Chapter 356 - Birth of the baby

Chapter 356: Chapter 356 - Birth of the baby

The operating-room doors closed behind Qiu Yue and Yuki, leaving everyone else outside.

Yunfeng had argued until the last possible second. He wanted to go inside and didn’t care that he could barely stand, that his hands were still shaking, or that dried blood covered his mouth and shirt. Muchen was terrified, and every instinct in him screamed that he should be beside him.

Qiu Yue had refused without even considering it.

"You can barely stand. If you collapse in my operating room, I’ll throw you out myself."

Those were the last words Yunfeng heard before the doors shut in his face.

Inside, the operating room was painfully bright. They had done everything they could in the short amount of time available. The table and surrounding surfaces had been disinfected, the instruments sterilized, and whatever useful medical supplies remained in the abandoned hospital had been gathered together. It wasn’t anywhere close to the environment Qiu Yue would have chosen for surgery, but right now, it was the best they had.

Muchen lay pale and drenched in sweat on the operating table. His contractions still hadn’t stopped.

Qiu Yue had carefully given him morphine, enough to dull the worst of the pain without recklessly dosing him. Muchen remained conscious, though his eyelids had grown heavy and his thoughts were beginning to feel sluggish.

"Where’s Yunfeng?"

"Outside."

"Let him in."

"No."

Muchen frowned weakly. "You’re annoying."

"So I’ve been told."

Beside the table, Yuki stood in clean protective clothing that was far too large for her small body. The sleeves had been rolled up several times just to free her hands. Under normal circumstances, a child her age had absolutely no business being inside an operating room, but these weren’t normal circumstances. Her healing ability was simply too valuable, especially when they had limited blood and medical supplies.

Qiu Yue glanced at her. "When I make the incision, don’t try to heal it immediately. Just concentrate on stopping him from losing too much blood."

Yuki nodded seriously.

"If something else starts bleeding badly, focus there first. Don’t worry about what I’m doing unless I tell you to."

"Okay."

Muchen’s eyes opened a little wider. "Can you two not discuss cutting me open while I’m still awake?"

Qiu Yue adjusted his gloves. "If you can complain this much, the morphine hasn’t made you completely useless yet. That’s good."

"Fuck you."

"Also good."

Yuki lowered her head, trying very hard not to smile.

The brief exchange helped more than Muchen wanted to admit. His breathing steadied slightly, although one hand remained curled protectively beside his stomach.

Qiu Yue’s expression soon became serious again.

"Muchen."

Something in his voice made Muchen look at him.

"I need you to understand something before I begin. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to find."

Fear immediately returned to Muchen’s face, but Qiu Yue continued before he could work himself into a panic.

"Omega pregnancy is already physiologically different, and your ability has been interacting with the pregnancy for months. We’ve seen that much already. Right now, my priority is keeping you alive and finding out what’s causing the contractions. If there’s a safe way to preserve the pregnancy, that’s what I’ll do."

"And if there isn’t?"

Qiu Yue didn’t lie to him.

"Then I’ll get the baby out."

Muchen turned his face away. A tear escaped from the corner of his eye and slid toward his temple.

"Save him."

Qiu Yue’s hands paused.

"If something happens, save the baby."

"Muchen—"

"Promise me."

Qiu Yue stared at him for a moment before firmly shaking his head.

"No."

Muchen turned back sharply.

"My patient is you. I’m going to do everything I can for both of you, but I’m not promising to let you die on this table for the baby."

Muchen’s lips trembled, but before he could argue, another contraction tightened through his abdomen. Even through the medication, his body stiffened and his breath caught.

Yuki immediately placed both hands against his side. A soft glow gathered around her small fingers as she concentrated.

"Breathe slowly."

Muchen squeezed his eyes shut until the worst of it passed.

"Yunfeng better fucking appreciate this."

Qiu Yue picked up the scalpel. "He broke through space three times and coughed blood all over the floor because you called him. I’d say he appreciates you plenty."

That shut Muchen up.

Qiu Yue waited until the contraction had completely eased before beginning.

The first incision was careful. Yuki watched closely and immediately focused her ability where Qiu Yue had instructed, slowing the bleeding without trying to close the wound itself. The strange combination worked better than Qiu Yue had expected. He could continue operating while Yuki prevented unnecessary blood loss, and after the first few moments, they settled into an unexpectedly effective rhythm.

Layer by layer, Qiu Yue worked his way deeper, his entire focus narrowing to the surgery.

Then he reached the abdominal cavity and stopped.

Yuki noticed immediately. "What is it?"

Qiu Yue didn’t answer.

His eyes widened behind his glasses.

Something was moving.

Not tissue. Not blood.

Something clear.

A perfectly rounded mass of liquid slowly pushed upward through the opening.

For several seconds, Qiu Yue could only stare.

"What the fuck..."

The sphere rose completely free of Muchen’s abdomen and floated into the air above him.

Yuki’s mouth fell open.

Inside the transparent liquid was a baby.

Tiny. Far too tiny.

But unmistakably a baby.

Its arms and legs were fully formed, its little fingers slowly curling and uncurling through the liquid. Most shocking of all, its eyes were wide open.

It wasn’t struggling.

It wasn’t suffocating.

It was simply floating peacefully inside the sphere.

Alive.

Qiu Yue forgot to breathe.

According to everything he knew, none of this should have been happening. Yet while he stared, the baby slowly turned inside the sphere and gave one tiny kick. The entire ball rotated lazily in the air.

Yuki leaned forward slightly, her eyes huge. "Is that the baby?"

"Yes."

Muchen’s eyelids fluttered at the sound of her voice.

"What?"

Neither of them answered quickly enough.

Muchen’s expression immediately changed. "What happened? Qiu Yue?"

"Don’t move."

"What’s wrong with my baby?"

Qiu Yue finally tore his attention away from the sphere. "Nothing. Just stay still."

Even saying it felt absurd.

Nothing appeared to be wrong, and that was exactly what made this so impossible. A three-month fetus should not look like this. It should not be awake, and it certainly shouldn’t be floating over an operating table inside a perfectly spherical mass of liquid.

Qiu Yue slowly reached toward it.

The instant his gloved fingers approached, the sphere drifted backward.

He froze.

Yuki blinked at it.

Qiu Yue tried again, moving his hand toward it from a different angle. The sphere calmly floated farther away.

Yuki looked at him. "I don’t think it likes you."

Qiu Yue shot her a look. "This isn’t the time."

He approached from the other side.

The sphere moved again, this time rolling gently through the air above Muchen’s chest.

Qiu Yue followed it. "Come here."

It promptly floated away from him.

Yuki’s lips twitched.

"Don’t laugh."

"I’m not."

"You’re about to."

She quickly pressed her lips together.

Inside the sphere, the baby kicked again, sending the entire ball rolling directly over Muchen’s shoulder before it stopped beside his face.

Muchen felt something cool brush against his cheek.

His eyes opened.

For several seconds, his drugged mind couldn’t understand what he was seeing. Something transparent hovered only inches away, catching the harsh operating-room lights across its surface.

Then he saw the tiny face inside.

Muchen stopped breathing.

"My..."

The baby slowly turned toward him.

Muchen’s lips parted.

"Baby?"

The little body moved. One tiny arm stretched through the liquid, and the sphere drifted closer until its cool surface gently pressed against Muchen’s cheek.

From inside, the baby’s tiny palm settled against him.

Muchen broke.

A sob escaped his throat as his trembling hand instinctively lifted toward the sphere, but Qiu Yue quickly caught his wrist.