Little Miss Witch: Revenge of the Tainted Angel

Li Chuntao wasn't new to the pain of labor that she was suffering right now. The fear she was feeling alongside it was so strong that Shen Zichen refused to leave her side, continuously trying to comfort her. They would only need to wait a few more hours and they would be welcoming their second child into the world. 

"Breathe, Chuntao. Don't panic. We're here for you." Shen Zichen told her as he held her hand, trying not to panic himself. He didn't expect it to happen this soon, even though Li Chuntao had started to show signs of nesting instinct over the last five days. She had wanted to get things organized in their home to get ready for their baby. She'd also tried to do things like cook meals or get the baby's clothes and room ready.

Li Chuntao had woken up earlier, in the middle of the night, when an indescribable pain shot through her. Shaking her sleeping husband next to her, Li Chuntao started to sweat profusely as the pain continued to intensify as every hour passed by.

Thankfully, Shen Zichen was a light sleeper and had woken up as soon as he heard her groan in pain. Two hours later, Li Yuren and Zheng Yue drove towards the villa, bringing Li Chuntao's doctors with them and had set everything up for childbirth. 

"Zichen, please…" Li Chuntao begged him through her pain with teary eyes, a hand on her bump as she tried to feel her baby inside her. She needed to know that their baby was alive, that she didn't die like her brother in her womb. It would surely kill her if she had to suffer the same loss again. 

Shen Zichen immediately took the fetal doppler and operated it. As soon as they both heard the steady and loud heartbeat of their unborn baby, Li Chuntao's tears rolled down her cheeks. She was going to deliver a healthy baby girl today. 

Her contractions persisted up to ten hours, which kept the Shens and Lis on the edge as they waited for Li Chuntao to deliver her child. Her belly and her lower back were in pain. No matter how she or Shen Zichen tried to find a position that she could be comfortable in, it didn't go away. 

"Didn't her water already break? What's taking it so long?" Madam Shen paced around the living room as they waited for the news. When they received a phone call from their eldest child that Li Chuntao was in labor, she and her husband immediately drove towards the Li family's private villa. 

"Calm down, dear. You can't possibly forget that we also had to wait for a long time before Qingqing decided she had enough staying inside of you and got herself out." Her husband held her wrist and forced her to take a seat next to him. 

Shen Yi could still remember the day his wife gave birth to their firstborn like it was only yesterday. He could still remember the fear and panic he felt as he waited outside the delivery room, wondering if she was alright. 

"But…" Lu Xinyi wanted to argue, but the look on her husband told her that she had nothing to worry about. There was nothing else for them to do but to wait. 

Zheng Yue and Li Yuren were also nervous about their niece's childbirth. It had been too long since the Li family welcomed a new child to their family. There was no doubt that Shen Zichen and Li Chuntao's daughter would be pampered to no end by both families. 

Sometime later, Shen Lingqing arrived with her other siblings, Shen Yuyan and Shen Lingtian. 

"Sorry, we're late Mom." She gave her mother a kiss before giving her father a pat on his shoulder. "Traffic. We also had to pick up Lingtian from the University before coming here. Has Sister Chuntao already given birth?" Shen Lingqing asked and settled next to her mother. 

"No, not yet. It's been hours since we arrived, but we haven't heard anything yet." Lu Xinyi told her daughter and sighed. She couldn't understand why her husband and Qingqing were too calm when she was already at the end of her wits. 

An hour later, one of the nurses who came out from the room where Li Chuntao was in informed them that she was ready to push and deliver her child and opted to get an epidural at Shen Zichen's insistence. The man had already lost the color in his face, watching his wife suffer in pain in between contractions. 

The anticipation of both families rose. Each of them was excited to see the newest addition to their family. 

Li Chuntao held onto her husband's hand as she gave it another push on her doctor's command. This was so oddly different from the last time, when she gave birth to Li Zirui years ago, where she had to endure the pain alone. Now, she was surrounded by everyone who loved her and her husband. 

"That's it, Miss Chuntao! I can already see her head. Give us one more push!" The doctor told her and Li Chuntao was thankful that she agreed to Shen Zichen's suggestion to take the epidural, or else she would have to endure the raw pain of natural birth. 

She could feel her sweat trickling down the side of her face as she took a deep breath and pushed her baby out of her body. 

Finally, the doctor pulled the tiny baby and let Shen Zichen do the honors of cutting his daughter's umbilical cord, making him feel like the air in his lungs disappeared the moment his eyes landed on their baby. 

Then the baby was passed to the attending pediatrician as Shen Zichen rushed to the latter's side, who was trying to get his daughter to breathe. 

Small sounds finally escaped her mouth, followed by a loud wail, as if she was disturbed from her long comfortable sleep in her mother's womb.