The Silly Alchemist

“Hmmph.” There was a huff from Coldblood Seven.

At this moment, Ye Lang was sitting on the top floor of Zhu’s Soup House. He was sat above the balcony, a seat popular amongst visitors because one had an unobstructed view of the scenery.

Ye Lang took up one table alone but Coldblood Seven looked for an excuse to share a table with him and sat down. Coldblood Five initially planned to keep a distance from Ye Lang but after what Coldblood Seven did, she decided to sit with them too.

He was puzzled. Didn’t they want to pretend not to know each other?

“Don’t ask. We are just strangers sharing a table, this is very normal. Don’t make a big deal out of avoiding us, it would just raise suspicion,” whispered Coldblood Seven before Ye Lang could speak.

Oh, alright. It was indeed very normal.

He no longer paid any attention to Coldblood Seven and proceeded to order his food, then eat. He seemed to be looking at something opposite.

“What are you looking at?” Coldblood Seven was communicating with Ye Lang using a secret code created by the Coldblood Group. This message was transmitted through a special alchemy tool and was very expensive.

The alchemy item had a huge range, only higher-ranked members had access to it- Ye Lang coincidentally had one of his own.

Their conversations weren’t in a spoken language either, they were scrambled into something that resembled the Morse code. Even if someone took had taken this item by force, they still wouldn’t be able to listen in on the Coldblood Group’s secrets.

“I’m looking at the Romantic Floor across the road,” replied Ye Lang.

“Romantic Floor? Isn’t that yours?” asked Coldblood Seven. “I heard it was taken over by someone else, the Li family I think. They’re related to Li Yue.”

“Yeah, that was where I met Little Zero. I even chased a guy called Li Yan out. I think something’s going to happen at that place,” said Ye Lang.

“What’s going to happen?” asked Coldblood Seven.

“I don’t know.” This was his honest answer.

“You don’t know? Then what are you waiting for?” Coldblood Seven and Coldblood Five were confused.

Ye Lang stared at the Romantic Floor and gave his reply. “I just have a feeling that something is going to happen. I don’t know what though.”

“...” Coldblood Five and Seven fell silent. All they could do now was to wait with him to see if anything would happen.

Of course, from an outsider’s point of view, all three of them were complete strangers eating on their own and minding their own business.

Time passed slowly. The buildings across the road were still calm. The two girls thought Ye Lang might’ve been wrong, perhaps he was being confused again.

Just when even Ye Lang was starting to doubt himself, right when they’d finished their meals and about to leave, something finally happened.

They watched as a group of soldiers clad in black armour appeared in the street below them, marching tidily to surround the Romantic Floor. Then, another group arrived with one of them riding a horse. This commander was commanding his men to capture everyone inside the building.

That was how the Romantic Floor was shut down once again.

Although there were many people who were captured, compared to yesterday, the number was very, very small.

Most of the people had decided not to come after what Ye Lang said yesterday, while the girls who worked there had mostly left after Ye Lang’s advice. That was why there were very few people inside today.

What a relief these people would feel when they hear about this incident, thank goodness they’d left or they would’ve been dragged into trouble.

On the other hand, the ones who were captured deeply regretted their decision to ignore Ye Lang’s advice.

Especially the girls who stayed. They regretted not leaving with Ding Lin, some of them even called her a coward for leaving so hastily after one small incident.

This was the moment they realised how dumb they were.

However, everyone was still confused about why the place was shut down again. Why were all the people inside suddenly captured without a warning?

What happened?

Wasn’t this place re-opened by the Li family? Who dared challenge them?

This group of people did not usually appear in public. If they were present, something severe must have happened.

Many people didn’t understand. Why were they here? Did the Li family do anything wrong?

Even the Li family didn’t understand what was going on a few hours ago. That was when Li Yan was summoned to see the empress herself.

You wouldn’t be able to imagine how excited Li Yan was when he received the message. He felt like the empress was about to reward him because of the work he had done in recent times.

In reality, his family had indeed helped him complete a task... A task that would ensure his future was a little brighter.

Of course, Li Tianjun and the rest didn’t think the task they assigned him was important enough for him to be specially praised by the empress herself. It wasn’t a big deal at all.

However, it wasn’t impossible. Perhaps the empress liked the Li family.

Before it was announced why he was summoned, no one could be certain it was a good thing. Perhaps Li Yan had committed a crime and was about to be punished.

Would the empress even need to personally meet him if he did? She shouldn’t care this much.

This was why the Li family finally concluded that it was going to be good news. Li Yan was about to be rewarded!

Li Yan himself was ecstatic, wearing his best clothes as he stepped into the palace grounds.

At this moment, Li Tianjun was within the palace with the rest of the top officials. They were in a discussion with Zhao Yarou about the nation’s major events and were busy listening to her instructions.

Although Zhao Yarou was indeed a little psychotic, she was a great leader in terms of her management of the empire. In fact, she was a lot better than the previous emperor at it, perhaps also because she was more cruel and decisive.

This was why even after almost two years, all objection towards her ascension within the empire had ceased– there was even a growing group of supporters who liked her.

There was a saying that peasants did not care who the emperor was or how he/she got the throne, all they needed to know was that he/she was a capable ruler, and that was enough— perhaps there was some truth in this.