The first-generation agent of Jiang Bai, Old Li, was feeling quite troubled.

After years of struggle in the industry, he finally caught hold of a promising product like Mingde Refrigeration, which opened up a new chapter in his career.

During this time, Mingde’s products had become hugely popular in Shenzhen, and as the first partner to sign a contract with the company, he had earned a substantial profit.

His local competitors, who had previously mocked him, now looked at him with envy, calling him lucky.

He wasn’t angry; he knew he was indeed lucky, and he understood that these people were secretly trying to seize his opportunities. If that was the case, what was there to be angry about?

He had made up his mind to stick with Mingde, just like the industry giants he once admired for seizing opportunities.

He worked diligently, building the Mingde brand in Shenzhen.

Besides, he didn’t mind the profits he earned; after signing contracts for other provinces, he wholeheartedly committed to pushing Mingde’s products nationwide.

However, in recent days, some of the distribution channels he was negotiating with in other provinces suddenly ran into problems.

Some partners, who were on the verge of signing contracts, suddenly informed him that they didn’t intend to continue.

At first, he thought these small distributors were just cautious because Mingde was a new brand, and he didn’t think much of it.

But as the number of such cases grew, he started to feel something was wrong and began to investigate.

He discovered that these small distributors had all been offered agency contracts by Xinghe!

This was highly unreasonable.

Xinghe had been a well-established brand for many years.

The approach to distributing an old brand versus a new one was entirely different, especially for a brand like Xinghe, which had a large market share nationwide.

They didn’t need to look for partners; in fact, some of their long-term partners had grown into the kind of major teams in local frozen retail that Old Li once envied.

While Shenzhen’s market hadn’t opened up yet, even so, when Xinghe decided to enter Shenzhen, they picked their partners, not the other way around.

Given Old Li’s past position in the retail market, he had no qualification to compete for the agency rights to Xinghe’s products in Shenzhen. Xinghe only worked with major local teams with substantial resources, allowing them to distribute products whenever they wanted.

The reason they hadn’t succeeded in Shenzhen yet was simply because other competitors in the market had found powerful distributors.

Only major players could compete with other major players, and in the past, Old Li was far from being able to challenge them.

It was only because of Mingde that he had managed to carve out a small presence in Shenzhen.

It was clear how rare agency rights for a big brand were in the industry.

Big brands, though, often come with stricter conditions, but they carry much lower risks.

Old Li tried to persuade the out-of-province partners, who had previously discussed future plans with him, but instead, he faced complaints: “Mr. Li, it’s not that I look down on your small brand, but when a company as big as Xinghe is in front of us, it’s clear which one we should choose. And the development plan Xinghe offered is more attractive, with promises of things like hiring big-name celebrities for endorsements. They’re a big, established company with a mature national market.

As small teams like ours, if we follow you, we’ll work hard to promote a small brand and bear the risks. But with Xinghe, we don’t need to do much; we just follow the big distributors and easily make money.

If it were you, which one would you choose? Don’t talk to me about risks and opportunities, about how promising Mingde’s future is.

Aren’t you just trying to make a profit from the money you’ve invested in the product and market, using us? I bet that if you hadn’t already signed with Mingde, you’d be fighting to partner with us instead.”

Old Li was frustrated and replied, “Short-sighted!”

Without these out-of-province partners, he found it extremely difficult to move forward in markets outside Shenzhen where he had no connections. Sometimes, when he visited unfamiliar retail stores, he couldn’t even get through the door.

Meanwhile, other distributors directly signed with Mingde in other provinces also faced similar but slightly different issues.

A Beijing distributor of Mingde was shocked to receive a decision from the purchasing manager of a large local supermarket chain in Beijing, refusing cooperation.

They had been long-time acquaintances, and in the past, they had exchanged favors. The distributor was puzzled and asked, “Why?”

The purchasing manager, with a half-smile, said, “For a big, formal chain like ours, we don’t just take anything. Your product is… not up to standard.”

The distributor, confused by this illogical reason, immediately realized that the other party was making things difficult for him. “Old friend, we’ve got a good relationship, don’t joke with me.”

“Ha, who’s joking?” The purchasing manager hung up and laughed at several of Beijing’s largest frozen food distributors sitting nearby. “This brand is pretty impressive; it’s managed to offend all of you big brands.”

These distributors were the top players in Beijing’s frozen food industry. Combined, their influence far surpassed the distributor who had been turned away.

Distributors could be ranked, and these were the very top-tier players.

The manager, therefore, acted with extra sincerity, even publicly embarrassing the distributor who had given him plenty of favors in the past.

