Chapter 511 Human Life

"My lord, she has already passed away."

"Gone?"

"Nonsense, you're talking nonsense!"

After shouting those two sentences, the thin young man turned around, picked up the woman's upper body, and whispered in her ear.

Li San Niang was close enough to hear what he was saying clearly.

"Qianniang, wake up!"

Wake up! Open your eyes and look at me!

I've brought the doctor. You'll be alright, you'll be alright.

Qianniang, get up and look at our child?

It's a little girl, she looks just like you. When she grows up, she'll definitely be a beautiful person.

Qianniang, Qianniang, don't scare me, open your eyes and look at me.

"Qianniang!"

Seeing the frail young man clinging to Qianniang's body on the bed, Li Sanniang had no choice but to turn around and look at the hunched old woman standing against the wall.

The old woman looked up and saw Li San Niang's gaze. She didn't speak, but instead looked at the swaddled baby on the square table, where the infant was still crying.

After looking at her granddaughter, the old woman walked over to Li San Niang and bowed to her, saying, "Thank you for coming, Doctor. Qian Niang left a quarter of an hour ago."

"Perhaps the female doctor could take a look at the child? He's been crying so much."

Li San Niang didn't move, watching as the old woman gestured to the frail young man beside her, who was still holding Qian Niang's body and weeping bitterly.

The old woman then patted the thin young man's back, admonishingly saying, "Gen'er, let Qianniang go peacefully. Don't delay her journey to the underworld so she can be reborn into a good family soon."

As soon as the old woman spoke, Li San Niang saw the thin young man named Gen'er suddenly turn his head, his face still wet with tears and his nose covered in snot. He stared straight at the old woman and asked fiercely, "Mother, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Why didn't you tell me to go see a doctor sooner?

If you had called me to fetch a doctor earlier, Qianniang wouldn't have died!

If Qianniang survives, our family of three can live a good life!

It was you, it was you who ruined Qianniang!

It's all your fault!

Gen'er gently put Qianniang down from his arms, turned around and grabbed the old woman by the neck, veins bulging on his forehead, as if he was about to strangle her!

Li San Niang was stunned. She really didn't expect things to turn out like this.

"Qiu Xiang, quick, pull him away!"

With Li San Niang's words, Qiu Xiang stepped forward and quickly rescued the old woman from Gen'er's grasp.

The old woman covered her neck with both hands, coughing and breathing heavily, and looked incredulously at Gen'er, who was kneeling on the ground gasping for breath after being kicked in the stomach by Qiu Xiang.

"Young man, murder is against the law! It is punishable by death!"

Still reeling from the shock, Gen'er raised his head with a heart ashen with despair, "Female doctor, it was Mother who killed Qianniang!"

"It was Mother who killed Qianniang!"

As Gen'er shouted these words, he tried to get up and go toward the old woman. Qiu Xiang stepped forward and blocked Gen'er's way, staring at him as if she would kick him twice if he took another step.

"Have you lost your mind?!"

You actually want to kill your own mother!

You, you, you unfilial son!

"Unfilial son!"

The old woman never imagined that the son she had raised with such hardship and love would actually try to strangle her just because his wife had died.

She couldn't believe it, but the pain in her neck and the hoarseness in her throat as she spoke loudly told her that it was real, that her son really wanted to kill her!

Li San Niang truly never imagined things would develop to this point!

Li San Niang ignored the mother and son and turned to look at the child wrapped in a blanket on the square table.

Li San Niang performed a basic examination on the crying newborn and found that everything was fine; she was a healthy little girl.

Holding the child, Li San Niang said to Qiu Xiang, "Qiu Xiang, watch over them, I'm going out to call for help."

Holding the child, Li Sanniang left the house and knocked on the door next door. She explained the situation and asked the old woman next door to go find the neighborhood official.

About half an hour later, the neighborhood chief led two patrolmen and seven or eight neighbors into the house.

