An Accidental Military Marriage

"Taking without asking is stealing!"

Lu Tingting answered crisply and loudly.

Jiang Moli clapped her hands. "Not a bad answer. Now, why don’t you tell everyone what that sentence means?"

Lu Tingting looked disdainful, with an arrogant air that suggested, ’As if you could ever test me.’ "This phrase comes from the *Student Rules*. The original text says, ’To use another’s things, one must ask. To not ask is to steal.’ It means you need the owner’s permission to use their things. Taking something without asking is theft!"

Jiang Moli nodded. "Taking someone else’s things is stealing. But at this wedding banquet today, the food, the drinks—which of these wasn’t paid for by your third uncle? How is it ’sneaking food’ when I’m eating what my own husband bought?"

"You’re just twisting words! It’s your wedding banquet, and the guests haven’t even started eating, but you’re already stuffing your face. Have you no shame?"

"Heh, what law says the hosts can’t eat first at their own banquet?"

"You..."

"What’s all this shouting? I could hear your loud mouth from a mile away. Haven’t you caused enough embarrassment already?"

An Hui had walked over at some point and was now dressing down Lu Tingting.

Although she was thoroughly dissatisfied with Jiang Moli as a daughter-in-law, she would never tolerate her granddaughter disrespecting her elders by talking back to a senior in public.

Lu Tingting pouted resentfully. "Grandma, why aren’t you scolding Jiang Moli? Her sneaking food has brought shame upon both you and Grandpa!"

"What did you just call her? She is your third aunt. Addressing an elder by their full name—did a dog eat your manners?"

Though it pained her to see her daughter being scolded, Zhou Jinyu also knew it was wrong for her daughter to disrespect a senior. Steeling herself, she spoke up.

"Tingting, apologize to your third aunt."

"Why should I apologize to her? She’s the one who was sneaking food; she should be the one reflecting on her mistakes! Third Uncle must be blind, and all of you are blind too! Hmph!"

Lu Tingting threw down her chopsticks and ran off in a huff.

"That child is getting more and more out of hand. Third Sister-in-law, please don’t take it to heart. Mom, you go ahead and eat. I’ll go have a talk with Tingting."

After offering a few pleasantries, Zhou Jinyu got up to find Lu Tingting.

Xu Xiuzhen smiled and smoothed things over. "Let’s not just stand around. Let’s eat before the food gets cold. Mom, you should sit and have something too."

An Hui sat down in Zhou Jinyu’s seat. Seeing Jiang Moli’s nonchalant expression, she felt a tightness in her chest.

’How can she be such a troublemaker?’

’She can’t let anyone have a moment’s peace.’

Annoyed as she was, she still had to deliver her lecture. "Third Daughter-in-law, you are the elder, and Tingting is the junior. If she does something wrong, you should be more tolerant."

Jiang Moli beamed. "Mom, there’s a good old saying: if you’re willing to be a doormat, you’ll be stepped on forever. But then again, I was truly impressed and touched when you scolded Tingting just now."

"Tingting always says what a doting grandmother you are, that you cherish her like a precious treasure. Yet, even though I’m a troublesome daughter-in-law, you didn’t lose your sense of fairness and blindly side with her. It’s my good fortune to have a mother-in-law like you—so reasonable, impartial, and even-handed."

"Come, let’s have a drink, the two of us, mother- and daughter-in-law. I’ll toast to you and drink first!"

The bellyful of anger An Hui had been nursing was completely extinguished by Jiang Moli’s torrent of flattery.

And Jiang Moli’s words also made Xu Xiuzhen, another of the Lu Family’s daughters-in-law, see her in a new light.

’No wonder she had the third son of the family so utterly captivated. Though full of faults, she was no empty-headed beauty with looks but no brains.’

’She could argue, and she could sweet-talk.’

「Ten minutes later.」

"Mom, Mom, I miss you so much! Why aren’t you talking to me? Don’t you want me anymore?"

Jiang Moli was draped over An Hui’s lap, her flushed face turned upward. Her small nose was slightly red, and her eyes were wet with tears, looking as heart-wrenching as an abandoned puppy.

"Third Sister-in-law, you’re drunk. Let me help you go rest for a bit..."

"I’m not going! Go away! I want to be with my mom!"

