sinovels Chapter 125 Interruption of Flow
Chapter 125 Interruption of Flow
October 20, 1988.
Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture.
7-Eleven Kanto Fresh Food Distribution Center.
Three o'clock in the morning.
Normally, the unloading platform would be packed with Isuzu refrigerated trucks by this time. But today, the platform is empty. All twelve lift gates are open, revealing the dark warehouse inside.
Inside the sorting workshop, the high-pressure sodium lamps overhead emitted a buzzing sound of electricity.
The conveyor belt is stationary.
Three hundred female sorting workers, dressed in white sterile gowns and wearing masks, stood beside their respective workstations. Their hands hung at their sides, their gazes fixed on the empty black rubber conveyor belts. No one spoke; only the occasional cough echoed through the massive steel-structured factory.
The squad leader glanced at the clock on the wall. The second hand skipped a notch.
3:15.
The raw materials have still not arrived.
Second floor dispatch room.
"Aren't we there yet?!"
The logistics manager's voice was hoarse, the result of shouting for a long time. The black microphone in his hand was wet with sweat.
"What do you mean 'still on the way'? The rice truck from Niigata should have arrived yesterday afternoon. And the black pork from Kagoshima, the cold storage only has enough to last until six o'clock this morning."
The tired voice of the transportation company manager came through the phone, with the background noise of car horns:
"Minister, there's a traffic jam on National Highway 16. It's a 20-kilometer-long line of cars stuck in the middle, their engines have been off for two hours."
"Change routes. Take the capital highway, or the county roads below." The logistics manager loosened his tie, staring at the pitch-black night outside the window. "Anyway, I need to see the meat before dawn."
"It can't be changed."
The voice on the other end paused for a moment.
"As soon as our car exits the highway, there will be a 'road construction' sign at the intersection. Or we'll be stopped by traffic police to check the load and emissions."
"and……"
"And what?"
"The cars blocking our way from all sides were all painted silver-gray. The side of the truck had 'SA Logistics' printed on it."
The logistics minister stood frozen in place.
The receiver emitted a monotonous busy tone. He slowly put down the phone, his fingers resting on the cold tabletop.
The lockdown has begun.
……
At the same time.
Hokkaido, Ogawara.
The wind and snow outside the window were already taking shape, like winter was beginning, howling and pounding against the double-paned glass.
Inside the agricultural cooperative office, the heating was on full blast, making it feel rather hot.
Chairman Iwamura sat behind his large mahogany desk, slowly pouring himself a cup of hot tea from a purple clay teapot. He didn't look at the sweating middle-aged man sitting opposite him—Yano, the emergency purchasing agent sent by 7-Eleven.
"President Iwamura, please, you absolutely must help me!"
Yano was practically slumped over the table, his voice almost pleading, sweat dripping from his forehead onto the expensive carpet.
"Our supplies in Tokyo have run out! If you don't ship soon, we'll be missing tomorrow's morning bento boxes! We're willing to raise the price! 20% more than the original contract! Cash payment!"
Iwamura picked up his teacup and gently blew away the foam.
"Raise the price..."
He sighed, seemingly somewhat tempted. But the next second, he shook his head regretfully.
"Yano-kun, you know that the most important thing in doing business is integrity."
He took a document from the drawer; it was the latest acquisition agreement from S-Farm (Saionji Farm).
"This year's weather is really abnormal, and the harvest in the eastern Hokkaido region is not good. Since our Ogawara Agricultural Cooperative has signed a 'full purchase' agreement with the Saionji family, we can't shortchange them by even one potato."
"But we signed a contract too!" Yano's voice trembled with anxiety. "And it was a long-term contract from last year! What you're doing is a breach of contract!"
"Penalty for breach of contract?"
Iwamura put down his teacup with a soft thud.
He opened the drawer, took out a pre-filled check, held it between two fingers, and gently pushed it in front of Yano.
"Everything is ready for you."
"It's not just about the penalty for breach of contract, but also about our agricultural cooperative's 'apology.' After all... it's a natural disaster, something beyond human control."
He slightly elongated the pronunciation of the word "natural disaster".
Yano looked at the check.
The figures above are large enough to cover 7-Eleven's economic losses.
But he knew it was over.
In the retail industry, money that can't buy goods is just worthless paper. Without goods, the shelves of Tokyo's four thousand stores would become a museum showcasing air.
"President Iwamura, you're pushing us to our deaths..." Yano's voice was dry, as if it were being squeezed out of his throat.
Iwamura stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the vast farmland in the distance that was covered by heavy snow and had long been infiltrated by S-Farm capital.
"Yano-kun, for the sake of our old acquaintance, let me give you a piece of advice."
