Twenty years of cold chain

When Zeng Zhaoda established the Meat Products Association, he was motivated by the desire to coordinate the industry. The Pingchengshan incident served as a catalyst, which was enough to generate influence within the industry. However, he overlooked one point.

When the meat products association was first established, there were not many people with academic and technical expertise. Most of them were meat merchants from Qingyan and owners of large cold storage facilities. When he brought these people together, he gradually felt like he was doing the work for someone else.

There's an old saying: "If you're not ruthless, you can't do meat." Among these meat merchants who started in the early 90s, many still possess the same shrewdness and cunning as the old-school vegetable vendors. For them, maintaining a good reputation is never a trivial matter, and many of them owe their success to the patronage of the Pingchengshan Cold Storage back in the day. Although the big boss has fallen from grace and the entire industry is undergoing a major overhaul, their long-standing style and rules of conduct remain unchanged.

The chain reaction triggered by this incident has led to the demolition of some cold storage facilities near residential areas, forcing businesses to start over by renting new land. Some have spent more than two years' worth of profits on renovating their cold storage facilities, while many others have been placed under stricter regulations, including training and inspections.

They couldn't very well go to the relevant departments to seek an explanation, so the association members stirred things up and unanimously vented their anger on Tongxing. They were also worried that if things continued like this, Tongxing might become the big boss of the Qingyan meat industry someday, and someone with connections and influence would take over the reins, which would be absolutely unacceptable.

In reality, as long as Tongxing adopts a clear stance within the association, acknowledges his identity and seniority, and makes proper arrangements in the future, there is still considerable room for future cooperation. However, if Tongxing remains inactive, he will soon face the consequences for this influential group.

Sanhe is also a member of the Meat Products Association, but it plays more of a follower role within the association and never actively advocates for anything. However, it is very interested to see whether Tongxing will cooperate or not in such a severe situation, or rather, how capable Tongxing really is that it is worth cooperating with.

Late at night, Hu Shutong sat alone in his office, overwhelmed with various tasks. Besides refining the initial processing plan, he also needed to develop a solution for Yu Dajun and help Li Zhou quantify radio frequency identification. He couldn't concentrate; the events at the meat products association struck him as particularly ironic.

Without the confidence I instilled in Zeng Zhaoda, he would never have launched the meat products association this year, sold blueprints to acquire state-reserved meat for the sake of the industry's improvement, and ultimately gained a huge camp standing on the opposite side.

What kind of industry is this exactly?

He once thought his analysis was comprehensive and insightful, capable of writing reports on every aspect of the stagnation in the cold chain. But now, it seems he wasn't entirely worldly-wise. The transformation of the cold chain industry is a shock; it will change the established profit models and survival strategies of many years. People are used to the "you're good, I'm good, everyone's good" approach and cannot tolerate "everyone watching him prosper." Concentration brings fear, and that is the root cause.

He was originally full of enthusiasm, but now he has personally gathered a group of opponents for himself.

Whether things go smoothly or not, Hu Shutong never even considered the former. There have been many obstacles on this path: the technology, the system, the regulations, and the people! He has overcome every single one of them, and this time will be no exception.

The Hu Shutong of today is no longer the one who was slandered by Bing Neng and could only write proposals in the dark room, his mouth covered in blisters from anxiety. He is no longer the Hu Shutong for whom many people ran around to save him from dire straits.

Back then, he only had one pen, but now, he has Tongxing!

You bring dark clouds to press down on the city, I unleash the brilliance of golden scales!

A phone call came in, and he was immediately filled with shock.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hu, I only had time to deal with this now. You're not joking about what's in the documents, are you?"

"President Ning, people have already developed a habit of buying seafood in the three major markets, and the profit margins are greater there. Why not make a change?"

"No, no! Mr. Hu, you misunderstand. If all three major markets were to focus solely on seafood, my concern would be the supply. The figure you provided is far too alarming! Even if all of Tongxing's transportation companies were dedicated to seafood, they simply couldn't keep up!"

"Mr. Ning, you not only need to free up your stall, but also reposition yourself. Focusing on aquatic products will comprehensively expand our cooperation, and the three major markets will establish a clearer brand in Qingyan. I believe this will definitely be a win-win situation."

After a moment's hesitation, the other party said, "Mr. Hu, with this scale, if we can't keep up, I'm really a bit worried about our transportation capacity..."

"President Ning, that's something I should consider."

……

Three days later, on a rainy night, at the Shuangliu Aquatic Products Center in Panzhu.

The two men wore oversized green raincoats, the rain pouring down on them, and they spoke in shouts. They were already acquainted; Lin Xiang had met Kang Xingkai during the ice energy incident.

"What's going on?! Why did you come here in person? What does Shutong want?"

"How was I supposed to know? He's been urging me to rent cars every day. I thought he was going to drive them to Tongxing to show off his business. But it turns out he said he wanted to use these cars to pick up fish in Panzhu, so I came over to keep an eye on things."

"You're looking for cars every day, and I'm fishing every day. Even Shuangliu Corner isn't enough for me! How did that kid suddenly develop such a huge appetite!"

"Something must have happened! They'll come in batches, and leave as soon as they're full! They should arrive at Tongxing a little later tomorrow!"

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.