Jiang Moli pushed away Xu Xiuzhen, who was trying to support her, and plopped herself right onto An Hui’s lap. Cupping An Hui’s face in her hands, she began to wail.

"Mom! Mom! I miss you so much!"

With that, she burrowed her head into the crook of An Hui’s shoulder.

Jiang Moli was actually a good drinker. During her school days, she could easily down four or five bottles of beer during late-night snacks with her girlfriends, and she could handle three or four glasses of baijiu.

But that was in the past.

This current body had never touched a drop of alcohol in its life. One cup of baijiu, and she was drunk as a skunk.

Faced with Jiang Moli clinging to her, crying and making a scene, An Hui was furious but couldn’t bring herself to hit her, nor could she push her away.

For someone with such skinny arms and legs, she was surprisingly strong.

The guests had formed a thick crowd, three layers deep, to watch the spectacle.

People had seen grooms get wasted, but a bride getting drunk and throwing a tantrum? That was a first.

’Not only is she a glutton, she’s a drunkard too.’

『Disdain Value +1, +2, +3...』

In no time at all, Jiang Moli had collected several dozen Disdain Value points.

Lu Deyao arrived after hearing the commotion. Seeing the completely plastered Jiang Moli, his head throbbed. He had no choice but to ask his two daughters-in-law to help carry her to the car and take her home.

When they reached the car, Jiang Moli clung to An Hui for dear life and refused to let go.

With no other option, An Hui had to get in the car with her.

During the ride, Jiang Moli was like a docile little drunken kitten, snuggling against An Hui’s shoulder and murmuring softly.

"Mom, you’re not talking to me. Are you mad at me?"

"Just wait a little longer. I’ll be able to come back and be with you soon."

"I’ve earned lots and lots of money. I’ll buy you a big villa and a car. And when Grandma’s health is better, I’ll take you all to travel the world..."

An Hui glanced sideways at Jiang Moli, who was clutching her arm.

Her palm-sized face was flushed with a drunken blush, her lips, redder than cherries, moved as she mumbled in her sleep. Her curly eyelashes rested against her eyelids, giving her an unexpectedly obedient and pitiful look.

The bellyful of anger she had been holding onto unknowingly dissipated by more than half.

’She’s just a poor girl who lost her mother at a young age.’

’She’s full of bad habits, but deep down, she’s a filial daughter who knows to use her earnings to honor her parents.’

As for Jiang Moli’s talk about earning money and going back to find her mom, An Hui dismissed it as drunken nonsense and didn’t take it to heart.

When they finally arrived home, An Hui thought her job was done once she got Jiang Moli settled inside.

But when Jiang Moli got out of the car and saw the gate to the Lu Family courtyard, she refused to go in, no matter what.

"This isn’t my home! I’m not going in! Let me go! Help! Someone’s kidnapping an innocent woman!"

That one shout roused the entire family compound.

People opened their windows, others stood at their doorways, all craning their necks to look toward the Lu Family’s house.

"What’s all the commotion now?"

"The Lu Family’s new daughter-in-law got drunk at the wedding banquet and is throwing a fit!"

"That drunk? How embarrassing."

『Disdain Value +1, +2, +3...』

"To think, I tried to match my daughter with Lu the Third, and he looked down on her. I thought he had such high standards, but after all that picking and choosing, this is what he ends up with. A man with such poor judgment and a blind heart won’t amount to much. It’s a good thing my daughter didn’t marry him."

"Saddled with such a troublesome, troublemaking daughter-in-law, I’m afraid Vice Political Commissar Lu’s reputation won’t survive his later years intact."

Lu Cheng came from a military compound family. He was young and successful, so it was inevitable that he was rebellious, headstrong, and did as he pleased.

Lu Deyao held a high position, so naturally, he had made plenty of enemies.

Using Jiang Moli’s drunken antics as an excuse, many people secretly sneered at both the father and son.

And most of this mockery directed at the Lu Family was converted into disdain for Jiang Moli.

Because in everyone’s subconscious, Jiang Moli was a source of misfortune and disaster who would sooner or later bring trouble upon the Lu father and son, which in turn caused them to feel disdain and disgust toward her.

To be saddled with a wife and daughter-in-law like Jiang Moli... what a family tragedy!