“Bang!”
The already flimsy courtyard gate was suddenly thrown open.
Lin Erniu rushed in like a whirlwind, covered from head to toe in snow. He had run so fast that he had even lost one of his shoes.
He did not even have time to catch his breath before his desperate, tearful voice rang throughout the entire courtyard.
“Mom! This is bad! The midwife isn’t home!”
“Her family said that a wealthy household in the county is having a young master born, and they paid a huge sum to hire all the midwives from the surrounding villages!”
Those words struck the entire Lin family like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky.
Second sister-in-law Li Shi, who was carrying out a basin of bloody water from the main room, suddenly trembled.
The copper basin slipped from her hands and crashed to the ground.
Bright red blood splashed across the pure white snow, creating a horrifying sight.
“What are we going to do? Qingyue has lost so much blood, and this is her first child! Without a midwife, she could die!”
Li Shi’s legs went weak with fear. She clung desperately to the doorframe to keep herself from collapsing.
From inside the room came Lin Qingyue’s suppressed screams.
Every cry was like a bloodstained knife stabbing deeply into Lu Yuan’s heart.
His eyes turned blood-red.
Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and rushed toward the delivery room.
“Brother-in-law! What are you doing?!”
Lin Daniu and Lin Dashan reacted quickly. The two burly men, built like iron towers, firmly blocked the doorway.
Lin Dashan was sweating anxiously as he grabbed Lu Yuan by the shoulders.
“The delivery room is filled with blood and considered a place of extreme yin and impurity! You are a scholar with official recognition. You absolutely cannot go in!”
“If a man enters the delivery room, he’ll suffer bad luck for the rest of his life and ruin his fortune!”
In ancient times, such superstitions were deeply rooted in people’s minds.
No matter how much they loved their daughter, they absolutely could not allow their son-in-law to bring such misfortune upon himself.
If this had been the old Lu Yuan, who cared deeply about his reputation, he would certainly have retreated in fear.
But the man standing there now possessed a modern soul.
“To hell with the rules! To hell with this nonsense about blood and bad luck!”
Lu Yuan roared like an enraged lion.
“What does academic status or fortune matter? My wife’s life is a hundred, a thousand times more important than mine!”
“Anyone who dares stop me from saving her will have to fight me!”
Lu Yuan suddenly exploded with astonishing strength. He shoved his father-in-law and elder brother-in-law aside, caught off guard, and pushed open the shaky wooden door.
He stepped into the room and immediately closed the door behind him.
A thick, nauseating smell of blood rushed toward him.
Lu Yuan’s heart trembled violently.
When he had first transmigrated, he had not really felt anything for this unfamiliar wife.
He had simply thought that since he had taken over the original owner’s body, he should fulfill the responsibilities left behind by the original owner.
But after only a few days together, every little thing Lin Qingyue did had already been carved deeply into his heart.
Back in the Lu family woodshed, she had used her frail body to shield him from the blows.
In the freezing snowstorm, even when her lips had turned purple from the cold, she had never complained. She had trusted him and followed him without hesitation.
Every night, the two of them squeezed together on the narrow heated brick bed, and she would always look at him gently.
Sometimes he would place his hand over her heavily pregnant belly.
Whenever he felt the strong movements of the little life inside her against his palm, Lu Yuan, an orphan who had lived a lonely life in his previous existence, experienced for the first time the overwhelming feeling of being connected by blood.
He was going to be a father.
He had a wife who loved and depended on him wholeheartedly.
He had a family of his own!
He absolutely could not lose her.
Never!
With red-rimmed eyes, Lu Yuan rushed to the bedside.
On the heated brick bed, Lin Qingyue’s face was as pale as paper. Sweat had soaked through her thin clothes, leaving her entire body looking as though she had been pulled from water.
“Husband…”
Lin Qingyue’s voice was barely audible.
When she saw Lu Yuan ignoring the taboo and rushing into the room, a trace of shock flashed through her dull eyes, followed by deep affection.
