The Silly Alchemist

A city with its special charm and unique policies that attracted wealthy merchants from all over the world, the emerging trading city of the land– Ye City.

In just a few years, it has seen huge growth from a relatively unknown town to the most famous trading city in the world.

In the last few years, the city expanded. The city was built for business so it had a unique feature to it, there were no city walls.

As the only city in the world that had no city walls, some felt the city lacked a sense of security but at the same time, many liked the freedom the city gave them. All this stemmed from the belief that the Ye family was a neutral party that picked no sides.

Of course, the city did not actually lack a security system. The merchants in Ye city knew they were protected by the city’s army. The army was known to fulfil their duties and not abuse their power.

There were instances when some wanted a piece of the Ye family’s great fortune. They sent their troops to annex the city but in the end, the troops couldn’t even make it through the villages in the outskirts of the city.

From that point on, people understood that Ye city didn’t even need a city wall. Anyone that wanted to get to Ye City has to break through the strong outer defence system and no city wall would be able to block anyone that had the capability to do that.

For now, nobody knew about that point since not many did try to start a war with the Ye family. People also needed a neutral city like this for groups that were known to be enemies to trade with each other.

A neutral trading city was the thing the world needed but nobody had thought about it before. Lucky for the Ye family, they were to cash in on this opportunity. The family didn’t expect the city to evolve as quickly as it did when they started it.

At first, they just wanted a safe place to live that was not involved with the power-grabbing fights going on.

They didn’t imagine this would lead to cities of this type forming that created a centrist power that stood together with the empires.

All this stemmed from an idea Ye Lang had because he had won this kingdom.

“This all came from the good luck our thirteenth son brought us. To be honest, I envy his luck,” Ye Yi’s tone was filled with emotion as he talked.

Ye Yi was at a family meeting. Every now and then, the Ye family would gather together to discuss matters but mostly they ate and had fun with each other.

It was a tradition they started when they came to Yw City. It may have been because of the betrayals from some members of the family, they felt the need to strengthen their bond with each other to avoid instances like that from ever happening again.

Or maybe they just had nothing to do so some of them held some family events to have fun together.

“No point being envious, this is fate! That being said, it has been some time since we heard from thirteen. Does anyone know where he is now?” Not many could talk to Ye Yi in this tone, in this gathering, his wife, Ruan Lian’er was the only one.

“I know, he went to the Tiger Tribal Lands...” the seventh brother rushed to reply.

“Everyone knows what Lanyu told us last month,” Ruan Lian’er said as she looked at the seventh brother. He immediately quieted down and hung his head low to eat.

“Huh? What?” said Ye Lanyu as she heard someone say her name. It was obvious she wasn’t paying attention to the conversation.

“..., what do you want to do this time?” said a helpless Long Anqi as she pinched Ye Lanyu’s face.

“I was thinking, should we tell brother to go to the Vermilion Bird Empire?” Ye Lanyu replied blankly. She was still thinking about other matters and was unaware of the current topic.

“Are you talking about that thing? Actually, Ye Lang had already met them but it doesn’t matter now. Your eldest brother and second sister are the ones who haven’t met them but they could do it on a trip there later on. But, if that kid Ye Lang could go then tell him to go, they seem to like him a lot,” Long Anqi said blankly, no one could tell if she was happy or upset.

“You are the important one, not them. In the end, they are your relatives. I’ll be the one that accompanies you!” Ye ChengTian said as he held Long Anqi’s hand and smiled.

This matter was a heartache the two shared. All these years they never mentioned it but they had always hoped to find a solution to it.

The people that Long Anqi spoke of was the empress dowager and emperor of the Vermilion Bird Empire, which was her mother and elder brother, Ye Lang’s maternal grandmother and uncle.

As to why Long Anqi never mentioned this was because there were matters that happened which needed a lot of effort from both sides to resolve.

When the empress dowager and emperor came for a sudden visit, the Ye family were all surprised. Those that didn’t know about their backstory were all confused but those few in the know knew that they were here for Long Anqi.

Of course, very little people actually knew about the visit since they didn’t officially come as the empress dowager and emperor. It was a personal visit as relatives.

Ye Chengtian and a few others knew about it. It was their personal matter, there was no need to go around telling others.

Because of this, the others only knew that a wealthy lady had once visited them.

The empress dowager looked like she could pass off as Long Anqi’s sister even though Long Anqi herself looked really young and could pass off as Ye Lanyu’s sister.

This led to Ye Lanyu thinking that her mother’s youthful glow came from her grandmother and that maybe in the future she could be like them too.

The thought of it made Ye Lanyu happy, well any girl would be happy to hear that they could retain a youthful glow at such an age. No doubt at that moment, she was more shocked to find out that she had another grandmother and an uncle that was the empress dowager and emperor of the Vermilion Bird Empire.

However, she knew that her parents weren’t fond of her grandmother and uncle because, at the start, Long Anqi didn’t pay much attention to the pair but chose to spend time around Ye Chengtian.