Chen Kang led Song Kening deeper into the warehouse.
From the outside, the logistics park looked like a simple two-story gray-and-white building, but once inside, she realized it was much larger than she had imagined.
There was a sorting area, processing area, cold storage, room-temperature storage, office area…
The offices were on the second floor of the warehouse. The doors were labeled Manager’s Office, Finance Department, HR Department, and Documentation Department.
The woman in charge of HR was in her forties, with short permed hair and a strong Cantonese-accented Mandarin.
She took out a labor dispatch contract for Song Kening to sign and made a photocopy of her ID.
The agreement basically stated that Song Kening voluntarily gave up social insurance and housing fund benefits, and that the company would not be responsible for any problems caused by her personal physical condition while working.
Song Kening read it once, signed her name, and pressed her fingerprint.
After the paperwork was finished, Chen Kang took Song Kening to the documentation department on the first floor.
He pointed at Yang Min and said,
“Yang Min, this is the new part-time worker, Song Kening. She’ll work from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and help you with the documentation. Show her the process.”
After saying that, Chen Kang left. Someone was calling him over the radio again.
Yang Min looked Song Kening up and down.
Her skin was so fair and delicate that she didn’t look like someone who had ever done physical labor.
Yang Min wondered how many days this girl would last, but she didn’t say anything.
The documentation office was very small.
An L-shaped desk occupied most of the room. Three computer monitors were lined up across the desk. Against the wall were a printer, a multifunction copier, and a filing cabinet.
A whiteboard hung on the wall, covered with abbreviations for different customers and their delivery time slots, all written in marker.
Yang Min dropped into her chair and pointed at the one beside her.
“Sit.”
Song Kening sat down.
“The process is actually pretty simple.”
Yang Min turned the computer screen toward her.
“Our customers are mainly wholesale markets and large supermarkets. Basically, we’re a distribution hub. The products come directly from the production areas to us, and then we distribute them to different regions.”
“Customers place orders in the group chats. They tell us the variety, specifications, quantity, and when they need the goods delivered.”
“You just organize the orders one by one from the group messages.”
She opened one of the group chats for Song Kening to see.
The group was called Chuan-Yu Distribution Customers, and it showed more than 99 unread messages.
She opened it and scrolled upward.
The screen was packed with voice messages and text.
“Chuan-Yu Wholesale Market, Stall A12. Hainan Golden Diamond pineapples, 500 units. Deliver before 10 a.m. the day after tomorrow. Urgent!”
Yang Min pointed at the screen.
“See these pineapples? That’s the shipment we rushed out around noon today.”
She then opened an Excel spreadsheet.
The headers were packed with fields:
Customer Name, Product, Specification, Quantity, Required Delivery Time, Remarks.
“Once you’ve organized everything, you arrange the appropriate truck based on the volume.”
Song Kening asked, “Is there anything special about arranging the trucks?”
“Remember one thing: never send an empty truck.”
Yang Min spoke with the confidence of someone who had learned this lesson the hard way.
“On highways, fresh agricultural products can use the green channel and get the toll waived, but the truck has to be loaded to at least 80% of its approved carrying capacity, and the cargo must be fresh agricultural produce.”
“If the truck is empty or underloaded, they’ll stop you at the green channel. Then you have to pay the toll yourself.”
“For a truck going all the way north, the highway tolls can cost several thousand yuan. The boss will curse your entire family.”
As she spoke, she opened another spreadsheet.
“This is the dispatch schedule. You need to know how much each truck can carry and what time slots each truck is available. Everything has to be scheduled a day in advance.”
“After that, you print the shipping documents and give them to the warehouse supervisor. The supervisor then arranges the loaders to take the goods out and load the trucks.”
She clicked on another software icon.
It had a blue background with white letters: WMS.
The interface looked like it hadn’t been updated in years.
Yang Min clicked Inbound Management.
A loading circle spun for eight or nine seconds before the page finally appeared.
“You also have to update the inventory promptly whenever new goods arrive.”
“This WMS is pretty crappy. It freezes and loads forever all the time.”
“There’s nothing we can do. The boss wants to save money. Good software alone can cost more than a million yuan a year in maintenance.”
“We already have high losses because we’re dealing with fruit. How could we afford to spend that much on software?”
After explaining everything, she leaned back in her chair and looked at Song Kening.
“That’s basically it. If you don’t understand something, just ask me.”
Song Kening nodded and went over everything in her mind again.
