An Accidental Military Marriage

Lu Deyao closed the door and windows, then carefully explained to An Hui his reasons for agreeing to this marriage.

"Xiao Cheng has been promoted too quickly and too smoothly these past few years. He’s only 26 and already a battalion commander. The eldest didn’t become a battalion commander until his early thirties. Even though Xiao Cheng earned it all through his own military merits, in a family like ours, it’s bound to attract gossip."

An Hui’s anger subsided a little.

"At a time like this, being in the spotlight too much isn’t a good thing. The Lu Family needs stability right now; we can’t afford to stand out anymore, or we’ll be targeted. If necessary, it’s fine to take a step or two back."

"To be honest with you, if it weren’t for Xiao Cheng’s marriage, I was planning to use illness as an excuse to retire in a year or two."

An Hui had completely calmed down. "Even so, was it necessary to find someone so unruly?"

"But that’s the kind of person your son has taken a liking to. What can we do? The way I see it, it’s not a bad thing. The little brat has had it too easy his whole life; he’s gotten unbelievably arrogant. It’s time he suffered a little and learned a lesson."

An Hui looked at her husband. "Since you agree to this marriage, why were you arguing with Xiao Cheng in your office this afternoon? Aren’t you afraid of becoming a laughingstock?"

"I have to put on a show, don’t I? I need outsiders to know that I’m firmly against this marriage, that the little brat is being a fool and insisting on it. If his wife causes any trouble in the future, it’ll have nothing to do with me. The brat can deal with it himself."

An Hui was speechless. "You’re a real piece of work for a father!"

"You have to see the act through to the end. I won’t go for the marriage proposal. You go with Xiao Cheng, and I’ll have Jiang Xiaoguang go along to help out."

...

Early in the morning, Jiang Moli received a call from Lu Tingting, who said she had arranged a job for her.

Jiang Moli rushed over excitedly.

"Here, this is it. You start tomorrow."

Jiang Moli stared at the sign above her—black characters on a white background—and fell into deep thought.

It could have been a park, or it could have been a cemetery, but of all things, it had to be a public restroom!

That’s right. The job Lu Tingting had arranged for her was cleaning toilets!

She tried to fight it. "Are there no other jobs? We can still negotiate the money."

Lu Tingting crossed her arms, a malicious grin on her face. "This is the only thing available immediately. Other jobs require a waiting period. Can you afford to wait?"

’I can’t afford to wait.’

If she didn’t find a job within two days, she’d have to report to the Educated Youth Office.

’Damn it.’

"I’ll do it."

After Jiang Moli left, Wu Meixia was the first to burst out laughing.

"Look at her pathetic face! She must have thought we’d get her a nice office job. Who knew we’d make her clean toilets? She must be furious!"

Song Ke said, "For a shameless person like her, even cleaning toilets is giving her too much credit."

Lu Tingting snorted. "She really thought she could outsmart me. Just watch how I’ll deal with her!"

Arranging for Jiang Moli to clean toilets was something Lu Tingting and her two friends did on purpose.

On the surface, the original owner of the body had known Lu Tingting and her friends for several years, but it was all one-sided. The original owner had shamelessly latched onto them.

In the eyes of Lu Tingting and her friends, Jiang Moli was like a piece of dog-skin plaster—impossible to get rid of and utterly annoying.

The three of them had agreed to find Jiang Moli a job not for the money, but because they wanted to torment her.

...

The next day, Jiang Moli woke up bright and early.

It was the earliest she had woken up since transmigrating into the book, but Jiang Qing was still up earlier.

Unlike her usual plain appearance, Jiang Qing was all dressed up today.

She wore a newly made dress, had penciled in her eyebrows, and her long hair was tied with a yellow handkerchief in a bow.

’Have to admit, she looks pretty good.’

Jiang Qing wasn’t at all surprised that Jiang Moli was up early.

"The Zhang family won’t be here until around noon. You don’t need to be up so early."

In Jiang Qing’s eyes, the only reason Jiang Moli would be up so early was to get dressed up for the Zhang family’s marriage proposal.

To an outsider, it would seem like Jiang Qing was giving a kind reminder.

But the truth was, both Jiang Moli and Jiang Qing knew full well that the person Zhang Jia Ming was coming to propose to was Jiang Qing. That made her "reminder" quite thought-provoking.

"I have my reasons for waking up early. Is it any of your business?"

