I Am Her Secret Beauty - Chapter 81

Mu Xi slept peacefully until the sun was high in the sky.

Nan Xi had left before the butler woke up. She had stayed awake, keeping watch over Nan Xi to ensure she woke up smoothly and left before six o’clock, only then allowing herself to rest peacefully.

She had a somewhat terrifying dream.

It was probably related to hearing too many conspiracy theories lately. In her dream, Mu Xi found herself lying on a cold, hard bed, her eyes blindfolded, her hands and feet tightly bound.

She couldn’t hear any sounds, couldn’t see anything, her senses stripped away to the maximum. All that remained was a mind tearing apart in pain, so intense that Mu Xi lacked even the strength to struggle.

As someone aware she was dreaming, Mu Xi didn’t know how to face such a situation, feeling only confusion in her heart.

But if there really was someone bound like this…

She didn’t know what that person would think either.

The situation didn’t last long.

Without giving Mu Xi a chance to react, the device covering her eyes was abruptly removed. An overly intense and glaring light suddenly struck her unprotected eyes, forcing Mu Xi to shut them tightly and furrow her brow deeply.

She tried to turn her head away from the harsh light above, but her neck was firmly restrained, leaving her unable to move.

Her vision, temporarily lost from the intense light, was filled with nothing but a blinding whiteness.

As Mu Xi struggled to cope with the discomfort, she heard two voices beside her:

“She’s awake. Increase the injection dosage.”

“…Professor, it’s already more than three times the maximum dosage. Are you sure we should increase it further?”

“Confirm the increase.”

She could hear sounds now?

Before she could ponder it further, Mu Xi felt a sharp sensation in her right shoulder. A cold liquid flowed through her veins, spreading the chill to every part of her body.

She wanted to speak, to ask who they were, where this place was… and who she was.

But it was too late. An overwhelming drowsiness, with an absolute and non-negotiable force, compelled her to fall back into slumber, returning to that dead silence.

…

…

“!”

A sharp pain in her chest jolted Mu Xi out of the dream, and she sat up abruptly in bed, her eyes bloodshot.

Her head ached, though not to the extent it had in City Z, it seemed to be simply due to lack of sleep.

Mu Xi sat on the bed in a daze for a while before gradually accepting the reality that she was sleeping in lazily in one of the Nan family’s guest rooms. She rubbed her hair a couple of times.

Her first instinct was to pick up her phone and open the chat with Nan Xi, only to realize there was nothing there. Of course, Nan Xi was at work at this hour, why would she be messaging her?

But since she’d already opened it, Mu Xi typed a line and sent it:

“Good morning, is everything okay?”

She had no way of knowing that Nan Xi was currently leaning against the safety door of Building A’s laboratory, crying.

After waiting a few minutes without a reply from Nan Xi, Mu Xi still felt a throbbing pain in her head.

The dream had felt unreal, too distant and too blurry, as if the fragments were veiled in mist.

To dispel this sense of unreality, Mu Xi got out of bed and drew open the curtains that had been tightly shut since last night.

The gentle morning sunlight streamed in through the wide floor-to-ceiling window, enveloping Mu Xi in a warm, soft glow. Standing there with her hair tousled from rubbing, she stared blankly, her gaze unconsciously drifting toward the leisurely garden outside.

A few helpers were carrying baskets on their backs, trimming the shrubs in the garden. Four of the five looked familiar, while the remaining one was likely new.

The small figures worked while chatting with one another, gradually moving closer to the window where Mu Xi stood.

During this time, Mu Xi remained still, still piecing together the scenes from her dream.

…What time is it now?

Something in her still field of vision suddenly began to move, catching her attention. She noticed that the helpers had stopped about ten meters from the window, and one of them was waving at her.

The expression on her face was joyful, as if she wanted to say a few words to Mu Xi.

Mu Xi opened the window and immediately heard her say:

“Good morning!”

“Good morning,” Mu Xi replied, only then realizing they were some distance apart and she should speak louder. So, she repeated, “Good morning! What time is it now?”

The little helpers giggled together: “It’s almost eleven! Isn’t there a clock in the room?”

Oh, how could there not be a clock in the Nan family’s guest room to tell the time?

Mu Xi glanced back and saw an exquisitely designed, gold-trimmed wall clock quietly ticking away.

When she turned back, Mu Xi didn’t know what to say.

She had indeed been on good terms with the helpers before, but after all, she was no longer the Nan family’s housekeeper.

Now, as someone confined by Nan Zhiya, the helpers must have received instructions about her.

Mu Xi clearly saw the unfamiliar girl hesitantly saying something to the others.

The girl who had greeted Mu Xi first reassured her, “It’s fine. She used to be our butler and treated us all very well. We’re not trying to let her out, just saying a few words. As long as we don’t get caught by Housekeeper Xiao, it’ll be okay.”

Mu Xi couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, but she could hear their tone, which lifted her spirits.

