In the Tienlin Dynasty, in the capital city.
As the eastern sky began to lighten, a crowd gathered at the front of the Prime Minister's residence.
The Prime Minister's wife was pregnant, her belly was as big as a basin after three months, and swollen like a millstone after five. Experienced old maids guessed she was carrying at least three children. What was even more alarming was that the lady was nearly forty, considered an advanced age for childbearing!
The poor Prime Minister, aged over fifty, originally overjoyed to have a child in his old age, but had he overdone it?
Joy turned into fear!
An insider revealed, "Thank heavens, the Prime Minister has seen the Ghost Hand of the Xuan Medical Pavilion after much difficulty."
"Do you mean that elusive god-like figure, who's known as a living Yama?"
With a pair of 'ghost hands', he could cure all diseases of the living and bring the dead back to life!
However, this man was known to be eccentric, both righteous and wicked, unparalleled in medicine, and his mastery of poison was nothing short of divine.
"But the life-saving method suggested by this divine doctor is shocking to hear! It's said that when an unborn child reaches the eighth month in the womb, he would use a blade to perform a Caesarean section to remove the fetus, then stitch up the belly again... but can a stomach be like clothing? Once it's broken, just patch it up!"
"Well, desperate times call for desperate measures."
…
Inside the mansion, it was like being between a rock and a hard place.
The old Prime Minister stood in the outer room, his expression heavy.
The butler tried to dissuade him urgently, "Master! It’s absurd to take a child out of the womb before full term by Caesarean section. This is not a rescue, but a clear act of murder."
Suddenly, the room grew silent, as if a spring lake suddenly froze into ice. "Honorable Prime Minister, there's no harm in causing a ruckus now. However, I hope I won't hear any displeasing noise when I begin the surgery. Otherwise, if my hand trembles, I might accidentally cut somewhere I shouldn't..."
With these words, silence fell everywhere.
The whole place was lifeless, and all the servants in the mansion dared not make a sound!
"Yes, yes, please do whatever you can to save my wife and child," the Prime Minister said, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
In the room, Autumn Orchid looked at the person next to her, "Miss, since when did you start the business of being a midwife?"
Ling Xi Moon, in a plain dress with her face hidden by a light veil, leisurely put on the silken gloves made from the silk of a Heavenly Silkworm, "I want to."
Autumn Orchid rolled her eyes helplessly.
This reason, way too capricious.
"Miss, it's hard to keep the children of a multiple birth healthy. Why do you want to conduct a cesarean at eight months?" Autumn Orchid questioned.
Ling Xi Moon inserted the last needle, sealing the last major acupoint of the beautiful woman on the bed. "Normally, a fetus develops its primary organs like heart, brain, and lungs in the womb within six months. By the 28th week, the chance of survival is eighty to ninety percent. Eight months is enough."
"Oh..." Autumn Orchid seemed to understand but not comprehend fully.
"If we wait until ten months, the mother's vitality will be completely drained by the fetus. It would be difficult for her to withstand such a major ordeal." The icy light reflected from the scalpel flashed across Ling Xi Moon's stern eyes.
She made the incision!
Skin and flesh split open, stomach and intestines exposed, the bloody, eye-piercing fresh blood gushed out!
"There is quite a number but in an abnormal position. Let me see…" Ling Xi Moon leisurely navigated her hands through the thick plasma as if she was enjoying a scenic tour. She straightened the knotted intestines and moved the visceral organs to one side carefully as if treasuring them.
Inside the dissected womb, bloody human heads, limbs, and umbilical cords intertwined and squirmed...
"Eugh—"
A wave of retching sounds echoed around the room.
My goodness! The maid who was tending to me gasped, then "thump", she collapsed on the floor!
A wave of nausea also hit Qiu Lan.
My lady, aren't you serious at this point?
The daylight pierced the horizon, causing the eerily quiet Xiang Mansion to suddenly erupt into chaos.
"Something must have happened!" The folks waiting outside the mansion craned their necks, like long-necked ducks raised on tippy toes, trying to get a better look inside.
"What a joy, such a great joy!" The old steward ran out to deliver the news.
Everyone stared wide-eyed.
Great joy?
He announced, "Madam has given birth to three boys and a girl. Mother and children are all safe and sound!"
Woosh—
The entire street erupted like boiling water!