During his pregnancy, An Jin had been abnormally lethargic, often sleeping for more than ten hours at a ti. Even when he did wake up, it was only because hunger forced him to eat.
Ling Hong and the others stayed by his side constantly. Since the term of the pregnancy was uncertain, besides waiting on him hand and foot, they also had to pay close attention to any unusual signs.
Yesterday afternoon, he had woken up with a pained expression. His voice was weak as he said he was thirsty. Ling Hong had quickly brought him a bowl of warm water with rock sugar, and after eating a little sothing, he fell into a deep sleep again.
Mi Yin transford into his beast form, coiling his long python body entirely around him, like an impenetrable wall of flesh.
"HISS~" "Jin’er is probably about to give birth."
Alarm bells went off in Ling Hong’s mind. He imdiately dropped to one knee, reached out, and carefully lifted An Jin, who was nestled deep within the python’s coils, adjusting him into a sleeping position that wouldn’t put pressure on his abdon.
"Then... then what do we do?" Xi’s face was filled with helplessness, the corners of his eyes turning red. He looked like he was about to cry from anxiety.
They had no experience with this. Now that the day had finally co, all they could do was worry helplessly.
Ling Hong turned, pushed aside the door curtain, and went upstairs to find Chi Li, who happened to be bringing down a dicinal soup he had just prepared.
The two t.
Ling Hong explained what had just happened.
Chi Li nodded, a hint of worry on his face. "This is about when I expected. It should be within the next two days." He handed the dicinal soup to Ling Hong. "Have him drink this first, then try to get him to eat as much as possible. He has to eat even if he doesn’t have an appetite. He needs to conserve as much strength as he can. I’ll go prepare so other soups for him..."
"Okay." Ling Hong nodded grimly, then took the bowl of dicine and hurried back to the room.
Xi gently woke him. "Ah Jin, don’t sleep. Get up and drink so dicine first. You can go back to sleep after you’ve had it, okay?"
"Ngh..." An Jin woke up in a daze. The first thing he saw were the anxious expressions on everyone’s faces. He instinctively felt that sothing was wrong, but his mind was foggy, and his thoughts were too fragnted to connect.
He could only see a pair of long, slender, pale hands reaching toward him. His unfocused gaze couldn’t make out who it was. ’Was that Ling Hong?’ His pale lips closed around the spoon, and he gulped down all of the dicinal soup.
After nearly two months of this tornt, he could no longer taste the bitterness of the dicine. He drank it as if it were plain water.
After eating so high-protein food, he drifted back to sleep again.
Mi Yin coiled tightly around him again. His forked tongue flicked against his slightly cool cheek, making his eyelashes flutter uneasily before settling into a long stillness.
That night, none of the three slept. It was as if so premonition had given them all insomnia, and they gathered around the unconscious An Jin, quietly waiting for sothing.
The silent, dark night sky was pierced by a shrill cry.
It was followed by a second, and then a third.
"Ah—!" Intense pain forced his eyes open. The grogginess that had clouded his mind for so long was instantly cleared by the agony. His hair, soaked with sweat, was matted ssily to his face.
His body felt like it was being torn apart.
Three separate tis.
"Jin’er..." Mi Yin hugged him, his heart aching. He repeatedly smoothed back his damp hair. Even he, who had always been cold-blooded and detached, shed a few tears.
Overwheld by heartbreak and worry, he didn’t even have ti to check if the "things" that had rolled onto the soft fleece mat were eggs. He rembered from his ancestral mories that the rate of difficult births for female Snake Beasts was as high as one in ten, and he was terrified that he would lose him because of this.
Ling Hong brought over two large basins of warm water. He repeatedly dipped a clean towel in it to wipe the sweat from An Jin’s face, as well as the blood from below... When the water in a basin grew cloudy, he would replace it with a fresh one.
At one point, unable to bear the pain, An Jin bit down hard on Ling Hong’s arm. Ling Hong couldn’t help but pull him into his embrace, deactivating the defensive layer of Energy covering his body and ekly letting him bite.
The firm muscles on his long arm tensed into stone-like knots from the pain, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead, but he didn’t make a sound. When he saw An Jin’s brow gradually relax, he would have gladly let him bite off a chunk of his flesh.
Faint whimpers echoed from the soft mat.
But neither Ling Hong nor Mi Yin spared them a single glance.
It was the observant Xi who noticed the three small, aty bundles that had almost been crushed by Mi Yin’s heavy python body. His breath hitched, and he quickly used a soft cushion to move the three sticky little bundles a safe distance away.
"Ah Jin gave birth! To three of them!" Xi exclaid happily, looking down.
But when he looked, the three small, aty bundles were bright red, and their skin was all wrinkly. ’They’re so ugly.’
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