I Am Her Secret Beauty - Chapter 1

The summers in City A were hotter, much hotter than anywhere else in the country, thanks to its dense population, large-scale industrial production, and peculiar geographical location.

In weather like this, omegas could barely take a step outdoors. The silent crowds on the streets were mostly made up of alphas.

Not to mention the physically demanding jobs. The strong figures hauling steel bars and dragging sacks of cement at construction sites weren’t just alphas, they had to be B-rank or higher. Otherwise, it would be nearly impossible to endure long hours of outdoor labor in such scorching heat.

Not far from the city park was a construction site owned by the Nan family.

Two workers sat in the shade, gulping down chilled mineral water as if their lives depended on it.

They had just stepped back from the front lines, damp towels draped around their necks. As they savored the cooling sensation of the ice-cold water flowing down their throats, they whispered to each other:

“She’s really something, seriously.”

“It’s past four now, she’s been at it for over three hours, hasn’t she? Must be an A-rank alpha to keep up like that…”

“I’m A-rank, and I couldn’t do it. Don’t talk nonsense.”

They muttered back and forth, their eyes fixed on the woman shuttling between the truck and the construction site under the blazing sun, carrying bundles of steel bars on her back.

She was tall, sure, but not particularly muscular. Where she got the strength from was a mystery. Since arriving at the site, she hadn’t spoken a word to anyone or taken a single sip of water, just kept her head down and worked.

She wore a safety helmet, her head always lowered, making it hard to see her face. Her hair was tied back, and she hadn’t even changed into work clothes before diving in. If it weren’t for her, these workers wouldn’t have had a chance to rest.

As they chatted, a crucial question suddenly occurred to them:

“Who is she?”

They’d never seen anyone like her at the site before. And that suit she was wearing, who the hell wore a suit to a construction site?

Most importantly, in weather like this… ordinary people would start feeling dizzy after standing under the sun for just ten minutes. Even A-rank alphas like them were drenched in sweat and had to take regular breaks. What kind of high-ranking alpha could last over three hours in this heat?

This was a construction site.

So, the most plausible identity they could think of for this woman was…

“The new contractor? Probably her first time on-site.”

They exchanged glances, grabbed another bottle of chilled water from the foam box nearby, and approached Mu Xi, who was just picking up a bucket of cement. With friendly smiles, they offered,

“Want some water?”

That cement bucket had to weigh at least forty or fifty pounds.

Mu Xi paused, then slowly set the bucket down. She gave them an awkward smile. “Thank you.”

After three hours of hard labor, she was covered in a thin layer of sweat, her shirt sticking uncomfortably to her skin. She hadn’t stopped earlier simply because she didn’t know anyone here to talk to and wanted to finish quickly.

She unscrewed the cap and took small sips, stopping after about a third of the bottle. She smiled at them again. “Very refreshing.”

Up close, they could finally get a good look at her.

To their surprise, this seemingly superhuman contractor was actually quite young and strikingly good-looking.

Mu Xi’s face was strikingly handsome, the kind of handsome that exuded a bold, heroic charm. Beneath her thick brows, her phoenix eyes were exceptionally bright and spirited, and her nose bridge stood as tall and straight as her demeanor. In short, after getting a clear look at her face, the two workers suddenly had an epiphany:

If a top-tier alpha had a face, it would probably look like this; if someone had a face like this, they were likely a top-tier alpha…

Moreover, she seemed very friendly, which made the naturally admiration-driven alphas even more inclined to like her and willing to chat a bit longer.

“What should we call you? There are already several foremen here, didn’t expect another one to show up. But then again, the Nan family is vast and powerful, so having a few extra foremen isn’t surprising,” one of the workers said with a wink. “A couple of them can be tough to deal with, so you’ll need to keep your wits about you.”

Mu Xi gave him a puzzled look after hearing this.

After a moment’s thought, she realized they had mistaken her for one of their own…

But she wasn’t one of them, nor was she a foreman! Though no one seemed willing to speak up for the exploited laborers, her actual job had absolutely nothing to do with construction sites!

So why on earth was she here hauling bricks at a construction site? Something must have twisted, something must have gone terribly wrong!

“I’m not a foreman,” Mu Xi said wearily. “I… I’m a butler.”

The moment these words left her mouth, the expressions on the workers’ faces grew even more shocked than if they’d seen a living person laboring nonstop for three hours in 40-degree heat.

Leaving aside why such a formidable alpha would work as a butler…

Why would a butler be hauling cement barrels at a construction site…?

Just as they were brimming with unspoken questions, Mu Xi pulled her phone from her trouser pocket and answered a call:

“Madam, it’s me. Yes. Yes. Understood, very well.”

After hanging up, Mu Xi’s previously stiff expression, due to being mistaken for a foreman, brightened noticeably. Cheerfully, she told her two new acquaintances:

“I have to go now. It was nice meeting you both. Goodbye.”

Madam had called, and she had a new assignment.

Whatever this new task entailed, it had to be better than hauling bricks here.

So, Mu Xi removed the hard hat from her head, letting her damp hair fall loose for some air, and without missing a step, walked over to a black sedan parked at the edge of the site. She opened the door and got in.

The two workers stared dumbfounded as she went through these motions.

“Whose butler is she…?”

“…No idea. If one person has to handle so many roles, the family must be pretty poor.”

Covered in mud and sweat, Mu Xi calmly drove onto the highway.

In reality, the household she served was far from poor, it was none other than the Nan family, the owners of the very construction site she’d just left.

The Nan family had a long, illustrious history and deep-rooted influence, standing as one of the most prominent aristocratic families in the country. From what Mu Xi knew, their primary ventures spanned finance and real estate, and in recent years, they had also kept up with trends by expanding into technology, maintaining an unshakable momentum.

