An Accidental Military Marriage

Jiang Moli was woken by a knock on the door. She groggily opened it to see An Hui standing outside and asked casually, "Mom, what time is it?"

"It’s almost eleven. Get up and get ready. We’re going to your Aunt Wu’s for lunch."

"Oh."

After closing the door, Jiang Moli flopped back onto the bed for a while. Once she felt a bit more rested, she slowly got up to find something to wear.

It was a four-door wardrobe. The two sections on the left were used by Lu Cheng.

Aside from his heavy coats, which were on hangers, the rest of his clothes and pants were folded into neat squares, like blocks of tofu, and stacked tidily.

’You have to hand it to him. Men from the military really are neater than the average guy.’

Jiang Moli sniffed the air. ’Mmm, smells like a man~’

She closed the left-side doors and opened the ones on the right. They were completely empty and spotless.

She had only just married into the family yesterday, and all her clothes were still packed in the two trunks that were part of her dowry. She hadn’t had time to unpack them.

Since she was going to be a guest at someone’s house, Jiang Moli dug out the short-sleeved blouse and midi-skirt she and Lu Cheng had bought at the department store on their engagement day, pairing them with woven leather sandals.

For that era, it was a very respectable outfit.

Once she was ready, Jiang Moli followed An Hui out the door.

"Your Aunt Wu has many children—three sons and two daughters. Except for the eldest son who’s in the army, all her other children work in the city. The second son got married, was allocated a house, and moved out, but the rest still live at home."

Wu Miaoyun’s home was only about twenty steps from the Lu Family’s, and they arrived in the time it took to say that.

"Xiao Jiang is here! Quick, come in and have a seat."

Jiang Moli recognized Wu Miaoyun at a glance.

Just yesterday, the woman had been giving her dirty looks, but today she had a completely different expression, warmly inviting her over for a meal.

’Something smells fishy.’

Wu Miaoyun’s family also lived on the first floor, but their apartment didn’t have a yard and was smaller than the Lu Family’s. This was probably because Chen Dadong, Wu Miaoyun’s husband, held a lower-ranking position than Lu Deyao.

During the day, the Chen family members were all out at work, so it was just Wu Miaoyun, her youngest daughter Chen Xue, and her third son’s wife and child. With Jiang Moli and An Hui, there were six people in total for the meal.

The meal was very home-style: a plate of dressed cucumbers, a bowl of steamed fermented soybeans with lard, and a basin of celery stir-fried with pork.

Although it was a bit simple, being able to serve pork to guests was already a rare treat in those days.

Jiang Moli had just picked up her rice bowl when Wu Miaoyun placed a helping of celery in it. "Xiao Jiang, here, eat more celery. They say it makes a person diligent."

"Is that what they say? Then I’d better eat more."

Jiang Moli picked up the celery and put it in her mouth.

Seeing her eat it happily, Wu Miaoyun exchanged a look with An Hui and continued her lecture, "Ah, Xiao Jiang, you’re a daughter-in-law now. You can’t be lazy and gluttonous like you were when you were a girl. You have to learn to manage the household, serve the old and young, and learn to be a virtuous and filial daughter-in-law..."

Before Wu Miaoyun could even finish, Jiang Moli shot to her feet with a WHOOSH.

"Aunt Wu, this celery works too well! I can’t sit still for a second! Quick, quick, everyone stop eating! I need to wash the dishes!!!"

Before anyone at the table could react, Jiang Moli deftly began clearing the bowls and chopsticks.

Wu Miaoyun’s bowl was still full of rice—she hadn’t taken a single bite—when Jiang Moli snatched her chopsticks and bowl away.

It was the same for everyone else; they had barely eaten two mouthfuls before Jiang Moli took their bowls away.

The entire table stared, dumbfounded, as Jiang Moli gathered a pile of dishes and headed for the kitchen.

"Xiao Jiang, you..."

CRASH!

Wu Miaoyun had just started to call out to her when a bowl slipped from Jiang Moli’s hands, shattering into pieces.

Jiang Moli turned around and grinned. "Dropped a bowl, but no worries! Aunt Wu, if you have any other instructions, just let me know..."

