Jiang Liuli gripped Xu Shi's icy hand, her voice steady and firm: "Sister-in-law, you must cooperate with me now. Whether you and the child survive depends entirely on this moment."
Xu Shi gritted her teeth and nodded. At this point, besides trusting her sister-in-law, she had no other options. "Alright… I trust you…"
Jiang Liuli took a deep breath and began directing matters methodically.
She instructed the midwife to prepare clean scissors and cloth strips, then lifted Xu Shi's garment and placed her hand on Xu Shi's belly.
She began massaging using the fetal position correction technique she had learned in the apocalypse.
During the apocalyptic era, there were no hospitals, and the surviving doctors were insufficiently distributed among the bases.
Their base had no doctor at all. Women giving birth had to rely entirely on themselves, resulting in extremely high mortality rates.
Later, when her closest friend became pregnant—and because Jiang Liuli had ample supplies leading to an oversized fetus—she worried her friend might face difficult labor. So she scavenged medical books throughout the apocalyptic cities.
Through self-study, she mastered delivery techniques and some simple surgical procedures.
When her friend indeed experienced difficult labor during childbirth, Jiang Liuli's acquired delivery skills managed to pull her friend back from the brink of death.
Therefore, facing Xu Shi now, she still had some confidence.
At this moment, Jiang Liuli's palm pressed against Xu Shi's warm belly, her fingertips detecting the fetus's faint movements. Her gaze grew increasingly focused.
"Sister-in-law, relax a bit. Follow the rhythm of my pressure as you breathe."
While speaking softly, she used her fingertips to slowly massage along the uterine contour.
When her thumb pressed against the fundus position, Xu Shi suddenly cried out in pain, veins bulging on her forehead.
The midwife watching nearby grew terrified: "Girl, what are you doing? No one delivers babies like this!"
Jiang Liuli didn't even look up: "Shut up. Make another sound and get out."
The midwife trembled at Jiang Liuli's cold, sharp tone and actually dared not speak again. She merely mourned silently for Xu Shi in her heart.
[Ah! This laboring woman truly suffers misfortune. Already facing difficult labor, her family unwilling to spend money on a doctor, and now encountering such a domineering, reckless sister-in-law! To endure such torment before death! Ah…]
The midwife sighed deeply. She certainly didn't believe some unmarried country girl had any ability to save this laboring woman whom even she couldn't help.
Even if she'd seen experienced midwives deliver babies, childbirth wasn't something you could learn just by watching!
Jiang Liuli concentrated fully on sensing the fetus's movements, her nimble fingers gently pushing and pressing on Xu Shi's abdomen.
Xu Shi clenched her jaw, nails digging deeply into her palms.
She could feel the fetus slowly turning inside her belly, gradually descending, but the heart-wrenching pain of childbirth nearly made her faint.
"The hot water is here!" Liu Shi rushed in carrying a wooden basin, then froze at the scene before her.
"Place it beside us," Jiang Liuli instructed briefly.
Just then, a sudden scream came from outside.
Xu Shi frowned toward the outside, recognizing Zhao Shi's pained cry, and immediately grew agitated.
Though Zhao Shi was timid, she was thousands of times better than Xu Shi's own mother who never treated her as human. So she didn't want anything to happen to her mother-in-law!
"Ignore outside!" Jiang Liuli snapped coldly. "Focus on giving birth!"
Xu Shi took a deep breath and nodded heavily.
After a while longer, the fetal position finally corrected itself.
"Alright!" Jiang Liuli let out a long sigh of relief and gave Xu Shi another sip of Spirit Spring Water. "Sister-in-law, you can push now!"
After drinking the water, Xu Shi felt a renewed surge of strength. She immediately gritted her teeth and pushed with all her might…
The delivery room was instantly filled with her heart-wrenching cries.
Simultaneously, fierce quarreling erupted in the courtyard.
"You unfilial wretch!" Jiang Qianshi's shrill voice pierced through the doors and windows. "How dare you fight back? I'll beat you to death!"
This was followed by chaotic noises mixed with Zhao Shi's pained cries and Jiang Xiaoni's wailing.
Jiang Liuli frowned deeply but didn't dare relax her movements. While guiding Xu Shi through pushing, she listened intently to the commotion outside.
"The head is out!" the midwife suddenly exclaimed joyfully. "One more push!"
With one final piercing cry from Xu Shi, a blood-covered baby slid out.
Jiang Liuli quickly caught the infant and gently patted its back. The baby let out a faint cry, as soft as a mosquito's buzz.
"It's a boy…" the midwife laughed happily. "Heaven be praised!"
Xu Shi weakly reached out, her eyes filled with maternal affection as she looked at the newborn. "Let me see…"
"Wait a moment! After we clean him up, you can hold him. Rest for now! I need to check on Mother!"
As she spoke, Jiang Liuli handed the baby to the midwife. "I'll leave this to you."
Without waiting for the midwife's response, Jiang Liuli strode out of the delivery room.
The midwife was somewhat stunned, never expecting Jiang Liuli to actually save Xu Shi from death's door.
Only when the child was placed in her arms did the midwife snap out of her daze.
"Don't worry, Miss Jiang. I'll take good care of both mother and child."
With such excellent delivery skills, she resolved to ask for guidance later. If she could learn these techniques, she might become the most famous midwife in the surrounding villages…
Liu Shi, relieved to see Xu Shi was safe, followed Jiang Liuli out the door.
The scene that greeted them outside made her pupils contract sharply—Zhao Shi, with blood at the corner of her mouth and a slap mark on her face, was being pinned to the ground by Jiang Qianshi who had a firm grip on her hair.
Though Jiang Qianshi was over sixty and Zhao Shi only in her forties, Jiang Qianshi had always been robust while Zhao Shi, weakened by long-term malnutrition, was no match for her.
Jiang Xiaoni desperately pulled at Jiang Qianshi's clothes from behind, but being just a young girl, she was kicked away by Jiang Qianshi and lay on the ground, unable to get up.
"Mother!" Jiang Xiaoni cried out, her voice filled with despair.
Seeing their grandmother and aunt being beaten, the children of the Jiang family's second branch reddened with rage. Like a group of enraged young animals, they screamed and rushed forward to tear at Jiang Qianshi's clothes.
But before they could get close, children from the other two branches of the Jiang family swarmed in, and the scene immediately descended into chaos.