Chapter 108 Changsun Village (2)
Not only was her body like a fish out of air, but her eyes were also lifeless. One hand hung limply by the bedside as she quietly watched Chen Yun…
"The contractions are weak, and the baby's heartbeat is almost inaudible!"
Although Chen Yun was puzzled, he did not slow down his work at all. After bending the woman's legs, he turned around and immediately gave instructions: "Prepare oxytocin."
Fortunately, a few days ago the soldiers brought back a batch of medicines for production, and Chen Yun took some of them with him into Changsun Village as a precaution.
"No need...no need to save me."
Unexpectedly, at that moment, the woman weakly raised her hand and suddenly unleashed an astonishing strength to grab Chen Yun's hand.
"No...don't save me...dying is...it's a relief."
Duan Yun's hand trembled as he broke the medicine bottle, and he almost dropped it onto the muddy ground.
The room was filled with a pungent smell of blood and mildew, and Chen Yun was choked and coughed violently as soon as he opened his mouth, as if he was about to cough up his lungs.
The midwife appeared at the bedside again, holding the mother's hands tightly.
"There's hope as long as you're alive! Are you out of your mind from the pain...? Look who delivered your baby!"
These two sentences were spoken in hushed tones, and although the tone was extremely heavy, only a few people around the bed could hear them.
Chen Yun calmed her breathing and smiled faintly at the woman in labor: "We are doctors from Beicheng. No matter what you want to say, saving her life is the most important thing right now... As long as she is alive, there is hope."
The woman's lifeless eyes suddenly brightened, as if she had finally noticed Chen Yun and the other woman's attire.
"Doctor...you're not from Changsun Village!"
"Shh!" The midwife nervously put her index finger to her lips. "Keep your voice down, don't let the Sun family hear."
Chen Yun glanced down at the midwife.
“Continue,” Chen Yun said.
Oxytocin was slowly introduced into the blood vessels of the woman named Cotton, and soon violent contractions struck, causing her to scream in agony.
Someone outside was shouting "Bad luck!"
The midwife ran to the door again, lifted the curtain a crack, and peeked out.
The Sun family men, who had been waiting in the courtyard, stormed into the main room with angry expressions on their faces.
In Changsun Village, there is a tradition that if a woman screams and cries during childbirth, it is considered a sign of impending bloodshed, and men must avoid her.
Seeing that only cotton remained in the yard, Sun Mopan's wife urged her son to hurry inside.
The midwife breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"The shoulders came out first!" Chen Yun's expression changed drastically. Without hesitation, she began to dilate the birth canal and tried to rotate the fetus.
"They're out!"
With Chen Yun's skillful rotation, the fetus finally emerged, but the child, whose face was bluish-purple, had already stopped breathing and was as limp as a puddle of mud.
Chen Yun sighed inwardly, but continued to follow the procedure to resuscitate the child. After all the resuscitation measures were exhausted, the small body still showed no response.
"Sigh!" Chen Yun stopped what he was doing.
The woman in labor on the bed chuckled softly at that moment: "Good news, it's good news..."
The midwife stepped forward and wrapped the baby in a dusty, tattered cloth: "It's a girl. You can talk to her first... I'm an old woman and I can't hear you. I'll talk to Sun Mopan's wife after you're done."
The midwife moved the wrapped baby to the door and placed it in a bamboo basket at her feet.
“My name is Zhang Xue, and I live here… In 1990, my classmate told me that the primary school in Changsun Village was looking for a Chinese language teacher, and that's how I ended up here…”
It turns out that the girl whom Sun Mopan's wife called Cotton was actually named Zhang Xue.
Two years ago, Zhang Xue was tricked into coming to Changsun Village by her classmate. As a result, she was sold to Sun Mopan's eldest son as his wife. Zhang Xue tried to escape several times but was caught and brought back. She has been locked in this room in the Sun family ever since.
It wasn't until she became pregnant this year that the Sun family finally relaxed their surveillance on her.
If it weren't for the difficult childbirth and customs, Zhang Xue would never have had the chance to see people outside the village, let alone have the opportunity to speak with Chen Yun alone.
“Once we women have children, we won’t want to run away anymore…” the midwife added quietly, “There are many poor girls like you in this village.”
"Auntie."
Zhang Xue raised her hand, her face streaked with tears, and looked at the silent bamboo basket: "Let me see the child one more time."
"Don't look anymore. It's her good fortune that she wasn't born in this cannibalistic place," the midwife waved her hand.
"Tell me about the situation in the village first." Chen Yun felt this wasn't the time to be sad, so he immediately pressed the woman's hand and whispered, "There are soldiers sent by the military to protect us outside the village. If we want to escape, the more we know, the better!"
"Okay!" The woman wiped away her tears forcefully, as if she had suddenly gained strength.
Sun Mopan's wife, who was waiting outside, grew impatient.
Although the rain was light, it was still very annoying because it kept falling. She had a chronic illness from giving birth years ago, and she would suffer greatly if she caught a chill.
"Why hasn't it been born yet?!"
"Don't worry, sister-in-law, Cotton is too weak to give birth... The doctor is giving Cotton an injection, she'll have the strength after the injection," the midwife shouted back, while desperately trying to wink at Zhang Xue.
Zhang Xue nodded and screamed desperately towards the door.
"Give birth to her child is such a hassle, she might as well be dead!" Sun Mopan's wife patted her frozen knees and went into the kitchen, cursing.
She was asked to go into the delivery room... Sun Mopan's wife couldn't stand bloody scenes, so she wouldn't even go near the delivery room, let alone enter the room.
