I Awakened to a Farming TALENT

## Chapter 43: Trying to Cause Trouble? Then Reap What You Sow

## Chapter 43: Trying to Cause Trouble? Then Reap What You Sow

Xie Defa ran all the way back to his own small courtyard.

Before closing the door, he checked over and over again. No one seemed to have followed him. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Those people had such sharp ears. He'd almost gotten caught tonight. If he'd ended up in a ditch and been hauled off to the police station, that would have been terrible.

Xie Defa also ran a farmhouse restaurant, much bigger than Qionghua Eatery. He'd hired several cooks and waitstaff.

But his philosophy was: in this day and age, if you don't play dirty and use some "tech magic," how can you make money? He didn't bother with repeat customers. He just cashed in during peak seasons.

This year, the weather was too hot. Fewer tourists came to Fenghuang Mountain. And with the film industry in a slump, not many crews were coming to Fenghuang Film Studio either.

With so many people to support, Xie Defa found business tough.

During the day, quite a few tourists had passed by his door, but they all said they were going to eat at Qionghua Eatery.

Xie Defa snuck over to Qionghua Eatery and saw it packed with people, bustling and lively. Meanwhile, his own place had just a few scattered customers. Business was mediocre.

He was jealous and wanted to mess up Qionghua Eatery's business.

Just then, his rat traps had caught several rats. Relying on his light and nimble frame, he climbed onto the wall under cover of darkness, stuffed the rats into a bag, and threw the whole thing into Qionghua Eatery's yard.

The rats would follow the smell straight into the kitchen. A couple of days later, he'd report the place to the health department, and Qionghua Eatery would be shut down for rectification.

Xie Defa smiled smugly. Then he lowered his head and sniffed his hands—a stench of rat urine. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and headed straight for the bathroom.

After a nice, comfortable shower, he came out of the bathroom and noticed the window was wide open.

"Did I open that?"

He didn't think much of it. n***d, he got into bed and lifted the light summer blanket. His vision went dark, and suddenly his hair stood on end.

Out from under the blanket burst seven or eight rats, squeaking and scrambling, crawling right onto him.

One of them was extremely agile. With a *thwack*, it landed directly on his *critical area*.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!" A scream that shook half the mountain village rang out into the night.

...

Everyone at Qionghua Sect looked grim as they searched the yard for rats.

"Stop looking. We'll set up some rat traps tomorrow. With this many people around, even rats aren't stupid," Uncle Liu said with a yawn.

Jiang Tingyun straightened up and looked thoughtfully out of the yard. Had Pei Jingmo caught the guy?

Suddenly, the yard gate pushed open. Pei Jingmo walked in with light steps, a hint of smugness on his face.

Zhu Lili couldn't help asking, "Senior Brother Pei, did you catch him? Who threw the rats in here?"

"Defa's Farmhouse Kitchen," Pei Jingmo replied simply.

"Defa's Farmhouse Kitchen?" Jiang Tingyun frowned, thinking. "I know that place. It's not far from us. They also serve farmhouse food."

"What a petty jerk!" Jin Feifan brandished his broom, gritting his teeth. "They saw our business doing well and got green-eyed, pulling a stunt like this and keeping us up all night."

Jiang Tingyun hadn't expected this either. She'd always been easygoing about business. She'd only done the limited edition ribs today, and business had gotten a little better—just a little—and already she'd attracted this kind of crazy petty person.

She had thought about whether other restaurants might try to suppress her if business got too good. But her mind had gone to things like price wars or online smear campaigns.

She never expected that in this rural area, the local style was so fierce—they'd just throw rats into her shop.

It was like those stories about rival tech companies hiring security guards to secretly cut each other's internet cables. Ridiculous. And yet, annoyingly effective.

And since the guy hadn't been caught in the act and there were no cameras to capture evidence, going to the police station would just be a game of he-said-she-said. It was infuriating.

Jiang Tingyun thought for a moment and suggested, "What do you think—should we get a dog? Next time something like this happens, the dog can guard the place and bite him."

"Why get a dog? Haven't we already got Senior Brother?" Zhu Lili and Jin Feifan looked at Jiang Tingyun strangely.

"..."

Jiang Tingyun was speechless. That actually made a weird kind of sense.

Pei Jingmo's face darkened. His anger was visibly rising, about to explode. Zhu Lili and Jin Feifan quickly hid behind Jiang Tingyun.

Jiang Tingyun immediately tried to change the subject. Noticing Pei Jingmo's empty hands, she quickly asked, "Hey, what about those rats? Where did you put them?"

Pei Jingmo suppressed his anger and let out a cold laugh. "I stuffed them all under his blanket."

"..."

Everyone imagined the scene and shuddered in unison. Jiang Tingyun gave him a respectful thumbs-up.

"How about we go to sleep? We've got work tomorrow," Uncle Liu said with another yawn. "That Defa's Farmhouse Kitchen probably won't dare do anything for a while after being scared like that."

Everyone dropped their brooms and headed upstairs to bed.

Jiang Tingyun also went back to her room and flopped straight onto the bed. What a day and night. So exhausting.

Suddenly, she sat up again, turned on the light, and carefully searched her bed from top to bottom. After confirming there were no rats or bugs, she finally breathed a long sigh of relief and flopped back down.

Ah, back to sleep. Got work tomorrow.

Come to think of it... what should she sell tomorrow?