The Silly Alchemist

After the incident, the parents were a little more cautious now. They watched from afar, at the same time glad they’d made this decision.

As a person who was focusing on academics, he should learn about the laws in different kingdoms and familiarize himself with the current political conditions. Unfortunately, after the thirteenth prince read up on them, he had some very scary thoughts.

“These laws aren’t fair at all! Why is there such a huge difference between the standards for aristocrats and commoners? The law should be equal for all. The emperor should be punished too if he breaks the law! Off with his head!”

“These slavery practices should be abolished…”

“A country’s leader should be elected by its people…”

…

As for the thirteenth prince’s occupation-in-name, after countless trial-and-error, Ye Chengtian and his wife were beginning to worry. They were panicking now, so they directly asked the thirteenth prince about it. What did he want to be when he grew up? What did he want to do in the future?

The thirteenth prince thought for a moment, then declared with a grin, “I want to be a prodigal son!”

“...” The couple looked at each other. After a long pause, they finally asked, “What? Could you say it again?”

“I want to be a prodigal son,” he repeated, then added---

“A prodigal son with power, and status, and money and pretty girls! Yeah, and it’d be even better if I had sidekicks!!”

“You want to be a what?” the couple asked stupidly. They didn’t know what to say.

“I want to squander money, I want to be prodigal!!”

“...”

“Ye Lanyu!!” roared the couple, dashing in the same direction, specifically towards a person. It was his sister, Ye Lanyu.

They felt the thirteenth prince would never have such peculiar ideas. The only possibility was that Ye Lanyu was feeding him this nonsense. Therefore, they had to teach little Lanyu a lesson.

Poor little Lanyu! She was scolded, and was an innocent victim, for nothing again. At the same time, the thirteenth son also watched his parents in confusion. He didn’t understand what that had to do with his sister.

The thirteenth son was only a little over five years old. He was an extraordinary child to have such grand ambitions at this age.

There was another fuss about the thirteenth prince’s name.

Even the Ye family found it strange. They’d initially named him Ye Tianyou. [Tian= Heavens, you= protection]. The intentions were obvious, they wanted the heavens to care for him.

When the thirteenth prince started to learn reading and writing, he kept writing his name as Ye Lang. When others called him Ye Tianyou, he wouldn’t respond. There would only be a reaction if you called him Ye Lang.

While it was odd, once it became a habit, everyone slowly forgot about the name, Ye Tianyou. The two words, Ye Lang, replaced it and became his name for the rest of his life.

Ye Lang? Was it a coincidence, or was there another reason?

No one knew the answer. They only knew that the little Ye prince had made the decision to be prodigal, and wanted to go spend some money. You first had to have money to spend it. If you didn’t have money, how would you spend it, how would you be prodigal?

This was an easy problem to solve. Although the little Ye prince had never left the compound, therefore didn’t need to spend money, he’d receive a lot of allowances every year. Almost as much as a little rich man.

And that was just his allowance. If he ever asked, he’d get a lot more.

After securing his financial backing, he had a second task. This was important: he had to leave the compound!

To many people, leaving your house must be a normal thing. However, to our little thirteenth prince, it was a little more inconvenient. The entire Ye family wouldn’t let him out, at least not yet.

Another peculiar incident happened on the little Ye prince again.

“Oh dear! Sir, Ma’am, little master has disappeared.”

From the servant’s urgent and frightened calls, the Ye family members suddenly realized that the little thirteenth prince, who rarely appeared amongst people, had disappeared. They couldn’t find him even after looking everywhere in the Ye Residence.

In the beginning, they thought little Lanyu and the thirteenth prince might be playing a game- though they soon discarded the idea. Little Lanyu had recently been grounded and separated from the little thirteenth prince. It was impossible for them to be in contact.

In truth, at that moment, little Lanyu was meditating as part of her magical practices. Upon hearing the news, she immediately gave up on her cultivation to look for her little brother.

Very quickly, the entire Ye household was shaken. The Ye leaders almost sent the entire ancestry’s powers to look for him.

Nobody was thinking about how he disappeared, though they did wonder. How did a five-year-old, who was also a slow kid, disappear without a trace? It was baffling.

The most important thing was finding the kid. No matter how useless the thirteenth prince was, he was the Ye patriarch’s grandson, he was Ye Chengtian’s son.

Soon, Ye family members appeared on every street and alley of the capital. With them, of course, were also the city guards who were informed of his disappearance. They were all looking for the child.

This caused a lot of confusion among the public, who didn’t know what was going on. They couldn’t figure it out. What could cause such a commotion?

Therefore, the confused crowds started to investigate. Although they didn’t find how who they were looking for, they knew everyone was looking for a five-year-old aristocratic child. A dark-haired, dark-eyed, perhaps a little slow aristocratic child.

Some of the more sensitive people already guessed who the child was. Not many people in this capital could trigger such a huge commotion, and only a few met the conditions above.

They wondered how the little prince disappeared. Wasn’t he always at home?

Some looked for the little prince with this question on their mind, while the rest had other intentions. Very soon, more and more people were looking for the boy in the capital.

Unless the prince was already out of the capital, he’d definitely be found very, very soon. Yeah. Or at least that was what everyone thought.

But it wasn’t as easy as they thought. It had been three days, and they’d turned every stone in the capital but still failed to find the thirteenth prince. Where did he go? How did he evade everyone? Was he kidnapped? Questions emerged within their minds...