Chapter 4 — My Mother-in-Law Forced Me to Give Birth at Home

Perhaps she had already completed the preliminary interrogation and was released to coordinate with the subsequent investigation. The moment she stepped into the treatment ward, she burst into tears. This time, she did not come alone. Yan Chu's aunt, second uncle, a female cousin-in-law, and sister-in-law Yue had all accompanied her. Spring Peace sat on a wooden bench out in the hallway, pressing a hand to her chest, weeping so violently she could barely catch her breath.

I only wanted to save a little money, to spare her from an unnecessary surgical blade, yet somehow I have been made out to be a villain.

The aunt immediately chimed in, murmuring, Your mother-in-law is old-fashioned in her thinking, but her initial intentions were not malicious.

The second uncle frowned heavily.

Was calling the police really necessary? To make such a chaotic scene among family, what will the child think of this in the future?

Yue glanced at me before letting out a soft, dramatic sigh.

Sister-in-law, you are simply overreacting. Mother is advanced in years; how disgraceful it would be for her to be hauled away by the police.

Yan Chu abruptly stood up from his seat.

The only reason she is disgraced is because she committed a disgraceful act.

Yue froze in place, her eyes widening.

Brother?

Yan Chu spoke in an icy, uncompromising tone, She very nearly prevented Tang from reaching the hospital. Yet the very first words out of all your mouths are not to inquire about the condition of the woman who just gave birth, but rather whether you have lost face?

Silence descended upon the group. No one dared to utter another word. Spring Peace resumed her theatrical sobbing.

I raised this ungrateful son with my own hands, and now, for the sake of a wife, you turn your back on your own mother?

Yan Chu fixed a cold, unyielding gaze upon her.

My wife and my child were just pulled back from the brink of death, and you were the one driving them there.

The weight of those words hung heavily in the air. Spring Peace's wails hitched and faltered for a fraction of a second. But almost immediately, she snatched up her phone and began recording a voice message.

All of you relatives listen to this, my own son has been so bewitched by his wife that he no longer wants anything to do with his mother. My daughter-in-law merely spotted some prenatal bleeding and called an ambulance, and though I had the kindest intentions of calling sisters to help, he actually had the police come and arrest me.

Before long, notifications began pinging rapidly within the family group chat.

The elderly have valuable experience; you young people should not be so merciless and extreme.

Cesarean sections ruin a woman's body; a mother-in-law offering advice is only doing the right thing.

Calling the police is genuinely disgraceful; family scandals should never be washed in public.

I systematically screensapped the entire chat history to preserve the evidence. Su Le looked ready to explode with fury, but I reached out and pulled her back.

Do not waste your energy on them.

She asked with palpable anxiety and frustration, Are you seriously just going to let them say whatever they please?

I gently touched my abdomen; the fetal movements were faint and reassuringly steady.

There is only one thing on my mind right now.

To survive and bring this child safely into the world.

That very evening, Spring Peace uploaded another short video online. She stood outside the hospital corridor, her eyes reddened, her voice choked with fabricated sorrow.

I merely wished to help my son save a sum of unnecessary money, only to have my daughter-in-law and her close friend report me to the authorities. It is truly too difficult for the elderly to survive in this day and age.

Beneath the video, she appended a provocative caption:

Women giving birth should never allow themselves to be kidnapped and exploited by hospitals.

The comment section instantly erupted into a frenzy of blind sympathy and outrage.

How truly pitiful this poor mother-in-law is.

This daughter-in-law is utterly ungrateful and lacks all common sense.

At the slightest provocation they rush into surgeries, making the innocent child suffer needlessly.

Home birth support is completely normal and natural, yet it gets smeared and suppressed by capitalist medical institutions.

I stared at those toxic comments until the palms of my hands grew ice-cold. Then, I recorded my screen, saved the direct link, and forwarded it straight to Yan Chu.

Do not rush to delete anything yet.

I need complete and irrefutable evidence.

The following morning, the hospital's medical affairs department tracked down Spring Peace. Her covertly recorded video happened to capture glimpses of the treatment ward, passing nurses, family members of other maternity patients, and a corner of my own hospital wristband. The department formally demanded that she delete the footage immediately and cooperate with their investigation. Spring Peace flew into an instant rage.

What is wrong with recording glimpses of my own daily life? Are you people at this hospital simply terrified that I will expose the ugly truth?

The staff member maintained a remarkably calm and professional demeanor.

You unauthorizedly recorded and published footage inside a medical facility without the consent of the patients, thereby violating private medical information. Please delete it at once.

Spring Peace clutched her smartphone tightly to her chest like a shield.

You people have absolutely no right to search or demand my phone.

Yan Chu stepped forward, his voice level.

In that case, we shall call the police back.

At the mere mention of the police, the color drained visibly from Spring Peace's face. Reluctantly, she unlocked the screen. The display rested on her short-video account management page. The account handle was aptly named Spring Peace Knows How to Budget. It boasted over two hundred thousand followers. The pinned video at the very top displayed my hunched back as I bent over to put on my shoes when I was seven months pregnant. The bold headline read:

A frail and delicate pregnant daughter-in-law, managed this way by her mother-in-law to save money and worry.

Beneath it lay over one hundred thousand likes. My hands and feet turned freezing cold. Her clandestine recordings of me did not begin just last night. There were videos of me clutching a basin while suffering from severe morning sickness, accompanied by the cruel text: Pregnancy is not a terminal illness, do not act like an empress. There were recordings of me waking up in the middle of the night weeping from agonizing leg cramps, while she stood outside the cracked doorway filming me in secret, with the caption: The daughter-in-law cries over the slightest ache, must the entire household bow to her whims? In even older videos, she was seen instructing strangers on how to cut corners on prenatal checkups.

Those tests the doctors insist upon are completely unnecessary; most of them are just money-making schemes. A mother-in-law must take control, because these youngsters do not know the value of saving.

Doctor Luo was summoned to the scene. After viewing the content, her face turned pale with fury.

You are publicly spreading dangerous and false medical information on a massive scale.

Spring Peace still stubbornly refused to back down, her expression hardening in defiance.