I Am Her Secret Beauty and Strong Alpha (GL) - Chapter 9

After settling their luggage, the three went downstairs again. Mu Xi looked calm, as if nothing had happened. But Nan Xi’s eyes were a little red, which Nan Nan noticed.

Nan Nan asked in surprise, “Did you cry? Why are you crying?”

“No.” Nan Xi didn’t even look at him, and sat down directly on the nearest chair. “I rubbed my eyes too hard.”

Nan Nan didn’t suspect anything.

He started talking to Vincent about making wine in the back hills. Vincent told him that there was a small decorative vineyard there. Although no one watered it, it was growing quite well and should be ready for picking soon.

Nan Nan asked Nan Xi for her opinion. Nan Xi didn’t object, so they decided to go to the back hills to pick grapes, which they could then use to make wine.

Vincent was old and had trouble walking. Although he offered to go with them, they stopped him. Only Mu Xi went with them.

After a twenty-minute walk, they saw the vineyard. It wasn’t big, just enough for two young masters and misses who had never done farm work to play around. Many purple grapes were hidden in the dark green leaves. Nan Nan was eager to start picking, but Mu Xi stopped him.

“Second Young Master, please put on gloves.” Mu Xi slowly took out three pairs of gloves from her backpack and handed them out. “Some leaves are very sharp, and plants inevitably have bugs on them.”

She looked at Nan Xi and asked, “Miss, are you scared? I can pick them for you.”

Nan Xi didn’t look at her. She lowered her head and carefully smoothed out the wrinkles on her white gloves, as if it were a very delicate task that required absolute concentration.

“No need, I can pick them myself.”

Her tone was no different from usual, but Mu Xi felt a hint of rejection in it, maybe it was just her imagination.

So Mu Xi kept quiet and stood aside, watching the brother and sister pick grapes.

It turned out that even simple manual labor required experience and skill. Although Nan Xi and Nan Nan looked elegant from head to toe, they seemed particularly useless when they started picking grapes. They looked good, but their baskets remained empty for a long time.

Fortunately, they weren’t in a hurry. They were just picking for fun. Halfway through, they even started arguing and almost threw the basket at each other’s heads.

Mu Xi had nothing to do, so she simply stood by the grapevines and took pictures of them with her camera.

As soon as they saw the camera pointed at them, the siblings who had been arguing fiercely just a moment ago immediately became quiet and didn’t say another word, letting Mu Xi capture their best looks in the photos.

Nan Nan later told Mu Xi that it was because when they were young, Nan Zhiyai would have the servants take photos and send them to her. If they didn’t behave well, they would be scolded. This had made them develop a habit of being well-behaved in front of the camera.

“Hehe, but Nan Xi wasn’t scolded by Mom much,” Nan Nan added sarcastically. “After all, she’s one of the only two omegas in the family.”

Hearing him say this, Nan Xi wasn’t angry at all. She just slightly moved the corners of her lips and said calmly, “Do you think you were scolded because you’re a beta? No, it’s just because you deserved to be scolded.”

Nan Xi was always very calm when arguing. Compared to the impatient and angry Nan Nan, she seemed particularly unconcerned, but her words were always surprising and hit the nail on the head.

It was somewhat like presenting ideas in a laboratory discussion, the only difference being that the subject had changed from experiments to people. Other than that, she was just as sharp and rational.

Mu Xi was amused by her words and couldn’t help but laugh. Nan Nan immediately glared at her.

“Butler Mu, did you laugh?” Nan Nan said through gritted teeth, resentfully. “Do you think she’s right, and you also think I’m being unreasonable?”

“Second Young Master, I didn’t think that, because I don’t understand the growing habits of grapes and have no right to make any comments…”

Mu Xi explained seriously, trying her best to look like an impartial and good butler.

Her words had no effect.

“Why are you bullying her? She’s the butler, how could she tell you how annoying you are? It’s hard enough for her to help you carry these things.”

Nan Xi put the basket of grapes on her forearm, took off her gloves and put them in the basket, then turned to Mu Xi and said, “Let’s go, Butler Mu, let’s go make wine.”

She walked with the basket towards a small path behind the vineyard. Vincent had told them that there was a small winery at the end of the path, and the precious collection in the manor’s cellar came from there.

Mu Xi glanced at Nan Nan. He stood there looking very upset. When he noticed Mu Xi’s gaze, he glared at her.

Seeing this, Mu Xi had no choice but to follow Nan Xi, not wanting to disturb Nan Nan’s sulking anymore.

It was cool in the mountains. The shade of the trees created a comfortable environment away from the summer heat. Mu Xi and Nan Xi walked one after the other, their shadows invisible on the ground.

Mu Xi imagined she was stepping on Nan Xi’s shadow, a way she used to keep her distance when following Nan Zhiyai.

After walking for a while without seeing Nan Nan’s shadow, Mu Xi felt a little uneasy.

“Should I call the Second Young Master?”

Mediating between quarreling family members was also an important part of household work.

