Cangse Sanren wants to slap her own forehead in disgust! What was she thinking by coming here? Clearly, Qingheng-Jun is an idiot because otherwise, why is his mouth opening and closing like a confused trout having jumped out of the river? He hasn't budged an inch, and she's pretty sure contractions that are only a few minutes apart mean the imminent popping out of babies, and yet, the thing she REALLY wants to do is take off one of her sodden boots and fling it at the gobsmacked, useless lunatic who's staring at her as if she'd just confessed to naked moon dancing every fortnight. Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with him?
“Call someone!” She says through gritted teeth, trying to breathe through another unexpected contraction.
“Who-”
“How THE FUCK WOULD I KNOW?” She yells, in the middle of another particularly painful one. “Just do it, you cretin!” She groans in pain, sitting back down but that's a mistake. Maybe lying down is better, but then the pressure is lessened because of the absence of direct gravity. She's unsure if that's a bad thing; whether the labour she's going through should be interrupted to allow the experts - hell, anybody else! - to get here, or if prolonging what appears to be a clockwork procedure will put either herself or her kids in more danger.
But when Qingheng-Jun doesn't move, she knows she has to take action.
“For fucks’ sake! Give me some talisman paper. I swear, you're about as useful as a wet towel in a blizzard.” She snaps at him.
This addressing makes Qingheng-Jun burst into action, and he rummages through a drawer to withdraw some yellow parchment. At least he has the good sense to anticipate her request for ink as well, and before he can blink twice, she's written out two complicated looking talismans.
“Here,” she barks. “Go outside and send these off. This is for Qiren, this one is for Healer Fei. Do NOT fuck this up, understand?!” She presses both pieces of paper into his hands with a little push, regretting her lack of spiritual power since if she had had any, he would have been that much faster.
Not two minutes later, he's back but as he takes one look at the puddle of blood seeping from this foul-mouthed woman on his bed, his eyes roll backwards and Qingheng-Jun suddenly passes out, falling to the ground in an undignified heap.
Cangse Sanren stares at his lump of a body and a string of expletives leaves her mouth.
Well, this is turning out to be one hell of a day…
************
Lan Zhan waits for all the adults to be distracted before he leads Wei Ying away from the lake. Wei Ying seems to be watching someone, and when Lan Zhan follows the direction of his gaze, he can't distinguish one person from another since all the disciples have stripped down to their trousers and are either in the water, or preparing to be.
“What is it?” He asks, screwing up his eyes to see if he can see better.
“I dunno…” Wei Ying shakes it off and turns back to him. “I thought I saw someone taking robes away, but I must have been mistaken. They're probably just hanging them up to dry. Come on, let's go.”
They slip out unawares of anyone who might tell on them and although it takes longer because their legs are much shorter in these bodies, they're back inside Cloud Recesses in about a quarter sichen.
“Should we go to the library or the Mingshi?” Wei Ying asks Lan Zhan when the path forks into two.
“Mingshi. Shufu wants them to escape from the library, so since their escape is preplanned and will be allowed to progress, there will be nothing new to be learned there.” Lan Zhan’s answer is precise and definitive, showing that he's been thinking about how to do this.
