An Accidental Military Marriage

Jiang Moli tossed the chicken bone onto the table and said to Lu Cheng, "This is simple. I can solve it for you."

"Okay."

Pleased by the man’s ready agreement, Jiang Moli couldn’t help but tease, "You trust me that easily? Aren’t you afraid I’ll make her cry?"

Lu Cheng replied, "As long as you don’t cry, it’s fine. In our little family, you’re always the supreme leader. I only follow your orders."

"Such a smooth talker. Who taught you that?"

"Listening to my wife is something I didn’t need to learn. It comes naturally."

Jiang Moli, happy to be coaxed by him, picked up another chicken leg and offered it over. "Here, I’ll reward you with another chicken leg."

Lu Cheng didn’t take it. "You eat. I’ll have the soup."

Jiang Moli handed him the lunch box. "Then you should drink more of it. Eat the chicken skin, too. I don’t like it."

"Okay."

Chicken soup is high in purines, and chicken skin is high in fat.

For a soldier like Lu Cheng, who underwent high-intensity training every day, it was actually more nutritious.

As Jiang Moli gnawed on her chicken leg, she asked about Lu Tingting.

"She moved into the teachers’ dorm. She’s living with Jiang Qing."

Jiang Moli wasn’t surprised at all to learn that Jiang Qing had used the pretense of visiting family to find a teaching job here and, against the odds, had become a military dependent.

’She’s the female protagonist, after all. She has the brains and the means.’

...

It was almost noon when Lu Tingting, Jiang Qing, and Feng Meihua finally returned, huffing and puffing.

After getting off the cart, Feng Meihua invited Lu Tingting to her house for lunch and called out to Jiang Qing as well.

Jiang Qing declined.

Lu Tingting was a volunteer teacher, so her room and board were already covered by the school.

Whatever Lu Tingting ate, drank, or used at Feng Meihua’s place would eventually be reimbursed by the military.

Feng Meihua was just being polite by inviting her. If she actually went, she’d be completely tactless.

After Feng Meihua and Lu Tingting left, Jiang Qing stared at the things on the ground, her stomach churning with frustration.

A quilt, a washbasin, a thermos, a canteen, a lunch box, and clothes hangers—all bought by Lu Tingting.

’She made me carry it all when she bought it, and now that we’re back, she’s making me haul it to the dorm? Is she really treating me like a nanny?’

’If she’s so precious, why did she even come here?’

Frustrated as she was, Jiang Qing had no choice but to pick up the items and head back to the dorm.

She hadn’t eaten breakfast, had been jostled on an oxcart all morning, was tired, hungry, and thirsty, and now she was carrying all this stuff under the blazing sun. She was so exhausted she felt dizzy.

Once back at the dorm, she had to lie in bed for a good fifteen minutes just to recover.

Seeing it was about time, she was just about to go to the camp entrance to get her meal when Qiao Wenjing showed up at her door, fuming.

"I’m so furious! You have no idea how despicable Jiang Moli is!"

"What gives her the right to drink my chicken soup?!"

"I didn’t make that soup for her!"

"If I’d known she was going to drink it, I would’ve rather fed it to the dogs!"

"And Camp Commander Lu! Jiang Moli made his life miserable, but he still gave her the chicken soup! I seriously wonder if there’s something wrong with his head!!"

As she was ranting, she noticed a glistening line of liquid trickling from the corner of Jiang Qing’s mouth.

Her eyes widened strangely. "What’s wrong with you? Are you drooling?"

Jiang Qing was starving.

With Qiao Wenjing going on and on about "chicken soup" this and "chicken soup" that, how could she not drool from craving it?

She’d been here for over half a month and hadn’t had a single bite of meat.

’You’re the one with something wrong with your head!’ she cursed Qiao Wenjing in her head. ’You had something as good as chicken soup and didn’t think to give me any, letting Jiang Moli have it for free.’ But out loud, she said comfortingly,

"Wenjing, don’t be angry. Jiang Moli has always been shameless, ever since we were kids. She especially loves taking advantage of others. You actually got off easy."

Seeing that Jiang Qing was on her side, Qiao Wenjing’s mood instantly improved.

She had gone back to her dorm first and told her roommates about the chicken soup.

Her roommates didn’t comfort her or help her curse out Jiang Moli. Instead, they just advised her to give up and stop trying to get close to Lu Cheng.

