The Silly Alchemist

“I don’t care what you say, I’ve made up my mind to explore the world, and I’m going to do it alone. Nobody is to follow me!” Ye Lang said something that only increased the objections.

“Alone? Never! Impossible! Don’t even think about it!!”

“I don’t care. I’ll sneak out alone, and none of you can stop me!” Ye Lang simply said.

“…”

All of them were speechless because they truly believed that if Ye Lang wanted to leave, no one could stop him even if they tried. This had been proven many times by his previous disappearances.

“Fine, I’ll agree with you leaving the house, but only if you constantly keep us updated!”

At least that way, they’d get information on his whereabouts, and know that his was safe. If not, no one would know even if he were kidnapped.

“This is not a problem, if I remember…” Ye Lang promised. His promise was basically useless.

“…”

“Son, where do you want to go first?” Long Anqi asked suddenly asked Ye Lang. She had a place in mind and knew that Ye Lang will go to that place.

“To the tiger tribes!” Ye Lang shouted.

“… I knew you’d want to go there. To visit your Tigress...” It was as expected. He liked Tai Ya a lot. 

“Ye Lang, about that training…” a melodious voice came out from nowhere.

...

“Training my ass! Stop! I’ll fight whoever who brings up that topic again!” Ye Lang was furious as he’d been nagged on for days. He was ready to explode whenever someone brought up the topic. 

When he was done ranting, Zhen Xiaoyan pulled him aside…

“What do you want?” Ye Lang was still annoyed.

“Uhh…” Ye Lang finally saw the beautiful teacher standing in front of the class. The entire room  was staring at Ye Lang.

A few people gave him impressed looks. Not bad, talking back to a teacher, huh?  

The rest gave him fake pitiful looks while laughing internally – you are so done!!

They were having class, and the person who was talking was none other than his teacher. He’d shouted at their beloved teacher in front of everyone. 

“You!! Get out of my class!!” spat the beautiful teacher as she clenched her teeth.

“I’m so sorry ma’am, but I truly don’t want to talk about this… I still want to say that I do not want to participate in that competition!” Ye Lang apologized to his teacher, yet still reiterated his point before leaving the classroom. 

The teacher didn’t speak. Zhen Xiaoyan wanted to go check on Ye Lang but gave up because he often got into trouble anyways.

After Ye Lang walked out of the classroom, the beautiful teacher continued teaching, with anger in her eyes. She only wanted the best for Ye Lang, for him to be an outstanding person, and what she got was a scolding from him…

Hmph, never again!!

After he left the classroom and stood outside the classroom for a moment, he thought of a different place...

The library!

Learning was a never-ending process. Even if he remembered every word of every book in there, there was still something to learn in there. Reading wasn’t about memorizing. 

He had a habit of searching for books he found interesting. With his lazy personality, he wasn’t going to waste time reading books which were meaningless or not in his field of specialty.

Ye Lang wanted to look up a few reference books to plan for his travels soon.

If he hadn’t brought up this topic, he would’ve only started planning the next year, which was his original plan. His still wasn’t going to change his plan anyway.

He wanted to complete his coming-of-age ceremony and finish his last year here before making time to wander the world.

He planned for this to be a trip, not an adventure. He would not do anything dangerous, he only wanted to spend some money along the way. The dangerous jobs could be left for the professionals.

Now, all he needed to know was which places were fun, famous and interesting. He’d only glanced through these pages in the past as he had no time to read them.

“Ye Lang, did the teacher kick you out again?” upon entering the library, Ye Lang met a familiar face. This person was a frequent visitor of the library, a person whose age was similar to Ye Lang’s.

“Yeah, and you too?” nodding his head, Ye Lang asked the same question.

“No, I came here because I told the teacher I wanted to,” the person said proudly.

“I have to say, you are truly something else, asking the teacher yourself…” Ye Lang said.

“To the both of us…” the person replied calmly.

“Go read your damn book.. Oh, that’s right, do you know where the geography books are?” Ye Lang didn’t want to talk to this person anymore, and suddenly remembered that this person knew the library better than the librarians here.

This young person visited the library like how some people visited a sauna- he was there all the time, even during the holidays! He claimed this habit would secure him a good job in the future. What job? One may ask. Well, continue reading to find out.

“Geography? What do you want from it? Are you trying to be one of those people who run away from home?” that person immediately guessed what Ye Lang was going to do.

“You got half of it right, I want to travel the world for fun, not as an adventure!” Ye Lang smiled.

That person looked at Ye Lang curiously, “Do you mean you feel you’re not being prodigal enough here, so you want to waste your entire fortune across the mainland?”

“Bingo! No wonder you’re the smartest person in the library, you got it right!” Ye Lang said.

“How many times must I tell you, not only in the library, but in the kingdom, no, the smartest person in the world!” That person exclaimed with confidence, revealing his ultimate dream.

“You are talking about the future, right now you’re only the smartest in this library. Just hurry up and tell me where the books are,” Ye Lang ignored the person’s ambitions.

“...Just you wait, I’ll reach my goals!” 

“Where is it?”

“Over there…”

“Thanks!”

“…”

Ye Lang found the book he wanted and read it in silence. Suddenly, the library was silent.

During this time, Ye Lang did not take any notice of the person in front of him, or to say, he was used to having people read together here, so he didn’t care much about who it was.

While he was reading, he felt cold eyes glaring at him, a murderous aura. He slowly raised his head…

“…” Ye Lang was silent for a while, then continued reading his book.

Thud.  The person in front of him dropped his book. Perhaps he/she was just clumsy.

“…” Ye Lang continued reading his book, ignoring it.

“Hmph! Ye Lang, I will make you regret this…” that person did not make a sound, but cursed him in her heart.

If anyone witnessed this, they’d find it weird, for those two reading together were enemies!

Between the two of them, one did not care, while the other did not want to show weakness!

This was no ordinary person, this was one of Ye Lang’s victims: remember when he single-handedly destroyed Sha Lan’s relationship? Now, she rarely appeared in the classroom, putting all her focus into alchemy. There was only one thing on her mind: alchemy.  

Besides, she had unimaginable talent in alchemy too. Her heart didn’t use to be in it although she learnt it during class. Now, her talents are starting to show up as she focused more on it.

Maybe it was due to her insane research on alchemy that she mastered the art of alchemy. Nonetheless, her discoveries and inventions were not to be overlooked. If it weren’t for a certain someone, she would be the greatest alchemist ever.

Ye Lang did not care at all. Even if he did know about it, he still wouldn’t care.

Ever since that day, as long as Ye Lang showed up in the library, Sha Lan would be there too to shoot him unfriendly glares. 

“What’s wrong with you? If you hate me that much, why bother sitting next to me every day?” Ye Lang asked on the third time he came to the library.

Three times was enough to know that this was not a coincidence, the first time might be, even the second time, but the third time was surely not a coincidence!

“I want to defeat you,” Sha Lan replied simply.

“What do you mean?” Ye Lang did not understand.

“I want to use my alchemy to defeat you!” Sha Lan gritted her teeth.

“Oh, by all means! I just want to let you know, I’m…very good at it! So if you can’t be the best in the kingdom, don’t even bother wasting your time!” Ye Lang replied very honestly. One might think he was an arrogant jerk.

“I will! Not only in the kingdom but also the best in the entire world!” Sha Lan did not lower her head nor admit defeat.

“Another one?! …Why is everyone in the library -except me, of course- so abnormal?!” Ye Lang looked at the other person and sighed sadly.

“Ye Lang! I meant what I said!” the two people said it at the same time.

“Yeah, yeah… But please shut up for now...” Ye Lang covered his ears.

“Hmph!”