Chapter 38 A Frightened Bird Seizes the Opportunity to Produce
Oasis Ecological Park, three-story administrative office building.
Zhou Jianming leaned back in his large leather chair, a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, and listened with narrowed eyes as his subordinates reported on the recent results of their work on the Miaomiao Mimi Farm.
As he listened to the minor problems of the packaging box shortage and the occasional network lag being resolved one by one, a satisfied smile appeared on his lips.
Small workshops like Meow Meow Farm, which lack a solid foundation, can be thrown into chaos and severely damaged if given even the slightest setback.
It's not easy to support a company, but isn't it easy to destroy one?
He had even pictured in his mind Shi Wan in a state of utter distress, ultimately forced to beg for mercy.
"Alright, that's enough, let's stop now and not make too much of a commotion."
He waved his subordinate away, speaking as casually as if he were discussing the weather.
"Give her a lesson, let her know what's what. Um... didn't she make a new video recently? Clean it up, don't leave any loose ends."
He added casually, as if he were simply asking someone to pour out a cup of leftover tea from the previous day.
The subordinate nodded knowingly, "Don't worry, Mr. Zhou, we're just using a temporary backdoor. They won't be able to find us."
The office returned to silence, and Zhou Jianming exhaled a smoke ring with satisfaction, feeling that everything was under control.
However, this sense of control was completely shattered that evening.
He has a habit of checking his personal email before leaving get off work to handle some less formal matters.
When he opened his inbox, an email with no sender's name and the subject line "A Gift" was right there in front of him.
An ominous premonition instantly welled up in my heart.
He frowned and hesitated before opening the email.
The text is empty.
There is only one audio attachment.
He subconsciously looked around.
The office door was tightly closed, and the streetlights outside were already on.
He opened the attachment with hesitation and unease.
After the buzzing of electricity, his own familiar, slightly hoarse voice echoed clearly in the quiet office.
"...Just teach her a lesson, don't make a big fuss. That video... handle it cleanly..."
This was followed by a vague response from the subordinate.
"Don't worry, Mr. Zhou, we're using a temporary backdoor; they can't find us..."
The recording abruptly ended there.
The color drained from Zhou Jianming's face instantly, and his fingers holding the cigarette trembled violently, oblivious to the ash falling onto his expensive suit trousers.
A chill ran from the soles of his feet straight up to the top of his head, making his scalp tingle.
How could this be?!
How is this possible?!
The conversation took place in a closed office, with only him and his absolutely trusted confidant present!
How did the other party record it?
Moreover, it was precisely sent to his private email address that he did not disclose to the public.
Who sent the email?
Shi Wan?
How could she possibly have such an ability?!
Panic, like countless fine needles, pierced through all his previous smugness and composure.
He suddenly jumped up from his chair and paced back and forth in the office like a caged beast, countless thoughts flashing through his mind.
Are they business rivals?
wrong.
If it were a competitor, they would have made this evidence public long ago, instead of just sending it anonymously to him and calling it a gift.
Is he a hacker?
But why would an ordinary hacker target an agricultural company like his, especially one that was targeting Shi Wan?
The only explanation points to the cat and its owner that he initially didn't pay any attention to.
It was Shi Wan.
This thought sent a chill down his spine even further.
Could it be that Shi Wan has some kind of powerful or technological support behind her that he is completely unaware of?
Could there be some unspeakable secret hidden in that seemingly ordinary farm?
The fact that the other party was able to obtain such a recording so discreetly shows that their power and methods are far beyond his imagination.
This is no longer a simple business competition; it's more like a warning, a condescending demonstration.
I've seen everything you do.
He immediately summoned his trusted subordinate, closed the door, lowered his voice, and asked with a grim face whether the conversation that day could have been overheard.
The subordinates were also terrified, swearing that it was absolutely impossible, and immediately began an internal investigation.
The result, of course, was nothing.
This feeling of the enemy being in the dark while we were in the light made Zhou Jianming restless.
He dared not make any more rash moves and immediately stopped all his small actions against Meow Meow Farm, even temporarily shelving the plans for imitation products and price wars that had already been arranged.
He needs to reassess Shi Wan and her farm, and find out who her backer really is.
In the following days, Zhou Jianming was like a frightened bird.
He listened to the short recording repeatedly, trying to find any clues.
He had someone thoroughly investigate Shi Wan's social connections and sources of funding, but the results showed that her background was so clean it was almost transparent, which only made him more suspicious.
The more problems you can't find, the bigger the problem is.
He no longer saw Shi Wan as a pushover; the seemingly cozy little farm now appeared shrouded in mystery and danger in his eyes.
He temporarily sheathed his fangs and curled up, observing and waiting warily, not daring to cross the line again.
This temporary calm, by a twist of fate, gave Meow Meow Farm a precious chance to breathe and develop.
But the shadow had already been cast, and Zhou Jianming's apprehension and suspicion were like a lurking venomous snake, ready to bare its sharp fangs at any moment.
