Soldier Keep On Marching On

Chapter 1

Grunts of pain echoed softly through the closed doors of the healing quarters in Lotus Pier, as the Madam of the Jiang Sect, Yu Ziyuan, gave birth to her second child. Outside, the wind blew gently and the moon shined brightly in the cloudless sky onto the sparkling clear waters of the lakes surrounding the pier. Inside the room, a woman lay in a tub half filled with room temperatured water, with maids around her, rushing around the room with towels, water and rags, holding her hands and assisting with the birth.

"You're almost there Madam Yu! I can see the head! Just push a little more!" The head healer encouraged her lightly.

Yu Ziyuan cried out sharply in pain a moment later.

"I am pushing you damn imbecile!!! What the fuck else could I be doing?!?!?!" she yelled.

She pushed harder than before, spewing insults at her husband, the maids and even the sect elders and ancestors. Soon though, with a last hard push, she finally felt the last of her baby's body fully exit her own tired body. Yu Ziyuan panted softly in relief at the sound of the baby, her body collapsing in the tub and exhaustion finally taking over her. 

The pregnancy had been long and hard. Her first pregnancy with her daughter Yanli, while exhausting had not been anywhere near as difficult as her second one. Numerous complications had come up, almost resulting in her having to either abort the baby or continue on with a 75% risk of a miscarriage that would likely kill both her and her child. Fortunately, neither of those things had come to pass.

She waited for the loud cries of her baby to echo through the room as she lay in the tub catching her breath but they never came. Fear and anxiety immediately rushed through her. Had something happened to her baby?

"What's wrong?" she asked the nurse maids who were scurrying around her quietly, cleaning the room and wiping her body down with damps rags, soap and new warm water to clean away the blood and sweat. 

The maids glanced at each other silently, none wanting to speak with the Madam of Lotus Pier first, before the head healer re-entered the room from where she had exited to clean the newborn child of blood and gunk. In her arms she carried a bundle of thick, warm cloth containing the newborn baby. She walked over to Yu Ziyuan with a small smile that held a light aura of sorrow, before speaking.

"Congratulations Madam Yu. You have given birth to a beautiful baby boy."

The other maids congratulated her as well, before bowing and exiting the room. They knew that the rest of the conversation would not be for their ears to hear and they'd rather not be at the end of their Madam's sharp tongue, even if she was exhausted from child birth. The head healer, Liang Liu gently rocked the child in her arms as she came to stand right next to Yu Ziyuan on the bed she had been placed to lay down on after her body had been thoroughly cleaned by the maids.

"What's wrong Liang Liu? Why is he not crying?" Yu Ziyuan asked her, voice hoarse and filled with anxiety.

Liang Liu sighed softly before speaking again.

"Madam Yu, please accept my condolences for this bad news that I must inform you of. It is with great sorrow that I tell you that the young heir, even with all the precautions taken to ensure he would be born as healthy as possible, seems to have been born both blind and deaf."

Yu Ziyuan's eyes widened in shock, a cold feeling of dread and numbness spreading over her, as the head healer continued speaking. 

"When my main assistant, Liang Yanhua finished washing and dressing the young master, I laid him down on top of the blankets rested on the table and began my usual checkup to confirm the health of the newborn. As the baby had not made a single sound, I was extremely worried, but when I checked, he was breathing just fine. I moved him around and gently spoke to him, to try to get a reaction, but he only shifted uncomfortably from being moved and then settled down again once I began cradling him gently in my arms. He did not respond to my coos or voice. When he opened his eyes, they slowly moved all over the room but never looked directly at me, even when I spoke a little louder to him. I brushed my finger gently against his cheek softly and he reached for it with his hands but when I moved my hand away he began waving his arms wildly and looking around as if searching for it, even though I kept it in his line of eyesight. I once again spoke to him softly and gently leaned his head in the direction of my hand but he just moved his head away to where it had been before and continued waving his arms around. After a few moments, he gradually stilled and fell asleep soundly before I could feed him. With these observations, I came to the conclusion that the boy is both blind and deaf," Liang Liu finished.