Twenty years of cold chain

"My dear daughter, things can't go on like this between you and Shutong. You're two or three thousand miles apart, and you only see each other once or twice a year. No matter how close you are, it can't last this long. Your parents never interfere with your careers, and it's not that you have to be together every day, but some things need to be discussed. Now that you're thirty, you won't object, will you?"

"Mom, I understand." Luan Pingxin, who was waiting for Hu Shutong outside the airport, received a call from home as soon as she returned to Qingyan. Her parents had the call on speakerphone and chatted back and forth.

"Pingxin, I've been to Tongxing quite a few times. There are quite a few young girls in various management positions around Shutong, and they're all so pretty! Having worked around Shutong for so long, I don't believe there's no one who can resist the boss's heart! What if there's one who's good at sweet talk and can charm Shutong into a daze? Little by little, everything could change."

"How could I possibly be unable to get married? You guys are just causing me trouble!"

"I don't know where you got this temper from, girl. This isn't just adding to the trouble! You two need to put in more effort when you're together. It's been so many years of nothing but cold talk. Can't you two be a little more affectionate? Stop talking about color steel oil compressors and how cold it is below zero all the time. Say something useful!"

"Shutong has come to pick me up. Let's leave now. We can talk about it when we get home."

Sitting in the car, Luan Pingxin remained silent while Hu Shutong answered one phone call after another, too busy to chat. She noticed that Hu Shutong wasn't wearing the scarf she had given him, and that he, who usually disliked leather shoes and only wore them for work or business meetings, was now wearing them shiny and gleaming in front of her.

Rolling down the car window, Luan Pingxin silently gazed at the city she hadn't seen all year. The tree branches were dry and thin, the weather was cold but there was no snow, and everything looked monotonous and withered.

"Are you hungry? Let's go get something to eat."

"I don't want to eat." Luan Pingxin said without turning her head. "Actually, you didn't need to come. You could have sent a driver or taken a taxi myself."

"Then I'll take you somewhere."

"I'm not going. Just take me to the bus station. I want to go home."

The shock of her parents' phone call, coupled with their unfamiliar demeanor after a year apart, plunged Luan Pingxin into a deep slump. The timing of Hu Shutong's change was also quite subtle; Tongxing had been making great strides since its inception, and the personal crises and company difficulties of yesteryear had long since faded.

In the past year, they had only spoken on the phone sixteen times, and each time they didn't talk much. They talked about everything, from whether they had eaten to how busy they were and how they were doing. Not long ago, he only learned about the important matter of Tongxing being contested for land. The people around him didn't even confide in him about such a big thing.

For a moment, Luan Pingxin's mind was filled with complicated thoughts. Combined with her parents' "tips," all sorts of ideas that she had never thought of before, which were suddenly amplified and even strange and unbelievable, began to swirl around her.

"What are you thinking about? We're here."

Luan Pingxin had lost all interest, but she subconsciously glanced outside. That one glance made her immediately open the car door.

To her utter surprise, Hu Shutong brought her to Qingyan No.1 Middle School!

They first stepped into this place in the autumn of 1991.

In the autumn of 1997, after leaving, I never came back to see it again.

With only twenty-odd days left until the Lunar New Year, only the junior high school class and the senior high school class remained at the school. The entire campus was unusually quiet, and even the slightest movement of a magpie could attract attention.

Ten years have passed, and the school feels completely unfamiliar. The old teaching building has been renovated and painted an orange color like the morning sun. A new teaching building has been built behind it, its color as vibrant as the ocean. The playground that used to be dusty and filled with pebbles during morning exercises is now a synthetic track. The leaky steel-framed platform has been replaced by a sturdy mushroom-shaped roof.

But the familiar things remain: the large clock on the main building marks the passage of time, and the sculptures at the entrance bear the marks of time. The large sycamore tree outside the dormitory, with its wooden tables and benches worn smooth and rounded by time, reminds one of those who came here with high hopes to study, only to end up either playing chess or watching others play.

"I didn't come here just to reminisce about the past; I want to talk to you about the future."

"What did you say?" Luan Pingxin's voice was not loud, her eyes flashing as she looked at the ground.

"Pingxin, from the year I stepped into this campus until now, I remember everything that happened between us. I remember you always could only compete for second place, you were naturally stupid but refused to admit that others were better than you. I remember you were bullied and came to me for help, and before my all-female team could even charge in, you had already shaken hands and made peace with the other person. I also remember that during college, you didn't have this or that, and I sent you sixty-two books and magazines in total, always troubling me."

"Hu Shutong, these are my lines. Don't you have any shame?" Luan Pingxin smiled, but tears welled up in her eyes.

"After graduation, you even dragged me into a cold storage project. You didn't understand the treachery of people and got framed, forcing me to plead with the company. You risked your career on equipment for a park you couldn't even see yet. Nobody cared about your major, yet you still dreamed of going abroad to see the world. I had to use my family's name to get you on the plane. So I've always wondered, with such a burden like you, should I still drag you along?"

As Hu Shutong spoke, his eyes reddened, while Luan Pingxin pursed her lips and wiped away tears from the corners of her eyes. As Hu Shutong recounted the events, many past events became exceptionally clear.

A moment later, Luan Pingxin raised her head and snorted, "You really think this is three or five years ago? Everyone at Tongxing is thriving now, what use are you to me? A burden is a burden, who wants to drag you along? Let me tell you today, Tongxing only hires people with decent features, slim figures, who can serve tea and water efficiently, and who has a knack for charming people!"

Hu Shutong struggled for a long time but couldn't answer. "Luan Pingxin, you win!"

Luan Pingxin smiled, wiped her eyes, and then hugged Hu Shutong's arm. "I'm hungry, let's go eat fish! By the way, weren't you just talking about the future?"

"I was thinking that before the New Year, we could choose a day for both sets of parents to sit down for a meal and have a talk. What do you think? My dad said that we need a landmark setting, otherwise we won't be able to connect properly."

"Exactly the same, my dad said so too, so you can arrange it. But regular features and a slim figure, is that really Tongxing's standard for hiring?"

"Those are all secondary."

"So you mean if the business capabilities are similar, these are the most important things?"

"How about I take you to the bus station?"

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.