Chapter 49: About to Give Birth, Not Finished Giving Birth in This Chapter
After Meng Huan became a concubine, only his title changed from Xiao Lang to Xiao Jun, while everything else remained the same.
The main reason was that there wasn’t much that could change. Now that Wen Zhaoyin only had him as her man, naturally there was no one to compare with, and thus no visible changes.
Meng Huan was heavily pregnant, his body becoming increasingly heavy and unwilling to move, but the physicians reminded him that he must not be lazy at this time, otherwise it would lead to the fetus growing too large, with a certain probability of causing dystocia.
In the past few months, he had been in poor spirits, but his life was still quite affluent, so he ate when he was full and slept when he was full, without thinking about giving birth.
This was the first time he heard the physicians mention dystocia, which made him involuntarily recall that the child would eventually be born from that place of his.
The diameter of a banana, to pass through a fetus the size of a basketball, just thinking about it made him tremble with fear. Hearing that lying down would make that ‘basketball’ even bigger, he immediately forced himself to get up and walk around.
If it couldn’t get smaller, so be it, but it must not grow too big, otherwise it would cost him his life and he wouldn’t be able to give birth.
“Wen Xi, I don’t want to give birth anymore…”
“Wen Zhaoyin, I’m scared, I don’t want to have a baby…”
These two sentences were what he said most frequently recently, repeating them over and over to the two people. The former comforted him with words, while the latter took physical action, but still could not eliminate his anxious mood.
In the blink of an eye, time had already reached late autumn.
The more months passed, the more difficult it was for him to endure that kind of fear.
He even felt that giving birth would definitely lead to death, so he wrote wills in the study every day. Later, he felt that his handwriting was too ugly, so he began practicing calligraphy while writing wills.
The content he wrote gradually became strange, saying that he wanted to return to some place, talking about civilized society, men and women, and so on. But whenever it came to important parts, he would leave blank spaces, leaving Wen Zhaoyin, who read his ‘wills’, unable to understand his meaning.
She should have paid more attention to him, but there were many changes happening in the court, and Prince An was also quietly extending an olive branch.
As a minister, she naturally had to put the matters arranged by the Empress first. Moreover, that matter had already reached a critical moment. If it was put aside halfway, all previous efforts would be in vain, so she couldn’t take care of many things at home.
It was unknown whether it was fate or coincidence, but she was always tied up by matters at crucial moments when her husband was giving birth. It was like this with the main husband Xie Yunhuan, and it was the same with the concubine Meng Huan.
She was participating in discussions at Prince An’s residence, quietly handing over the conclusive evidence of his collusion with the neighboring country’s emperor to Her Majesty, and had Pei Lan rush to send back the labor-inducing medicine bestowed by Her Majesty, because Meng Huan was about to give birth.
It was just during the day when he was watching the cranes eat grass in the Crane Garden and suddenly fell to the ground crying about a stomachache. By the time Wen Xi called for people to carry him back to the Bamboo Garden, his water had already broken.
It was now dusk, and she still couldn’t go back. She could only wait anxiously for the occasional messages from the secret guards, saying that he cried from the pain, that he hit the wall in pain and refused to give birth, and then that he pulled on the brocade blanket and cursed at the child in his belly with a hoarse voice.
Messages were sent about once every hour, straight from morning to evening, and there was still no news of his smooth delivery.
She tried her best to conceal her eagerness, but Prince An still noticed some of it.
In principle, a woman who had given birth to a child should not be so flustered when her husband gave birth again, but she was a little flustered and always had wild thoughts.
He was so timid and afraid of death, he must be terrified now, right? Would he be so angry that he cursed her too? She didn’t know if those midwives were reliable…
Seeing her somewhat distracted, Prince An said a few unhappy words, reminding her to be alert and prepare for the evening plan. Wen Zhaoyin could only forcefully pull back her thoughts and temporarily not think about Meng Huan.
——
Wen Family.
The Bamboo Garden was brightly lit. Zu Jun, who usually went to bed early at this time, was sitting in the side room today, watching over Meng Huan’s childbirth.
To be honest, even though Meng Huan had a title, he was just a concubine after all. The child born would be illegitimate and not worthy of his personal attendance.
It was just that Wen Shu had always said she wanted to come and see. Zu Jun felt that childbirth was inauspicious and didn’t want her to see it, but he couldn’t resist her pleas, so he had to come and take a look to set her mind at ease.
As soon as he arrived, he heard miserable screams from the room, and it seemed that the situation was somewhat unfavorable. He didn’t hurry back, and once he sat down, he had been sitting until now.
As a result, a message came from the room saying that the child’s head still hadn’t appeared.
Zu Jun was experienced and knew that if the head still hadn’t appeared by now, the risk of dystocia would definitely greatly increase. He couldn’t help but also feel a little anxious.
“That damn Wen Zhaoyin! If this old man can survive, just wait until she comes back!”
Zu Jun frowned deeply, “After all, he comes from a proper family. Although his mother is a merchant, he shouldn’t be so unruly.”
“Since he’s in labor, I’ll temporarily let these things slide. After his confinement, you go teach him some rules. Although our Wen family is not as great as before, we can’t just let everything pass.”
Wang Gui hurriedly agreed and raised his hand to add more tea for him.
“It hurts! It hurts so much I’m going to die!”
Hearing the screams from inside, Zu Jun felt a little sorry for him. After all, as men, they also knew what kind of suffering childbirth would bring. He raised his hand and said, “You go inside and take a look, help out if you can.”
