The Feast Part One

Chapter 18: The Worst Result

At this point, even Hong Lian turned white. She anxiously grabbed hold of Su Nuan Nuan's arm and said. "Our dear Missy, although what you said makes sense, but the Great Master and Great Mistress, perhaps even the Master won't see it this way. This Madam Yun has great talent when it comes to making mountains out of mole hills, once done, all she had to do is cry pitifully in front of the master and we'd suffer for it."

"Say we suffer, what's the worst thing that could happen?" Seeing Hong Lian so earnest, Su Nuan Nuan also felt that she had to take this thing seriously and wanted to know for real.

"The worst thing?" Hong Lian felt a shudder went through her body, and quietly said. "The...the master could divorce you, and kick us out of the palace. We will be homeless, without shelter or protection from anyone."

As she spoke, she thought about the three of them wondering the streets, starving, Hong Lian's lips turned white. By her side, Xiang Yun was pressing her lips together, trying not to cry. Finally, she heard Su Nuan Nuan's uncertain voice saying. "So...he'll just divorce me and...drive me out?"

"Missy, you don't think this is bad?" Hong Lian's tearful eyes gazed at her recklessly bold mistress and felt her heart crumbled.

"So what? Why are the two of you so frightened?" Su Nuan Nuan breathed a sigh of relief, clapped her hands and said with a smile. "If that Duan Tingxuan wants to divorce me, let him come. I've long tire of his shameless greedy face coming here to snatch our food."

Having said this, she gave her dumbfounded maids a glance, and shook her head saying. "Looking at your expressions, I guess both of you think that it is impossible to survive without a man in this world? How despicable, I, your mistress, really felt that you two are very despicable."

"Missy, if we're really kicked out, how should we survive, ah?" Xiang Yun weakly asked. She's fine being despicable, as long as there's still hope to stay alive, she's fine being despised by her mistress, in fact, she'll be really happy.

"Naturally, I, your mistress still have this body that is filled with cooking secrets. I still have many cards I have not shown yet. Once we're kicked out, we'd simply find a random big restaurant, work a few days as chef and save enough money to open a small eatery. The two of you are good at sewing and embroidery. Listen to me, once we leave this palace, together we will not only survive, but we would eventually live a comfortable life together."

Actually, it is impossible to live a comfortable life after leaving the palace for three physically weak women. They were like three duckweeds floating near the beach, an errant wave was enough to destroy their lives. Otherwise, Su Nuan Nuan would not have suffered the 'humiliation' of letting Duan Tingxuan carry off her food while quietly living at the Mei Yue Lou. However, things weren't as bad as how the maids were imagining, thinking that death would be a certainty once they left the doors of the palace. At worst, it's just another obstacle she would have to overcome in order to survive in this world.

As expected, after hearing her explanation, Hong Lian and Xiang Yun were less anxious. Once back at the house, after catching sight of the neatly written up ingredients list, Su Nuan Nuan didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. She narrowed her eyes at the paper and muttered to herself. "How annoying, if I had known earlier, I wouldn't have put in so much effort into this list. Duan Tingxuan, what are you planning to do next?"

Su Nuan Nuan was a genuine foodie. For the sake of good food there are many things that a foodie would bite their lip and suffer for. However, even a foodie has their bottom line. For Su Nuan Nuan, her bottom line was dignity. No matter how delicious the food, she would never kneel down and lick food off the floor.

As for Xu Ran Yun's fierce frontal attack against this nominal legal wife, by coming over with her entourage to criticize Su Nuan Nuan, this actually touched upon her bottom line. This was the real reason why Su Nuan Nuan reacted the way she did, even with the threat of leaving the palace, she just could not swallow this insult.

Mistress and servants, the three of them spent half the day talking about what they should do once they were kicked out, which restaurant they should try to go to, the amount of money needed to set up a small eatery, the type of customers they would meet as well as the type of food they would serve in this little eatery.

Hong Lian and Xiang Yun even started rummaging through the chests and cupboards, packing up Su Nuan Nuan's few accessories and clothing. Once they see the divorce papers, they could just leg it with their belongings as soon as possible so that these snobbish people would not have the chance to say that the Mei Yue Lou people dragged their feet when it came to leaving the palace.

However, they waited until afternoon without a sight of the divorce papers. About this time, it was time to think about lunch, which still had to be made. Su Nuan Nuan pushed up her sleeves and entered the kitchen. She also took the opportunity to go through the entire kitchen for whatever scraps of ingredients left over. She would not even let a speck of rice go to waste in this place.

Evening came, the prince Duan Tingxuan came through the front entrance with two wild ducks in hand. The corner of his lips hooked up in a smile, it was unknown what beautiful thoughts were going through his head.

"Master is back?" The doorkeeper immediately rushed up to greet him. Seeing the ducks, he immediately smiled, "This one did not hear that master is planning to go hunting, where did these came from?"

"I was at the Crown Prince's residence this afternoon. It just so happened that someone had sent a few cages of wild ducks, so I picked up two." Duan Tingxuan's casual tone revealed the iron-forged friendship between him and the crown prince.

As he spoke, he made his way towards the small road that lead to Mei Yue Lou. He was already sick of the palace's duck soup. If he were to present these lively wild ducks to Su Nuan Nuan, who knows what kinds of delicacy she could create?

"Master..."

A voice from the entrance shook Duan Tingxuan from his beautiful daydreams, and he turned to glance at the gate. The gatekeeper rushed over with smiles firmly in place. "Master, this road...it doesn't look like it leads to the Inner Court."

"Where this master goes, does he need to give a servant like you an explanation?" Duan Tingxuan snorted, scaring the gatekeeper until he fell over. The gatekeeper said in a timid voice, "Master is wise, how would this small one dare to question master's movements. It's just, Madam Yun had left instructions with this one to respectfully invite master to Madam Yun's place for a while, it seems Madam Yun has some very important news to impart."

Just what is Ran Yun trying to do?

Duan Tingxuan kept his complaints in his heart, after thinking for a bit, he passed the wild ducks over to Si Ping, saying in a low voice. "Send these to Mei Yue Lou, let Big Madam prepare, I will go over there for dinner. Oh, and tell her to prepare it however she likes, but no duck soup."

Once Si Ping said yes, a pair of quacking ducks was soon carried away with a thump. By now, Duan Tingxuan had made it to the west side of Xu Ran Yun's residence. As soon as he entered, he saw two of his four-year old sons at play, seeing him, both rushed over to greet him.

Although as a husband, Duan Tingxuan was too romantic and tended to spread his love a little too much, as a father he was actually not bad. One can't ignore his good points and focus too much on his bad points.

Grabbing one son in each arm, he smiled at Duan Mao Chuan, "Is your mother here as well?" Duan Mao Chuan was the son of Concubine Jiang. Concubine Jiang was actually part of Xu Ran Yun's dowry, therefore Su Nuan Nuan's vicious bossiness from before was not without reason. No wife would be happy to see her husband marry again, certainly not two at once.

The hurt she suffered must have been too much, especially when the concubine got pregnant after one night of activity while she was still childless after five years. Who would be able to remain at peace after this matter?

Naturally not everyone would consider murder as a way to express her dissatisfaction. On top of that, it was against two lives, both mother and child. This was not right. However, justice was served even in the shadows, did not this vicious, poisonous woman died after committing suicide?

Not only that, her body was taken over by a gluttonous foodie, this kind of miserable end was definitely fitting retribution.