Jiang Qing just smiled, putting on a magnanimous air as if she wouldn’t stoop to arguing.

Jiang Moli rolled her eyes, quickly washed up, and left the house.

Jiang Qing’s lips curled into a cold smile as she watched her leave.

’Jiang Moli, your happy days are numbered.’

...

While waiting for the bus, Jiang Moli found time to buy two vegetable buns from a nearby bun shop.

The bus pulled into the station just as she got the buns.

She could only hurry onto the bus, buns in hand.

The bus was as crowded as a rush-hour subway in later generations. By the time Jiang Moli got off at her stop, the two vegetable buns in her hand had been squashed into two vegetable pancakes.

When she got to the public restroom, she was chewed out by the old employee in charge of training her.

Because she was two minutes late.

"We open at 7:30 AM sharp and close at 9:00 PM. The floors and walls must be kept clean at all times. You have to open the sluice gate to flush the latrine pit every half hour."

As the old employee explained the workflow, Jiang Moli belatedly realized something: she also had to clean the men’s restroom.

’Damn it, am I going to get a stye?’

’I want to die.’

...

To welcome the Zhang family for the marriage proposal, Jiang Dahai had specially taken the day off from work to be at home.

He didn’t see Jiang Moli at the breakfast table, but he didn’t think much of it, assuming she was sleeping in.

After breakfast, and after leading the whole family in cleaning the house inside and out, Jiang Dahai finally went to the inner room to wake Jiang Moli up.

"Where’s Moli? Where did she go?"

"She went out early this morning and didn’t say where."

Jiang Qing replied, unable to stop herself from wondering where Jiang Moli had gone.

"Running around on such an important day. She’s so much trouble."

Seeing Jiang Dahai getting angry, Li Hongying quickly said, "Maybe she went to a friend’s house to hang out? We should go look for her."

Jiang Dahai stayed at home to hold down the fort.

Jiang Qing, Jiang Peng, and Li Hongying went out to look for Jiang Moli.

Jiang Moli discovered that although cleaning toilets was a dirty and tiring job, there was actually a way to skim some money off the top.

Two sheets of coarse paper were sold as one portion for one cent.

Not everyone needed this coarse paper, so there was no fixed amount sold each day.

At most, you might sell a few dozen cents’ worth a day. The leadership wasn’t going to assign someone just to supervise a few dozen cents.

Therefore, most of the income from selling toilet paper was pocketed by public restroom cleaners like Jiang Moli.

If you pocketed twenty cents a day, that would add up to several yuan a month.

Nor did she have to worry about the accounts not adding up. The market price for a stack of 100 sheets of coarse paper was ten cents.

The pocketed money could be covered by simply replenishing the supply of coarse paper.

While Jiang Moli was busy calculating how to make money from coarse paper, she had no idea that her family was going crazy looking for her.

It was already past 10:00 AM, and the Zhang family could arrive at any moment. Jiang Dahai couldn’t be bothered with Jiang Moli anymore. He quickly told Jiang Qing to boil water for tea and sent Li Hongying to the market to buy groceries.

At 10:30, the Zhang family arrived.

Leading the group were none other than Zhang Jia Ming and Lu Cheng.

Both were dressed in crisp military uniforms, their postures as straight as pine trees and their gazes firm. They were quite eye-catching.

Lu Cheng, in particular, who stood beside Zhang Jia Ming, was as tall as a tower, with sharp eyes and a commanding presence in every movement that conveyed authority without anger.

The four pockets on his military jacket further highlighted his extraordinary status.

Each of them carried a bottle of sorghum liquor.

Behind them, Jin Yulan carried a heavy slab of pork, at least three or four pounds.

Zhang Tiesheng carried cigarettes and tea in net bags in each hand, while Zhang Jiaquan held pastries and white sugar.

It was clearly the procession of a formal marriage proposal.

A few busybodies asked around and learned they were heading to the Jiang family’s home. The news spread like wildfire, and soon, the entire residential area for the machinery factory’s employees knew.

"Uncle Jiang, Aunt Li, this is my superior. He came with me today specially to witness my marriage proposal."

Jiang Dahai noticed at a glance that Lu Cheng’s military uniform had four pockets, which meant he had to be at least a platoon leader.

The fact that Zhang Jia Ming could get such a person to accompany him for a marriage proposal showed that he was a capable man.