My cousin-in-law helped me achieve my ambitions.

"Maybe it's better now!" Yang Tian advised Su Ming, "It's too slow for the two of us to take your sister-in-law up the stairs. Let's go check it out!"

Su Ming had no choice but to nod in agreement.

The two men helped the sister-in-law stumble to the elevator. Su Ming reached out and pressed the button. The button lit up briefly, then went out again. He pressed it again, but still no response. The floor indicator light remained stuck on "1," showing no sign of moving. A crumpled note was stuck next to it, which read, "Elevator malfunction, contacting maintenance." Yang Tian panicked immediately, her eyes reddening, her lips trembling: "The elevator is broken! What... what do we do? How can my sister-in-law get down like this?!"

The sister-in-law's painful groans echoed in the empty stairwell; she was almost completely leaning against the wall. Su Ming glanced down at her high, swollen belly, then looked up at the dark stairwell. Without hesitation, he walked directly to Yang Tian's sister-in-law, half-squatted down, and turned to Yang Tian, ​​saying, "I'll carry her downstairs."

Yang Tian was so anxious that tears were almost falling: "The seventh floor..."

"We have to come down from the seventh floor too." Su Ming tightened his shoelaces, adjusted his center of gravity, and said to Yang Tian, ​​"Come up with me, be ready to call a car at any time."

Su Ming squatted down and picked up Yang Tian's sister-in-law.

Yang Tian's sister-in-law was originally slim, but after becoming pregnant, she gained weight, and with the baby in her belly, her total weight wasn't light. Su Ming took a deep breath, supporting her knees with one hand and holding her waist and back with the other, and steadily walked downstairs step by step. Fortunately, his sister-in-law cooperated, humming and moaning, her contractions were quite severe, but she still put one hand on Su Ming's neck so he could put his arm around her.

Yang Tian ran ahead, using her phone to illuminate the water stains and debris in the stairwell, constantly reminding Su Ming to be careful. One by one, the motion-activated lights turned on, casting the three shadows of each other long and short on the narrow concrete wall.

Seven floors, over a hundred steps. Sweat streamed down Su Ming's forehead and temples, his breathing grew heavier, but his steps remained steady, and he didn't stop to rest. Fortunately, he had practiced martial arts, possessing great strength and stamina.

Yang Tian's sister-in-law was being held by him, trembling all over in pain, groaning intermittently. Su Ming could feel her fingers gripping his collar tightly, but she didn't complain at all. He remembered helping his father carry sacks in the village when he was a child, and how he felt that the weight of the world was pressing on his shoulders. Now, carrying the weight of his life, it was heavier than anything else.

When they reached the first floor, Su Ming's legs were already a little weak, but he still gritted his teeth and carried his sister-in-law out of the building.

Yang Tian rushed to the roadside to flag down a car, but the streets were nearly deserted at night. She finally managed to flag down a night-shift taxi. Su Ming helped his sister-in-law into the back seat, letting her recline slightly, and Yang Tian followed, helping her in as well. Su Ming got into the passenger seat and said to the driver, "To the town hospital, hurry, the woman is about to give birth."

The driver glanced at the back seat, then stepped on the gas and sped off. The taxi raced through the night, its yellow headlights slicing through the thick darkness. Yang Tian nervously held her sister-in-law's hand, repeatedly whispering words of comfort. Before they even reached the hospital, her sister-in-law suddenly screamed. Su Ming and Yang Tian turned around simultaneously, only to see that her face was even paler than before, and the veins on her forehead were bulging.

The taxi driver glanced in the rearview mirror and cursed in frustration, "We're almost there! Just bear with it, don't give birth in the car!"

Su Ming looked back and saw a water stain spreading across the back seat cushion; his water had broken.

The taxi driver was a good person; he didn't ask Su Ming and Yang Tian to pay him back, but just told them to get to the hospital quickly. When Yang Tian paid the fare, she gave them an extra two hundred yuan.

Upon arriving at the town hospital's emergency room, Yang Tian rushed out of the car and called for a doctor. The on-duty nurse pushed out a stretcher, and Su Ming and Yang Tian together lifted her from the car onto the stretcher. Several nurses and caregivers surrounded her as they wheeled her towards the delivery room, quickly asking, "How many weeks pregnant?" and "When did your periods become regular?"

Su Ming and Yang Tian followed behind, but were stopped by the nurses at the delivery room door, and the family members could only wait outside. Yang Tian couldn't sit still on the blue-green plastic chair. She would walk to the delivery room door and stand on tiptoe to look in, and then walk to the window and stare at the night outside. Her eyes were red and swollen, and her hands were twisted together. She looked like a puppet being pulled around by strings.

Su Ming walked over, draped his coat, which had slid off the car, over her shoulders, and opened the bottled water he had just bought, holding it to her lips. Yang Tian looked up at him, then suddenly threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest, her voice filled with a lingering fear as if she had just escaped a disaster: "Thank you... Su Ming... If it weren't for you, I really don't know what I would have done."

Su Ming patted her back without saying a word, just rhythmically comforting her.

At 2:40 a.m., a loud and clear cry of a newborn baby finally rang out from the delivery room. The sound pierced through the tightly closed spring door of the obstetrics operating room, like the loudest crowing of dawn before sunrise. A short while later, a nurse pushed open the door, smiling at Su Ming and Yang Tian, ​​saying, "Natural delivery, boy, mother and child are safe. You're family, right? The mother is still awake; you can go in and see her in a bit."

Yang Tian burst into tears, laughing and crying at the same time, grabbing Su Ming's arm and shaking him violently like a child. Su Ming also breathed a long sigh of relief, smiling as he squeezed her hand. The two followed the nurse into the ward. His sister-in-law lay on the bed, a sweat-soaked gauze pad on her forehead. Although her face was still pale and weak, her eyes had already filled with the tenderness of a new mother and the weary relief of a burdened burden. The baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes beside her, its wrinkled little face still covered in vernix caseosa, its little mouth slightly open, emitting a few weak cries. Yang Tian carefully extended a finger and touched the baby's little hand. The little hand suddenly grasped her finger, and her eyes reddened again.

About half an hour later, Yang Jing finally arrived. He was covered in sweat and smelled of alcohol. His jacket was only half-zipped up, clearly indicating that he had turned down social engagements and rushed over. When he rushed into the ward and saw his wife lying safely on the bed and his newborn son lying beside her, his legs went weak, and he almost knelt down in front of the bed, grabbing his wife's hand and repeatedly saying, "I'm sorry, I'm late."

Yang Tian called out "Brother," and Yang Jing turned around. He saw Su Ming behind Yang Tian, ​​then looked at Yang Tian, ​​and then at his wife lying on the bed, weakly nodding at him. He understood everything.

He stood up, walked to Su Ming, his lips trembling as if he were trying to organize his thoughts but couldn't. Finally, he suddenly grabbed Su Ming's hands, holding them tightly, his voice filled with barely suppressed gratitude and a strange kind of eagerness: "Su Ming, thank you... really, if it weren't for you tonight, I don't even want to think what would have happened. I, Yang Jing, owe you a huge favor."