Retail terminals already held a certain advantage over distributors, especially in major shopping malls, where the purchasing manager’s word could determine which products made it to the shelves.

One of the big distributors, from Xinghe, spoke up: “It’s nothing, a new brand, no depth. The company just asked me to teach them a lesson. Thanks for your trouble.”

Xinghe, though not yet in Shenzhen, was the highest-market-share brand in Beijing, and the other distributors did not object, merely laughing.

They didn’t know Mingde, but they joined in to pressure the retailer to buy Xinghe’s face.

They didn’t know why Xinghe’s company had its distributors undermine a new small brand, but they figured it was just a favor to the big company, and it wouldn’t cause any problems for them in the industry.

The purchasing manager, not fully understanding the situation, didn’t mind too much.

The key was to please these powerful distributors. “It’s no trouble. It’s just a small brand. Even if they get upset, what can they do to me? But this is between us, don’t mention it outside.”

He wasn’t worried about Mingde retaliating; he’d never heard of it. It was a company that developed in Shenzhen and Linjiang, with no roots in Beijing and little to no recognition. He was certain it wouldn’t pose a threat in the future.

The big players understood what he meant and nodded with smiles.

The purchasing manager looked at the bank deposit notification on his phone and couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction.

Rejecting a new brand could earn him a nice commission, with no future repercussions—what a profitable deal.

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Jiang Bai was sharp-minded.

After being reminded by Jin Yao Tiao earlier, he had kept Xinghe in mind.

Now that a series of troubles had emerged, he immediately suspected that Xinghe was behind it.

After receiving the report from Old Li about the out-of-province partners signing with Xinghe, he wasn’t surprised at all.

After comforting the other party, Jiang Bai organized all the information he had gathered and reported it to Jin Yaotiao.

While listening, Jin Yao Tiao leisurely prepared some food.

A delicate piece of gauze held the sweet soup with cooked green beans, which she wrapped up, pressing out the smooth bean paste.

The paste was placed in glutinous rice flour, along with the sweet broth from the green beans.

The light green dough was mixed in the bowl, glowing softly under the light, so cute it was hard to resist liking.

Another bowl held a soft pink dough, a faint pastel pink with an unknown sweet fragrance.

Adding milk powder to the new batch of rice flour, Jin Yaotiao steamed it gently, then spoke softly: “The boss of Xinghe called me earlier, and I guessed they wouldn’t let it go easily. I’m surprised it took them so long to make a move.”

Jiang Bai smiled bitterly: “They’ve gone to so much trouble to pressure us; it’s clear they’re after the Shenzhen market. But I guess, Shenzhen is the last major city they haven’t taken over. If they conquer it, they might become the industry leader. But they’re also pretty stingy. With such a big company, can’t they give us something to help?”

Jin Yaotiao smiled: “Do you think their favors come so easily?”

Jiang Bai shook his head: “True, Xinghe has driven plenty of small companies out of business. They probably want all their competitors gone. Since we’ve developed faster than them in Shenzhen, they must see us as a threat.”

So even the collaborations they wanted to push forward were pressured with coercion.

It would both force Mingde to comply and weaken its national expansion plans.

The glutinous rice dough cooked quickly, emerging from the pot soft and translucent.

The sweet fragrance became more intense as it heated, and even Jiang Bai, who wasn’t fond of sweets, found himself tempted.

He helped Jin Yaotiao place the pink dough on the table and, puzzled by the fragrance, asked, “What’s in this?”

Jin Yao Tiao replied: “Pickled flower honey.”

Jiang Bai realized: “So this is what you had the factory start mass production of. Is the product ready?”

Jin Yao Tiao nodded, pointing to a nearby jar: “Just had it delivered.”

The mass-produced honey couldn’t match the quality of what she had personally made over time.

Her honey had been aged through seasons, with new flowers added each spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

The batch Debbie had tasted was already good, but nowhere near as refined as this.

But mass production had its own methods—some labor-intensive steps could be skipped, and the long aging process could be replaced by a more efficient extraction method.

By blending a few suitable flavors for production in batches, the final product could still become a unique player in the world of spices.

Jin Yao Tiao had always found it fascinating to combine seemingly unrelated ingredients in such an innovative way.

She hoped more people would enjoy the interesting outcome of the process.

Jiang Bai looked at the jar of pickled honey and realized something.

He asked, “Does this mean we’re adding desserts to our frozen chain?”

Jin Yaotiao nodded and cut him a piece of the still-steaming honey cake. “Apart from the main dishes, Mingde also needs to broaden its range of new products.”

