Halfway through the drive, Xu Huiqing’s bleeding had already begun to slow. It was no longer as severe as before. This was relatively common during childbirth. But they didn’t know the flow had gradually lessened. Zhao Zongbao and Xu Huiqing were currently in the honeymoon phase of their marriage. Seeing the cotton pad beneath her soaked through with blood that could nearly be wrung out made his heart sink like a stone.
Mother Zhao stopped talking, too. She hadn’t actually wanted her daughter-in-law to die; she’d only said it in the heat of the moment.
Marrying off a son and bringing in a daughter-in-law cost a lot of money. Her precious grandson had just been born. If his mother died, could anyone really expect a stepmother to treat her darling grandson well?
There was that stepmother up the street in front of their house. In the dead of winter, she shoved the head of the previous wife’s son into the gutter. She wouldn’t even give him food, and he had to sleep in a pile of straw in the kitchen.
If his birth mother were still alive, would she ever let her own son be treated like that?
This daughter-in-law of hers was a college student, a cultured person. Her grandson would need his mother’s help when it came time for his university exams!
Under the guidance of the female doctor, the car sped all the way and soon arrived at the Sixth People’s Hospital in the neighboring city.
The driver was a kind-hearted man. As soon as they reached the hospital entrance, he jumped down from the cab and rushed to help Zhao Zongbao carry her. While carrying, he shouted, “Doctor! Doctor! We have a woman with a major postpartum hemorrhage here!”
The Sixth People’s Hospital was also known as the Maternal and Child Health Hospital. Built and opened in 1988, it was the first Grade 2A Maternal and Child Health Hospital in the province, renowned across the entire province in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.
This was precisely why the doctor at the Town Health Center hadn’t recommended they go to the county hospital but instead directed them straight to the Women and Children’s Hospital in the neighboring city.
A massive postpartum hemorrhage could kill someone!
The doctors inside heard about a hemorrhaging woman and didn’t dare delay for a second. They rushed out pushing a gurney, and Zhao Zongbao quickly lifted the unconscious Xu Huiqing onto it.
Mother Zhao ran after them, holding the newborn baby. “Slow down, slow down! Why are you running so fast? Are you racing to your deaths?”
The driver beside her couldn’t stand listening any longer and snapped back, “What kind of talk is that, old woman? Your daughter-in-law has hemorrhaged into a coma, and you’re going on about death after death? Have you got no sense of taboo at all?”
Mother Zhao chased after them and even turned her head to curse back, “What business is it of yours? A dog catching a mouse—meddling in other people’s business!”
She hurriedly chased after them. Her darling grandson still needed milk. If her daughter-in-law remained unconscious, she’d have to check the maternity ward for other new mothers and ask to borrow some of their milk.
If this were a true, uncontrollable hemorrhage, Xu Huiqing would have been dead already. But her hemorrhage was caused by mental shock postpartum, which affected the contractile function of her uterine smooth muscle, leading to uterine atony and resulting in postpartum bleeding.
Her coagulation function was normal, however. After the initial severe bleeding, her body’s inherently excellent clotting ability had gradually taken effect during the journey. Combined with the old doctor administering emergency fluids, by the time she arrived at the city’s Women and Children’s Hospital, her condition wasn’t nearly as dire as it appeared to the doctors.
The type of hemorrhage they feared most was actually one caused by coagulation dysfunction—that kind was truly difficult to control and the most terrifying.
But they would never directly tell the patient’s family that the bleeding had already begun to stabilize and clot.
Since the hospital’s opening, they had seen too many husbands and mothers-in-law who didn’t value a new mother’s life at all. If they admitted the bleeding was already clotting, those families would discharge the patient the very next second. Later, if something happened, they would turn around and blame the hospital.
The doctors quickly wheeled the patient into the emergency room, tested her blood type, retrieved blood from the blood bank for a transfusion, and administered a whole series of treatments.
