Yu Yi quickly caught up with Granny Li and listened to her talk about the situation at home.
Granny Li's daughter, Zhao Zhi, had been pregnant for three months. This pregnancy was very unstable, often causing her lower abdomen to ache with a heavy feeling, and she couldn't even eat soup. She had already become so thin that she was practically skin and bones.
Tonight, she was again complaining about the heaviness in her stomach. Granny Li, heartbroken for her daughter, had rushed out to find a doctor.
The doctor, dragged out in the middle of the night, stumbled along. Granny Li, despite her old age, had a rough strength from years of farming. The doctor, held in her grip, found it hard to break free.
Out of breath, he said, "I've examined Mrs. Du's pulse before. It's quite stable. It's normal to have a stronger reaction in the early stages of pregnancy. Ah, ah, slow down——"
But Granny Li wouldn't listen. She had been a mother herself and knew the difficulties of childbirth. Even if the early stages of pregnancy were hard, her daughter's reaction was too much. Besides, this wasn't her first child, it was her second. It shouldn't be harder than the first.
As soon as they entered the Du's courtyard, they heard a child's heart-wrenching cry from a side room. Even through the closed doors and windows, it was piercing to the ears.
Through the shadows cast on the window, they could vaguely see someone inside holding and comforting the child, while another was feeding the child some soup.
On the way to Fengsheng County, Yu Yi had heard Granny Li mention that she had a six-year-old granddaughter named Du Ruo. Like her daughter, she was named after a beautiful flower.
Du Ruo, like her name, was a pretty and well-behaved little girl. Every time Granny Li came to the city, Ruo Ruo liked to sleep with her grandmother and listen to her stories at night.
The crying from the room must be Du Ruo, her voice was hoarse from crying.
The doctor sighed, "The child's constant crying will also affect the pregnant woman's mood. I told you last time to send the child to her grandfather's house for a while until Mrs. Zhao stabilizes."
The wood and half-finished products in the courtyard were left in a mess. The child's cries had finally subsided a bit, but from one room came the moans of a woman in pain.
The doctor, still out of breath, rushed into the room and was ushered to the bedside to take a pulse.
Zhao Zhi was lying on the bed with her eyes closed, her face as pale as gold paper, her brow furrowed, and a fine layer of sweat on her forehead. She looked very uncomfortable.
There was another woman by her bed, Zhao Zhi's mother-in-law.
She was stroking Zhao Zhi's hand, whispering words of comfort, "Bear with it. All women have to go through this when they give birth. Your reaction this time is so strong, it must be a boy in your belly. Boys are naughty, of course, it's harder than when you were carrying Ruo Ruo. Just bear with it and it'll be fine."
The doctor looked at Zhao Zhi's face and felt a bit helpless. But after checking her pulse several times, he found it normal. He cautiously asked, "Have you consulted other doctors?"
The mother-in-law immediately said, "Of course, we have. My son has almost invited all the doctors in the city. They all say it's normal."
The doctor nodded, "Her pulse is indeed normal. Mrs. Zhao, you must eat even if you have no appetite due to your pregnancy. Even if you can't eat, you must eat for the sake of the child."
"I specially stewed chicken soup for her tonight, but she vomited it all out." The mother-in-law turned to Granny Li, "See, I told you, she just isn't eating enough. When she was pregnant with Du Ruo, I took care of her, you still don't believe me."
As she spoke, she paused and only then noticed that there was another person standing behind Granny Li. The girl was very beautiful, with her attire and her demeanor, she was clearly not an ordinary person.
The mother-in-law's expression changed slightly, she nervously glanced at her, then turned to Granny Li to ask, "Who is this young lady?"
Granny Li was preoccupied with her daughter, so Yu Yi smiled and took the initiative to say, "I am from the same village as Granny Li, I came into the city with her this time, so I came to see Sister Zhao Zhi."
