Chapter 13: Using "Basic Attacks" to Defeat "Ultimates

Chapter 13: "Basic Attack" Defeats "Ultimate Skill"

What does it mean to lift a stone only to drop it on your own feet?

This is it!

What does it mean to suffer in silence, unable to voice your grievances?

This is it!!!

Meng Youyou felt incredibly aggrieved. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, and the more aggrieved she felt, the more she thought...

Suddenly, Meng Youyou sensed something was off. "Wait, something's not right!"

"No, no, no, no...

Since he understands so much about Traditional Chinese Medicine, how could he not have seen through her fake hypoglycemia?

And since he already saw through it, why did he stand there and watch her drink a bowl of 'laxatives'? What kind of person does that?

His intentions are sinister!

Human nature is terrifying!

He's heartless!

That dog of a man!!!"

Although Meng Youyou was bursting with indignation, she hadn't reached the level of being so angry that she'd run up to him and demand, "You clearly knew I was faking, so why didn't you stop me?" That kind of idiotic question.

Based on her understanding of that cunning and black-bellied man, he certainly wouldn't answer her question directly.

Instead, he would nonchalantly "look down at her" and counter with his most indifferent tone: "Then why did you insist on pretending to have low blood sugar just to drink that soup?"

Meng Youyou could imagine that annoying expression even with her pinky toe.

He was a total wolf in sheep's clothing.

Sometimes, she really wanted to tear him apart with her bare hands.

*

For the next few days, Meng Youyou felt like a total pervert and voyeur, constantly monitoring Huo Qingshan's every move in secret, terrified that if she let her guard down for even a second, Huo and Chu would spark a romance in some secluded corner.

A bad start? Absolutely not!

However, after several days of meticulous observation, Meng Youyou made a major discovery. She was almost certain—Chu Yao was deliberately and consciously trying to get close to Huo Qingshan.

During these days, Meng Youyou had observed several times that Chu Yao was intentionally or unintentionally creating opportunities to be alone with Huo Qingshan. And based on the current situation, it seemed Huo Qingshan didn't have any interest in Chu Yao at this stage.

Meng Youyou curled her lip and couldn't help but remark, "Tsk tsk tsk... I never thought it would be a beauty chasing him? How could anyone fall for that punchable, iceberg face?"

Meng Youyou shook her head in disbelief. "No way! No way! I just can't wrap my head around it at all."

At noon, the military canteen was filled with aromas and bustling with people.

While Meng Youyou's attention was focused on the dishes at the serving window, Chu Yao had already begun walking gracefully toward Huo Qingshan's seat with her tray.

Meng Youyou snapped back to reality, her mind screaming: "Crap, she's hard to defend against!"

Without thinking much, she took several large strides, beating Chu Yao to the spot and sitting down directly opposite Huo Qingshan.

Though her movements inevitably looked a bit ridiculous?

Or perhaps pathetic?

In any case, it certainly wasn't "creepy"!

Huo Qingshan: "..."

Out of the corner of his eye, Huo Qingshan glanced at the tray in front of Meng Youyou: a portion of rice, a lonely piece of green vegetable lying in the corner, and two empty compartments.

He couldn't help but look up, casting a few extra glances at this person who had rushed over with a tray containing only a single vegetable dish.

A person whose behavior had been quite strange these past few days.

Beside them, Zhong Heng and Zhang Yong exchanged a knowing, tacit glance. Both remained silent, communicating entirely through their eyes.

Zhong Heng's eyes gleamed with triumph, his expression light. "See? I told you. Translator Meng is interested in our Battalion Commander. Why else would she be hovering around him every day? You didn't believe me, kid."

Admiration overflowed in Zhang Yong's eyes. "You're something else. I have to hand it to you, you've got eyes like a hawk. Now I truly believe it."

Watching her intended seat be... snatched away right before her eyes, Chu Yao felt a mix of emotions.

However, since there were no empty seats left at this table, she could only sullenly take her tray to another table.

After sitting down, Chu Yao cast a slightly resentful gaze toward Meng Youyou's direction.

This "coincidence" completely confirmed her previous suspicion: her attempts to approach Huo Qingshan over the past few days had been interrupted by various incidents every single time, and it wasn't an accident. Whether directly or indirectly, Meng Youyou was behind the scenes causing trouble.

"What exactly is she trying to achieve?" Chu Yao fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere on the other side was far from harmonious.

It was eerie and awkward.

Under the table, for the third time, Zhang Yong nudged Zhong Heng's shin with his foot, winking and gesturing for him to say something to break the tension.

Unexpectedly, Huo Qingshan suddenly spoke up, warning Zhang Yong, who was sitting diagonally across from him, in a cold voice without even looking up: "Stop it!"

Meng Youyou let out a "pfft" and couldn't help but laugh.

Zhang Yong looked down under the table in utter shock, only to find his toe still pressed against the Battalion Commander's pant leg. He could even see a few messy, overlapping footprints on the fabric.

Terrified, he quickly pulled his leg back, placing his legs neatly side-by-side, not daring to move again.

At this moment, the natural social warrior, Zhong Heng, finally stepped up, finding a topic to converse with Meng Youyou: "Translator Meng, why are you eating so little? You didn't even get any meat. Are you not used to the food here?"

