The past two months had been terrible for Pak Wandra.
Every morning, his phone seemed to ring constantly. But instead of bringing good news, the calls were filled with requests to reduce the amount of vegetables he delivered. Several restaurants that had been his regular customers for years had begun cutting back their orders, while others were even saying they no longer needed certain vegetables at all.
At first, Wandra thought the problem was temporary. Market prices went up and down, and restaurants sometimes changed their menus. But as the days passed, he kept hearing the same explanation.
They had found a new supplier.
A supplier who could provide better-quality vegetables.
And what annoyed Wandra the most was that the new supplier's prices were still reasonable for the restaurants.
"Reduce it again?"
Wandra stared at the order list in his hand with a grim expression. The orders that once filled almost the entire page had been reduced to only a few lines. He slowly rubbed his face before placing the paper on the table.
"If this continues, we could lose half our customers next month."
One of his employees standing in front of the desk could only nod. He already knew who the new supplier was, but he did not dare mention the name. Judging by Wandra's expression, he thought it was safer to let his boss figure it out himself.
But Wandra was not stupid.
He had heard the same name too many times.
Rian.
"That kid..." he muttered.
His fingers tapped impatiently against the table. A few weeks earlier, he had even sent someone to observe Rian's farm. That person had eventually been caught, and everything had been exposed. Wandra had not done anything directly, but now he was beginning to realize that Rian's business was far more troublesome than he had initially thought.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Pak Prabu was facing almost the same problem.
Merdeka Market, which had always been crowded, had begun losing customers. The supermarket was nowhere near empty, but the decline in shoppers was enough to make the monthly sales report look worrying.
Prabu stood in front of the vegetable section, watching several customers.
A woman picked up two packages of vegetables and examined them before putting them back on the shelf.
"Why don't you take these, Ma'am?" an employee asked.
"They're better at Ria Jaya," the woman replied simply. "I bought them there yesterday. The vegetables stayed fresh for several days."
Prabu, who happened to hear the conversation, immediately frowned.
He hated hearing the name Ria Jaya Market.
Especially after the supermarket had started selling vegetables of much better quality.
"Ria Jaya..."
Prabu muttered the name under his breath. He then returned to his office and opened the sales report. The numbers clearly showed something he could no longer ignore.
Vegetable sales were down.
Customer traffic was falling.
And everything had started happening after Ria Jaya Market acquired a new supplier.
Prabu leaned back in his chair.
"Who is the supplier?"
He finally asked the purchasing manager.
The manager opened several documents before answering.
"His name is Rian, sir."
The room immediately fell silent.
Prabu did not respond right away. His eyes remained fixed on the report, but his mind was already connecting several old memories.
Rian.
The young man who had once come to him carrying unusually high-quality vegetables.
The young man who had refused to play along with the inflated-price scheme and the unofficial payment.
The young man who had eventually chosen to work with Ria Jaya Market.
The corner of Prabu's mouth twitched slightly.
"So you're still around."
He remembered how Rian had refused when he was asked to raise the listed prices. At the time, Prabu had thought the young man was nothing more than a small farmer who was too idealistic. Now, that same young man had become the supplier responsible for taking customers away from his business.
Prabu clenched his fist.
"Call someone."
"Who, sir?"
"Pak Wandra."
---
That afternoon, a fairly upscale restaurant in central Semarang became the meeting place for two men who normally had little reason to sit at the same table.
Pak Wandra arrived first.
He sat in a corner of the restaurant, occasionally glancing at his watch. A few minutes later, the door opened and Pak Prabu walked in with quick steps.
The two men looked at each other.
"Wandra?"
"Prabu?"
They shook hands, but there was no warmth in either man's smile.
They were not close friends.
In fact, they were usually part of different sides of the business chain.
But that day, one thing had brought them to the same table.
Their businesses were both being disrupted.
"I heard your restaurants have started reducing their vegetable orders," Prabu said after sitting down.
Wandra stared at him for a few seconds before sighing.
"And I heard your supermarket has started losing customers."
Prabu fell silent.
That answer was enough.
They finally realized that they had come to the restaurant with the same problem.
Wandra leaned back in his chair.
"Who is their new supplier?"
Prabu did not answer immediately. He picked up the glass of water in front of him, took a small sip, and carefully placed it back on the table.
"Rian."
Wandra's eyes immediately changed.
"Rian?"
"So you know him too?"
Wandra let out a short laugh, but there was not the slightest hint of amusement in it.
"Know him? That kid has been making my restaurant customers disappear one by one."
Prabu fell silent.
Now everything was clear.
Rian was not merely selling vegetables to one or two restaurants. He was also supplying Ria Jaya Market, and that supermarket was successfully attracting customers away from Merdeka Market.
One person.
Two different businesses.
Two problems that turned out to have the same source.
Wandra leaned forward.
"How many restaurants have switched?"
"Not all of them," Wandra replied. "But the number keeps growing."
Prabu nodded slowly.
"It's the same with our customers."
For several moments, neither man spoke.
Outside the restaurant, vehicles continued passing by. The sounds of engines and conversations from other customers could be heard faintly around them. But at that table, both men's attention was focused on a single name.
Rian.
"He's growing too fast," Prabu finally said.
Wandra nodded.
"That's what worries me."
His voice became more serious. He had already tried to keep an eye on Rian, but from what he had learned, the farm was no longer a small operation that could be stopped easily. There were dozens of workers, a large area of land, loyal customers, and now a growing network of restaurants and supermarkets.
If they let Rian continue, his business would only become bigger.
And once that happened, stopping him would become much more difficult.
Prabu tapped his fingers against the table.
"If we move separately, we might not succeed."
Wandra looked at him.
"So?"
Prabu leaned slightly closer.
"We work together."
Wandra did not answer immediately.
He stared at Prabu for a long moment, as though weighing whether the man sitting across from him could truly be trusted. Eventually, he sighed and extended his hand.
"Fine."
Prabu took his hand.
"For now."
"For now," Wandra repeated.
They shook hands.
There was no friendship between them.
No trust.
Only a shared interest.
---
Around the same time, far away from that conversation, Rian was sitting comfortably on the terrace of his house.
Several notes about his plans for gourami farming were spread out in front of him. He was calculating how many ponds he could build without interfering with the vegetable fields he already had.
Jojo sat on the table, casually licking his paw.
"If this fish business works, we'll have another source of income."
Rian nodded while scribbling another number on the paper.
"And if the quality improves like the vegetables, we can sell them at a higher price too."
Jojo stopped licking his paw and stared at Rian.
"Your eyes are changing again."
"Changing how?"
"Like a goblin that just discovered a mountain of gold."
Rian grinned.
"If there's a mountain of gold behind the house, am I supposed to pretend I don't see it?"
Jojo let out a long sigh.
"I knew it."
Rian returned to his calculations, completely unaware that at that very moment, two men were discussing how to stop his growing business.
He did not know that the real business rivalry had just begun.
And for the first time since discovering that antique trash can, Rian would be facing people who did not want to buy his produce.
They wanted to make sure his produce never reached the market.