An Accidental Military Marriage

Li Hongying’s mouth opened and closed. She was both overjoyed and worried.

She was overjoyed that her daughter had a boyfriend, and a soldier at that.

Being a soldier’s wife was a great honor, and soldiers received a stipend.

A long-serving soldier’s stipend was no lower than a regular worker’s salary. If he was promoted to an officer, the stipend would be even higher. Plus, when he was discharged, he would be assigned a civilian job.

Even without having met the man, Li Hongying was already very satisfied with her future son-in-law.

But she was also worried that Jiang Dahai wouldn’t agree to the marriage.

"You silly girl, why didn’t you tell us sooner you had a boyfriend! Dahai, I didn’t know about this beforehand either. Look what a mess this has become..."

Jiang Qing looked at Jiang Dahai’s grim face and said, "We’ve known each other for a long time. He’s been in the army, so I couldn’t bring him to meet you. That’s why I never said anything. He came back a few days ago to visit family, and that’s when we discussed getting married. Once he’s taken care of his business, I’ll bring him home for you to meet."

"Fuck, Jiang Qing, are you fucking doing this on purpose!?" Jiang Peng kicked his stool away and started cursing. "You could have said you had a boyfriend at any time, but you chose to say it right before you’re supposed to go to the countryside. Aren’t you just trying to screw over my sister?"

Jiang Moli couldn’t help but give her little brother a thumbs-up.

’Little bro, you’ve hit on the truth.’

As the reborn female lead, Jiang Qing hated the original owner of this body, her "vicious" stepsister, down to her very bones. Therefore, the first thing she did after being reborn was to steal the original owner’s fiancé—the soldier from the childhood betrothal.

For one, Jiang Qing saw the fiancé’s potential and knew he would be very successful in the future.

Second, she could use the marriage to avoid the tragic fate of dying in the countryside.

And third, it would cut off the original owner’s own escape route from being sent to the countryside.

The man from the betrothal could only marry one of them. If he married Jiang Qing, he naturally couldn’t marry the original owner.

It was a case of killing three birds with one stone.

As the "vicious female supporting character," Jiang Moli couldn’t just stay quiet at a time like this, even though she felt completely unfazed inside.

"Dad, you can’t give her the household registration book to get married!"

She then turned to Jiang Qing, gloating, "So what if you have a boyfriend? It doesn’t count until you’ve registered for a marriage certificate. You still have to go to the countryside!"

Jiang Qing stared at her coldly.

"What are you staring at? Stare again and I’ll gouge your eyes out! If you want to get married, fine. Wait until you’re in the countryside, find some village hick, and pop out a whole litter of peasant kids. You can spend the rest of your life in some village."

Jiang Moli held her chin high, the very picture of a gloating villain. ’I’m being so vicious even I want to slap myself a couple of times.’

"Moli, Xiao Qing, stop fighting," Li Hongying said, extremely anxious. She was afraid Jiang Dahai would get angry at her and her daughter. "Dahai, Xiao Qing is young and doesn’t know any better. She doesn’t think things through. Please don’t hold it against her. As for going to the countryside, we can still figure something out."

She was uneducated, had no formal job, and no son to depend on. The only person she could rely on was her husband, Jiang Dahai.

Jiang Qing couldn’t stand Li Hongying’s timid and subservient nature.

Yes, Jiang Dahai had provided them with food and clothing, given her an urban household registration, and paid for her high school education. But she and her mother hadn’t been freeloaders.

Since coming to this home at the age of ten, she and Li Hongying had not only had to serve the father and his two children with all their might, but also endure the bullying and troublemaking of the siblings, Jiang Moli and Jiang Peng.

Instead of a stepmother and stepdaughter, she and her mother were more like the Jiang family’s maids.

She loathed this life of depending on others, which was why, in her past life, she had unhesitatingly chosen to go to the countryside to escape the Jiang family.

But just as she had rushed to Hainan Farm, full of hope and believing she could finally live for herself, she was caught in a flash flood and buried alive in a mudslide.

After she died, her spirit returned to the Jiang family’s home.

Before her body was even cold, the Jiang family had eagerly arranged a wedding, marrying Jiang Moli off to Zhang Jia Ming.

Not long after, Zhang Jia Ming performed a great service in the army and was given an exceptional promotion.

Jiang Moli packed her bags and joined him as an army wife.

Once at the army’s family compound, Jiang Moli’s true colors showed. Not only was she her usual lazy, gluttonous self, stirring up trouble by gossiping all day, but she was also used by criminals to leak military secrets. This not only caused Zhang Jia Ming to lose his position but also resulted in him being disciplined.

Later, Zhang Jia Ming died honorably during a mission. Jiang Moli took the survivor’s pension and immediately turned around and married a businessman from Zhejiang.

She was so filled with resentment.

A vile, lazy woman like Jiang Moli actually ended up living a life of wealth and luxury, while she, who was diligent, hardworking, and ambitious, had met a tragic end in a foreign land.

