An 80s female translator was spoiled rotten by a rough and jealous man.

Chapter 330 "Commander Huo, it's been a long time."

When Meng Youyou looked up from the Mango translation on the computer screen, her fingertips unconsciously pressed against the back of her aching neck. She quickly glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the monitor; the number 11:59 had just jumped to 12:00, and her nerves, which had been sluggish from sitting for so long, immediately became active again.

She deftly closed the electronic document she had just translated by manipulating the mouse with her fingertips, then gathered the temporary files on the desktop into an encrypted folder. Only then did she nudge Jiang Fu, who was working at the next workstation, with her elbow: "Let's go, let's go to the cafeteria!" Her voice carried a hint of urgency that she herself was unaware of.

Jiang Fu was frowning at a logistics supplies report, scrolling the mouse across the report, and replied without looking up: "Wait a few more minutes, there's only one line of data left to check, one last digit is missing."

Seeing this, Meng Youyou didn't press him any further. She reluctantly sat back down at her workstation, leaning lazily against the back of her chair, her feet on the ground, and idly swaying the chair from side to side. The image of the figure she had glimpsed at the office building elevator that morning flashed through her mind—wearing a light olive green summer short-sleeved uniform, with sharp shoulders and an upright posture, looking more robust than when she had seen him at the military hospital more than two months ago.

After a month and a half of pre-job training and nearly a month of officially starting work, Meng Youyou was busy with a bunch of trivial matters, but she still couldn't find any trace of the man in the camp.

She had inquired with people privately, and they said that Battalion Commander Huo would need to rest for a while longer, and then the team would arrange a physical fitness test and a command ability test for him. Only after passing both tests could he apply to be reinstated.

So, Meng Youyou waited anxiously every day, worrying about this and that, afraid that his physical recovery would not be as expected, afraid that he would not meet the assessment standards and would not be able to come back. She thought about it day and night until that fleeting glimpse this morning, and she was finally relieved to know that he had really come back.

The office air conditioner was blowing cool air. Meng Youyou put on a coat, rested her chin on her hands, and was thinking about what to say as soon as she met him. For some reason, even though almost three months had passed since she last saw him in person, Meng Youyou still hadn't figured out how to get to know him and build a relationship.

She had thought about what delicious food to eat together, what fun or sweet things to do after they got together, and even considered that their jobs wouldn't allow them to travel freely outside the province, so what nearby places would be good choices during holidays. But she hadn't thought about the part before they got together, how to make that connection happen directly?
There was no fast-forward option for her; she could simply press a button, skip ahead, and directly connect with her heart. They had to retrace the usual path of meeting, getting to know each other, and falling in love, each step seemingly indispensable.

People often say that "loving someone is like growing a flower." However, a person doesn't fall in love with another person for no reason—first, you have to secretly plant a seed called "heartbeat" in your heart, and then carefully water it, fertilize it, and let it bask in the sun day after day. Only then will it slowly take root, sprout, and eventually grow into a towering tree, growing into the kind of love that Meng Youyou longed for.

Love is precious and celebrated by generations because money and effort are utterly insignificant and powerless in its presence. Its purely accidental nature endows it with a sacred and inviolable status, making the step of "falling in love" all the more crucial and absolutely indispensable.

A vast, secret garden already resided in her heart, vibrant and lush, while the other person's heart remained a barren wasteland. This enormous gap inevitably caused Meng Youyou to feel a profound sense of imbalance and loss.

However… deep in her subconscious, an almost innate confidence stirred within her. Meng Youyou felt that “this little thing” shouldn’t be too difficult, if what he said was true.

Most ordinary men and women who are fortunate enough to find love harbor a subtle contradiction in their feelings. On the one hand, they are grateful for Cupid's accidental favor, which granted them a chance encounter. On the other hand, they secretly believe that their love is an inevitable outcome among countless coincidences—the so-called "destiny" is the fate that will lead them to fall in love with each other countless times once they meet.

The soft tapping of Jiang Fu's keyboard finally stopped. After she closed the report, Meng Youyou grabbed her phone with one hand and pulled Jiang Fu's wrist with the other, rushing downstairs at a pace two or three beats faster than usual.

The two walked out of the office building side by side. In September, the summer heat of the small border town of Nanyun had not yet dissipated, and the hot wind carried the fragrance of eucalyptus trees from the distant training ground.

