CH 100

In Exchange for the Child's Life

A restrained moan of pain broke from Xuan Long's throat, his huge stomach rose and fell, and cold sweat hung on his eyelashes, occasionally shedding a drop or two.

"I don't... I don't dare..."

The whip in the woman's hand was hitting the boy's young body with a strong blow, as if she wanted to beat him to death, and the boy huddled on the ground with his head in his hands, not daring to say a word, for if he screamed out in pain, he would be beaten even harder. The woman asked him if he still dared to steal food from the house, and the boy replied breathlessly: "I don't dare… Mother, this child doesn't dare.

He didn't dare to be hungry anymore.

When Yan Yuan saw that Xuan Long's eyes were tinged with mist, he knew that he was confused by the pain, so he leaned over and patted his face: "Wake up. Hua Niang will be here soon."

The blood was still pouring out from underneath. The normal process of birth should have been to follow the rhythm of the doctor and push the child down the birth canal after the water had broken. But Xuan Long had no strength, he couldn't do this, and with no one around, he had no choice but to give birth by himself.

Before Yan Yuan came, Xuan Long had already been having contractions for a while, and the baby had to come early because of the impact. It was difficult for him to come out without help, and he moved around in his belly in a disorderly manner.

Xuan Long grunted in pain, probably because he was in severe pain. When he dragged his shackled hand over to cover his abdomen, Yan Yuan grabbed his wrist: "What's wrong with your hand?"

The man's hand hung limply, the thumb of his right hand was missing its nail, and blood seeped from the soft, deep red flesh. The torture had been ordered by Yan Yuan himself, but he didn't remember asking anyone to pluck Xuan Long's nails.

The wound on his hand was nothing compared to the pain of the demon chain through his shoulder and the growing pain in his abdomen, at best it was just adding insult to injury.

Xuan Long's mouth was still talking nonsense, low and muffled, and Yan Yuan could not quite hear it.

Even if he rushed out of the palace to fetch Hua Niang, it would take at least half an hour to get there and back, and by then, Xuan Long would have bled out.

Yan Yuan remembered that Hua Niang had said that a child could take away Xuan Long's life, and he did not like the way Xuan Long looked now, completely out of his control.

After ordering the imperial doctor on night duty to come over, Yan Yuan removed the demon chain from Xuan Long's body and took off his trousers. After doing all of this, his hands were covered with Xuan Long’s blood.

The round hooks were removed, leaving two bloody holes in Xuan Long's shoulders. Yan Yuan laid him down on a pile of straw, grabbed his ankles and helped him bend his legs, saying, "If you push hard enough to give birth to this bastard safely, I can settle my score with you more lightly."

"If you do not obey, I will not spare you, nor will I spare this little bastard."

Xuan Long was still unable to listen to human words, but this time he heard a little more, and his lips moved faintly: "No... not a bastard."

Yan Yuan's eyes were a scarlet red that he hadn't even noticed: "Yes, it is."

"It is a bastard, unless you prove it to me. You will give birth to this bastard and confirm that this is my son and heir with his blood."

Xuan Long's ears vaguely echoed Yan Yuan's remark of 'bastard', and tears welled up in the corners of his eyes: "Uh... he... is not a bastard..."

Seeing the man crying, Yan Yuan went along with his words, "Okay, not a bastard, you push, give birth to the child before speaking, I won’t argue with you.” (Angel: Yan Yuan said 一般见识, which means not to argue with people with lower knowledge and poor cultivation.)

"Not... not a bastard..."

Yan Yuan had never seen a woman give birth before. Taking off his trousers and spreading Xuan Long's legs apart was all he could think of doing, but who knew that Xuan Long didn't know how to push at all. Yan Yuan looked at his bloodied legs and found that Xuan Long was slowly ceasing to move. He crawled to Xuan Long's side and shook his shoulders.

“Stay awake, don't sleep, the doctor will be here soon, and Hua Niang will be here soon too..."

"It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay."

With a wound on his shoulder, Xuan Long felt pain and reluctantly opened his turquoise eyes, the shadows in front of him shifted and swayed, but he couldn't see the person and couldn't tell where he was.

It seemed like he was in the thousand-year-old pond, and Yan Yuan was holding him from behind, sleeping with him on the couch, saying that he wanted to marry him.

"A'Yuan..."

"It's snowing..."

Yan Yuan replied to him in a whisper and grabbed his hand: "En, it's snowing."

Xuan Long: "It's cold..."

Yan Yuan turned his head towards the outside and yelled, "Someone, go and add two more braziers!!!"

"No, make it ten!"

"Ten braziers!!!"

The palace not far from here was the residence of the imperial guard, and the prison officer led a team of men to transfer ten braziers and bring them into the cell, avoiding the wind and snow.

The cramped cell was mostly taken up by the braziers, but Xuan Long still said it was cold.

His hands were so cold that they could not be warmed up, and only then did Yan Yuan realise that Xuan Long was afraid of the cold.

The old imperial doctor who was on night duty arrived not long after the braziers were delivered, and Yan Yuan urgently got up and went to the dimly lit tunnel to drag him inside: "Quickly, he is giving birth, you must quickly help him give birth to the child."

The old imperial doctor was dragged and staggered forward, and was shocked to see Xuan Long's blood-covered appearance: "Your Majesty... this... this... "

Yan Yuan turned around abruptly: "Hurry up! Can't you see how much blood he's lost?"

"Quickly stop his bleeding!!!"

The firelight in the tunnel leapt, and Yan Yuan's grim look startled the imperial doctor, who said yes repeatedly and cowered towards the man on the floor.