Perhaps her resentment was too strong, because when she opened her eyes, she had returned to the day before she was supposed to sign up to go to the countryside...

She reined in her thoughts.

Jiang Qing didn’t argue with Jiang Moli. Instead, she adopted a tone as if she were concerned for Jiang Moli’s welfare.

"Uncle Jiang, I know you can’t bear to see Moli sent to the countryside. The only way now is to have Moli get married, too. Once she’s married, she won’t have to go."

Even if Jiang Qing hadn’t mentioned it, Jiang Dahai had already thought of this.

Although he was angry that his stepdaughter had gone back on her word, he couldn’t bring himself to be the villain who breaks up a happy couple.

But if his stepdaughter didn’t go, then his own daughter would have to.

There were two ways to avoid being sent to the countryside: one was to feign illness, and the other was to get married.

Given his daughter’s foolishness and flashy personality, she would definitely be exposed if she tried to feign illness. Marrying her off was the safer option.

’But who could she marry?’

There were several unmarried young men at the machinery factory, but unfortunately, none of them were interested in Jiang Moli.

With her reputation for being lazy, gluttonous, and vain, on top of having a pretty face that screamed "trouble," no one dared to marry her.

’It’s worrying me to death.’

...

After dinner, Wang Lianhua from next door came over for a visit, carrying a plate of sweet melon.

Jiang Moli was flipping through a wuxia novel she had "liberated" from Jiang Peng.

In an era where you could only listen to the radio at scheduled times, the only pastimes were reading books and newspapers.

Jiang Moli picked up a piece of melon and gnawed on it blandly.

The melon wasn’t very fresh; its flesh was soft and not very sweet. But it was better than nothing.

Wang Lianhua had come to play matchmaker for Jiang Moli. "...You’ve all met my nephew from my side of the family several times. Other than being poor, he has no other faults."

’Jeez, since when is being poor not a big fault?’

Jiang Moli tossed the melon rind on the table, not about to soften her words just because she’d eaten the woman’s food. "Aunt Wang, I only have one standard when it comes to finding a man: he has to be rich. A house, a car, and plenty of ration tickets—he can’t be missing any of it. After we’re married, he just needs to give me eighty or a hundred yuan a month for spending money. That’ll be enough."

’Pah!’

’Are you making a wish to a genie or something?’

’A lazy glutton like you should be grateful any man wants you, yet here you are being picky. Just wait until you’re sent down to the countryside and have a taste of real hardship. That’ll teach you a lesson!’

Wang Lianhua left in a huff.

Before she left, she even took the unfinished melon back with her.

"Hey, Aunt Wang, I’m not done eating yet!" Jiang Moli shamelessly called after her retreating figure.

Her only response was the sound of Wang Lianhua’s door slamming shut.

Jiang Dahai stared at his daughter, not knowing whether to be angry or not.

He didn’t think much of the Wang family’s nephew either. His daughter was already lazy and gluttonous; if she married a pauper, how would they ever manage?

No matter what, he had to find a well-off family for his daughter, one where she could at least eat her fill and not go hungry.

After thinking it over and over, Jiang Dahai’s thoughts turned to the childhood betrothal arranged for his daughter.

He and Zhang Tiesheng were from the same village. Their families lived next door to each other, and they had been close since childhood, so they had arranged a marriage between their children.

During the famine of ’60, Jiang Dahai had fled to the city with his family to beg for food, and later became a worker at the machinery factory.

Zhang Tiesheng, however, had put down roots in the countryside, and thus a gap had formed between the two families.

Over the years, whenever he returned to his old hometown, Zhang Tiesheng would bring up the betrothal from time to time, but Jiang Dahai had always fobbed him off with some excuse.

On the one hand, his daughter looked down on the poor and worshipped the rich, refusing to acknowledge this betrothal to a rural family. On the other hand, he couldn’t bear to see his daughter marry back into the countryside to suffer.

"I heard from your Uncle Zhang that Jia Ming has already become a career soldier in the army. Career soldiers get a monthly stipend, and they’re assigned a job when they’re discharged. It’s basically an iron rice bowl. Supporting you will be no problem, so you shouldn’t look down on him anymore."

Jiang Dahai tried to persuade Jiang Moli earnestly. "If you don’t get married, you have to go to the countryside. You know how hard life is back in our hometown. You have to wake up before dawn to cook, feed the pigs, till the fields, plant rice seedlings, and carry manure—the work is endless. Life in the countryside camps will be even harder and more bitter than that. Do you think you can survive?"

Jiang Dahai might not have been a good stepfather, but he was definitely a good father.

Jiang Moli’s parents had divorced when she was young, and she grew up with her mother and grandmother’s family. The absence of a father figure in her life made it hard for her not to be moved by Jiang Dahai’s love for his daughter.

"System, in the book, the original owner was killed by a train. What about Jiang Dahai? What was his fate?"