Her Cultivation Diary
Chapter 1012 - 992. Everything’s in the trunk.

Chapter 1012: 992. Everything’s in the trunk.

This year’s [Hou Ji] selection coincided perfectly with the Import and Export Agricultural Products Expo, which were scheduled for the same time period. One was geared toward the general public, while the other was more professional. After some discussion at the bureau, they decided to combine both events into one venue.

Late at night, the snow continued to fall heavily. Master Li drove cautiously and finally reached the venue just before eleven o’clock.

At this hour, the center of the venue was brightly lit, but only the staff from various companies setting up their booths overnight were still moving about.

Song Tan dialed the contact number Professor Song had given her. After waiting for nearly 20 minutes, a middle-aged man with a furrowed brow and hurried steps walked out from inside the exhibition hall. Upon seeing them, his tone carried a hint of irritation:

"You’re Song Tan, right? Where’s the transport truck? Loop around from this side — there’s a dedicated cold storage area at the back door. Go through the storage process there; the whole thing will be monitored and photographed..."

Qiaoqiao was sitting dumbfounded in the passenger seat, staring at this grumpy uncle, puzzled as to why he seemed so bad-tempered. But Song Tan, having been a worker herself, didn’t mind at all since they were, after all, inconveniencing others.

After all, the hardships of working life essentially boiled down to two kinds — the pain from your superiors and the pain from your clients.

Case in point, this uncle’s walkie-talkie was still crackling with static. He was barking about something—saying that the southern exhibition hall had just received some small agricultural machinery that ended up damaging the structure...

It was late at night—totally understandable.

Song Tan responded politely, even smiling as she spoke. The middle-aged man watched her for a moment, and the frustration that had been building up in his chest gradually dissipated with a heavy sigh, replaced by renewed enthusiasm:

"My surname is Qi; I’m the chief coordinator for this section of the venue. Because the Hou Ji selection and the Import and Export Expo are being held together, things have been hectic. My apologies for the delay."

After a pause, he added:

"Professor Song already informed me. There was a bit of an issue earlier; it wasn’t directed at you... Drive the transport truck around from here—I’ll wait for you by the cold storage area. There’ll be a professional handover procedure in place. Don’t worry, nothing will go wrong, and what’s yours will remain yours."

Song Tan thought for a moment. "So... shall we head over now?"

The middle-aged man nodded, then took a step back and glanced toward the rear of the car, likely trying to spot their transport truck.

But Master Li, still a bit confused, had already stepped on the gas pedal and steered the car down the side road the man had just pointed out.

They’d barely started driving when Coordinator Qi called out, "Hey! Hey! Hey! Only transport trucks are allowed entry—private cars are prohibited!"

Qiaoqiao, who was still leaning against the car window, was puzzled, "But... this is our transport truck. The goods are all in the trunk."

Coordinator Qi was momentarily stunned. "All in the trunk?"

"Yeah!" Qiaoqiao replied. "I even picked all of them myself."

Song Tan began to feel a bit nervous—after all this preparation, could something go wrong at the last minute?

Coordinator Qi could hardly believe it. "You made it to the Hou Ji semifinals, and all you’re bringing is... one trunk of goods?"

It wasn’t just about how other participants would send their specialty produce to various judges and officials for market promotion. Even at this public review stage, just one trunk felt far too inadequate, didn’t it?!

After thinking it over, the coordinator could somewhat understand.

This family, arranged by Professor Song, was reportedly from a mountain village. Maybe they only specialized in one product. If it was something like oranges or apples, one full trunk wasn’t too little. Not sending extras for the officials or media was also... enough.

But still...

He kindly advised, "If there’s still time, try to get your folks back home to send over an additional ten or twenty crates. Don’t be stingy—this is a national-level competition. With all the media presence here, even just gifting one box per organization—it’s an opportunity, isn’t it?"

"And as for the public judging, we randomly select attendees to sample on-site. If there’s not enough to go around, a single bite per person won’t leave much of an impression."

Besides, a single box doesn’t cost much. Having made it this far, it would be such a pity to lose out over something so trivial!

The public review doesn’t technically affect the results, but it does influence reputation and online buzz, which are still pretty significant.

Song Tan: ...

She had considered this, but with so many delicious items from home, it was impossible for everyone to try each one—when would it ever end?

So, as long as they were diced and portioned out, there should have been enough.

But since his intentions were good, she could only shake her head, "It’s too far, and with the snow, there’s no way to make it in time..."

She then glanced at the car. "So... can we enter with this?"

The coordinator let out a sigh, "No. Alright, let’s do this instead—you come with me to grab a cart. If there’s not a lot, you can wheel it in with that."

"Okay!" Song Tan quickly followed along.

The venue was enormous. Qiaoqiao waited another ten minutes in the car before finally spotting Song Tan returning with a cart. She immediately got out of the car to open the trunk.

Master Li naturally came over to help, but as he looked at the items in the trunk, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off...

"Did we bring the wrong things? Weren’t the other items meant for the competition?"

Song Tan froze for a moment. "No, these are the ones."

But Master Li glanced at the baskets, boxes, and bags and still felt something wasn’t quite right.

Was it really possible for competition entries to be packaged... this simply?

Song Tan didn’t care what Master Li was pondering. She was busy taking out the items one by one.

The trunk was packed full—there were four flat, square boxes specifically for strawberries, bags for cabbages and radishes, small cartons for sweet potatoes, and another one for tomatoes...

A hodgepodge of items, with completely mismatched packaging, stacked and squished onto the cart. Master Li waited by the car, while the siblings headed toward the cold storage area.

Over at the cold storage entrance, Coordinator Qi had already allocated the storage zones. When he saw Song Tan pushing the cart over, he froze.

The black, long cart, commonly used at the venue, was loaded with plain-looking cardboard boxes of various sizes, along with a few large black plastic bags wobbling precariously on top...

The more he looked, the stranger it seemed. He stole a glance at his work badge—yes, he was indeed responsible for coordinating the Hou Ji selection and the entire Import and Export Agricultural Products Expo.

But this... this... This looked more like a vegetable delivery for a hotel kitchen!

Coordinator Qi’s mind went blank, and he stammered, "You didn’t design any custom gift boxes?"

Nowadays, with the ease of online shopping and the prevalence of media platforms, every participant would specially customize branded packaging. If attendees in the public review stage wanted to place orders, all they had to do was ship the in-stock items directly...

So, let me ask—does packaging matter or not?

Oh, surely attendees wouldn’t be taking home various fruits and vegetables in plastic bags, as though they’d just returned from a farmers’ market, would they?

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.