Pak Wandra and Pak Prabu's plan moved faster than Rian could have imagined. A few days after their meeting, rumors began spreading through markets and neighborhoods across Semarang. At first, they were nothing more than whispers passed from one vendor to another, but before long, the story had turned into something much more serious. "They say the vegetables from Rian's farm contain dangerous chemicals." "Seriously?" "Yeah. Apparently, eating them regularly can damage your body." The rumor spread from person to person without a single piece of evidence. Even people who had never bought Rian's vegetables began hearing about it. Some believed it immediately, while others stopped buying them simply to be safe. At one supermarket, a customer even returned the vegetables she had just picked up. "Excuse me, but I heard these vegetables contain chemicals." The supermarket employee looked confused. They had been selling Rian's produce for weeks and had never encountered any problems. However, when several other customers began asking the same thing, the supermarket decided to reduce its stock temporarily. Of course, the news eventually reached Rian. But before he could investigate where the rumor had come from, another problem appeared. --- That morning, Rian was driving his pickup truck, carrying several crates of vegetables to one of his regular restaurants. Behind him were two vehicles carrying his workers and additional produce. The road was relatively quiet. Rian was humming softly when a car suddenly stopped across the road in front of him. "What the hell?" He hit the brakes. The pickup stopped several meters away from the car. Before Rian could even open the door, four men stepped out. Two more climbed out of a minivan that had stopped several meters behind them. Six men. All of them were large, and none of them looked friendly. One of them walked toward the pickup. "Get out." Rian frowned. "Why?" "Don't ask questions. We're taking everything in the back." Rian glanced toward the truck bed. Then he looked back at the man. "The vegetables?" "Don't play dumb." Rian sighed. He was actually in a hurry that morning. The restaurant needed its order before lunchtime, and he had absolutely no desire to deal with a group of strange men in the middle of the road. "If you want vegetables, just buy them at the market." The man immediately grabbed Rian by the collar. "Get out!" Rian looked down at the hand gripping his shirt. Then his expression changed. He wasn't angry. If anything, he looked unusually calm. "Sir." "What?" "Don't touch my shirt." The man sneered. "Or what?" The next second, Rian grabbed his arm. BAM! The man's body was thrown sideways and crashed onto the asphalt. The other five immediately moved. "Take him down!" Two men attacked from the front at the same time. Rian dodged the first punch by twisting his body, then grabbed his opponent's arm and turned. CRASH! The man was slammed against the hood of the car. The second attacker swung at Rian from the side. Rian ducked. The fist passed just above his head. Rian immediately countered with a punch to the man's stomach. THUD! The man doubled over and staggered backward. "You've got some nerve!" Someone pulled a wooden stick from inside the minivan. Rian saw it coming. He stepped backward. The stick swung down with full force. WHOOSH! Rian dodged just in time. The stick slammed into the side of his pickup. BANG! Rian's eyes narrowed. "Hey." His voice had changed. He wouldn't have cared if they wanted to hit him. But they had just damaged his truck. Worse, they had nearly damaged the vegetables he had spent so much effort growing. "My truck is one thing." Rian stepped forward. "But don't touch my produce." The man with the stick swung again. This time, Rian didn't retreat. He stepped forward instead. He caught the man's wrist, pulled him forward, and drove his shoulder into him. BAM! The man crashed to the ground. Before he could get back up, Rian had already taken the stick away from him. He threw it far toward the side of the road. "Enough." Rian stood up. But the other four men were still attacking. They came at him all at once. Rian sighed. "Why don't you people ever learn?" He blocked the first punch. The second managed to hit his shoulder, but Rian barely moved. The attacker, however, looked shocked. "Huh?" Rian stared at him. "My turn." BAM! One punch landed directly on the man's jaw. He dropped immediately. Another man tried to attack Rian from behind. Rian spun around, caught him, and threw him to the ground. THUD! The third man attempted to kick him. Rian caught his leg. "Your balance is terrible." He pulled the man's leg. CRASH! The man fell flat on his back. Only two men were still standing. They looked at each other. The confidence that had filled their faces moments earlier was gone. "He's not normal." Rian heard the comment. He raised an eyebrow. "You're only realizing that now?" The two men finally attacked together. Rian didn't retreat. He moved quickly. One punch. One block. One sweep of the leg. Then a powerful shove. Within seconds, both men were sprawled across the road. Rian stood in the middle of them, breathing steadily. None of them could get back up. Six men. All defeated. Several of Rian's workers who had been following behind finally climbed out of their vehicles, their faces pale. "Mr. Rian..." Rian turned toward them. "Relax. They're still alive." He then checked the back of the pickup. The crates of vegetables were still safe. Only one crate had shifted slightly. Rian let out a relieved breath. "Thank goodness." One of the workers stared at the six men scattered across the road. "Sir... what should we do?" Rian pulled out his phone. "Call the police." He paused for a moment. "Then call an ambulance. I don't want them dying here." --- A few hours later, all six men were taken to the hospital. They suffered various injuries from the fight. None of them had expected their target, whom they assumed was merely a young farm owner, to be capable of taking them all down by himself. But Rian wasn't thinking much about that. Something else bothered him far more. The rumors about his vegetables. After finishing his deliveries, Rian began asking his customers, vendors, and workers. From one person to another, the story slowly began to form a pattern. Someone had first spread the rumor through several market vendors. Then it reached restaurants. After that, messages began circulating online claiming that Rian's vegetables contained "dangerous chemicals" and "growth-boosting substances that could damage human organs." Rian read one of the messages several times. "Growth boosters?" Jojo, sitting beside him, glanced at the phone screen. "At least they're creative." Rian frowned. "What annoys me isn't the lie." He put his phone down. "It's that they're starting to affect my business." Rian began tracing the rumor back to its source. He contacted several restaurants, spoke with market vendors, and asked some of his acquaintances to help find where the story had originated. The farther he dug, the more often one name appeared. Wandra. Rian fell silent when the name was mentioned for the third time. "So it really was him." He remembered what had happened on the road. Six men. They were after his vegetables. They hadn't asked for money. They hadn't asked for his vehicle. They simply wanted to stop the delivery. Now everything was beginning to connect. "The rumor came from Wandra..." Rian tapped his fingers against the table. "The men who blocked me on the road were probably sent by him too." Jojo slowly nodded. "But don't forget one thing." "What?" "The rumor is too well organized." Rian fell silent. He opened the circulating message again. At the bottom was the name of an account that had apparently posted it first. After investigating further, Rian discovered that it wasn't an ordinary personal account. Several of its other posts openly compared Merdeka Market with Ria Jaya Market. And almost all of them pushed the same conclusion. Ria Jaya sold vegetables supplied by Rian. Merdeka Market didn't. Rian narrowed his eyes. "Prabu..." This time, he smiled faintly. So it wasn't just Wandra. Wandra was attacking him from the restaurant supply side, while Prabu was manipulating customers' opinions and spreading hoaxes to destroy the reputation of his vegetables. Two men. Two different methods. One goal. Stop Rian before his business became too big. Rian leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath. For the first time, he no longer felt like he was dealing with ordinary business competition. He was dealing with people who genuinely wanted to destroy his business. And if they had chosen to play dirty... Rian had no intention of simply sitting back and taking it. "Jojo." "Yeah?" Rian looked at his phone screen one more time. "Let's find out everything about them." Jojo grinned. "Finally, our little goblin is getting serious." Rian smiled. "If they want a business war..." He locked his phone. "...then we'll give them a reason to regret choosing the wrong opponent."

CHAPTER 21 — The Poisonous Rumor