Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
Record of Resolving Grievances
墨書 Inktalez
Wuwu... Wuwu...
The North Wind howled, swirling the fallen snow into the air, dancing in a flurry...
The biting cold wind creaked the simple wooden door.
The thatched house swayed precariously in the raging wind. In front of the house, a fence made of branches enclosed a small yard, while behind it stood a half-height earthen wall. To the east was the kitchen, and to the west, a thatched shed stored some farming tools. To the north lay the toilet and pigpen.
Inside the main room, Ling Dajun, a stout man with dark skin and a simple demeanor, anxiously draped a snake-skin bag over his shoulders. Holding a straw hat in his hand, he called out to his wife lying on the bed, "Ying, hang in there! I’m going to find Wang Po right now..."
Li Juying lay on the bed, drenched in sweat, her hands resting on her protruding belly...
But this bulge was twice as large as that of an ordinary pregnant woman. The experienced village women all said that Ling Dajun's family was truly blessed. With such a prominent belly, it was certain she was having twins—perhaps even a pair of dragon and phoenix babies or two boys.
"Dajun, you... must... not... go..." Li Juying reached out her hand to stop Ling Dajun. The wind and snow outside were too fierce, and the mountain road was treacherous. What would happen if something went wrong? What about her and the child in her womb?
However, due to the intense pain, Li Juying's voice was already weak and was drowned out by the howling wind as Ling Dajun opened the door.
Li Juying turned her head to watch Ling Dajun close the door behind him and disappear into the darkness.
"Good son... you stay still and be good... Daddy will be back soon," Li Juying murmured as she stroked her belly in prayer.
It seemed as if the fetus inside her heard her words; miraculously, it stopped moving restlessly.
Li Juying let out a long sigh of relief. The heaviness in her lower abdomen eased slightly, enough for the exhausted Li Juying to close her eyes and rest for a moment.
Ling Dajun trudged through the snow towards Wang Pozi's house in Village East.
The wind was so strong that it made walking with the straw hat difficult; he stumbled several times, getting covered in mud and grass clippings.
Ling Dajun didn’t care about anything else; he took off his hat with one hand while holding onto a swaying lantern with the other, burying his head to hurry along.
“Bang… bang… bang…” Ling Dajun pounded on the door with all his might. The old wooden door creaked and groaned under the force of his blows, as if it might fall apart at any moment.
“Aunt Wang! Aunt Wang! Open the door, please!”
Ling Dajun shouted at the top of his lungs, his hands still pounding relentlessly.
Inside, a dim yellow light flickered on. Then came the sound of rustling clothes and a grumbling voice.
“Who is it? It’s the middle of the night—can’t a person get some sleep?” A man in bed turned over and continued to snore.
“Coming, coming! What’s all this shouting about? You’ll break the door down!” Wang Pozi, wrapped in a coat and holding an oil lamp, sleepily pulled back the latch.
As soon as the door opened, a gust of cold air rushed in, causing Wang Pozi to shiver and shake off her drowsiness. She looked at the tall man covered in snow before her and asked, “What’s going on? Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Aunt Wang, my Ying is about to give birth. You need to come quickly!” He tugged at Wang Pozi to pull her outside.
Wang Pozi shook off Ling Dajun's hand and rolled her eyes. “I’m not dressed properly. At my age, if I go to your house without proper clothes, I might just drop dead!”
Ling Dajun turned around and noticed that Wang Pozi was only wearing a coat. Feeling a bit embarrassed, he scratched his head and gave a sheepish laugh.
As she got dressed, Wang Pozi said, “When a woman is giving birth, from the onset of labor to delivery takes quite some time. There’s still time; don’t worry about it.”
Ling Dajun nodded dumbly in agreement.
“If you end up with two boys, you’ll really be in for it,” Wang Pozi continued.
Ling Dajun chuckled, “Whatever Ying gives birth to is fine by me.”
Wang Pozi smirked. “You men are all the same. Before the baby is born, you’re all excited. But once it’s here, you change your tune. If it’s a boy, you’re all smiles; if it’s a girl, you’ll have a long face…”
Wang Pozi was a renowned midwife in the area, having delivered no fewer than eight hundred babies. Such occurrences were far too common.
Li Juying, caught between sleep and wakefulness, faintly heard voices nearby. The tone was soft and childlike...
"Mommy is tired. If you keep fussing, I won't be gentle with you..."
"Not gentle with me? Just based on you?"
