vrcanaries Chapter 438 Witnessing a New Life
Chapter 438 Witnessing a New Life
Life in Dafeng Town is as clear and gentle as a stream flowing over pebbles.
Lu Jiangnian and Yuan Wanru walked side by side, truly living a carefree and blissful life.
Every morning, Lu Jiangnian would prepare the meal and wait for Yuan Wanru to wake up and have breakfast. Then they would carry their light medicine bags and go out.
Where are we going?
It all depends on my heart.
Perhaps they accepted an invitation from a family in town, or perhaps they followed a mountain path to find some seasonal herbs, or perhaps they simply wandered around to see which village had patients who needed treatment.
Lu Jiangnian had never felt the purity of "working at sunrise and resting at sunset" so deeply.
This is different from the heroic spirit of wandering the world with a sword that he imagined in his youth, and also quite different from the days in the past when he had to exhaust himself and proceed with caution.
These days, life is light and free from all the heavy calculations.
They carried only herbs and simple bags on their shoulders, and their hearts were filled with the mountains and trees before them, the warm words and laughter of the people around them, and the neighbors they might meet at the next crossroads who needed their help.
"Nothing to worry about, no worries"—he finally truly understood the meaning of these five words; it was a kind of ease that came from the very core of his being.
The life of a traveling doctor was completely different from what he had imagined.
It's a feeling of unrestrained freedom.
There's no need to confine yourself to a clinic, nor to navigate the complexities of interpersonal relationships.
The heavens and earth are their consultation room, and the gentle breeze is their door curtain.
Sometimes he would give an old man a few acupuncture needles under the old locust tree at the village entrance, sometimes he would set the bones and apply medicine to a peasant woman who had twisted her ankle by the edge of the field, and sometimes he would clean and bandage the scrapes and bruises of children who had been playing in the mountain stream.
remuneration?
It's usually just a bunch of fresh vegetables with the scent of earth, a few warm eggs, or a bowl of sweet spring water.
This simple act of using medical skills to directly provide for the everyday needs of people gave him an unprecedented sense of peace and satisfaction.
And this simple yet fulfilling life became even more complete and wonderful because of the woman beside him.
As the sun began to set and weary birds returned to their nests, they walked home side by side in the twilight.
The sunset cast long shadows of the two people, and the air was filled with the mixed scents of cooking smoke and grass.
Lu Jiangnian turned his head to look at the serene profile of the person beside him, and then looked at the eaves in the distance, which were dyed a warm orange by the sunset. An indescribable feeling of comfort welled up in his heart.
The vague dreams I had in my youth—about freedom, about traversing mountains and rivers, about chivalry—have, after many twists and turns, been realized here and now in the most pleasant and heartwarming way.
What's even more wonderful is that he wasn't alone on this sun-drenched road.
Some share the morning dew and evening mist, some understand the true joy in simple meals, and some, together with him, make every ordinary day flavorful in this small, peaceful world, like savoring a vintage wine, the more you taste it, the more mellow and mellow it becomes, and the more you feel that this is the greatest joy in life.
-
One day, while passing through a village, they encountered a woman in difficult childbirth.
The woman's groans had long since exhausted her strength, turning into faint, labored breaths, each inhalation accompanied by painful spasms.
The midwife was covered in sweat, her hands stained with blood, and her voice was trembling with tears: "It's no use... the baby's head is stuck, it can't come out! This, this is 'reverse delivery,' it's going to kill us!"
Yuan Wanru said to the pale-faced man outside the delivery room, "I'm a doctor, let me in to take a look."
Lu Jiangnian was not suitable to go in, so he could only wait outside.
She stepped into the delivery room with a solemn expression and quickly checked the mother's condition.
"Don't panic, it'll be okay."
The voice wasn't loud, but it had a strange penetrating power that instantly suppressed the panic in the room.
She stepped forward, taking the place of the midwife, her warm fingers gently and precisely palpating the thin skin of the belly with a breathtaking focus.
After a moment, she confirmed in a deep voice: "The occipital bone is on the right back."
"Help me support her!"
She gave the order decisively.
The midwife immediately stepped forward and carefully helped the woman lift her heavy body.
Yuan Wanru moved swiftly and gently, guiding the mother to assume a peculiar posture—kneeling with her chest as close to the bed as possible and her buttocks raised high.
"Hold on, and try to relax and inhale."
While stabilizing the pregnant woman, she glanced at her medicine box.
She took out the gold needles that Old Man Su had given her, picked up the longest one, disinfected it, held her breath and focused her mind, and precisely inserted it into the key acupoints on the lumbosacral region of the woman in labor. Her technique was as fast as lightning, and the insertion was just right, with the needle tip trembling slightly.
"what……"
The woman in labor let out a short gasp, not from severe pain, but from a strange, aching sensation spreading outwards.
At the same time, Yuan Wanru's hands did not stop. Through the abdominal wall, she used a skillful technique to steadily support the baby's buttocks and attempted to slowly rotate counterclockwise to correct the baby.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and her gaze was so focused that it seemed as if the whole world consisted only of the tenacious little life beneath her palm.
Time flies, and every moment feels incredibly long.
The only sounds in the room were the mother's heavy breathing and Yuan Wanru's steady instructions: "Inhale... good, exhale slowly... one more time..."
She would occasionally re-examine the baby's head to feel for subtle changes.
Suddenly, a glint flashed in Yuan Wanru's eyes: "It's done! Now it's left occiput anterior position! Quick, get ready to push! Now!"
Her voice carried an undeniable power.
The woman in labor seemed to be infused with her last breath of life, and under Yuan Wanru's command and with the support of the midwife, she unleashed astonishing strength.
"Head out! Shoulders! Good!"
The midwife exclaimed in delight.
However, just as the baby's body was about to be fully delivered, Yuan Wanru keenly noticed something unusual—there seemed to be a slight obstruction in the baby's shoulder.
Without the slightest hesitation, she pulled out a pair of baby hooks from the bottom of the medicine box, precisely placed the hooks on both sides of the baby's head, and gently and steadily pulled and rotated them. The whole process took only a moment, and a little life covered in purplish-blue skin and vernix caseosa slipped out silently.
"child!"
The woman's cry of pain was filled with despair.
Yuan Wanru had already taken the baby.
The child remained silent, his face turning blue and purple from holding his breath.
She wiped away the mucus from the baby's mouth and nose with a clean cloth, supported the baby's neck with one hand, and patted the baby's back with moderate force using a cupped hand in the other.
"Cough... Ouch—!"
A faint yet incredibly clear cry pierced the suffocating silence like heavenly music.
"He's alive! The child is crying! He's alive!"
The midwife was so excited that she became incoherent.
The farmer who was with Lu Jiangnian outside suddenly collapsed to the ground with a thud, his legs giving way. He covered his face with his hands, his shoulders trembled violently, and he could no longer control his suppressed sobs.
Yuan Wanru's tense nerves finally relaxed a little, but her hands did not stop moving at all.
"Quick, find the softest, most absorbent cloth! Dry the child off and wrap him in it, make sure he's warm!"
She took out a ginseng slice from the medicine box and had the new mother hold it in her mouth to help her breathe.
The midwife carefully wrapped the wrinkled little life up, leaving only a rosy little face showing.
Looking at the baby in the swaddling clothes whose breathing gradually became steady and whose skin turned rosy, and then at the mother on the bed whose breathing gradually became even and who showed a weak smile because she had taken ginseng slices, Yuan Wanru breathed a long sigh of relief, and the corners of her tightly clenched mouth finally raised a relieved smile.