Chapter 81

Huo Jilin stopped thinking about the capital. Seeing Imperial Physician He still looking worried, he comforted him: "Doctor He, there's no need to be anxious. Everything follows heaven's will—whether it's the emperor's decree or the people's wishes, it'll all work out in its own time. Let's just wait it out and focus on what's before us now."

He'd already used every polite way he could think of to say it. What he meant was, whether they waited for the Old Emperor to die or he stepped down early, the Crown Prince taking the throne was a done deal—it was fate.

The Crown Prince's succession was certain. The fact that he wasn't stripped of his title even after the Huo family was exiled proved it—as long as he outlasted the Old Emperor, the throne was his.

But he told Imperial Physician He that it was heaven's will, which fit how people thought back then.

Since it was heaven's will, then as ordinary folks, they had no business worrying about politics here.

Better to focus on his husband and get his son born, right?

Imperial Physician He shot Huo Jilin a long look. He didn't get how a guy who was just dying to know what was happening in court had suddenly made peace with it.

Did he figure something out? Or rather, did he confirm something—that the Crown Prince would definitely ascend the throne?

And soon, at that.

After a long pause, Imperial Physician He smiled. He really had been worrying over nothing. He'd already retired and had one foot in the grave—why bother thinking about all this?

Imperial Physician He snapped out of it and said cheerfully: "Well said. If it's heaven's will, let's just wait. I'll take your husband on as my apprentice."

Huo Jilin smiled and replied: "Then thank you, Doctor He. I'll get the apprenticeship gifts ready in the next few days. You can start teaching him after my husband gives birth. If he had to start now, he'd be way too busy."

Imperial Physician He chuckled: "I know, I won't let him overdo it before the birth. He's got plenty of days to write about."

Imperial Physician He meant Chen Jue's densely packed childbirth notes. He'd already written them in such detail—now that the delivery was close, there'd be even more.

He'd started this notebook in the third month after he first showed signs of pregnancy, recording everything from early to late pregnancy, every little detail.

This was a medical notebook on male pregnancy—maybe the first one this detailed in all of Great Liang. It'd be a great reference for anyone studying medicine.

This was the real reason Imperial Physician He made an exception to take Chen Jue on—Chen Jue was way better than his own son, who only knew how to memorize books.

He not only knew more, but he also thought about future generations. That was the highest virtue a doctor could have.

Huo Jilin pictured Chen Jue yelling in pain while scribbling in his notebook during labor, and shuddered. No way was he letting that happen!

So Huo Jilin said to Imperial Physician He: "Doctor He, you've got to talk him out of it. This is his first time giving birth—he doesn't know how serious it is. He can't just be thinking about his medical research. What if his water breaks? What if the baby lands on the floor... What if..."

He shut his eyes at the thought of words like hemorrhage, then smacked his own thigh. He really couldn't talk right—nothing was going to go wrong, for sure.

Imperial Physician He held up a hand to stop him. He felt like Huo Jilin was getting anxious about the birth.

Earlier, talking about court politics, he'd been totally calm. But the second the topic turned to childbirth, he lost it.

Imperial Physician He first reassured him: "As his husband, you've got to be the steady one. Don't be scared—if you're scared, won't he be even more scared?"

Huo Jilin wanted to say he wasn't scared, but he was.

He figured Imperial Physician He didn't know what he was afraid of. He couldn't handle losing Chen Jue again.

He really couldn't take it.

They say bad things come in threes, right?

Chen Jue had died once in the hospital—he'd stood in front of his body until he went numb.

Then scattering his ashes, holding his urn through thunder and lightning, he'd lived through it a second time. How terrified he'd been that Chen Jue would turn to ash and dust, leaving nothing behind in this world, like the master had said.

If Chen Jue didn't make it this time, he didn't know how he'd go on.

Imperial Physician He saw his pale face and his hand trembling as it gripped the table. Even though he didn't get why he was so scared, he still tried to comfort him: "Don't worry too much. I can tell your husband's in great shape. He's a doctor—he knows his own body. Based on how he's doing, he'll definitely have a safe delivery."

And that was true. Chen Jue was in excellent shape—he worked out regularly and was healthy and strong.

Plus, he was taller than most men of his kind, with a bigger frame to match, which would make childbirth easier.

His weight was well managed too—the baby wasn't big, and neither was the head. Imperial Physician He had checked all of this, which was why the birth would go smoothly. It was also why he could chat about medicine so casually with Chen Jue these days.

If Chen Jue, as a doctor, couldn't even manage his own baby's condition, Imperial Physician He wouldn't have even considered taking him on.

"I know. Fine, I'll get a grip. When he goes into labor, I want to be in there."

Huo Jilin took a deep breath. He knew he was worrying over nothing—Chen Jue would definitely be fine. But he read Chen Jue's medical notes every day like a diary, and that made him anxious.

Imperial Physician He gave him a meaningful look. After Huo Jilin's earlier talk about staying home to raise the kid, nothing surprised him anymore. He only advised: "I think with the state you're in, it's best you don't go in."

Going in would just stress out the pregnant man.

He felt like Chen Jue was calmer than Huo Jilin.

