After smoking a cigarette, Jiang Shenghe didn’t enter the villa yet. There were many mosquitoes in the garden, and Aunt Chai specially lit a mosquito coil for him. She could tell that Jiang Shenghe was in a good mood.

“Have you had dinner?”

“I’ve eaten. I ate with Luo Qi.”

Aunt Chai knows Luo Qi and was very familiar with her. She used to work at Jiang Yueru’s house. After Jiang Yueru retired and went abroad, she came to Jiang Shenghe’s side.

In the past, when the aunt and nephew talked about Luo Qi, they did not mind her presence.

“Auntie, please go rest.”

Aunt Chai put away the box of mosquito coils and left him alone.

[How did you convince Luo Qi to post that photo of you together on WeChat Moments?] Jiang Sixun just woke up and saw Luo Qi’s photos and oil paintings in Moments, which was really incredible.

How could a cautious person like Luo Qi easily use the boss’ photo as a shield?

This was beyond his expectations.

Jiang Shenghe: [I didn’t convince her.]

It was really impossible to persuade Luo Qi.

When he got the photo and commissioned Teacher Yu to draw it, no matter how high-sounding the reason he came up with was, it was actually flawed. But he didn’t need to convince Luo Qi now, he just needed to blur the clear boss-subordinate boundaries between them.

Jiang Sixun understood Luo Qi very well, so he asked, very curious as to what happened, [“Then how could she bear to send it?”]

Jiang Shenghe: [She just did. Passively.]

Jiang Sixun suddenly found it interesting. No matter how passive she was, she wouldn’t just post it. Even he himself felt it was inappropriate to post photos of the boss. How could Luo Qi not feel the same way?

There was probably only one explanation: Luo Qi liked the painting.

[If you let her know how much you spent on that painting, she will never be able to remain calm.]

Jiang Shenghe: [Then I will think of another way.] 

If the secret was revealed, then so be it. He always planned to confess, and sooner or later she would know his feelings for her.

He has given it a lot of careful thought, but not everything would go according to his wishes and expectations.

Just like that night in Suzhou—who would have thought that he would be photographed holding Luo Qi under an umbrella? And if she had not received a call from her high school classmate, he would not have used the topic to his advantage. It would have been impossible to appear in her circle of friends otherwise.

He clicked on Luo Qi’s chat box, and the last message was when he accepted her 5,000 yuan.

He had thought the price was right at the time, but now he has thought about it more, it was too much. She wasn’t even willing to buy a new dress. 5,000 yuan must be an unconscionable expense for her.

Jiang Shenghe transferred 1,500 yuan to Luo Qi and explained: [“Teacher and I know each other well, so he didn’t ask for any other money. Just to pay 3,500 yuan for the materials he used.”]

She would probably be happy when she learned that she spent a thousand and a half yuan less than she expected.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Luo Qi had just arrived home. She turned on the balcony light and went to check on the cucumbers.

Unexpectedly, the boss transferred 1,500 yuan to her. She was pleased and surprised, and she felt like she had made a small fortune!

She was not polite at all and took it directly.

[Thank you, Chief Jiang.]

Regarding the painting, Jiang Shenghe gave her an explanation to prepare her mentally, should anyone ask: [“If He Wancheng or another person in charge of a large account asks, just say that the painting is worth a million yuan. If you say a price that’s too low, they will think that your boyfriend has no financial strength. They won’t take him seriously and will still chase you.”]

Luo Qi understood this. Oil paintings were more valuable as props than any photo.

Luo Qi read the boss’s message again; if the boss could say that the price of the painting was 1 million, then the painting was definitely not cheap. She was an outsider to the circles of the truly wealthy, and she knew nothing about oil paintings. If someone knew who painted it, that person could immediately discern how expensive it was because of the artist’s fame. But without knowing anything, she couldn’t begin to guess the price just by looking at the painting.

[Chief Jiang, is this painting very expensive according to the market price?]

[Yeah, but it’s just the market price.]

Jiang Shenghe added: [“Don’t be intimidated by the market price. Just like Chu Lin—if someone invites her for a piano recital, the appearance fee may be hundreds of thousands or even millions, but if you want to hear her play the piano, it’s just a matter of making a request. All the painters I know are at this level.”]

Luo Qi: “…”

This was the true difference in the circles they moved in.

But still, this relieved the psychological burden on her.

She was in the periphery of the wealthy circle, so it couldn’t be helped that her understanding  of matters was also superficial. Even though she knew that the oil painting was made by a renowned master, she still couldn’t truly see it that way. It was just a beautiful painting in her eyes.

Having solved the problem of the oil painting, Jiang Shenghe asked: [Are you already home?]

[Yes, I’m home.]

Jiang Shenghe did not want to end the chat. He followed his heart and asked: [“What are you doing?”]

However, he immediately felt that this sentence seemed to go too far beyond the boundary. Worried that she would be at a loss how to respond, he added: [Do you still plan to work overtime? If you do, send a copy of the information we sorted to my email.]

Luo Qi had reached out to pick cucumbers. When she listened to the message, her fingertips slipped and the cucumber almost fell to the ground. Then the second message came in, and her heart that had been thrown up in the air finally fell again.

She was obviously just standing on the balcony but somehow it felt like she was riding a roller coaster.

When she heard the words ‘what are you doing’, thoughts that she shouldn’t be having entered her mind.

Ah, she was guilty!

She almost misunderstood the boss.

[It will send it to you in five minutes.]

She put her phone on the shelf and picked up the scissors next to her to cut the cucumber.

Luo Qi looked at her phone. Jiang Shenghe didn’t chat with her anymore.

She went to the kitchen to wash the cucumbers and munched a full half of it to calm herself down.

Then she sat down at her desk, turned on the computer, and sent the information the boss asked for to his mailbox.

Jiang Shenghe: [Received it.]

He still wanted to talk to her, but he couldn’t find a suitable topic even after thinking for a long time. He could only talk about work: [Don’t forget to tell Li Rui tomorrow that the team of Ruipu Medical is to be retained.]

How could Luo Qi dare to forget such an important thing? She had already written it in her notes and set an alarm to remind her.

Before going to bed, she checked her Moments again.

There were dozens of messages, and there were several high-rise buildings under them. Her high school classmates treated the message area as a group chat, all trying to guess who the figure in the painting was and whether it was someone from their school.

… …

He Wancheng also saw Luo Qi’s post in her circle of friends. He had never been in the habit of liking or leaving comments.

When he saw the photo showing the backs of two people, his intuition was that Luo Qi had asked a relative at home to take a photo to avoid going to blind dates, but when he clicked on the photo of the oil painting—he refuted his original thought.

There was a seal in the lower corner of the painting, which could not be seen unless you looked carefully. If you were not an industry insider or a collector of oil paintings, you would not understand what that special seal meant.

But He Wancheng knew that seal. This oil painting was made by the master, Teacher Yu.

With Luo Qi’s current economic conditions, she would not spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on an oil painting as a prop against blind dates.

It seemed that she agreed to the pursuit of Jiang Shenghe’s friend.

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

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A list of all advance chapters is HERE.
Chapter 32.2 — Venting Anger On Her Behalf
Chapter 32.3 — Venting Anger On Her Behalf
Chapter 32.4 — Venting Anger On Her Behalf