“This Changsun Village is definitely not as simple as outsiders see it. This year, I overheard Sun Qiang and Sun Mopan whispering to each other. They said that the village's dividends this year are less than last year... because the Public Security Bureau is cracking down hard this year, and they don't dare to take action..."
Zhang Xue's words plunged Chen Yun into an icy abyss, and the midwife's subsequent additions were even more terrifying.
"Changsun Village is involved in human trafficking. The women in our village... were actually trafficked by them."
The midwife's name was already vague to her; she had been sold to Changsun Village as a wife thirty years ago.
Although the men in the village are wary of outside women, after living there for decades, they have learned some of the tricks involved.
Zhang Xue was only guessing, but the midwife told Chen Yun the truth: none of the men in Changsun Village were good people.
All the men in the village joined the human trafficking gang organized by the village chief.
Those who do not participate either disappear suddenly or are left behind in the village to herd cattle and farm, never to have another chance to leave the village.
They didn't choose Mengding County as their target because they were worried about being caught by the local public security bureau. So the men in the village were divided into three groups and took turns traveling by train to other places to traffic people.
Not long ago, the midwife's husband and son also went on a long trip.
This time, many people went out. According to the midwife's observation, most of the men in the village had already gone out. It must be that these beasts have found a big target.
"If it weren't for a big business opportunity, the village chief would never leave the village."
If the village chief hadn't left, Sun Mopan would have dared to do whatever he wanted, even let the man into the village, just because Sun Qiang asked him to go out and find a doctor.
Village chief Sun Yaowu is a ruthless man; he wouldn't even glance at a woman dying in childbirth in such a situation.
"Duan Yun, the work from now on is yours."
Duan Yun nodded and took over the finishing touches, giving Chen Yun time to ask the midwife a detailed question.
Chen Yun took off his gloves, then suddenly took out a pen and paper from the shirt pocket inside his white coat, casually found a box, bent down, and began to write quickly.
While writing, he also asked the midwife for details about Changsun Village.
"Changsun Village has a total of 37 households, with a total of 135 men. The village has only one exit..."
"Are there guns in the village?" Chen Yun suddenly asked.
"Yes!" The midwife's expression froze for a moment, then she turned and pointed directly to the ancestral hall at the highest point: "Both rooms are completely filled!"
"good!"
Chen Yun hurriedly wrote down the three characters for "gunpowder depot," but before he could finish writing, someone outside suddenly shouted.
"Is Sun Mopan's family here?"
Chen Yun was startled. He quickly put the pen into his pocket, stuffed the paper with the message into his pants pocket, and put down his white coat.
"Sister-in-law, what's up?"
“My second son’s wife has also gone into labor, and I’d like to ask the doctor to come to my house to help with the delivery,” the woman said.
"Okay! We'll have the doctor come after the cotton plants are ready!"
"I came here because Sun Mopan said she was a female doctor, but where is she?"
"Get busy inside!"
The midwife cleared her throat, gave Chen Yun a wink, and then lowered her voice to say, "That second daughter-in-law was also trafficked here." After saying that, she walked to the door and picked up her basket.
Soon after, the sounds of Sun Mopan's wife cursing and yelling rang out from outside.
"Not only did she give birth to a girl, but she's also dead!"
"Sun Qiang, quickly throw the basket into the well at the village entrance, it's incredibly unlucky!"
"My eldest grandson..."
"Auntie, how's my wife?"
The midwife deliberately exaggerated Zhang Xue's condition, saying that the doctor was stitching up her lower body and that it would probably take ten days to half a month to recover.
It concludes with the statement that once recovered, it can regenerate.
A moment after the midwife finished speaking, the door to the room opened.
A middle-aged woman in a gray-green jacket barged in. Seeing that Chen Yun was indeed stitching up Zhang Xue's wound, she nodded to Sun Mopan's wife at the door.
"Rest well and avoid cold water for the next two weeks."
"Once you've recovered, I'll prescribe some traditional Chinese medicine for you, and I guarantee you'll have a big, healthy boy next time."
"..."
Chen Yun's nonsense made Sun Mopan's wife and the woman in green's eyes light up.
"Is there really a drug that can make someone have a son?"
"If such a medicine really existed, wouldn't the world be full of gay men?" Chen Yun shook his head at the two of them: "It's just a tonic that can help people get pregnant."
"Alright!" After finishing the final touches, Chen Yun gently patted Zhang Xue's arm: "Get some rest."
Zhang Xue nodded wearily and slowly closed her eyes.
"Now that the delivery is finished, let's head back."
"Doctor, please don't leave yet. My daughter-in-law is about to give birth, so could you please take a look at her as well?"
The woman was much more polite than Sun Mopan's wife, looking at Chen Yun with a smile on her face.
Chen Yun looked troubled: "What about our hospital's male doctor? He probably can't stay any longer, right?"
Just minutes before, a baby had stopped breathing, but the woman had a smile on her face, as if she had long since taken it for granted.
It's as simple as... just throwing away a bag of trash.
“I ran into Sun Mopan at the gate; he had already seen the male doctor out of the village,” the woman said.
Chen Yun seemed to be thinking, then slowly exhaled: "I can stay, but I've run out of oxytocin. If I encounter another difficult labor and there's no medicine... I'm worried."
His gaze toward Zhang Xue was filled with a sigh, the meaning of which was self-evident.
The woman thought for a moment and immediately replied, "Then let this doctor go back and get the oxytocin? I'll talk to Old Sun, the gatekeeper, in a bit and ask him to open the door when the time comes."
"Let's go then..."
The woman quickly turned around with a smile and gestured with her chin towards Sun Mopan's wife.
The moment their eyes met, Chen Yun had already slipped the paper from her palm into Duan Yun's hand.
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