Twenty years of cold chain

As the eastern sky began to turn blue, the group boarded a Jinbei van and set off for Lianghuzhuang Village.

Besides Pang Shiyou and Xiao Wu, there are two equipment administrators and one statistician.

The scenery along the way was beautiful, and Hu Shutong felt no sleepiness at all. On the contrary, the change of environment made him feel relaxed. No longer surrounded by equipment, and no longer having to think about enterprises and technology, it was much more relaxing to go deep into the fields and do some work.

At the entrance of Lianghuzhuang Village, there is a stone lying on the ground, and the character "Liang" on it has been weathered and is difficult to discern over the years.

Beside the stone stood a large banyan tree, and three people were squatting under it.

One of them was in his fifties and had a goatee about half a foot long. The villagers called him "Old Man with the Goatee." He had run a primary school in the village in his younger years and was one of the few educated people in the village.

The other two were both in their forties. The more robust one was Liang Dafeng, the village chief's nephew. He frequently traveled between the village office and the farmers' homes and was a very capable motivator in the village. The dark-skinned and thin one was known as "Brother Shengxi" by everyone. He had extensive connections and was well-liked both in the village and outside the village.

The three of them also have one thing in common: they are all "vehicle leaders".

The truck leader acts as a link between fruit farmers and truck drivers. When truck drivers come to collect fruit, they only need to contact the truck leader in advance. Before the truck arrives, the truck leader gathers the villagers together to weigh, load, and pay the fruit, making the process quite efficient.

However, not just anyone can be a tour guide. Only those with prestige in the village, reliable connections outside, and good standing with both sides can take on this role. Over the years, a high degree of tacit understanding has developed here. Some tour guides even lease out their own orchards to villagers, earning a cut from the tour guide commission, making them moderately wealthy families in the village.

Shengxi used to be a major truck driver, but since he got married last year, he has stopped doing that and is now focusing on managing his own orchard. So, the original "three-way division" has become Weng Huzi leading the west side and Liang Dafeng leading the east side.

Shengxi deftly pulled a piece of cigarette paper from his back pocket, sprinkled a string of tobacco dregs evenly on it like salt, then blew a mouthful of saliva onto his finger and rolled up the cigarette.

"You two have gone too far. Spread the oranges evenly this time. Every time, the big ones go first and the small ones have to wait. And that waiting time is just filling up the holes! And that Dong guy, he won't take any that aren't round enough, or any smaller than a fist. Can't you two be a little more assertive? Is this bastard going to scavenge three and a half feet of grass on his grave the day he's buried?!"

The old man with the mustache, puffing on his pipe, squinted his eyes into tiny slits. "Don't worry," he said, "even if your son looks like a bald monk, I guarantee I'll get you the highest price!"

"I wasn't talking about myself, I was talking about everyone!"

"That won't do," the old man said, crossing his arms. His tone was soft, but his words were firm. "Without us, who would have come to Liangzhuang first? You only saw what wasn't sold. You should also consider that the first batch that was sold was basically the highest-priced in the whole county. If you load up all the big and small ones, what you actually get might not even match the price of the first batch. Without the small ones as a base, how can the big ones show their value? Throwing them in a pit has its uses!"

"You make it sound so convincing, but you just look down on the lower commission rates of smaller companies and are in a rush to make a big profit first."

"Hey! How dare you talk like that! Do you think your brother Shengxi is some kind of outsider? Who has brighter lights at home during the New Year than your brother Shengxi? The gifts you've given away could probably open a small shop! You've only been gone a year and you're already bossing us around? Did you just get this good life off the ground?"

The old man stroked his beard. "To be honest, it's not that simple. Subsidies are subsidies, but we still have to pay our share. If this thing costs ten yuan, and we get four yuan in subsidies, then we pay six yuan. But what if they raise the price first? It's only worth five yuan to begin with, so aren't we being ripped off?"

Liang Dafeng nodded and said, "It's not just this problem. I did the math, and even if we buy the smallest warehouse, it would take almost two years' worth of harvest to cover the costs. We can't see anything yet, and we're already paying for two years upfront—that's too risky. Besides, we can already make ends meet; why add to our burden?"

Weng Huzi continued, "And I've also learned that Lianghu Village is the first to do this. Have you ever thought about how this means freezing our fruit? If it weren't for Lianghu Village, wouldn't the other villages be flying off the ground?"

Liang Dafeng suddenly realized that from now on, Lianghuzhuang's fruit would no longer be seen in the county town or along the county roads. Every household would be stockpiling it, waiting to display it on a large platter for the New Year.

"The people in this expert group are all shrewd individuals from big cities. The more complicated they make things, the more incomprehensible they become to us. Have you ever seen anyone do something so grand and ostentatious?"

Without saying a word, people quickly got up, dusted themselves off, and headed straight for the village office.

In the afternoon, the expert team's vehicle arrived at the village office.

A welcoming banner was hung at the entrance, and the village chief and members of the village committee came to greet them in person.

What followed was a lavish welcome, with the table laden with jars of all sizes, all local specialties. Half an hour passed, filled with expressions of gratitude for the hard work and apologies for the inadequate hospitality of this small town. Pang Shiyou suggested first convening a village meeting to give a comprehensive overview of the advantages and performance of the miniature warehouse, but his words were repeatedly interrupted by raised glasses and a cacophony of voices.

The village chief is almost sixty years old, and his hearing seems to be failing him; he'll retire after this term. Regardless of what the expert group says, he continues to talk about local customs and traditions, saying things like "Fragrant fruits in all seasons, welcoming guests from all directions" and "Sweet as honey, sweetness in the beams and doors."

After the meal, the technical team was seated in a cleaned courtyard with two rows of side rooms on the east and west sides. There was a banyan tree in the courtyard, with stone benches and a chess table under it.

Pang Shiyou and Hu Shutong lived in adjacent rooms. At dusk, the two sat under a tree. Both master and apprentice understood this "warm hospitality masking deep resistance." Judging from the documents alone, everything seemed ready except for the specific procedures for installation. However, upon arrival, they realized that what was written on paper was actually simpler.

"Tell me your thoughts."

"Teacher, no matter what, we need to organize a mobilization meeting first, and let the villagers know about this before we can carry out the follow-up work."

As Pang Shiyou nodded, he also frowned. "I always feel that someone spread rumors first, otherwise the village chief and the others wouldn't have made things so obvious."

"No way, who would dare to do that?"

"Over the years, I've been to many villages and hamlets. In some places, to put it mildly, they're called 'village bullies,' but they're really just local tyrants. If something happens to them from the outside, nobody else dares to do anything unless they do it."

"But we're here to address fruit waste and increase villagers' income. Even if these people are capable, can they really control the village chief?"

Pang Shiyou hesitated for a moment, then said, "I'm afraid they'll talk nonsense to the village chief!"

Hu Shutong scratched his head. He had anticipated some difficulties before coming, but he never expected that even getting the news out would become a problem. If, as the teacher said, this was indeed caused by a village bully, then dealing with him from now on would be a real headache.

"We'll split up these next few days. I'll try to talk to the village chief, and you can go to the orchards more often, record the different types of fruit in Dapei, and first get the corresponding temperature values."

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.