Jiang Shenghe still remembered that she was going to draw for him, so he wanted to go the study to get her some pen and paper, “Go down first?”

He wanted to hug her, but she sat cross-legged to keep some distance from him.

Luo Qi put her legs down and sat astride him, “Didn’t you say to hug for two hours?”

She slid her body forward, right in front of him, and put her arms around his neck, “I’m not going to come down.”

Jiang Shenghe stood up and held her; Luo Qi wrapped her legs around his waist.

Just now, he thought that she was sitting cross-legged on his lap because she didn’t want to be so close to him, but now he realized that he had misinterpreted her actions. She was adapting to him in her own way.

Jiang Shenghe carried her all the way to the study. The pens she needed should be in the pen holder. “You can get it yourself.”

There was also paper on the table. Luo Qi picked a few random pieces of paper, as well as a pen. She picked out a black pen.

“I never learned to draw formally, I just paint blindly.”

“I’ve seen it.”

“…” Luo Qi asked, already sure of the answer, “Do you think it looks good?”

Jiang Shenghe looked at her and said, “It looks very good.”

The moment they looked at each other, he wanted to kiss her, but he kept thinking that after the kiss ended then the hug would also end, and he hadn’t hugged her enough yet, so he could only endure it again and again.

Returning to the terrace, Jiang Shenghe changed seats and sat down facing the light.

This put Luo Qi’s back to the light and she can draw as she wished.

There were some financial magazines on the table; Luo Qi took one and used it as base for her drawing paper.

She didn’t need a whole piece of blank paper, so she folded it in half. This left the top half of the financial magazine exposed; it was actually the latest monthly issue of —-. Luo Qi suddenly remembered that Jiang Shenghe had accepted an exclusive interview for this magazine a few days ago. She didn’t know which issue it was published.

Anyway, Luo Qi just needed a prop and looked at him. “I want to draw you wearing your eyeglasses.”

“Okay.” The glasses were in the study. Jiang Shenghe didn’t mind the trouble and picked her up again.

He preferred to hold her while standing—that way, her whole body was pressed against him.

It turned out that this was how falling in love was: they haven’t done anything and twenty minutes just slipped by.

She picked up his glasses, and they went back to the terrace again.

The originally piping hot coffee now had little remaining heat.

Luo Qi opened the case and gave him the eyeglasses. Or rather, she handed it to him but then took it back, then put it on him herself. She carefully held the temples with her fingertips, being careful not to touch him anywhere.

Then she casually brushed the hair on his forehead. When they were in the bed, she had ran her fingers through his hair.

Her breathing caught and her mind wandered, thinking about that time. Luo Qi adjusted his eyeglasses seriously.

Jiang Shenghe wanted to take a picture of this scene, but his phone was not beside him. It was placed on the other side of the table, out of reach.

After putting his glasses on him, Luo Qi picked up the coffee and drank it. The coffee happened to be cold and could help cool her down.

She drank the cold coffee and tried to calm her breathing.

Her breath couldn’t help but catch when she was putting his glasses on him just now.

Luo Qi raised the magazine to prevent him from seeing what she was drawing, and then started to move the pen in a suitable manner, “Try not to move too much while I’m drawing you, and keep your expression unchanged.”

Jiang Shenghe wanted to laugh but held back, “Okay.”

With one stroke, the jawline became crooked. The crookedness was so obvious that it could not be corrected at all.

This drawing could only be abandoned, so Luo Qi moved to a blank space and continued drawing.

Jiang Shenghe’s jawline was really clear and smooth. She couldn’t draw that feeling. After dilly-dallying for a few seconds, her eyes left the paper and she was finally able to look up at him, from his narrow, deep eyes to his high-bridged nose.

She had never had the chance nor did ever dare to look at him so boldly before. Today, through the excuse of drawing him, she was able to look at him openly and carefully.

He always stared at her before. This was the first time for Jiang Shenghe to be stared at so intently by someone. This someone was also the person he liked for such a long time, and he felt awkward.

It was also the first time in his life that he felt unaccountably embarrassed.

Luo Qi paid attention to timing; she looked at him for about a minute, then lowered her head and continued drawing on the paper.

In fact, it was all in vain. She couldn’t draw him at all.

