Su Nuan Nuan original name is Su Meng Nuan, but everyone is accustomed to addressing her by her nickname Nuan Nuan. This nickname is the same name she had on Earth, so it is easier for her to adapt to this world.
Su Meng Nuan's is a daughter of a prominent and powerful court official Ping Guo Gong, and comes from the Guo Gong Mansion. She was the youngest daughter of Ping Guo Gong. She had married prince Duan Tingxuan from An Ping Palace three years ago and became prince Duan Tingxuan's wife.
An Ping Prince was the brother and only relative of the current emperor.
Duan Tingxuan is his eldest son. He was loved by the emperor and empress as a child, and he had a good relationship with the Crown Prince and several other princes. Duan Tingxuan have two younger brothers and one younger sister.
One of his younger brother, Duan Tingye, is the son of the Prince An Ping's legal wife. Therefore, he is loved by Prince An Ping, but this man is somewhat gloomy. Duan Tingye's wife is quite scheming;
His youngest brother, Duan Tingfang, was born by An Ping Prince's concubine, Lin Xiongniang. Duan Tingfang is weak in health and unsociable.
The younger sister is also the daughter of Lin Xiongniang. When she was young, she is often sick. Now she is 13 years old. She is described as 'medicine eating machine' and not a girl.
In short, the family chart looks like below:
Organisation chart in An Ping Prince Mansion
The relationship between Su Meng Nuan and her husband, Prince Duan Tingxuan is not very good. Su Meng Nuan is a pampered woman who is used to a life of luxury. After marring into the family, she insisted on using gold or silver bowls and chopsticks. For this reason, the An Ping prince and his wife does not like her. Only the grandmother in the family did not find her troublesome.
As for Duan Tingxuan himself, he had no love for Su Nuan Nuan. Their relationship is highly complex.
You could say he is full of love, and that would be quite accurate. He had too much love and he likes to fool around with pretty women. If not for his status, he would have captured all beauties in the land and build another mansion just to house these beauties. Even though he was restrained by his status and family, he had two wives and still fool around with the servants in the manor.
To say that he is cold is also true. This man is very cold and heartless. In a fit of rage He had placed Su Meng Nuan under house imprisonment in the run down backyard, and ignored all the previous sweet memories that they had shared together.
Of course, many people thought that Ding Tingxuan dared to imprison his legal wife is because the Guo Gong Mansion had lost all power. Because of there were some problems in delivering the rice to the army, the army was almost defeated in a large scale battle. In a fit rage, the emperor striped Ping Guo Gong of his status and power.
The entire extended family of Ping Guo Gong were enslaved to atone for their crime. Only the few women who had married, including Su Meng Nuan, managed to escape this fate.
After learning about what happened accordingly to Su Meng Nuan's memory, Su Nuan Nuan felt that Duan Tingxuan is a scoundrel. Regardless of if the Guo Gong mansion had fallen on hard times or not, that rascal will still put her under house arrest.
After all, that scumbag is quite proud and haughty, and has the favour of the emperor. If that rogue is angry, he even dared to rebuke the crown price. A man like him will not try to curry favour with Guo Gong Mansion, and is unlikely to treat her badly just because Guo Gong Mansion had lost power.
Therefore, Su Nuan Nuan felt that the plight that Su Meng Nuan was in is due to her own haughty behaviour.
In addition, Su Nuan Nuan looked down on Su Meng Nuan. Other than having a pretty face and a nice mouth, what else does she have? She had no merits at all. She was from a noble family, but the family had been stripped of its title.
Luckily Hong Lian and Xiang Yun, the two maids, are quite loyal. When Su Meng Nuan first come to this household, she had 4 maids. After 3 years, only 2 remained. From this you could see how much of a failure Su Meng Nuan was.
Therefore, Su Nuan Nuan decided that this is a case of his words vs her words, and there is no right or wrong.
Of course, right now the 'poisonous wife' had died, and is replaced by a 'huge eater wife'. Her attitude towards Prince Duan Tingxuan is: What is Duan Tingxuan? Can it be eaten? If not, then she is not interested.
From now on, she will live independently. Goodbye, prince! Walk slowly, I will not see you off! Oh, I almost forgot, that rascal never even come to see Su Meng Nuan even once. Then it is good riddance to bad rubbish!
— Meanwhile in Prince Duan Tingxuan's study —
"I heard that woman attempted suicide today?"
"Yes, Lord. But I heard that she was saved." Duan Tingxuan's henchman Si Ping looked at the prince. Seeing that the prince did not reveal any expression on his face, he smiled and continued, "I heard that Hong Lian, the maid, tried hard to find a physician for her. The physician did not discover anything serious."
"She still loves to create trouble."
Duan Tingxuan coldly sneered. He looked at the scroll that he will be submitting to the emperor tomorrow, then he place it on the table. "All right, let her do as a she pleased. If she wants to die, so it be!"
"First she starved herself and refused to eat, now she tried to hang herself. She is full of tricks. Oh yes, please inform Jin Yun that her monthly allowance, food and clothes are not to be deducted. I want to see what else can she do. If she can come up with 108 different kinds of way to die, I will respect her. The 2nd prince is writing a book? I could send him some content about her attempts at suicide."
