As she spoke, she gently squeezed the branch thick as a baby's arm and it snapped with a crisp crack.
After hearing her words, the hesitant villagers swallowed nervously and no longer dared to speak.
"Look at that! We've clearly hit a sore spot, sister-in-law," Zhang Laosan said, straightening his neck defiantly. "Did we say anything wrong? You can't even tell what those herbs are."
After being intimidated by Zhao Chunhua again and again, he had already lost face.
Zhu Fangfang, who had been hiding at the back in fear, finally gathered the courage to step forward. She swallowed hard and spoke up in support of her husband.
"My husband is right, Second Sister-in-law. You may be able to please the village chief, but don't fool everyone with weeds! I was already sick, and you made me drink so many strange concoctions. It's practically killing me!"
When everyone heard this, their faces turned pale.
"Everyone, don't be fooled by her! She's just trying to harm us," Zhang Defu said through gritted teeth, having finally recovered a little.
"Mom… will I really die if I drink this? I don't want to die…"
A little girl of four or five turned pale as she burst into tears and threw herself into her mother's arms.
The woman hugged her daughter tightly, her whole body trembling with fear.
In order to help her child recover quickly, she had given her own portion of the medicine to the girl.
"Don't cry, baby. Spit it out quickly! It'll be fine once you spit it out."
As she spoke, she pressed gently against her daughter's throat.
The little girl retched and vomited, spitting out all the medicine she had just swallowed.
Seeing this, the others panicked. Afraid of dying, they began doing the same.
When Zhao Chunhua saw what was happening, her face turned pale with anger.
Those who hadn't managed to vomit rushed toward her with red eyes.
"You woman! You don't even know what you're doing, yet you dare to take on this job? You're really trying to kill us!"
"If we die, we won't forgive you even if we become ghosts!"
"That's right! Even if I become a ghost, I'll drag you down to hell with me!"
Zhang Dajun immediately rushed forward and stood in front of Zhao Chunhua, glaring at the villagers.
"What are you trying to do? You're not allowed to scold my mother!"
"Don't bully my mother!"
Zhang Heizi suddenly came charging over like a cannonball, gripping a stick he had found somewhere.
"My mother and brother worked so hard to gather these herbs in the mountains, and you people just wasted them like this! You deserve to stay sick!"
Now, no one could bear hearing the word death. Zhang Heizi's words instantly stirred up the crowd's anger.
"Brat, who are you cursing?"
Several people rolled up their sleeves and strode toward him angrily.
Zhao Chunhua quickly pulled Zhang Heizi behind her and raised the half-broken wooden stick in her hand.
"I'd like to see who dares touch my family!"
Everyone present had already witnessed how formidable she was.
After all, she had once taken down several bandits by herself.
Because of that, the villagers were a little afraid and didn't dare act recklessly.
"You people start making a scene at the slightest provocation! Do you think I have nothing better to do than climb the mountains to gather herbs just to treat your illnesses?"
Zhao Chunhua planted her hands on her hips, her eyes blazing as she scolded them at the top of her lungs.
"I'm done caring about you! Since you trust them so much, let them go gather herbs for you. Let's see how long you can last."
After saying that, she turned and left with Zhang Dajun and the others.
Seeing her leave so decisively made everyone uneasy.
"Aren't these just weeds? What kind of medicinal herbs are they supposed to be?"
At that moment, Bai Xiaowei produced a handful of soggy grass residue and showed it to the crowd.
"This is what I just found in the pot. Aren't these the roots of the wild grasses that grow all over the ridges around our village?"
Although the grass roots in Bai Xiaowei's hand had changed color after being boiled, everyone could still recognize them.
This kind of grass grew everywhere and was usually cut to feed the pigs.
They had never imagined that something like this could be used as medicine to treat illnesses.
When they realized Zhao Chunhua had used grass normally fed to pigs, everyone immediately became furious.
"How dare you fool us with this, you wretched woman!"
"This is clearly pigweed, not medicinal herbs!"
"We thought you actually had some ability, but it turns out you're just messing around here!"
Seeing the crowd's anger, Bai Xiaowei and the others grew even more smug.
Zhu Fangfang continued to stir the pot. "Second Sister-in-law, you've really gone too far. Do you think we're all fools?"
Hearing this, the villagers' faces turned pale with anger.
Using weeds meant for pigs to make medicine wasn't that treating them like animals?
The crowd's anger surged even higher.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, Zhang Dajun immediately stepped forward and stood in front of Zhao Chunhua.
Zhang Heizi also stepped forward, gripping the stick tightly as he stood in front of Zhao Chunhua.
The two boys stood before her like a pair of wolf cubs guarding their mother.
Xie Lanqin recognized the grass at a glance and whispered in surprise and annoyance, "Mom, how could you really use pig grass to fool people?"
There was deep dissatisfaction in her voice.
Just a few days ago, she had thought her mother-in-law had changed for the better. But not only had she failed to reform, she had done something even more foolish.
If you wanted to deceive people, you should at least use something they had never seen before. Using something everyone recognized, wasn't that simply asking to be exposed?
Because of this, the entire village might misunderstand them, and their already difficult lives would only become harder.
The more Xie Lanqin thought about it, the worse she felt. Soon, a faint pain began to stir in her stomach.
"This grass…" Zhao Chunhua had barely opened her mouth when Zhang Laosan interrupted her.
"Second Sister-in-law, what are you trying to argue about now? Don't forget—we're not so sick that we've gone blind."
Zhao Chunhua didn't bother responding to him. She simply looked at the furious crowd.
"Yes, this is pigweed."
"See? She's admitting it! She's fooling us!"
When Bai Xiaowei heard this, she immediately shouted with delight.
But Zhao Chunhua continued speaking without stopping.
"But it really can cure illnesses. The root of the Chinese indigo plant has the effect of clearing heat and relieving cough."
"Stop fooling us! We don't understand any of what you're saying, so we're just supposed to follow blindly? How can pigweed possibly cure diseases?"
The villagers were full of disbelief and pressed Zhao Chunhua to explain.
But she only sneered, spreading her hands. "Now that it has come to this, there's nothing I can do if you don't believe me."
"What's going on here?"
Zhang Ruoan had just returned and saw the large crowd gathered, so he asked.
The villagers immediately grabbed him. "Village chief, you have to help us decide!"
Zhang Ruoan, still confused, asked, "What did you say?"
The villagers explained, "This woman, surnamed Zhao, has bad intentions. She used grass meant for pigs… as medicinal herbs!"
"Look, village chief! Isn't this the indigo plant that grows in our village fields? It's clearly just pig feed, yet she claimed it was a medicinal herb that could cure illnesses!"
Someone deliberately took the herbs from Bai Xiaowei and handed them to Zhang Ruoan, speaking angrily.
Zhang Defu added fuel to the fire. "She doesn't know anything about herbs. She just picked weeds to fool us. Is she trying to kill us?"
Hearing this, Zhang Ruoan frowned, his expression darkening.
The second wife, seeing his reaction, felt a secret thrill.
"It seems someone is about to get unlucky this time."
"Yes, probably the ones who will be driven away from the team"