Iwamura's voice was low, tinged with a hint of fear of that behemoth.
"Go back. Tell Chairman Suzuki."
"Don't try to fight that girl."
"She controls not just cotton or rice... she controls 'growth' itself."
……
Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.
Noon is the peak time for office workers to take their lunch break.
The atmosphere in the flagship store downstairs from 7-Eleven's headquarters was eerily suffocating.
At this time of day, this place would normally be packed with office workers rushing to buy lunch, with the queue at the cashier stretching all the way to the store entrance.
But today, the store was sparsely populated, with only a few customers standing in front of the shelves, looking confused and dissatisfied.
Toshifumi Suzuki pushed open the door and walked in.
Welcome!
The shop assistant called out instinctively, but upon seeing the person's face, which was so gloomy it was almost dripping with water, the voice immediately caught in her throat, turning into a terrified "Chairman..."
Toshifumi Suzuki ignored the shop assistant.
He went straight to the fresh food section.
That was the heart of 7-Eleven, and the stronghold he had been proud of for the past two weeks, the place he used to fight back against the Saionji family. It should have been filled with "Premium Black Pork Bento" and "Master Shop Supervised Hand-Rolled Rice Balls" with gold labels.
However, at this moment, the place was a complete mess.
The freezer was empty, the white shelves starkly exposed under the lights. Only a few lonely, simply packaged basic sandwiches lay forlornly in the corner, like wounded soldiers abandoned after a defeat.
The price tag still read "680 yen," but the item was nowhere to be found.
"What's going on?"
Suzuki Toshifumi's voice was very soft, but it made the store manager behind him break out in a cold sweat.
"Chairman... the early shift delivery truck didn't arrive. The factory in Chiba sent a message saying... saying they've run out of materials and the production line has stopped..."
Toshifumi Suzuki reached out and touched the cold shelf.
The chill from my fingertips seemed to freeze all the way down my veins to my heart.
Material shortage.
For convenience stores that strive for the highest turnover rate, this is like a sudden stop in their heartbeat.
His talk of "quality" in the media these past few days, and his carefully cultivated "craftsmanship persona," have instantly become a joke without any ammunition.
"Ding-dong—"
The sound of an automatic door opening.
Two young female office workers walked in. They glanced at the empty shelves and showed expressions of disappointment and even annoyance.
"Huh? Why is it gone again?"
"What's going on? They were hyping it up on TV, talking about 'craftsmanship,' but you can't even buy a rice ball."
"Let's go, let's go to the other side."
One of them pointed to the other side of the road.
"I heard that FamilyMart launched a Hokkaido 'Premium Selection' series today, which uses new rice and is only 120 yen."
"Really? Let's go try it, hurry up!"
The two turned and left, the sound of their high heels hitting the ground sounding like they were stomping on Suzuki Toshifumi's face.
Suzuki Toshifumi stood frozen in place.
He slowly turned around and looked across the street through the floor-to-ceiling glass window.
There is a FamilyMart there.
Under the blue-green sign, crowds thronged. A long queue even formed in front of the store, stretching all the way to the sidewalk. A silver refrigerated truck bearing the "SA Logistics" logo was parked at the entrance, and workers were continuously unloading boxes of fresh bento boxes.
The bustling, efficient, and vibrant scene stood in stark contrast to the lifeless 7-Eleven here.
This is the Saionji family's counterattack.
They don't need heated arguments, let alone slamming their fists on the table during business negotiations.
She simply reached out quietly, grabbed his neck, and slowly tightened her grip.
Suzuki Toshifumi stood there, looking at his reflection in the glass window.
The man who was once known as the "God of Retail" now looks so old and powerless.
He finally realized that he was not facing a competitor.
Instead, it is a monster that has mastered the rules, the resources, and even time...
Can we leverage the power of the Daiei Group to continue our struggle against the Saionji family?
No way... First of all, there's already a lot of discontent with him within the group, and even if we could mobilize him, so what? The Saionji family has a first-mover advantage. To break through that barrier, we'd have to invest twice as many resources, or even more, than the Saionji family. The Daiei Group simply can't afford that... That's the Saionji family, the kind of family that can use money to fight against the ruling party's policies. Playing the money game with them? We'd be dead before we even knew it.
"Prepare the car."
Toshifumi Suzuki spoke to the air behind him, his voice hoarse.
"Where are we going, Chairman?" the secretary asked cautiously as she arrived.
Suzuki Toshifumi withdrew his gaze, took one last look at the bustling FamilyMart, and straightened his tie, even though it was already a little crooked.
He looked down at his long, thin shadow cast by the sunlight.
"Go see that girl."