“No need.” Nan Xi lowered her head, carefully avoiding every uneven patch of ground, still carrying the basket on her wrist. “He has a strong sense of pride. If you call him now, it will only make him feel humiliated.”

Mu Xi silently put away her phone.

She noticed that the basket Nan Xi was carrying was pressing into her wrist, making a slight dent in her skin. She was worried that the half-full basket would be a burden for the omega.

“Miss, let me take the basket.”

“…But I won’t give in to him just because he’s proud and wants to save face, because my pride is stronger than his.” Nan Xi said to herself, then looked back at Mu Xi. “Butler Mu probably thinks I’m delicate, that I can’t even carry such a light basket, right?”

Suddenly, the matter of carrying the basket rose to the level of trampling on Nan Xi’s dignity. Mu Xi froze for a moment, her mouth seemingly frozen by a sudden frost.

Just as she was about to explain, she heard Nan Xi say again:

“Just kidding. Please help me carry it, thank you.”

The basket containing a few grapes somehow ended up back in Mu Xi’s hands.

Nan Xi didn’t speak to Mu Xi for the rest of the way. Mu Xi guessed that she had just argued with Nan Nan and was probably not in a good mood, so she didn’t initiate any conversation either.

The mistress and her servant came out of the small path, and in front of them was the somewhat old-looking small winery. Several servants inside were busy, and there were some fresh grapes beside them, probably also picked from the vineyard earlier.

They had all received advance notice from Vincent that members of the Nan family would be coming to experience life there. When they saw the visitors, they quickly came forward to greet them, leading Nan Xi to see the neatly arranged wine barrels in the winery and explaining the winemaking process to her.

Mu Xi knew that Nan Xi studied chemistry. In her mind, the winemaking process should have already been broken down into reactions between countless elements and then reassembled. It must have been a very wonderful process.

Sure enough, while the middle-aged man in front was talking endlessly about how to make wine, Mu Xi saw a focused look on Nan Xi’s face. But she somehow felt certain that the focus wasn’t on the man speaking, because Nan Xi didn’t seem to be listening to him at all.

Nan Xi had another world in her mind, which was an amazing thing.

While she was responsible for constructing the chemical reactions of winemaking in her mind, Mu Xi was responsible for maintaining social interactions in real life for her.

So, when the uncle finally finished explaining how to make wine and proudly puffed out his chest, Mu Xi very cooperatively started clapping.

“Thank you. Winemaking is hard work, but it’s also rewarding. You are doing a very meaningful job.”

It was at this moment that Nan Xi seemed to regain her senses. Mu Xi took the opportunity to look at her and ask, “What do you think, Miss?”

Unexpectedly, Nan Xi’s reaction was to look up and ask, “Butler Mu, do you want to make wine?”

Mu Xi was confused and stopped clapping.

“Let’s start,” Nan Xi said.

Mu Xi had no choice but to attribute such a conversation to Nan Xi’s temporary disconnection from the real world and the delayed reconnection.

In any case, they started making wine at the winery.

The uncle thoughtfully prepared a separate room for them, separate from the other production lines in the winery. On the table in front of them were baskets of grapes and other materials, and even hand towels were ready, saving Mu Xi a lot of trouble.

“Remove the stems completely, like this.” The uncle skillfully removed the small stem remaining on a round grape and put the cleaned grapes into a wooden basin.

Mu Xi and Nan Xi followed suit. They hadn’t brought many grapes, so it was very quick to process them. Soon they had a small basin of clean grapes, waiting for the uncle’s next instructions.

“Crush the grapes, squeeze out the juice, and then you can add the yeast.”

The moment the grape pulp was completely crushed, the room was filled with the sweet smell of the fruit. It was a very fresh and pleasant grape fragrance, giving the whole room a sweet atmosphere, and even Nan Xi unconsciously smiled.

Mu Xi thought she was also craving grapes like she was, but unexpectedly, Nan Xi said:

“I once smelled an alpha’s pheromones, and it smelled almost exactly like this.”

“The smell that’s close to fruit is very nice. I quite like fruit.”

Mu Xi remained silent because her own pheromone smelled similar to bitter orange, but Nan Xi probably didn’t know that.

The whole winemaking process, in Mu Xi’s opinion, was a simple and easy beginner’s experience. The operation itself was easy, and there weren’t many grapes that needed to be made into wine.

If they walked back fast enough, they might even make it in time for afternoon tea.

After adding the yeast and sugar, Mu Xi took care of the bottling process. The uncle said that the grapes they brought would make just enough wine to fill one bottle. Mu Xi marked a bottle and made the same mark on a small wine barrel, then asked the uncle to pour the wine into the marked bottle.

This was Miss Nan Xi’s first time making wine herself, so she had to have some souvenirs.

That’s what Mu Xi thought.

Nan Xi acknowledged Mu Xi’s thoughtfulness, but what she said was:

“This is the first bottle of wine we made together. Fermentation takes at least three months. When the time comes, we’ll come back and drink it together. It should be very interesting.”