They finished the dinner with humor.

Jiang Shenghe waited until Luo Qi wiped the corner of her mouth before he stood up.

They all moved to the living room. Cui Ran walked behind and to the side of Luo Qi and saw clearly the diamond ring on Luo Qi’s middle finger. The ring on Jiang Shenghe’s ring finger was not from the same brand.

Judging from Jiang Shenghe’s attitude towards Luo Qi, he must have some feelings for her. There were many men like this around her. Although they liked someone, they still looked for someone of equal status when getting married.

When she herself was finally able to walk with her husband, only she knew how it felt.

Luo Qi went to talk to Yu Bo, saying that financing had to be done from beginning to end. Ruipu was short of money, and if she didn’t solve the problem now, she would still have to find a way to raise funds after the New Year.

Ruipu’s major shareholder, Yuanwei, had already provided office space and was unable to provide further financial support. The second largest shareholder, Shu Rui, only had technology but no money. Shareholder Lingjia Capital had money but was keeping silent.

“Mr. Yu, what do you think?”

She made matters clear up front, “There’s no equity involved, there’s no need to undertake risks. It’s a two-year loan. We’ll pay you interest plus a certain percentage of profits. We’re trustworthy, and you don’t have to worry about us not being able to pay it back. The return on investment could even be higher than your other projects as a venture capital.”

Yu Bo said, “150 million is impossible.”

“50 million is fine, it’s not too little. I can slowly gather the rest later.”

Yu Bo didn’t say anything else.

“Then I’ll let Mr. Shu reach out to your office”.

Luo Qi went into the yard and called Shu Rui immediately.

Su Rui was packing his things and preparing to move after lunch.

Ever since Luo Qi came to Ruipu, his rhythm has been sorely disrupted.

“What is it?”

“I raised 50 million from Lingjia.”

Shu Rui reminded her, “When Yuanwei acquired us, we agreed that we couldn’t introduce other investors that could dilute Yuanwei’s equity.”

“It doesn’t involve equity—it’s in the form of a loan.”

Their funding gap was around 40 million. With 50 million, all problems could be solved. For her to be able to raise 50 million from Yu Bo, he guessed that she has exaggerated the amount of financing needed several times over.

She has resolved the funding issue ahead of time, and Shu Rui’s tone softened unconsciously as he spoke, “You went to Shanghai just to raise funds?”

Actually, she went to see elders of the family.

Luo Qi calmly asked, “What else?”

Someone came up behind her. She turned around: Jiang Shenghe had come out of the villa to look for her.

“I’m busy,” Luo Qi hung up the phone.

“Why did you come out?”

“Looking for my former assistant.”

Jiang Shenghe took out half a mandarin orange cradled on its peel and gave it to her, “This is sweet.” He had eaten half and kept the rest for her.

Luo Qi took it and said, “You came out specifically to bring me fruit?”

“Mm.”

“Aren’t they looking for you?”

“Uncle Xu is playing chess with Yu Bo, and Cui Ran is helping to make tea, so they didn’t have time to look for me.”

Jiang Shenghe turned his back to the door of the villa and blocked her, so that no one in the living room could see what she was doing.

Luo Qi broke off two orange segments and put them to his mouth first. Jiang Shenghe bit them, and her fingertips touched his soft lips.

She then withdrew her hand and took a few more segments and stuffed them into her mouth.

It was sweeter than what she had eaten in the afternoon. She has rarely eaten mandarin oranges this sweet.

After eating the orange, Jiang Shenghe took the peel from her hand.

They entered the villa one after another.

Cui Ran finished making tea. She nodded and greeted her, then walked away and found a quiet place to listen to her cousin’s voice message.

She had asked her cousin if the married man she was talking about was Jiang Shenghe.

[“Sister, don’t ask so many questions. Just pretend you don’t know. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but not knowing who it is will only benefit you.]

It seemed that it really was Jiang Shenghe, otherwise her cousin wouldn’t be so tight-lipped.

[Have you been warned off by Jiang Shenghe?]

