The Great General's tent.
The cold wind howled outside, but a rare warmth blossomed within.
Qingwu took a sharp breath as she approached the couch. Her hands trembled as she unfastened the man's silver armor, then his outer robe, inner shirt, and finally, his undergarments.
The man's cold, sharp eyes looked as if they would pierce her through on the spot.
She grabbed a piece of silk cloth and blindfolded him. Her body trembling, she shakily lowered herself to straddle his waist.
Their silhouettes overlapped in the tent.
Qingwu was in excruciating pain, as if she were being tortured.
She was filled with immense regret. 'How could I forget to take a packet of Yin Yang Harmony Powder myself?'
.....
Qingwu was a transmigrator. To cure a rare disease that contemporary medicine couldn't treat, she had made a deal with a childbirth system named "Peanuts."
The system gave her two years to transmigrate to Daliang, win over General Dingbei, and bear his children.
However, Qingwu had initially targeted the wrong person, lavishing her attention on another General. By the time she realized her mistake, she was running out of time.
So, she resorted to some "special methods." After forcing herself on General Dingbei, Qingwu went into hiding.
More than nine months passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside a dilapidated tent.
Having just given birth, Qingwu's face was deathly pale. Beside her lay two sleeping, swaddled infants.
"Peanuts, is my mission complete?"
[Congratulations, Host. The childbirth mission is complete. Now cleansing your body of its ailments and restoring your health.]
A strange golden light swept over her body.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, color returned to her cheeks. She was glowing with newfound vitality.
Now, her chronic illness was gone, and the physical damage from childbirth had also been repaired.
For the first time, Qingwu knew what it felt like to take a full, easy breath.
Her eyes bright and clear, she said eagerly, "Since I've completed the childbirth mission, I'll pack my things and leave the military camp now."
[Alert, Host. If you leave, the children will have no one to care for them. They will cry all night, and when they grow up, they will face a cruel stepmother and be led astray by malicious people...]
Listening to the system's exaggerated, pitiful description, Qingwu furrowed her brow and cut it off.
"Is their father dead or something? Besides, you never said anything about after-sales service."
[That may be true, but common decency would suggest...]
'Now it wants to talk about common decency? When it was counting down the seconds of my life, there wasn't a single moment to spare.'
Qingwu waved a dismissive hand, reminding it, "We signed an agreement. After giving birth, I'm a free woman."
The system had never encountered a host who wanted to "resign" and leave immediately after giving birth to twins.
But then again, this seemingly delicate host had drugged an entire military camp and forcefully had her way with General Dingbei just to get pregnant.
There were no feelings between the two of them at all.
Supporting her waist, Qingwu slowly sat up and said, "My biggest concession is this: I can take the daughter. We each raise one. That's fair."
In the end, the system tacitly approved her proposal and updated the corresponding terms in its core programming.
Qingwu's gaze fell upon the baby boy wrapped in blue brocade. She gently tapped his forehead with her fingertip.
"Little one, a good man's ambition is to see the world, and a good daughter should travel it, too. Mother is taking your little sister and leaving now."
She took the Double Carp Jade Pendant she always wore around her neck, separated it into two halves, and carefully tucked one piece into the infant's swaddling.
The world was vast, and she wanted to see it for herself with her new, healthy body.
And so, brimming with ambition, Qingwu took her little one and set off on a new journey!
But the good times didn't last.
In fact, they didn't even last three days...
Qingwu discovered that the world outside was not as wonderful as she had imagined.
This era was a chaotic time of fractured territories ruled by warlords, all vying for the throne. It was impossible to know who would ultimately emerge victorious.
Many commoners were displaced and lived in misery. It was no exaggeration to say that in some places, people resorted to cannibalism.
Qingwu saw too many refugees. As a lone, vulnerable woman with a newborn, the most important thing was to find a safe place to settle down.