"While I may not be able to do anything to you, dragging you down with me is still an option..."
"Die? Who's afraid of whom... If you have the guts, go ahead and make a move. Whoever doesn't act is the coward..."
A piercing scream shattered the snowy night. Li Juying's mouth opened wide as she gasped for breath.
It felt as though someone was fighting inside her, the pain twisting her insides like a knot.
She reached down to touch her belly, and through the thin skin, she could clearly feel the tumultuous movements within her abdomen.
Occasionally, something would push against her belly, creating bulges that rose and fell...
Li Juying was stunned by the sight before her. A ridiculous thought flashed through her mind...
Could she be carrying a monster? A creature with horns on its forehead?
Gradually, her consciousness began to fade...
The pain was unbearable...
In the moment before her eyelids closed, she seemed to see the anxious expression of a man in a military uniform...
When Ling Dajun and Wang Pozi hurried home, they found Li Juying's head hanging over the edge of the bed, her mouth frothing and her face pale, her breathing weak.
Seeing this, Ling Dajun was struck with panic. He knelt beside the bed, cradling Li Juying's head in his arms, sobbing quietly with a voice filled with despair.
Wang Pozi, having seen her fair share of difficult situations, approached calmly. She felt Li Juying's abdomen and lifted the blanket to check her lower body.
"What are you crying for? She's just fainted from the pain; it's nothing unusual. Hurry and boil some hot water..." Wang Pozi instructed, looking at Ling Dajun, who was a mess of tears and snot.
Realizing what he needed to do, Ling Dajun wiped his tears and rushed to the kitchen to boil water.
Wang Pozi took some unknown dried grass and lit it using the flame from the kerosene lamp, tossing it into a basin by the bedside.
She then took a silver needle and pricked it into Li Juying's acupoint...
Slowly, Li Juying opened her eyes. As her vision cleared and she recognized Wang Pozi, she whispered, "Aunt Wang, you're here. Now I can relax..."
Wang Pozi smiled reassuringly. "Ying, it's normal for women to go through this during their first childbirth. Don't be afraid. Just push like you're having a bowel movement. Once it's out, you'll feel much better..."
Though she spoke soothingly, Wang Pozi's heart sank as she realized that the baby was in a breech position, indicating a likely difficult delivery.
In this rural area during the late 1980s, medical conditions were far from what they are today.
Wang Pozi excused herself to check if the hot water was ready but wore a serious expression as she entered the kitchen.
"Dajun, I'm afraid your wife isn't doing well. I just checked; the baby is in a breech position. If we had gotten her to the county hospital earlier, there might have been a chance. But with the heavy snow blocking the roads now, it's impossible to get her there..."
Ling Dajun felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Choking back tears, he pleaded, "Aunt Wang, you have to think of something to save Ying and the baby..."
"Dajun," Wang Pozi replied with difficulty, "it's not that I don't want to help; it's just that there's nothing I can do. We're all from the same village. If there were any way to help, I wouldn't just stand by and watch..."
Ling Dajun crouched with his head in his hands, steam rising continuously from the pot.
Wang Pozi opened her mouth and, as if making a determined decision, asked, "Dajun, Aunt Wang wants to know, when the moment of danger truly arrives, will you protect the baby or yourself?"
Ling Dajun looked up, tears in his eyes as he choked out, "Aunt Wang, I want to protect both..."
Wang Pozi watched as Ling Dajun, in immense pain, nearly pulled all the hair from his head. She shook her head, thinking it might be better to consult Ying about this matter.
Li Juying keenly noticed the furrow in Wang Pozi's brow as she left and saw that she had been gone for quite some time before returning.
"Aunt Wang, if there's something on your mind, just tell me. Dajun is honest and hardworking, but he’s not good at making decisions. In our family, I take charge..." Li Juying's voice was low but firm.
Wang Pozi sighed and relayed her earlier conversation to Li Juying.
Before she could finish speaking, Li Juying replied without hesitation, "Aunt Wang, if there are complications during childbirth, please prioritize saving the baby..."
Seeing Li Juying's resolute gaze, Wang Pozi sighed deeply and nodded.
In her heart, she reflected that any mother faced with such a situation would likely make the same choice as Li Juying.
The pain in her body intensified. Worried that Li Juying might accidentally bite her tongue in distress, Wang Pozi found a wooden stick about two fingers thick for her to bite down on.
