Seventh Year of My Secret Love for You

[7YrSecretLove] Chapter 8.2 — Clues

After ordering the wedding dress, Luo Qi went back to the hotel.

The afternoon meeting would be held in the small meeting room of Jiang Shenghe’s suite, and she was the last to arrive.

Luo Qi rang the bell, and with almost no waiting, the door opened.

The person standing by the door was Jiang Shenghe, a water glass in his hand. He wore a business shirt with the cuffs rolled up. 

His expression was indifferent, and after putting on his business attire, he gave people a sense of distance for no reason. What hint of casualness he had when he ran that morning has disappeared without a trace.

Jiang Shenghe had come out of the meeting room to pour water when he heard the doorbell ring.

“Chief Jiang.”

“Come in, they’re inside.” He kept holding the doorknob with his hand.

Luo Qi turned sideways and cautiously passed in front of him.

Jiang Shenghe closed the door and told her, “The meeting room is on the right.”

Luo Qi entered the living room and heard voices from the room on the right. Secretary Ju and another colleague from the president’s office were discussing something.

The presidential suite of this hotel was more luxurious than she had imagined. It had a dining room and a living room, and the floor-to-ceiling windows face the most distinctive, old houses in Sioux City. It seemed to be the best place to enjoy the night view of Suzhou.

On the right was the conference room and on the left was the gym.

“There you are,” Secretary Ju winked at her.

Luo Qi smiled, “I’m late.”

“You’re not too late. It’s only 1:40.”

Luo Qi took out her notebook and plugged it in, and took out another stack of materials.

Secretary Ju whispered to her, “Boss He sent an electronic version of the contract to be signed tomorrow. Mr. Jiang has read it, and he is not satisfied with a few clauses.” 

Luo Qi asked, “How do you plan to change it?”

Secretary Ju shook her head; the boss hadn’t said anything.

The details of the contract have been grinding for more than a month, and she didn’t know which ones in particular were Jiang Shenghe not satisfied with.

“You brought print out version too?” Jiang Shenghe said, stopping beside them.

Luo Qi turned her head, “Well, I noted some important information on it.”

Jiang Shenghe picked it up, “Lend it to me to read.”

He has an electronic version, but his eyes hurt after staring at the computer for a long time.

Luo Qi forgot about the masterpiece she had drawn on it when she was bored, and generously lent her copy to the boss.

Jiang Shenghe took it and sat down at his seat. His laptop was on the other side of the conference table. Among all the seats, his seat was the farthest from Luo Qi’s.

The print out had more than a hundred pages, a thick stack, all scribbled with additional information.

Luo Qi had worked carefully on it, and specially attached a simple table of contents for the material. It is clear at a glance which page the content you want to see is on, and the notes on the inner pages were neatly written.

According to the table of contents, Jiang Shenghe turned to the page he wanted to see.

When he saw the hand-drawn picture, he paused. In the blank space on the back of the page, she had drawn a simple figure of a man using a black pen. With a few strokes, she outlined the man’s face. The hair was quite messy, and he wore a pair of sunglasses—two lenses were painted black and shiny.

There’s an arrow next to it, and it said: Death stare from the boss! Danger!

Jiang Shenghe: “…”

He tried to recall for a long time, but couldn’t remember a moment when he was dissatisfied with her and gave her a death stare.

What Jiang Shenghe didn’t know was that to Luo Qi, every time he looked at her, she felt it was a death stare.

It had been so six years ago, and it still so now.

… …

This simple drawing was sketched a week ago. At that time, Luo Qi was looking over the information. When she got to this page, she received a call from her cousin, who soon chattered on the phone, asking about her return to Suzhou in the coming days. 

Luo Qi, however, didn’t have the same joy of going home. Thinking about going on a business trip with the big boss, she felt a bit of a headache, so the pen in her hand naturally drew such a picture.

Jiang Shenghe looked at the figure: she painted the lenses of the glasses so black that the paper was almost smeared through, like she wanted to blur his eyes to death.

The drawing didn’t look like him at all.

But it was definitely him.

Jiang Shenghe raised his eyes slightly. She didn’t hesitate at all when she lent it to him just now, and she probably wouldn’t remember her masterpiece for a while.

When she remembered, she would be sitting on pins and needles, embarrassed and annoyed with herself, and then she would worry about whether he had seen it or not.

