Just then, the nearby midwife was still waiting to receive her reward, but seeing that the noble lady's carriage had already left, she could only set her sights on the maid, "Sister, you see, I brought that peasant woman's child to the lady, but now that the peasant woman has lost her child for no reason, we need to give some explanation, don't we..."
The midwife's original intention was to ask for more reward money. As for the peasant woman, in order to secretly take the child away without anyone noticing, she and another midwife had given the peasant woman some knockout drops.
Thus, at this very moment, the peasant woman was still unconscious, completely unaware that her own son had long been switched with another.
Besides, that family was just refugees who had come to the capital city to escape trouble; surely they could be easily appeased with a little advantage given to them.
Unfortunately, the maid, anxious about where to place the child in her arms, came up with an idea as soon as she heard the midwife's words. She threw the child into the midwife's arms and said, "Take this child and secretly give it back to the peasant woman. Just say the child was unhealthy, stayed in the womb too long, and was suffocated to death."
The midwife, holding the child in her arms, wore an unhappy expression. The maid took one look at her and knew what she was thinking, and immediately pulled out a purse from her bosom and tossed it over, saying, "As long as you handle things well, you won't miss out on the benefits."
"Yes, yes, yes, the old woman will do just as the miss says," the midwife immediately put on a fawning face.
When the midwife took over the child, she discovered that he was not dead and couldn't help but exclaim that he really had a strong will to live.
She was just an ordinary midwife. Yet, some time ago, someone had sought her out to look for a few pregnant women among the refugees coming to the capital city for backup.
Without saying it, she could guess that it was surely some noblewoman who was pregnant and wanted a son. If she gave birth to a son herself, all the better; if it was a girl, then she would have no choice but to substitute it with someone else's child in a secret swap.
The midwife had long heard about the secretive practices of wealthy families, but being personally involved still gave her a shock.
Look at the ruthlessness in their hearts. They were actually willing to poison their own perfectly good child, truly leaving no room for survival!
But none of these were her concern. She was just a midwife. Taking the money to do the job for someone else was all that mattered.
The midwife, holding the child, looked around nervously as she walked, not noticing at all that the infant in her arms was awkwardly poking her index finger into her mouth. The newborn could not control herself at all, so an action that should have taken a moment had not been completed through all that time.
Luckily, even the heavens seemed to be assisting her.
At the corner of the street, a small figure drenched in blood was running frantically and collided with the midwife, causing both her and the child she was holding to fall to the ground.
By chance, the child, who had been extending her index finger for ages, poked it into her throat with the force of the fall, inducing a bout of vomiting and expelling a lot of yellowish medicine.
The injured Sikong Mo also fell to the ground, but he simply got up, glanced at the midwife and the wrinkled infant she was holding, then left in a hurried escape.
Because Sikong Mo had run off so quickly, he did not notice that a Jade Pendant had slipped from his waist and, by happenstance, landed on the forehead of the infant in the midwife's arms, and then disappeared into the child's brow.
"Ouch, whose child is this, running around in the heavy rain, not even watching where they're going, you've nearly killed this old woman!" the midwife complained as she got up from the ground holding the child, but before she could leave, she saw a group of people following close behind.
The midwife felt a surge of panic in her heart and quickly hid herself.