"...That's how it is. I was just a doctor who was brought in to save someone. Before I could save the person, this happened."

I didn't know what to do, so I had no choice but to invite you, Magistrate, here."

Fang Zheng was an old man in his early fifties. When Li San Niang explained the situation to him, the little girl in her arms kept crying.

"Guo family, isn't your youngest daughter-in-law still in her postpartum period?"

Take this little one home and feed him a couple of bites; he's crying so pitifully.

The warden said this to the woman wearing a blue headscarf who followed behind him. Without hesitation, the woman stepped forward, took the little girl from Li San Niang's hands, and walked out.

Okay, now that the child is calm, we can deal with things more easily.

The patrolling constables stood on either side of the ward master behind him, without interfering with his decision.

At this moment, Gen'er was standing on the left side of the courtyard, the old woman was standing on the right side, and Li San Niang and Qiu Xiang were standing in the middle. Opposite Li San Niang and Qiu Xiang were the neighborhood chief and two patrolling constables.

Behind the patrolling constables were seven or eight neighbors who came to see what had happened.

Fang Zheng looked at Gen'er first and asked him, "What do you say? What are your thoughts?"

"It was my mother, it was my mother who killed Qianniang!"

It's her!

She deserves to die!

As soon as Gen'er said that, the old woman couldn't hold back. She raised her head and took two steps forward, but she didn't dare to get really close to Gen'er. She just got a little closer and shouted arrogantly, "You unfilial son!"

Your old woman raised you with so much care, even helping you get married, and this is how you show filial piety to your own mother!

Qianniang is in the life and death of childbirth, what does that have to do with me!

You unfilial son, you, you…”

Upon hearing the old woman mention Qianniang, Gen'er seemed to have a switch flipped, and he was about to rush over when a nearby patrolling constable saw this and struck him in the chest with the scabbard of his broadsword, stopping him in his tracks.

Even though he was stopped, Gen'er was still quite assertive: "You are my own mother, but ever since I married Qianniang, you have disliked her and made her do chores all day long, and you beat her at the drop of a hat."

Her pregnancy was difficult, and she finally gave birth to my child, but she suffered postpartum hemorrhage. You deliberately watched her bleed instead of telling me to call the doctor!

If I hadn't been outside and couldn't hear Qianniang's movements, and hadn't rushed in, I would never have known that Qianniang had postpartum hemorrhage!

It's all your fault! It's all your fault!

"You deliberately prevented me from calling the doctor earlier, which is why Qianniang died!"

The old woman looked guilty, as if her thoughts had been exposed. She denied it with feigned bravado, only saying that Gen'er was a heartless and unfilial son, and then she burst into tears.

Fang Zheng's face was downcast. He turned around and called an old woman, asking her to come into the house and see what Qian Niang looked like.

The old woman accepted the task, but she was too afraid to go in alone, so she called another old woman to go in with her.

At this moment, one of the patrolling constables who had come with them bowed to Li San Niang and asked, "Is this female physician Physician Li from the Third Medical Hall?"

Li San Niang didn't expect that anyone would still recognize her at this time, but thinking about it, it made sense. She was the only female doctor in all of Chang'an at the moment, so she was indeed easy to recognize.

Therefore, Li San Niang naturally returned the greeting and acknowledged her identity.

"If Dr. Li is willing, could you come inside with these two old women and take a look at how Qianniang died?"

Li San Niang thought for a moment and shook her head: "It's not that I'm unwilling to help, but this involves human life, which is not something a doctor like me who saves lives can get involved in."

When I arrived, Qianniang was already dead. I have no idea what happened before.

If the constables deem an autopsy necessary, it would be best to summon a coroner from the Jingzhao Prefecture.

The constable wasn't angry when Li San Niang refused; he simply nodded and let it go.

The two old women went into the inner room together. The stench of blood in the room had not completely dissipated. The two women mustered their courage and lifted the quilt covering Qianniang on the bed.