When the two of them arrived late, the canteen was already quite crowded. The four food serving windows were neatly arranged, three of which were divided by battalion. The rank-and-file soldiers in their training uniforms were lined up in orderly rows and moved forward with brisk steps.

A long row of food counters stood in front of each window, with meat and vegetable dishes neatly arranged in gleaming insulated bowls. Diners carried their trays and slowly moved along the counters, taking their food in turn as needed. Occasionally, a few short whispers could be heard from within the queue.

On the far right was the office window, where clerks and civilian staff in uniform stood in neat rows, moving swiftly and efficiently. Meng Youyou and Jiang Fu each took a stainless steel plate with a unique number printed on it from the sterilizer and quickly walked to the end of the line in front of the office window. The girl's eyes secretly scanned back and forth in the hall, tiptoeing and peeking around, her gaze sweeping over the rows of neatly seated figures, then carefully searching along the slowly moving line in front of the battalion's office window.

Finally, the figure was found at window number two—the man was carrying a tray to the end of the long food counter, his well-defined fingers holding a spoon, scooping a portion of Kung Pao Chicken from the last insulated bowl.

Seemingly sensing the intense gaze focused on him from the side, the man put down his spoon and suddenly turned his head to look over. His movements were swift, and in an instant, he accurately pinpointed the location of the peeping tom.

But Meng Youyou didn't dodge, and showed no fear whatsoever. Her burning gaze swept over the shoulders of countless people to meet his, clinging to him, and then she smiled sweetly at him in a generous manner.

The man on the other end seemed to pause for a moment, then turned away as if nothing had happened, picked up his plate, and left the counter.

Meng Youyou wanted to follow his back to see where he was going to sit, but her arm was suddenly shoved by the person behind her. "It's your turn! Which handsome guy are you looking at?" Jiang Fu leaned closer and casually teased, "Your eyes are practically popping out of their sockets."

Upon hearing this, Meng Youyou turned her attention back and realized that the line had moved forward more than halfway without her noticing, and she was now standing at the starting point of the food station.

In the corner aisle of the canteen on the other side, Zhan You, carrying two bowls of soup and a tray between his arms, awkwardly made his way through the crowd to his seat. He slowly put down the things in his hands one by one and said, "Commander, didn't you ask me to get you a bowl of soup? Why did you come over here without bringing it?" His tone was puzzled.

It's really strange. Just now, Zhan You was one person ahead of the battalion commander in line. He walked to the thermos and was about to scoop out some soup when the battalion commander, who was serving vegetables, called out to him to get another bowl. But when he looked up, Zhan You had already disappeared.

After gently placing the soup down, Zhan You sat down next to Huo Qingshan, and heard the man reply casually, "I forgot." This served as an explanation.

Meanwhile, Meng Youyou, distracted and quickly finishing her food, didn't wait for Jiang Fu to dawdle before hurriedly saying, "I'll go save you a seat," and ran off. Jiang Fu was left completely bewildered, utterly confused as to why there was any need to save seats in the military canteen.
Meng Youyou, carrying her tray, took a few quick steps through the crisscrossing tables and chairs to a table by the window. She gently put down her tray and then asked, rather unnecessarily, "Is this seat empty?"

Huo Qingshan looked up at the sound and met a pair of smiling eyes again. Before he could answer, Zhan You chimed in enthusiastically, "Nobody's here."

"Commander Huo, it's been a long time." These were the first words the girl uttered after sitting down, which made Zhan You, who was sitting diagonally opposite her, shudder.

The man's hand holding the chopsticks paused slightly, followed by the girl's second sentence: "I just greeted you, why didn't you respond?" The questioning tone was somewhat familiar, and if Zhan You wasn't mistaken, there was even a hint of reproach in her voice.
And even if he was wrong, the literal meaning of her words was not simple... Zhan You immediately buried his head in his rice, thinking that he must be overthinking things.

Just then, a short, muffled cough came from the side. Zhan You glanced at it out of the corner of his eye and saw that their battalion commander seemed to have picked up his soup bowl, taken a big gulp, and cleared his throat.

But the battalion commander was drinking... his soup! The recipient of the conversation seemed even more surprised than the bystander upon hearing this. What was going on?

The man put down his soup bowl, looked up at the person opposite him, and said calmly, "We... don't seem to know each other very well?"