The male supporting character was actually myself.

But the neighbors didn't take it seriously. After all, this kind of situation was too common. Other families were all smiles when a son was born, but the Li family couple often quarreled and fought after the baby was born.

The neighbor overheard Li Daqiang cursing about how milk powder costs money, complaining that his wife was too fat after giving birth and didn't have enough milk for the baby, and also blaming Wang Meihua for being a liar, saying the difference before and after childbirth was too great and the dowry money was wasted, and other such vulgarities. Later, she saw Wang Meihua come out of the house wiping away tears, squatting under a tree in the rainy yard washing clothes without even an umbrella.

That was the last time they saw that beautiful woman who didn't talk much. Later, the fighting and cursing in the Li family gradually subsided. Li Daqiang's father didn't return until late at night, holding a broken umbrella. He was sighing and complaining, probably because he hadn't been able to borrow any money and had been scolded by Li Daqiang.

The next morning, the original owner's grandfather discovered that his daughter-in-law was missing.

Once he sobered up, Li Daqiang didn't care at all. He said that he had beaten her up last night and she must have run back to her parents' house. He also told his father not to worry about it and that her family would send her back in a couple of days.

The original owner's grandfather knew that his son was a good-for-nothing, but he was too old to discipline him, so he had no choice but to ask the aunt next door to help him brave the rain and wade through the deep water to go to the neighboring village to call his daughter-in-law.

However, the Wang family said their daughter had not returned, and Wang Meihua never appeared again after that.

Li Daqiang insisted that she had run away, and he vented his anger on the hungry, crying child. Not long after, he went out to work under the guise of having fun. Occasionally, villagers would hear some news and send it back, but Li Daqiang never showed up or returned until his father passed away.

"Sigh, your mother's life is so hard. Her family is useless and they think divorce is shameful, so they won't let her get divorced no matter what. She was beaten and scolded during her postpartum period. She ran away just to survive..." The words of the aunt next door were deeply etched in the original owner's memory.

Did they really give up and run away because they couldn't take it anymore?

Or was it that a murder occurred that night in the dilapidated mud-brick house, but no one knows about it?

On a rainy day, after drinking, if Li Daqiang killed his wife, he wouldn't have many places to dispose of and bury the body. After all, neighbors confirmed that things had been quiet at home for a long time when the grandfather returned, and even if they knew, they helped to cover it up. But how much could an elderly man with chronic illnesses really help?

The most likely scenario is that the body was disposed of nearby.

Twenty years have passed, and the original owner lived in this old courtyard for so long without noticing anything unusual. Li Daqiang left the village shortly afterward and never returned. Assuming the grandfather knew about it, what are the chances he could have helped dispose of the body a second time?

Jiang Chen silently listed out all the possibilities in his mind.

The Horcrux had quickly searched all sorts of hidden places, including under the earthen bed in the old house, the abandoned cellar, and the pigsty, but found no trace. The transparent, thread-like Horcrux flew back and wrapped around his finger, awaiting the next instruction.

"Let's expand the search. If we still can't find them, we'll have to place a missing person notice in the newspaper." Jiang Chen frowned slightly.

The original owner's mother was a well-known beauty in the surrounding villages when she was young. When she reached marriageable age, matchmakers practically wore out the door. In the end, her parents arranged for her to marry into the Li family. It is said that she received a huge dowry, and after that, they never cared about her daughter's life or death again.

Even though she had mysteriously disappeared, they didn't take it to heart and directly accepted Li Daqiang's explanation—Wang Meihua had run away, disappeared, and couldn't be found.

In those days, a married daughter was considered like water spilled from a cup. In small villages that favored sons over daughters, many women, driven to desperation by oppression, resorted to drinking pesticide, jumping into wells, or hanging themselves. No one paid attention to their silent accusations, and no one cared about their lives.

People who have disappeared without a trace, like Wang Meihua, might say that she suffered too much and that it's better that she ran away, at least she can live a good life.

Those who stand on the sidelines and talk without understanding the situation might even fabricate rumors about her running off with some random man to ridicule the poor child who lost her mother at a young age.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: How to Write This Report?

As for Wang Meihua's family—the Wang family used the bride price to build a new house for their son to marry, but they ended up with a greedy, lazy, and fierce shrew who would beat and scold the elderly couple and wouldn't even let them eat their fill.

While Wang Meihua was still alive, she often helped her parents financially. A few years after she disappeared, the elderly couple died one after another from illness.

The woman Wang married had been causing trouble for two years before running off to work in another city and having an affair. In the past few years, the original owner could occasionally hear news of her uncle, who was looked down upon in the village for being a bachelor. Later, it was said that he went out to work and then disappeared without a trace. Some people said that he was tricked into working in an illegal coal mine and had died long ago; others said that he was cheated out of his money and went insane due to the shock...

In short, at this point, Jiang Chen is the only one in the mission world still willing to search for Wang Meihua's whereabouts.