The few of them were still busy with their own business; Luo Qi and Secretary Ju got together to discuss the terms of the project in a low voice—no one was looking his way.

Jiang Shenghe took a picture of the ‘artwork’ with his mobile phone, then flipped the information to a certain page near the front and put it on the keyboard of his laptop. 

“You guys discuss first, I’ll make a call.” He took his mobile phone and went to the study.

The study was inside the master bedroom and quite private. He closed the door.

As soon as Jiang Shenghe left, they began talking normally, there was no need for them to keep their voices down anymore.

When they were in the middle of discussion, Secretary Ju said, “Didn’t you research it? Look through the information again to make sure—”

“Ahh! It’s over!” Luo Qi suddenly exclaimed. She forgot all about her image, scrambled to get up from her seat, and bent over the table to grab the document on top of Jiang Shenghe’s computer.

Secretary Ju didn’t understand what was going on, so she asked, “What’s wrong?”

The other colleague also looked at her.

Luo Qi suddenly remembered the drawing, and after checking that Jiang Shenghe was not looking at that page, her heart finally went back inside her chest. Fortunately, Jiang Shenghe hadn’t seen that masterpiece.

She turned to the page of the drawn figure and held it up for Secretary Ju and the other colleague to see.

Secretary Ju laughed, and joked, “So handsome ah.”

Luo Qi bumped her elbow into Secretary Ju’s side, “Keep your voice down.”

“It’s okay, the soundproofing of the suite is good.” Secretary Ju pointed to the colleague sitting across them and told Luo Qi, “He once did an impersonation of Chief Jiang, but then Chief Jiang suddenly showed up behind him. He almost died on the spot. That’s nothing.” 

Everyone laughed.

While Jiang Shenghe was answering the phone, Luo Qi pulled down the page where the figure was drawn, folded it casually, and stuffed it into the inner pocket of her laptop bag, then flipped the document to the page that Jiang Shenghe was looking at before, and put it back on top of the keyboard of his laptop.

If Jiang Shenghe asked about that missing page, she’ll just say that the printer might have skipped a page when printing.

In the study room of the master bedroom, Jiang Shenghe was leaning on a chair and admiring Luo Qi’s masterpiece.

He edited the photos, placed himself next to the hand-drawn figure, and added: precious video data!

Just after saving the edited photo, a call came in—it’s a Shanghai number that he hadn’t contacted for a long time. This number was only for when he needed to do something for Luo Qi’s family.

Jiang Shenghe accepted the call and greeted the person on the line. He put a cigarette in his mouth. There was a lighter on the table, and he picked it up as well.

The other party heard the sound of the lighter snapping, “Didn’t you not smoke much before?”

“Yes.” Jiang Shenghe took a puff and said, “I have smoked a few more recently, and I will quit in a few months. What about you? You still smoke?” 

“Didn’t I quit early? I’m not like you young people, you still have a lot of capital to squander. At our age, our health is not good. Smoking makes us cough to the next day.”

After chatting for a while, Jiang Shenghe asked the other party what trouble Luo Qi’s family was encountering again.

“Remember the company that Luo Zhiqiu has invested in?”

Luo Zhiqiu was Luo Qi’s father. Jiang Shenghe asked, “What’s the matter?”

Luo Zhiqiu’s company has been affected by the rise in raw material prices this year, and its revenue was not optimistic. Recently, he has been running orders in Shanghai and seeking people everywhere. Compared to major companies in the same industry, their company has no competitive advantage in product prices, and the second half of the year will not be easy for them.

He just told Jiang Shenghe the situation truthfully; he never interfered with Jiang Shenghe’s decision.

Jiang Shenghe no longer paid attention to Luo Qi’s family affairs, but now the other party specifically called him—the business situation facing Luo Zhiqiu’s company should be very severe.

“I won’t interfere in this matter. You know, in a few months, Luo Qi will be married.” 

“Well, I heard.”

“I have to trouble you again, you can ask someone to disclose this news to Pei Shixiao, so that he takes care of it.” 

Jiang Shenghe pressed the remaining half of the cigarette in the ashtray, paused, and made an exception once again. 

“If Pei Shixiao doesn’t take care of it, I’ll deal with the aftermath.” 

He couldn’t ignore her.