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

Chapter 237 An Unexpected Birthday Gift

Director Lu, who was over fifty years old, once visited a police academy to interact with new students. After the speech, there was a Q&A session, and the young faces below were eager to participate, showing great enthusiasm.

One young man kept his hand raised high and never lowered it, finally catching the host's attention and earning a valuable opportunity to ask a question.

The young man asked this question: "Director Lu, as one of China's first generation of anti-drug police officers, and having worked on the front lines of border anti-drug operations for so many years, what do you think is the most important quality for becoming a qualified anti-drug police officer?"

The man with slightly graying temples stood on the stage, paused for a couple of seconds, and then swept his piercing gaze over the enthusiastic, eager, and ambitious young people below the stage.

His voice was deep and powerful. He began by asking them a question: "Has any of you personally witnessed your teammate, who fought alongside you, being taken to the emergency room and undergoing surgery for more than forty hours?"

There was complete silence below. After a moment of silence, the deep male voice came through the microphone again: "I've seen it."

Looking back on his life, this was one of the most painful lessons of his career.

The first surgery lasted more than 20 hours, with two surgeons working in shifts. The patient was taken to the intensive care unit for monitoring for less than seven hours when a delayed intracranial rupture, hematoma expansion, and brain herniation occurred. The patient was then rushed back to the emergency room for craniotomy, where he spent another 10-15 hours.

After two days and two nights, Lu Feng, who was waiting outside the emergency room, couldn't remember how many times he had signed critical condition notices. His heart was never at ease.

Lu Feng's voice was firm and resounding throughout the auditorium: "To do drug enforcement, especially on the southwestern border, you have to be fearless." Each word struck the heart of everyone present.

Lu Feng slammed his right fist heavily on the podium. "A cop who's afraid of death can't do drug enforcement!"

……

July 1st.

Hu Shulan woke her husband up early in the morning and urged, "Aren't you supposed to be cooking for our daughter? Get up quickly."

Meng Zhengping groggily opened his eyes. "It's still early. I can sleep a little longer and start preparing at noon."

Hu Shulan tugged at his arm, "Your daughter is having lunch at home this year, but she's going out tonight. Hurry up, don't dawdle."

Meng Zhengping sat up in bed, yawning repeatedly: "Why?"

"Xiao Dan invited her to dinner tonight."

Meng Zhengping reluctantly put on his shoes and got out of bed, muttering under his breath, "That Xiao Dan is really something, why didn't he make an appointment for noon?"

Hu Shulan's voice rang out from behind: "We originally agreed to meet at noon, but it was because your daughter said she wanted to sleep in on the weekend and didn't want to get up early to get ready that Xiao Dan had to change it to the evening."

Well, Vice Minister Meng had nothing more to say.

……

At 4:30 pm, Meng Youyou, holding a parasol, strolled leisurely from her home toward the gate of the compound. As she approached the gate, she found herself on a straight road lined with crabapple trees that provided ample shade on both sides.

Not too far away, Meng Youyou saw a slender and tall young woman walk across the double-leaf wrought iron gate, which caught her eye. There was no particular reason, it was simply because the woman's figure and temperament were uniquely charming, making people unable to help but take a second look.

Meng Youyou instinctively followed the message, but the next second, Uncle Zhang from the mailroom next to the door called out to her, "Little Meng, there's a package for you in the mailroom."

Meng Youyou paused for a moment, then replied, "Oh, okay." She then turned and walked towards the side door of the mailroom.

Uncle Zhang took out a mail package and a package details slip, placed them on the small table against the wall, and patted them: "Check it out for yourself."

Meng Youyou took the package and looked at it. The sender information showed that it belonged to Shen Xi. Meng Youyou felt a warmth in her heart. It was hard for him to spend every day in the deep mountains and forests and still have the thought to remember her birthday.

Meng Youyou smiled and said to Uncle Zhang, "No problem." Then she picked up her things and started to walk out.

