Forced to Marry an Officer, I Joined the Military Compound with a Baby Bump

My own father sold me off for an 8,000-yuan bride price. Eight months pregnant, I climbed into a military truck. My stepmother expected me to cry, but I turned around and slapped the money against her face. “I’ll marry him myself.” Everyone in the military family compound waited to laugh at the country girl. The cold-faced young officer handed me an agreement, saying we’d divorce as soon as the baby was born. I signed, then turned the compound’s little mending stall into its most profitable business and made the wives who’d looked down on me apologize on their knees. The officer who’d only meant to go through the motions now blocks my doorway every day, too afraid to even mention the word divorce. Three years later, I became the province’s biggest military supply contractor. My stepmother came to my door and knelt, begging me to acknowledge her. I asked her just one thing: “Are you going to pay back that 8,000 from back then?” This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.