The Silly Alchemist

“Hey, hey... Tigress... You don’t have to be afraid, don’t you recognise me?” asked Ye Lang.

“Tigress? You are...” Tai Ya was stunned for a moment. Her expression made it very obvious she had not heard of that name, and she’d never met Ye Lang in her life.

If this Tai Ya was truly the girl Ye Lang knew, how would she have such a response?

Ye Lang had no doubts though. He went on to elaborate, “I’m Ye Lang, your master... Look carefully! It’s been eight years, perhaps you can’t recognise me...”

He thought Tigress couldn’t recognise him because he’d changed a lot. He was a little boy eight years ago and now a handsome young man... At least that was what he thought.

He never considered a moment that it she were really Tigress, how would she not recognise him just because he grew up? There were now two possibilities: one, this lady wasn’t Tigress or two, Tigress couldn’t admit to recognising him due to various reasons.

“Master?” Tai Ya was stunned for a moment, “I’ve never called a human ‘master’... Who are you?”

“I’m Ye Lang! As I said, you must’ve forgotten me! This is weird, why do I get a very weird feeling...” Ye Lang asked, equally stunned.

Although he didn’t consider the possibility that she wasn’t Tigress, he could sense something was wrong. The feeling he usually got from Tigress was not... this. He couldn’t place a finger on what feeling it was, that was why he treated the lady as if she was Tigress.

There were several coincidences that contributed to this conclusion too– she was of the tiger tribe, her name was Tai Ya and she had been a slave to a human before– and she had a fox girl by her side. These all logically pointed to her being Tigress!

“I don’t know you, please stay away from me,” Tai Ya was still hiding behind the fox girl, staring at Ye Lang a little fearfully.

Tai Ya was also sending signals for help to the rest to take this human, still wrapped up like a dumpling, away from her.

Don’t worry, he’s all tied up, what could he do? Not bad for a human, this boy dared talk to Tai Ya and made no attempts to escape. It was unbelievable.

“Is it because of my face? That’s why you don’t recognise me?”

“Nobody would recognise you looking like that! However, I don’t understand why you want Tai Ya to recognise you so badly. Aren’t you going to get into more trouble like that?” the fox girl frowned, looking at Ye Lang’s dusty face. She didn’t understand.

“Are you sure you’re the slave master who took Tai Ya in as a slave?”

“Yeah, I am! Is it the face? What do you mean by ‘nobody’?” Ye Lang asked, puzzled. He took a mirror out to check his face, “Why is my face so dusty? Fuck, who kicked my face? I can clearly see a shoe mark here.”

“...”

Everyone was stunned because this kid was holding a mirror with his hand.

It was a normal action but Ye Lang was tied up in a bundle, how did he move his arm so easily? What use was the rope then?

Yeah, the rope was indeed useless. It would be simple for him to get out of this bundle if he wanted to.

Ye Lang soon proved this point.

When he finished speaking, he shook his entire body and the ropes miraculously fell onto the ground. Ye Lang was free once again, much to the crowd’s dismay.

Hey, hey, can someone tell me what is going on? Did they not tie him tight enough? Was there a mole among their men to let this evil human infiltrate their ranks?

Many were suspecting foul play for it was too peculiar to be true. They could not find another explanation.

The next scene required more explanation too. After a flash of light, the human became clean from head to toe. He looked like a completely different person from that dusty kid they met.

The crowd was questioning their eyesight at such a sudden change. How was that possible?

They realised this human was just a regular-looking kid, a teenager who didn’t look evil at all. He didn’t look like he would do any harm to Tai Ya.

Was this all a mistake?

Eh, am I overthinking? Was this any of my business? And we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. People who looked kind may be evil inside.

“I... I don’t know you... What is going on with you all? Why did you all bring him here? Who is this kid?” After taking a good look at his face, Tai Ya immediately denied ever knowing Ye Lang and it sounded like she was telling the truth too.

The rest of them heaved a sigh of relief. So he wasn’t the person they were looking for. This human kid wasn’t evil. Eh, why am I so relieved?

“Tigress, I’ve missed you...” Ye Lang didn’t think, rushing over into Tai Ya’s arms.

“??”

He hugged her?

“Ahh?!” Tai Ya shrieked and started to struggle. However, the more her skinny body struggled, the weaker she got, the redder her face became.

“Eh? Are you having a fever? I’ll give you some medicine,” Ye Lang shoved a pill into Tai Ya’s mouth immediately.

“Cough, cough cough...” Tai Ya, naturally, spat it out immediately, afraid it might be poison.

“What are you doing? You don’t like it? I can give you another kind...” Ye Lang produced another kind of medicine.

“No, I don’t have a fever. It’s because I’ll get hot when you hug me...Let me go...” said Tai Ya, blushing.

“Oh...” Ye Lang let go obediently and she ran behind the fox girl. She would never come out after this.

“Mr Ye Lang, the Tigress you’re referring to... Her name is Tai Ya?” the fox girl thought of another person. From Ye Lang’s actions, she suspected Ye Lang had made a mistake.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“What’s her full name?” she asked.

“Tai Ya.”

“I know she’s Tai Ya, I’m talking about her full name,” the fox girl asked patiently.

“She’s just Tai Ya,” said Ye Lang.