The Silly Alchemist

Just like that, Tigress sat listening to Ye Lang’s stories. Time didn’t exist, everything else was tossed to the back of her mind.

Once Ye Lang came to the end of his stories, he realised he was starving once again. At this point, it was already midnight- no, more like early morning.

At least he’d kept his stories brief. If he’d told them in detail, he probably needed many more days…

Upon realising how late it was, Tigress got up to make him supper so he could fill his belly before going to bed.

Whose bed? Tigress’ bed of course. She didn’t want him to sleep in her father or brother’s beds, which were already covered in their scent, nor did she want him to stay in their rooms.

Ye Lang and Tigress had spent countless nights on the same bed during their childhood- including when they were teens at thirteen years old, the age where society started to dictate that civil, unmarried men and women should not be too intimate with each other. Even after all these years, she still had no qualms about having Ye Lang sleep on her bed.

Tonight, she even accompanied Ye Lang. However, she merely sat and rested her head on the side of the bed instead of lying directly on it. Both of them were adults now, it might be inappropriate if they shared the bed directly.

However, she did not realise that two single people sharing a night in the same room could already spark rumours!

This was her bedroom, even her brother and father rarely entered!

If anyone else knew about this, one could only imagine the fights that would ensue…

Thank goodness, both of them merely slept soundly until the next morning…

They seemed to have forgotten about many other matters too, for example, Ye Lang intended to ask Tigress what she had been up to all these years and why she never sent him a single letter.

These were unimportant questions now, he could always ask her another day!

Unfortunately, Tigress had forgotten about something else…

“Where the hell is Tai Ya? How long does she need to cook a bowl of noodles? She can cook all the noodles in the house and it STILL wouldn’t take this long!”

A very important person was growing increasingly flustered within the walls of his office within the tiger tribal lands. He was very annoyed at Tigress for completely forgetting about him. Right now, he couldn’t leave because the results of the competition were still under discussion.

“I need to see who that human boy is, I can’t believe that kid Tai Ya forgot about her duties the moment she met him…”

This man was very close to going home to get her himself but he couldn’t because he was a composed man with responsibilities here at the office.

Thank goodness he didn’t return home either or he would probably see Ye Lang and Tigress sleeping in the same room. He would go mad!

“You’re late, jerk. Why?” Ye Lang entered a beautiful garden the moment he fell asleep. Xuan Yuanbing was sitting by the pond, her legs dipped in the crystal clear water.

“I was talking to Tigress…” he replied casually.

“Haven’t you been spending time with her these past few days? Do you have so much to talk about?” asked Xuan Yuanbing, puzzled. At the same time, she pulled him over so he could sit next to her.

How did she do it? Well, this was her dream, she could do whatever she wanted.

“The previous one was a fake, I found the real Tigress!”

“…”

Xuan Yuanbing was speechless, then shook her head in exasperation, “How could you make such a mistake? Did she scold you when she found out?”

“She didn’t, she never scolds me even if I’ve made a mistake. She just talks…” Ye Lang shook his head. He sounded like he was getting emotional.

“She’s so nice to you, probably the nicest person in the world. If that were me, I’d probably smack you…” grinned Xuan Yuanbing. She could tell how close they were and she admired their friendship. Maybe even jealous.

Just as Xuan Yuanbing said, Tigress was the only one who could be so nice to Ye Lang. In return, her position in Ye Lang’s heart was unrivalled. It was a friendship no one else could have.

“And that is why I won’t visit you, I’ll only visit Tigress!” Ye Lang laughed.

“…”

Time passed in the dream. After a very long time, Ye Lang felt like something was wrong…

“Hey, Xuan Yuanbing, why aren’t you leaving yet? Don’t you need to wake up?” asked Ye Lang. The longer they spent in the dream, the longer they slept.

Ye Lang didn’t mind because he went to bed late. However, this was a LOT of sleep even by her standards. She had been asleep since seven last night- she slept this early out of habit to wait for Ye Lang’s appearance in her dream.

“That’s none of your business, I love sleep!” huffed Xuan Yuanbing. Did she have to be any clearer? Of course she was sleeping in just to spend more time with Ye Lang!

“That’s odd, what time is it? Why hasn’t anyone woken me up?” Ye Lang was even more puzzled. No one really cared if he slept late but he was often woken up by movements around him.

That was usually Ye Lanyu. Although he knew Ye Lanyu wasn’t with him, he still wondered out of habit.

This didn’t make sense at all. It would make sense if Tigress was in the real world blocking anyone from disturbing Ye Lang but Tigress was now curled up with Ye Lang on the bed. Based on the conditions outside, someone would’ve broken in looking for Tigress by now.

Although they both were temporarily ignoring the rest of the world, there were still many people who cared about their presence including Tigress’ father, Taeya and Athena. While they were all watching the two kids for various reasons, the outcome would still be the same: they would never tolerate Ye Lang and Tigress sleeping in the same room for such a long time.

When Ye Lang finally rose, he realised Tigress was sound asleep in his arms. It was as if they were once again back to the last three months they had spent together. He had slept with Tigress in his arms every night then.

At that point, they were still very young, their friendship was the purest. It was the same now, except they were now grown. However, the friendship was as pure as eight years ago in their hearts.

Perhaps the only difference was that they were now closer than ever…

Ye Lang did something he used to do often: he secretly kissed her on her forehead upon waking up out of habit. However, eight years ago, Tigress would pretend to be asleep. Right now, Tigress was truly sound asleep.