Life on the farm went by the rule of rising with the sun and resting when it set.
The sun had just gone down when Zhang Qiaofeng began preparing dinner.
Yu Fuling wanted to show her family a little of her skill, and planned to make stuffed mushrooms.
Yu Lehuan crouched by the stove, feeding in firewood, tossing a peanut into her mouth now and then, chewing happily.
“Mother! Father! Come out quick, Shuiqin’s going into labor!”
Outside the quiet courtyard, Yu Heng’s voice suddenly rang out, choked with tears. “Come out and help, quick!”
The three women exchanged a glance, dropped what they were doing, and ran out to the courtyard.
“This… what’s going on, isn’t it not yet Shuiqin’s due date?” The moment Zhang Qiaofeng saw her eldest daughter-in-law, held in her son’s arms, moaning nonstop in pain, sweat covering her forehead, she gave her eldest son a hard smack in anger. “What are you standing there for, hurry up and carry Shuiqin inside!”
“Oh.”
“You worthless bastard…”
Even in pain to the point her face had gone slack, Li Shuiqin still hadn’t forgotten to curse her husband. “How could I have been so blind as to pick you?”
“Mother, go find a midwife, quick!” Yu Heng’s face flushed red then pale, his hands trembling as he held his wife, not daring to say another word. “Fuling, Lehuan, don’t just stand around, go boil water right now!”
“Where am I supposed to find a midwife at this time of night?” With her husband not yet back and her eldest daughter-in-law about to give birth, Zhang Qiaofeng panicked, spinning in place, at a total loss.
“Lehuan, go boil water first.” Fortunately Yu Fuling didn’t lose her footing, though facing this kind of scene for the first time did leave her a bit nervous. “Mother, where does the doctor live, the one who treated Xie Leyi before? Go get him first to stabilize Eldest Sister-in-law’s condition. Big Brother, once you’ve carried Eldest Sister-in-law inside, go find a midwife.”
A matter of two lives in one body, no one in the Yu family dared take it lightly.
As Yu Fuling followed them into the room, a strong smell of blood hit her in the face, and her breathing quickened without meaning to. A moment later, her eldest sister-in-law’s cursing voice reached her ears. “You Yu bastard, what are your two eyes even for, can’t you even tell a real pearl from a fake one? Ah, it hurts so much!”
“I only did it to please your father, to make you happy, how was I supposed to know…” Yu Heng’s face flushed the color of pig liver, and not daring to admit the truth, he could only bring up old grievances instead. “Before, when your third brother wanted this and that, we gave both money and effort. Now that it’s our turn to be in trouble, you just open your mouth and ask me for money, you’re about to give birth, and you’re saying it’s bad luck to give birth at your own family’s home, forcing yourself out of there. If it weren’t for the fact that you’re my wife, do you think I’d want to grovel like that?”
“You—you bastard!…” Li Shuiqin sucked in a sharp breath, her body suddenly arching, whether from pain or hatred she couldn’t say. “Once I’ve had this baby, I’m going to settle accounts with you…”
She let out a scream of pain, gasping in great gulps of air, her whole body drenched in sweat as if she’d just been pulled out of water.
“Why isn’t Mother back yet? Where did Father go? Why is there not a single reliable person in this family?” Seeing his wife trembling and crying out in pain, Yu Heng also began shouting anxiously.
Yu Fuling, who had been standing to the side, took a deep breath and walked quickly to the bedside. “Bring the wooden birthing bucket from your wedding, and get scissors and clean towels, once the water’s boiled, make sure to put them in and boil them a while to disinfect.”
Yu Heng, seeing it was his younger sister who’d just come home, glared at her at once. “What are you doing joining in on this? An unmarried girl like you, what do you even know about—”
“For seventeen years I lived at the Marquis’ estate, and the nannies there taught me how to help deliver babies!” Yu Fuling cut her eldest brother off coldly, then bent down to look at her sister-in-law, who was in too much pain to know up from down. “Sister-in-law, I’m Fuling. If you have the strength, let’s give birth standing up.”
“Yu Fuling, are you joking? How can anyone give birth standing up?”
“Hurry up and go get the birthing bucket!” Yu Fuling raised her voice, drowning out her eldest brother’s. “If you don’t want to lose your wife and child today, do as I say!”
Yu Heng flinched at Yu Fuling’s shout, and combined with her sharp gaze, so much like their father’s when he was angry, he didn’t dare argue further and turned to leave the room.
“Scald the birthing bucket inside and out with boiling water too!”
Yu Fuling called this instruction over her shoulder while helping her sister-in-law up from the bed.
“Ahh… it hurts so much… Fuling…” Li Shuiqin could barely stand at all, her whole body sinking downward. She grabbed Yu Fuling’s arm in a death grip. “You… do you really know how to deliver a baby? My life and my child’s life are in your hands now.”
“Sister-in-law, in this room right now, I’m the only one you can trust.”
With that, Yu Fuling propped one of her sister-in-law’s arms over her own shoulder, bent down, lifted her skirt, and pulled down her undergarments. “Stop screaming, breathe deeply, save your strength.”
Li Shuiqin took deep breaths, eyes squeezed shut, not daring to look down at the blood dripping onto the floor.
“Got it.” A moment later, Yu Heng rushed in with the birthing bucket and a wooden basin, anxious. “Both already scalded with boiling water.”
“Put the bucket beneath Eldest Sister-in-law’s feet, there’s warm water in the jar, pour it all in.” Yu Fuling instructed her eldest brother while keeping an eye on her sister-in-law’s condition, keeping her tone as gentle as possible, so as not to add too much pressure. “If you feel the baby has already settled into position, Eldest Sister-in-law, hold your breath first, then push, just like using the outhouse. Remember, don’t scream, it wastes your strength. Big Brother, come here, hold Eldest Sister-in-law steady so she doesn’t fall from lack of strength.”
“Ahh… this…”
The sharp smell of blood made Yu Heng flinch back. “How could a grown man like me dare look at something like this?”
“Big Brother, you secretly sent her back to her family’s home, secretly went to see her, even dared to steal a pearl for her, how is it that now, with Eldest Sister-in-law at the gates of life and death, you’re the one backing away?” Yu Fuling looked up and saw her eldest brother’s face growing whiter by the inch, staring at him in bewilderment.
“What stolen pearl?”
Li Shuiqin froze, staring at her husband in confusion. “Didn’t you tell me the pearl was a gift from Mother?”
“I…”
Yu Heng hated Yu Fuling to death in his heart, of all the times to say it, she’d chosen this exact moment, wasn’t this just stirring up trouble between them?
“You Yu bastard, explain yourself clearly!”
Seeing her husband stammering, the fire in Li Shuiqin’s heart shot straight to her head, but right on its heels came a burst of searing pain. “Ahh… my stomach, it hurts so much, ahh!!”
“I… I’ll go find the midwife first!”
Seizing the moment, Yu Heng turned and ran, as if afraid Yu Fuling might chase after him.
“Shuiqin, Shuiqin… we’re back!”
At the critical moment, Zhang Qiaofeng arrived with Doctor Mu from the village.
Not daring to waste even a moment, Doctor Mu rushed to Li Shuiqin, took her pulse, then felt her belly. The tension in his eyes eased at once, and he turned to Yu Fuling. “This girl is sharp! Having the mother stand is good, it helps the baby settle into position faster, I’d guess she’ll give birth any moment now.”