Jiang Shenghe asked, “How long will you take to finish painting?”

“About twenty minutes.”

A simple drawing could be drawn in a few minutes, but drawing was not the purpose—wanting to look at him openly was.

She finally stopped drawing and spent more than half the time observing him.

Ten minutes later, Jiang Shenghe couldn’t help but wonder, “How is the drawing going? Let me take a look.”

“The painting is not very good,” Luo Qi put the paper up to show him.

Jiang Shenghe: “…”

The thing on the paper had nothing to do with him.

“Didn’t I say that I haven’t formally studied how to draw? They’re all just doodles.” Luo Qi added hair to the simple drawing, and the ‘masterpiece’ was completed.

Jiang Shenghe realized now that she didn’t really want to draw him.

He took the pen and paper from her hand and wrote: The eleventh day of receiving the marriage certificate.

By now, Luo Qi’s legs were really numb.

It took a long time for the soreness and numbness to pass.

She finally got off Jiang Shenghe’s lap and motioned for him to stand up, “Let me give you a hug.”

It was inconvenient to wear a suit jacket, so Luo Qi took it off.

“Isn’t it cold if you take it off?”

“Let me cool down first before wearing it again.”

Jiang Shenghe thought she would just be hugging him, so he took the suit jacket and planned to put it around her shoulders.

Luo Qi put her arms around his waist and used all her strength to hold him off the ground for a few seconds. But his legs were too long—it felt like he was off the ground, but in fact he was not.

“Luo Qi, what are you doing? You can’t lift me.” He was really worried she would hurt herself.

When she let go of him, Jiang Shenghe rubbed her arms.

“It’s okay, I’m not tired.” It was really a bit cold in just her thin-strapped nightgown, so she hurriedly put on his suit jacket again.

Jiang Shenghe sat down and pulled another chair for her, “No more hugs. You sit on the chair.” Her legs were numb just now and she would be feeling uncomfortable for a while.

Luo Qi buttoned up his suit and solemnly said, “I promised you, two hours.”

She stopped sitting cross-legged and just straddled his lap.

She wasn’t used to it at first, so she took her phone for something to look at.

There were unread messages in the work group, so she clicked on them.

Jiang Shenghe lowered his head and saw the background picture of her chat window—it was the one he used as a screen saver.

“You like this photo?”

“Yeah,” Luo Qi admitted, “I liked it even before. You were my boss at that time and I didn’t dare to ask more questions.” This sitting position was a bit ambiguous, so she searched for something to say, “When was the photo taken?”

“Seven years ago.”

“Have you been using this screensaver for seven years?”

“Yeah.”

As long as it was related to this number, it meant it was related to her.

“Have you ever met me in Times Square?” But even she didn’t think there would be such a coincidence.

Jiang Shenghe didn’t answer the question, “Look at what’s special about the photo.”

Luo Qi enlarged the photo and started looking from the top to the bottom. In the crowd, she spotted a familiar dress and, as expected. the person wearing the dress was her.

She also set her screensaver to this photo.

She raised her head and looked at him. Since she stopped calling him ‘Chief Jiang’, she seemed to have become a little closer to him. “How many other things about me do you keep that I can’t even guess at?”

Jiang Shenghe smiled lightly, “Not much.”

Luo Qi naturally didn’t believe it.

The gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose were still there, so she took them off and used a glasses cloth to clean them for him.

“I’ll treat you to dinner tonight. Let’s go out to eat.”

Jiang Shenghe thought for a while, “Let’s just stay at home. Aren’t you worried about bumping into colleagues from Yuanwei?”

“I have an idea. This is not like when I was shopping. I couldn’t explain that if we bumped into people.” Luo Qi continued to clean his glasses.

Jiang Shenghe asked, “Then go to the tavern?”

“No. Go to the restaurant that you and I went to before. Jiang Sixun invited us to have dinner there.”

After polishing the eyeglasses, Luo Qi didn’t put them  in the case but instead put them on him again.

Jiang Shenghe smiled. She has played with this pair of glasses for more than ten minutes.

The eleventh day after receiving the marriage certificate also seemed to be the first day of their falling in love.

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 45.3 — Missing Him
Chapter 45.4 — Missing Him