Wang Gui walked into the inner room with small steps, lifting the curtain. When he entered, he happened to bump into someone carrying a basin out to pour water. He circled around that person and walked towards the front. The smell of blood almost hit him in the face.
It seemed that a lot of blood had been lost, and the situation was not very good.
He carefully circled around the busy midwives and walked towards the front. Regardless of whether Meng Huan saw him or not, he paid his respects before saying, “Xiao Jun, Zu Jun encourages you to hold on.”
If concubines in other families were cared for by their father-in-law like this, they would have been moved to tears long ago. But Meng Huan didn’t understand these things, and he was in so much pain that he didn’t even hear what Wang Gui had actually said.
He now had ginseng slices in his mouth to conserve his strength, and his throat was hoarse from talking. His face was as pale as paper, and there were big drops of sweat on his forehead.
He had already changed from cursing at the child and Wen Zhaoyin at the beginning to negotiating with the child in his belly, “My dear, my little darling, just come out quickly…”
“I’m still your biological father after all, you can’t torture people like this. It’s been a whole day, right? If you don’t come out soon, your father will be ruined.”
Seeing him so talkative, Wen Xi would spoon-feed him ginseng soup from time to time, afraid that he would have a dry mouth and tongue and be unable to speak.
The midwife assisting with the delivery was a bit anxious, feeling that if things continued like this, the situation would be very unfavorable. She hurriedly ordered him to talk less, “The gentleman should use all his strength down there, the more you talk, the more energy you consume.”
Meng Huan felt that the place where he should be exerting force now had already gone numb, and the tearing pain followed him like a shadow. Even if he wanted to use force, he couldn’t.
When the contractions first started and his water broke, he only felt that it was okay, not an unbearable pain.
But for some reason, it got more and more painful later on, more painful than a bone fracture or a knife wound, especially after the child’s head entered the birth canal, he was already in so much pain that he wanted to faint.
However, the midwife told him that he must not fall asleep. If he slept, he wouldn’t have the strength to give birth, and there would be a risk of one corpse and two lives.
He was timid and afraid of death, but he was also afraid of pain. He even felt that if he had to endure that much pain, it would be better to directly fall asleep and die.
But when Meng Huan really tried to sleep, he found that he couldn’t fall asleep at all because of the pain. The pain made him exceptionally awake.
“Wah wah wah, you guys pull him out! It’s better to have short-term pain than long-term pain, hurry up and pull him out!” He seemed to have thought of a solution.
However, he was directly rejected by the midwife beside him, “No, doing that will cause the child to be born prematurely, and it will also affect the gentleman’s tool. Forcibly pulling may cause it to never be able to stand up again in the future.”
Tool, never be able to stand up, these two words made Meng Huan especially sensitive. He was still very afraid that his thing would be ruined, but thinking about it, it seemed to make no difference now compared to being ruined.
The skin was stretched by the child, even if the child was finally born, his thing would not be able to return to its original appearance, right?
He, how did he go off-topic now! Meng Huan cried out in pain, “Then you guys give me a solution! What should I do to give birth?”
The midwife really wanted to tell Meng Huan that if he had saved the energy he had spent talking from the beginning until now, he probably would have been able to give birth long ago and wouldn’t have to suffer like this now.
But they couldn’t say such accusations, only saying that they could help him with massage to assist in the delivery, which was actually just psychological comfort to make him willing to give birth.
There were two reasons why Meng Huan couldn’t give birth until now. The main reason was not physical, but that he had never accepted the world setting of men having to give birth from the bottom of his heart.
Even with nine months of experience, he was still subconsciously very resistant to giving birth to a girl, which was why it was so difficult.
“Wuwuwu, Xiao Jun, save your strength and take a deep breath!” It was Wen Xi who knelt on the ground, clutching his arm and crying out advice.
Meng Huan lay there like a dried salted fish, feeling that he had endured unimaginable pain. In order to end this suffering as soon as possible, he had already begun to try to adjust his breathing and sense the strength.
Finally, the child moved and shifted slightly outward. The midwives all told him this good news and told him to keep working hard.
However, Meng Huan suddenly realized that he had tried too hard just now, and he didn’t know what went wrong, but he had sprained something.
Now his waist was particularly painful, and he couldn’t use any strength at all.
“What should I do? Wuwuwu, I sprained something and can’t exert any strength. Save me, save me…”
The midwife frowned, not expecting such an unexpected situation to occur, and for a moment didn’t know how to handle it.
Fortunately, at this time, news came from outside that Pei Lan had returned, saying that she had brought medicine to aid in childbirth. Meng Huan looked up hopefully and even sent Wen Xi out to fetch the medicine.
A black and bitter medicinal pill was dry-chewed and swallowed by him. He, who was usually very afraid of bitterness, swallowed it today without even drinking water, which showed how much pain he was in.
Meng Huan also knew a little that in ancient times, medicinal pills and elixirs all had excessive metal content, and eating them would also cause poisoning.
But now he had no choice and could only take desperate measures, taking whatever came.
Pei Lan didn’t come in, but had Wen Xi bring in a message, “This is a medicine specially sought by the family head to aid in childbirth. Although the family head cannot arrive in time, she has been thinking about you all along.”
“She, she still knows to find medicine? At a critical moment, at a critical moment, she can’t be seen!” Meng Huan drank water and weakly complained about her.
It was unknown whether it was the effect of the medicine or his own psychological effect, but after not too long, he seemed to have stopped spraining and even regained some strength. The pain also seemed to be less intense.
Meng Huan dizzily felt that he was okay again and pulled on Wen Xi’s arm, secretly exerting force.