The surface of the pink honey cake, brushed with oil before steaming, gleamed. It wasn’t sticky at all through the cling film but had a pleasantly soft and glutinous texture.

Biting into it, the warm, soft cake melted in his mouth, and the unique, memorable sweet fragrance spread across his taste buds and throughout his entire mouth.

Realizing the uniqueness of the flavor, Jiang Bai knew his boss had won again.

Desserts were actually quite suitable for Mingde’s frozen product chain.

After all, Mingde had never been about merely filling the stomachs of diners.

Even when producing products of the same category as other brands, Mingde aimed to bring a higher quality of life to its customers.

But sweetness was easily replicated—milk, vanilla, matcha, fruit flavors… when you added them up, there were only so many categories, with the main difference being the intensity of the flavor.

But the flavor now spreading on his taste buds didn’t belong to any of those.

Jiang Bai could already imagine the unforgettable results when customers tasted this exclusive scent of Mingde.

Stuffing the smooth, sweet honey cake into his mouth, Jiang Bai felt that maybe sweet foods could indeed make people feel happy.

Chewing the honey cake, his mood, ruined by Xinghe, wasn’t as bad as before. Just then, Jin Yaotao asked, “Has Xinghe been up to anything else recently, besides causing trouble?”

Jiang Bai gave a wry smile. “What else can they do? They’re just jumping around to make themselves noticeable.”

He pulled out his phone and showed it to Jin Yaotao. “First, they announced they’re hiring a celebrity for an endorsement, though they didn’t say who. But it looks like they’re going to make a big deal out of it. And then they did this, take a look, isn’t it funny?”

Jin Yaotiao looked at the phone and indeed found it amusing.

There was a well-organized “Best Frozen Food Selection” online.

The organizer was quite famous, gathering various frozen food brands from the market, ranking them based on taste and ingredients.

The top brands were all well-known in the industry, and Xinghe was proudly listed among them.

Of course, there were also a few lesser-known small brands at the bottom of the list.

However, there was no sign of Mingde anywhere.

This selection event attracted a lot of attention from the industry’s big players, and the comments were filled with foodies discussing the flavors of various brand products.

Since it wasn’t targeted at specific cities, the reviewers came from all over the country.

There were even voices from Shenzhen and Linjiang, asking why Mingde wasn’t included in the nominees. It seemed the organizer had deleted many comments mentioning Mingde from those two areas.

Most netizens didn’t understand the full story and couldn’t grasp the dissatisfaction of the two local communities.

Some even found it annoying, especially since they were arguing over a brand they couldn’t even find in their local markets.

As a result, a debate broke out.

When the organizer finally intervened, they gently explained, “In order to be responsible to customers, this selection is only for established and reputable companies in the industry.”

This caused even more laughter from other netizens, who mocked the Shenzhen and Linjiang reviewers for supporting an unknown brand.

The Shenzhen and Linjiang netizens felt both wronged and angry, but despite their protests, the organizer’s control over the situation meant they couldn’t win.

And so, Mingde got a new label: “unknown brand.”

For Mingde, who was planning to expand nationwide, this was certainly not a good thing. Many external distributors might be scared off by this reputation.

Although many of the big brands on the list benefited, it was clear that the organizer’s obvious suppression of Mingde had Xinghe’s fingerprints all over it.

Jiang Bai put his phone away, feeling helpless. “At times like this, Xinghe is really generous. With their usual style, they should have gathered all the awards on that list for themselves.”

Jin Yaotiao shook her head. “Let’s not talk about it. The problems our Beijing distributors are facing couldn’t possibly be just Xinghe’s doing. It looks like they’re trying to pull in allies and show off their influence in the industry.”

Jiang Bai finally lowered his face. “President Jin, I really don’t like being forced to do things.”

Jin Yaotiao smiled and took out a piece of green bean glutinous rice cake. “Funny, me neither.”

Looking at her smile, Jiang Bai couldn’t help but pause. “Aren’t you worried? Our ads outside the province have been blocked several times. We can’t increase our visibility, and we might be stuck in Shenzhen and Linjiang. The plans for restaurants in other regions could be delayed because of product obstacles.”

Jin Yaotiao carefully shaped a green rice cake into a leaf, then made a delicate flower out of the pale pink honey cake, which she placed neatly on top.

She admired her work for a moment before asking, “Do you know why I suddenly started using honey to make cakes?”

Was her boss’s mind always so unpredictable?

Jiang Bai raised an eyebrow, then paused to think, still tasting the lingering sweetness.

He replied, “To let me taste it?”