She desperately raised her hand and grabbed Lu Yuan’s sleeve with blood-stained fingers.
“Husband… it hurts so much… I think I’m not going to make it…”
Tears rolled down the corners of Lin Qingyue’s eyes.
“I’m so scared… If I die, you have to save our child… Don’t find him a vicious stepmother…”
She was giving him her last words.
For women in ancient times, giving birth was like stepping into the gates of hell.
And Lin Qingyue was severely malnourished, frightened, and had suffered a hard fall.
“Stop talking!”
Tears burst from Lu Yuan’s eyes.
He grabbed her cold hand tightly in his palm.
“Qingyue, listen to me! Without you, I will never live alone!”
“To me, you will always come first!”
Lu Yuan bent down, his trembling lips touching her forehead.
“Hold on! Do exactly what I tell you. Our whole family is going to live well. I’m going to make sure you live the life of an official’s wife!”
Those astonishing yet deeply affectionate words caused a faint light to return to Lin Qingyue’s previously unfocused eyes.
Outside the door, her father and brothers listened to their conversation. Their eyes reddened, and they secretly turned away to wipe their tears.
“What are you all standing around for?!”
Lu Yuan suddenly turned around and forced himself into the extreme calmness of a researcher working under intense pressure.
His eyes were sharp, and his commanding voice rang through the delivery room, instantly becoming the backbone everyone could rely on.
“Mom! Stop crying! Immediately go to the stove and take the finest wood ash. Mix it with boiling water, then wash your arms and the insides and outsides of your fingernails three times!”
His mother-in-law, Wang Shi, was startled by his shout.
Although she did not understand why he wanted her to wash her hands with wood ash, his commanding presence instinctively made her obey.
“Okay! Okay! I’ll do it!”
Lu Yuan knew very well that a major cause of the extremely high maternal death rate in ancient times was bacterial infection during childbirth—puerperal fever.
Wood ash contained a large amount of potassium carbonate, making it naturally mildly alkaline and somewhat useful for killing bacteria. In this poor household, it was the only disinfecting material they could find.
“Second sister-in-law!”
Lu Yuan turned toward Li Shi, who was carrying hot water.
Li Shi immediately straightened up and nodded repeatedly.
“Brother-in-law, just tell me what you need me to do!”
“Bring out the sorghum liquor we saved for New Year! Heat the scissors over a fire until they’re red-hot, then pour the sorghum liquor over them to disinfect them. There must not be any rust!”
“Also, use hot water to dissolve the brown sugar we bought. Make it as concentrated as possible and bring it here immediately!”
The sorghum liquor was not highly refined, but it still contained alcohol and could provide some degree of disinfection.
The brown sugar water, meanwhile, would quickly provide the exhausted mother with energy.
Li Shi moved quickly.
Before long, a steaming bowl of thick, sweet brown sugar water was brought to the bedside.
Lu Yuan personally held the bowl and fed Lin Qingyue one spoonful at a time.
“Qingyue, swallow it. Once you drink this, you’ll have the strength to deliver our child.”
The hot, sweet brown sugar water flowed down her throat and into her stomach, quickly transforming into warmth that spread through her limbs.
Lin Qingyue, who had nearly collapsed from exhaustion, miraculously felt a little strength returning to her body.
“Good girl! Her water has almost all broken! I can see the head! I can see the head!”
Wang Shi, who had washed her hands, leaned over at the foot of the bed and shouted excitedly.
“Qingyue, look at me! Look into my eyes!”
Lu Yuan put down the bowl and firmly held his wife’s wrists.
Relying on the modern medical knowledge he had learned in his previous life, he began guiding her through the most scientifically effective Lamaze breathing techniques.
Without oxytocin or pain medication in ancient times, a woman who pushed blindly would only exhaust herself and potentially end up with both mother and child dying.
“Follow my rhythm!”