Yu Yi turned her gaze to Zhao Zhi, releasing her spiritual power to scan her body. Unfortunately, as a sword cultivator, she was not a medical cultivator, and she couldn't see what was wrong with Zhao Zhi.
Human life is fragile, especially when pregnant, so Yu Yi didn't dare to casually give her a spiritual pill.
Under the watchful eyes of the mother-in-law, she tactfully excused herself from the room.
In the courtyard, Xue Chenjing had also entered the Du's house following her, but he didn't approach the main room, but stood sneakily outside the window of the side room where the child had just been crying.
By now, Du Ruo's crying had stopped.
Yu Yi gracefully leaped over the scattered wood on the ground, landing lightly outside the room.
Sensing her approach, Xue Chenjing casually stood up, with a wave of his sleeve, he patched up the hole he had made in the window paper, and looked up at the moon in the sky, as if he had just been admiring the moon under the eaves, not peeping through the window.
Yu Yi walked over to him and asked, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong in this room?"
Xue Chenjing pondered for a moment, then shook his head, "When I came in, her crying was sharp, full of pain, I thought she was being haunted by something. But I just observed it, there's no ghost causing trouble, the courtyard is very clean."
If it's not a ghost causing trouble, then it might be another situation.
Hearing him say this, Yu Yi thought it might not be a monster causing trouble. Could it really be just because she has severe reactions in the early stages of pregnancy? The medical environment in ancient times was quite backward, and it was indeed hard for women to give birth.
The two of them, one a sword cultivator and the other a spell cultivator, if it's not a demon causing trouble, then they really can't help much.
At this moment, the door creaked open, and a young and an old man walked out of the side room. The two looked alike, a father and son, presumably Zhao Zhi's husband and father-in-law.
Xue Chenjing didn't want to interact with ordinary people, so he quickly cast a blinding spell to hide himself and Yu Yi. The Du's father and son walked past them without noticing, heading towards the room where Zhao Zhi was, while conversing in low voices.
Du Qian suggested, "Father, why don't we follow the doctor's advice and take Du Ruo to our room for a few days? Her nightly crying is really distressing mother."
Du's father seemed to disagree, "We're only separated by a courtyard wall, won't she still be able to hear if Du Ruo cries in our room? It's easier to soothe her when she's with her mother."
Their conversation halted as they reached the outside of Zhao Zhi's room, not continuing any further.
Once everyone had entered the main room, Xue Chenjing grabbed Yu Yi's wrist, gently pushed open a window slit, and slipped into the side room.
The room was dimly lit, filled with a strong medicinal smell. Xue Chenjing sniffed and commented, "There should be a sedative in the soup."
So, Du Ruo gradually stopped crying after drinking the soup.
On the bed in the room lay a small figure. Yu Yi concentrated her spiritual power in her eyes and observed the girl on the bed using her spiritual vision. The tear stains on her face had been wiped away, and the corners of the bed were neatly arranged. It was clear that the adult who had cared for her had taken great pains to make her comfortable before leaving.
Xue Chenjing reached out to probe the girl's condition, but halfway through, he remembered that he was not Xue Mingyuan. As a demon, if he were to probe her, it would directly end this human child's life.
He withdrew his hand and whispered, "Yu Yi, you check her soul."
Yu Yi turned to look at him, and as instructed, she pointed her two middle fingers at Du Ruo's forehead, carefully sending a strand of consciousness into her. After a moment, she withdrew her hand and frowned, "Her soul is incomplete, missing a soul and two spirits."
Xue Chenjing's eyes darkened. Indeed, no one understood the pain of soul separation better than he did. No wonder this little girl cried so heart-wrenchingly.
He stepped forward, his hand suspended over the bed, and quickly drew several spiritual lines. In the darkness, only the rustling sound of his robe could be heard as the spiritual lines flowed from his fingertips, forming a magic array.
