The Silly Alchemist

A few days later, during lunch. 

Many students at school were eating at the cafeteria.

In the Royal Institute of Education, no one wanted to stand out against the others. As a result, no one brought feasts and huge meals even if they could afford to do so. It’d simply affect one’s reputation negatively as doing so would just agitate others.

Reputation aside, this was forbidden by the institution. If every disciple here had decided to bring their lunch in this manner, it would be utter chaos.

Of course, if it was something as simple as a lunchbox which definitely wouldn’t affect others, it’d be allowed. However, in an environment such as this, there was rarely a day where someone would bring their lunchbox.

Only three types of people would bring their lunchboxes to this institute. Firstly, the most common of the bunch, people who wanted to save time. Secondly, those who couldn’t adapt to the dishes served in the cafeteria, which was an extremely rare case. Finally, which was extremely unlikely to occur, are those who wanted to save money. Saving money was common in other places, but you wouldn’t find people like this in the Royal Institute of Education.

The Royal Institute of Education was made up entirely of aristocrats. Therefore, there was seldom anyone here who would even consider saving their money.

As a young lady of the Ye Family, Ye Lanyu wouldn’t need to save money. Every day, she’d have lunch at the cafeteria in the institute, usually with two people - one she liked and the other, she resented.

These two people were none other than Ye Lang and the seventh princess. As for who she liked and resented, it was pretty obvious.

Recently, however, one of them no longer accompanied Ye Lanyu. This had been going on for a long time. If it was the seventh princess, she’d celebrate. Sadly instead, it was Ye Lang, the younger brother she cherished the most. Lately, he hadn’t been having lunch with her, which left her in a constant sour mood.

“Ye Lanyu, where’s Ye Lang? Is he not having lunch with us again?” said the seventh princess while she was entering the cafeteria. She noticed Ye Lanyu was alone once again, with Ye Lang nowhere to be seen.

If Ye Lang was nowhere to be seen, it simply meant that he wouldn’t be joining them for lunch.

“Yup, he won’t come no matter how many times I ask him to. He just wants to eat that girl’s food. Your husband’s eating another girl’s food instead of hanging out with you,” criticized Ye Lanyu as usual after a sigh.

Although Ye Lanyu and the seventh princess knew each other extremely well, to the point where they both understood one another more than themselves, their relationship as foes never changed. They’d always bicker whenever they met. If one of them said something was “right”, the other would say it was “wrong”. Even if it was right, they’d always come up with different opinions.

However, there were instances where they both held identical views. Most of those instances involved matters regarding Ye Lang. In fact, Ye Lang was the glue holding the both of them together.

“I’m only his fiancé. How could I possibly control him? He is under your control, his sister’s control. You’re useless...” replied the seventh princess mercilessly. Indeed, they never held back from one another when it came to going back and forth between themselves, often bringing up the engagement between Ye Lang and the seventh princess.

For many years now, the seventh princess never denied being engaged to Ye Lang. Ye Lang, on the rare occasion, would deny it.

“You should be grateful that he is with her. If it had been another woman, your status as his fiancé would have been challenged. Although you’re annoying most of the time, I have nothing against the both of you being together in the future,” said Ye Lanyu unwillingly. Who wouldn’t be unwilling to have their brother marry a woman you argued with daily?

However, she knew the seventh princess very well. She knew that the seventh princess was considerate and caring. You could feel that she, deep down, genuinely cared for him. As long as she was nice to him, Ye Lanyu wouldn’t oppose their marriage despite how much she despised the seventh princess.

Of course, this didn’t mean that she’d agree wholeheartedly with the marriage. She simply ‘wasn’t against’ the marriage. Not only that, she realized that the feeling of the seventh princess towards Ye Lang wasn’t of a romantic nature. Instead, it was rather unique. It was complicated, simply inexplicable.

Although the seventh princess and Ye Lang had a decent relationship with one another, they never had a romantic encounter. Both their parents were anxious, but they had no choice as such a thing couldn’t be forced.

“Hmph, even if it had been another woman, I’d still be his fiancée. Even those who are better than me can’t be his fiancée!” argued the seventh princess. No one could tell if she was being serious.

After a while, she changed the topic. She didn’t want this discussion to go on any further.

“Ye Lanyu, why do you think he likes to be with her? Perhaps he just wants lunch?” said the seventh princess.

“What else? Look at her. Besides that fact that she eats well, how can Ye Lang be attracted to her?”

“You can’t be sure. After all, he’s always liked weird stuff. Maybe he…” argued the seventh princess. Ye Lang’s preferences and standards in women were very unique and strange. There were times where when someone said something was pleasant, he’d disagree and say it was disgusting. In contrast, those that received harsh criticism were surprisingly approved by him.

Thus, this caused her to suspect that Ye Lang had... special preferences when it came to women, potentially being interested in ‘her’. Of course, this was only an assumption that no one would ever believe.

“Pfft, no! If he liked her, I’d lock him up!” confronted Ye Lanyu firmly.

“Hehe, just joking. Why are you so nervous? Do you actually think that Ye Lang likes her?”

“Impossible! There’s absolutely no way he does!” Ye Lanyu shook her head. After that, she proceeded to finish her lunch.

Which girl on Earth could possibly lead them to believe that there’s simply no possibility of Ye Lang liking her? Well, that was the girl Ye Lang was with right now. Despite the way she looked, she was definitely an 18-year-old teen. 

To the two girls, she was no competition!

In Ye Lang’s class, a show was now in action, one that was broadcasted daily for the class to see.

“Ye Lang, you stole my lunchbox again! Return it to me now!” 

There came a voice, obviously furious. However, the strange thing was that it seemed to be more and more helpless as time went by, almost evolving into a routine.

This sound belonged to an enormous girl by the name of Zhen Xiaoyan. According to Ye Lanyu, it was impossible that Ye Lang liked her in any way possible.

For quite some time now, Ye Lang had been having lunch with her. The reason, as mentioned by Ye Lanyu, was purely food-related.