Chapter 260: Chapter 260: Did She Really Kill Someone?

"How could you not tell?" Lu Deyao asked, disgruntled. "Moli, do you think I’ve lost weight?"

Jiang Moli said while sipping her soup, "Dad, stand up and spin around a couple of times. Let me have a look."

Lu Deyao obediently did as she asked.

Jiang Moli nodded decisively. "You have lost a fair bit of weight."

Lu Deyao turned to An Hui happily. "Did you hear that? Even Moli says I’ve lost weight!"

An Hui stood up, looking slightly disdainful. "I know, I know. I’ll go get you a bowl of chicken soup to build you back up."

It wasn’t mealtime yet, and the chicken soup was still simmering on the stove. An Hui had ladled out a bowl beforehand to give Jiang Moli a little something extra.

Having gotten the chicken soup his wife ladled for him, Lu Deyao was grinning from ear to ear.

"This is delicious. The soup is excellent. Hongmei’s cooking has really improved."

An Hui ignored him and started talking to Jiang Moli about the things she had mailed home.

On this performance tour, Jiang Moli had bought local specialties from every place she visited and mailed them home.

An Hui had set them all aside, waiting for her to return and decide what to do with them.

She had been buying things at every stop, and Jiang Moli herself couldn’t remember everything she’d purchased. After finishing her soup, she grabbed a pair of scissors and began to unpack and sort through the packages she had mailed back.

With An Hui and Lu Deyao helping, it still took them a good half an hour.

Tobacco, alcohol, tea, assorted pastries, dried meats, brown sugar, medicinal herbs, and more were piled up, taking up nearly half the room.

"Good heavens, Moli, you bought so much!" Lu Deyao exclaimed. "This is great. The New Year is just around the corner, and with all this, your mother-in-law won’t have to worry about shopping for the holiday. You’ve saved her a lot of trouble."

Jiang Moli was quite surprised to hear him say that.

Although she’d been in this era for half a year, she still had the spending habits of someone from the future, buying whatever caught her eye wherever she went.

It didn’t seem like much when she was buying it all, but seeing it piled up together now, she realized it really was a lot.

She had expected that, given Lu Deyao and An Hui’s frugal mindset, they would think she was a spendthrift who wasted money.

But unexpectedly, not only did the elderly couple not criticize her, they even gave her an easy way out of any potential awkwardness.

’I have to say, being doted on feels absolutely wonderful.’

Speaking of the New Year, Jiang Moli’s thoughts finally turned to her husband, who was thousands of miles away.

She set aside the tobacco and alcohol, as they were strictly forbidden by the military. But she picked out plenty of other things—food, drinks, and medicinal herbs—and along with the cured chicken, duck, and pork Ma Hongmei had prepared, she filled two large burlap sacks to send to Menghai.

After the meal, Jiang Moli packed up some alcohol, tea, cured pork, and sausages, preparing to head to her parents’ home to check on Jiang Dahai.

Halfway there, she ran into Jiang Dahai and Li Hongying.

"Well, well. Did you know I was on my way and come out specially to meet me?"

Without ceremony, Jiang Moli handed over some of the bags she was carrying to them.

The alcohol and meat were seriously heavy; her arms were already aching from the weight.

Jiang Dahai took the items, looking like he wanted to say something but was hesitating.

Thinking he was worried about where she got the items, Jiang Moli teased, "Don’t worry, my in-laws saw me leave the house with these."

Li Hongying walked up to her, her voice choked with sobs. "Moli, something’s happened to Xiao Qing. Please, you have to help her..."

On the way back, Jiang Dahai told Jiang Moli everything about what Wei Qing had done, down to the last detail.

When Jiang Moli learned that Wei Qing had plotted to murder her own cousin—by burying her alive, no less—she was stunned.

Once they were back at their apartment in the military family compound, Li Hongying dropped to her knees in front of Jiang Moli with a THUD, crying and begging her to save Wei Qing.

"Fine, I’ll save her."

