Twenty years of cold chain

As Mr. Meng's father became more and more talkative, he kept patting Hu Shutong's shoulder as he drank, constantly recounting how difficult the Meng family had been over the years and how high his expectations were for Meng Qiangqiang. Hu Shutong noticed that Mr. Meng's father quickly "revealed his true colors" after drinking; just moments before he had seemed a composed and proper man, but suddenly he was full of boastful words and unrestrained behavior.

Furthermore, I could see a hint of fear in the eyes of Meng Qiangqiang and his mother.

Hu Shutong understood; this was an old drunkard who would drink more than two ounces or two pounds.

Meng Qiangqiang was incredibly embarrassed, his face flushed red. Once his father entered this mode, it didn't matter who the other person was; his shouting and yelling would make even the Heavenly King himself bow down. Fueled by the alcohol...

The phrase "Why should I?" has almost become a common expression.

He talked about a bunch of things that Hu Shutong couldn't understand. The alcohol didn't make him drunk, but his words almost made him dizzy.

From this emotion, Hu Shutong also sensed that Meng's father was quite different from ordinary country folk. He could spout many profound truths, elevating a discussion from smoking and drinking to the question of what one is striving for in life. However, his words were mostly filled with complaints about the unfair distribution of luck, and judging from his drunken state, he had been complaining about this injustice for at least twenty years.

Even after the main course of paomo (pita bread soaked in mutton soup) was served, Meng's father still wouldn't stop. He looked around for the large wine pot and kept repeating Hu Shutong's phrase "a person's name is like the shadow of a tree" over and over again. Meng Qiangqiang couldn't stand it anymore and forcibly helped him into another room. After a bit of arguing, snoring finally broke out.

Before they had finished eating, it suddenly started snowing outside. The Meng family lived on high ground, and the roads were most slippery when it snowed.

Meng Qiangqiang insisted on keeping Hu Shutong at home. Since his own home was small, he used a flashlight to take the driver to a relative's house for the night.

This is not uncommon in rural areas, especially when many relatives from other places come to visit during holidays.

When he got back, Meng Qiangqiang helped his mother tidy up. While washing the dishes, he kept pursing his lips. At that moment, he was filled with regret, regretting that he had done something so stupid. He felt that he had messed everything up.

In this deserted corner, Meng Qiangqiang wiped away his tears. Today was so humiliating, so shameful that he wished he could disappear into the ground.

Inside the small hut, there was a small kang (heated brick bed) on one side and a makeshift bed made of wooden planks on the other. In the middle was a small stove with red clay underneath, where a pot of camellia was being brewed.

Hu Shutong sat on a small stool by the stove, not particularly intoxicated. Meng Qiangqiang walked in carrying his luggage, avoiding Hu Shutong's gaze. After carefully laying it out, he turned his back and said, "Mr. Hu, I apologize for the commotion."

Hu Shutong smiled and shook his head. "How's the research going these past six months?"

"Let's talk about it in the county tomorrow when we wake up." But as soon as he finished speaking,

Meng Qiangqiang's expression suddenly darkened again. After shaking his head slightly, he walked to a drawer and took out a stack of materials. He moved a stool over and sat opposite Hu Shutong. Meng Qiangqiang placed the materials on his lap and began to speak as he handed them to Hu Shutong.

"Mr. Hu, I believe this industrial park should start with standardized orchards in one hundred key counties. These are the newly established planting bases, each over two hundred acres in size. This is just the current scale; in the future, with the widespread availability of high-quality seedlings, these places will become major bases for fruit transportation in Ganzhou!"

"As far as I know, Ganzhou's support for cold storage facilities in the apple industry is also quite substantial."

Meng Qiangqiang appeared to have made ample preparations. He flipped through the documents, pulled out a few, and nodded, saying, "The province plans to build twenty controlled atmosphere storage facilities for apples with a capacity of over 5,000 tons each within three years, and will award 200,000 yuan for every 1,000 tons. In this respect alone, such efforts are far beyond what Qingning can match. Furthermore, the province will also support the apple production and marketing association in the coming period."

"Production and Marketing Association? The whole of Ganzhou?"

"We have support at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels. The county-level association provides an annual subsidy of 120,000 yuan, mainly for researching direct sales and production, aiming to get apples directly into various retail outlets as much as possible. Ganzhou plans to rank among the top three in the country in apple production value next year. Driven by standardized orchards, the planting area is expected to reach 4.5 million mu next year. Support from seedlings to finished products is ubiquitous."

The production and sales association was not something Hu Shutong had anticipated, but it opened up entirely new avenues of thinking for him. Tongxing had not only done direct production and sales before, but on a larger scale and on a wider scale, with experience in transporting vegetables to the south. There was no need to draw personnel from the R&D center for this; the people in Tongxing's marketing department who were in charge of execution had a lot to say on the matter.

Meng Qiangqiang's expression changed as well. This guy, who had always lacked confidence, became incredibly enthusiastic when talking about his profession and the future prospects of the industry. He felt that solid professional skills could become his career, and that everything he had learned and seen over the years could be connected into a cohesive whole!

"Mr. Hu, I've also learned that the government is encouraging the development of diversified apple processing, and has already set a quota: a reward of 150,000 yuan for every 10,000 tons of apples processed. All aspects of the apple industry are being stimulated. Essentially, these are all within the scope of support for agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Combined, the annual investment in vegetables and apples exceeds 100 million yuan!"

Hu Shutong reasoned that apples in Ganzhou are like fish and shrimp in Panzhu; the stronger industrial singularity implies a greater core of people's livelihood, which makes policy investment more targeted.

Whether you're a fruit grower, a seedling cultivator, a cold chain business owner, a technical leader, or a production and sales operator, anyone involved in this field will receive corresponding support. From this perspective, the opportunities in the Ganzhou apple orchard are unprecedented for Hu Shutong since he started working in the cold chain industry!

These words clarified Hu Shutong's inner thoughts: there is no perfect cold storage facility in the world; if one were to say something approaches perfection, it would be an extremely specialized, single-purpose facility. Tongxing is confident that, for its dedicated apple cold storage, it can develop a superior solution by combining current cold chain conditions and technological capabilities. The next step is production and sales; Tongxing has experience with large-scale models, and when broken down into specific issues, its feasibility is beyond doubt.

In Hu Shutong's mind, these are far more than just benefits for Meng Qiangqiang. From the perspective of the national cold chain trend, and considering the conclusion of the 11th Five-Year Plan and the outlook for the 12th Five-Year Plan, the cold chain link in Northwest China has extraordinary significance.

Even if these are just speculations, it doesn't hinder Tongxing's future strategy. When cold chain parks spring up everywhere, reaching places others haven't reached and achieving what others haven't done will become a major competitive advantage.

The bright moon shone through the window, casting a clear, hazy glow. Meng Qiangqiang looked up and thought that the words "splendor," "moonlight," and even "youthful beauty" were just literary devices. But at this moment, he truly felt that the windowsill was like a small pond, and wherever the light fell, that was splendor.

The camellias billowed before my eyes, the charcoal fire blazing wildly, suddenly making me feel—

As long as the conversation touches on something deep within our hearts, there is no difference between here, elsewhere, or anywhere in the world.

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.