The Silly Alchemist

“You seem to have a lot of insight into feelings, did you have to go through something?” Xuan Yuanbing suddenly had a question for the Light Rider who helped her.

“My lady, it’s best we don’t talk about feelings…” said the rider. Her expression and tone made it obvious she was a person with a story.

“I understand!” nodded Xuan Yuanbing.

…

“That’s odd, why didn’t Xuan Yuanbing follow me?” Ye Lanyu was confused but quickly pushed this to the back of her mind because it was best Xuan Yuanbing wasn’t there.

Ye Lanyu had returned to another huge palace that could accommodate all the representatives from the schools. She quickly arrived at the room she shared with Zhen Xiaoyan and the seventh princess. She opened the door.

When she saw them inside, it was confirmed- as what she expected, they had brought Ye Lang here.

However, this room had a few surprise factors too- there were ‘unexpected guests’, and one of them was…

“Second Sister, why are you here?” she asked, puzzled. Second Sister seemed to start to appear wherever Ye Lang was. She was never around, ever.

“Why can’t I be here? I wanted to meet you today, I didn’t expect to see our little brother too,” chuckled Second Sister. She’d taken to start calling Ye Lang ‘Little Brother’.

“Oh, you wanted to meet me? Wait, I don’t let you win at the competition!” Ye Lanyu grew alert. Her sister must be here for something related to the competition.

“… Uh, I think it would be more like ME letting YOU win if it really came to that. Is that really what you think? Why can’t I visit just to chat?” huffed Second Sister.

Ye Lanyu immediately replied, “You can, but you never visit. Right, what’s he doing with your friend?”

At this moment, Ye Lang and Mia were looking directly at each other. That was all they did, they weren’t moving at all. Zhen Xiaoyan and the seventh princess were chatting next to them as if that wasn’t odd at all.

“Them? What else? It’s about the feathers again. Mia wants the feathers Ye Lang took from her back…” Second Sister laughed.

She hadn’t initially planned to bring Mia here, but Mia was insistent because she saw Ye Lang and the seventh princess return from the Cloud Palace.

They had been glaring at each other since a while ago like this. One of them asking for the feathers, the other… No one knew what he was doing either.

Both were at a stalemate, but soon, Ye Lang broke the stalemate with an outstretched hand. He grinned…

“Mia, give me more feathers!”

Thud!

Everyone fainted. No one expected Ye Lang to ask for more!

“No! And I want the feathers I gave you back! Give them back!” Mia glared at Ye Lang in fury.

“Hey don’t be grumpy! Why are you worried anyway, we can pluck seventy and it won’t be a problem. And they’ll grow back anyway!” Ye Lang smiled as radiant as the sun.

“Go to hell! It takes so long for my feathers to grow, and you dare ask for seventy of them,” said Mia coldly.

“They’ll still grow. They’d probably grow faster if we pluck all of it, do you want to try?”

“…”

“You… Hmmph!” Mia ruffled her wings, then stomped away. Ye Lang was probably going to pluck more if she didn’t leave soon.

She failed yet again!

“You’re grumpy! I’m going to sleep…” Ye Lang muttered, then fell asleep on the princess’ bed. Operating alchemy formations was tiring work.

How did he know this was her bed? He didn’t ask anyone, nor did they tell him. He could tell- it smelled like the seventh princess…

Zzzz…

Very soon, Ye Lang was dreaming.

“He fell asleep just like that?” Second Sister was baffled.

“Yeah, he’s probably exhausted. Don’t disappoint us at the competition okay? Or he’ll laugh at you!” chuckled Ye Lanyu. She was already imagining herself defeating her sister.

“…” Wow, that was a quick change in her train of thought. Second Sister was speechless- though this matched her little sister’s personality.

“It’s just the two of you. Xiaoyan can’t fight, Little Brother doesn’t like to fight. It’s impossible for us to lose. It doesn’t matter, the mixed category is meant to be for fun anyway. My team’s just a few random people I grouped together anyway, I didn’t expect you to join the fun too,” Second Sister smiled.

“Hehe, well, this is the only way for him to team up with me. He can’t escape now!” Ye Lanyu told her the true reason behind this, a little embarrassed.

“I knew it. He has this ability to forget about anything he’s supposed to do. You remember too, you’re supposed to be competing in the magic category…”

“I know I know, it’s only two categories. You have it worse. You’re in the warrior, mixed, team categories, basically everything else we can sign up for. Aren’t you exhausted already?”

Second Sister was competing in every category, including the warrior category she specialised in. She could’ve ignored the mixed category, but she didn’t.

“Isn’t it a little boring here? What can I do here if I’m not competing?” Second Sister offered a very compelling reason.

“You make sense…” Ye Lanyu nodded in agreement. It was boring here. There were only people of the Teachings, who mostly preached every day here. Nothing fun to do.

The past twenty days here had been boring.

At least Ye Lang was here now, then it made everything more interesting…

“Since Little Brother is asleep, we should talk. As sisters. We haven’t talked in such a long time…”

“Yeah, we haven’t met in years…”

And just like that, Ye Lanyu and Second Sister started to talk. Ye Lang was asleep, and very soon, the seventh princess too.

“…” Second Sister was surprised to see the seventh princess and Ye Lang sleeping on the same bed, but that thought passed quickly when she remembered they were engaged. This was normal.

They talked and talked…