The Silly Alchemist

“What do you mean?” asked the duke, a little confused.

“I mean, don’t act like you’re poor to avoid paying the bills. Even if you could trick everyone here, you’d still have a very horrible ending. There was once a rich man who pretended to be poor, and no one knew he was rich- he still got his punishment in the end!” recalled Pope Eden. That incident was truly unbelievable.

“What happened to him?” asked the duke. The people around him were no longer listening as if they had lost interest. Perhaps they knew.

“Nothing much, only our confused genius doctor accidentally prescribed the wrong medication so he itched all over for an entire day. He’d scratched his skin off in the end, begging the doctor to save him. Our genius doctor only said, in shock, ‘why did you eat the wrong medicine?’” explained the pope in awe.

“…” The duke fell silent. From the pope’s stories, he seemed to feel the pain of the rich man, and at the same time see how infuriating Ye Lang’s cluelessness was.

That was why he decided to not do anything to Ye Lang, for not only was it bad for himself, he’d also get punished for it. The best way was to pay the ten thousand gold coins as told.

That decision saved him from a disaster, for he would’ve had awful consequences if he attempted anything!

No one knew why people who tricked Ye Lang would always end up eating the wrong medicine. If it were only because of Ye Lang giving them the wrong medicine, then they’d start to suspect Ye Lang was doing it on purpose- that he wasn’t as clueless as they thought after all.

In reality, the problem didn’t only lie with Ye Lang prescribing the wrong medicine, the customer took the wrong packet sometimes!

This felt almost supernatural. Everyone thought Ye Lang must have been protected by a god or why would such coincidence happen? “That’s good, there aren’t too many people here. Mom, if you’re tired, I’ll carry you over there for a rest. I’ll stand in line!” Chen Pi was used to lines like this. It wasn’t the first time they’d visited a doctor.

“Alright, it feels good here!” said the old woman.

“Mm, I feel great too,” Chen Pi then went to stand in line.

At this point, Ye Lanyu still had to deal with that duck because she’d just hit him. He wanted to take advantage of this opportunity!

“Get your sorry ass far away or you’re dead!” said Ye Lanyu coldly.

“You look so pretty when you’re angry, can we be friends,” continued the duke stupidly, even shaking his sparse hair a little.

“I know I’m pretty, I don’t need you to tell me that!” Ye Lanyu decided to attack first by waving her hands, freezing his feet to the ground so he couldn’t follow her.

“??” The duke was about to follow her but looked down when he noticed his feet felt like they’d grown roots into the ground.

“What’s this? Is that ice?” shrieked the duke, panicking at the sight of Ye Lanyu’s ice.

“?!” Pope Eden stared at the duke’s feet as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. While he could guess it was Ye Lanyu’s doing, he didn’t know when Ye Lanyu had used her magic on the duke.

Not only the pope, but even the Light Riders were also equally confused. No one knew when Ye Lanyu had attacked.

They couldn’t believe someone could use magical powers right under their noses without them realising it. While they weren’t paying full attention to her, it was still something not anyone can do.

Looks like this pretty girl was secretly an expert in magic. Her age and her skill levels didn’t match at all. “My lord, looks like you’ve insulted someone you shouldn’t have insulted. Take this as a lesson! Since the pope himself came to help you, then we’ll excuse ourselves!” said the few Light Riders as they went back into the House of Confusion to their posts.

“You bitch! You just wait!” The duke was mad. He was already mad before, but he’d wanted to tease the girl to let some steam off. Too bad he was played by Ye Lanyu instead, embarrassing himself in front of everyone again.

“You think I’m scared of you? Will you send your men after us?” she mocked.

“Hmmph!”

The duke huffed, then took a small cylinder with a tassel out. Raising it high towards the sky, he used the other hand to pull its little tail.

Pew!

A ray of light shot out from the tube, accompanied by a piercing sound as it flew up into the skies.

Wasn’t that a flare gun? Was he summoning his men?

“Fireworks in the day? Who’s THAT stupid?” said Ye Lanyu and Ye Lang at the same time, although they were at different places.

“Ye Lanyu, those are not fireworks!”

“Sir, those are not fireworks!”

The seventh princess and Alvin (by Ye Lang’s side) said at the same time, though neither explained what it was for the siblings both said—

“I’m sure they are!”

Alright, alright, if you say so! A flare gun was technically a kind of firecracker, albeit they had different functions.

“What’s the meaning of this?” frowned the pope. It was obvious he didn’t like the idea of the duke summoning soldiers.

The duke didn’t notice the pope’s frown, only replying excitedly, “I want to teach this disrespectful bitch a lesson!!”

“And you want to teach her a lesson here?” asked the pope in a low voice.

The duke still hadn’t noticed anything off, merely nodding, “Yes, right here. I want to teach her a lesson so she knows she should never insult a duke like me!!”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This isn’t your territory, don’t think you can do whatever you want here. If you anger the genius doctor inside, you’ll be sick for the rest of your life!” the pope first clarified the consequences, straightened his sleeves and entered the House of Confusion.

“The doctor is inside, there’s nothing to be afraid of! I don’t know how you became the pope!” called the duke as he watched the pope enter the clinic.

“You bitch, wait here. My men are coming, and when they arrive, you’ll be MY bitch! Hahaha…” sneered the duke.

“Ye Lanyu, he’s teasing you. Give him some of your ice!” said the seventh princess slowly.

“I don’t need you to tell me!” Ye Lanyu flicked her hand lightly, and there was now a block of ice the size of the brick floating in the air. Well, that was before she moved it. It was moving now, shooting directly at the duke, whistling in the air.