Fearful of being exposed, Xue Chenjing deliberately used spiritual power to form the array. Spiritual power is a force of righteousness, but the array he formed was an evil one. The two contradicted each other, weakening the power of this magic array considerably.
But it was still capable of tracking a human girl's lost soul and spirits.
When the magic array was formed, Xue Chenjing said, "Yu Yi, open her mouth."
Yu Yi looked at the magic array in mid-air. Although it was formed by spiritual power, for some reason, the runes in the array exuded an indescribable evil aura. She asked cautiously, "What are you going to do?"
Xue Chenjing's movements faltered slightly, and he couldn't help but smile at the corners of his mouth. His pupils glowed faintly in the darkness. So, she didn't fully trust Xue Mingyuan either.
He swallowed lightly, controlling his tone to sound gentle and harmless, "I need to borrow her breath to track her lost soul and spirits. I won't hurt her, Yu Yi. You trust me, right?"
Yu Yi recognized a familiar tone in the tail of his sentence "Do you trust me?" When Xue Chenjing asks for help, he unconsciously adds a slight nasal sound, which makes his tone sound weak and more likely to sway people's hearts.
In such a dim environment, without having to look at him, her hearing was more sensitive to the nuances of his voice.
Yu Yi couldn't claim to be completely familiar with Xue Chenjing's other tones, but she was all too familiar with his tone when he was asking for help.
She almost fell for his ruse earlier.
Seeing that she made no move, Xue Chenjing softly called out, "Yu Yi?"
Yu Yi focused her mind, scrutinized the magic array for a moment, and with her half-baked knowledge of symbols, she examined several key points and spirit lines of the array. Eventually, she bent down and, as he instructed, pried open the little girl's mouth.
The girl, who had been fed with soup medicine, slept heavily, her breath weak due to the lack of spirit. The magic array gathered three breaths from her mouth, and the light suddenly retracted, the spirit lines intertwined and condensed into a flying insect that flew out.
Yu Yi watched as the mosquito, the size of a fingertip and glowing faintly, flew past her eyes and she almost couldn't resist slapping it away.
She asked in surprise, "Why a mosquito?"
Seeing her disgusted expression, Xue Chenjing secretly regretted and wished he had chosen something more appealing.
He pretended to be nonchalant and said, "I couldn't think of anything else at the moment, but mosquitoes are very convenient, they're agile and fast. Don't worry, others can't see it."
Yu Yi remembered the black insects all over the outside of the Pure Flame Pavilion, and she seriously doubted his aesthetic taste. She said speechlessly, "As long as you like it."
In the midst of their exchange, the glowing mosquito flew swiftly to the window and slipped through the gap in a blink of an eye.
Yu Yi quickly followed, with Xue Chenjing trailing behind her, trying to explain, "Actually, I don't really..."
He stopped mid-sentence, remembering that he was currently Xue Mingyuan, and decided not to bother explaining. Xue Mingyuan was known for liking these disgusting things.
The two of them entered the courtyard to see the glowing mosquito lingering under the moonlight, flying straight towards the main house.
At this moment, Du Qian and his son were escorting the doctor out. The doctor, holding his medicine box, shook his head in confusion, "Your wife's pregnancy is indeed stable. In theory, she shouldn't be feeling this uncomfortable. Well, let's observe for a few more days."
The father and son nodded repeatedly, and Du Qian paid the doctor for his visit.
Yu Yi and Xue Chenjing stealthily entered the room where Granny Li and the midwife were at the bedside. Granny Li was holding Zhao Zhi, while the midwife was trying to feed her chicken soup.
The quilt slid off Zhao Zhi, revealing her thin body underneath. Because of her thinness, her protruding belly was very noticeable.
The glowing mosquito flew to them, circled around Zhao Zhi's face, and finally settled on her belly.
Yu Yi's eyes widened in surprise, instinctively turning to look at Xue Chenjing, somewhat incredulous. How could her elder daughter's lost soul be in her mother's belly?
