationships with many investors. He also trusted those investors from other provinces who would readily produce charts for predictions. Moreover, he had made a steady profit for several years, so he became more at ease with them and would often provide them with advance funding.

This year, the trend was clearly not right. Li Shenglong insisted on selling the old garlic first, but the investors believed that there was still room for observation and assured Li Shenglong that they would sell the old garlic once the new garlic came in. They also presented a letter of intent for cooperation with a garlic processing factory.

Seeing that the sales channels were clear, Li Shenglong felt reassured and began to buy garlic everywhere as soon as the new garlic came to market. However, in just half a month, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Garlic was everywhere in the market. According to feedback from various sales channels, garlic was completely overabundant. Not only in the five counties north of the city, but the garlic market in the entire Qingning region had reached rock bottom.

From then on, Li Shenglong could no longer contact the financing party. He couldn't find a place to store the harvested garlic, and it would all have to be thrown away within a week. He contacted Tongxing because he planned to gamble on it. Based on past experience, those who made the biggest profits were those who could hold their ground; he couldn't let these 20,000 tons go down the drain!

"Boss Hu, with such a large business, how could you not have room for a warehouse? I can give you tens of thousands of yuan a month in rent!"

"Does Master Long think I don't want to make money this way? Tongxing really can't free up any warehouse space. You can send people around to look for more. Don't even mention freeing up warehouse space for you to store garlic; I have so much stock that I'm waiting to sell!"

Li Shenglong pressed the cigarette butt down hard and spun it around in the ashtray, finally twisting the cotton in the filter until it burst out.

At the same time, a pair of fierce eyes that Hu Shutong had never seen before came forward, "One last question for Boss Hu, is it really true that we can't continue discussing this?"

"If Master Long is willing to lend a hand, things might still be worth a try."

Cough!

"Tell me all at once how you want to help, how you'll try!"

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.