He wanted to help the original owner find out where his mother had been missing for so many years.

If he died, how exactly did he die?

If she is still alive, where is she and how is she doing?

The Soul Artifact covered a search area spanning several miles, leaving no stone unturned. A dozen minutes later, Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes!

When the original owner was a child, there was a field behind the yard. Later, it was contracted out and trees were planted. It has remained basically unchanged over the years. However, under the soil, there was an old, dried-up well at the edge of the woods, which had been filled in at some point.

At the bottom of the narrow, dark, stone-lined well, a rotten skeleton, reduced to a stark white frame, lay sprawled in the mud. Judging from the bones, it was the body of a woman who had died at a young age.

The information returned by the Horcrux was very detailed. The pelvis matched the condition of not having recovered after childbirth, and it was very likely that she was Wang Meihua, who disappeared shortly after giving birth to her son!

Jiang Chen immediately took out his phone and dialed the police, and also contacted the leaders of the relevant departments through his personal connections.

With the attention of many parties, at nine o'clock in the evening, the sound of police cars broke the quiet night sky and drove into the village.

"It's all over, it's all over, it's all over..."

Police cars arrived with sirens blaring, carrying members of the special task force. Amidst the watchful eyes of the villagers, they cordoned off the woods behind the old courtyard with yellow police tape.

"Mr. Li, may I ask how you knew there might be a body here?" A police officer asked, holding a register to take notes.

Jiang Chen looked at him sincerely and said, "My mother appeared to me in a dream."

The police officer was taken aback: ? ? ?

This...is metaphysics? Then how am I supposed to write a report?

“It’s true, I keep dreaming about her standing there calling my nickname lately.” Jiang Chen pointed to the woods with an air of seriousness, his voice low and deep. “I remember my grandfather telling me when I was little that there was an abandoned well over there…”

A mournful night wind howled through the autumn woods, and in the distance, an owl occasionally called out.

The young police officer shrank his neck, thinking it must be because it was getting colder that day; otherwise, why did his back feel a little chilly?

Working until midnight, the abandoned and dried-up old well was finally completely dug up. Sure enough, the police found a female corpse with only a skeleton at the bottom of the well. Due to the age of the well and the limited movement inside, they worked until dawn to completely remove the remains.

"Wow! Someone really died inside?"

"I heard it's that woman from the Li family, the one who supposedly disappeared and couldn't be found back then, and there were even rumors that she ran off with some other man!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, did he feel there was no hope in life and jumped into a well to die?"

"This well has been abandoned for many years. I don't even remember when it was filled in. Who knew there were dead people inside? How were they discovered?"

"Haven't you heard? That kid from the Li family has made something of himself. His mother appeared to him in a dream, and he brought the police over late at night to dig up the well!"

"Shh, don't talk nonsense! You can't just mutter about gods and ghosts."

"A dream? That means he died unjustly, right?"

"If he really died unjustly and appeared in a dream, why didn't he do it in the first place? So many years have passed."

“The child had a hard life before, but she didn’t even dare to tell anyone, so who would believe her? Who cared? Now that Li Jiangchen has become successful, dreams can work…”

…………

The villagers watching spotted Li Jiangchen in the crowd and began to whisper among themselves.

Some speculate that Wang Meihua committed suicide due to despair;

Some people believe she was murdered;

Some believe it's just a skeleton, and whether it's actually Wang Meihua is still uncertain. After all, many women in the village ran away or committed suicide in those days, let alone a well that had been abandoned for many years. Perhaps someone unknowingly fell in and died...

Rumors spread that a skeleton had been found in an abandoned well in a small village, and various stories quickly became more and more outrageous. In addition, the saying that the body was found in a dream added a mysterious atmosphere to the excavation of the corpse at night, and villagers from all around came to see what was going on.

Rumors spread like wildfire, causing widespread panic in the village.

However, just three days later, two police cars broke the tranquility of the village and drove directly to the north entrance of the village. Li Daqiang, who was handcuffed and shackled, was then taken out of the car to identify the scene.

"It's right here in this room."

The burly, beer-bellied Li Daqiang, his face now swollen and muscular, had lost the vigor and shrewdness he displayed in court, stubbornly insisting on maintaining his father-son relationship. Looking at the old house, unchanged for so many years, he suddenly lost control of his emotions, his fingers trembling. "I didn't mean to kill her! She...she brought the laundry tub into the house and almost dropped the newly bought tub. I got angry and..."

I just grabbed an empty bottle and smashed it over her head. Who knew she would just collapse without a sound?

I was startled and thought I had killed her. I went over and touched her; she was still breathing...

Wang Meihua suddenly opened her eyes and yelled "Murder!" I was shocked, scared, and angry. I was drunk and out of my mind. Plus, she kept kicking and screaming at me, so I... just wanted her to shut up and stop...

I really didn't think I hit her that hard; I just kept covering her and she stopped moving...

