The two men from Jiang family were almost neck and neck, with Jiang Sixun losing two games in a row, then Jiang Shenghe lost three games, and then Jiang Sixun fell behind again.

They played cards without talking. The loser drank a cup of rice wine in one go, and Xiao Jiang was responsible for pouring it.

The waiter brought grilled lamb chops, which Xiao Jiang specially ordered for Luo Qi. When they were in Haicheng, the boss ordered lamb chops; he inferred that lamb chops were Luo Qi’s favorite.

They were not particular about it. They took the lamb chops and bit into them while standing. Reading the cards was the most important thing.

A total of nine games have been played so far; Jiang Shenghe won five and lost four, losing the last one.

If they play again, they might be able to draw a tie.

Jiang Sixun threw down the cards and said, “Let’s continue at the next dinner party.”

Jiang Shenghe handed the cards to Xiao Jiang, “You continue to play.”

When he turned around to hand over the cards, he reached too far and accidentally nudged his chopsticks to the floor without realizing it.

Luo Qi picked up the boss’s chopsticks, placed them on the sideboard, and took a replacement pair of clean chopsticks.

Jiang Shenghe turned, but Luo Qi was not beside him, and his eyes couldn’t help but look for her. She was in front of the sideboard, holding chopsticks in her hand. He didn’t know what she was doing.

He looked away.

Just now he had been playing cards with Jiang Sixun and he drank four glasses of wine in a row without eating anything. There were two or three empty dinner plates around but there was only a single pair of chopsticks on the dinner plate by his elbow. Jiang Shenghe naturally thought they were his. He picked up the chopsticks, picked up some vegetables, and put them in his mouth.

Luo Qi came back with a new pair of chopsticks for the boss and was still munching on a lamb chop. When she saw that the boss was actually eating vegetables and her chopsticks were missing— she missed the lamp chop and bit the tip of her tongue instead.

Hss— how painful!

Fortunately, the lighting was dim and no one else noticed that the boss’ chopsticks had fallen.

At this point, she could only bury this secret.

At the other end of the table, Xiao Jiang and Secretary Ju were playing cards again.

Luo Qi took the now useless pair of clean chopsticks and ran straight over there, standing behind Secretary Ju, looking at the cards as if nothing had happened.

After watching for a few minutes, she returned to her seat with a calm expression.

Jiang Sixun picked up a damp, rolled-up hand towel and wiped his hands slowly. He smiled to himself, put down the hand towel, picked up a lamb chop and gnawed on it. He opened his phone with one hand and typed: [You used Luo Qi’s chopsticks.]

Jiang Shenghe’s cell phone vibrated. After reading the message, he raised his head and glanced across the table. Jiang Sixun was looking at the lamb chop in his hand, not looking at him.

No wonder Luo Qi went off to watch the others playing cards and was very quiet when she came back.

It turned out to be a regrettable matter.

He replied to Jiang Sixun: [It doesn’t matter.] 

But, of course, he couldn’t tell Luo Qi that he didn’t mind, and he could only let her be bothered by this in silence.

After exiting the chat, Jiang Shenghe placed his phone back on the dining table.

Luo Qi accidentally caught a glimpse of his screen. The background of the screen saver was a photo of Times Square. Before she could appreciate the whole picture clearly, the phone screen dimmed.

Tonight’s dinner party—except for that incident with the chopsticks—was truly enjoyable.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

In the last week of October, Luo Qi once again took the high-speed train to Suzhou.

The boss didn’t say how many days this business trip would take so she asked Luo Yu to go to the rental house to take care of her cucumber seedlings when she was free.

Yesterday, Director Jiang left for abroad with Jiang Sixun, and she was not sure when she would return.

Luo Qi was inexplicably sad about it.

Luo Qi took a few pictures of the view outside the car window, looked through her photo album, and stopped at the picture she took of the tavern.

‘Come, I’m still here‘

She’s coming, but she didn’t know who would be there.

