“娘，我刚刚偷听到隔壁陈利仁他奶和他爹在偷偷说要害咱们村里的菜呢。”大丫跑去地里告诉了她娘。

"Why? We didn't do anything to her, why would she want to ruin our vegetables? We're going to sell them to Xichun." Da Ya's father couldn't stay calm when he heard this.

"I overheard them whispering that the village chief wouldn't buy their vegetables, and the villagers were giving them the cold shoulder. Chen Liren's grandma was upset and said that since they couldn't sell their produce, everyone should just quit." Da Ya heard it all clearly.

"Da Ya, don't tell anyone about this. Don't tell anyone except us, okay? I'm going to talk to your village chief now. You go home first and secretly listen to what other bad ideas they have. The child's mother, you come back with me and listen too."

"Alright, this old woman is really never quiet. I want to see what kind of trouble she's up to this time."

When Da Ya's father arrived at the village chief's house, he told him about the matter. The village chief took it seriously. He might not have believed it if someone else had said it, but the Chen family was now a bad apple. Not only would their business be ruined, but Xi Chun would also likely suffer even greater consequences.

"Okay, I'll get a few people together to discuss this. We need to keep an eye on everyone in their family. If they really want to do something, we'll catch them red-handed and see what they have to say."

“Okay, I’ll be the first to support this. But if they dare to cause trouble, I’ll be the first to disagree. We must expel these kinds of people from the village, otherwise they’ll be a huge scourge.”

"I have my own plans for this. You should go back first."

The village chief found a few reliable people in the village and told them about the incident. Everyone was outraged. They couldn't believe how heartless this family was. They had committed such a serious crime. If it were any other village, they would have been kicked out long ago.

But the villagers are simply unwilling to deal with them now because they were too arrogant in the past. They haven't bullied his family or done anything too outrageous, yet they still act this way. It's clear that these people are rotten to the core.

After keeping watch for several days, they finally spotted Chen Shunan going to town to buy a bag of rat poison. He sneaked home, and under the cover of night, Chen's mother, Chen Shunan, and Madam Ma went to the place where the villagers gathered to collect their land.

Just as the three were about to step into the field to put the rat poison mixed with water into the cabbages that had grown and were to be harvested the next day for Xichun, they were surrounded by the villagers.

"Grandma Chen, what are you all doing? What are you putting in someone else's vegetable garden so late at night?" The village chief shouted, and the three of them didn't even have time to run away.

People followed, carrying torches; almost the entire village, men, women, and children, came.

"We didn't do anything, we just accidentally went to the wrong place. We were going to our own land." Old Mrs. Chen was a little flustered at this moment, but she quickly came up with a reason that everyone thought was untenable.

"You just bought this land this year? You can't even recognize it at night, and you've even wandered onto someone else's land. You're really something. Men, arrest them all, and take them and their belongings to the village's threshing ground. I'll interrogate them myself."

As soon as the village chief said this, everyone rushed forward and caught them red-handed. Even if Old Lady Chen and the others wanted to lie, the evidence was irrefutable.

“Village chief, this stuff smells like rat poison. My family bought it before, and it smells exactly like that.”

“Village chief, I went to town today and happened to see Chen Shunan buying rat poison. They must be trying to ruin our village’s business. Who would dare to eat cabbage that’s been poisoned with rat poison? If we sell it to Xichun tomorrow and the customer gets sick from eating it, our village will be in big trouble.”

"Yes, how could the Chen family be full of such heartless and wicked people? They actually tried to harm us like this. We can't let them off so easily this time; they must be severely punished!"

"Ouch, Granny Chen, Ma Lianhua, I'll beat you to death! How dare you use rat poison to water my vegetables! I'll beat you to death today, you heartless bastards!" Before she could finish speaking, an old woman suddenly rushed out of the darkness and slapped Granny Chen and Ma Lianhua repeatedly until they saw stars.

"Grandma Ma, don't worry. They haven't watered the vegetables yet. But just to be on the safe side, we won't send the cabbages from this area to Xichun tomorrow. We'll send them to other families instead. We can't afford to take responsibility if anything goes wrong."

The village chief had several women restrain the angry old lady Ma. It turned out that one of the plots of land that old lady Chen and the others were irrigating was planted by old lady Ma herself. After hearing that Xichun had harvested a lot of vegetables, old lady Ma became very enthusiastic and watered them every morning and evening, hoping that they would grow better than others and that she would earn more money.

Little did they know that these vegetables had only been sold twice before Old Lady Chen ruined them, and now they could only eat all the cabbages on the ground themselves.

“Village chief, I think their hearts are so vicious. Why don’t we expel them from our village and make sure they never set foot in the village again? Otherwise, they will be beaten if they are found out. If we let people like them continue to stay in the village, we will live in fear every day.”

"Yes, yes, I think that's how it should be done." Many people echoed this. They were lucky to be caught this time. If they were let go, what about next time? Would they use even more poisonous drugs? Would they still dare to do business with people then?

"Father, Mother, please save me! I don't want to be driven out of the village!" Madam Ma panicked; she hadn't expected the consequences to be so severe.

"Pah! Do you even remember we're your parents? Did you even think before you did these things? You just do whatever others tell you to do!" Ma's parents were furious.

“Ma Lianhua, I never thought you would even harm your own family. I didn’t even realize you were instigating me to bully Xichun and her mother. Folks, I didn’t tell anyone because she’s from our clan. Actually, this woman was the one who talked behind my back when I bullied Xichun and her mother.”

And then there's Xichun's aunt, who's always gossiping behind my back, saying they're lazy and greedy, and that they just want Xichun to marry Xiaobao, etc. Now that she's trying to harm me, I'll expose all the bad things she's done.

Old Mrs. Ma glared at Ma Shi with resentment, her heart filled with hatred. If she hadn't been so foolish back then, letting Ma Shi instigate her to bully Xi Chun, she wouldn't be so subservient now, not even daring to see Xi Chun's face, and always having her daughter-in-law go to find Xi Chun.

"So that's what happened. Ma is really vicious. People like her are a menace to the village. Village chief, get them all out of the village immediately."

Xi Chun only learned about this the next day after the village chief delivered the vegetables. By then, the entire Chen family had been driven out of the village and their whereabouts were unknown.

"They deserve it. These people are ungrateful wretches, still thinking of harming the villagers." Aunt Zhang couldn't even imagine what would happen to the restaurant if they had actually succeeded.