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

Chapter 259: Don’t miss the opportunity
He is the commander of this mission, and Meng Youyou must obtain his permission before she can act alone.

But the man's attitude was clearly very firm, and it seemed that there was no possibility of him backing down.

With no result in the stalemate, Meng Youyou became increasingly anxious. The electromagnetic noise remaining in her headphones was still piercing her eardrums, like some kind of silent countdown.

She has just intercepted suspicious instructions from the Y Army. According to the Y Army's communication protocols, which we have learned, they have always strictly adhered to the ironclad rule that each communication session should not exceed 30 seconds.

Time waits for no one, and this listening window is destined to be closed. According to the combat log of a chemical battalion of the Y Army that we captured, their disinfection vehicles would contact their destination regularly after leaving the warehouse to report the situation.

The time intervals are mostly between ten and fifteen minutes. Given Meng Youyou's physical abilities, it would take a lot of time to move dozens of meters on the cliff face by hand. If she misses the next communication, no one can guarantee that there won't be another one after that.

They couldn't afford to miss this opportunity, as it wouldn't come again.

Watching time slip away in vain, Meng Youyou anxiously grabbed Huo Qingshan's hand, her fingertips unconsciously tapping harder: "Huo Qingshan, if it were you, would you do it?"

Huo Qingshan did not respond. The man's breathing became heavier. In the shadows where Meng Youyou could not see, the hand that was gripping the main rope had already left deep purple bruises, and the rope fibers were deeply embedded in his palm.

Meng Youyou didn't give up trying to persuade him: "If this task requires you to complete it, I know you will definitely do it, no matter the cost."

But now this is my job responsibility, and I need to complete it instead of backing down without even trying.

If we continue to sit here and wait to die, tonight's mission will definitely fail.

As the leader of the reconnaissance team, you must be well aware of what the success or failure of this mission hinges on.

Meng Youyou stared at the man's unmoving, cold face, and asked in a desperate attempt, "Huo Qingshan, what are you afraid of?"

Her fingertips were like a sharp dagger, each word piercing his nerves.

Huo Qingshan was well aware, more than anyone else, of how interconnected this mission was. If one of the groups failed to complete the mission, the evidence would not be able to corroborate each other and form a closed loop, all the efforts would be in vain, and all the blood shed and the people sacrificed would become meaningless numbers.

Most importantly, similar tragedies will happen again in the future.

So, Huo Qingshan, what are you really afraid of? He asked himself the same question.

But what if we let her go alone?
She will likely die, die on this cliff, die under the Y Army's sniper scope, die in a place he can reach but cannot protect.

Silence, like a dull knife, slowly cuts between the two.

Finally, Huo Qingshan loosened his grip slightly, then grabbed her wrist with his other hand: "I'll stay with you."

Meng Youyou immediately shook her head: "No, two people would be too conspicuous; the risk of exposure would increase dramatically."

She didn't know when it started, but her hand was now firmly held in his palm, the force from the base of his fingers almost crushing her bones.

Meng Youyou glanced down and thought to herself that perhaps even he himself hadn't realized he was using so much force at that moment.

He doesn't speak.

He simply wouldn't approve her actions.

……

In the end, Meng Youyou still went.

Huo Qingshan stood frozen in place, watching blankly as her slender figure struggled to move along the steep cliff face, inching further and further away from him. It seemed as if a gust of wind could blow her away at any moment. How did he let go of her hand? Huo Qingshan was in a daze.

She pried his hands apart little by little and then pulled them away. If he had used even a little force, she would have been no match for him and would have been unable to break free, but he did not.

She pinched his pressure point. She knew he couldn't bring himself to agree, that he would watch helplessly as she went to her death, unable to stop her from abandoning her duty as a soldier.

So she made the decision for him.

Every step the girl took felt like walking on a knife's edge. Huo Qingshan watched as her right leg bent, the tip of her boot repeatedly probing between the rock crevices, grinding against them for a good five or six seconds before finally managing to wedge it into a narrow gap. Her left leg followed, but her knee seemed unable to exert any force, slipping off the rock surface as soon as it touched it. Each attempt to push was accompanied by a long pause, leaving her stuck in a dilemma, unable to move forward or backward.

The distance was too great for Huo Qingshan to see her expression clearly, but he could imagine that she must be clenching her teeth.

You must be struggling to breathe, your breathing is rapid and erratic, but you have to suppress it and not make a sound.

They must have felt helpless but dared not give up.

Her left arm must have reached its limit; each ascent was accompanied by an undeniable tremor, as if it were about to give out at any moment.

She is still moving forward.

Inch by inch, slowly, lonely, precarious, suffocating.

Suddenly, "click!"
A weathered rock splinter shattered in her palm, and fragments of limestone continued to peel away from beneath her.

Huo Qingshan's heart stopped, and the blood in his body froze in an instant.

Fortunately, after her right hand missed its grip, she managed to grab onto a rock edge at the last second, dangling precariously from the cliff face before finally managing to regain her balance. It was a stroke of luck that she didn't slide uncontrollably downwards like last time.

Just as Meng Youyou had anticipated, it took her nearly eight minutes to reach the designated location, a mere thirty meters in a straight line. This thirty-meter distance was primarily a horizontal movement; had she chosen a vertical route, it might have taken twice as long.

Meng Youyou had barely arrived at the designated location and hadn't even had a chance to catch her breath when she heard a series of rhythmic footsteps coming from above the cliff top, "tap, tap, tap..." A small team of four or five people approached from afar.

The patrol team from the Y Army, heading towards the edge of the cliff, was heading towards the observation post.

In an instant, Meng Youyou's body seemed to freeze, every pore on her body slowing its breathing in unison, not even daring to tremble her eyelashes. Her cheeks under the disguise hood were already soaked with sweat, beads of sweat constantly sliding down her forehead.

The coldness of the rock wall seeped into her skin through her camouflage, the rough texture of the limestone pressing against her chest, vibrating slightly with her heartbeat. She could smell the fishy odor of crushed moss, lingering in her nostrils.

The footsteps above grew closer.

"despair."

A piece of gravel was kicked off, grazing her helmet as it rolled down the cliff. Meng Youyou's pupils contracted sharply; she stopped breathing—the trajectory of the falling gravel had almost brushed against her ear.

The footsteps stopped.

It looked like someone had crouched down.

Meng Youyou's face was pressed against the rock face. When she blinked, her eyelids could wipe away a thin layer of lime powder. Although she was not looking up, she could feel that there were eyes sweeping across the rock face from the top of the cliff.

Thirty meters away, beneath the hanging rock, Huo Qingshan stared intently at the gray shadow.