Then she moved to the foot of the bed and called out, "Ying, take a deep breath... push hard... push hard..."
"Ying, you can do it! I can see the head already..."
Ling Dajun squatted outside the door, puffing on his pipe as the wind howled around him. Surprisingly, he felt no coldness. His heart hung in his throat with every anguished scream from his wife.
Wang Pozi shook her head in confusion. After years of delivering babies, she had never encountered such a strange situation; they could clearly see the baby's head but it just wouldn't come out.
As she reached out to help exert force outward, she suddenly froze, her murky old eyes widening in shock as she stumbled back several steps, barely stopping herself from falling against the wall behind her.
What had she just seen? Wang Pozi turned her head and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, suppressing the terror rising within her. Slowly, she stepped forward to confirm whether it was just her imagination playing tricks.
Under the flickering light, the floral bedspread was stained with blood. Wang Pozi slightly parted Li Juying's legs and, aided by the dim light, she finally saw clearly. Trembling, she pointed at Li Juying's legs and gasped, "A monster, a monster..."
To her horror, she noticed that one side of the baby's neck had an additional neck protruding at an odd angle.
So, the child was stuck in the birth canal.
Could it be that Ying Huai was not expecting twins? But rather a two-headed monster?
Once Wang Pozi processed this realization, she disregarded everything else and stumbled toward the exit in a panic.
As she passed by Li Juying, a pair of cold hands grasped her own.
Wang Pozi jolted in fright, freezing in place as she shut her eyes and cried out, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" After a long moment of silence, she slowly turned her head to find it was Li Juying's hand.
Li Juying, already delirious, stared intently at Wang Pozi with half-opened eyes. Her lips moved as she whispered, "Save... save my... child..."
Looking into Li Juying's hopeful gaze and the tears streaming down her cheeks, Wang Pozi felt a pang of compassion and nodded slightly.
Then she steeled herself against the overwhelming fear that threatened to consume her. Trembling, she picked up a pair of scissors.
The child was trapped in the birth canal; if not delivered in time, it would suffocate.
The only way for the baby to be born safely was to artificially widen the birth canal...
The cold scissors moved within the birth canal, but Li Juying could no longer feel any pain...
She was waiting...
Waiting for the first loud cry of her child...
After the birth canal had widened, Wang Pozi, suppressing her inner fear, pulled the baby out. Skillfully, she cut the umbilical cord...
After washing the infant clean, she discovered that she was holding a two-headed baby.
Zhu Sheng's head was slightly larger, with delicate features. The other head was slightly tilted, bearing a faintly sinister aura.
Yet the faces of the two heads were identical, wrinkled and reminiscent of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
Perhaps having overcome her earlier fright, and having encountered many babies with missing limbs in her previous deliveries, she didn’t pay much attention to it. She skillfully wrapped the baby in a blanket and placed it beside Li Juying.
“Mmm... Mmm...”
“Mmm... Mmm...”
Two loud cries of the infants rang out...
As the cries echoed, a hint of relief seemed to appear at the corners of Li Juying's mouth; she had finally waited for this moment...
Wang Pozi trembled as she approached and placed her index finger at Li Juying's nose, only to find that Li Juying had already lost her breath.
Sighing and shaking her head, she intended to take the child outside to the army, but when her gaze met that of the baby, she broke into a cold sweat and screamed as she fled through the door.
She had seen an adult-like expression on the wrinkled face of the infant...
One had a smile on his face, while the other wore an expression of wickedness.
Ling Dajun saw Wang Pozi running out like a madman and immediately sensed that something was wrong. He got up and headed back into the house, his legs numb from squatting all night. Leaning against the doorframe for a moment to regain feeling in his legs, he was stunned when he reached the bedside.
Li Juying lay there, her face pale and her eyes tightly shut, surrounded by a pool of blood. The room was filled with a strong metallic scent of blood, mingled with an almost imperceptible, nauseating stench.
His wife was dead.
Before he could even begin to grieve, his gaze fell lower, and he felt every hair on his body stand on end. What was that in the cradle? Was that his son? His son wasn’t a monster! How could his son possibly be a two-headed creature?
Ling Dajun couldn’t afford to be afraid anymore; if it truly was a monster, then it might as well take his life too. At least he could accompany it on the Yellow Springs Road. He slumped against the side of the bed and slowly sank to the floor, burying his head deep between his bent knees.
Outside, the wind and snow had ceased...
A red sun slowly rose...
Comment 0 Comment Count