The old woman slumped to the ground, clutching the twisted and deformed hand, her whole body trembling like a leaf.
Outside the window, thunder still roared, and streaks of lightning struck around the palace, illuminating her terrified face.
The face. That face is changing.
The wrinkles faded, the hunched back straightened, and a faint, otherworldly light shone beneath the coarse cloth.
But she couldn't hide it anymore.
She just stared intently at the baby in the cradle, at those golden eyes, at that tiny...
The hand that broke her fingers.
Then her body began to fade.
Starting from the toes, it transformed into a wisp of green smoke, which struggled as if it desperately wanted to escape this place immediately.
Escape that terrifying delivery room, escape the sight of that baby. 1r5Rp
The final bolt of lightning struck.
The electric light illuminated the entire room, turning everything into a blinding white. When the light faded, the old woman was completely...
The bottom has vanished. Only the overturned low table on the ground and a puddle of spilled water prove that she once existed.
The thunder stopped.
The gale has subsided. 1r5Rp
The dark clouds receded at a visible speed, revealing the dawn breaking on the horizon.
The delivery room fell into a deathly silence.
The maids lay prostrate on the ground, trembling, none daring to raise their heads. They didn't know what had happened, they didn't know...
They didn't know where the midwife had gone, nor what those thunderbolts meant.
They only knew fear, a fear ingrained in their very bones.
Alcmene leaned against the bed, her face deathly pale.
Her gaze fell on the cradle.
Falling on that baby.
The baby she had just given birth to, the baby she had just held in her arms, the baby she had just cried out "my son" with tears in her eyes.
1r5Rp
He was lying there, his small chest heaving violently, his mouth agape as he gasped for breath. The way he gasped for air was like someone who had just been pulled from the water, greedily and desperately breathing in the air.
The baby's head was buzzing; he hadn't fully recovered from the suffocation he had just experienced.
But he knew in his heart that it must have been the bloodline of the old Zhou family that had exerted its power just now, otherwise he would have been strangled to death long ago.
As expected of Hercules. 1r5Rp
The baby silently gave a thumbs up in his heart.
This is the charm of numerical values!
All schemes, strategies, and foresight are meaningless in the face of absolute power. — Herakl
Why is Lupus considered the strongest man in Greek mythology? Simply because his stats are top-notch!
Besides Hercules, could any other newborn baby kill an assassin? 1r5Rp
He turned his neck with difficulty and glanced to the side.
In that swaddling cloth, Iphicles slept soundly. His little face was curled up, his breathing even, oblivious to what was happening outside.
Completely unaware of everything.
His adopted older brother seemed quite content, and judging by his calm demeanor, he was destined for greatness. He...
Lost in thought, I gradually relaxed.
Then he saw his mother's hand.
The hand was reaching out from the edge of the bed, trembling, towards him.
The baby blinked, and my heart warmed.
Sure enough, a mother is a mother. That commotion must have terrified her. Now she wants to hug him, but...
Do you think he's okay?
But what he didn't notice was that the hand stopped in mid-air.
Alcmene looked at the cradle, at the infant whose body was still faintly crackling with golden electricity, and at...
Those clear eyes that are looking at me.
Her hands began to tremble, more and more violently, and then she closed her eyes.
The hand seemed to have lost all its strength, and it fell limply to the edge of the bed.
Alcmene slumped backward, collapsing onto the pillow as if all her strength had been drained away. Tears streamed down her face.
A tear slid from the corner of her tightly closed eye, down her pale cheek, and into her sweat-dampened hair.
That...is not the husband's child.
She knew it.
Know it from the start.
That night, the night she spent with her "husband"—that unbelievably long night—she wasn't...
Unaware. The warmth of that embrace, the rhythm of that breathing, that... that aura unlike any other.
She just didn't want to think about it, and dared not think about it.
The golden light emanating from her—all of this was telling her a truth she didn't want to admit.
Now, those thunderbolts, those lightning bolts, the midwife's eerie appearance, and the blood flowing from this child's body...
This child is the offspring of a great god.
A being high above, looking down upon humanity. (1r5Rp)
The god's wife clearly did not welcome the birth of this child.
They suffered such a calamity right after they were born.
The days to come...
Alcmene turned her head away, her tears flowing even more fiercely. She raised her hand and weakly beckoned to the side.
The maidservant cautiously raised her head, saw the Queen's gesture, trembled, and scrambled to her feet, moving closer to the bedside.
Alcmene whispered something in her ear. Her voice was clear, and her words were brief, but they made the maid's eyes widen.
His eyes widened, and an expression of disbelief flashed across his face.
But she dared not ask, dared not question.
She simply lowered her head, responded, and then turned to walk towards the cradle.
At this moment, the baby is feeling a little hungry.
After all that fuss, from being strangled to being yelled at and having their fingers cracked, it's incredibly exhausting for a baby.
"Big." He blinked, opened his mouth, and shouted "Wah wah!" twice.
go.
When they're hungry, they cry; when they cry, they get milk. There's nothing wrong with that.
He even reached out his hand towards his mother.
Mom, over here, your son is hungry and needs to be fed. 1r5Rp
A maid came over, bent down, and picked him up from the cradle.
The baby nodded contentedly. Yes, that's it. Hold him over to feed him, perfect.
He was held in the arms of a maid, and he tried to turn his head and reach out his hand toward Alcmene.
However... 1r5Rp
Why is this getting further and further away?
The baby's eyes widened.
The maid did not go to the birthing bed, nor to his mother, but instead carried him, step by step, towards the door.
No, wait a minute, you're going the wrong way! 1r5Rp
The baby twisted its neck to look back and saw Alcmene lying on the bed, saw her turned to the side.
I saw her face, and noticed a slight tremor in her shoulders.
The door was pushed open.
The cold morning wind blew in, making the baby shiver.
The maid carried him quickly through the corridors, through the courtyards, through the palace, through the forest—and then stopped.
It's here. 1r5Rp
Before the baby could even see where he was, he felt a lightness in his body.
He was placed on the grass next to a clump of bushes.
The morning dew was icy cold, seeping through the thin swaddling clothes onto his skin.
The baby lay there, stunned, watching the maid sit up, then turn and run...run away without looking back.
Alright. 1r5Rp
The hem of her skirt fluttered in the morning breeze and quickly disappeared down the road she had come from.
The baby was left alone, lying forlornly on the desolate grassland.
The morning breeze rustled through the bushes, and the area was quiet because of the strange phenomenon in the sky just now.
The baby lay there, eyes wide open, gazing at the gray sky.
why?
So being abandoned was a forced part of the plot?
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