Deep in the night, the village dogs barked one after another—not the usual calm kind, but restless, uneasy howling.
Su Jinxiu was about to hide the silver notes she had earned during the day into a secret crack in the wall when the courtyard gate was slammed so hard it shook the entire house. The sound was so violent it felt like the broken wooden door might be torn apart.
“Madam Su! Madam Su, please save her!”
It was a woman’s crying voice—sharp and piercing, enough to make one’s scalp tighten.
Su Jinxiu froze, immediately stuffed the silver notes into her chest, and jumped down from the bed to open the door. Huo Chen also woke up instantly. The military knife was already in his hand, listening intently to the outside movement.
The door opened.
A disheveled old woman collapsed to her knees. Covered in mud, she had clearly fallen multiple times on her way here.
“Madam Su! Please, save my daughter-in-law Xiue! She… she’s having a difficult birth! The midwife says the baby came feet first and is stuck. Blood has filled a whole basin… it’s two lives at stake!”
It was Wang Er-Mazi’s wife from the east end of the village.
Difficult labor. Breech birth. Severe bleeding.
In this era, those three words were basically a death sentence for the mother.
Su Jinxiu’s inner medical alarm instantly rang.
She said nothing more, turned and grabbed her “medicine box”—a cloth bag disguising surgical tools and emergency medicine from the system space.
“Husband, I have to go,” Su Jinxiu said while putting on her shoes. Her tone was no longer playful, but serious and firm. “That’s two lives. I can’t ignore them.”
Huo Chen looked at her.
At this moment, Su Jinxiu’s eyes were bright and steady. That focused expression on life itself gave her an entirely different presence.
He did not believe in gods or fate. But he believed in Su Jinxiu’s hands—they could pull people back from the King of Hell.
“I’ll go with you.”
He picked up his cane and strapped the concealed sleeve arrow onto his wrist.
“There are people in this village who don’t think clearly. If she can’t be saved, they’ll turn on you.”
He understood human nature too well. If she succeeded, she was a goddess. If she failed, she was a murderer.
He had to be there.
When they arrived at the Wang household, chaos filled the room.
Under dim oil lamp light, the woman’s screams had already weakened to barely audible gasps. The thick smell of blood made one want to retch. The village midwife was waving a burning talisman, jumping and chanting “drive away evil spirits,” while trying to force a bowl of ash-mixed “holy water” into the patient’s mouth.
“Stop!”
Su Jinxiu rushed in and slapped the bowl away. It shattered instantly with a sharp crack. Everyone froze.
“You… what are you doing! This is blessed water from the Goddess of Childbirth!” the midwife shouted angrily.
“If she drinks that, it’ll be a death sentence!” Su Jinxiu’s eyes turned sharp. She shoved the midwife aside. “If you don’t want a double death, all of you get out! The room is too stuffy, you’re burning paper money—you’re trying to suffocate her! Open the windows! Boil water! Bring the brightest lamps you have!”
Her aura was overwhelming. The pressure of a professional doctor on an operating table was something these villagers had never experienced before.
The family instinctively obeyed—but the midwife kept shouting.
“She’s an outsider! It’s bad luck for a man to enter the delivery room—ah!”
Her words were cut off as a cold cane blocked her path.
Huo Chen stood at the doorway, radiating an oppressive presence. He said nothing, but his gaze alone was enough to silence her. The killing intent in his eyes made the midwife retreat into a corner in fear.
“Do as she says,” Huo Chen said coldly. “Anyone who causes trouble gets thrown out.”
The room was cleared. Only Su Jinxiu and the patient’s mother-in-law remained to assist.
The situation was worse than expected.
Su Jinxiu quickly activated her scanning vision.
[Scanning mode activated. Fetal position: breech, single foot presentation. Cervix fully dilated, but uterine force exhausted. Blood loss: 600ml. Rapid drop in blood pressure.]
They had to act immediately. Otherwise, both mother and child would die.
“Don’t sleep! Sister Xiue, listen to me—don’t fall asleep!” Su Jinxiu slapped the woman’s face firmly while injecting oxytocin into her muscle from the system space.
Then she took out a gleaming hemostatic clamp and performed an episiotomy with practiced precision.
There was no anesthesia. The woman convulsed in pain, but it also triggered her final survival instinct.
“Follow my command! Inhale—push!”
Su Jinxiu’s technique was extremely professional—the standard modern obstetric method for breech delivery: unlock, rotate, extract.
Outside the room, Huo Chen leaned against the wall, listening to Su Jinxiu’s calm, commanding voice and the sound of instruments clinking.
This was a battlefield too—but not of swords and spears. It was a war against death itself.
He had never seen her like this before.
Not the greedy little woman. Not the playful actress. But someone powerful, composed, and utterly reliable.
“Waaah—!”
A loud, piercing cry of a newborn cut through the night sky.
Then came Su Jinxiu’s exhausted but relieved voice:
“It’s a healthy big boy. Sister-in-law, you’re safe now—the bleeding has stopped.”
Outside the door, the patient’s family cried tears of joy, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing toward the room.
Huo Chen’s tightly gripping hand on his crutch loosened slightly, and the corner of his mouth lifted almost imperceptibly for a moment.
He had won.
A short while later, Su Jinxiu pushed the door open and walked out. Her hands were covered in blood, and a few drops had splattered onto her face. Her hair was damp with sweat and stuck to her cheeks, making her look utterly disheveled—but in Huo Chen’s eyes, she had never looked more pleasing.
“Husband, was I amazing?” She grinned at him, baring her teeth, instantly back to her usual praise-seeking self.
【Ding—Host has successfully treated a high-risk parturient and saved two lives. Merit points gained: 500.】
Hearing the system notification in her mind, Su Jinxiu’s smile widened even more. This was a fortune!
Huo Chen stepped forward, pulling out a relatively clean handkerchief from his chest. He awkwardly wiped the blood from her face.
“Mm.” He looked into her eyes, his voice low and serious. “Very impressive.”
Not just her medical skills—but also that heart of hers, hidden beneath a money-loving exterior, still burning warmly.
Su Jinxiu froze. This tyrant… why did his handkerchief smell so good? Wait—why would a tyrant even carry a handkerchief?
“Let’s go. Time to head home,” Huo Chen didn’t give her space to spiral into strange thoughts. He turned and led the way, shielding her from the family members who were about to rush over and kowtow. “She needs rest.”
Under the moonlight, their shadows stretched long.
Su Jinxiu followed behind him, looking at that not particularly broad but strangely reassuring back. Suddenly, she felt that in this unfamiliar time, she didn’t seem quite so alone anymore.
Of course—that was assuming this tyrant didn’t one day regain his memories and decide to chop her up.
“Husband, shouldn’t we charge double for tonight’s house call?”
“…Shut up.”
PS: Our tsundere tyrant Huo Chen is finally opening up—protecting his wife and doing the face-wipe move?! Everyone, spam “Huo Chen is so handsome” in the comments!