During the few minutes she was chatting on the phone, Jiang Shenghe leaned back in his chair and stared at her.

When the call finally ended, Jiang Shenghe put down his teacup. “Someone wants to introduce a boyfriend to you?”

“Yeah.”

“Now, everyone in your circle of friends, including business partners and clients, know that you are single.”

“…”

Luo Qi looked at the boss, wondering what the boss meant with this observation.

Jiang Shenghe continued, “On the day of the summit forum, do you know why He Wancheng sent you away when he came over to talk to me?”

Luo Qi hadn’t thought much about it at the time. It was normal to ask her, an Assistant, to step back as there were many confidential matters that were not suitable for her to know at her level. That day, while she was waiting for her boss to finish discussing matters with He Wancheng, Pei Shixiao hurried out of the venue and looked for her.

“Director He asked me if my friend has not caught up with you yet,” Jiang Shenghe said, surprising Luo Qi very much. “If he has not, he wants to introduce you to a junior from his family. Last October, I told him that my friend wanted to chase you. Nine months have passed since then, and I haven’t introduced anyone to you yet. Do you think this is credible?”

Luo Qi thought to herself that he was the one who made up a friend on the spot so he shouldn’t question her if this was credible or not.

Jiang Shenghe guessed from her expression that she was slandering him again in her head. Outside of work, her facial expressions were actually very rich, and she probably didn’t even know it.

“I made an excuse at the time and said I didn’t know what was going on with you and Pei Shixiao. But then, you publicly announced in your circle of friends that you would not get back together with him. When He Wancheng next invites you to sit down and meet his nephew, will you go or not? A business partner like him, you have already refused once before; what excuse do you think you can use to refuse him a second time that will not offend him?

“In addition to Director He, there may be other heads of major accounts who want to pursue you in the future, or introduce you to someone they know. What should you do then? Reject everyone and offend them all?”

Luo Qi was also thinking about how to solve this problem. It was her right to refuse others, of course, but the other person would then definitely feel uncomfortable and lose face, which would more or less affect her work.

“I’ll go buy a ring this week,” Luo Qi said, “and when people want to introduce me to someone, I’ll tell them that I already have a boyfriend.”

“Alright, this method is not unreasonable.” Jiang Shenghe clicked on his photo album. “Now say that publicly in your circle of friends and stop others from even thinking about it.”

Luo Qi: “…”

She hasn’t bought the ring yet, and she didn’t have any props on hand—how could she say something in public like this?

Just a plain text saying she already had a boyfriend?

But then others might suspect that she was being pestered by Pei Shixiao and was just making up an excuse.

“I’ve sent you photos you can use as a shield.”

Luo Qi hurriedly opened their chat box and saw a picture of him holding her under an umbrella. The memory she had been trying desperately to suppress was suddenly brought back to the forefront of her mind.

Jiang Shenghe himself was also looking at the photos. What he needed to do now was blur the boundary between them as superior and subordinate, so that she could no longer simply treat him as her boss.

“After Director He came to me that day, I began thinking about how to reject his request completely for you.” He did not say that the photo was taken by Xiao Jiang. “The lobby manager took the photo. She thought we were a couple and said that the atmosphere was good at that time, so she took it and sent it to me. I asked Teacher Yu to paint the same scene in oil. If you post a picture of this oil painting to your circle of friends, no one will recognize that the other figure is me. You can blur my back in the original photo and also post that together with the oil painting.”

Luo Qi opened the picture of the oil painting and felt her heart move at the sight. Just looking at the oil painting alone, one would not necessarily associate the lady’s back with her, and even the people closest to her would not think much about it.

But if you looked at the painting together with the photo, you would definitely see it.

“I’ve given you the props. Send them out now. Don’t be indecisive.”

“… Okay, Chief Jiang.”

It was very strange that her boss told her to post it—and she would really just post it. She didn’t know where her rebellious nature had gone.

In truth, Luo Qi liked the oil painting very much. She saved it on her phone.

Then she started processing the photo. She was a master of photoshopping. She could photoshop the photos of Luo Yu with the little cucumbers into a grand pastoral scene—blurring the back of the boss was not a big deal at all.

In just a few minutes, the boss’s back was so photoshopped that even the boss himself probably couldn’t recognize it.

She posted the two photos accompanied by text: [A Rainy Night in Suzhou. The oil painting was specially commissioned by him.]

It was soon flooded with comments and likes.

… …

Her high school group was in a state of shock.

Luo Qi responded to them: [I went back home not long ago. He is not from Suzhou, so you don’t know him. Thank you all for your blessings.]

… …

Luo Yu: [(crying) (crying) (crying)]

She sent a private message to her cousin: [When did you get a boyfriend? Why did you hide it even from me? (snort)]

Luo Qi couldn’t explain clearly to her cousin: [He’s just my photoshopped boyfriend. The person in the photo is my colleague, I asked him to do me a favor.]

Luo Yu: [……]

Luo Qi explained: [A business partner wanted to introduce me to a blind date, so I refused this way so as not to offend him, as well as save me future trouble.]

Luo Yu: [Alas, Beauties always have a lot of worries. Just like me, hahaha.]

[Older Sister, you scared me. You don’t know, but the great Daddy of my Party A is about to cry to death. He hasn’t even had a meal with you yet.]

Luo Qi smiled: [Let him be the male lead in someone else’s love story.]

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Across the dining table, Jiang Shenghe was looking askance at the photos posted in Luo Qi’s circle of friends. He couldn’t even recognize his own figure from the back! He drank two sips of tea to suppress his dissatisfaction.

Fortunately, her caption and the responses were indeed suitable.

He liked the post and, for the first time, left her a comment: [The oil painting is good. Good thinking.]

Luo Qi: “…”

What was this if not praising himself?

… …

Chu Lin also left a comment: [Oil paintings have stories. When you get tired of looking at this painting one day (smirking), put it in my tavern.]

Luo Qi smiled. She won’t ever get tired of looking at it, but there will one day come a time when it would no longer be appropriate to keep this painting—when her boss finally confesses to the one he secretly loves, or when she herself has a new life of her own.

She promised Chu Lin: [I don’t know if I’ll get tired of it. But I ever do, I’ll put it in your tavern then.]

… …

The two put down their mobile phones when the food arrived.

Luo Qi ate in silence. When she posted to her circle of friends just now, she seemed to have been bewitched by something. She posted it directly without any hesitation, not even stopping to consider possible repercussions.

Now that she has calmed down, she felt a little regretful. Although the problem of blind dates has now been solved to good effect, whenever she thought that the person in the photo was her boss, her face burned. Right now, she couldn’t even look directly at him.

Jiang Shenghe couldn’t let her be too embarrassed by those things in her circle of friends so he broke the silence. Although the boundaries between them should indeed be blurred, some things were too much to process all at once. “You are the one who has the most troubles within the President’s office, just one trouble after another. These are originally things your parents have to worry about, now I have to play their role.”

Luo Qi almost choked and suddenly thought of Luo Yu’s words before: ‘The boss is so kind to you, treats you almost like a daughter, but don’t let down your boss’ earnest wishes. Work hard. Until you are rich, be filial to your boss.’

At that time, Luo Yu had mistaken Jiang Shenghe for Jiang Yueru, but now these words suited Jiang Shenghe quite well. He really did worry about her very much.

She could only continue to work her best for Yuanwei so he could repay him.

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

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