"C-section? What is a direct cut?" Jing Pan froze, her hands clenching at her sides as she looked at the metal instruments. "Aren't there no medical conditions for that here?"
The doctor didn't avoid Qiao Lian and spoke plainly, his voice carrying over the sounds of the other patients in the shed. "Her cervix is at four centimeters. I just checked. The baby is huge; it won't come easy. The longer we wait, the more likely the baby runs out of oxygen. If we cut without anesthesia, we can take the baby out first."
Qiao Lian's mother stood up, her face pale. "What about after? You stitch her up with a needle?"
The doctor nodded slowly. "We don't have any meds. If she can endure it, she lives. If she can't, she won't. It's without anesthesia to see if she can take it. Some can't and pass. That said, our delivery mortality rate isn't high, only about 40 percent." Which meant four out of ten mothers died on average.
Qiao Lian's mother dropped to the floor with a thud and wailed into her hands, "In-law, what do we do? My poor grandbaby!"
Grandma Jing gripped Jing Pan's hand, her voice shaking with a visible tremor. "So you mean we save the little one first?"
The doctor nodded. "Otherwise at this rate, we will lose both."
"Isn't there any other way? We still have some antibiotics; can't we use them?" Jing Pan asked in a rush. The doctor shook his head. "Stitching requires a sterile environment; otherwise it will be too easy to get infected. Besides, the recovery after the C-section requires some medicine to be used, plus IVs for a few days."
They couldn't keep anything sterile in this drafty prefab building.
Hearing that, Qiao Lian sobbed and struggled against her restraints, but the leather straps held her firm. "No, I don't want a C-section. Save me first. Mom, Mom, where are you?"
"I'm here, Qiao Lian." Her mother got up and grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly.
"Tell them not to give up on me. I want to live. I will push, I will force it out, boohoo. I don't want to die. If you cut me and there aren't any drugs, how am I supposed to survive?"
The doctor nodded, his expression grim. "If you will cooperate, that's best. Let's try again. Breathe exactly how I taught you."
Jing Shu passed over the lunch boxes and told them to eat something first. Grandma Jing and Eldest Aunt had no appetite, their eyes fixed on the bed. Qiao Lian's mother said she was starving and started shoveling food in with a plastic spoon.
Jing Shu took the rest to the men waiting outside in the mud. Wei Zheng kept asking what was happening, so she explained. He sat down on a wet bench like a ghost had taken his soul.
She remembered that when Wu You'ai got kidnapped and took holes to the thigh, the anesthetic worked. She had some on hand, but the doctor was right. Cutting was the easy part. Stitching and recovery were the nightmare.
Zhang Bingbing's delivery had been a miracle. Her second kid was due in a few months. Looking around this ward of misery, she remembered that before the apocalypse, at least there were hospitals. Now they could only lie and howl in the dark. Some delivered smoothly and cheered. Some lost strength halfway and got forced into crude cuts. Blood stained the floor in dark, sticky patches.
Even in the apocalypse, people still needed to reproduce. Every newborn was a spark of hope in the gloom. Every mother was brave, planned or not. Giving birth in this world was nine deaths for every life.
Later, Jing Shu heard from the doctor that Wu County's birth rate had dropped from 8 percent to 0.08 percent, a hundredfold plunge. It used to be about three thousand newborns a day. Now the whole county only had thirty-something women in labor daily, and only a dozen or so babies made it out.
The mortality rate had climbed to 15 percent. At that pace, humanity would shrink by hundreds of times in twenty years. It was terrifying. The state was offering subsidies, waiving fees for newborns and more, but the medical reality just couldn't keep up with the collapse.
A bright newborn cry broke out nearby. The baby in the next bed over had arrived. People around congratulated the family in low voices.
The doctor here shook his head as he checked Qiao Lian again. "The water has been broken too long. The baby has got no oxygen. If it doesn't come now, it will be a stillbirth. Even a mediolateral cut to widen the outlet won't help."
Qiao Lian's voice kept fading, turning into a weak whimper. Her strength drained, leaving only ragged, uneven breathing.
Qiao Lian's mother rushed back in. "No, save the mother. She is still young. She hasn't even had time to be good to the mom who raised her."
The doctor frowned, thinking it through. "We can, but the risk is huge. We can forcibly fragment the fetus, break it apart and extract it piece by piece. You will have to decide. It could still end in both dying."
Grandma Jing stumbled back a step and clutched Jing Shu's arm. "Jing Shu, you're the one with ideas. What tricks did you use when you helped deliver before? We can't throw away the mother for the baby. Forcibly breaking the child is too cruel. Isn't there any safer way to save the mother?"
Jing Pan cried and nodded. "Anything more reliable for saving the mother?"
The doctor shook his head. "Without medicine, the only option is to break it up."
"If you really can't save the mother, then save the baby," Qiao Lian's mother said through snot and tears. "But I will say it now. What she can't do for her parents, he will do for her. I will take care of him for his poor mother."
Jing Pan honestly doubted she was the real mother since she could think like that at a time like this. "In-law, this isn't for us to decide. Let the two of them choose. Qiao Lian is listening."
Qiao Lian panted, her words breaking into fragments. "Ask, ask Wei Zheng."
Wu You'ai ran to pass the message to the men outside, then hurried back. "He said save the mother."
Qiao Lian's hand slammed down on the metal railing. Tears slid silently down her temples. After a long moment of choking, she gathered herself. "Doctor, save the baby. Do it fast. I really can't take it anymore."
"Alright, I will get the tools."
A heavy sadness settled over everyone in the small space. Jing Shu hesitated. Should she give Spirit Spring after the cut, maybe help her heal? Was there really no better way? Spirit Spring was scarce. If she could avoid using it, she would.
"Grandma, I want to try one more thing before the doctor comes back."
"Try. Do whatever you can."
Jing Shu stepped up to the bed, took Qiao Lian's cold hand with one of hers, and rested the other on the swollen, hard belly. She spoke softly, her voice steady. "Qiao Lian, close your eyes and picture where the baby is inside you."
Her words were a cover. She was actually trying to push illusion into the womb, to nudge the baby to squeeze outward on purpose. She could control snakes and animals; for people, she could only suggest.
"Illusion, activate."
Suddenly the belly heaved hard. Sharp pain tore a scream from Qiao Lian's throat that echoed off the prefab walls.
Jing Shu pushed her mental energy along the arc, angling the baby's head toward the exit. At the same time, she guided Qiao Lian to breathe and bear down exactly the way the doctor taught. With both forces working together, a buzzing pressure slammed into Jing Shu's skull.
The doctor stepped in and froze. The baby's head was already crowning. He made a decisive mediolateral cut, a single swift slice to widen the outlet. In less than five minutes, a giant baby slid out, nine jin six liang, which is about 4.69 kg.
While everyone stared at the newborn, Jing Shu clutched her throbbing head and stumbled into the storm outside. She dropped to her knees in the freezing rain, the cold water soaking through her clothes instantly.