Once the emergency treatment was completed and they’d learned the details of the hemorrhage from the accompanying female doctor from the town, they finally came out to speak with Zhao Zongbao and Mother Zhao.
“Our preliminary diagnosis is a major hemorrhage caused by uterine atony. The patient needs complete rest after delivery and must not be subjected to any stress.”
Zhao Zongbao just asked the doctor anxiously, “Doctor, how is my wife right now?”
Mother Zhao was also beside him, asking urgently, “My precious grandson hasn’t had a single drop of his mother’s milk since he was born! Can she nurse him now?”
The doctor was a woman in her forties. Hearing this, her brows furrowed deeply in disapproval. She reprimanded Mother Zhao: “The patient nearly lost her life, and you’re still thinking about her breast milk!” She turned to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department nurse and said, “Take the newborn inside for a checkup.” Then she told Mother Zhao, “The hospital has formula. A newborn only needs thirty milliliters of milk per feeding right now.”
In an instant, both Zhao Zongbao and Mother Zhao began bustling around the newborn, completely forgetting about the new mother. It was the female doctor from the Town Health Center who had accompanied them, unable to leave her conscience behind, who stayed to care for Xu Huiqing.
She wasn’t a first-time visitor to the city’s Women and Children’s Hospital. They were all scientifically trained obstetricians and gynecologists. Complications during childbirth at the town hospital weren’t too frequent, but whenever anything went wrong, they sent the mothers straight to the city’s Sixth Hospital. She had become quite familiar with the OB/GYN staff there.
Xu Huiqing’s sleep was terribly uneasy. Her dreams were filled with the image of her daughter jumping off a building, her reaching out to grab her daughter’s hand but always failing, watching helplessly as her daughter fell. Then, nothing but red filled her vision. A piercing, stabbing red.
Though sanitary pads existed in this era, they were nothing like the purpose-made adult diaper-like, large, and thick maternity pads of twenty years later. They were thick but far inferior. Within moments, the fresh pad she’d just had changed was soaked through with blood, overflowing onto the white disposable underpad beneath her in a stark, shocking display.
The female doctor from the town health center, who had been watching over her, saw the startling red seeping onto the white maternity pad and jumped in fright. She immediately rushed to call a doctor.
The doctor arrived, baffled. The bleeding had clearly clotted earlier. How could she suddenly start hemorrhaging again so violently? While administering treatment and resuscitation efforts, she turned and confronted Zhao Zongbao and his mother. “What exactly did you do to stress this patient so badly she can’t even rest peacefully while unconscious?”
She already knew from the town’s female doctor that they had hidden away and gotten rid of the patient’s eldest daughter. But she deliberately didn’t expose them, instead asking pointedly.
Mother Zhao, who had already sold off and given away her eldest granddaughter, guiltily averted her eyes and argued defiantly, “She’s the one who can’t take it. What does that have to do with us?”
Zhao Zongbao had been influenced since childhood by his parents’ attitude towards his five older sisters. Moreover, he’d married young; mentally, he was still a child himself, often out drinking and carousing with friends, staying out all night. He had absolutely no awareness of being a husband or father. He’d spent less time with his eldest daughter than with his good-for-nothing friends, so naturally, there was no emotional bond.
But because he’d been the center of the universe in his family since birth, he also didn’t care much about money or what others thought. He turned to Mother Zhao impatiently and asked, “Didn’t you say you sent Xiaoxi to Second Sister’s house? Huiqing wants to see her; tell her to bring the child here!”
Mother Zhao averted her eyes. She thought to herself: The child is already given away, the money already received. If you ask me to bring her back now, who would agree to that?
She just said, “Look at Huiqing. Xiaoxi coming here right now would just disturb her rest. Didn’t the doctor say Huiqing needs complete rest? It won’t be too late to bring her home when Huiqing is discharged from the hospital. Everything’s chaotic now. I have to take care of my precious grandson. Who’s going to look after Xiaoxi if she comes back? Xiaoxi is at your second sister’s house. What are you so worried about?”
