Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Later, because Doctor Ye’s clinic had not opened for several days, the people of Yue City finally realized something had happened to the Ye family.

When they went to the small Ye house, they saw three tombstones standing in front of the house. The person who had erected them was the Ye family’s eldest daughter, Ye Gui, yet Ye Gui herself had vanished without a trace.

My parents had been kind to the people of Yue City. When the townsfolk heard that the divine-doctor family had been killed for no reason by the princess’s prince consort, outrage rose at once, and they marched to the magistrate’s office to demand an explanation.

After recovering, the princess heard about this and, while sipping ginseng soup, said lightly, “The three members of the Ye family were able to save my life. That alone was the honor of a lifetime.”

“I haven’t even complained that the blood flowing through my precious body came from commoners!”

Magistrate Lu bobbed and bowed. “Yes, yes, yes. But Princess, what about those townsfolk? If we don’t give them an answer, they won’t leave.”

“Isn’t that easy? Give the Ye family some random crime. Say they had it coming, and the crowd will naturally disperse.”

She issued an order saying the Ye family had committed the capital crime of attempting to murder the princess and were therefore executed, and the missing eldest daughter of the Ye family was put on the wanted list as well.

Half a month later, she followed the prince consort back to the capital.

She had no idea that three years later, the wanted Ye family’s eldest daughter would appear before her in broad daylight as a female physician.

The lives of her and her child were now laid bare beneath my silver needles.

The princess’s abdomen had already begun to round out. When I felt it, the fetus inside was restless, but it was clearly the last burst of strength before death.

Physician Xu and the others could tell from the pulse, but none of them dared say it so bluntly.

My mother had specialized in childbirth in life, and had once pulled hundreds of women through difficult deliveries back from the gates of hell.

When fathers tried to choose the child and sacrifice the mother, she never listened to their nonsense. She always put the woman’s life first.

She taught me, “Once the months are far enough along, you only need to touch the belly with your hand to know how likely the child is to survive.”

“It’s a pity that men would rather have a stillborn child dropped on the ground than save the wife who nearly died giving birth to it.”

“Remember this: when we practice medicine, we must always keep compassion and virtue in our hearts.”

Now, I too had felt how much life remained in the princess’s unborn little heir.

Through the skin of her belly, I pressed down on the baby’s fragile skull and drew out a long silver needle.

In my mind, I silently recited a soul-summoning witch’s incantation.

[Restless souls will be reborn within the belly of their enemy.]

[Father, mother, little sister, this dying noble child will be the sacrifice that ushers in your reincarnation.]

I drove the slender needle neatly into the princess’s abdomen, piercing the still-soft skull of the fetus at the same time.

The princess cried out in pain.

The prince consort rushed in. Seeing a few drops of blood on the princess’s belly, he flew into a rage. “You bold servant girl! How dare you harm the princess!”