Doctor He seemed to have smelled something and suddenly sniffed the air forcefully.
Seeing this, a mammy at the side quickly asked, “Doctor He, have you discovered something?”
The others heard the commotion and also turned to look.
“The smell of blood is a bit too strong. Logically, even after childbirth, the smell shouldn’t be this heavy once everything is cleaned up.” Doctor He voiced the doubt in his heart.
The surrounding crowd couldn’t help but take a few forceful sniffs as well. They hadn’t noticed it before, but upon smelling carefully, the scent of blood was indeed abnormally thick.
A maidservant standing guard by Liu Qingyu’s bed suddenly cried out in alarm, “What’s wrong with Shizi Furen?”
Everyone followed the sound and saw one of the maidservants with a face full of terror, her trembling left hand covered in blood.
It turned out that when Doctor He had mentioned the heavy smell of blood, the maidservants had started paying close attention to Liu Qingyu’s condition. Noticing that Shizi Furen was breaking out in a cold sweat and her forehead was icy, one of them had reached into the bedding to check her temperature. Who would have thought she would touch a handful of wet, warm liquid?
Forgetting her wailing grandson, Zhang Shi rushed forward and threw back the quilt covering her daughter. A glaring bloodstain was spreading. Her pupils constricted violently.
“Doctor, Doctor, come quickly!”
Doctor He strode forward and saw it at a glance. “With this amount of bleeding, I’m afraid it’s a postpartum hemorrhage!”
The source of the heavy, bloody scent was the large pool of blood beneath Liu Qingyu, its color spreading out, a piercing red. Doctor He made a swift decision, taking out his silver needles to stanch the bleeding. He didn’t forget to tell Hou Furen, “The situation is urgent. I must use acupuncture to stop the bleeding. I must ask Furen to have everyone else withdraw.”
“Laofuren, I must trouble you to take Hao Ge’er to the side chamber to wait.”
Hou Furen had the wet nurse pick up the child and follow Liu Laofuren to the side chamber. The rest of the people also exited the room.
“Baizhi, quickly, take my Yao Pai and go summon a Tai Yi.” As the Zhang Gongzhu Dianxia of Qin Guo, Hou Furen’s Yao Pai granted direct access to the palace.
“Yes, this servant will go at once.”
Baizhi accepted the order and hurried out.
The bloodstain continued to spread. A mother’s heart is linked to her child’s; as if sensing his mother’s perilous state, Hao Ge’er cried ceaselessly. Liu Laofuren anxiously watched her great-grandson cry as if he would stop breathing, while also nervously monitoring the activity in the main room.
The bleeding was too fast. Even with Doctor He administering acupuncture to stop it, he could only slow its spread.
Doctor He shook his head helplessly. “Furen, Liu Furen, I am truly powerless to reverse this. I’m afraid Shizi Furen will not make it through the day.”
As soon as these words were spoken, tears streamed from Zhang Shi’s eyes. Her body went limp, and she had to be held up by two of her personal maidservants. She couldn’t help but wail, “My poor daughter, how can you be leaving us…”
Standing to the side, Hou Furen also couldn’t stop wiping her tears. Liu Qingyu had been renowned even as a maiden in her boudoir. As the eldest legitimate daughter of the Li Bu Shangshu’s family, she was both beautiful and intelligent, treating others with grace and courtesy. After marrying into the Hou’s residence, she respected her parents-in-law and treated her husband with mutual respect, earning the affection of everyone in the Hou’s household. She was cherished even more after becoming pregnant. How had things suddenly come to this?
Perhaps it was the sound of her mother’s loud crying that woke Liu Qingyu, or perhaps she had a premonition of her own fate.
The woman lying on the bed lifted her heavy eyelids. The sound of intermittent sobs reached her ears. A warm current was flowing out from her lower body, and her entire being felt hollowed out. Though she was covered by a quilt, a bone-chilling cold pervaded her body.