Huo Jilin was stuck for a second, then coughed: "I'll get myself together in the next few days. I've also got everything ready for the birth."

Seeing that Huo Jilin really wanted to be there, Imperial Physician He dropped it. They'd figure it out when the day came.

There weren't many days left—the baby's head had already dropped into the pelvis.

Imperial Physician He nodded as he looked over Chen Jue's latest notes.

Some of Chen Jue's wording was weird, but it was super precise. Especially when you matched it with the anatomical diagrams he'd drawn. Imperial Physician He couldn't put the anatomical chart down, admiring it all over again.

Of course, he'd seen anatomical charts before—you had to study meridian charts to learn acupuncture. Back views, front views, from the whole back down to a single finger, everything was drawn in detail.

But those only showed the surface.

What Chen Jue had drawn was the inside of the body—the organs under the skin. That was a real eye-opener.

He carefully followed the diagram, feeling his own body. So this is what kidneys look like...

Huo Jilin saw he was totally absorbed in the chart and couldn't exactly drag him back to make him promise over and over that Chen Jue would be fine.

Of course Chen Jue would be fine. He'd definitely be fine.

Chen Jue's appetite had been off these past few days. The baby's head dropping into the pelvis was weighing on him and causing pain, and contractions had started.

Huo Jilin felt like he was becoming half an expert himself.

In the three days before labor, contractions came at random times, but those weren't the real ones. When they got regular, that meant it was time.

Sure enough, Chen Jue went into labor that morning.

Actually, regular contractions had started in the middle of the night. Chen Jue had woken up and lay flat on the kang, counting how often his contractions came.

Huo Jilin had been startled to see his eyes open in the middle of the night. His hand on Chen Jue's belly had felt the little rascal wriggling downward, and that had woken him up.

Now seeing Chen Jue awake too, he reacted almost immediately. He sat up, not knowing what to do with his hands: "Is... is it time?"

Chen Jue gave a faint "hmm" in acknowledgment. Seeing Huo Jilin's hands trembling as he lit the candle, he added, "It won't be that fast. It might be evening before the baby comes. Don't be nervous."

Huo Jilin finished lighting the candle, helped him into a sitting position, and flashed him a smile: "I'm not nervous. You'll have a smooth delivery."

Chen Jue looked at his pale face in the candlelight but didn't call him out. He'd noticed Huo Jilin's tension these past days.

A lot of guys do get anxious before childbirth, which is why some say men may look big and tough, but they're really scaredy-cats inside—when it comes down to the real deal, they're the first to get weak in the knees.

Chen Jue thought for a moment and said, "You don't have to come in the delivery room. Just boil water outside."

This isn't modern times, when husbands stay with their wives during labor. Besides, he and Huo Jilin weren't really a married couple, so Huo Jilin didn't need to be this worked up.

Huo Jilin took his hand, lacing their fingers together tightly, and told him, "Don't worry about me. I'm going in to watch. What if Imperial Physician He doesn't get what you're saying? I'll be right there to tell him. I can help out!"

He was so adamant that if it weren't for how hard he was squeezing his fingers, he might've bought it.

Chen Jue gave a small smile but didn't pull his hand back. He figured, whatever, Huo Jilin's nervous—let him settle down. He needed to ease his own nerves too. The contractions were getting stronger, coming about every five minutes now.

Chen Jue leaned back against the wall and shut his eyes. A moment later, Huo Jilin used his other hand to pull him against his shoulder, saying, "Get some more sleep. You'll need all your strength for the delivery during the day."

Right, he needed more sleep so he'd have the energy to push through the day. So he leaned against Huo Jilin and continued to rest with his eyes closed. The steady cramps made it hard to sleep, but he had to get used to it—once he did, he could catch a few winks.

As dawn was breaking, Huo Jilin carefully set Chen Jue down on the kang. He was asleep, so he let him lie flat so his body could rest easier and he could sleep longer.

Huo Jilin stepped lightly into the courtyard, and only once he was standing in the yard did he let out a big deep breath.

He ran through a few moves of the Five Animals exercise to ease his stiff arms and what felt like a stiff heart.

Turning around, he saw Imperial Physician He coming over from the medicine workshop.

Imperial Physician He was getting old and didn't sleep much anymore. He'd get up at the crack of dawn every day and take a stroll through the hills.

Imperial Physician He hadn't expected Huo Jilin to be up this early either. Seeing him doing the Five Animals exercise, he was about to ask when it dawned on him: "Is Jue Geer going into labor?"

Huo Jilin pressed a finger to his lips and went "shh": "His contractions got frequent in the middle of the night and woke him up. He just nodded off. Let him sleep a bit more—that's okay, right?"

Imperial Physician He smiled with an air of wisdom: "No worries. Let him sleep more. The baby won't come until this evening anyway."

Huo Jilin pursed his lips. Just like Chen Jue said. What a long day this was going to be.

That day, Huo Jilin's place was even more bustling.

Uncle Liu, Aunt Zhou, and Aunt Zhang were holding down the fort, not to mention Zhou Hehua, who came to pick up tips, planted herself and refused to budge. If Chen Jue hadn't told her a few times to watch how much she ate, she'd have polished off the whole basket of hazelnuts.

