Noon of September 14th was a time that everyone in the President’s Office would always remember.

Jiang Shenghe suddenly announced in the work group chat: [“For lunch today, there will be cold cucumber salad in the cafeteria. I grew them myself. Please eat them.”]

The rest of the company didn’t know that these cucumbers came directly from the boss’ house, only a few of them from his office knew.

When they went to the cafeteria at noon, Luo Qi queued up to get one.

It seemed the cucumbers she planted for her boss had a good harvest yesterday. They grew much better out in the yard than on the balcony—benefitting from more rain, dew, and sunshine—and more than sixty cucumbers were harvested all in all.

She didn’t ask her boss if he had found healing over the past few months.

… …

The alarm in her phone vibrated.

There was a high-level meeting at two o’clock in the afternoon, and it was a reminder for her to prepare the materials.

The boss would also be attending this meeting; Luo Qi went there ten minutes early. 

Everyone in the conference room was discussing the cold cucumbers salad for lunch today. Some of them had seen Jiang Shenghe’s driver carrying a large bag of cucumbers from the trunk of his car to the logistics department.

One of the directors was chatting, “Chief Jiang, why did you think of sending cucumbers to the cafeteria today?” He praised without hesitation, “I tried it, it tastes good.”

Jiang Shenghe smiled half-heartedly. “If I say I raised them, would you believe it or not?”

The director laughed. “I don’t think you have that much free time.”

Jiang Shenghe smiled. “That’s what I thought too.”

How could he be so idle indeed?

At the meeting, Jiang Shenghe asked Li Rui, “What is the current situation of Dongbo Medical?”

Li Rui was unprepared for this question. 

Dongbo Medical was a direct competitor of Yuanwei Medical. Its current situation was something that the person in charge of Yuanwei Medical should be concerned about, but the person in charge of Yuanwei Medical did not report to her.

Furthermore, the big boss of the group would ordinarily not ask about the competitors of their subsidiaries in detail. This was why she didn’t prepare about this before the meeting.

Li Rui responded accordingly, “I will follow-up on this matter with Yuanwei Medical. Chief Jiang, do you have plans?”

Jiang Shenghe said bluntly, “Acquire Dongbo.”

Li Rui promptly reminded the boss, “Dongbo rejected our intent to acquire them from the beginning, and we have never reached an internal consensus with them.” Now, there was even less hope for an acquisition.

“This is your concern,” Jiang Shenghe said. “I only care about the final result. In addition, the acquisition price should be the same as last year and will not be increased.”

The other senior executives had no objections to the acquisition of Dongbo Medical.

Li Rui: “… I’ll make arrangements as soon as possible.”

Luo Qi glanced at the boss. A year later, he still hasn’t given up on acquiring Dongbo Medical.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

The meeting ended at 5:10 pm, and Luo Qi and the boss walked out of the conference room together, one following the other.

Jiang Shenghe turned to her and said, “I want to make a call first. You go and wait for me in the car.”

Today, Friday, she and the boss were going to his primary school teacher’s house again.

The boss informed her yesterday, and she was mentally prepared. In the past few months, this would be the fifth time Luo Qi had gone to Teacher Chen’s house for dinner.

Teacher Jian has begun a new school year and the first semester was already well on its way. However, the next exam wasn’t until next Monday so there would be no test papers to correct tonight.

Qin Moling and Jian Hang arrived earlier than them for a change. When Luo Qi and the boss arrived, they were chatting in the living room.

Jian Hang waved, “Luo Qi, come here and take a look at the newly designed soda bottle.”

There were two soda bottles on the coffee table. One was new, and the body and illustration were indeed beautifully designed. Just looking at it made you want to buy it. The old bottle standing next to it was the one that Jian Hang had complained about; it was completely overshadowed by the new bottle.

Jian Hang was the president of one of Lemon’s business units. She transferred there after she and Qin Moling had obtained their marriage certificate. The first thing she did when she took office was to improve the taste of the soda drink and design a new bottle.

Qin Moling was the boss of Lemon. The original design of the old bottle was implemented with his approval. Jian Hang said that the bottle was ugly and questioned his aesthetics.

Jian Hang walked over to sit side by side with Qin Moling. She suddenly turned around and complained to his face, “Some people think that the previous bottle looks like a fairy.”

