Yang Shuixiu deeply regretted her actions, but with the evidence caught red-handed, no amount of explanation could change anything.

The entire village of Sishibawan is inhabited by people with the surname Fu. Although the ancestral hall was demolished a few years ago, the clan chief's authority remains, and the clan's old rules are still in place.

Here, if someone commits a crime, they don't need to be sent to the police station; they can be dealt with according to the clan rules themselves.

Although Li Xiangdong didn't particularly like this approach, this wasn't Lijiapo, and he couldn't be too forceful.

That would only cause dissatisfaction among the villagers and would not be beneficial to the future development of the bonsai garden.

With a wave of his hand, the village chief and clan leader locked Yang Shuixiu in a small dark room.

She was sent into the dark room amidst the curses and disdainful looks of the villagers behind her.

Yang Shuixiu's husband stumbled and followed behind his wife, accompanying her.

The village chief addressed the other villagers earnestly, “You all know what kind of life we ​​lived before and what kind of life we ​​live now without me having to say it! A few days ago, we sold a thousand potted five-needle pine bonsai. According to the previous profit-sharing ratio, our village will receive more than 1.7 million yuan!”

Upon hearing this number, the crowd erupted in cheers!

They all knew about Li Xiangdong's sale of a thousand five-needle pine bonsai in recent days.

As for the exact amount they sold for, they had discussed and guessed privately, knowing it wouldn't be less, but they never expected it to be so much!

More than 1.7 million!

Each household will receive approximately 40,000 to 50,000 yuan!

They did nothing and yet they got so much money; it's something they could only dream of!

The village chief and Li Xiangdong exchanged a glance, then said loudly, "We'll divide the money when it's light!"

The laughter and talking grew louder, almost lifting the entire roof off.

The village chief pressed his hands down, "Alright, alright! Stop arguing! I'll say it one more time: if you don't want tomorrow's money distribution to be the last, then you'd better perk up! Protect our bonsai garden, protect our money!"

Someone in the crowd shouted, "Save the bonsai garden!"

The call was met with immediate response; others raised their fists and shouted in unison, "Save the bonsai garden! Save the bonsai garden!"

Looking at the enthusiastic crowd before him, Li Xiangdong finally felt relieved.

After several days of tension, his body suddenly relaxed, and a wave of drowsiness washed over him. He let out a long yawn.

Preserving the bonsai garden cannot be accomplished by the efforts of just a few individuals.

Even the most tightly secured fence will always have gaps.

Only by uniting all the people of the Forty-Eight Bays Village can we become a cohesive unit.

The adhesive for this iron plate can only be enough profit.

Chen Zaohua, Feng Yucai, Fang Shilan, and the Fu Youde brothers stayed up all night, first counting out the money, and then calculating the specific amount each household should receive according to the profit-sharing ratio.

As soon as it was dawn, a long line formed at the entrance of the brigade's office.

No one showed any signs of fatigue from not having slept all night; on the contrary, everyone was full of energy.

During the money distribution process, no one complained about the long wait; everyone had a smiling face.

By the time everyone had received their money and the accounts were tallied, the sun had just risen high overhead.

The villagers went home and hid the money, and then spontaneously began patrolling the bonsai garden and the edge of the village.

The villagers' mindset has completely changed.

Before, I just went to work and received a salary.

Now, every penny in the bonsai garden is related to them.

The entire village of Sishibawan is now guarded like an iron barrel; not even a fly can get in.

Pan Jixian couldn't contact Yang Shuixiu, so he sent people to Sishibawan Village, but they were thoroughly searched and couldn't even get into the village.

In the end, he had no choice but to bribe his aunt, who was married off from Forty-Eight Bays Village, to cause trouble at the bonsai garden.

This time, instead of using the clumsy method of fire, he gave the old lady a large bottle of pine leafhoppers and told her to release them near the bonsai garden.

The pine brown planthopper is a small pest that can quickly cause pine needles to turn yellow and fall off.

This pest specifically parasitizes Japanese white pine trees and reproduces very quickly.

In just four or five days, the pine leafhopper will take effect, and all the five-needle pine bonsai in Sishibawan Village will quickly lose their leaves and slowly die.

Pan Jixian only needs to wait a few more days to complete the mission without bloodshed.

He breathed a long sigh of relief when he handed the brown planthopper to the woman.

If this hype surrounding the five-needle pine bonsai is successful, he's 80% confident he can break free from that old man's control, take a large sum of money, and start a new life.

Perhaps hope was within reach, because even the older man praised him, "You finally have a smile on your face. Before, you really looked like a sinister viper!"

Pan Ji smiled brightly at him, threw herself into his arms, and thought to herself, "Then you just wait until the day I bite you to death."

But Pan Jixian never expected that this woman, who had accepted a large sum of money from him, made a solemn oath, and even sent her own son to him as a hostage, would become his hostage.

Surprisingly, they turned against us!

Upon entering Forty-Eight Bends Village, the woman, accompanied by her parents, handed the bottle of pine-brown planthoppers directly to the village chief.

She then revealed how Pan Ji had approached her, offered her a large sum of money to bribe her, but she refused, and was nearly beaten to death by her own man.

The village chief turned pale with fright when he saw the large bottle filled with pine leafhoppers.

They quickly invited Li Xiangdong over to discuss what to do about it.

Li Xiangdong knew that Pan Jixian would not let the matter rest, but he did not expect that this old lady would be loyal to Liu Bei while serving Cao Cao.

Zhou Hongsong started a fire, boiled a large pot of water, and then threw the bottle full of pine leafhoppers into it.

This aunt's name is Fu Yunxiang. Beside her are her parents, whose faces are a mixture of anger and heartache, and a little girl.

Fu Yunxiang's entire face was numb. She mumbled, "Zhang Baisui forced me to come. If I didn't come, he said he would kill Lian Di first, and then kill me."

The little girl nestled next to her had bruises all over her face and looked timid and hesitant.

"They also took Guangzong away, saying that if I couldn't complete the mission, they would chop off Guangzong's two hands."

Fu Yunxiang's mother wiped away her tears and said bitterly, "That little beast Zhang Baisui! How could he treat you like this? He's taking advantage of the fact that you have no brothers—"

Fu Yunxiang's father also said, "You haven't been back to your parents' home for years, and we had no idea that you and Lian Di were living this kind of life!"

Fu Yunxiang continued, "Liandi advised me to take this opportunity to go back to my parents' home so that I could get rid of Zhang Baisui."

If it weren't for the strict management of the Forty-Eight Bays Village, where only married daughters and children and grandchildren who had left the village were allowed to enter or leave, Zhang Baisui wouldn't have entrusted this matter to Fu Yunxiang.

Li Xiangdong asked her, "Your son is in Pan Jixian's hands. Now that you've turned against him, aren't you afraid that your son will really lose his hands?"