The Silly Alchemist

“You’ve seen her without makeup? I heard she never lets anyone see her bare-faced. Although her makeup’s a lot simpler now, no one ever sees her without makeup. Many people want to but never got the chance…

“Men are weird! They used to cry for her to be sexier, and now they no longer want her to dress sexy and instead want her to look as pure as possible!” said the girl. Everyone already knew of Liu Feiyan’s makeover, especially her, as a fellow performer in the same industry.

“What’s so special? She looks the same!” said Ye Lang. He’d seen her bare-faced many times since their earliest days and she never cared either.

“You’re just sour you don’t get to see her anymore!” scoffed the girl, misunderstanding his nonchalance as him lying. She didn’t know he was just indifferent because he’d seen her bare-faced too many times.

“I’m not sour, it’s just what it is!” said Ye Lang.

“…”

After a while, the main performance of the night was about to begin. The men would be able to snag the newly hired girls on their first night here. As long as they were pretty enough, many people would kill to get a night with the new girl– especially if they were gorgeous.

“Sir, that’s Li Yan, he owns this place! I knew he’d come…”

Ding Lin happened to be free for the moment. She came up to Ye Lang and pointed at Li Yan, at the same time gesturing for the girl (who was about to leave) to stay.

In Ding Lin’s words, they should take the opportunity to sit with Ye Lang and kill time. A stress-free moment like this was hard to come by!

“Him? He looks like Li Yue’s older brother.” Ye Lang had a faint memory of Li Yan.

“Yeah, he is! Sir, do you know Miss Li Yue? She’s a great person, it’s too bad she has a brother like him.” Ding Lin was starting to gossip again. She knew a lot of gossip about people who frequented this place.

From her tone, it was obvious not many people liked Li Yan!

“I don’t know her, who said I knew her?” Ye Lang objected immediately.

“…” <i> We can absolutely tell you’re lying. </i>

“Sister Lin, aren’t you going to host?” asked Ye Lang, forcing them to change the topic.

“Nope! I’m only in charge of serving the customers, another person’s hosting the bidding.” Ding Lin shook her head.

“You all have very clear job scopes indeed. I wonder if you have another person in charge of bringing in the ‘goods’…”

“We do, there are people who are…”

“…”

Very quickly, a gorgeous, matured-looking lady appeared onstage. Her eyes surveyed the audience as she struck a seductive pose. “We have three girls today, they are rare beauties! Gentlemen, this is the moment to splurge, this is not the time to save money!”

The crowd roared, the atmosphere was filled with anticipation.

“Our first lady is from…”

When he saw the first girl, Ye Lang knew she wasn’t his type. She looked very excited to be here though, Ye Lang could feel she had chosen to be here. The two girls who were waiting for his reaction were disappointed, hoping he would like the next girl.

There was still the bidding though, the winner of the bid would get her first night here!

“One hundred gold coins, one hundred gold coins, deal! She’s yours!”

“The next one is…”

The second girl was pretty too, she was a rare beauty in this part of the world. Although she looked like a shy, reserved girl, Ye Lang could feel that it was all an act to attract even more of the crazy men. This girl was more eager to be here than the previous girl.

Ye Lang wasn’t interested. However, many were interested including the boss, Mr Li Yan himself. He shouted his bids louder than the rest and finally won the bid at five hundred gold coins.

Many people were upset at this. You’re the boss, even if you bid a million gold coins, doesn’t all the money go back to you?

If you like her so much, why was she even available for bidding? So you can show off your money?

“Your boss is shameless!” remarked Ye Lang in disgust as he drank his tea. This event was getting meaningless, he was ready to leave.

Let’s not forget he had work to do tonight. He had to return to the Ye Residence to get the unfinished Tianji Armour!

“The final girl tonight is also the one you have been waiting for… She has an air of elegance you wouldn’t be able to resist…”

The third girl was revealed. The moment she stepped on stage, the entire audience fell silent. There was an aura of innocence to her, completely different from the air of seduction the rest had.

This was perhaps why the audience was stunned by her beauty!

“PFFTTT!” Ye Lang was gulping the rest of his tea, preparing to leave when he spat it all out the moment he saw her.

“Mr Fox, I know you’re the guest but is this necessary…” Ding Lin was rather unfortunate, facing the brunt of his tea, looking very pathetic and drenched.

“I’m sorry, it wasn’t on purpose! Do you know who that girl is?” Ye Lang apologised then immediately asked about the girl.

“I don’t know much, this isn’t part of my job scope. Why? Are you interested?” asked Ding Lin.

Ye Lang shook his head. “I’m not interested! But…”

“I’ll pay a thousand gold coins!” a shout from the audience interrupted Ye Lang.

“Two thousand!” There was another shout but it seemed to come from Li Yan.

“Four thousand!”

“Five thousand!” Li Yan insisted to bid for the girl, his eyes gleaming as he eyed the girl.

“Fuck this! We can’t win that shameless bastard, we’ll only be paying him more if we raise the price!” booed everyone else when they saw Li Yan bidding.

“Five thousand! Any other bidders? Five thousand…”

“Six thousand!” Ye Lang shouted before the host could finish. Heads turned the moment he offered his bid, they all wanted to know who he was.

Why did this person want to fight against Li Yan? You can’t win!