“What’s wrong with me? Where is my child? Is it a boy or a girl?” Liu Qingyu’s weak voice was laced with confusion.
Hearing this, Zhang Shi’s grief intensified. My poor child, still concerned about her newborn, yet unaware that her own life is about to end. How could the heavens be so cruel?
Hou Furen took a step forward and held Liu Qingyu’s hand. “Qingyu, you gave birth to a boy. Houye has chosen a name for him. His formal name is Jiang Haoxuan, and his nickname is Hao Ge’er.”
Liu Qingyu glanced around. She didn’t see the baby, but everyone in the room wore sorrowful expressions and dared not meet her gaze. Her mother, Zhang Shi, was slumped limply to the side. A terrible premonition welled up in her heart. She slowly exhaled and looked at Hou Furen. “Mother, did something happen to the child?”
Hou Furen’s heart ached with pity, but she also feared that letting her imagination run wild would cause her body to deteriorate even faster. The hemorrhage hadn’t stopped, and she didn’t know how long Qingyu could hold on.
She took a deep breath to compose herself and explained Liu Qingyu’s current situation to her.
As she spoke, a line of silent tears slid from the corner of Liu Qingyu’s eye. Even though she had sensed that things were not good, she had never expected her life to be ending so soon.
“My child…”
Zhang Shi gripped her daughter’s hand tightly, tears streaming down her face. Her lips parted several times, but she couldn’t utter a single word. This was too cruel for her to bear. This was her precious daughter, whom she had held in the palm of her hand, raised with trepidation, fearing she might get the slightest bump or bruise. She had just passed through the gates of hell to give birth to a son and secured her position as Shizi Furen, yet in the blink of an eye, her vibrant life was withering away, with only half a day left to live. How could she endure this?
Liu Qingyu was silent for a moment before speaking slowly, “Mother, I want to see Hao Ge’er.”
“Ah, good.”
Hou Furen quickly sent someone to the next room to bring the young master over. Liu Laofuren came with him.
She had been in the next room trying to soothe her incessantly crying great-grandson. Unfortunately, despite using every trick she knew, nothing worked. The baby’s face was red from crying and his voice was hoarse, a truly distressing sight. Even though she was extremely worried about her granddaughter, she hadn’t left her great-grandson’s side for a moment.
Hearing the summons, she hurried over.
As soon as she entered the room, an air of sorrow washed over her. Fortunately, Liu Laofuren had seen much in her life and managed to keep her composure. She stepped forward and looked with concern at her beloved granddaughter.
“Grandmother.” Liu Qingyu glanced at Liu Laofuren, then turned her gaze to the baby. “I want to see the child.”
Hou Furen took the baby from the wet nurse’s arms, carefully tilted the swaddling clothes, and turned the baby’s front towards Liu Qingyu.
Hao Ge’er was still whimpering softly, his throat hoarse from crying, his face streaked with tears.
“We don’t know why this child keeps crying. The doctor has already checked him, and there’s nothing wrong with his health,” Hou Furen said as she carefully placed the baby beside Liu Qingyu.
“They say a mother’s heart is linked to her child’s. If it weren’t for Hao Ge’er crying inexplicably, which made us call for Doctor He and discover the abnormality, the situation might have been even more severe.”
Liu Qingyu’s heart softened further as she looked tenderly at the little one beside her.
Perhaps sensing his mother’s presence, Hao Ge’er’s cries gradually subsided and then stopped, though he still let out an occasional sob. He had likely cried so hard earlier that he couldn’t quite recover.
Without changing her position, Liu Qingyu said, “Can you give him some water to drink? I’m afraid he might be dehydrated from crying for so long.”
“Replying to Shizi Furen, yes, we can feed him some warm water,” Doctor He answered from the side.
A maidservant immediately brought some warm water. Liu Qingyu’s mother, who had gradually composed herself, reached out to take the cup herself and fed her grandson water, one spoonful at a time.