There were no trash cans around, so Pei Shixiao opened the car door and put out the cigarette in the car ashtray.

When he stood up straight, Luo Qi had already approached.

“I’m not here for anything. I just wanted to see you,” he said, looking at her.

Luo Qi didn’t say anything and walked past the car.

Pei Shixiao’s eyes followed her like a shadow. After not seeing her for more than half a month, she had visibly lost a lot of weight. She had never been so thin. His fingers tightened on the car door, his feelings hard to describe.

She entered the building; he didn’t catch up to her or bother her.

Pei Shixiao got back into the car without starting the engine. Despite the long distance this year, he came to see her only a handful of times. She told him in their video calls several times that she missed him. What on earth was he even busy with at that time that he could not take the time to see her?

While he was stunned, his mother’s call came in.

“You’re not in the company?”

Pei Shixiao returned with another question, “Mom, are you in Shanghai?”

“Let me ask you, where are you?”

“I went to see Luo Qi. I won’t go back tonight, don’t wait for me at the company.” He asked again, “Is something the matter?”

Madam Pei replied to her son with a bad face, “Can I only go to your company because of something? You’d better come back as soon as possible. I plan to fire someone from your company, and you can come back and see how to compensate this person.”

Pei Shixiao pressed a hand to his forehead. This was his own company. His mother had been there twice in total and only knew his secretary. Suddenly she wanted to intervene in the affairs of his company and fire someone. 

Needless to say, the person to be fired was Cui Peng.

He had never told his mother about Cui Peng. It seemed that his mother had asked someone to inquire into matters.

“Mom, she will leave when the project she is working on is over, and it will only take a few months. The cheating was my fault, and it is me who should reflect on it. Now that things have gone wrong, will I put all the blame on her? Fire her to relieve my anger?”

“Are you still defending her now?”

“Am I still in the mood to defend others?”

“I won’t get involved in your company’s affairs, but if someone from your company is too cunning and affects my family, no matter who she is, I won’t spare her!”

When her son had a dispute with the family because of Luo Qi, she was angry but still had measure.

But Cui Peng had touched her bottom line—in her life, what she hated the most was a mistress.

“Come back quickly. Why didn’t you go there a long time ago, and only now think of going to see Luo Qi. If she wanted to forgive you, she wouldn’t cancel the wedding and return everything.”

Pei Shixiao did not compromise at all, “I can’t go back tonight, I still have something to do here.”

Madam Pei was too lazy to talk nonsense, “Even if you don’t come back, think about this carefully: if Yuanwei Group acquired your Dongbo Medical, would you sell it or not?”

She added, “Anyway, I will go to your office again tomorrow. I will go ahead now.”

After that, she hung up the phone directly.

Pei Shixiao didn’t call back and threw the phone aside. He really didn’t have anything else to do tonight—he just didn’t want to go back.

He stayed downstairs at Luo Qi’s apartment until eleven o’clock. When everything around him became quiet, he drove away.

… …

Luo Qi didn’t know when Pei Shixiao left, nor did she care. When she got home, she closed the curtains.

Before their breakup, she had imagined a scene like today many times during the six months they were away from each other. She would return to the apartment after getting off work and he would suddenly appear downstairs waiting for her.

But it didn’t happen. Not once.

The sun shone brightly today, and the cucumbers had grown its third leaf.

She regained her composure and took a few more pictures.

It’s been three weeks since she moved into the rental apartment, and she has begun to slowly adapt to everything.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

The next day, she woke up early again.

Jiang Shenghe didn’t come to the company in the morning, and Luo Qi took the time to familiarize herself with the work she took over from Secretary Ju.

On lunch break, the boss sent her a message: [Go directly to the venue.]

There was a signing ceremony in the afternoon, and Luo Qi brought her laptop with her.

Different from yesterday’s, today’s venue was on another floor of the hotel and had a different layout. It was all square tables with seven or eight people on each table.

Jiang Shenghe met an acquaintance and sat down at the middle table without heading to the front.

Luo Qi entered through the doors from the back and saw him as soon as she came in. Each table had several chairs prepared for the assistants. She sat down on the chair behind Jiang Shenghe.

Even the table closest to the front was still a certain distance from the big screen, and their table in the middle was even further away.

Luo Qi could see the words on the big screen clearly, but she wondered if it would be difficult for the boss not to wear glasses.

From the moment she sat down, Jiang Shenghe kept chatting with the people next to him.

When they finally finished a topic, she leaned forward. He was the boss. She couldn’t possibly poke his shoulder to signal him to turn back when passing something, so she called him softly, “Chief Jiang.”

At the same time, someone came around the table to find Jiang Shenghe, “Chief Jiang, long time no see.”

Luo Qi sat up straight; she would bide her time so she could give him his eyeglasses. In this situation, the boss must, of course, socialize with business acquaintances first.

Jiang Shenghe stood up. The person approaching was He Xu, the nephew of He Wancheng, the richest man in Suzhou City. When he made an appointment with He Wancheng to meet and play golf in Haicheng during the National Day holiday, He Xu was also there.

He shook hands with He Xu, “Hello.” After a few simple greetings, Jiang Shenghe said apologetically, “Please excuse me for a moment.”

He turned around and asked Luo Qi seated behind him, “Why were you calling me?”

Before Luo Qi could say anything, Jiang Shenghe saw Luo Qi holding his eyeglass case in her hand. She probably called him to see if he needed glasses. He stretched out his hand and said, “Give them to me.”

Luo Qi felt flustered inside. She didn’t expect that the boss could still care about her, an assistant. She hurriedly handed the case over.

Seventh Year of My Secret Love for You translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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