2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 506 A Mishaps on the Road

That evening, both Shentong and Yuantong issued apology announcements.

They announced that they would close early starting tomorrow, which is the 22nd day of the twelfth lunar month. Subsequently, ZJS Express also issued an announcement to close early, and then large and small express delivery companies began to issue announcements of closure.

At the SF Express station near Taishan Road, supervisor Wang Xincheng looked up at the falling snowflakes and the few pedestrians on the street, then shook his head.

"Xiao Hu, let's go home after get off work. Let's stop guarding and go to the Flash Cafeteria for a meal."

The income of deliverymen is directly linked to the number of packages they deliver. Apart from local deliveries, they have hardly received any packages destined for other regions these days, which has had a significant impact on their income.

People are less tired, but their income has also dropped significantly, which is not what they want.

The days leading up to the Lunar New Year are the peak season for online shopping. Although the Orange Products promotion has ended, its reputation has already been established, and their revenue has been steadily increasing recently.

However, since the snow, Orange Products has stopped shipping many products, especially the most profitable fresh fruits and vegetables, which have all been shut down.

In addition, Jinpeng Industrial's online store is almost half closed. For the first two days, he thought that this boss Tan had gone crazy and was making a fuss over a little snow, but now he is somewhat relieved.

It's even more annoying if you can't deliver it and get complaints.

"Well, Boss Tan is quite kind-hearted; he even opened the cafeteria to us."

The person Wang Xincheng calls Xiao Hu is his colleague and subordinate. Now that there are hardly any packages being delivered at the station, only the two of them are left. Neither of them wants to go home for the Chinese New Year, as it's too far.

"That's probably because of our CEO Wang. We're business partners, and we don't open up to others."

Snowfall also has a significant impact on the supply of daily necessities. Deliverymen rarely cook for themselves and usually eat out. During the Lunar New Year, their food problem becomes somewhat troublesome.

That day, Wang Xincheng and his friends went to the warehouse to pick up a package. They happened to run into Boss Tan, who was inspecting the warehouse and heard their complaints. So he had the administrative staff give them some employee badges, which allowed them to eat at the factories under Flash.

Without meal allowance, it's naturally more expensive than for regular employees, but it's still much cheaper than restaurants outside, and the food is much better than what you'd find in small eateries.

Recently, they have been eating at the Flash Cafeteria most of the time. Finding a nearby cafeteria to eat after work has become their daily routine.

"That's possible, but it depends on people's mood or special circumstances. I've never heard of the company cafeteria being open to outsiders. It's already very kind of them to solve our meal problem."

"Hey, are we going to have to eat at Flash's cafeteria during the New Year? I can't cook, can you?"

"I can cook noodles, and I can make a little bit of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, but if you want to eat as well as the ones in the Flash Cafeteria, forget it."

"It's a headache. I should have gone home for the New Year too. Anyway, there's no work now."

"And then get stuck in traffic?"

"Haha, that's true; forget it, forget it, I'll just be shameless and go to their cafeteria during the New Year, since they don't get a holiday during the New Year anyway."

"Damn it, they don't hire temporary workers. If only they did, we could go and earn some money during the Chinese New Year."

It's not that we don't want to hire temporary workers. Last year, Flash Motors hired a lot of temporary workers to maintain the daily operation of the factory. However, this year is a special case. The fact that there is not much snow in Ningbo is also due to the joint efforts of the whole society.

Even with continuous heavy snow, snow will still accumulate if it is not cleared in time.

Larger companies and government departments organize their employees to shovel snow on the streets to ensure traffic flow on main roads. Flash Motors also sends people to shovel snow in shifts, and local forums have even organized many netizens to volunteer on the streets.

After a satisfying meal, Wang Xinmin and his companion, carefree, rode their electric bikes toward the Shanchi factory. The closest factory to them was Jinpeng Industrial's, and most companies' warehouses were also located there.

Their favorite place to visit was Jinpeng Industrial's factory. Although the food there wasn't as good as at FlashTech or its headquarters, FlashTech was too far away, and the headquarters wasn't easy to get into.

More importantly, there are a lot of girls at Jinpeng Industrial!

Xu Xinglei and Zhao Xinbin, who were already stuck on the highway, were extremely frustrated as they looked at the motionless traffic.

"Damn, I should have listened to the boss and waited until after the New Year to come back. At the very least, I could have brought more food. How much food do you have in your bag?"

"Yes, we do, but we don't know when we'll get home, or how long we can hold out."

"Go buy two buckets of instant noodles. I see those villagers coming over from the roadside again."

"Damn, 30 yuan a bucket! This will cost us a thousand yuan by the time we get home." "What can we do? We have to have something hot every day. At least we can fill our cups with hot water. That's already good enough."

"Hey, why did you insist on getting married this year? Couldn't you have waited a year?"

Zhao Xinbin reluctantly wrapped his down jacket tighter around himself. As soon as he opened the car door, a bone-chilling cold blew through him. He grumbled as he walked toward the area where farmers were selling instant noodles. Xu Xinglei, who was guarding the car, lit a cigarette, his face full of worry.

