Boom, boom, boom-
After the Prison was raided, drums sounded throughout the Western Sea Protectorate. Countless soldiers poured toward the Northern City, while gates everywhere closed and a search began for the troublemaking criminals.
But compared with the raiders' whirlwind speed, this response was clearly far too slow. By the time the City Gate Guards received word, the three robbers were already several li from the Western Sea Protectorate.
Before raiding the Prison, Ye Jingtang had already made his plans. Fan Qinghe had notified her clanspeople in the Medicine Workshop in advance, having them leave the city early, find several carriages in the towns, and wait along the road to Dongming Mountain.
With seven or eight flowerpots slung from his Dragon-Mingling Spear, Ye Jingtang led the two women carrying large sacks over the city wall. After racing four or five li northwest, they found the waiting party.
Worried that the Snow Lake Flowers would spoil inside the sacks, Fan Qinghe was frantic. She ran even faster than Ye Jingtang the whole way, and upon landing beside the convoy of over a dozen people, she urgently ordered:
"Quick, bring the bamboo trays! Spread out the petals..."
The dozen or so clanspeople waiting beside the carriages were all medicine masters or apprentices from the Medicine Workshop in the city. Following the Clan Elder's instructions before leaving, they had already obtained plenty of winnowing baskets and bamboo trays from town.
But the sight of four full burlap sacks of Snow Lake Flowers still stunned them. Once spread out, these petals could cover several large courtyards. They could neither get wet nor remain shut up, and a few carriages simply could not hold them.
The Clan Elder leading the party belonged to the same generation as Fan Qinghe's uncles. He took the large sack