Twenty years of cold chain

A celebrity returned to Lianghuzhuang these past two days.

He was the top scorer in the high school entrance examination in Tongze County, where Lianghuzhuang Village is located, and the only student in the entire county to study at Mingyuan No.1 High School. Unlike in earlier years, Mingyuan No.1 High School is now extremely selective in its admissions process. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the cradle of prestigious universities.

In addition, this child is a true all-rounder. It is said that with his painting skills, art colleges from all over the country will be vying to admit him in the future. He also has beautiful calligraphy skills, making him the pride of the entire village.

This man was Liang Lu, the son of Liang Dafeng.

The adults in the village all regarded Liang Lu as a role model, and their children were always taught to "be like Liang Lu in the future." So when Liang Lu returned for winter vacation, the whole village was buzzing with excitement, and groups of younger children went to Liang Dafeng's house. Many families also prepared red paper, cut it to the size of couplets, and lined up to wait for Liang Lu to write Spring Festival couplets.

It was late at night, and Liang Dafeng had something on his mind. Now that his son had returned, he suddenly had an idea.

"Luzi, are there many graduates from Meiji University?"

"What university is it? Or is it Mingjiang University?"

"I don't really understand, but I just said it was Mingda University."

"Mingda is really too quiet, not even one in a hundred thousand people would talk about this?"

"Only one came from our village, do you believe it or not?"

"How could that be! Graduates from Mingda University are ignored by the county; who would come to this village to suffer? You've had too much to drink!"

"How could I possibly make things up! We live in that out-of-town compound at the village committee, and they even said there was policy support to build a cold storage facility for us?"

"Do we need to spend money?"

"We'll pay 65%."

"You guys didn't listen to him, did you?!"

"How can you say that! You'll be a college student soon, ask what you think."

"I might as well just go and ask him directly!"

There were no electric lights in the courtyard. Hu Shutong found a kerosene lamp that hadn't been used in a long time in the corner of the house. He turned off the lights in the house, placed the kerosene lamp on the stone table in the courtyard, and began to ponder with his arms crossed. Regarding the next step of the plan, based on his understanding of Lianghu Village over this period of time, the start of the matter was in sight. However, if he was going to take action, he needed to proceed with caution and think it over again.

It was 10 p.m. when Hu Shutong was about to go back to his room when he suddenly saw a young man of about seventeen or eighteen walking towards him. His steps were very quick, unlike a normal visit.

At first glance, he was a fair-skinned and neat young man, who didn't seem to have been born and raised in the countryside. But upon closer inspection, one could sense that he possessed qualities that set him apart from his peers. He always had a slight tilt of his head back, which caused his eyebrows to rise, giving him an innate air of arrogance.

Hu Shutong was well aware of the commotion caused by Liang Lu's return, but such a "glorious return to his hometown" did not stir any emotion in him.

"You're a graduate of the University of Minnesota?"

How can you prove you graduated from the University of Minnesota?

"I didn't bring my graduation certificate, what exactly did you...?"

"It's not that I didn't bring it, it's that I didn't have it at all!"

"What do you mean?"

It would have been better if he hadn't seen him at all; what he saw left Liang Lu utterly stunned. The person before him, glaring menacingly at the light of a kerosene lamp, was squatting on a stone bench with his arms crossed. His clothes were utterly unkempt, his trousers slit high, revealing tattered, rumpled socks. His face and expression were chillingly sinister, like a midnight swindler or thief, giving off a terrifying aura of "who will he prey on next?"

If these were students from the University of Minnesota, then there would be University of Minnesota students everywhere, and you could find a whole bunch of them if you just laid a brick.

"If you're going to pretend to be a college student, can you at least lower the bar? Do you think you can just pretend to be from the University of Minnesota? Do you even know what the University of Minnesota is?"

This barrage of questions left Hu Shutong speechless. "What exactly do you want?"

"What is it?" Liang Lu laughed angrily. "Can't you swindlers at least have some skill? I've only ever seen people come to the countryside to sell popsicles. What are you thinking, selling cold storage here? Why don't you come here to sell Shenzhou spacecraft?!"

Hu Shutong rolled his eyes and picked up the kerosene lamp. He gave off an arrogant vibe at first glance, and it was the kind of person you would never bother with.

"Which way are you going! This is Lianghu Village!"

With a thud, Hu Shutong slammed the kerosene lamp down on the stone table. "Liang Lu, is it? How did the subsidies come about? What kind of cold storage is this? You don't know anything and yet you're spouting nonsense?"

"Ha!" Liang Lu sneered repeatedly. "Even if I'm just talking nonsense, it's still better than you, a rough, old man, pretending to be a college student!"

A rough, greasy old man?!

Hu Shutong looked himself up and down, and regardless of whether it was accurate or not, he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Do you want to study humanities or sciences?"

"Science, of course!"

"Oh! If you're a top student, you must have many questions during the learning process. Why is it that you understand the initial state and the final state very well, but you can't learn the dynamics process at all?"

Liang Lu was a little stunned, and this was just the beginning.

"You'll find the answers to these things in college, or maybe not, but college physics will make you understand that it's a product of the combination of high school physics and advanced mathematics. If you go further, you'll find that general physics is one stage, the four major branches of mechanics is another, and the in-depth foundational knowledge of each major is yet another. The physical images you see now have sacrificed precision; their purpose is merely to provide a transition."

"To be honest, this isn't my forte. I'm only interested in cold storage. You must have a lot of homework over winter break. If you're worried, bring it over to me tomorrow. At your level, if I could solve this in the blink of an eye, I'd leave Lianghu Village immediately!"

As he spoke, Hu Shutong picked up the kerosene lamp again, shrugged, and went back into the house.

Liang Lu stood alone in the courtyard, bewildered. After a long while, his face turned as red as a persimmon.

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.