"It's coming, it's coming! Your Ladyship, just one more push!"
The midwife wiped sweat from her brow, shouting loudly. Though she'd taken the Empress's bribe to save the child and not the mother, with so many people present and Serena Feng watching her every move, she dared not do anything reckless.
In truth, Noble Consort Helena's condition wasn't as dire as the midwife claimed. In the palace, imperial doctors and midwives always exaggerated minor illnesses. That way, if anything went wrong, it was the noble's illness at fault, not their own incompetence; but if the patient survived, their medical skill would be praised for curing the most serious cases.
"Ah..." Helena Hsieh was utterly spent, nearly fainting from pain. Hearing the midwife's words, she forced herself to take a breath, summoned all her remaining strength, and felt something slide out of her belly.
Helena Hsieh collapsed on the bed, unable to move.
"It's born, it's born, Your Ladyship, it's born!" Hearing the midwife, Helena Hsieh rallied herself and said weakly, "Go, bring the child here so I can see."
"As you command, Your Ladyship." The midwife cut the umbilical cord and brought out the little prince. Seeing that he didn't cry after a long moment, she prepared to slap his buttocks, but then saw...
"Ah!" The midwife shrieked in shock, her hands loosening. The little prince, not yet swaddled, fell straight down. The pale, tender infant couldn't even cry, let alone save himself.
"No!" Helena Hsieh and the palace maids screamed in anguish. Helena tumbled off the bed, crying, "My child...!"
Serena Feng had been watching the midwife closely. She was the first to react when the midwife let go...
"Careful!" Such a tiny child would die from a single fall. Serena Feng's heart skipped a beat; without thinking, she lunged forward.
With a thud, Serena Feng fell straight to the floor, pain shooting through her chest. But she laughed—because the little prince had landed safely in her hands.
"Thank goodness." Serena's heart finally settled. At that moment, the midwife realized what had happened and, with a thud, knelt and bowed her head. "I deserve death, I deserve death!"
But everyone was too busy to care about her. Helena Hsieh, seeing the little prince safe in Serena Feng's hands, breathed a sigh of relief and promptly fainted.
"Your Ladyship, Your Ladyship!" The palace maids and medical aide scrambled to lift Helena Hsieh back onto the bed, feeding her soup and pinching her philtrum, terrified she would die just like that.
With all the commotion, of course the Emperor and Empress heard. The Emperor immediately sent people to ask what was happening. Serena Feng, holding the little prince in one arm, dragged the midwife up and said sternly, "Just say Noble Consort Helena is hemorrhaging."
She wasn't cursing Helena Hsieh; it was just the only reason that would keep people from asking questions.
The midwife knew the gravity of her mistake. Without needing Serena Feng to say more, she exaggeratedly shouted, "It's bad, it's bad! Her Ladyship is hemorrhaging!"
"What? Hemorrhaging? Summon the imperial physicians at once!" The midwife's voice was loud enough for everyone outside to hear.
Although the Emperor had said to save the child, since Helena Hsieh was still breathing, they had to try to save her too. The Empress immediately called for the doctors.
"No need, Serena Feng is here." The Emperor remained calm.
The Empress felt both relief and sorrow at his words. The death of one is a warning for another; as one of the Emperor's women, she knew that Noble Consort Helena's fate today might be hers tomorrow.
After sending away everyone outside, Serena Feng had no time for the midwife. She placed the little prince on a small table and, seeing his condition, understood why the midwife had screamed.
Something was blocking the little prince's mouth, his face tinged blue, and most notably... just below the center of his nostrils, a piece of his lip was missing, forming a three-petal lip.
The missing piece was about the size of a fingernail—nothing serious in modern times, but here, it was considered a deformity.
Born deformed and bluish, the midwife saw him as a stillborn. Her panic made sense, but Serena Feng couldn't understand how palace midwives could be so incompetent.
Of course, Serena Feng had no time to argue. She bent down and sucked the filth from the little prince's mouth. When Helena Hsieh woke, she saw this and burst into tears, "Serena, my child..."
Helena Hsieh truly suffered today—first a difficult labor, then falling off the bed right after giving birth. Her body was surely weakened.
Serena Feng did not answer Helena Hsieh. Seeing the little prince was breathing weakly, she slapped his buttocks. The little prince cried out, not loudly, but at least sounding healthy enough.
Helena Hsieh's heart finally settled: "It's enough that the child is alright."
That moment had been truly perilous. If Serena Feng hadn't reacted so quickly, the little prince would have died from the midwife's carelessness. Thinking of this, Helena Hsieh could have eaten the midwife alive.
"Your Ladyship, the little prince..." Serena Feng could be brutally honest with patients' families about death or disability, but she couldn't bear to tell a mother her child had a problem.
"What's wrong?" Helena Hsieh, hearing this, ignored her weakness and struggled to sit up. The movement sent pain through her lower body and blood down her legs.
With all the chaos, no one had time to clean Helena Hsieh up. The birthing room was suffocatingly silent; no one dared speak, each wishing they could disappear.
Everyone in the palace was shrewd; they already suspected the little prince had a problem. Serena Feng knew there was no hiding it from Helena Hsieh, so she brought the little prince to her.
Newborns are red and wrinkled, hardly pretty, and the little prince's head was misshapen from the long labor, his color not yet restored. But to Helena Hsieh, he was beautiful—until...
"His lip—why is it like this?" Helena Hsieh stared in terror, her finger trembling, her face even paler than before.
"Your Ladyship, the little prince was born missing a piece of his lip—a congenital cleft lip." Serena Feng felt terrible, but as a physician she had to say it.
"A cleft lip? How could my child be born like this? Impossible, impossible, you must be wrong. My child couldn't possibly..." Helena Hsieh was on the verge of collapse, clutching the prince tightly and shaking her head.
"Serena, how could this happen? The imperial physicians always said the little prince was healthy." Helena Hsieh was overwhelmed with guilt and pain, sobbing quietly so the Emperor wouldn't hear.
She remembered—Serena Feng had examined her before and warned that the child seemed unhealthy, even suggesting she terminate the pregnancy. But Helena refused, unwilling to lose a royal son, and so... it had come to this.
Thinking of this, Helena Hsieh only felt worse. "Serena, is this retribution for my sins? But if there's retribution, let it fall on me—on Helena Shaw, not on my innocent child..."
"Your Ladyship..." Serena Feng let out a quiet sigh, at a loss for words.
No mother can calmly accept such a thing.