Twenty years of cold chain

The conference room at Bingneng was as cold as winter.

This time, the meeting was chaired not by the general manager, but by the executive director, Hua Yue.

"Chairman Hua, we have already inquired with Minghe, and they are still discussing the final matters." For days, Liu Yu has been on tenterhooks. What he can't understand is that the clarification was given to Minghe and then to Zhonglesi, so why did both companies turn a deaf ear to it?

The bidding process involved the technical department, and he was in full charge of this matter. He had completely absolved himself of any responsibility, and there was physical evidence and witness testimony from his trusted confidants in the department. Yet, the matter remained unresolved.

Hua Yue slowly turned to the marketing manager, "Still putting on an act! Tell everyone what happened yesterday!"

The marketing manager, his face ashen, stared at the stack of papers before him, still incredulous. He read the following words, his voice trembling almost as he did so—

Refrigeration equipment supply from Bayer Group is suspended!

DaYe Group's new RF equipment project is suspended!

The cooperation between the group and eight cold storage construction companies has been suspended!

The preliminary agreement between Panhu Demonstration Port and the Group is not under consideration for the time being!

In an instant, the entire room fell silent!

No one could believe their ears. Any one of these items was something the group was supposed to be discussing and paying close attention to. What kind of evil wind could have caused all of this to explode overnight!

Nobody would believe it if I said I wasn't being targeted!

"Who did you offend?!"

Everyone was terrified and dared not speak, their hearts filled with screams of despair. Who was this powerful figure they had offended that could command such dissenting voices to wield their knives at the same time?

Like a piece of bad news, many people are even thinking about their future. Bai Leng and Da Ye are giants in their respective fields, and the Panhu Demonstration Port is the most important negotiation at present. It is a big move to occupy the two major markets of Panhu and Panzhu!

Liu Yu immediately became the target of public criticism, cold sweat pouring down his face. He was filled with disbelief. Ice Energy was already struggling, and now it was being blocked by technology and abandoned by customers. One thing after another, things had gotten far out of his control.

"Chairman Hua, from beginning to end, I only ever had dealings with one college student."

Suddenly, a loud bang rang out, almost shattering the table. Hua Yue could no longer tolerate it, and his finger pointed at Liu Yu like a sword!

"Such a huge incident! And you're telling me it was a college student?! You mean, a college student alarmed Bai Leng and Daye, a college student made the decision for Panhu Demonstration Port, a college student made all the cold storage contractors cower in fear!"

Even Liu Yu himself felt that his argument was untenable, but he had nothing more to say.

"What's his name?"

"Hu Shutong".

Upon hearing the name, someone immediately spoke up, "Chairman Hua, this Hu Shutong is from Mingda University, and he's also the one who created the U4 improvement plan."

"Chairman Hua, we have already won the bid. It was Minghe that leaked the winning bid, leading to the investigation by the secondary market traders. It was also Minghe that blocked our clarification letter from being announced to the industry, which is why we are in this situation today!"

Why did you do that?

"Our predicament is the lack of ice energy on the roads. The southern suburbs are of great significance; they serve as a demonstration for the park and for refrigerated trucks. This is the best opportunity to showcase ice energy. U4 is good, but that's compared to our refrigerated truck competitors. How can we compete with second-hand shipping containers using ordinary methods? If we want this project to proceed, we must find a solution from the very beginning. The worst outcome is simply losing the bid, so why shouldn't we put in more effort!"

Liu Yu's words were passionate and pointed out the biggest pain point for Bingneng. The situation was so helpless. Liu Yu spoke of the arduous journey of the entire industry, and everyone present felt sympathy for him, and suddenly felt a sense of "doing what is known to be impossible."

But as soon as Liu Yu finished speaking, a black cane pushed open the conference room door, followed by two anxious receptionists, but neither of them could stop the old man.

"You're so bold, so full of yourself, so daring and enterprising! When did you become able to ruin someone's future and still stand here so self-righteously!"

Pang Shiyou's appearance was like a thunderclap.

"Without justice for the people, how can there be justice for the industry! You're doing despicable things, yet you want to feign 'fearless sacrifice'—have you no shame?!"

"Professor Pang..."

Hua Yue was about to speak when Pang Shiyou immediately raised his cane.

"You keep talking about setting examples, but your Bingneng (冰能) was a model back in the day! You survived the wave of bankruptcies in the refrigerated truck industry, and your research team provided you with patents. But what have you been doing? You've deceived my mentor Pang and are now trying to harm my students. You should have been buried alive long ago!"

These were words that Pang Shiyou would never utter. His fury was frightening. "Professor Pang, it's a misunderstanding, there must be a misunderstanding!"

Pang Shiyou's fierce gaze swept over everyone, and he gritted his teeth before storming out the door.

The following day, a new clarification letter was delivered to Minghe.

Bingneng dismissed Liu Yu and four employees from the technical department, and smoothed over the whole matter. The relevant personnel had secretly altered the data of Mingda's plan in order to win the bid and used the method of framing others, in order to ensure that everything would be fine in case of any mishaps.

No one felt sorry for Bing, because it was actually very "tenacious." It cared deeply about its image; the more illustrious a person is, the more they cherish their reputation. If it weren't for the knife to its throat, this would have been a story of a sales consultant vying for a higher position and a money-grubbing student from Ming University, their secret collusion leading to their downfall, and even a self-reflective episode where the technical department, deeply resentful, intensified its scrutiny to set things right.

At the same time, without obstruction and pressure, Hu Shutong's story in the cold chain industry would have ended there.

He was too busy to think much about it at the time, but when he calmed down and looked back, all that remained for him was a deep sense of lingering fear.

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.