“Take a deep breath! Breathe deeply and expand your belly!”
Lin Qingyue’s face was covered in sweat. She bit her lips tightly and followed Lu Yuan’s instructions, taking a deep breath.
“Hold it! Don’t let the air out!”
Lu Yuan stared intently at her, his palms covered in sweat.
“Now! Grip the blanket tightly and push downward! Use all your strength!”
“Ahhh!”
Lin Qingyue let out a heart-wrenching cry.
She squeezed her eyes shut and directed all her strength downward through the waves of excruciating pain.
Outside, snow and wind swept through the courtyard.
Lin Dashan stood outside with Lin Daniu, Lin Erniu, and Lin Sanniu. The four burly men paced anxiously through the snow like ants on a hot pan.
“Heaven, please protect them! Let my sister and her child be safe! I’m willing to sacrifice ten years of my life!”
Lin Daniu clasped his hands together, dropped to his knees in the snow, and desperately kowtowed toward the heavens.
Lin Sanniu was even more frantic. He repeatedly slapped himself across the face.
“It’s all my fault! If I hadn’t gone to borrow that basin, I could have stayed home! Those bastards wouldn’t have been able to hurt Sister!”
Inside the room, the atmosphere was even more tense.
“Good! You’re doing very well! Qingyue, just like that!”
Lu Yuan’s voice had already become hoarse.
He repeatedly wiped the sweat from his wife’s face with a handkerchief, giving her the unwavering strength and encouragement of a modern man.
“Again! Take a deep breath—hold it—and push!”
Lin Qingyue’s entire body trembled violently.
Her fingernails dug deeply into the back of Lu Yuan’s hand, leaving several deep bloody marks.
But Lu Yuan did not even frown.
“I can see the head! The head is coming out! Girl, give me one more push!”
Wang Shi’s voice trembled with excitement.
Lin Qingyue suddenly threw her head back, the veins on her neck bulging.
Lu Yuan’s promise—“I’m going to make sure you live a good life”—echoed in her mind.
She summoned a maternal strength she had never known she possessed.
“Ahhhhh!”
With one final, desperate scream—
“Waaah! Waaah!”
A loud, vigorous newborn’s cry suddenly tore through the snowy night!
“She’s delivered! The baby is born!”
The four Lin family men outside jumped up in excitement and hugged one another.
Lin Dashan was even crying tears of joy.
Inside the room, Wang Shi efficiently used the disinfected scissors to cut the umbilical cord and wrapped the tiny, red newborn in the soft fine cotton cloth they had bought the previous day.
“It’s a boy! A healthy baby boy!”
Lu Yuan stared at the tiny life, who was crying loudly with his eyes tightly shut.
His eyes turned completely red.
An enormous joy and sense of accomplishment unlike anything he had ever experienced overwhelmed him.
This was his son!
This was the continuation of his bloodline in this new world!
He turned his head, preparing to kiss his wife and thank her for risking her life to give birth to their child.
However, before the family could even celebrate—
Lin Qingyue suddenly widened her eyes and let out a scream even more agonized than before.
“Ahhh! It hurts! Husband! My stomach feels like it’s going to split apart!”
Lu Yuan’s expression changed drastically.
He immediately looked down.
Lin Qingyue’s belly, which should have become smaller after delivery, was still moving violently.
The outline of a tiny foot could even be clearly seen pressing against her belly!
Wang Shi, who had been cleaning the newborn, instinctively looked toward Qingyue’s lower body.
Just one glance was enough.
The experienced farmer’s wife, who had given birth to four children herself, instantly turned as pale as paper.
“Clang!”
Her entire body went limp, and she collapsed onto the blood-soaked floor like a pile of mud.
Pointing toward the bed, her teeth chattering, she let out a cry of utter despair.
“Something’s wrong! There’s still another baby inside… but—but the baby is coming feet first!”
A difficult labor!
A life-threatening breech birth!