"My son eloped with someone, he's not dead, understand?" The old man was almost about to punch someone. No matter what, his son was still his own flesh and blood. He would rather believe that his son had eloped than believe that he was dead. The old woman also ran into the house and spread her arms to block everyone from going in.

“It wasn’t an elopement, he was murdered,” Su Xiaonuan said definitively.

"You people are really something! The whole village knows he eloped with the woman next door, it's utter nonsense!" the old man threatened them. "If you don't leave, don't blame me for being impolite."

"Then let me ask you, did you personally witness your son eloping with the woman next door?"

“That woman’s mother-in-law saw her daughter-in-law and my son together with her own eyes. There were also villagers who saw the two of them having a secret rendezvous. The old lady next door might lie to me, but those villagers wouldn’t lie to me, would they?”

"Why did those villagers see them having a secret rendezvous?" Su Xiaonuan looked at him sharply. "Do you know? If it weren't for the old lady next door deliberately making a fuss, would so many villagers have seen them having a secret rendezvous?"

The old man was speechless.

“Sometimes, what you see isn’t the truth. Are you so sure you’re having a secret rendezvous? Or are you talking about something else?” Su Xiaonuan glanced at the woman again, noticing her increasingly panicked expression. “Maybe your son and the woman next door are the real victims, which is why they were murdered to silence them.”

"You're talking nonsense!" The woman finally lost her temper.

The town mayor tugged at Su Xiaonuan's sleeve and whispered, "Comrade Su, I think she's too agitated. Let's not upset her any further. It's not easy for a woman to lose her man and have elderly parents and young children to support. Let's go ask the neighbors. The main problem is that the family of the missing woman next door is making a scene. Let's try to minimize the situation and not involve too many people."

Ignoring Su Xiaonuan's words about becoming the town mayor, she pressed on relentlessly, deliberately running towards the spot the woman had been looking at.

"What are you trying to do?" The woman, unable to contain herself any longer, stepped forward and began to drag Su Xiaonuan away. "Get out of here! You're not welcome here, and don't come back to bother my son and me again."

If this woman had remained calm, Su Xiaonuan might not have been so sure. Now, she was even more convinced that there was something wrong with the southeast corner of the main room.

In those days, rural people usually paved their courtyards with cement floors to make it easier to dry their grains.

But this one is the opposite: an earthen courtyard and a main room with a cement floor.

If all the rooms and the main hall had cement floors, it wouldn't be so noticeable, but the fact that the main hall has a cement floor alone suggests there's something wrong with it.

"You, dig open that corner of this main room." Su Xiaonuan quickly restrained the woman who was throwing a tantrum. "Send someone to arrest the man next door immediately, don't let him escape."

Everyone was stunned.

"What are you all standing there for?" Su Xiaonuan continued to command. "This woman and the man next door are the murderers. The two missing people are buried in that corner. Hurry up, don't let the murderers get away."

The police in Taiping Town then came to their senses and quickly ran off to carry out their mission.

"Boss, hurry up and get some people to dig," Su Xiaonuan said to the town mayor. "Get a few more people with tools; there should be a lot of cement in that corner."

"You woman, if we don't find any remains down there, I'll never forgive you!" The old man was still jumping up and down, cursing. "This cement floor was built for the three children to play on. Back then, she had to look after the three children and do chores. She was afraid that leaving it in the yard would expose it to the sun and rain, so she built this cement floor in the main room. How could anyone be buried there? You're just spouting nonsense!"

Su Xiaonuan discovered that the woman she was controlling was becoming increasingly limp.

Seeing their mother being bullied, the three boys suddenly appeared out of nowhere with sticks and attacked Su Xiaonuan.

Not wanting to hurt the children, she had to control the woman to avoid their attacks.

From the neighboring yard came heart-wrenching cries, accompanied by various shouts and curses.

Those were the elderly couple next door preventing the police from enforcing the law.

When the police arrived, the man next door was packing his luggage and about to flee.

As everyone entered the woman's house, the man knew he was about to be exposed, and he packed his valuables, preparing to flee for his life.

The villagers, armed with tools, began digging into the cement ground. It took them considerable effort to break through the thick cement, making it much easier to dig into the soil below. Before long, they unearthed two skeletons.

The villagers at the scene were so terrified that they immediately collapsed to the ground.

They simply didn't believe there were any dead people down there; otherwise, they wouldn't have dared to come and dig.

Faced with the facts, the woman stopped struggling and slid off Su Xiaonuan's grasp to the ground.

The woman's mother-in-law arrived sometime earlier. Seeing the white bones in the pit, she rushed over, crying, "My son, didn't you elope? How come you're lying here? Why?"

The old man also collapsed to the ground, unable to accept this reality, overwhelmed with grief, and unable to speak.

The courtyard was packed with people, all craning their necks to watch the spectacle.

When the adulterous couple was handcuffed, the villagers couldn't believe it was real. For ten years, they had felt that the two men had suffered terribly.

"Comrade Su, you are a true detective!" The leaders were full of admiration. The old case that had been bothering everyone for years was solved by the woman in front of them in just a few hours. What else could she be but a detective?

“I’m not a detective, I’m just an ordinary person like you,” Su Xiaonuan said. “I’m just thinking the opposite of what you’re thinking. If there really were any clues, how could I have found them if you haven’t discovered them in the past ten years? And the breakthroughs are the people or things you’ve overlooked. I think you’ve all been misled by preconceived notions.”

Why are you so sure the deceased is buried there?

“Look, there’s clearly someone climbing in and out of that corner of the courtyard wall. And look at this woman, she doesn’t look like the abandoned wife of legend. She’s quite pretty. Her husband wouldn’t be so stupid as to abandon his wife and son to elope with the woman next door. Based on your previous investigation, it must be that this woman is having an affair with the man next door.”

"So that's really how it is!" the villagers exclaimed in surprise.

"Moreover, the old lady next door was an accomplice. Without her help, no one would have thought that the two victims had eloped. The truth is that the two victims discovered the truth and were getting to know each other when the old lady found out. Then she cried wolf, confirming that the two had eloped, and then let them kill the two victims."

Why did the old lady condone her son's reckless behavior?

“It’s all because of the preference for sons over daughters. Seeing that her daughter-in-law gave birth to two daughters, while her son had a grandson with the woman next door, she wanted to protect her own bloodline.” Su Xiaonuan looked at the two murderers. “Am I right? That ten-year-old boy is your child.”

The two criminals didn't even have the strength to nod. They were being supported by police officers on either side of them. So many years had passed, and they thought they could finally rest easy, but they had fallen into the hands of this woman.

...