Twenty years of cold chain

Chapter 9 Unexpected

Hu Shutong was a little embarrassed. "My name is Hu Shutong. I'm from Mingda University. I'm here for an internship at Tianheng."

Then I saw my roommate grab a pair of baseball caps, throw them onto a chair, and say, "The road is the same all the time, it just depends on how you walk it."

Hu Shutong smiled slightly, "The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng, I've heard that before."

He forced a smile. "My name is Yu Dajun. You're studying at Mingjiang University, while I only got into Mingyuan No. 1 Middle School. Do you need any help?"

"No need, thank you, Brother Dajun."

Yu Dajun said no more, sat down and poured himself half a glass of wine, then opened the lunchbox, which contained cucumber salad, potato slices and two meatballs.

This guy seemed a bit impulsive, so Hu Shutong tried to keep a low profile. As he rummaged through the items, he saw some things he'd brought from home. Hu Shutong took out a jar of cured meat and grabbed a handful of peanuts. "Brother Dajun, these are from our hometown. Want to try some with your wine?"

"Then I won't be polite." Yu Dajun readily accepted it.

After taking a bite, Yu Dajun exclaimed, "These peanuts are absolutely authentic! They're definitely from our hometown!"

Upon tasting the cured meat again, he found it to be very flavorful and perfectly seasoned. Yu Dajun completely ignored the lunchbox. Seeing him enjoying his meal, Hu Shutong was also pleased. These things hadn't been brought in vain; they had instantly eased much of the distance between them earlier.

"Brother Dajun, how long have you been in Tianheng?"

"Hmm...it's been over five years, I came here in the second year the factory opened. The better the university, the cheaper it is. With my grades back then, my family couldn't even afford one semester's worth of grain for three years, so I came here to work a long time ago. But you, what brings you to Tianheng?"

"I majored in refrigerated transport, which is a good fit for this job."

"What? Refrigerated transport requires specialization?"

Hu Shutong smacked his lips and lowered his head to pack his things again.

Such wonderful snacks to accompany his drinks prompted Yu Dajun to have another drink, and he became even more talkative. From Yu Dajun's words, Hu Shutong gained a preliminary understanding of the internal workings of Tianheng.

In fact, Tianheng was smaller than he had anticipated, and its personnel structure was not very systematic. According to Yu Dajun, Tianheng had more than 20 drivers, more than 50 porters, plus warehouse managers, logistics staff, gatekeepers, equipment room staff, and a series of other positions, totaling less than 100 people.

The next day, the owner of Tianheng Cold Chain met Hu Shutong, whose name was Yan Baoming.

This meeting felt more like a formality, demonstrating Tianheng Cold Chain's emphasis on talent, with only superficial conversations. The only substantial thing was that Hu Shutong received a monthly internship salary of 300 yuan.

Next, it was Manager Zhang again who led Hu Shutong on a tour of the entire factory area. One of Tianheng Cold Chain's major advantages is its large cold storage facilities, which solves storage problems for many customers.

Over the years, Tianheng has accumulated many reliable partners and maintained long-term cooperation with frozen food companies, ice cream companies, and meat product companies. It primarily serves major supermarkets in Mingyuan City, with the production companies handling the distribution of goods, while Tianheng is only responsible for storage and transportation.

Hu Shutong was familiar with all of these things, but what puzzled him was that the company didn't have a standard explanation of what position he was interning in. This "anywhere is fine" and "anything is fine" situation was really giving him a headache.

However, this was also a rare opportunity for Hu Shutong to gain a deeper understanding, unlike his previous visits to cold storage facilities which were often superficial and required reflection afterward. This time, he was able to learn firsthand by observing and interacting with the workers, and quickly became familiar with the distribution process of the cold storage facilities in this large city.

A few days later, Hu Shutong noticed more and more problems: platform transfers were slow, products were piled up haphazardly, and the equipment room was often unattended. Most importantly, everyone's morale was low.

He pointed out the problem, but while the other party expressed admiration for the top students from the University of Minnesota, they also said that the matter needed to be reported up the chain of command, which ultimately had no effect. As an intern, Hu Shutong couldn't directly approach Yan Baoming; that would be taking himself too seriously.

Training on the front lines and accumulating more practical experience gradually became Hu Shutong's motto for comforting himself.

Yu Dajun often tried to comfort Hu Shutong with his own interpretation of Gu Long's calligraphy, but the effect was poor. Hu Shutong would always sit at his desk, looking like he didn't really want to talk.

It was almost 11 p.m. when Lao Wang, who was on duty, knocked on the dormitory door.

"Old Yu, Chunhui Supermarket suddenly called to order goods!"

"No way! What the hell is that?! We'll talk tomorrow!"

"Manager Zhang called too. The supermarket needs to change the promotional stock at the last minute. This batch of goods needs to go on sale first thing tomorrow morning! You need to go and get your piecework done!"

"So annoying!" Yu Dajun grabbed his hat, fuming and unwilling.

It was so late and time was tight, so Hu Shutong quickly got dressed and went out.

Arriving at the workers' quarters, there were fewer than twenty porters living in the factory, crammed into four large dormitories. Yu Dajun knocked on each door, the pungent smell of tobacco mixed with liquor wafting through the air. His eyes were red as he staggered around the entrance. Many of them were so drunk that they didn't even recognize Yu Dajun, the warehouse manager. In the end, only three who looked capable of doing some work followed, complaining incessantly along the way.

Yu Dajun didn't scold them. People are usually like this at this time of day. It's just that the supermarket is acting up.

Hu Shutong and the others carried goods together, and more than twenty large boxes of dumplings were placed on the platform.

As he was moving things, Yu Dajun suddenly realized how difficult the situation was. There were only four drivers living in the factory, and the factory had paid them extra to stay on, because these people could still drive other cars at night to do private jobs, just in case of emergencies like this at night.

The drivers weren't under Yu Dajun's direct command; they were all dispatched by the factory. There was a persistent conflict between the drivers and the porters. Sometimes the porters were working themselves to the bone, while the drivers leisurely smoked in their trucks. Each doing their job was fine in itself, but some porters couldn't stand the disparity and would always hurl insults. The drivers weren't pushovers either; they constantly checked their watches and urged the workers to hurry. If the goods weren't delivered on time, they'd report the workers for slacking off, further straining the relationship.

Yu Dajun sent someone to the drivers' dormitory to look for people. A dozen minutes later, the person returned and cursed, "They're all dead in the house."

"Old Yu, go back to sleep! Just leave him hanging like this! Let's see who's unlucky tomorrow!"

"Exactly! I've had enough of begging and pleading!"

Hu Shutong looked at Yu Dajun, who had been puffing up his sleeves just moments before, but now seemed much calmer.

"Everyone, wait here."

A short while later, the car headlights shone on the platform, and Yu Dajun arrived in his car.

The warehouse workers, while loading the truck, couldn't help but complain. It was past noon, but the goods were finally leaving the warehouse.

"Now, your disappointment is even greater, isn't it?" Yu Dajun looked at Hu Shutong with a wry smile.

"It's a bit of a surprise," Hu Shutong said frankly.

"Being a driver isn't easy either. When I first came here, I drove refrigerated trucks. I quit because I ended up working as a warehouse worker and driver. You need to be thick-skinned and have some self-control to do this job, otherwise you're doing two jobs for one salary."

"Brother Dajun, I think you haven't been delivering goods for years. You've been running it for so long, why aren't you turning on the refrigeration unit?"

"It's not the right time yet."

"What do you mean it's not the right time yet?" Hu Shutong was bewildered.

……