Chapter 605 "Sister! Survive!"
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The twins in Li Xiatian's womb seemed to sense their mother's despair on the verge of collapse, and became increasingly restless day by day.
On the third day after Jiang Huai's death, on a moonlit night with few stars, Li Xiatian suddenly woke up from a nightmare. Her body was soaked—her water had broken, and she felt waves of ominous, intense abdominal pain.
She was not yet full-term, and giving birth at this time would have been extremely dangerous.
"Mother! Mother!"
Li Xiatian's weak and terrified cries pierced the silence of the night.
The entire inner courtyard of the governor's mansion was instantly brightly lit.
Zheng Meiniang was sleeping in the outer room. When she heard Li Xiatian calling her, she rushed in barefoot without even putting on her outer clothes.
Through the moonlight streaming through the window, Zheng Meiniang saw Li Xiatian's pale face and the wetness beneath him. Just that one glance terrified her.
Jin Daping and Li Yueniang, who were staying at the governor's mansion, were quickly summoned by the maid. Li Shiyue, who had not returned to the military camp for the past few days, also rushed over immediately.
The stench of blood quickly filled the room.
The contractions in Li Xiatian's lower body came on suddenly and violently, but she was clearly exhausted and her uterine contractions were weak.
As the night passed and the sun rose, Li Xiatian's voice was hoarse from crying and screaming, and her hair was soaked with sweat.
Now, she looks like she's been pulled out of the water, but her cervix is still not fully dilated.
"No! Xia Tian is already exhausted!"
If this continues, neither the child nor she will survive!
Looking at Li Xiatian in this state, Li Wangchun, who had extensive experience in midwifery, anxiously called out to Dr. Jin.
At this moment, Li Xiatian's eyes began to glaze over, her consciousness rising and falling in waves of pain, her lips unconsciously murmuring, "Jiang Huai... the child... October... I'm sorry..."
Li Shiyue, who was waiting outside the door, could no longer hold back. She pushed the door open with a "bang" and barged in.
Li Shiyue's eyes were bloodshot as she looked at Li Xiatian lying on the bed, who looked as if his life force was being drained away. Her heart was instantly torn apart.
She didn't care about anything else. She immediately took out the Rejuvenation Pill from the system, took a few steps forward, and stuffed it into Li Xiatian's mouth.
The arrow is already on the bowstring; it must be released!
Li Shiyue could no longer remember how she had concealed her unusual ability from Li Wangchun and the others.
The elixir seemed to have some effect.
After Li Shiyue gave Li Xiatian the Rejuvenation Pill, an abnormal flush quickly appeared on her pale face, and her originally weak breathing became heavier.
Her consciousness cleared up a bit, and Li Xiatian even found some strength again, and began to exert herself following Li Wangchun's instructions.
However, strangely, Li Xiatian's cervix seemed to be blocked by something, and although it kept opening and closing, it could not reach a point where the fetus could pass through smoothly.
The child's head keeps appearing and disappearing, but it just won't come out!
"What...what's going on?!"
Li Wangchun had never seen anything like this before.
"In the summer, it was as if... as if she herself didn't want to give birth to the child..."
Li Wangchun didn't dare say these words aloud, only thinking about them in her heart, but Li Xiatian's frozen expression sent chills down her spine.
It was as if Li Xiatian's own subconscious was resisting, resisting the birth of these two children who bore the marks of betrayal and pain.
She started giving birth at night and continued until night again.
In extreme pain and torment, Li Xiatian almost exhausted her last bit of energy. The effects of the Rejuvenation Pill seemed to be fighting against some kind of invisible despair.
Everyone in the room was exhausted, and the atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.
Finally, in the early hours of the second day, amidst Li Xiatian's heart-wrenching, almost inhuman wail, the first child slid out of the birth canal with great difficulty.
It was a boy, very big, but his whole body was bluish-purple, and he was silent—he had suffocated to death after being delayed in the birth canal for too long.
It was stillborn!
With trembling hands, Li Wangchun cut the umbilical cord, wrapped the lifeless baby in a cloth, and placed it aside, unable to bear looking at it any longer.
Upon not hearing the child cry, Li Xiatian tilted her head and almost fainted immediately.
"Summer! Hang in there! There's one more! There's one more!"
Zheng Meiniang cried and shook Li Xiatian, urging her not to lose her will to live.
Li Shiyue stared at the dead child, her fists clenched so tightly that her nails dug deep into her palms.
Suddenly, Li Shiyue took another step forward, bent down, and whispered in Li Xiatian's ear, "Sister! Survive!"
For Pingping's sake! For An'an's sake! You must survive!
Sister! Survive!
Perhaps it was a mother's instinct, or perhaps it was Li Shiyue's shouts that had an effect, but Li Xiatian's unfocused eyes regained their last glimmer of light. With all her remaining strength, and in response to Li Wangchun's words, she experienced another intense contraction, and her second child was born.
He was much smaller than the first boy, thin and small, like a stunted kitten.
He let out an extremely faint cry, so faint it was like the buzzing of a mosquito, as if it would be cut off at any moment.
It's a living baby boy.
But everyone could see that the child was too weak, so weak that he almost didn't seem like he could survive.
Ignoring the stares of everyone in the room, Li Shiyue immediately stepped forward and took the tiny life from Li Wangchun's hands.
It was icy cold to the touch, and the child's breathing was so shallow that it was almost imperceptible.
Li Shiyue felt a sharp pain in her heart. Without hesitation, she turned her back to block everyone's view with her body, quickly crushed the "Neiyuan Pill" that she had prepared in her system backpack, and carefully fed the powder of the pill little by little into the baby's mouth.
After the powdered medicine entered the baby's mouth, the little infant seemed to feel a little better, and his breathing became slightly more even, but it was still so weak that it was worrying.
The room was in a complete mess.
After giving birth to her second child, Li Xiatian completely lost consciousness and was barely breathing.
Jin Daping and Li Yueniang did their best to save her.
The dead baby was temporarily set aside.
Looking at her dying daughter and two grandsons—one dead and the other critically ill—Zheng Meiniang cried so hard she almost fainted along with Li Xiatian.
Holding the tiny baby in her arms, Li Shiyue felt his faint heartbeat, her heart filled with powerless anger and sorrow.
She saved her elder sister's life, but couldn't save an infant's life; another infant was also in imminent danger.
My heart is breaking; that's how it must be.
For the next three days, the governor's mansion was shrouded in gloom and despair.
Li Xiatian remained in a coma, occasionally waking up in a daze, sometimes crying and sometimes muttering in his sleep, and the medicine was forcibly administered.
The small, thin baby boy, despite being kept alive by the "Neiyuan Pill" that Li Shiyue obtained through trading within the system at great expense, was still severely deficient in his constitution, having suffered damage in the womb.
Like a small, dying flame, it stubbornly flickered for three days before finally going out silently on a quiet morning.
When Li Wangchun found him, his little body was already cold, and his face was peaceful, as if he were just asleep.
When the news reached Li Shiyue, she was working in her study when, upon hearing it, the calligraphy brush in her hand snapped in two with a "crack".
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