She just saw Lu Cheng as a benefactor, as a comrade-in-arms.

’What did I do wrong?’

She got so angry she had a huge fight with her roommates before running over here looking for validation.

She grasped Jiang Qing’s hand, her eyes welling with tears. "I knew it. Only you truly understand me, get me, and are willing to be on the same side as me."

Jiang Qing pulled her down to sit. "Wenjing, I have good news. We have a new helper..."

「Back at the guesthouse.」

The entire clay pot of chicken soup had been finished off by Lu Cheng and Jiang Moli, without even a single dreg left.

"Just leave the clay pot with me. I’ll find some time to return it to Doctor Qiao myself and thank her while I’m at it."

Lu Cheng had originally planned to take the pot back to the barracks and have someone return it to Qiao Wenjing.

Hearing her say that, he rinsed the pot with boiling water to clean it, preventing it from getting smelly and maggot-infested if left for too long.

"It’s mealtime. I’ll go back to the mess hall and get you some food."

"No need, I’m full. You go eat. After you’re done, go back to your dorm and get some proper rest."

She had felt it when Lu Cheng got up in the morning.

’He didn’t get to sleep until almost 2 AM last night, and then he woke up so early this morning. With training and running around all day, he must be exhausted.’

Knowing she had a small appetite, Lu Cheng didn’t force her to eat lunch.

But his eyes revealed his reluctance to leave.

’He’d wanted to use bringing lunch as an excuse to spend more time with his wife. But since she wasn’t eating, he wouldn’t be able to come back until he finished work this evening.’

He had gone to town in the morning to make a self-criticism report, and his work had piled up. He had to finish it this afternoon.

With a stretch of his arm, he scooped Jiang Moli from the stool into his embrace, seating her on his lap.

Jiang Moli: !

"What are you doing?"

Amused by her playfully coy expression, he touched the tip of his nose to her fair, smooth forehead. "Just hugging you. You put medicine on... down there. Is it better? Does it still hurt?"

Jiang Moli’s mouth moved faster than her brain. "So what if it hurts? Are you going to kiss it better?"

The moment she said it, she froze.

’Stupid mouth,’ she thought. ’You’ll really say anything, won’t you?’

"Okay. Should I kiss it better now?"

The man’s voice was laced with laughter; he was clearly teasing her.

Jiang Moli scrambled off his lap and gave him a light kick. "Just get out of here!"

Lu Cheng looked at her and asked, "What do you want to do this afternoon?"

"Sleep."

"That’s good. You get some rest. Once you’ve fully recovered, I’ll take you out to look around."

Jiang Moli gave a noncommittal response.

Just before leaving, he told Jiang Moli that they were going to his superior’s house for dinner that evening.

After Lu Cheng left, Jiang Moli bolted the door, went into the inner room to change into a little nightdress, and prepared to take a nice afternoon nap.

Just as she lay down, she suddenly remembered something.

’We didn’t use any protection last night. Could I be pregnant?’

She touched her soft belly, then had another thought. ’If I am pregnant, I’ll just have the baby. It’s not like I can’t afford to raise it.’

She’d said before that she didn’t want to have kids, but that was because she didn’t want to have them *for* a man.

Having them for herself, however, was perfectly fine.

’When I go back in the future, I’ll have a billion-dollar reward in my left hand and my own genetically superior child in my right. Wouldn’t that make me a total winner at life?!’

’What kind of nickname should I give my little one?’

Just as she was delighting in this thought, someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It’s me! Open up!"

Recognizing Lu Tingting’s voice, Jiang Moli went to open the door, still in her nightdress.

...

Lu Tingting had come over specifically to see if Jiang Moli had been "disciplined" by her third uncle.

The moment the door opened, she stared at Jiang Moli’s snow-white neck and chest, her eyes glinting with excitement.

Jiang Moli followed her gaze down and finally noticed that her body was covered in hickeys.

The wine-red marks on her snow-white skin were prominent and jarring.

Before she could go back to her room to put on something to cover them, she heard Lu Tingting shout excitedly:

"Jiang Moli, my third uncle beat you up?!!"

"Hahaha!"

"Don’t you deny it! Look at all those red marks on you! He must have beaten you black and blue, huh?"

Jiang Moli: "..."

’Whose dimwit is this? Someone come and get her!’