Chapter 4: 4. Chapter 4: Drawing Talismans to Ensure Third Aunt's Safety

Chapter 4: Drawing Talismans to Ensure Third Aunt's Safety

Qin Liuxi drew three talismans in succession, arranged them in a triangle, packed them away, and returned to the delivery room.

Qi Huang had already returned, carrying a bowl of steaming medicinal soup. Seeing her mistress nod, she personally fed the medicine to Madam Gu.

Madam Wang stepped forward, intending to help, but the maid Qi Huang used a clever bit of leverage to effortlessly support the woman and pour the medicine down her throat.

Meanwhile, Qin Liuxi tied two spiritual talismans—one to the head of the bed and one under the pillow—while keeping the third in reserve.

The onlookers watched this scene with strange expressions.

"Xi'er, what are you doing?" Madam Wang's eyebrow twitched. Why was this girl acting so mystical?

Qin Liuxi spoke blankly, "Oh, peace talismans. To ensure safety."

Everyone: "..."

It sounded a bit peculiar, but no one dared to say anything.

The effects of the labor-inducing medicine were swift. Madam Gu began to cry out in pain again, but as soon as she opened her mouth, the midwife urged her to stay quiet: "Don't worry, Madam. With the Eldest Miss here, you and the baby will surely be safe."

Madam Gu froze for a moment but didn't take it to heart, treating it as mere comfort. With teary eyes, she looked toward Madam Wang. "Sister-in-law, give me a handkerchief to bite on."

Madam Wang folded a clean handkerchief and placed it in her mouth.

Seeing that Qin Liuxi was still in the room, Old Madam Qin said, "You are an unmarried young lady; don't stay in here. Wait outside. Madam Wang and Mei Niang can help in here."

Fine.

Qin Liuxi obediently pushed the door open and stepped out.

As for Qi Huang, she handed over a cup of tea and teased, "Miss, are you really just going to sit here?"

The person suffering inside was her own Third Aunt, after all.

Qin Liuxi took a sip of tea, glanced at her, and said, "I am an unmarried young lady and a dignified lady of a great household. How could I possibly watch a woman give birth?"

The Qin family, even if its foundations were being crushed, had once been a family of third-rank officials. She, too, was a dignified daughter of an official family.

Qi Huang nearly laughed. "You say that without feeling any shame? Just last month, when you passed by Peach Blossom Manor, you helped that young lady from the Deng family deliver a healthy baby boy during a difficult labor!"

Qin Liuxi remained expressionless. "I ate a piece of their peach blossom pastry; having incurred that karma, I naturally had to repay it."

Qi Huang smiled, then composed herself and asked, "Miss, since you have already calculated the Qin family's tribulation, do you not intend to resolve it?"

Qin Liuxi paused, thinking for a long while before saying, "Every person has periods of decline and prosperity, and a clan is no different. No flower stays in bloom forever. The Qin family has enjoyed smooth sailing for decades, and this sudden disaster is a result of being targeted by villains. When villains are at their peak, one must avoid their sharp edge. One must break before rebuilding. The green mountains remain; there will eventually be a day when the clouds part to reveal the mountains again."

Qi Huang said, "What you say is true. As long as you are here, the Qin family will never truly fall!"

Qin Liuxi smiled without speaking and silently lifted her tea.

It was all due to karma.

"However, there are so many members of the Qin family, and only the elderly, weak, women, and children have arrived so far. It's a bit overwhelming. There are also several men, old or young, who are unarmed on the road to exile. Everything requires silver for bribes. Miss, your days of leisure are coming to an end," Qi Huang suddenly remarked, her tone carrying a hint of schadenfreude.

Qin Liuxi: "!"

This tea was a bit too bitter; she couldn't swallow it anymore!

She suddenly stood up and walked to the window, watching the drizzling rain.

...

Outside the city gates.

A squad of guards wearing straw raincoats and bamboo hats rode into Li City. They knocked on the door of an inn to seek shelter from the rain.

In a premium room, a noble-looking man opened a scroll. On it was a handsome face of ambiguous gender, with jet-black hair tied in a bun with a bamboo hairpin. His expression was cold, the corners of his mouth slightly downturned, wearing a look of worldly disdain.

He stood before a Taoist temple, looking like a gentleman in the wind, giving off the impression that everyone before him was merely a mortal.

"Rest up. Once the weather clears tomorrow, we head to Qingping Temple," Qi Qian said, rolling the scroll back into its copper tube.

He had heard that in Li City, there was a physician known as "Bu Qiu" (Seek Not). His medical skills were exquisite, and his mastery of the Taoist *Taisu* pulse method was transcendent. Through pulse diagnosis alone, he could determine a person's fortune, calamity, wealth, or poverty, and could even predict the destiny of their descendants. It was highly mystical.

And he was going to seek medical help for his grandmother.