Cui Peng sent a smiling emoticon.

Cui Ran: [I understand. Then keep your mouth shut and don’t mess with Jiang Shenghe. Who Luo Qi is with or whose mistress she becomes is none of your business. I don’t care if you mess with other people, but I won’t mess with Jiang Shenghe. Don’t implicate me and your brother-in-law any more.]

Her cousin has lied to her twice, which left her with sequelae and her trust in her cousin was almost zero.

To be on the safe side, she decided to keep her cousin by her side and discipline her well.

[When you come back from your trip, go to work at Linghong Investment Department.]

Cui Peng: [Sister, no. I don’t want people to say anything about you behind your back.]

[What will they  say about me? Are you worried about me being talked about, or do you want to run around and not be controlled by me?]

[Sister, that’s not what I meant.]

[“Stop talking, come back Linghong to work and stop causing trouble for me. Just be thankful that Luo Qi didn’t go too far. Otherwise, if she had posted the video online, don’t you know that your whole family would be embarrassed along with you? Uncle and Aunt would be pissed off to death by you!”]

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

In the living room, Jiang Shenghe played chess with his uncle, and Luo Qi sat beside him and watched.

In the more than ten minutes she watched, Cui Ran noticed that Luo Qi glanced at Jiang Shenghe’s profile several times—she could not hide her liking and admiration for him.

After staying at Xu Xiangyi’s house until half past eight, they said their goodbyes. Cui Ran was the last to leave. 

She asked curiously, “Which family did President Jiang marry¹? I haven’t heard any news yet.”

Xu Xiangyi collected the chess pieces and said slowly, “You’ll know when they hold the wedding.”

Cui Ran tactfully didn’t ask any more questions. Perhaps they didn’t need to wait until the wedding is held. It was mid-January. She only needed to wait until October for Yuanwei Group’s anniversary banquet. Maybe Jiang Shenghe would openly bring his fiancée to attend it.

When that time comes, she wanted to see how Luo Qi would deal with it.

… …

Back at their apartment in Shanghai, Jiang Shenghe planned to make some midnight snacks for Luo Qi, as she didn’t have enough to eat at Uncle Xu’s house.

Luo Qi grabbed his hand and stopped him from going into the kitchen. “I’m not hungry.”

It was already late, and she would just gain weight if she ate now.

She opened the equity transfer agreement that Xu Xiangyi had given her, and she felt emotional.

Now she has become the largest shareholder of her father’s company; Lingjia Capital has transferred all of its shares in her father’s company to her.

“Did you invest in it?”

She looked at Jiang Shenghe.

Jiang Shenghe said, “No. Uncle Xu didn’t ask for my funds at the beginning.”

Luo Qi put down the transfer agreement and leaned against him, “Hold me.”

Jiang Shenghe opened all the curtains and turned off the lights. The brilliant river view was in full view. He held her in his arms.

Luo Qi put her face against his neck and said, “If I hadn’t met you, I don’t know how much money my family would owe. I don’t even dare to think how long my dad’s health would have lasted.”

“You are destined to meet me.”

He held her waist tightly and lifted her slightly off the ground.

Luo Qi grabbed his neck and swung on him like a child, “Hold me for a while longer, don’t let me down.”

Jiang Shenghe kissed her forehead, “Okay.”

In the dim living room, Luo Qi looked at his dim outline. “Sometimes I wonder what kind of life I would be living now if we had missed each other. I will definitely still be paying back my family’s debts, and I wouldn’t have known at all how you felt about me. Life would go on, each day the same as before, with no end in sight.”

Jiang Shenghe said firmly, “We wouldn’t have missed it. I can’t let you go.”

Luo Qi’s eyes were wet.

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

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Chapter 59.3 — Hold Me For A While and Don’t Let Me Down

FOOTNOTE:

1. The way Cui Ran worded the question isn’t ‘who is Jiang Shenghe marrying?’ it’s more like ‘which family is he connecting with through marriage’. The implication is it’s a marriage alliance between families.  ↩︎