Qin Moling: “…”

This was obviously referring to him.

He never said that the bottle he once approved looked like a fairy!

“You might as well name names.”

Jian Hang was not to be rebuffed. “Qin Moling thought the previous bottle looked like a fairy.”

Qin Moling flipped through the book in his hand but he wasn’t really reading anything. He said to Jian Hang, “That was the aesthetic before marriage. You don’t think it looks good, and I also don’t think it looks good now either.”

Luo Qi was unexpectedly stuffed with dog food. Ever since the two had a wedding, the relationship between them had become noticeably different. Luo Qi looked away.

There was a bag of sweet oranges on the coffee table. Jiang Shenghe took one and peeled it.

He handed Luo Qi the sweet orange sitting on top of the peel. 

“I can peel it off myself,” Luo Qi murmured.

Jiang Shenghe didn’t retract his hand, so she had no choice but to take the orange; he threw the peel to the side of the box.

The two people sitting across them were also fed a mouthful of dog food by Jiang Shenghe.

Luo Qi could clearly feel that her ears were red and getting hotter by the second.

While she felt like hiding in embarrassment, Chen Yu stuck her head out of the kitchen and said, “Xiao Luo, didn’t you say you want to try frying the lotus roots today? It’s ready. Come on over.”

“I’m coming, Auntie.” Luo Qi stood up so fast she almost ran to the kitchen.

… …

Unfortunately, Luo Qi’s thoughts were distracted by Jiang Shenghe the entire time, and several of the lotus roots were almost burnt to pieces.

Those half-burnt lotus roots were all eaten by Jiang Shenghe.

After dinner, they played cards with Jian Hang’s father until half past ten before leaving.

Luo Qi looked at the lights outside the car window. She had been distracted ever since they left Jian Hang’s neighborhood. 

When the boss peeled that orange for her, he was probably just taking care of her as a courtesy. Perhaps he felt that she was an outsider in Teacher Chen’s family, and he was the one who brought her there, so he thought it was only natural that he take care of her.

But she was still greedy and overinterpreted it.

A single unthinking move by her boss could spell doom for her.

“Chief Jiang,” Luo Qi called him, having decided on something. “I want to inform you in advance that I plan to resign as your Assistant.”

Jiang Shenghe was caught off guard, “Why is such a good Assistant like you suddenly resigning?”

“It’s not about leaving the company. I want to compete for the position of General Manager of Ruipu Medical.”

She was taking the initiative to leave, obviously without any sense of reluctance to part from him.

Jiang Shenghe’s face remained calm, “Tell me why you want to go to Ruipu.”

Luo Qi did not hide anything. “There are two reasons. First, as you know, my family still owes more than ten million. With my current annual salary, I will be thirty-four or five years old by the time I finish paying it off. At that time, it could only be my state of mind but I feel that I won’t be that young anymore, so I want to pay it off as soon as possible.

“I don’t want to spend my youngest years paying off debts. Owing money consumes too much of me.”

Jiang Shenghe looked at her. “You must have been very tired these past years.”

Luo Qi said nothing, only shook her head.

Jiang Shenghe asked, “And the second reason?”

Luo Qi arranged her emotions before speaking. After all, seven years has passed since she gave him her project plan, so he probably had long lost any impression of it.

“You may not remember, but I am interested in 3D printing. Going to Ruipu could be regarded as realizing one of my dreams.”

“I remember,” he said.

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

---

T/N: A happy new year to everyone! We had relatives over at my mom’s house during the holidays and while it was fun, it was all very routine-disruptive. I was able to do some translations amidst the chaos but had to give up on finding time to actually post them. Still, I hope everyone had a good break. 2024 can only be better 🤗

If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi. There’s a bunch of advance chapters available to supporters ❤️
Chapter 35.1 — Birthday Confession
Chapter 35.2 — Birthday Confession
Chapter 35.3 — Birthday Confession
Chapter 35.4 — Birthday Confession
Chapter 36.1 — Getting A Marriage Certificate
Chapter 36.2 — Getting A Marriage Certificate
Chapter 36.3 — Getting A Marriage Certificate
Chapter 36.4 — Getting A Marriage Certificate