Before she finished speaking, another bowl fell and smashed to smithereens.

Seeing the remaining bowls wobbling precariously in Jiang Moli’s hands, Wu Miaoyun couldn’t sit still any longer. "Hold them properly! Don’t drop them!"

However, the bowls and chopsticks in Jiang Moli’s hands seemed to have made up their minds, leaping to the floor one after another.

For a moment, the entire living room was filled with the sound of dishes hitting the floor. CLATTER, CRASH, BANG! The sound echoed endlessly.

Everyone was completely stupefied.

...

"Auntie Hongmei, is there anything to eat?"

Ma Hongmei came out of the kitchen and saw the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law returning home, a look of surprise on her face. "Weren’t you eating at the Chen family’s? How come you’re back so soon?"

Jiang Moli said, "I was going to help Aunt Wu with the dishes, but she didn’t seem very happy about it, so we came back."

Ma Hongmei was completely bewildered. She discreetly sidled up to An Hui and whispered, "Didn’t Sister Wu say she was going to help you train Xiao Jiang?"

"Don’t even mention it."

"What secrets are you two whispering about? Let me hear, too."

Turning to see Jiang Moli, who had crept up on them at some point, An Hui’s lips twitched. "Xiao Jiang, why don’t you go back to your room for now. We’ll call you when the food is ready."

"Then hurry up. I’m hungry."

Jiang Moli really was hungry, since she hadn’t even eaten breakfast. She picked up the fruit platter from the coffee table and strode back to her room as if she owned the place.

As soon as Jiang Moli closed her door, Ma Hongmei immediately asked An Hui what had happened.

An Hui recounted everything that had happened at the Chen family’s home, down to the last detail.

After hearing the story, Ma Hongmei didn’t know what to say. "That Xiao Jiang... how can she cause so much trouble?"

An Hui sighed. "You should have seen the look on Miaoyun’s face. I’m afraid she’ll never let Xiao Jiang set foot in her house again for the rest of her life."

Ma Hongmei said, "And here I was thinking Sister Wu could actually help you train Xiao Jiang..."

An Hui was so exasperated she almost laughed. "Train her? Who’s training whom? Haven’t you figured it out yet?"

’Isn’t that the truth?’ Ma Hongmei thought. ’The girl broke six bowls during one meal. I certainly wouldn’t dare let Jiang Moli wash dishes anymore.’

An Hui had also resigned herself to her fate. "Forget it. I’m not going to expect her to be diligent and virtuous anymore. As long as she behaves, doesn’t cause drama, and refrains from smashing things at home, I’ll be satisfied."

Ma Hongmei was speechless. "..."

This just goes to show that people have no bottom line, because that line will just keep getting lower.

Thinking the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were eating at the Chen family’s for lunch, Ma Hongmei hadn’t cooked. She just made a bowl of noodles for herself and ate it with last night’s leftovers.

After the scene Jiang Moli caused at the Chen’s, the pair had come back without eating lunch.

To save trouble, and since it was already past lunchtime, Ma Hongmei just cooked a bowl of egg drop noodle soup for each of them.

[Disdain Value +3. Credited: 30,000 Yuan.]

Jiang Moli had just picked up her chopsticks to eat her noodles when the system notified her that she had received Disdain Value.

...

After Jiang Moli and An Hui left, Wu Miaoyun didn’t clean up right away. Instead, she picked up the phone to call her old friends.

Before long, all the aunties and busybodies from the family courtyard who were on good terms with Wu Miaoyun had gathered at the Chen family’s home.

"Look, everyone! Just look at what that lazybones did! Perfectly good white rice, all wasted! And my bowls! A set of twelve blue-and-white ’rice-grain’ porcelain bowls from Jingdezhen, and she smashed six of them in one go!"

In that era, wasting food was a shameful act. What’s more, it was high-quality white rice. Even for middle-class families like theirs who received state-supplied grain, having white rice at every meal wasn’t a given.

To visit someone’s home and not only waste their food but also break their bowls.

If she had accidentally dropped one, it would have been excusable.

But to drop six of them? That was clearly intentional.

This was just too vicious.