Without travel permits or household registration papers, she carried her child and snuck across the border from the Liang Country to the neighboring, relatively peaceful Nanchu Country. Only there did she finally find a place where they could live a normal life.
The childbirth system wasn't entirely useless. It specialized in curing infertility, and successful treatments awarded points that could be exchanged for special abilities.
While on the run, a kind-hearted village woman in her forties took Qingwu and her child in for a few days. To show her gratitude, Qingwu cured the woman's years-long infertility.
This was just a basic case of infertility, so Qingwu received 100 points, which she immediately exchanged for the Disguise Technique.
Qingwu's face, while not a peerless beauty, was like a summer lotus glistening with dew—refreshingly and arrestingly beautiful. She feared that this, combined with the softer, more curvaceous figure she'd gained after childbirth, would attract unwanted attention from scoundrels.
「In a small border town in Nanchu.」
Qingwu opened a medical clinic. To avoid drawing attention, she used her disguise technique every day to hide her true appearance.
Life was peaceful and carefree, and earning enough silver to raise her child wasn't too difficult.
She just hoped for the chaotic era to stabilize soon so she could resume her travel plans.
「Four years passed in the blink of an eye.」
Qingwu was sorting medicinal herbs. In her hands was a piece of Du Zhong skin she had personally gathered from the mountains, and she was using a scraper to shave off the coarse outer layer.
She wore a pale green tunic. Her disguised skin was swarthy, her eyebrows were thick and heavy, and her features were flat. The only remarkable thing about her face was a pair of bright, dark eyes.
"Doctor Wu!"
Qingwu went by the name "Ji Wu" in this place, so the locals all called her Doctor Wu.
A woman dressed in coarse cloth hurried into the medical clinic.
Qingwu looked up, and seeing the woman's sorrowful expression, knew at once that this was another patient who had struggled for years to conceive.
As soon as the woman saw her, she moved to kneel. "Doctor Wu, I've come all the way from Danshan County just to see you."
Danshan County was over a hundred li away. Qingwu observed the woman's expression. Her complexion was fair and her lips were rosy; she didn't look like someone who had just endured a long, rough journey.
She stopped the woman from kneeling and said in a soothing voice, "Please, sit down. Have some tea and tell me your story."
"Doctor Ji, I'm begging you, please help me. My husband and I have been married for six or seven years, but I just can't seem to conceive. Other women have two children in three years, with kids running all over the place now, and my heart is just filled with bitterness and anxiety."
Qingwu patiently listened as the woman recounted her many years of hardship.
"Sometimes, the more anxious you are, the more it works against you. Madam, please place your hand on the pulse pillow."
She placed her fingers on the woman's wrist, and her coarse eyebrows twitched.
"Madam, has your monthly bleeding come this month?"
The woman nodded, her expression unnatural. "Of course, my monthly bleeding comes every month. I keep wishing it wouldn't."
Qingwu withdrew her hand, rolled up her sleeves, and picked up a nearby cloth to clean her hands.
"You may leave."
"Doctor Ji, what is the meaning of this?"
Qingwu said bluntly, "Since you refuse to tell me the truth, why should I bother diagnosing you?"
The woman stood up, put her hands on her hips, and started shouting, "I never thought you'd be such a snob of a doctor! Just because I'm dressed poorly, you fob me off with a few words and try to kick me out. Since I came all this way today, you have to figure out what's wrong with me!"
Plenty of patients with infertility issues refused to tell her the truth, and quite a few had burst into curses after being exposed.
Qingwu picked up the piece of Du Zhong skin she had half-scraped and said without looking up, "It's impossible for you to have had your monthly bleeding. You were born without a uterus, so you can never bear children in this life. No matter how skilled I am, I can't create something from nothing."
Upon hearing her diagnosis, however, the woman's eyes lit up.
She walked quickly to the window and called outside, "Mr. Ji, this countryside doctor really knows her stuff!"
When Qingwu heard her say "Mr. Ji," a sense of dread washed over her.
'This is bad!'