Zhang Yong joined in promptly: "I heard you had a bout of hypoglycemia a few days ago. It's better to eat more per meal, otherwise, your body won't have enough energy."

The corners of Meng Youyou's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

In truth, when she had sat down and looked closely at the single, bland piece of cabbage in her tray, her vision had gone dark, and she had wanted to cry!

She kept glancing toward the window, watching from a distance as a large plate of braised pork slowly diminished, getting smaller and smaller... until it was completely gone a minute ago.

Damn! Her restless heart had finally died a complete death.

During this time, Meng Youyou had wanted to get up and head back to the window several times, but she forced herself to suppress the impulse. A small lack of patience would ruin a grand plan.

To cover up her strange behavior of rushing over with only a vegetable dish, Meng Youyou explained with an unnatural smile, "Uh... because I ate something strange a few days ago, my stomach hasn't been very comfortable lately. Anything meaty easily makes me feel nauseous, so I'm eating light. I'll be fine in a few days. Thank you for your concern."

Someone who was thoroughly being targeted decided to dismantle her excuse on the spot, unhurriedly: "The canteen made braised chicken with potatoes the day before yesterday, and I saw Translator Meng eating it quite heartily. And yesterday's steamed pork with rice, and last night's fried pork chunks—you finished all of those too. You seemed to have a very good appetite."

Meng Youyou: "..."

She rolled her eyes so hard in her mind they nearly fell out!

Meng Youyou summoned every ounce of her bottom-of-the-barrel patience to deal with him. Meeting the confused gazes of Zhong Heng and Zhang Yong, she feigned composure and tried to patch it up: "It's just been intermittent discomfort these past few days. Sometimes I feel nauseous and miserable, and sometimes I'm fine. I'm not quite sure of its pattern yet."

After finally managing to smooth things over, Meng Youyou thought for a moment. As the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. Rather than sitting idly by and waiting for him to keep picking at her flaws, it was better to shift the battlefield.

Meng Youyou launched a swift counterattack, her words laced with implication: "I really didn't expect Battalion Commander Huo to care so much about my physical condition and appetite. Even though we didn't sit together yesterday, you noticed from several tables away what I ordered and whether I finished it. I'm truly flattered."

After saying this, she didn't forget to put on a perfectly timed expression of maidenly shyness.

Sure enough, just as Meng Youyou expected, as soon as these words were out, both Zhong and Zhang's expressions changed. Their gazes, both overt and subtle, converged on their Battalion Commander, their expressions becoming increasingly vivid.

Under her deliberate linguistic guidance, Huo Qingshan's attentiveness toward her was amplified and colored with an undeniable sense of something "different."

Huo Qingshan finished the last sip of soup in his bowl without a ripple of emotion. He set the bowl down and corrected her without changing his expression: "You remembered wrong. Last night you were sitting at the table directly in front of me, quite close. It wasn't several tables away. My observation skills have always been good; it's normal that I noticed."

His tone was calm, as if stating a perfectly ordinary objective fact.

"Impossible," Meng Youyou countered decisively. She was quite confident in her memory; after all, she had been secretly observing him while eating lately, to the point where it was hard to forget.

She argued logically: "Yesterday, you were sitting at the second table from the entrance when counting from left to right, while I was sitting at that window table over there. How is that close? There were clearly several tables between us."

With her mouth running ahead of her brain, Meng Youyou realized something was wrong the moment she finished speaking.

The situation... had reversed in an instant.

'Damn it! Dammit! I've been played by that dog of a man again!'

She saw the corners of Huo Qingshan's thin lips curl slightly as he calmly admitted in a tone that couldn't be more indifferent: "Oh, then I must have remembered wrong."

But if one listened closely... wasn't there a hint of subtle gloating in that indifference?

Immediately after, the man picked up his tray and walked away gracefully.

This guy was truly graceful!

Leaving behind nothing but a whirlwind of commotion for Meng Youyou.

Frustrating!

Meng Youyou chose to ignore the two burning gazes coming from her side and across from her.

She stared fixedly at the retreating back of the man who had just turned a disadvantage into an advantage and a crisis into safety with a single sentence.

She didn't blink, as if she wanted to burn a hole through his back.

Seeing this, Zhong Heng quickly signaled Zhang Yong with his eyes: "Sigh, look at that longing gaze. Such devotion!"

Meng Youyou's emotions were complicated. The last time she watched him leave, she had felt like a victorious peacock, full of pride.

But right now, in the same canteen, at the same time of day, with Huo Qingshan once again walking away with his back to her, her state of mind was the complete opposite.

As a defeated "drowned rat," Meng Youyou felt a bit low. She absentmindedly shoveled a few bites of rice and left as well.

After Meng Youyou left, the remaining two were like a long-blocked dam finally bursting open, discussing the matter incessantly.

Battalion Commander Huo, the master of using a small force to move a great weight, thought: *Little brat, trying to fight me? You're still too young. Go back and practice more...*

Going with the flow, using his opponent's strength against them—it was as easy as turning over a hand. Controlled!

Meng Youyou: *Was I the clown all along? Is my hard work that hilarious???*

(End of Chapter)