The midwife felt something was profoundly wrong, pressing her ear against the infant's chest to listen. After a long pause, she raised her head, staring at the vividly alive baby with sheer terror.

“How is the child?” Sakurako asked weakly from the **.

“Waaah, waaah…” The midwife wept, tears streaming down her face—not for the child, nor for Sakurako, but for herself. She had long heard the elders speak of a legend: the worst luck a midwife could face was delivering a demon infant. Once, a midwife was summoned with a hefty payment to attend a birth. The master's family delivered twin boys; the elder had no heartbeat, and the younger refused to cry. The midwife exhausted every skill she possessed to draw a cry from the younger one, pulling him back from the brink of death. Yet, three days after returning home, she was found dead in her ** without warning. Those in the know whispered that it was bad luck, that she had encountered a demon infant. A demon infant, born without a heartbeat, would claim the life of the one who delivered it to compensate for the void left by its escape from the cycle of reincarnation.

It had always been just a legend, one the midwife had never truly taken to heart. Now, encountering such a thing firsthand, witnessing a baby that moved and saw despite having no heartbeat, a terrifying dread began to rise from the depths of her soul.

“Child, child…” Sakurako, unaware of the backstory, felt uneasy with the midwife’s prolonged silence, fearing something was wrong with the baby. She struggled to push herself up from the **, reaching for her newborn.

“Miss, I am sorry, the child has no heartbeat…” the midwife sobbed, handing the infant to Sakurako. Sakurako pressed her ear to the child's chest and confirmed it; just like Xiao Hao, the baby was utterly quiet, not a single sound of a heart beating.

She tentatively slipped a finger into the child's mouth. The baby immediately began to suckle, sending a piercing pain from her fingertip straight into Sakurako’s heart. However, compared to the throes of childbirth, this pain was negligible.

Seeing Sakurako not only unfazed but actively feeding the infant with her own blood, the midwife cried out in alarm, “No, Miss, you mustn't… This is a demon infant!”

Demon infant? This was the first time Sakurako had heard those words. She lifted her head, gazing at the midwife, and asked weakly, “What is a demon infant?”

Seeing her innocent face and complete lack of fear, the midwife guessed she had been kept completely in the dark. But since her knowledge was merely hearsay and she couldn't explain it clearly, she fell silent.

However, once Pandora's Box is opened, it cannot be closed. The words "demon infant" had taken root in Sakurako's mind, sprouting a restless urge to understand everything.

“Granny, what was that about a demon infant you mentioned?” Sakurako asked again, holding the child close as she reopened the conversation.

Realizing Sakurako was determined to dig to the bottom of it, the midwife sighed, sat beside her, and spoke with grave earnestness: “Miss, I have had terrible luck. After decades as a midwife, I end up attending to your son’s birth. Since I won’t be alive much longer anyway, I might as well tell you what I’ve picked up through gossip. This demon infant is actually a lingering spirit that has escaped reincarnation. Because they lack life force, they are born without a heartbeat and will claim the life of the one who delivered them to fill the vacuum left by their escape from the cycle. Legend says that in childhood, they cling to their mother or another person, exclusively draining their vital essence and blood. Once grown, they murder the person they were attached to, becoming vengeful spirits without regard for good or evil, bringing disaster to the mortal world.”

A lingering spirit? Sakurako sighed, thinking it was just another new term, one that sounded somewhat plausible but lacked any basis—clearly fabricated. After all, Madam Li had achieved transcendence through zuohua herself, and Xiao Hao was certainly not a being devoid of moral distinction.

For more novels, visit storyread.net.