Organizing orders, scheduling trucks, printing documents, updating inventory…
It was almost exactly what she had learned in college.
The difference was that the cases in her textbooks had been standardized examples.
Here, she was dealing with real-world operations.
Suddenly, Yang Min changed her tone and leaned closer.
“Is Brother Lu your husband?”
Song Kening nodded.
“He’s even more handsome than a celebrity,” Yang Min exclaimed. “Isn’t it such a waste for him to work as a loader?”
Song Kening smiled.
“There’s nothing we can do. He doesn’t have much education and doesn’t have any connections. He can’t become a celebrity either, so he can only do manual labor.”
She didn’t look upset when she said it, as if she were simply stating a fact.
Yang Min clicked her tongue but didn’t ask any more questions.
“I’ll add you to five customer groups first.”
Yang Min picked up her phone.
“Start by handling these five customers’ orders. Once you’re familiar with them, I’ll add you to more groups.”
“These are all small customers. Their order volumes aren’t large, and they don’t have too many requirements. They’re perfect for practicing.”
“Besides taking orders, you’ll also have to deal with complaints.”
“Rotten fruit, wrong specifications, late deliveries—when customers start cursing in the group, you have to respond.”
“No matter what they say, your first sentence should always be, ‘I’m sorry. I’ll handle this for you right away.’”
“Calm them down first, then solve the problem.”
“Basically, you can curse at the boss and manager all you want, but with customers it’s always: Even if customers mistreat me a thousand times, I’ll still treat them like my first love!”
Yang Min couldn’t help laughing after saying that.
Song Kening smiled too.
She then took out her phone.
Yang Min scanned her QR code and added her to the five groups.
Her phone immediately started vibrating nonstop.
Messages poured in like a dam had burst.
“Just watch for now. Don’t rush to reply. Watch how I handle things today.”
Song Kening moved closer to observe.
Yang Min’s fingers flew across the keyboard as her eyes constantly switched between Excel and WeChat.
Customer messages kept popping up one after another.
She replied to voice messages with her left hand while organizing the spreadsheet with her right.
When someone called to chase an order, she wedged the phone between her shoulder and ear while continuing to work without stopping.
At three in the afternoon, a customer sent three voice messages in a row.
His tone was extremely aggressive.
Yang Min played them.
A middle-aged man’s booming voice came through:
“What’s going on with the mangoes you delivered? I ordered small Tainung mangoes. What did you send me?”
“They’re huge! Anyone can tell they’re large Tainung mangoes!”
“Small Tainung sells for eight yuan a jin, while the large ones are only five yuan! I’m losing money here!”
Yang Min listened without changing her expression.
She picked up her phone and replied in a gentle voice that was completely different from her previous tone.
“Brother Wang, I’m really sorry. I’ll check the order for you right away. Could you take a photo and send it to me?”
“If we made a mistake with the specifications, I’ll immediately apply for a refund for the price difference. I’m really sorry, Brother Wang.”
After sending the voice message, she turned to Song Kening.
“See? Admit fault first, then solve the problem. Whether it’s actually your fault or not.”
Song Kening nodded seriously.
At around 4:30 p.m., another complaint came in.
This time it was from the purchasing director—and also the owner—of Haoyoufu Supermarket.
She posted a series of photos in the group.
They were cut-open watermelons with hollow centers and pale flesh.
Then came a voice message.
The woman’s sharp voice practically pierced through the phone.
“Look at this yourselves! The 8424 watermelons you delivered yesterday are all hollow inside after cutting them open. Is this even watermelon?”
“This is winter melon!”
“I’ve been buying from you for two years, and your quality has been getting worse and worse lately. Do you think you can bully an old customer?”
Yang Min listened without changing her expression.
She opened the WMS system, found the inbound batch number for that shipment, and then checked the quality inspection records from the purchasing department.
“Ma’am, I’m really sorry.”
She picked up the phone and called the customer directly.
“I just checked that batch. The watermelons arrived the day before yesterday, and the random inspection showed no problems. Maybe a few of them got damaged or overheated inside.”
“How about this? We’ll give you a full refund for this box of watermelons. And the next time you place an order, I’ll send you another box free of charge. I’ll take care of it.”
“You’ve been buying from us for two years. We value loyal customers like you the most. We definitely won’t let you suffer a loss.”
The woman’s voice on the other end gradually softened.
Yang Min chatted with her for a few more minutes, asking how business was going and whether watermelons had been selling quickly because of the hot weather.
Her tone was so natural that it sounded like she was chatting with a relative.