Chapter 129: The Ghost Gate of the Production Pavilion
"She's bleeding! Quick! Hot water! Ginseng soup!"
The midwife's shrill voice, like a knife, shattered the fragile tranquility of the delivery room. Su Wanrou felt a warm, wet sensation beneath her; the gushing heat carried an ominous premonition, causing her heart to sink to the bottom. Immediately afterward, a wave of contractions, several times more intense than before, swept over her, as if countless hands were tearing at her insides, the pain so intense it made her vision blur and she nearly fainted.
"Madam! Madam, please hold on!" Qingdai cried, wiping the cold sweat pouring down her forehead with a warm cloth, her voice trembling uncontrollably.
Suppressing her panic, Granny Zhou stuffed the sliced ginseng into Su Wanrou's mouth, urging her repeatedly, "Madam, hold it in! Keep your strength up! Follow the midwife's instructions!"
Physician Lin paced anxiously outside, shouting through the screen, "Madam! You mustn't waste your energy! Clear your mind and focus! The child's life depends entirely on you!"
Abandoning distracting thoughts? Easier said than done! Su Wanrou's mind was filled with images of Gu Yangui covered in blood, the狰狞 faces in the court, and the howling winds of Luoying Gorge... Fear and despair, like icy tides, repeatedly tried to overwhelm her. With each contraction, in those brief, agonizing moments of breathing, these thoughts would frantically surge back.
Another wave of excruciating pain struck, even more intense than before. Su Wanrou bit her lip hard, tasting the blood to barely suppress a scream. Her hands gripped the cloth straps hanging at her sides tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. Her body felt as if it no longer belonged to her, becoming a small boat about to break apart in a raging storm, her only sensation being the endless, crushing pain that seemed to want to destroy everything.
"Madam, your cervix is dilating slowly, and the baby's position seems... a little breech..." The experienced midwife's voice was filled with barely concealed panic after the examination. Premature babies are already weak, and if they encounter a difficult labor, it's like adding insult to injury.
Su Wanrou's heart clenched. Malposition of the fetus… She had heard too many tragic stories of women dying from postpartum hemorrhage because of it.
"No... I can't die... and the baby can't be hurt either..." A weak yet incredibly firm voice echoed in her heart. Yan Gui was still waiting for her, Ming Xuan was still eagerly anticipating her arrival in the front yard, and the baby in her womb, not even a full-term infant, hadn't even seen the world yet... How could she give up!
The instinct for survival and the resilience of motherhood overwhelmed all fear and distractions at that moment. She frantically began to recall the birthing techniques that her nanny and the female physician had taught her, trying to regulate her chaotic breathing.
"Inhale... push... yes, madam, that's it! I can see the head! Give it another push!" The midwife saw a glimmer of hope and raised her voice eight octaves.
Su Wanrou held her breath and pushed downwards with all her might. She could feel the baby's head struggling through the birth canal; it was a tearing, almost suffocating pain. Sweat blurred her vision, and she was soaked through, as if she had just been pulled from the water. Her consciousness began to blur under the impact of the pain, and the calls of the midwife and maid became distant and indistinct.
Just as she was about to collapse from exhaustion and her consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness, the bitter taste of ginseng in her mouth, mixed with the faint scent of pine ink that Gu Yangui often used in the air—the scent of the ink sticks he usually used in his study, which had somehow gotten into a corner of the delivery room—was like a lifeline that pulled her back from the edge of the abyss.
After the banquet...
She seemed to see Gu Yangui's deep, calm eyes looking at her with a mixture of worry and encouragement. The night before he left, he held her in his arms and whispered, "Wait for me to come back and see our child born."
Yes, he told her to wait for him to come back! He promised to be there for the baby's birth! Gu Yangui is a man of his word, he never breaks his promises! He will definitely come back alive! And she, too, must protect their child!
A force, seemingly from nowhere, suddenly erupted from the depths of her body. Su Wanrou let out a low growl, almost like a wild beast, and with the last, most tenacious strength of her life, she pushed downwards once more!
"It's out! The head is out! Madam! Push one more time! Just one more time!" The midwife's voice was filled with ecstasy.
Hope, like a faint flame, was rekindled. Su Wanrou seized this last opportunity, coordinating with the next contraction, and gave it her all!
"Wow--"
A faint cry, like a kitten's whimper, suddenly rang out in the delivery room. Though small, the sound was like a ray of dawn piercing the night sky, instantly dispelling all the gloom and despair.
"It's born! The lady has given birth! It's a little boy!" the midwife exclaimed excitedly, deftly cutting the umbilical cord and carefully cradling the pitifully small, bluish-purple baby in her hands.
She gave birth…it was finally over…Su Wanrou felt a wave of relief wash over her, as if all her bones had been removed. She collapsed onto the delivery bed, too weak to even lift a finger. Tears mingled with sweat, silently streaming down her face. It was a mixture of relief, relief, and an indescribable flood of emotions.
"My child...my child..." she murmured weakly, trying to lift her head to look at him.
However, the joy lasted only a moment.
"Oh no!" the female physician in charge of cleaning the child suddenly exclaimed, "Young master... young master, stop crying! Your face is turning purple!"
The midwife panicked and hurriedly patted the baby's soles and back, but after the faint crying stopped, the baby was like a lifeless rag doll, with its small chest barely rising and falling.
"Let me see!" Physician Lin, disregarding any pretense of propriety, rushed in and took the tiny, fragile life from the midwife's hands. He quickly examined it, and his expression turned extremely grim.
"Madam... the young master was born prematurely, and his lungs may not be fully developed. His breathing is extremely weak... and it seems that he... choked on amniotic fluid..." Physician Lin's voice was extremely heavy, and every word was like a heavy hammer hitting Su Wanrou's heart.
The newly ignited flame of hope was doused with a bucket of ice water. Su Wanrou struggled to get up, but was held down firmly by Granny Zhou.
"Imperial Physician! I beg you! Save my child! By any means necessary! I beg you!" Her voice was hoarse, filled with a heart-wrenching plea.
Physician Lin dared not delay and immediately gathered around with the other physicians, trying various methods to stimulate the baby's breathing, clear its mouth and nose, and even using acupuncture. The atmosphere in the delivery room became extremely tense again, and everyone's heart was in their throat.
Su Wanrou lay there, her body ice-cold, only able to watch the busy figures of the imperial physicians, listen to their anxious whispers, and hear the barely audible, intermittent, weak breathing of her poor child. Each time the breathing seemed to stop, her heart would stop beating.
Time has never felt so slow and cruel. Every second felt like being fried in a pan of oil.
It was unclear how much time had passed—perhaps just the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, or perhaps an entire century. Finally, Physician Lin straightened up, letting out a long, weary sigh. He turned to face Su Wanrou, who was staring at him expectantly, and gave her an extremely strained expression, one of relief at having survived a calamity.
"Madam... thankfully... the young master... has recovered for the time being."
Things have calmed down for now...
Su Wanrou's tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and everything went black before her eyes. She completely lost consciousness. In the moment before she fell into boundless darkness, she seemed to hear an extremely faint but real baby's cry, like a feather gently brushing against her heart.
Her child survived.
And she was finally able to temporarily remove the armor that she had been wearing for too long and that was too heavy, even if only for a moment.
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