She had no idea where the original owner of the body she now inhabited had found the courage to send a resume to the Nan family… and even less of a clue why the Nan family had actually hired her.

That’s right, this world was actually a novel Mu Xi had read before, which mainly depicted how the children of the Nan family turned on each other, ultimately leading to the destruction of their family. And the character she had transmigrated into was none other than the current all-purpose tool of a butler.

…If that was the case, Mu Xi seemed to have some idea why the head of the Nan family, Madam Nan Zhiya, would hire her, a recent graduate from a domestic service university with only three years of experience as the family butler.

She was an SSS-rank alpha, not some overused level from a second-rate online game, but an exceptionally rare talent in this world. Mu Xi possessed physical abilities and strength far beyond ordinary people, perfectly meeting Nan Zhiya’s various demands for exploiting a tool-like butler whether it was scaling mountains of blades or diving into seas of fire, or even hauling bricks at construction sites…

From butler to bodyguard to super soldier, Mu Xi alone was enough.

Mu Xi turned on the car’s air conditioning, setting it to the highest fan speed. As she waited for the sweat on her body to dry, she began to ponder what kind of person her new assignment would involve.

The phone call that had just rescued her from the construction site was from Nan Zhiya, instructing her to pick up the youngest daughter of the Nan family, who was returning from abroad.

As a top-tier businesswoman, Nan Zhiya not only managed the vast Nan family assets with impeccable order but also raised three children. The eldest daughter, Nan Lian, was her future successor; the second son, Nan Nan, was a troublemaker extraordinaire; and the youngest daughter, Nan Xi, had gone abroad to study before Mu Xi joined the Nan household.

The notice had come too suddenly. Naturally, Mu Xi couldn’t possibly greet the employer’s beloved youngest daughter in her current state, fresh from the construction site. She needed to go back and clean herself up first.

After parking the car, Mu Xi didn’t dare waste a single moment. She sprinted from the garden back into the house, dashed into her first-floor butler’s quarters, grabbed a change of clothes, and rushed into the shower to undress and turn on the water.

She let the comfortably warm water soak her hair and body, then lathered shampoo and body wash before scrubbing vigorously until her skin turned red, leaving no room for even a speck of dirt. After drying off, she stepped out to blow-dry her hair.

It had to be said… one of the perks of being a butler for the Nan family was that even the butler’s quarters here were beyond what Mu Xi could have afforded through her own efforts, the bathroom alone was larger than her college dorm room.

While Mu Xi was busy with all this.

The youngest daughter of the Nan family had already arrived in City A, dragging her suitcase alone through the VIP passage.

Nan Xi stood at the entrance for a while. The sensation of being surrounded by her native language again felt somewhat novel to her. The exit was crowded with many people, quite a few holding up signs to greet arrivals. Nan Xi quickly scanned the area but didn’t spot the words she was looking for.

A slight frown creased Nan Xi’s brow, but it soon smoothed out.

No one had come to pick her up.

But it didn’t matter. Nan Xi immediately strode forward, ready to hail a taxi outside. She hadn’t informed Nan Zhiya of her exact arrival time, after all, so taking a cab was her best option at the moment.

After sending a message to Nan Zhiya, the taxi Nan Xi had called arrived right on time.

The moment she mentioned the Nan family’s address, a flicker of hesitation flashed in the driver’s eyes.

He glanced at his passenger in the rearview mirror. The young woman was dressed in high-end designer clothes, the kind so luxurious you didn’t need to see the label to know they were name-brand. She wore no makeup yet was stunningly beautiful, almost unnervingly so, though her complexion was a shade too pale. Not a single flaw could be seen on her face, clearly the result of meticulous care…

Or perhaps she didn’t need so-called “care” at all, her daily skincare products were likely expensive enough to include those miraculous effects.

The driver discreetly averted his gaze, said nothing, and started the car toward the destination the passenger had requested.

The moment the wheels began to turn, Nan Xi coldly looked out the window, her hands clenched tightly at her sides.

She was a fragile omega with a weak constitution, her health never particularly good.

What’s more, she hadn’t yet found her alpha. Being marked might improve her physical condition, but she had no desire to go through such an ordeal.

Nan Xi hadn’t wanted to go through the trouble of returning to the country, enduring the discomfort of travel. If not for Nan Zhiya’s promise to provide her with the best research environment, she wouldn’t have come back.

She had fled abroad in the first place. Here, she had encountered people she loathed and experienced things she could never forget… She had sworn never to return to City A.

But Nan Zhiya had promised to build her a world-class laboratory, one that would belong to her alone, as a welcome-home gift.

Few researchers could refuse such an offer, and Nan Xi was no exception.

Thirty minutes later, the taxi stopped near the Nan family estate.

Nan Xi’s fingers trembled as she opened the car door. Standing by the roadside, she gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently. Her state alarmed even the driver, who hadn’t initially planned to help her out of the car. He hurriedly grabbed her luggage and asked if she needed to go to the hospital.

Omegas were like this, easily worn down, prone to injury.

Once her breathing steadied, Nan Xi waved her hand, silently signaling that she didn’t need the hospital. When paying the fare, she added an extra hundred yuan as a tip, then dragged her suitcase toward the Nan family’s front gate.

The servants eagerly opened the door for her, immediately preparing cooling tea and an array of beautifully arranged pastries for her to choose from. They meticulously attended to her every need, even reading aloud the week’s news from City A.

As for her suitcase, it had already been taken upstairs to her room, no one would open it without her permission. Once Nan Xi had rested, she could organize her personal belongings herself.

So now, there was only one thing left for Nan Xi to do.

Sit in the spacious, opulent first-floor living room of her family home, sip tea, nibble on pastries, and wonder where the new housekeeper, whom her mother had promised would come to greet her had disappeared to.