[Sister, will you go home?] Luo Yu asked her.

[Yeah. The hotel is 500 meters away from home. It would be outrageous not to go. I’ll go home and see how angry my dad and mom are with me (dog head)]

Luo Yu: [No matter what Second Uncle and Second Aunt say, don’t take it to heart. Adults are like that, they like to scold people as ones who have already gone through things before.]

[Sister, when you are in a better mood, I will introduce you to meet someone (excited) (star eyes) (star eyes)]

Luo Qi: [Is it your Party A’s Daddy again?]

Luo Yu typed a bunch of ‘hahaha’, blurring the key points: [I will introduce you to a very good friend. I estimate that you will develop in Beijing for a long time in the future. But after my project is over, I will go back to Shanghai. I don’t trust you to be alone. Who will be there for you then? Who will take care of the little cucumber seedlings for you? The more friends you have, the more options you have. By the way, he is also from Suzhou. The fact that I can talk to him is all due to the Suzhou dialect.]

[No more talking, the team leader asked me to come over. Don’t worry, I will take good care of your cucumbers.]

… …

When they arrived in Suzhou, Jiang Shenghe had an appointment with Lu Baisheng, and let them make their own arrangements for the evening.

Like every other time before, he would drive himself.

Luo Qi had already opened the door of the business car but suddenly thought of something. She turned around and called out to Jiang Shenghe, “Chief Jiang.”

Ever since he used her chopsticks that night at the tavern, she couldn’t look at him straight.

Jiang Shenghe’s car was already pulling away. He saw Luo Qi chasing after him in the rearview mirror. He stepped on the brakes and rolled down the window, “What’s wrong?”

Luo Qi gave him his eyeglasses, “I forgot to give you these.”

He couldn’t see clearly when driving at night without wearing eyeglasses. He said this once, and she always remembered it. 

There were actually spare glasses in the car, but Jiang Shenghe took them anyway.

He took out his glasses and dutifully put them on. He watched from the rearview mirror as she got into the business car and closed its door, then he stepped on the accelerator and drove away.

When she arrived at the hotel, Luo Qi checked in and only stayed long enough to place her suitcase in her room. She planned to go home before it got dark.

She bought a small bouquet of sunflowers for her mother and walked towards the stone bridge. The memories of the past couldn’t stop flooding in, and she tried her best to suppress them.

From June to October, things changed and people changed.

… …

At the entrance of the alley, she met their neighbor, Grandma Qian.

Grandma Qian knew that she had broken off the engagement. When she saw her, she exclaimed, “Little girl is back. What a coincidence. I made yogurt today, I’ll go give you a box.” 

“Thank you Grandma.”

Grandma Qian went back inside her house and brought her yogurt. She had picked the largest box in the refrigerator. “Your father is away on a business trip, and your mother may not have gotten off work yet.”

“How are they doing?”

“Things are pretty good.” Grandma Qian didn’t need to tell her about all those bad things, “You’ve lost weight, eat more.”

Regarding her and Pei Shixiao, even if Grandma Qian was curious, she didn’t ask much.

Luo Qi opened the door, found a vase, filled it with water and put the sunflowers in.

Her mother had hung the clothes to dry on the balcony, and she collected them one by one, folded them, and put them in the closet in her mother’s room.

Once done, she opened the yogurt given by Grandma Qian and heard voices at the door.

“Is Qiqi back?” It was the Eldest Aunt’s voice.

They all knew that Luo Zhiqiu was on a business trip in Shanghai, but the lights were on at home. There could be no one else except Luo Qi.

Jiang Yifang would rather that her daughter had not come back. These days her eldest aunt would sometimes come to see them. Every time, she would make various accusations; accusing them of not being able to educate the child, yakking away just because they couldn’t refute her. 

From time to time, she would mention that they owed their family 10 million yuan.

Who would have thought that her eldest aunt would come over today at this exact time?

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

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