Jiang Moli’s swift agreement stunned both Jiang Dahai and Li Hongying.

Jiang Dahai eyed her suspiciously. "How are you going to save her? What Xiao Qing did is a capital offense."

Jiang Moli replied, "That’s easy. I’ll ask Lu Cheng’s father to talk to the police and have them release Wei Qing. Then I’ll go in and take the fall for her. After all, I’d be implicated anyway. The people who can’t stand to see the Lu Family succeed will finally have leverage, and they’ll get my father-in-law sent to prison, too."

She finished, looking at Li Hongying with a smirk. "Aunt Hongying, what do you think of that plan? Our entire family can just be stepping stones for her, for Wei Qing."

Li Hongying was too stunned to speak, as tears streamed endlessly from the corners of her eyes.

Jiang Dahai breathed a sigh of relief.

’For a second there, I really thought my daughter had lost her mind and was going to get involved in her stepsister’s mess.’

He reached out to help Li Hongying up. "Get up. Xiao Qing committed a crime this time. No one can save her."

Li Hongying collapsed onto the sofa, sobbing. "Xiao Qing would never hurt anyone... She’s not capable of something like this..."

Jiang Moli said, "You need to take that up with the police. They investigate based on evidence."

Li Hongying actually took Jiang Moli’s words to heart. She grabbed her bag, ready to return to her hometown to find the police and plead her daughter’s case.

Jiang Dahai tried to talk her out of it, but when he couldn’t, he simply let her go.

’She’d just cry if she stayed here anyway. It might do her some good to go back and see her daughter.’

With only the father and daughter left in the apartment, Jiang Dahai spoke more freely. "I never would have dreamed that Xiao Qing could do something like this. How did she turn out this way?"

He sighed again. "I still can’t wrap my head around it. Growing up, I can’t say I was the best father to her, but I never let her go without food or clothing. Why would she harbor so much resentment toward me?"

Jiang Moli scoffed. "It’s simple. She has no conscience. She’s genetically selfish to the core. A person like that can’t be reformed by ordinary people. She’d need the Guanyin Bodhisattva of South Sea to have any hope of salvation."

Jiang Dahai looked at her, then hesitated before speaking. "It’s a good thing you stopped her from moving back in. If she had targeted you... I shudder just thinking about it."

’You have no idea,’ Jiang Moli thought. ’Without me, she would have wiped out your entire family long ago.’

Jiang Moli grumbled internally but said aloud, "Don’t worry. What she’s done this time is enough to make her rot in prison for the rest of her life. She won’t get another chance to come out and hurt anyone."

...

When she returned to the Lu residence and told the family what had happened with Wei Qing, they were all too shocked to know what to say.

An Hui said to Jiang Moli, still shaken, "I was just remembering my first impression of Wei Qing. Back when we came to your house for the marriage proposal, I could tell she was a bit calculating, but she still seemed dignified and proper. I can’t believe I misjudged her so badly. Not only is she not proper, she has the audacity to try and kill someone. It’s a good thing you had the foresight to have her removed from the family register. Otherwise, who knows how much trouble she would have caused for you."

Ma Hongmei, however, was more concerned about Li Hongying, of whom she had a rather good impression, seeing her as an honest and simple woman.

"Your stepmother must be heartbroken. To raise her only daughter all these years, only for her to do something so utterly depraved."

As a man, Lu Deyao’s perspective was different from An Hui’s and Ma Hongmei’s.

"That stepsister of yours is vicious, but she’s certainly clever. From the planning to the execution, every step was perfectly linked. If she applied that intelligence and those methods to a proper path, she could accomplish anything."

Jiang Moli gave a noncommittal response. "She certainly walked herself into a dead end."

Just as they were discussing Wei Qing, Lu Tingting rushed into the house.

Spotting Jiang Moli, she blurted out, "When did you get back?"

Before Jiang Moli could answer, she asked about the murder. "Did Jiang Qing really kill someone?"

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