The Silly Alchemist

They were out to make the thirteenth prince look bad. While it may look like they were defending the girl, they were in reality just looking for a chance to go up against him. They wanted to hit him out of jealousy of his good luck!

A pop quiz. That was what they thought could embarrass Ye Lang the most. So they tried to convince Ye Lang to join the trivia game when they heard Ye Lang chose to participate in the talent show.

When she heard this, Tigress only smiled, choosing not to stop them. She wanted to watch the show, but not the sort you’re thinking of. She wanted to watch the bullies end up embarrassed instead of embarrassing Ye Lang.

Keep in mind that while the thirteenth prince was dumb, he had a photographic memory- and a well-read person too. No one in the academy could beat him when it came to facts and theories.

Very few people knew of this. Other than Tigress and Ye Lanyu, other people at most guessed he was only good at alchemy because he learnt it in the academy.

Soon after, during the round of rapid-fire Q&A, the thirteenth prince finished in the first place, far ahead of his competitors. Everyone was shocked.

This outcome raised a lot of suspicions but after running tests, they found out that it was definitely a realistic and reliable outcome. They were so embarrassed. It’ be fine if they lost to another person, but this was a well-known idiot! They couldn’t accept it at all.

Therefore, the ones who hadn’t been eliminated began to be more alert. During the second (final) round, they started to give him what they thought were obscure questions, expecting no one to have the answer to it.

The rules for this round: Participants took turns to come up with questions for their opponents, then whoever had the correct answer to the most number of questions would win.

However, these people had a very predictable style- they were all knowledge-based questions. Therefore, even though the questions were on obscure topics, Ye Lang still had a high possibility of knowing the answer.

By the end of this round, the thirteenth prince had scored 2 questions right while others only answered 2 questions right at most. Some couldn’t even answer any. Even if the first round’s results weren’t taken into consideration, he was still qualified for the next challenge without a doubt.

They came up with another ranking system. The participant that could answer most questions and had the most number of questions not answered by other participants would be first, and so on. 

At this moment, they were shocked that no one could answer Ye Lang’s questions correctly. His questions weren’t hard though but nobody got it right. 

His question: An idiot is walking in the street. He sees a gold coin and a silver coin on the floor. Which coin would he pick?

Some said gold coin because even a stupid guy would know gold is more valuable. Some said silver coin because that guy is stupid.

“Wrong, he took both. Even an idiot would know to take both, you’re all worse than the idiot!” They were all humiliated when Ye Lang announced the correct answer. How they wished they could dig a hole to hide from embarrassment.

They wouldn’t feel so bad if it was said by any other person. It was hard for them to accept the fact that a dumbo was laughing at them!

The audience burst out laughing even though they had a hard time choosing one between gold and silver coin too. They didn’t make a choice so they could laugh at the participants without feeling bad about themselves. 

No one noticed it wasn’t the first time they were fooled by Ye Lang, thinking it was all coincidence. Many were only as smart as they thought they were, not knowing they were tricked countless times by Ye Lang, whom they labelled as dumb. They never learnt their lessons and continued being foolish. 

“Young master, your question was misleading. You made them think they could only choose one out of two,” said Tigress who couldn’t resist laughing.

“Was it?” Ye Lang paused to think... “I didn’t ask them to choose, so it means there could be multiple choices. The answer was so obvious anyway! I gave them the easiest question, but they’re just so dumb.”

“...”

…

The weather was unpredictable in summer. The skies started to rain heavily when it was scorching hot just moments before.

On this very day, Ye Lang couldn’t go home due to the stormy weather. He could only stay in the royal palace. Lightning flashed across the sky, the sound of thunder rumbled continuously.

“Ye Lang, stay for the night here in the palace, “ said the seventh princess smiling.

“I can stay here, but we can’t sleep on the same bed because we’re not married,” Ye Lang said in a calm voice.

“Hehe, it doesn’t matter, we’re still so young. It's normal, it's not like we do anything else! Didn’t you sleep on the same bed as your sister too?” teased the seventh princess jokingly. 

“She is my sister,” said the thirteenth prince.

“What about Tigress?” said the seventh princess, laughing.

She knew he slept on the same bed with Tigress for quite a long period of time when they were younger. It wasn’t a problem because they were still kids.

“We don’t do that now, she’s only there to care for me when I’m sick,” replied Ye Lang. They started sleeping separately when they were ten years old. She will only sleep by his bedside when he needed someone to take care of him.

Tigress was feeling a bit under the weather that day, so she was resting at home. The seventh princess had appeared to pick him up, promising to take care of him. Tigress reluctantly allowed him to visit the palace.

The seventh princess only hung out with Ye Lang occasionally. They would go sightseeing, walk in the streets, sometimes play at the palace or the Ye Residence. Tigress would always be with him no matter where they went.

Today was a little different, and because of this, there was an ‘incident’. It made Tigress swear to never ever leave Ye Lang’s side.

“Ye Lang, I’m done with my shower, it’s your turn…” She was dressed in her sleeping gown, drying her wet hair with a towel. Only her handmaids saw her like this. 

She didn’t really mind if Ye Lang saw though. She didn’t feel awkward with him at all.

“Eh, where is he?”

She couldn’t find him anywhere.