Two months later, in a house in a small mountain village within Fenglai City, a woman in yellow clothing rushed out from inside.

Her hands were stained with blood, her expression tense. “She’s going into labor, Madam is going into labor, what do we do?”

Outside, a woman in orange clothing hurried in. “How is it? How is Madam doing now?”

“Madam is going into labor. Did you find a midwife?” the woman in yellow asked.

From inside the house, a woman’s cries of pain could still be heard from time to time.

“There’s no one. All the brothers are out. We can’t find anyone for miles around.”

The woman in orange trembled in fright.

“Then what do we do now?”

The woman in yellow looked down at her own hands.

“Madam is going into labor, there’s no midwife, what do we do?”

“I don’t know what to do either.”

The woman in orange clothing began to cry outright.

“Miss Yue went back to the army. No one even knows where the army is right now. Is there still time?”

“There’s no time left.”

The woman in yellow turned back toward the house.

Inside, another cry of pain sounded out.

“Everything was fine, how could it come early?”

The woman in orange clenched her fists tightly and strode forward.

“We can’t worry about all that now. Right now Madam only has the two of us. If we don’t help her, who else can?”

“Do you know how to deliver a baby?”

The woman in yellow hurried to keep up.

“Miss Yue said Madam still had over a month before delivery, that she shouldn’t be jostled around anymore, which is why she brought Madam here to rest quietly.”

“It was Madam herself who told Miss Yue to take everyone to help at the army camp. I heard the army’s medics were shorthanded. Who would have thought—” “Enough talk!”

The woman in orange clothing pushed the door open and walked in.

“Hot water, blankets—get everything ready that needs to be ready.”

Inside the room, Qiao Mu lay on the bed, her face pale, staring fixedly upward, unmoving.

“Madam.”

The moment the woman in orange stepped through the door, she was badly startled.

She hurried over, sat at the bedside, and took hold of Qiao Mu’s hand.

The blanket beneath Qiao Mu was stained with a patch of blood.

“I’m fine.”

Qiao Mu shook her head, then clenched her teeth tightly.

Without having gone through it herself, no matter how much she’d heard about it, she never truly understood.

Qiao Mu never imagined that childbirth could be this painful.

Waves of piercing pain surged up again and again; she wished she could tear apart everything in the world with her bare hands.

“Ahh…” In the end, she couldn’t hold back the cry that escaped her.

The woman gripped her hand tightly and said, “Madam, it’s alright, this is something every woman goes through, nothing will happen to you.”

Another woman came in carrying water, breathing hard, and asked, “What should we do?”

“Come here.”

The woman in orange clothing waved her over.

The woman in yellow went and took the orange-clad woman’s spot, taking hold of Qiao Mu’s hand.

The woman in orange washed her hands and settled herself at the foot of the bed.

She took hold of Qiao Mu’s ankles with both hands, gently bending them.

“Madam, don’t be afraid! Just push, we’re here, don’t be scared!”

The woman’s hands trembled as she spoke—comforting Qiao Mu, and comforting herself as well.

Just as the woman in orange thought childbirth would simply proceed this way, Qiao Mu’s condition seemed to take a different turn.

A full two hours passed, and things showed no sign of progress.

Outside, some of the brothers had returned.

But they were all men and couldn’t come inside. They could only follow instructions to prepare fresh hot water and meals for those inside, leaving them just outside the curtain.

“Madam.”

Suddenly, the woman in yellow clothing let out a loud cry.

“Madam has fainted, help! Madam has fainted!”