The Silly Alchemist

“What do you mean it’ll be difficult for me to gain weight?” Zhen Xiaoyan asked Ye Lang.

“It’s because your absorptive capability is only ten percent of the normal human’s capability. Therefore, you have to eat ten servings of food to maintain your body size. If you want to gain weight, you have to eat more than ten servings,” explained Ye Lang.

“Ah! That’s great! Now I can eat as much as I want and not get fat in the future!” This was a piece of amazing news to her.

“However, you’ll lose weight every day if you eat less, and you might even faint and … forget it you wouldn’t understand. Long story short, there’ll if you eat less. Fortunately, it will partially recover. Your absorptive capability will increase to 70 to 80% of a normal person’s capability in about three to four years,” Ye Lang said to a beaming Zhen Xiaoyan. His brows furrowed when he realized Zhen Xiaoyan was smiling weirdly.

“Hehe, I don’t want it!” Zhen Xiaoyan shook her head and continued, “I want to be like this. If I recover, I’ll be a fat woman again. And wouldn’t that be more problematic? Also, I can eat ten times my serving size! Even if I ate lesser portions, you’ll have a way to solve it, right?”

“....Fatty, please don’t say that. You’re not wrong, I do have the medication to help you maintain your current body figure but it’s really expensive!” Ye Lang just looked at Zhen Xiaoyan. It seemed that he had no other way.

“It’s actually great that it’s expensive. Don’t you love squandering money anyways?” teased Zhen Xiaoyan.

“You’ve got a point. Fine! So be it. You can stay like this if you want,” Ye Lang waved and put the matter at the back of his mind.

To be honest, even if he didn’t help, it would still recover on its own at a slow pace. But it seemed that no matter how much she ate, even if it was much more than before, she would still maintain her body figure and didn’t gain weight.

While it was strange, no one really seemed to care. I mean, would anyone really notice if you were already having an amazing body figure?

“Alright, there’s nothing for you to worry about. You can go home now, you don’t have to stay here anymore.” This was something realistic coming from Ye Lang after he’d drawn conclusions.

Since there was no need to observe Zhen Xiaoyan anymore, she had no purpose of staying at his house anymore. It wasn’t like this moved in with each other anyway, it was just a special circumstance for a period of time. Now that the time had passed, so did the special circumstance. 

“... You can’t be any more straightforward now, can you? You’re truly an idiot, you don’t understand sentimental values,” Zhen Xiaoyan said sadly, stunned by what Ye Lang had said.

“What sentimental values? Ah, forget it, I’m too lazy to talk about it. Just remember to prepare breakfast for me tomorrow, I’m headed back to school. Also, make sure you take care of yourself. Bring food and water with you wherever you go and remember to eat. If not, you’ll faint on the streets and no one will care.”

“Fine…” muttered Zhen Xiaoyan.

“I’m a goddess now, I’m sure someone would help me if I fainted on the streets. Only an idiot like you wouldn’t be able to see the difference and still call me a fatty! But then again, I like it when you call me that. That way, I know that you’ll treat me the same no matter what!” thought Zhen Xiaoyan to herself.

“Then why aren’t you leaving yet? I have no time to entertain you!” Ye Lang said to Zhen Xiaoyan, disrupting her thoughts.

It’s always been this way. He would never treat me any better even if I was prettier. When the time came, he just chased me away without any hesitation…

But then again, maybe this was how a true friend would act. After all, a true friend wouldn’t care about your appearance…

Zhen Xiaoyan bid Ye Lang farewell with a smile on her face. To her surprise, on the way home, she thought about what to make for breakfast for Ye Lang tomorrow, and then about her boyfriend - Moya!

After Ye Lang sent Zhen Xiaoyan off, he talked to Ye Lanyu for quite some time. He then went to bed after having dinner with her.

“Well, it’s time for me to sleep. I don’t know if I’ll ever meet that woman again today. I must figure out who she is by today!”

Now, who was this lady Ye Lang mentioned? He didn’t know. I mean, if he knew he would not be so determined in finding out who she was. He kept this information to himself as he felt that it was very miraculous and inexplicable.

Another reason why he kept it to himself was that it was a dream. A dream that had been playing on loop endlessly yet he could not figure out what it meant.

Maybe, it was just a dream. Or maybe, it meant something more.

As Ye Lang began dreaming, he arrived at a vast sea of beautiful flowers. It seemed to be located in the highlands with a small, clear lake in the middle.

A girl in a white dress sat by the lake, her feet soaking in the cold water. He just described the water as cold, judging by the way it looked. He didn’t know for sure if it was as cold as he thought it would be.

“Ah, you’re here,” the girl said softly, eyes still gazing at the water below her. She wasn’t worried that her voice was soft, as she knew that Ye Lang would still be able to hear her.

“Yeah, I am. Why do we always meet at different places? Yesterday, we met at the beach. Today, a sea of flowers,” said Ye Lang while he walked to sit beside her.

Although they only met in his dreams, this dream had been occurring for a few years now and they were very familiar with each other.

“Isn’t it better this way? You’ll get bored if we always met at the same place,” she replied softly, her feet swaying in the crystal-clear lake.

Ye Lang said casually, “Not really, I think there’s no difference. I feel that it’s boring if we keep changing places. Can’t you just build a courtyard where we can have tea and just chat?”

“Oh, then sure, I’ll build a courtyard for you next time. How would you like it to be?” she questioned softly.

“I’d like it to be with small bridges with a stream and a pond, bonsai gardens with birds and flowers…” Ye Lang kept going on with how he imagined his courtyard. The girl listened attentively and memorized how Ye Lang planned his courtyard to design it as how he liked. 

After that, they began discussing the details of the courtyard with Ye Lang. This triggered a lot more topics and the conversations went on endlessly, talking about anything and everything. 

Strangely enough, they had never talked about themselves. Not one bit. This differed from what Ye Lang had said before.

“I really didn’t expect you do know so much about everything. Tell me, who ARE you?” he asked casually. His facial expression changed after as if he was excited and helpless at the same time.

“I--” the girl was about to answer.

But the scene disappeared abruptly in a flash...