"Yes, Lord."
Si Ping dared not to say another word. He was thinking that Su Nuan Nuan had really angered the prince. Her maiden family is already in so much trouble, so why did she choose to create trouble at this time? If she had admitted her wrongdoings and changed, maybe the prince will consider their past relationship and forgive her. But she tried to kill herself and even this chance at regaining the prince's favor had flown away.
Although he had thought in this way, he did not dare to say it out. After all, she is still the legal wife of the Prince. Even though she is a phoenix that had its wings crippled, she is still a phoenix. It is not his place to talk bad things about her. Even if he is the favorite henchman of the Prince.
This is what the Prince had said?" Xi Jinyun was seated behind a table, and smiled as she asked Si Ping, "There is no deduction in her monthly allowance, clothes and food?"
"Yes, Madam Yun. This is the instructions of the prince." Si Ping smiled back in return. This Madam Yun is the daughter of Earl Ming, another high-ranking court official. Her status is not inferior to that of Su Nuan Nuan. She is cunning and thoughtful and is much better at manipulating people than Su Nuan Nuan. But she is just a concubine and she could not be addressed as Big Madam. Therefore, Si Ping has to address her as Madam Yun.
Si Ping was very clear that Madam Yun controls things well within the mansion. She had a lot of eyes and ears within the mansion, and she had set her sights on being the legal wife. Today, Su Nuan Nuan had fallen, and she would not let go of this opportunity to force Su Nuan Nuan to death. In this way, she can become the legal wife.
Su Nuan Nuan does not have the manpower or resources to compete with her on equal grounds. Even if she had, she could not defeat Madam Yun.
"All right, I know what to do. The prince really cared too much about his name. That crazy bitch had already violated all the virtues of being a good wife, and he is still worried that everyone will say that he had forsaken her when her family is down?" Xu Jinyun sighed.
"All right, you return and tell the prince that I will do as he instructed. Tonight I will cook his favourite duck soup. If he has time, ask him to come over to drink it."
"Understood, Madam Yun. I will immediately go back to inform the prince. The prince loves the soup you made the most, and tonight he will surely come over." Si Ping immediately flattered Madam Yun.
Xu Jinyun smiled, "You really know how to make people happy with your words. All right, you may leave. Oh yes, wait a minute, Feng Xian, please give this man a string of coins for his troubles."
Si Ping mouth may say, "No troubles, No troubles..." but he hands grabbed the money before he left.
After he had long disappeared, Feng Xian curtsied as she asked, "Madam, what do we do? It seems that Master is still thinking of big Madam..."
Before she could finished, Xu Jinyun coldly sneered, "What do you know. If he still has any affections for her, he would not have left her in that place. Give her money for food and clothes? Humph, just give her 2 strings of coins each month. As a woman who is kept under house arrest, do you think she deserved more?"
Feng Xian understood her mistress's character. Giving Su Nuan Nuan two strings of coins is also a test of the prince's character. If the prince did not ask or care about that woman, do not mention the two string of coins, even the two children would not see their mother.
Su Nuan Nuan had no idea what is going on at the prince's mansion.
But she had prepared for the change in environment and a harsh life. After all, most modern day women are different from the woman in the past. They are more independent and do not depend on men as much as in Ancient China. She had never thought of having a monthly allowance or food or clothes. She only thought that since things have come to such a situation, she had to depend on herself.
Each time she thinks of this, Su Nuan Nuan was very glad to live in this large courtyard. From now onwards, this will her personal kingdom. She had the confidence to make a better life for herself and continue to eat the finest food this world can provide.
"Madam, you have walked around the place for 2 days. The kitchen did not even send the breakfast for this morning. How could you have the mood to walk around here?"
Xiang Yun was following Su Nuan Nuan. She was curious. Even Hong Lian was worried sick. How come her Missy who was very bad-tempered suddenly becomes so easy to get along with? If it was in the past, her Missy will throw a fit.
"Why shouldn't I have the mood?" Su Nuan Nuan giggled, as she touched a plant on the ground, "Do you know what is this?"
"Leek...?"
Xian Yun was uncertain about this. She recalled that before she was sold to Guo Gong Mansion, she had seen this vegetable before. It seemed to be called a leek.
"That's right. This is a leek. Do you know how delicious is this thing? No matter if you stew it or fry it, it is a delicious thing. It can also be used to stuff dumplings, and can be combined with pork or mushroom and steamed...."
Su Nuan Nuan excitedly explained. When she turned around and looked at her maid, Xiang Yun, she gave up trying to explain. Xiang Yun was looking at her with a dumbfounded expression, and her mouth was wide enough to stuff an egg into it. "Forget it, I don't think you understand a word of what I've said. All you need to know is that: We will not starve!"
Su Nuan Nuan was very confident about this. After observing for two days, she could confirm with 100% certainty that the backyard had been used to experiment with growing crops. There were about 7-8 mu used to plant food crops. Other than leeks, there were lettuces, spinach, radish etc. It is now spring time. When the weather becomes warmer, she is confident that she would find some cabbages, carrots, mushroom etc.
Heaven will always provide a way out of every problem. Especially for a foodie like her. As long she does not starve, everything else could be negotiated.