Qin Liuxi consecutively drew three talismans, folded them into a triangle, and after putting away her belongings, returned to the birthing room.
At this moment, Qi Huang had already returned, holding in her hands a steaming bowl of medicinal soup, and upon receiving a nod from her young mistress, she personally fed the medicine to Mrs. Gu.
Mrs. Wang stepped forward to help, but this Qi Huang, with a nimbleness nobody knew how she mustered, easily supported the woman and poured the medicine in.
Meanwhile, Qin Liuxi tied two Spirit Talismans to the head of the bed and under the pillow, keeping another one on standby.
The people witnessing this scene wore strange expressions on their faces.
"Xixi, what is this?" Mrs. Wang's eyebrows twitched. How could the girl be so odd and mystical?
Qin Liuxi replied impassively, "Oh, peace charms, for safety."
It sounded somewhat bizarre, yet nobody dared to comment.
The effects of the induction medicine were swift, and Mrs. Gu began to cry out in pain again. She had barely opened her mouth when she was comforted by the midwife, "Lady, rest assured, with the eldest young lady here, both mother and child will certainly be safe."
Mrs. Gu was momentarily stunned but didn't take it to heart, considering it a mere comfort, and with tear-filled eyes, she looked towards Mrs. Wang: "Elder sister, give me a handkerchief to bite on."
Mrs. Wang folded a clean handkerchief and placed it in her mouth.
Old Mrs. Qin, seeing Qin Liuxi still in the room, said, "You're an unwed maiden; it's best you don't stay here. Wait outside instead, Mrs. Wang and Lady Mei can help here."
Qin Liuxi obediently pushed the door open and left.
It was Qi Huang who handed her a cup of tea, teasingly saying, "Miss, are you really just going to sit here?"
The one suffering inside was her very own Third Aunt.
Qin Liuxi sipped her tea and glanced at her, saying, "As an unwed maiden, a dignified young lady from a prestigious family, how appropriate is it for me to watch a woman give birth?"
The Qin family, ah, even if their mansion was to collapse, was once the family of a third-rank official; she herself was indeed a dignified official's daughter.
Qi Huang nearly laughed out loud and said, "It doesn't seem to hurt your face to say that. Just last month, when you passed by Taohua Village, you assisted the Deng Family's woman who was having a hard birth and delivered a healthy chubby boy!"
Qin Liuxi's expression did not change: "After having a piece of their peach blossom cake, I became entwined in their karma. Naturally, it was something I had to repay."
Qi Huang giggled, then composed herself and asked, "Miss, did you really not foresee the Qin family's sudden calamity?"
Qin Liuxi fell silent for a moment. Could she tell Qi Huang that she had divined it when she was just a child?
After pondering for a long while, she finally said, "People have their rises and falls, and so do families. No flower blooms for a hundred days. The Qin family has prospered for decades, and now to suffer such misfortune is due to the schemes and destined calamity of the wicked. When the villains prevail, one must avoid their edge, break down before rebuilding. The lush mountains remain; the day will come when the clouds part and the mountain view is clear once again."
Qi Huang commented, "What you say is true. As long as you are here, the Qin family will surely not collapse!"
Qin Liuxi smiled without a word, quietly raising her cup of tea again.
All was the result of karma.
"But with so many people in the Qin Family, only the weak and the women have arrived, and they are already overwhelmed. There are still a few vulnerable unarmed men along the exile route; everywhere requires Silver Coin to smooth things over. Miss, your carefree days are coming to an end," Qi Huang suddenly remarked with a touch of schadenfreude in her tone.
The tea tasted rather bitter, and she could no longer bring herself to drink it!
She suddenly stood up and positioned herself beside the window, gazing at the drizzling rain.
Outside the city gates.
A troop of guards wearing straw raincoats and bamboo hats rode into Li City, knocking on the inn's door to seek shelter from the rain.
In the privileged room, a noble-looking man unfurled a scroll, on which was the ambiguous face of a beautiful person, with jet-black hair simply tied up with a bamboo hairpin, an indifferent expression, and lips slightly downturned as if disdaining all worldly matters.
He stood before a Daoist Temple, exuding the air of a nobleman facing the wind, ready to depart, as if conveying the sense that before him, all were mere mortals.
"Rest up. If the weather is fine tomorrow, we shall head to Qingping Temple," commanded Qi Qian as he rolled the scroll back into its copper tube.
It is said that there is a Daoist doctor in Li City known as Buqiu, whose medical skills are profound, and the Taoist Taisu Pulse Method he mastered is said to be exceptionally miraculous, capable of discerning one's fortunes and misfortunes, social status, and even predicting the fate of descendants through pulse diagnosis, all seemingly very profound.
And he was on a mission to seek medicine for his grandmother.