The Silly Alchemist

He had reincarnated, then chose the family he wanted. However, his memory was not completely unlocked, and his soul seemed to be partially locked too. This made his reincarnation incomplete. 

Perhaps this was the cost of reincarnation, as described in the legends. Chinese legends denote drinking the soup of Mengpo makes you forget everything so you can start fresh in the next life. 

If you were unlucky, you would be incomplete for the rest of your life. The soul might not even attain completion until death. However, Ye Lang was fortunate enough to be struck by lightning, which reunited the separated souls in him. 

This thirteenth prince was now Ye Lang. He had his previous and current memories altogether as if they both experienced this reality. 

It wasn’t that his soul was transferred but rather reincarnated. He was certain his relationships with Tigress, Ye Lanyu and Long Anqi would never be forgotten for life. 

It was also clear now that the reason behind his disabilities in certain areas but extraordinary brainpower in others was due to missing a part of his soul.

His soul was now complete. He was no longer a mentally slow kid but a normal one now as he now had the experience of two lifetimes. This meant that he was wiser and clearer in perspective. 

“Lanyu, you’ve gotten smarter too,” said Ye Lang with a smile. 

“Of course, I’ve always been the frigid genius, the talented... Are you saying I was stupid before?!” exclaimed Ye Lanyu initially with pride and then immediately understood what Ye Lang meant as she noticed Tigress’s smirk. 

“Oh no, that's impossible! Why would I, my genius sister?” Ye Lang shook his head innocently. He’d looked that way for many years, he was practically an expert at it. 

“But… But you were dumb! Have you always been faking it?!” Ye Lanyu smacked him fiercely, “But I loved seeing your dumb face!” Ye Lanyu then held Ye Lang and stuck her face to his. 

“Yeah, I also think your past dumb face was cuter!” agreed the seventh princess.

“They’re all the same. No matter which version, I'll always love you!” said Long Anqi with a smile. As a mother, she never minded if her son was a genius or retard. 

“Uh…” Ye Lang was taken aback. “Well, I could just pretend to be dumb again, and you all can forget about what happened.”

Since you wanted me to act dumb, I’ll BE dumb. We’ll see who gets sick of who first, thought Ye Lang. 

It would’ve been fun to act dumb, Ye Lang considered doing it. However, it'd be nonsensical. Why pretend to be a retard when you can be normal? 

Well, he never wanted to pretend or lie before the four ladies. But just like everyone, he had his secrets too. 

“Oh, that’s not necessary! Why should you act dumb? I’ll be satisfied enough if you live normally, you don't need to be a genius,” answered Long Anqi gently with a hint of warmth.

“I can never associate with the word “genius”, as for being a normal person…” said Ye Lang emotionally. He was an ordinary person throughout his past life, but in this life, being normal would be a challenge.

At this point, Ye Lang suddenly realized… Perhaps being normal was a better choice, but for him, that'd be impossible. 

The reputation of Ye household had rendered even the most insignificant member of the family to be anything but ordinary. Even worse, he was part of the family's core, the grandson of the head of the household. 

Why did he overthink? An identity was just an identity. Why cage himself in when he could just do what he wanted?

Ye Lang shook his head, hoping to shake off all the annoying thoughts... He was about to announce his future goals, which would render the four ladies speechless.

“I want to be an ordinary prodigal son!!”

Indeed, he wanted to continue being a prodigal son, ultimately completing the journey of being prodigal. Even worse, he even wanted to glorify his ancestry through his prodigal acts. 

Glorifying his ancestry… Only Ye Lang could have thought of such a consequence of being prodigal. His lavish lifestyle would only anger the ancestors of Ye household, maybe they’d even jumped out of their graves.     

However, his prodigal acts were sometimes unexpectedly meaningful. This frustrated him a lot.     For instance, Tigress's presence was the consequence of one of his prodigal acts. Perhaps the most beneficial one out of the infinite times he was prodigal in his lifetime. 

“Tigress, from today onwards, let’s sleep together every night, until...” requested Ye Lang, shocking everyone. Even the four ladies were stunned. He seemed to have more to say but no one noticed. 

Not long after, the four ladies seemed to understand why he left his sentence unfinished. 

“You little boy! You’ve gotten smarter indeed, you want to cuddle Tigress to sleep,” Long Anqi didn’t mind as Tigress was Ye Lang’s servant. Them sleeping together was a normal thing. 

“So now you only want to hug Tigress? Don’t you want me as your sister anymore?! Hmph!!” Ye Lanyu was jealous. However, she did not stop him, a smirk creeping across her face.

“Ye Lang! How could you request to sleep with another woman? We’re getting a divorce!” scolded the seventh princess angrily. Despite so, everyone knew she was just pretending. 

“Divorce? We’re not even married!” exclaimed Ye Lang.    “We’ll be married, sooner or later!” assured the seventh princess, smiling. 

“Your call, we’ll get a divorce if you want!” Ye Lang seemed to be unafraid.

“You…. Hmph!” the seventh princess was angered.

As for Tigress, she couldn’t agree more…

“Alright!”

He was only thirteen, it wasn’t a huge deal if he slept in the same bed as Tigress. However, it made people wonder... Was his intention truly just to sleep next to Tigress, or were there other intentions?

Perhaps, he had another desire? Well, he was mentally already an adult, it was reasonable for him to have that sort of desire. 

In reality, even beyond this point of the story, Ye Lang had only cuddled Tigress while they slept every night, without it extrapolating into anything else. Any natural biological reactions of his body didn’t count...