Even if Shi Wan didn't know his reaction, she could guess a bit of what it was.
But she didn't care. What she needed was time. She wanted to seize every opportunity to make her farm even more indestructible.
Miao has been quiet for many days.
Shi Wan tried to contact him after that.
"Agent: Miao, are you still there? I want to exchange the remaining Meow Coins for points."
She waited a full three minutes before the customer service message finally arrived.
"...Insufficient permissions to answer."
Shi Wan looked at the line of text and felt inexplicably that something was wrong.
But I can't remember it for the time being.
So every day she would send Miao a message first before diving into her busy production work.
She wants to unlock another duck house and raise some ducks.
Since raising chickens and ducks is the same thing, she's not worried about them not surviving.
We can make some dried snacks like chicken jerky and duck jerky then.
However, Miao's unusual behavior made her postpone exchanging points, as the points generated from the sales revenue were not enough.
Shi Wan could only organize the plan first, so that she wouldn't be caught off guard when it came time to actually do it.
Just these past few days, the surveillance equipment she ordered online finally arrived.
Shi Wan spent a long time figuring out how to install it, but she still couldn't quite figure it out.
She always has a fear of messing everything up due to a mistake when dealing with electronic products.
In the end, she spent several hundred yuan to hire a few workers to enter the farm and install surveillance cameras in the locations she had chosen earlier.
When the image appeared clearly on the computer screen, Shi Wan silently breathed a sigh of relief.
I seemed to feel a sense of security.
The Starlight Vine is thriving in the isolated experimental field. Its blue-green vines emit a faint, almost invisible glow at night, just like its name suggests, resembling a small nebula.
It's probably because someone with nearsightedness would perceive it as a worsening of their astigmatism.
Shi Wan would sometimes go to see them, but she felt a strong urge to use these magical plants for something.
Selling seeds or plants directly is too risky, and she's worried about the unverified safety of processing them into pet food.
After much thought, I decided to start with the safest and most straightforward approach.
That is to produce a batch of calming cat beds.
Let's do it!
She carefully harvested the first batch of mature starlight vines, a pitifully small amount, only enough to weave two rattan mats the size of pillows.
It's called a mat, but it feels more like a cat scratching post.
At least that's what Shi Wan thinks.
She searched for many rattan weaving tutorials, followed them and tried them out, and even practiced her skills with rope before finally daring to actually weave with starlight rattan.
The whole process felt like completing a precious work of art, and Shi Wan even held her breath.
After completing the first test sample, Shi Wan placed it with trepidation in the corner of the sofa where the cats often napped.
She didn't deliberately guide him; she just went about her usual business, secretly observing him out of the corner of her eye.
Huanhuan, who was the most vigilant, was the first to notice the new mat.
She walked over and circled the cushion several times, her nose twitching as she carefully sniffed it.
Strangely, she didn't show the same wariness she would have shown with other new objects; instead, her gaze gradually softened.
She tentatively reached out her paw and pressed it, feeling its softness, and then actually lay down on it, resting her chin on the edge of the mat, letting out an extremely satisfied sigh.
A few minutes later, he started snoring softly and steadily.
That's not all.
Normally, Nao Nao would jump around and chase his own tail in the afternoon, but he was unusually quiet.
It moved closer to Huanhuan, hesitated for a moment, then squeezed into another corner of the mat, curled up, and fell asleep.
Then came the soft, scattered...
Even Tangyuan, who dislikes sleeping on the mat the most, jumped onto the sofa and lay down not far from the mat, her heterochromatic eyes half-closed, looking very relaxed and comfortable.
Throughout the afternoon, the sofa area presented an unprecedentedly peaceful scene.
There was no roughhousing, no parkour, only the sound of even breathing and gurgling.
The results are simply unbelievable!
Shi Wan suppressed her excitement and made a second, slightly larger mat, which she placed on the cat tree's board.
The effect was equally remarkable, and the area became a new strategic location fought over by military strategists.
The cats have even learned to line up; one wakes up before the other goes up to continue sleeping.
"I did it!" Shi Wan cheered inwardly.
This Starlight Vine has an amazing calming effect; it's an absolutely unique treasure!
However, reality soon poured cold water on her enthusiasm.
She counted the remaining starlight vines in the experimental field and found that even if she harvested them all now, she could only make a maximum of five more small mats like these.
Although this plant has a relatively short growth cycle, its yield is not high.
Moreover, it has extremely high environmental requirements, and Shi Wan doesn't have many seeds, so it's currently impossible to cultivate it on a large scale.
This means that Starlight Vine products are destined to be extremely rare limited editions.
Shi Wan fell into deep thought.
Are they being kept as non-sale items, reserved only for your own cats?
Or will it be launched in a very limited number of special ways and used as the farm's prized possession?
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Author's Note: The cats: Love it, nibbling away.
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