The Chronicle of the Marquis’s Mansion’s Wet Nurse Returning to the Countryside

Zhao Nuan is a woman who transmigrated into an ancient fictional world six years prior, arriving in the body of a mother who had just survived a catastrophic flood. Seeking refuge from the chaos, she sold herself into servitude at the prestigious Wu'an Marquis Manor, bringing her infant daughter, Zhao Yan, along to ensure their survival. The Marquis family, led by the benevolent Marquise and her eldest daughter-in-law Lin Jingshu, treated Zhao Nuan with kindness, allowing her to work as a wet nurse and raising her daughter within the servant quarters. For five years, she lived a relatively peaceful life, raising Yan and caring for the Marquis's young son, Zhou Ningyu, who had been born after her arrival. However, the political landscape of the Dahong Dynasty is unstable, and the Marquis Manor, a founding family with military merits, becomes the target of a conspiracy. The Emperor, suspecting collusion with rebel forces, orders a raid on the estate. In the final hours before the imperial soldiers arrive, the Marquise entrusts Zhao Nuan with the secret of the manor's survival: she must take the six-month-old Zhou Ningyu and flee the capital, as the family faces confiscation of assets and exile. The Marquise reveals that the household's only other infant, the son of a concubine named Chunlian, has died, and the family plans to use that child's body as a decoy to hide the truth that the young master has escaped.

As the soldiers storm the manor, chaos erupts. Lin Jingshu, the eldest daughter-in-law, manages to escape with her children and hands Zhou Ningyu to Zhao Nuan before sacrificing herself to distract the guards. Zhao Nuan, now responsible for two children—her own daughter Yan and the exiled young master—escapes the burning estate with the help of loyal servants who create diversions. She spends three days hiding in an abandoned stable with the children, surviving on meager rations, before emerging to find the manor's members being paraded through the streets in chains on their way to exile in the harsh, remote region of Suizhou. Zhao Nuan recognizes her former employers in the procession and uses the opportunity to blend in with the crowd, pretending to be a grieving widow rather than a servant. She encounters Zhou Qingci, the Marquis's married daughter, who reveals that the family is being sent to Suizhou and arranges for Zhao Nuan to join an escort team traveling in that direction, believing it is safer to be near the Zhou family's allies in the region.

Zhao Nuan joins a merchant escort team bound for Yunzhou, a city three hundred li from Suizhou. The journey is fraught with danger. The escort team is split between different agencies, and tensions rise as the weather turns colder. Zhao Nuan must maintain her disguise as a common merchant's wife while protecting the young master, whose identity could get them all killed if discovered. The pursuit is led by three officials who are determined to capture Zhao Nuan, suspecting she stole something valuable from the Marquis Manor. They track her progress, and at one point, the escort team splits up due to internal conflicts. Zhao Nuan takes over driving the carriage when one of the escorts is injured, demonstrating her resourcefulness and determination to reach safety. The young master, Zhou Ningyu, becomes a liability when he falls ill and cries uncontrollably, attracting the attention of the pursuing officials. Zhao Nuan realizes that continuing on the main road is too dangerous and decides to take a detour, risking the wrath of the escort leaders to ensure the children's safety.

The climax of the escape occurs when the pursuing officials catch up to the escort team near Yunzhou. The officials demand to search the carriage, and Zhao Nuan knows that if they discover the young master, she will be executed for kidnapping a royal exile. In a desperate move, she instructs her daughter Yan to create a distraction by throwing a dagger at the lead horse, causing it to rear up and panic. This allows the carriage to lurch forward, separating Zhao Nuan from the escorts. Realizing she cannot escape with the carriage, Zhao Nuan makes the ultimate sacrifice. She ties her daughter to her chest with swaddling clothes, secures the young master in a bundle, and jumps from the moving carriage. She rolls down a steep, leaf-covered embankment, breaking her arm but managing to survive the fall. Her daughter is knocked unconscious, but Zhao Nuan revives her with a medicinal herb. She then lowers the young master to the ground, where Yan is waiting, and the three of them disappear into the woods, leaving the officials and escorts behind. The story ends with Zhao Nuan and the children on the run, having escaped the immediate threat but still facing the long and perilous journey to Suizhou, where the Zhou family awaits.