When he arrived, he had already heard about the situation, and since there were fertility pills in the world, it was not unusual for a man to give birth, so the old doctor was not shocked. He put the medicine box on his shoulder on the ground and bent down to take a closer look at Xuan Long's condition. Even though he had been prepared, he could not help but gasp when he saw the man's miserable condition.

"This is a difficult birth... so much blood has been shed, the amniotic fluid has long since drained, Your Majesty… it can't be done..."

Yan Yuan heard himself ask, "What did you say?"

The old imperial doctor straightened up with little finesse: "I'm afraid it's going to be one corpse and two lives..."

Before he could finish his words, his lapel was clutched by Yan Yuan: "Say it again!"

The old imperial doctor trembled in fear: "Your Majesty, this gentleman is severely injured and is already in a state of exhaustion, coupled with the difficult birth and blood loss, I am afraid that even if the Great Gods come, they cannot save him..."

"Shut up!!!" Yan Yuan pushed the person in his hand away. "You quack, do you know what he is?!"

He is a dragon.

A dragon with ten thousand years of Tao, how could he die so easily like this?

Impossible.

The old imperial doctor nearly fell into the brazier, but managed to steady himself and say in a trembling voice: "In reply to Your Majesty's words, I do not know..."

Yan Yuan: "This child, even if he cannot give birth, he must be born for me, if he dies, you will be buried with him tonight!"

There was too much charcoal in the fire bowl. After being inside for a while, it was hot and sweaty. The old imperial doctor raised his sleeve to wipe the corner of his forehead and walked into Xuan Long with a weeping face.

He took out a piece of ginseng from the medicine chest and knelt beside Xuan Long: “Young Master, can you hear me?"

Xuan Long's eyes were dazed. Yan Yuan saw that the imperial doctor could not wake Xuan Long, so he shook Xuan Long's shoulders as he had just done: “A'Po... wake up, the imperial doctor is here, listen to the imperial doctor and you will be able to give birth to the child."

Xuan Long's turquoise eyes opened a little and he said blankly, "The child..."

Yan Yuan couldn't care about anything at the moment, he just thought of coaxing him and telling Xuan Long to listen: "Yes, the child, our child."

"Don't you like him a lot?..."

"The Imperial Doctor said that if you don't give birth to him, he will suffocate in your belly, so you can't sleep anymore, you have to give birth to the baby as soon as possible."

The imperial doctor took the opportunity to put a ginseng tablet under Xuan Long's tongue and told him to hold it, and then gave Xuan Long the medicine to induce labour. Xuan Long couldn’t swallow, so he coughed and coughed up a lot of blood.

Yan Yuan used his sleeve to wipe the blood from the corner of Xuan Long's lips, "Don't give him the medicine, it's useless to him. Help him give birth to the child."

In this state, how could the baby be born?

The old imperial doctor wanted to say something but stopped: "Your Majesty, if you want to save the child, take a knife at this time and cut open this gentleman's abdomen, then you can still save his life..."

Yan Yuan raised his bloodshot eyes, "I want him to live."

The old imperial doctor's back went cold: "Yes..."

The amniotic fluid ran out, but the opening of the womb was only open two fingers. The old imperial doctor was right, in this case, it was impossible to give birth. But Yan Yuan's order pressured him, and even a dead horse must be treated as a living horse.

The old imperial doctor whispered to Xuan Long that he should use the abdominal pushing method and told him to bear the pain. Xuan Long was barely awake and responded.

If it were not for the urgency of the situation, Yan Yuan would not have asked another man to approach Xuan Long, even if it was this old imperial doctor who was well past his prime. Yan Yuan personally untied Xuan Long's robe and found a fist-sized bruise on the right side of his abdomen...

Soon after, a pair of old hands pressed onto Xuan Long's round belly, gradually applying force, and Xuan Long's body tensed up violently. Yan Yuan listened to the doctor's instructions to hold Xuan Long's legs down to prevent him from moving, and listened to him painfully crying out, "Ugh he..."

The blood that was already pouring out in an endless stream increased. Xuan Long initially made sounds, but then stopped calling out. Yan Yuan could not stand it anymore and pushed the sweaty old doctor down: "Be gentle!

"Be gentle!"

"Can't you see he's in pain?!"

"Your Majesty, birth is supposed to be nine deaths and one life. Pushing the abdomen is even more painful, but other than that, there is no other..."

"Shut up and get out!"

The imperial doctor was eventually dragged out. Yan Yuan felt that he was just a quack, he couldn't even help Xuan Long give birth to a child. In the past, he felt that the days were short, one day after another passed too quickly, but now he felt that time was too slow. Hua Niang was late, how could just half an hour still not have passed?

Xuan Long's body hurt when he was touched. Yan Yuan did not dare to move him too forcefully, and did not even dare to hold his hand, using his sleeve to wipe the cold sweat from his face, and saying in a low, comforting voice, "Don't be afraid... I won't allow anything to happen to you... don't be afraid."

He didn't know who was afraid.

Xuan Long's lips were moving, and Yan Yuan moved over to listen, hearing him say breathlessly, "... Bring a knife."

It took several times to hear what Xuan Long was saying, and Yan Yuan asked him, “What are you doing with a knife?"

Xuan Long used all his strength to say, "Take the knife... and cut out the child...."

Yan Yuan's face was cold: “Don't even think about it."

Xuan Long: "Don't you want... my heart..."

"Just take it."

"Cut the child... out and take my heart..."

"I will exchange it with you..."

In exchange for the child's life.