Chapter 19 – Plugging the Leak
It started with the milk.
Not the finished cheese, not the packaging — but the raw milk itself.
The First Shortage
The cheese plant manager called early in the morning.
"Boss, the dairy farm in Xinhe can't deliver their full order this week. Half their herd got hit with some kind of illness, and the local authorities have quarantined them."
Li Ming rubbed his temples.
"Can we get milk elsewhere?"
"Yes, but it's from farther away. Higher transport cost, less fresh, and we'd need to shift our production schedule."
He agreed anyway — keeping the restaurants running was priority number one.
But the price tag on that "temporary fix" made his accountant audibly groan.
The Domino Effect
A week later, the meat plant called.
Their supplier of beef cattle had just been poached — literally — by a competitor's long-term contract.
The competitor paid above market rate, locking up the ranch's best animals for years.
Then, as if the universe was testing his patience, the bakery's wheat shipments were delayed after a sudden inspection shut down a local grain storage warehouse.
Three key ingredients — all rattled in less than a month.
A Dangerous Conclusion
At a meeting with his plant managers, Li Ming leaned back in his chair.
"Tell me… what's the single point of failure in all this?"
The meat plant manager said, "Our suppliers."
The cheese manager said, "The farms."
The bakery head muttered, "Nature itself."
Li Ming nodded slowly.
"So… if I owned the farms, the cattle herds, the wheat fields… these problems disappear?"
The table went quiet.
Someone finally said, "Boss, that would cost a fortune. Land, livestock, labor—"
"Perfect," Li Ming said with a thin smile.
"Sounds like exactly the kind of black hole I've been looking for."
Unseen Alignment
To his team, it was just another one of the boss's "stability projects."
But in reality, he was quietly laying the groundwork for something much bigger.
Cattle ranches meant beef for both the Italian chain and any future burger chain.
Wheat farms could supply bread, pizza dough, and burger buns.
Dairy herds made cheese for pasta today… and cheeseburgers tomorrow.
None of this was intentional — at least, not in his mind.
He just wanted to stop losing sleep over supply chain disruptions.
The fact that it was accidentally building a food empire?
That was a problem for Future Li Ming.