I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

**Chapter 99: Too Powerful! The Curse Talent Strikes Again**

“Five, four, three, two, one.”

The countdown ended. As the New Year‘s bell rang from Phoenix Temple, several thin fuses rose into the air. *Bang, bang* — large, brilliant fireworks burst and scattered across the night sky.

The fireworks must have been set off very close. Jiang Tingyun could even smell a faint trace of sulfur dioxide.

Each firework was as dazzling as neon, but vanished in an instant, leaving behind wispy trails of white smoke that lingered in the air — also shaped like flowers.

Jiang Tingyun thought the show would last only a few minutes, but firework after firework — big and small — continued to bloom in the sky.

The Phoenix Town government had really gone all out this year!

For a moment, every stall owner was drawn in. Everyone walked toward the open area to watch the fireworks, pulling out their phones to record and take photos.

Jiang Tingyun and Pei Jingmo rarely saw such beautiful fireworks either, so they too walked toward the edge of the square.

“Isn’t this when you‘re supposed to make a wish?” Jiang Tingyun thought for a moment, then closed her eyes and made a wish.

The fireworks lasted quite a while before finally fading away. The crowd gradually dispersed, and the two of them returned to their stall.

When they got back, Jiang Tingyun was shaking with rage. In just that short time, someone had tipped over her tofu pudding bucket!

“Damn it! That’s just rotten!”

She quickly righted the bucket, her heart aching. There had been about half a bucket left, but now it had all been dumped out. The tricycle was covered in a mushy mess of tofu pudding, soaking through the old quilts they‘d used for insulation.

Pei Jingmo was also furious. The fireworks had been so loud that neither of them had noticed someone doing this right under their noses.

Jin Feifan and Zhu Lili returned after watching the fireworks and saw the mess. They were shocked.

“Boss, what happened?!”

“Some rotten jerk tipped over our tofu pudding bucket while we were watching the fireworks.”

Jiang Tingyun glared furiously at the teppanyaki squid stall next door. Who else could it be?

The skinny, monkey-like stall owner shot her a defiant look. “What’s with that stare? Why‘re you looking at me? You didn’t watch your own stall. Not my problem. If you‘ve got the guts, hit me.”

Pei Jingmo didn’t have his sword, but his fists were clenched. He started to walk over.

Jiang Tingyun quickly stopped him. “Don‘t. That guy’s built like a twig. One punch and he‘s dead.”

Pei Jingmo paused, then started looking around for something to throw as a sneak attack.

“Don’t move. Watch me.”

Zhu Lili pulled several tarot cards from her pocket and walked straight toward the teppanyaki squid stall.

“Hey. You dare to draw one?”

The skinny man sneered. “Crazy. What, you think I‘m handsome and want to chat me up?”

Zhu Lili‘s gaze was contemptuous. “You don’t dare?”

“Ridiculous. There‘s nothing I don’t dare. I just can‘t be bothered to play with you.” He casually drew a card and threw it in Zhu Lili’s face.

With years of experience handling tarot cards, Zhu Lili‘s hands were frighteningly fast. No one could see how her left hand moved — with a cool flourish, she caught the card mid-air.

The cards danced between her hands like spirits. With a swift exchange, she flashed the card in front of the skinny man’s eyes, then tucked it back into her palm.

“The Wheel of Fortune. You‘re going to have bad luck from now on.”

Zhu Lili‘s expression was serious. She spoke each word deliberately.

What she didn’t notice was that the turtle shell hidden in her pocket flickered faintly for a moment, then returned to normal.

“Tch. Spooky nonsense. If you‘re sick, go to the Fourth People’s Hospital and see a brain doctor. Don‘t stand here blocking my business.”

The skinny man had thought this girl was going to do something interesting. But she just pulled out some tarot cards and acted crazy. Hilarious. Did she think she was in a TV drama? Or that she had superpowers? What a poser.

Zhu Lili didn’t linger. As soon as she‘d delivered her curse, she ran back to their stall, patting her chest in fear as she went.

“Scared me to death. Scared me to death. My legs went weak.”

Jin Feifan, however, had his mouth wide open. “Junior sister, that was so cool!”

Jiang Tingyun also praised her. “Xiao Zhu, you were amazing! That was incredible.”

“Don’t praise me yet. I don‘t even know if it’ll work. But I really tried my best to curse him with bad luck.” Zhu Lili scratched her head, a little embarrassed.

Jiang Tingyun‘s expression was complicated, though. It was strange — when Zhu Lili had spoken those words, she felt as if they carried some inexplicable power that reached into the skinny man’s body.

Could it be that this disciple had actually awakened her talent?

---

Back at the other stall, Xie Defa didn‘t take what that girl had said seriously at all. A curse? Bad luck?

Ridiculous. He’d never believed in that kind of thing.

If karma were real, his shop — which shortchanged customers and passed off low-quality goods as premium — would have gone under long ago. Yet it was still thriving, raking in piles of money.

He went back to grilling his squid.

Sure, business today hadn‘t been as good as that shabby tricycle stall next door, but his was meat, and meat cost more. And with all his heavy seasoning, fresh or not, plenty of people still bought from him.

Before long, the incense burners returned, and his stall sold out too.

Xie Defa packed up happily, humming to himself as he calculated how much he’d made. He pushed his food cart and started walking back to Defa Home Cooking.

Whether it was because the snow had made the ground slippery or because he‘d run over something, the cart suddenly tilted. Before he could react, it tipped over and fell into a ditch, dragging him down with it.

“Son of a b***h. This piece of junk.” Xie Defa crawled out of the ditch with difficulty. His clothes were soaked with wet mud, and the cold wind made him shiver all over.

Getting himself out had been easy, but the cart was stuck. He stood by the ditch for ages, trying everything, but couldn’t get it out.

It was New Year‘s Eve — all his employees had gone home. And because he was so cheap, his wife had divorced him long ago. In the middle of the night, he couldn’t find anyone to help him push the cart. He could only pace around in frustration.

In the end, he had to beg and plead to drag two nearby employees back to help him haul the broken cart back to the restaurant.

That wasted two hours. Xie Defa had been on his feet all night, already exhausted. After pushing the cart for so long, his whole body ached.

As soon as he got home, he rushed upstairs to take a shower and rest.

But somehow — on stairs he could have climbed with his eyes closed — he missed a step and tumbled all the way down.

Luckily, he was thick-skinned and sturdy, so nothing was broken. But he sprained his ankle and got a big bump on his head. He howled in pain.

Dead tired, he dragged himself into his room. He didn‘t even have the energy to shower. He stripped off his clothes and was about to climb into bed.

Then he froze.

Something wasn’t right.

Why were the windows open in this freezing weather? And the blanket felt like someone had moved it.

He suddenly remembered the horrible incident from last summer. Those damn rats had bitten him in such a tricky spot that he still hadn‘t fully recovered.

Could it be...?

Xie Defa lifted the blanket carefully. Clean. Nothing there.

He let out a long sigh of relief. He’d been overthinking it.

He collapsed onto the bed, finally relaxing. Every bone in his body ached.

But strange — the pillow today felt a little uneven.

He lay there for a while, adjusting his position, but still couldn‘t get comfortable. Finally, he sat up and lifted the pillow.

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

A blood-curdling scream echoed through the entire village.

Under the pillow — a dead snake.