Uncle Zhang intervened in time, saying, "There's something else on the table, it's yours too." He pointed to a beautifully wrapped pink and gold gift box on the table and reminded him, "Take it with you."

Meng Youyou looked down at it, her voice filled with doubt: "Who sent this to me?"

"It wasn't sent by mail, it was delivered in person. It just left a little while ago, right after you."

Meng Youyou seemed to realize something, and recalled the description: "You mean... the woman in the light gray knitted dress just now?"

"Yes, yes, that's her."

Meng Youyou looked blank. "But I don't know her?"

Meng Youyou thought for a moment and then asked, "Uncle Zhang, what did she say when she gave you the things?"

Uncle Zhang scratched his head, "...She said it was a friend of hers who asked her to send this here to Comrade Meng Youyou."

And so, Meng Youyou, carrying the gift box in her right hand, the rope binding the parcel in her left, and the parasol tucked under her elbow, walked out of the mailroom with a bit of effort.

She originally intended to put her things at home first, but as soon as she came out, she saw the conspicuous dark green Jeep parked next to the exit of the compound. The car had just come to a stop, and Meng Youyou and the man in the driver's seat were looking at each other through the gate.

Without much hesitation, Meng Youyou carried her things and walked straight out the small door. Shan Muchen acted quickly, got out of the car to meet her, walked up to her, looked at the two items in her hands, bent down, and took the dark-colored package.

Once in the car, Shan Muchen fastened his seatbelt and casually asked, "Are these all birthday gifts sent to you by others?" He had just seen her come out of the mailroom and had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Meng Youyou pointed to the package placed on the back floor, "The one in the back was sent to me by my childhood friend. He's in Fanzhou City right now."

"And this?" Shan Muchen glanced casually at the exquisite gift box resting on Meng Youyou's lap. It was a strange feeling; the moment he first saw the gift box in her hand today, he instinctively knew it held a hidden secret. Like a lion on the savanna sensing a potential threat, its body instinctively tensed up.

Upon hearing this, Meng Youyou lowered her head, her gaze falling on the pink and gold gift box and the shimmering ribbon bow. She calmly explained, "It was delivered to the mailroom by a strange woman. She said she was delivering it for a friend, but I don't know her, and I don't know who her friend is."

Upon hearing this answer, Shan Muchen jokingly said to her, "Things given by strangers can be risky. Why don't you open it in front of the soldiers and let me check if there's anything wrong with it?" After saying this, he paused for a moment to think it over and realized that he had ulterior motives.

“Okay,” Meng Youyou readily agreed, and even joked with him, “If you find a bomb inside after you open it, don’t abandon the car and run away, okay?”

Dan Muchen smiled broadly, this time genuinely cheerful: "Okay, I promise I won't run away!"

Under the watchful eyes of those around her, Meng Youyou gently pulled open the ribbon with her fingertips, lifted the lid, and inside lay a satin white dress and a diamond crown.

Meng Youyou's eyes sparkled, and her lips parted slightly as she took the dress out of the box and unfolded it to look at it. Only then did she realize that it was a ballet dress.

The chest and waist are adorned with pearls and rhinestones of varying sizes, while the back features a hollowed-out strap design. The skirt is slightly flared, resembling a pure white camellia blooming with layers of snow feathers, creating a breathtakingly beautiful effect.

Meng Youyou held the dress in one hand and used her other hand to rummage through the box, only to find that it was empty except for the dance dress and the crown. There wasn't even a card or a simple note.

Even Shan Muchen, a rough man who spends most of his time in the military, could tell that the dress was well-made and expensive, not to mention the dazzling, jewel-encrusted diamond crown.

Since his relationship with Youyou progressed, Vice Minister Meng had invited him for afternoon tea twice for casual conversation. The main point of their conversation was nothing more than a tactful warning to him to be serious, to be genuine, and not to hurt her daughter. Otherwise, he shouldn't blame her for disregarding their long-standing friendship as classmates and not letting him off the hook.

