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

Chapter 241 A Tragic Discovery

In October, the capital city has entered autumn. Ginkgo leaves shed their golden petals, sycamore leaves lose half their ochre-brown hue, and maple leaves are intoxicated with a rosy glow.

The military compound in the south of the city was located in a rather remote area, and Meng Youyou had to take two different buses to find it.

The General Staff Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are planning to hold an international military exchange event in the middle of the month, with Meng Youyou responsible for the simultaneous interpretation segment. After receiving the written speech, she encountered many technical military terms and theories that were difficult to grasp accurately during the initial translation process.

As the saying goes, "every profession has its own secrets," and after communicating and providing feedback to the General Staff, the leader invited her to his home to discuss the details.

After showing her work ID and a letter of acceptance from her workplace to the guards at the gate of the compound, Meng Youyou was able to pass through smoothly.

The crisscrossing asphalt road in front of me is covered with withered leaves from ginkgo and sycamore trees, which are crushed into fine golden-brown patterns by passing vehicles, like scattered copper foil.

The main road is lined with typical Soviet-style buildings—four-story barn buildings made of gray bricks, which still retain the design of pointed roofs and carved columns. The withered tendrils of ivy on the brick walls rustle in the wind.

Turning into a side road connecting to the main road, Meng Youyou stared at the faded enamel sign on the wall, which read "Residential Area 1, Building 3" in red.

The leader's family lived in "Building 7, Area 5". Based on her experience, Meng Youyou walked northwest, thinking that this place was the same as the government compound where she lived, with the buildings arranged clockwise.

As I walked, I realized something was wrong when I came across a brick wall covered with wild roses at the end of the road.

She got lost. Meng Youyou has always had a terrible sense of direction and is terrible at finding her way around.

She could only walk back by relying on her memory. After wandering around, she stopped by the roadside to rest for a while. Just as she was kicking the pebbles under her feet in dejection, she looked up and saw Shan Muchen walking towards her. The two of them were on opposite sides of the road, looking at each other with surprise.

A moment later, Shan Muchen jogged over, stopped in front of Meng Youyou, and asked, "What are you doing here?"

Meng Youyou was unusually embarrassed, and she smiled awkwardly, "I came here to look for someone, but... I got lost." As she spoke, her eyes fell on the shoulder of the person opposite her.

"Who are you looking for?"

Meng Youyou gave the name and rank of the officer.

The man's voice chuckled, "What a coincidence, you live near my house. I'll take you there."

The two walked side by side, with Shan Muchen on the outside of the road. He asked her a few questions, as if trying to make conversation.

"I have a speech that needs to be translated, and I've arranged to meet with the leader at his home to discuss the details."

Then came a long silence. Neither of them felt comfortable. They hadn't been in touch since their last meeting at the theater. This sudden encounter on the street left them both feeling awkward and unable to find a comfortable way to interact.

"You get lost quite easily," Shan Muchen suddenly remarked.

This reminded Meng Youyou of their second meeting. She had gotten lost in the alleyways and, suspecting she was being followed, stumbled into his grandfather's house. To be honest, without that chance encounter, their connection would have ended with Meng Zhengping taking her home as a guest.

How can it not be considered a kind of fate?
For a moment, Meng Youyou didn't know what to say. While she was thinking with her eyes downcast, the two turned a corner, and Shan Muchen spoke up in time to break the awkward atmosphere: "Look, that's the building over there, Chief Yan's house."

Meng Youyou looked up in the direction the person next to her was pointing, and was surprised to meet a pair of deep black eyes standing on the porch platform. It was so unexpected and sudden that she never thought she would see him here the moment she looked over.

"Yo yo," Shan Muchen took a step back and asked, "What's wrong?"

Meng Youyou looked away and shook her head. "It's nothing, let's go."

The man on the veranda stood still, watching a couple walking side by side down the steps toward them, and then walking away.

...Meng Youyou and the leader stayed in the study for nearly three hours to discuss things. When they came out of the study and went down to the living room on the first floor, they found that it was already dark outside.

When the chief's wife saw the two of them come down, she quickly ordered the dishes to be served.

Meng Youyou, carrying her bag, bid farewell to the leader and his wife. The leader's wife warmly invited her to sit down and have dinner with them before leaving. Meng Youyou repeatedly declined, explaining that she needed to submit the manuscript to her team leader for review and proofreading the next morning and had to hurry back to finish her work.

Hearing this, the leader's wife could no longer try to persuade him to stay.

As we left the leader's house, the streetlights on both sides of the road lit up one after another, their orange glow creating a warm, enveloping halo around the asphalt.

In early autumn in the capital, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and it is quite chilly in the morning and evening. For example, at this moment, Meng Youyou felt a bit cold on her shoulders and back. She had rushed out of her workplace in the afternoon and hadn't packed a light jacket in her bag.

The leader's house was the seventh building from the beginning of this alley. Meng Youyou walked along the road and deliberately quickened her pace when she passed the second house. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she was running, as if she was avoiding something.

The porch in front of the house was empty, the door was closed, she couldn't see inside, and the people inside couldn't see her either.

Just then, a stray dog ​​suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It was small and dirty, and barked wildly at Meng Youyou.

Meng Youyou was quite frightened. She is naturally afraid of almost any aggressive animal, including dogs, especially since she is allergic to dog hair.

In later generations, Meng Youyou always felt that walking a dog without a leash was the worst kind of immoral behavior, a hundred times worse than littering. She would usually walk around dogs on the street and keep her distance. If a dog came within half a meter of her, Meng Youyou's hair would stand on end, and she would be terrified.

For some reason, the spotted dog kept chasing after Meng Youyou, its tongue lolling out as it tried to get close to her feet.

Meng Youyou felt something sticky and hairy brush against her exposed ankle, and in a panic, she jumped onto a round stone block by the roadside. She was truly terrified.

The stray dog ​​was too short and small, and the spherical stone block was large and smooth. The dog tried to climb up the stone block several times by using its front legs, but found that it couldn't. It could only stay under the stone block, circling around, and barking and threatening Meng Youyou without stopping.

It wouldn't leave, so Meng Youyou couldn't get down. But the top of the ball was curved, and she had to hunch over and use the soles of her feet to grip it—it was very difficult. She had even lost a shoe while being chased by the dog, leaving her right foot bare.

My feet started to ache after a short while.

Meng Youyou felt she couldn't hold on any longer, but the dog below was barking more and more fiercely, its teeth agape, constantly spitting out saliva.

My feet ache, my back aches, and my eyes are getting increasingly sore.

The stone pier stood beside a street lamp, the light from which shone down and spilled onto the girl's shivering, frail body, giving her a yellowish glow.

She heard hurried footsteps approaching from behind, and Meng Youyou felt a momentarily lessen her helplessness. But she was crouching on the smooth stone stool, unable to turn around.

She noticed the light overhead was being blocked by a tall figure coming from behind. In her field of vision, a dark shadow appeared on the ground in front of her, broad and long, completely enveloping her.

Meng Youyou saw that the "vicious dog" in front of her, which had been so arrogant just moments before, seemed to tilt its head back and look behind her. Incredibly, she actually saw something like hesitation in the dog's eyes.

Just a second later, the "vicious dog" quickly turned around and ran away.

The dog was gone, and she was safe, but Meng Youyou still didn't get off the stone block, nor did she turn around to thank the "kind passerby".

Instead, it remained motionless, maintaining its previous posture.

Just now, Meng Youyou sadly discovered that she could even recognize his shadow at a glance.