Later, I realized she really wasn't breathing and wouldn't recover. I was stunned for a while, and then... then I remembered there was an abandoned well behind the house... I'd often heard stories of couples fighting and someone jumping into a well; at most, they'd be pulled out and buried, and nobody would care...

I took advantage of the fact that it was just getting dark and raining, and there was no one outside, so I carried her to the back field and threw her into an abandoned well.

Then I thought that if it smelled bad, people might notice... I remembered that a few days ago someone had dug a hole in the field, so I ran home to get a shovel and spent half a day burying it in the dirt...

Later, I became so scared that every time I closed my eyes, I felt like she was coming to take my life... so I ran away, and I haven't dared to come back all these years..."

Police quickly and successfully solved a cold murder case.

Li Daqiang was arrested and tried in accordance with the law after many years. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for intentional homicide and disposal of the body, which was deemed serious.

The evidence against Li Daqiang for killing his wife, abandoning his children, and failing to support his elderly parents is conclusive. Based on the law, the court agrees to Li Jiangchen's wish to sever his father-son relationship with him. Li Daqiang shall compensate Li Jiangchen for various expenses totaling 1.61 million yuan. If his savings are insufficient, the court will auction off his property to make up the difference.

Wang Meihua, who had been missing for twenty years and was falsely accused of running away with another man, was finally exonerated. After the case was closed, Jiang Chen arranged her funeral and she was eventually buried in a cemetery in the suburbs.

Once everything was settled, he immediately set about helping the Ouyang sisters file a lawsuit.

Ouyang Anjing and Anning's biological father is named Zhang Bingshun. After discovering that his mistress was pregnant with their son, he used custody of the child to force his wife to leave with nothing. Over the years, the two sisters have struggled to make ends meet in the same city, relying on their grandmother, while he has been living a comfortable life by exploiting his wife's misfortune.

Chapter Thirty: Brothers, Times Have Changed

The house they bought for their wedding years ago had long been demolished, and Zhang Bingshun received a huge sum of money and several houses. He and his family lived a carefree and comfortable life, collecting rent and interest.

When he heard that his two disabled daughters had sued him, he first asked around about the Ouyang family's current situation.

Upon learning that they were trying to extort money from him because they couldn't afford medical treatment, Zhang Bingshun immediately felt confident—in this day and age, money talks! He could spend a little money to smooth things over and use this opportunity to sever ties with the two disabled women, so they wouldn't come out and fight his sons for his property in the future!

“Your situation isn’t difficult to handle.” The lawyer smiled after reviewing the evidence he provided. “Don’t worry about the property; there won’t be any problems. Regardless of the circumstances at the time, Ouyang Ting personally signed the divorce agreement confirming that she would leave with nothing. The children will go to her, and the property, savings, and car will go to you. Therefore, any future demolition compensation will be your personal property, and you will have absolute rights to it.”

Regarding child custody, the police station's records show that after your divorce, the Ouyang family changed the children's surname from Zhang to Ouyang, clearly severing ties with you. Furthermore, the divorce agreement did not specify that you were required to pay child support.

Isn't that simple?

The main point of this court hearing is your claim to completely sever your father-daughter relationship. The Ouyang sisters are currently in a vulnerable position, and the judge will generally consider ordering you to pay them some compensation, then mediate to sever their ties with you, so that both parties have no further connection afterward.

Hearing the lawyer's reassuring assurance, Zhang Bingshun felt relieved and beamed with joy. "Attorney Liang, I really need your help this time. If you can get the compensation amount down to the minimum and successfully sever the father-daughter relationship, I will repay you handsomely!"

"Don't worry, I'll personally handle the mediation process and try my best to help you resolve it. They haven't made any moves for so many years. Their main claim in the lawsuit is to get money to treat Ouyang Anjing, who has been blind since childhood."

In my opinion, this is likely a ruse by the other party. After all, it's unlikely that someone who has been blind for so many years would suddenly sue for money to treat their illness. It's more likely that their grandmother is old and needs money for medical treatment.

That makes things easier. Their main demand can be summed up in two words—money!

But based on the evidence, you have no parental responsibility towards them. If we simply use money as a starting point, offering compensation on the condition that you sever all ties with your daughters, wouldn't your demands be met?

"Yes, yes, yes! Attorney Liang's analysis makes perfect sense!" Zhang Bingshun smiled even more happily, and after flattering him for a long time, he got up to say goodbye.

On the day of the trial, Attorney Liang and Zhang Bingshun walked into the courtroom full of confidence. When Attorney Liang saw the lawyer sitting next to the plaintiff, he was taken aback.

That's not right!

I had clearly inquired beforehand that the Ouyang family was so poor that they even hired a free legal aid lawyer. How come the person sitting across from me is Zhang, the lawyer known in the industry as the "outlaw"?

Back then, this guy even got the opposing lawyer imprisoned!

Why would the Ouyang family invite this person to oversee things?