Besides that, we would also talk to him about things related to Youyou. Whenever we talked about these things, Meng Zhengping would become an ordinary father, with an indescribable softness, which was very different from the upright, serious, and imposing Deputy Minister Meng we saw at work.

At that moment, Shan Muchen quickly recalled the ballet-related fragments from the few dialogues he had heard.

"Youyou has loved dancing since she was little."

But her grandfather was conservative and thought it was improper for a young girl to wear such tight and revealing clothes and wiggle around like that.

Later, after her mother and I moved out, we asked her if she wanted to learn ballet. She nodded her head like a chick pecking at rice. Seeing that she really liked it, I enrolled her in a class and hired a dance teacher.

She did very well in her studies, and her teachers praised her for being talented, hardworking, and having excellent physical attributes. She continued learning from elementary school until she was seventeen.

When she reached the age to take entrance exams, her mother and I asked her if she wanted to go to a dance academy or study another major. She answered decisively: she wanted to go to a dance academy.

Her mother and I just let her be. It's more important that the child has her own goals and is willing to work hard for them.

After Youyou signed up for the art college entrance exam, her mother had a friend make her a white, puffy dance dress with pearl and diamond embellishments. She loved it and said it was prettier than her previous dance dresses. Later, she wore that dress and successfully passed the preliminary and final exams for the dance academy.

We didn't tell the older generation in our family, especially her grandfather, about Youyou's application to dance school. Every generation has different ideas, and it's not easy to change one person's mind to agree with another. I figured it was better to avoid trouble, so I kept Youyou's ballet studies a secret from them.

But one day, her grandfather somehow found out about this, and coincidentally, it happened right before Youyou's third art exam. He came to our house and had a huge fight with me, insisting that I persuade her to switch to languages. I didn't want to do anything against Youyou's wishes, so I refused. In the heat of the moment, I argued back with her grandfather. The old man couldn't take it anymore, his blood pressure spiked, and he fainted on the spot, spending several days in the hospital.

Her grandfather, well, sometimes he's incredibly stubborn, and no one can change his mind or even go against him—a real stubborn old man. But actually, he dotes on Youyou, giving her more New Year's money than anyone else.

When Youyou was little, she was very naughty and loved to spin around in the living room. One time, she lost her balance and was about to hit the back of her head on the steps. Her grandfather was the closest at the time, and his old bones immediately rushed over to cushion the fall, but he ended up getting hurt badly.

Youyou not only saw all of this, but also remembered it all. At that time, she felt bad seeing her grandfather lying in the hospital with his blood pressure not coming down, so she didn't go to take the exam on the day of the third test.

She locked herself in her room until the exam was over, then came out and threw the shredded white dress into the trash can.

The recollection abruptly ended; Meng Zhengping had told him so much, and Shan Muchen pulled himself out of his thoughts.

He had a premonition, and now... pearls, diamonds, white dance dress, everything matches up. Meng Zhengping must have told him these stories more than just once.

Thinking about it this way, Youyou's father must have genuinely accepted that man. When recounting Youyou's childhood and adolescence, he must have earnestly hoped that he could bring happiness to his beloved daughter, cherish her, and treasure her like a precious gem.

Shan Muchen felt that he understood less and less about the man he had only heard of but never met.

He had heard Youyou tell their story before, and his impression of this person was very simple: he had a good appearance, but he was weak and indecisive, did not know how to cherish things, and had no sense of responsibility.

But today... that person is willing to spend so much money on gifts. He roughly knows the salary levels of battalion commanders in various places, and these things would at least empty most of his savings.

What kind of person would be willing to spend more than half of their savings just to give their ex-girlfriend a birthday present?

He is a truly contradictory person, full of inner conflict.

Since opening the box, Meng Youyou, who was sitting on the other side, had been somewhat dazed and quiet. It was unclear what she was thinking at the moment.

The appearance of this dance dress was like a sudden silence button being pressed on the space inside the carriage. During the long and boring journey that followed, no one spoke to relieve the boredom, as both of them were preoccupied with their own thoughts.