"Damn, you're going home for a blind date too. Who doesn't want to get married? But who knew the weather would turn out like this?"

“The boss knew it; you see, he advised us not to go back, but unfortunately we didn’t listen.”

During the National Day holiday, Xu Xinglei went back to his hometown and went on a blind date. The woman was from the same county and was quite satisfied with Xu Xinglei's conditions. Afterwards, the two kept in touch through QQ, phone calls, and text messages.

In northern Anhui, matchmaking is actually quite simple. If both parties like each other, they can talk about marriage. Once the conditions are agreed upon, the wedding date is set. Xu Xinglei's wedding date was set for the fourth day of the first lunar month.

Xu Xinglei was initially quite happy that the company gave him a few days off earlier than last year, as he could go home a few days earlier than usual and have more time to prepare for the wedding.

He was considered a junior manager. Although the boss didn't care if he went home early, Xu Xinglei thought he would definitely stay until the holiday. He also needed to do some ideological work with the employees to encourage them to stay in Beicang for the New Year.

Before setting off, the two were in high spirits. Xu Xinglei was already a skilled driver, and Zhao Xinbin had also learned to drive. They even thought they could take turns driving on the road and return home for the New Year in style.

Looking back now, if we drive like this, we'll be lucky to get home safely around the 26th of the twelfth lunar month.

Neither of them brought much food. The company had indeed instructed employees going home to bring more food and drinks, and that any leftovers could be taken home as small gifts for their families, but few people took it seriously.

Why bother with so much food and drink for a trip of only one or two days? Giving food and drinks as gifts isn't very impressive. It would be better to buy some clothes for the family members to wear, which would be more impressive. That's what they thought at the time.

Just as Xu Xinglei finished his cigarette and was about to light another one, Zhao Xinbin excitedly came running back, clutching a large black bag.

"Hey, there are boxed meals today, no need to eat instant noodles anymore, I grabbed two sets."

They complain that instant noodles are too expensive, but in this snow-covered, road-blocked weather, who can resist such a hot meal?
"Holy crap, we can eat boxed lunches now?" Xu Xinglei was quite happy.

Actually, they had some yesterday too, but at first they thought it was too expensive, and later they couldn't buy it.

"Still 50 yuan?"

As Xu Xinglei untied the plastic bag, he asked, "Yesterday's 50 yuan boxed lunch really scared them, but today, although they complained that it was expensive, they could accept it."

The boxed lunch is quite simple; it's just a large round plastic box with rice at the bottom and some home-style dishes on top. There's not much meat, and if you were to buy a boxed lunch normally, it would cost at most five or six yuan.

But compared to instant noodles which cost 30 yuan, this price is reasonable.

"Yes, the price hasn't gone up, but if you buy instant noodles, it costs 5 yuan for hot water. If we buy boxed meals, they fill the cups and don't charge us."

Zhao Xinbin took the two of their thermos cups out of their down jacket pockets and remarked with emotion, "A boxed meal costs 50 yuan. Apart from a little meat, all the vegetables are homegrown. The cost is at most four or five yuan. If we sell 100 meals a day, we can earn at least 4000 yuan."

The two boxed meals were the same. Xu Xinglei randomly picked one up and started eating: "That's fine. Our prices are pretty reasonable. I saw in the company's group chat that some places are selling them for 100 yuan a meal."

"Damn it, we've really made something of ourselves. We dare to call it being generous eating a 50-yuan boxed lunch. If we go home, they'll say we've made some money and are getting all cocky."

"Haha, you know what, when we get home we can brag about how we ate a 50-yuan boxed lunch on the highway."

The silly young people are very welcoming, but what they don't know is that with the blizzard continuing and the different local business styles, they won't be able to get a 50-yuan boxed meal in two days, truly living out a story of being lost on the road.

This is much more memorable than the movie "Lost in Thailand" that was made two years later by Zhu Bajie.
-
"Alright, now that all the courier companies are closed, we can finally have a proper New Year celebration."

For Tan Jincheng, he had prepared everything he could think of. With the courier service shut down, Orange Products couldn't reopen even if they wanted to. However, this wave of service, which was far superior to that of their competitors, earned them a lot of good word-of-mouth, so it did have some effect.

The most successful company was FlashCheer. FlashCheer was almost unaffected. Quite a number of employees stayed in Beicang for the Lunar New Year, and some even regretted their decision and came back. Production capacity was much higher than in previous years.

The most impressive one is Shenzhen. Qin Junchao's carrot and stick approach enabled Dexian Electronics to maintain 70% to 80% of its usual production capacity during the Chinese New Year period, which is even better than the headquarters.

Everything that needed to be done has been done, and everything that needed to be prepared has been done. The company's senior executives will also be taking turns on duty this year without taking a holiday, so Mr. Tan's family can start preparing for the Chinese New Year.

(End of this chapter)