Neither of them considered the idea of having Zhao Zongbao care for the new mother. In their minds, Zhao Zongbao was the emperor of the family. How could he possibly be tasked with caring for a daughter-in-law? Wouldn’t that be turning heaven and earth upside down?
Zhao Zongbao had five older sisters. His second sister, Zhao Daidi, was married in a remote mountain area. If the eldest granddaughter was sent to a family deep in the mountains, they were guaranteed no one would ever find her.
Hearing she was with his mild-tempered, soft-natured second sister, Zhao Zongbao said nothing more.
By the time Xu Huiqing awoke again, it was already the afternoon of the next day. Bright light streamed through the hospital room window. The corridor was packed with family members who were giving their infants and toddlers sunlight therapy to treat jaundice. Mother Zhao was among them, loudly holding court.
“This daughter-in-law of mine is so useless. I told her ages ago to send the first one to the countryside, but she wouldn’t. She insisted on raising her at her side. Now look, her job is gone too!”
“Back then, she flat-out refused to have a second child, going on about the national Family Planning Policy, saying public employees can only have one! We’re the ones who forced her to have this second boy. It’s all thanks to us pushing her to have him! Otherwise, wouldn’t my son’s family line have ended? How can a man not have a son? What’s the point of living without a son?”
This was Mother Zhao’s innermost conviction. In her younger years, she’d given birth to five daughters in a row. She hadn’t even been allowed to sit at the table and eat in her husband’s family home. It wasn’t until Zhao Zongbao was born that she could finally hold her head high and walk with pride.
In her heart, a son was everything.
“We told her to get checked, see if it was a boy or a girl, but she wouldn’t do it. Thank goodness this one was my precious grandson. If it’d been another girl, she’d have just had to keep giving birth. What else could she do? My second daughter, she got pregnant six times, and every time the ultrasound showed a girl. She aborted every single one. Finally, the last one was a boy! My second son-in-law, you wouldn’t believe how overjoyed he was. He works with such energy now! A person needs to have a son!”
Sitting on the sunlit corridor outside the wards, Mother Zhao held her precious grandson and spoke loudly and proudly to the other family members gathered around with their own children, recounting the glorious tale of her second daughter.
She was genuinely proud and bursting with pride. Her second daughter was so well-raised by her, so virtuous and gentle.
“The third one she aborted—it was pouring rain outside. My second son-in-law just put her on his bicycle and pedaled her home. She was drenched to the bone in rainwater and didn’t make a single sound of complaint! She used to be so strong and healthy, but after getting soaked in the rain that time, she’s been aching and hurting all over ever since. And even with that, she still persisted in giving my second son-in-law a son!”
“Now that she’s finally had a boy, her mother-in-law has shut her mouth completely, and my second son-in-law, he treats her so well now! He doesn’t beat her anymore!” Mother Zhao’s face was beaming as she spoke. “And it’s all thanks to her having this son. Otherwise, I could never hold my head high in front of her in-laws!”
Her words drew nods of agreement and approval from many of the other patient family members.
A family member nearby, growing uncomfortable listening to this, noticed Xu Huiqing’s open eyes. She spoke up to alert her: “Your daughter-in-law is awake!”
Holding the infant, Mother Zhao turned her head and looked into the hospital room. Sure enough, Xu Huiqing’s eyes were half-open, her expression dazed and lost. She quickly carried the baby over to her side, and in one swift motion, yanked open Xu Huiqing’s old blue hospital gown. She shoved the baby’s mouth directly against her breast and reached out her hand, ready to squeeze.
A sharp, piercing pain shot through Xu Huiqing’s brain like a needle. She shuddered violently in pain. Her eyes flew open, and she saw Mother Zhao’s old face looming close. It was almost a reflex—her hand lashed out in a slap that landed squarely on Mother Zhao’s face.