Luo Qi discovered that her boss and Chu Lin were on a blind date today—and that both of them were unwilling. From the moment they sat down to eat, the two of them had no communication between them at all.

Fortunately, the two elders were both reasonable and did not deliberately try to match the two so the atmosphere during the meal was not too awkward.

Xiao Jiang and Li Rui were both sociable types, and the table gradually became more relaxed.

Chu Lin focused all her attention on Luo Qi. She glanced at Luo Qi from time to time and glimpsed another person through Luo Qi’s familiar brows. She asked, knowing the answer, “Luo Qi, are you from Suzhou City?”

Old Chu patted his daughter and said, “Have you gotten stupid from playing the piano? Why do you call Xiao Luo by her name? Xiao Luo is a few months older than you.”

Luo Qi smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter. We are all of the same age and calling each other by their name is the friendliest way.” She replied to Chu Lin, “Yes, my family is from the old city.”

Chu Lin smiled at her and said in perfect Suzhou dialect, “Your Suzhou dialect is very beautiful. My favorite city is Suzhou.”

She spoke the Suzhou dialect so well that everyone was surprised, including Old Chu, who had never known that his daughter could speak other dialects.

His daughter chose Suzhou City as the first stop of her tour. Was the reason related to her ex-boyfriend?

Li Rui asked Chu Lin, “To speak the dialect so well, did you hire a Suzhou-dialect teacher to teach you?”

Chu Lin shook her head, “No. My ex-boyfriend taught me.”

“….”

Old Chu was so angry that he almost vomited blood!

He’d been worrying that she would act unruly tonight and cause trouble. It turned out that the trap was waiting right here and they unwittingly walked into it.

… …

At the end of dinner, Chu Lin did not ask for Jiang Shenghe’s contact information. She did, however, leave with Luo Qi’s WeChat account, saying that it would be more convenient this way to ask for advice on the Suzhou dialect.

Once the rest have all gone downstairs, Old Chu sighed and said to Liang Zhen, “Look at them, they are deliberately trying to mess with us. Fortunately, her mother didn’t come—she wanted to but I stopped her. If she had really come here tonight, wouldn’t she be sent directly to the hospital because of her high blood pressure? We’d need to call for an ambulance!”

Liang Zhen was also worried but for a different matter. It was a good thing that her husband was not here as well, otherwise he would have flipped the table over had he seen the trouble Jiang Shenghe caused.

She had been paying attention to her youngest son’s actions all night. He was so protective of Luo Qi that he didn’t even look at Luo Qi. He really didn’t plan on using Luo Qi as a shield in public.

It seemed that he brought Luo Qi here just to introduce her to her.

When they got downstairs, before her son got into the car, Liang Zhen called him and pulled him aside to question him.

She has learned that Luo Qi and her boyfriend had been together for many years, and they were about to get married, but something happened and the engagement was broken off.

“Mom doesn’t doubt your character, of course…”

“Just that?”

“… the time when Luo Qi and her boyfriend…” Liang Zhen adjusted her words again and again, “Mom doesn’t suspect that you broke them up.”

“Do you think saying this is different from suspecting me?”

Jiang Shenghe really didn’t feel that there was a need to explain, so he just said,  “When you have time, please advise my father more so that he can accept the reality as soon as possible.”

Liang Zhen truly has a headache. She was now in a dilemma: with her son on one side and her husband on the other.

“Your aunt’s hospitalization this time. In fact, it wasn’t that serious, right? She was half-pretending?”

“Yes.”

“…”

What nonsense!

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

On the way back to the hotel, Luo Qi was still thinking about why Chu Lin wanted her WeChat.

Moreover, during the meal, Chu Lin was noticeably warmest to her.

“Is it easy to learn the Suzhou dialect?” the boss suddenly said.

What was difficult and what was simple were different for everyone.

Luo Qi turned to him and replied, “It’s for Chief Jiang to say if he would find it difficult.”

“My aunt learned from you?”

“Well, she learned a few words.” But after a few days, she would completely forget them, and in the end only remembered how to say ‘goodbye’.

Luo Qi noticed that this was the first time the boss called Jiang Yueru ‘aunt’ in front of her. He usually referred to her as ‘Director Jiang’.

Jiang Shenghe looked at her and asked, “How do you say ‘I have been secretly in love with you for six years and eight months‘ in Suzhou dialect?”

Luo Qi’s first reaction was that this ‘secret love’ the boss spoke of, this should be his own emotional experience.

Otherwise, who would say such a specific amount of time?

She quickly said this in Suzhou dialect.

Jiang Shenghe couldn’t remember it all at once. “Send me a voice message.”

Luo Qi wondered if the boss planned to use Suzhou dialect to indirectly express his feelings to the person he liked one day—and that perhaps the person couldn’t understand the Suzhou dialect.

She spoke into her phone at a moderate speed and sent this sentence to her boss.

She was worried that the boss wouldn’t be able to learn it just by listening to the pronunciation, so she thought of homophonic words, typed out this sentence, and also sent it to him.

Jiang Shenghe asked her, “Send it to me again, in Suzhou dialect saying from ‘six years and nine months’ to ‘seven years and eight months’.”

Luo Qi: “…”

It turned out that the boss was not sure which month he would confess, so he was preparing for a year’s time.

She said another ten sentences in Suzhou dialect.

The driver glanced back at them in the rearview mirror while waiting for a traffic light to change.

People like him dared not say anything.

It’s enough to continue acting as if it was no big deal.

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

---

T/N: I keep missing updates and, alas, it’s always for the same reason. I’ll do a double post tomorrow to make up for it. Thanks for reading!!

If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi ❤️
A list of all advance chapters is HERE.