Twenty years of cold chain

In the east of Mingyuan City, there is an old-fashioned residential building.

Two four-story residential buildings stand facing each other, connected by a zigzag staircase. Most of the residents are elderly. It's very quiet here, with only the melodious chirping of birds kept in cages.

The old-fashioned wooden windows with their sliding doors and rectangular glass frames, the cracks in the wooden railings, and the haphazardly arranged electrical wires all contribute to the sense of age and disrepair. Towels and clothes are draped over the railings on each floor, and the corridors are piled with household items. An old man collecting cardboard boxes and plastic bags silently rides past on his tricycle.

Pang Shiyou lives on the first floor. There are two pots of ivy on the left and right sides of the door. The flower pots are almost growing together with the ground, and the branches and leaves look like they have just been trimmed.

As evening approached, the door remained open. Hu Shutong, carrying milk and fruit, gently knocked on the door.

Pang Shiyou, wearing an apron, came out of the kitchen and looked at Hu Shutong with a smile.

"Please make yourself at home. Help yourself to the tea, and the food will be served."

Hu Shutong put his things down and walked slowly into the house. It was a very small apartment with a bedroom, a study, a living room that could only fit a coffee table and a TV, and a small kitchen of about five or six square meters.

The only decoration in the room was a photograph. On the coffee table was a framed picture of Pang Shiyou and his wife in their youth, a black and white photo of them by Lake Mingda with weeping willows swaying in the breeze. His wife passed away from illness when he was not yet forty, and they had no children.

The photos on the wall evoke a strong sense of the past. There are group photos of him standing in front of the first batch of fruit cold storage in the 1970s and 80s, as well as photos of him in processing workshops during his overseas inspections in the 1990s, and photos of him conducting research at various enterprises. After the turn of the millennium, there are photos of various symposiums and special research projects.

What surprised Hu Shutong the most was that there were also photos of Tongxing's groundbreaking and opening ceremony in early 2004.

There were fifty or sixty densely packed photos on the walls of the small house. Hu Shutong was engrossed in looking at them as he walked past them, as if they were silhouettes of the past years of the cold chain.

Before long, the food was served, and Hu Shutong stepped forward to help prepare it. It was then that Hu Shutong noticed the sugar figurine standing on the table, which was the same winged horse from that year's Lantern Festival.

The tableware consisted of short, small jars filled with steamed dishes, including eggplant, green beans, and mashed potatoes. There was also a plate of cucumber salad and some spiced peanuts poured out of a bag.

Immediately afterwards, Pang Shiyou walked around the room and finally took out a bottle of wine from the bottom of the TV cabinet. The wine box also contained two small ox-eye cups.

"Teacher, are you going to drink again?"

"The doctor said that I can drink a little bit when I'm in a good mood."

Hu Shutong pursed his lips, saying he had never heard a doctor give such a warning.

"Teacher, have you lived here all these years?"

The smaller the room, the more things seem to be magnified. The more Pang Shiyou busied himself with preparations, the more heartbreaking it felt.

"Yes, they've asked me to move many times, but this is our wedding home, and it's a quiet place, so I feel at ease staying here. Come on, it's been over ten years since we've had any guests. Come on, let's eat and talk. Try my steamed dishes; I wouldn't dare say they're the best in the world, but they're definitely the best in Mingjiang."

As they were talking, Pang Shiyou put a piece of eggplant and a piece of mutton together in Hu Shutong's bowl. Hu Shutong ate it, but for some reason, he couldn't taste anything.

Seeing this, Pang Shiyou picked up his wine cup and said, "Why don't we drink?"

Hu Shutong drank from one cup at a time, while Pang Shiyou took small sips.

"It's rare to have a month off, which allows people to calm down and think about the future. Since you've come to Mingjiang, there's something we can discuss together."

"Please speak."

"The cold chain network has been established for some time, but from the perspective of dissemination and demonstration, the virtual platform still has limitations. It has advantages in information integration and dynamic release, but it is lacking in offline arrangement capabilities and does not have the mobilization capacity of a physical organization. As the industry has developed to this point, the most important thing is nationwide networking; the current biggest obstacle is the 'sweep only your own doorstep' mentality."

Hu Shutong nodded repeatedly, and Pang Shiyou continued, "The development of the cold chain is not much different from my expectations. We need to shift from strengthening ourselves to working together for mutual benefit. To give a very practical example, even if Tongxing and Nanjiao reach a cooperation agreement, it is still not enough for just the two of you. If the industry wants to make rapid progress, it must pursue a lower-cost, global cold chain. And the answer is to bring more people into an alliance."

"To be honest, when I went to Europe in 03, I had the idea of ​​forming our own cold chain alliance. Europeans have used this system very maturely. They have incorporated business owners, distributors and experts in various fields of cold chain into a system to form the most authoritative organization in the industry. This can help the country formulate and introduce policies and can also effectively plan the rural dining table."

I still remember that trip to Europe that year, in the car, Zhao Xugang from Bayern University gave me hints and hints, but at that time, Tongxing was still unknown, and Hu Shutong was just a junior expert. But now, the situation is very different.

Pang Shiyou nodded and said, "Since the rise of e-commerce, cold chain logistics has lagged behind the times. I've seen this issue many times, and all industries have this need. The prerequisite for going global is that each company can step forward. This matter needs to be established from the beginning to coordinate the entire industry. It needs to send a signal to the whole industry that if you want to move towards a brighter future, you must first reach out. So once we start doing this, the scale of the operation cannot be small."

Pang Shiyou's tone was calm, yet Hu Shutong felt an immense energy emanating from him. This elderly man before him had gone deep into the grassroots, guided research projects, improved quarantine regulations, and donated patents free of charge. He was omnipresent and omnipotent. His years of steadfast dedication reflected his simple life motto: "Take it one step at a time." But Hu had never heard him utter the phrase, "Don't make a fuss!"

In Hu Shutong's heart, Pang Shiyou is the helmsman of the industry. His judgment and vision, his guidance and advice are all valuable to the industry.

"Our alliance will release demands within a single system, pooling everyone's strengths to truly get things done."

After drinking only two cups of baijiu, Pang Shiyou's face was flushed, and he waved his hand as if he were holding thousands of people in his arms.

His commanding and composed demeanor, radiating an immense power that enveloped the small corner, suggested that from this moment on, Professor Pang had immersed himself in a rhythm. The aroma of alcohol also intensified at this time.

"Shutong, look at all these old photos in this room. They show us where we came from, and that's their significance. They also show that in the future, there will be no more lean meat powder, no more tainted meat, no more golden apple snail disease, no more Sudan Red carcinogenic eggs, and no more high levels of preservatives and additives. That's their significance."

"No more roadside vegetable leaves that look like tree leaves, no more unsold, muddy weeds in the fields, no more vegetables in the market that can't be shown to people without being watered. These are hard-won achievements, and that's their significance!"

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.