Zhang Yan, holding Tuantuan, was passing on his wisdom. Even though he'd had a C-section, he was dead serious telling Chen Jue, "You gotta bear it. Push it all out in one go."

Zhang Shuier, who'd had a natural birth, also smiled and tried to soothe Chen Jue: "Yeah, it'll hurt a lot at first, but save your energy, then push hard later..."

Aunt Zhang said directly: "It's just like using the outhouse. When you feel the baby about to come out, you give it more oomph, like you're pushing out a poop..."

Uncle Liu added: "Right, just like a hen laying an egg. One good push, then have a bowl of ginseng soup in a bit..."

Imperial Physician He: "..."

Is folk talk really this down-to-earth?

Zhou Qingzhu kept popping over from the medicine workshop every so often, back and forth. He'd never had a kid himself, so he could only worry helplessly.

Finally, Chen Jue couldn't stand it anymore and said to him, "Let's go to the medicine workshop."

Huo Jilin followed closely: "At a time like this, you're still heading to the workshop?"

Chen Jue glanced at the sky. The sun had only just climbed into the sky, and it was still a long way from setting. These folks hadn't been nervous when they gave birth themselves, but now they were all hovering around watching him anxiously. He appreciated their good intentions.

"Come on. Keeping busy will make the time go by faster. Qingzhu, grab my writing stuff for me. Let's go," Chen Jue said.

Huo Jilin had no choice but to help him walk to the workshop.

Zhou Qingzhu followed behind holding Chen Jue's brush and ink, while Imperial Physician He called out from behind: "You don't have to write it all down. You can sort it out after the baby's born!"

Chen Jue nodded with his back to them.

Once at the workshop, he felt more relaxed.

From chopping herbs, sorting them, to boiling, drying, and packaging—he walked slowly, taking it all in. In the familiar smell of disinfectant and herbal medicine, he relaxed.

This was a familiar smell—from the hospital he'd been in since birth to the one where he died, his whole past life had been spent in hospitals.

Huo Jilin ground the ink for him and watched as Chen Jue wrote: "Midnight contractions, coming one after another, short intervals, indicating frequent contractions. Blood in the morning..."

Huo Jilin's hand, grinding the ink, stopped, and he stared at Chen Jue nervously. But Chen Jue kept writing about his pre-labor condition as if he felt nothing at all.

Chen Jue spent most of the late morning at the workshop. The workshop workers went from initial shock to steady work—if Chen Jue stayed steady, they could stay steady.

When Chen Jue could no longer even hold the brush, Huo Jilin put away his brush and ink: "Come on, let's head back."

Chen Jue nodded. The pain was already too much to bear—he was probably about four or five fingers dilated by now.

On the way back from the workshop, Chen Jue's steps were already unsteady. Huo Jilin put one hand on his waist to support him, and the other on his arm to steady him. Chen Jue's hand gripping his arm was tight.

His voice had a hint of self-mockery in it: "I finally get why childbirth hurts this much. I never thought about their pain before. I didn't know ten-level labor pain was this bad. And I'm only five fingers dilated."

Opening the bone seams was like having your bones ripped apart by force. Even that literal description wasn't vivid enough to capture the pain—there was another word for it.

Tearing tendons and stripping bones.

Huo Jilin took a slow breath. His heart ached—a heavy, suffocating pain.

Chen Jue was recalling the words hurled at him in his past life.

Those people said he had no right to spout that crap about childbirth being natural unless he'd tried ten-level labor pain himself.

That was when Chen Jue had firmly opposed his 520 in-vitro embryo research.

Chen Jue still remembered.

Those words hadn't come from mothers. A real mother who loved her child would never say something like that.

She'd give her life for her child—how could she say something like that?

Those words had been stirred up by people with ulterior motives.

Now he knew what consequences his 520 embryo would cause.

Sweat kept beading on Chen Jue's forehead, and his steps got slower and slower. Many times the pain made him bend over, and he had to wait a bit before he could stand up straight.

Huo Jilin looked at the short few hundred steps ahead and his eyes stung, and his throat felt tight. It took him a while to speak, and he said quietly to Chen Jue, "It's not your fault. It's my fault."

I'm the one who put you in the spotlight, never once thinking about how you felt.

And now I'm the one who got you pregnant, forcing you to endure these ten months of gestation and the most intense labor pains.

Huo Jilin closed his eyes.

Although Chen Jue was already heavy with child when he arrived, and this baby had nothing to do with either of them, if one were to speak of karmic retribution, it was all because of him.

Putting aside thoughts of past and future lives, looking only at the practical reasons, he was the culprit.

Because he was the one who handed Jiang Xinhe over to Chen Jue, and it was only after she and her unborn child died that Chen Jue came to this place and was forced to bear this child.

It was all his fault.

Huo Jilin looked up at the sky.

He used to be a staunch materialist, but now he only prayed for Chen Jue's safety. As long as Chen Jue could deliver safely, he would accept any punishment.

Heaven, lay all the sins on me—I'll face thunder and lightning without flinching.