They moved a bit closer to Mu Xi’s window, and now she could hear them clearly: “Mu Xi, if you want anything to eat or play with, just tell us. We can pass it to you through the window. That’s all we can do.”

They waited expectantly for Mu Xi to voice her needs.

However, Mu Xi had never been one with high material desires. Besides, Sean wouldn’t refuse her requests for food or daily necessities, so their help wasn’t particularly useful to her.

Not wanting to disappoint them, Mu Xi was about to ask for some common snack they would surely have, just to accept their kindness.

But then she saw the girls suddenly grow tense, pressing their hands to their Bluetooth earpieces and listening intently to the voice on the other end.

Mu Xi knew that Sean must have given them some task through the Nan family’s internal communication system, just as she had done in the past.

“Oh, sorry, Mu Xi, we’ll come back tonight,” the most talkative girl hurriedly said, stuffing the watering sprayer back into the basket’s groove as she bid farewell. “An important guest is visiting this afternoon, so we have to head back now.”

They quickly waved goodbye to Mu Xi.

Mu Xi stood by the window, watching them leave. The sight of everyone working diligently and cheerfully was incredibly infectious, as if it had breathed new life into her as well.

As they moved farther from the window, Mu Xi was about to turn back into the room when the chilly wind outside carried fragmented words to her ears:

“…Yes, that’s the Wu family, Wu Quan… truly accomplished for her age…”

Was Wu Quan the one coming this afternoon?

And at such a critical moment, could it be related to what Nan Zhiya had promised Nan Xi?

Mu Xi had several questions on the tip of her tongue, but professionally, the servants shouldn’t disclose information about the Nan family’s guests to an outsider like her. Even overhearing by chance felt like eavesdropping.

Logically, if Nan Zhiya had arranged for her to come, there was nothing to worry about as long as she was around.

But emotionally, hearing such news so suddenly made it impossible not to feel concerned.

After washing up in the bathroom and tidying herself, Mu Xi paced anxiously around the room several times before she couldn’t resist picking up her phone again.

The chat window with Nan Xi still showed the question she had sent that morning, with no reply from Nan Xi.

It was now 11:30 a.m. Nan Xi should have just finished her morning work and might be heading downstairs with Tong An’an to have the lunch prepared by the chef.

Mu Xi sat down on the small sofa in the guest room and continued to wait.

By 11:50 a.m., the chat window remained eerily silent, and Mu Xi could no longer sit still.

This wasn’t Nan Xi, after all, the Nan Xi who loved sending her random messages during her free time.

Not only had she not initiated any contact, but she hadn’t even replied to the message Mu Xi had sent.

Hesitantly, Mu Xi called Nan Xi, but after two rings, the call was abruptly cut off.

“? ”

What was going on…?

Nan Xi rarely ever declined her calls.

It wasn’t that no one answered, it was actively hung up. This hadn’t happened since that one time they’d bickered over what to have for lunch.

Without a second thought, Mu Xi quickly called Tong An’an, and this time, the call connected almost immediately.

“Nan Xi? I don’t know, I was just about to find her for lunch. This morning? I didn’t see her; I was busy with my own experiment… Hmm, I’ll have her call you back.”

Mu Xi stood helplessly in the room.

Everything around her was neatly arranged, including the usually messy bed. She was an orderly person, perhaps due to her professional background, and her minimum standard was to keep her living space spotless and well-organized.

Right now, she might be the most chaotic presence in the room.

She couldn’t help but feel that Nan Xi’s unusual behavior was connected to Wu Quan’s impending visit to the Nan family that afternoon.

…In moments of panic, urgency, and despair, people often grasp at sudden flashes of insight. There’s a phrase for this phenomenon: “wisdom emerges in urgency.”

Mu Xi had one last person she could ask for help, someone willing to assist her.

The phone rang for a long time, so long that Mu Xi was about to give up when it finally connected. Nan Lian’s cold voice felt like the brightest dawn to her.

“You said Wu Quan…?”

Nan Lian paused, perhaps smirking somewhere out of sight, “Aren’t you under house confinement? How do you even know about this?”

Although her tone wasn’t particularly pleasant, she gave a positive and affirmative response.

Wu Quan would indeed be paying a visit that afternoon.

Even though there was no one else in the room, Mu Xi still lowered her voice: “Could you tell me a bit more? Nan Xi didn’t reply to my messages this morning and isn’t answering my calls. Does she know about this?”

“She knows.”

At this point, Nan Lian fell into a brief silence.

Mu Xi had no idea what she was thinking. She desperately wished she could travel through the invisible radio waves to find Nan Lian in person, stand before her, and force her to say everything she wanted to say.

She deeply resented this remote method of communication where she couldn’t see the other person’s face.

“Well… let me give you some advice, which is also what Nan Xi hopes you’ll do.”

Nan Lian told her flatly, “Just stay in your confinement room quietly, don’t ask any questions, and be a well-behaved, silent dodder plant. For you right now, perhaps doing nothing at all is the most valuable thing.”