Chapter 142

Catching mice was a big job, and you didn’t even know how many homes the mice had or where they all were.

Alarieka didn’t know much about what was going on in the field, and Jaylene didn’t either.

So the two of them just stood there staring at the tulips, not even knowing what the first step was.

The two of them checked for info on their phones right there, but didn’t find anything.

Alarieka thought, even if they were super talented, there was no way they could get past these farmers rooted in the fields.

Jaylene tugged at her shirt and said, “We can’t do anything just standing here. How about we go back and ask my friend, and see what to do tomorrow?”

Alarieka nodded, “Okay!”

They went right back to Cecilia’s place and asked her all about it.

Cecilia’s answer was that she was also looking for a way. She said mice were really good at surviving and breeding, so the mouse problem was really a headache.

Alarieka was tired all day, and after dinner, she went to sleep.

Who knew, early in the morning, the door to Cecilia’s yard just kept getting knocked on by people outside.

Alarieka was woken up, stumbled out still half-asleep, and saw Cecilia and Jaylene, both with messy hair too.

The three of them walked out together, pushed the door open, and saw Paloma standing at the door with an angry look on her face.

“What did you guys do to my tulips?”

Alarieka and Jaylene looked at each other and shook their heads, “I didn’t-”

Paloma was holding a bunch of tulips, and her usually gentle, elegant face looked terrible: “Alarieka, what did you guys do in my field? Why did so many of my tulips end up like this?”

She threw the dozen tulips in her hand at Alarieka.

Alarieka got hit and was stunned for a second, and she caught the tulip that was about to fall from her arms without thinking.

Seeing the angry look on Paloma’s face, and the tulip petals and leaves that had been torn off, Alarieka gradually understood what she meant.

She shook her head right away: “I just went to take a look, I didn’t do anything.”

Early in the morning, anyone who saw their carefully cared-for tulips destroyed would have been furious.

It was already really classy of Paloma to still talk nicely and not get physical.

“I asked around, everyone said they only saw you two go, didn’t see anyone else. Besides you guys, who else could it be?”

Paloma was so mad she wanted to lose it, but she held back because of her dignity.

Combining everything that happened these past two days, Paloma could easily connect her rejecting Alarieka and the tulips getting ruined.

She gritted her teeth, “You wanted to pull some strings, I didn’t agree, so you went and ruined my tulips, didn’t you?!”

It seemed like Paloma didn’t need Alarieka to answer and just went on, “If you guys really put effort into practicing piano, why would you need to pull strings?

“You guys were so low in character, I figured your piano skills couldn’t be much better!”

At first, Alarieka wanted to explain things properly, but Paloma was already so mad she’d lost all reason, and everything she said was just insult after insult.

Alarieka frowned too and pulled back Jaylene, who wanted to step forward: “Ms. Wyatt, you got it wrong.”

After Paloma cursed, she realized what she did wasn’t classy.

She turned around and kept taking deep breaths to calm down.

After Paloma calmed down a bit, Alarieka finally spoke calmly, “First, I came to you not because I wanted you to pull strings for me. I just missed the registration deadline for the Mcintosh Piano Competition and wanted to see if I could get a spot from you!”

“Second, I went to see your tulips not to mess them up, but because I heard your tulips got bitten by mice and it hadn’t been fixed for a long time, so I wanted to help you.”

“But I could promise, I definitely didn’t do anything to mess up your tulips. After all, I still really wanted to get that competition spot from you, so I wouldn’t do something like that to make you mad. It just wasn’t worth it.”

The logic was clear. Even Paloma, who was furious, would calm down after hearing Alarieka’s calm tone and clear words.

There were still too many suspicious points about this, and it really couldn’t be proven that Alarieka did it.

It was just that Alarieka had some flaws in her personal morals, so it made sense that she was suspicious.

She turned around and said calmly, “But they all saw that only you and your friend went.”