It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

--------

After breakfast, Li Cheng went to the factory, and Annie went to the theater, so the two took a short walk together.

On the way, Annie suddenly patted Li Cheng on the shoulder, making a very incongruous serious expression: "Li Cheng, am I getting in the way here?"

Huh, so this guy finally realized the problem? If he does realize it, he should hurry home! All he does is cause trouble and torment my cat... Li Cheng coughed twice: "What's wrong? Not used to living here?"

“It’s not that I’m not used to it, it’s just that I feel like my presence might be interrupting your daytime romance with Newton,” Anne said, scratching her chin. “You know how awkward this morning was, what if you two ever want to do it in the garden again…”

"Stop, stop, stop, stop—"

Li Cheng quickly slammed on the brakes to prevent Annie from uttering anything more that would be censored: "Who taught you this stuff???"

He didn't believe that Annie could say that herself. After all, the last time Therese made a casual lewd joke, the girl was completely clueless. Without someone's guidance, she could never have fallen so quickly in just over half a month.

As expected, Anne said, "Sister Therese! Last time you talked about some things I didn't understand, so when I remembered them, I went to ask Sister Therese, and she gave me some books that she said were textbooks and told me to study them myself!"

This textbook is utter nonsense; it's practically a pornographic book!

Li Cheng gritted his teeth in anger... That female hooligan was indeed untrustworthy. Last time she clearly said she would keep to her limits, but she even used words like "openly promiscuous" (a vulgar expression). What limits did she keep? At most, she kept limits with a young boy!

"Oh, is there a problem?"

Annie noticed that Li Cheng's expression was a little off, and she said with some confusion, "I think it's great. I've learned a lot of things I didn't know before."

These are all problems, okay?

Li Cheng burst into tears—Mr. Stoller, all your years of effort have ultimately been no match for two months of teaching by a certain female rogue. Now Annie is almost turning into Therese's shape...

But things couldn't get any worse right now, so Li Cheng patted Annie on the shoulder as if giving up: "It's okay, it'll be more lively with one more person living here."

Chapter 142 Checking Up

If Annie was at most a bit carefree before, ever since she met that rascal Therese, she's absolutely on a one-way street of letting herself go.

Li Cheng first silently mourned for Mr. Stoller for thirty seconds, then asked, "By the way, don't you think it's strange for a girl to take the initiative to learn about these things?"

"Li Cheng, you're really baffling."

Annie found Li Cheng's question rather strange, even though it seemed like a perfectly normal one. "You've been spouting nonsense to Newton since early morning, what's wrong with me learning more about this?"

"I already said we're not..."

Li Cheng felt that his words were not convincing at all. At the time, he was in a daze, and if Annie hadn't appeared, he probably would have really done *that* in broad daylight.

But if Annie hadn't appeared, she wouldn't have been able to say what Bai Rixuan said... Is this the quantum observer effect? ​​Annie, you're so powerful.

With deep thoughts on quantum mechanics, Li Cheng parted ways with Annie and boarded a carriage heading to the suburbs.

He certainly hadn't forgotten his textile factory, which was still in its early stages; in fact, he had been busy with that all this time.

In the first half of the month, he contacted Carter, the president of the Merchants' Guild. After a warm and friendly exchange and an on-site inspection, Carter felt that this was a very promising project and further recognized Li Cheng's status as a half-princess lackey—although Li Cheng only thought that he and Veroni were in a cooperative relationship, others would not see it that way.

However, the £100,000 from Veronica was indeed something Li Cheng desperately needed. Although the soap factory brought him a steady stream of profits, the time frame was too short, and he was far from being able to recoup his initial investment.

As for Li Cheng's idea, which was to gather a group of businessmen through the other party's intermediary to form a textile franchise, he didn't mention it for the time being, as it wasn't the right time yet.

......

suburbs.

The textile factory has been initially completed and put into operation, with dozens of shuttle looms neatly arranged inside. More looms are still under construction—Li Cheng estimates that he can make a fortune just by selling looms in the future.

Roy was in charge of the factory's detailed operations, such as purchasing raw materials, hiring workers, and building the site. This young man had already proven his abilities through practical work, and Li Cheng was quite confident in entrusting these tasks to him. He wasn't really good at these details; he had only briefly mentioned modern management experience, but Roy had actually managed to do it quite well, with managers, supervisors, and sub-foremen all clearly defined.

And now, he is also working part-time as a tour guide, giving Li Cheng and his group a general overview of the recent situation.

It was a group of people, including Li Cheng, the main character, Veronica, who had nothing better to do and came to wander around incognito, and Holly, the little maid who was part of her equipment.

Although Veronica's reason was quite convincing—checking on the project's progress—Li Cheng couldn't help but think that Veronica was just bored and using a plausible excuse to loiter around. However, since she had provided a substantial amount of start-up capital, Li Cheng had no choice but to prepare for any eventuality and have some backup plans.

For example, he finally managed to write the second part of "The Domineering Lady Falls in Love with Me" during this period of time. Although Veronica had never urged him to write it, Li Cheng guessed from the news that Anne brought back about Therese urging for the second part (listen to how many times this news came from), that the princess was getting impatient.

"The first and second batches of finished products sold very well. The price of our fabric is a quarter lower than that of the market, but the quality is not much different—at least in terms of materials and thickness. So ordinary people tend to choose our fabric."

The group walked through the factory, with Roy leading the way and giving everyone a briefing on the latest developments.

"Yes, that's good, but don't get too excited yet."

Li Cheng nodded: "I estimate that after a while, once they realize what's happening, they will also lower their prices, and then it will be a protracted price war—but fortunately, we are fully capable of holding on, and at worst we can sell overseas."

"Who are they?"

Veronica asked curiously, "Although Her Highness is dressed simply today, she is still wearing her signature white gauze gloves. I wonder why she likes them so much."

Li Cheng shrugged: "It's actually Anderson and his gang."

Speaking of Anderson, Li Cheng couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. He and Anderson had accumulated quite a few unpleasant grudges. First, he was inexplicably swindled out of a sum of money, then he was slandered at Louise's birthday party. Now, investing in a textile factory meant he was going to confront Anderson head-on, so it could be said that he had practically offended him completely.

'Louise, oh Louise, don't blame me when you grow up. I told you long ago I was a bad guy.'

Li Cheng thought to himself.

Thinking of what Li Cheng had done, Veronica couldn't help but smile faintly and joked, "I hope Earl Anderson doesn't go bankrupt."

It's impossible for Anderson to go bankrupt. Putting aside everything else, the estates and lands he's accumulated over the years are enough to support a wealthy life for the rest of his life, at most he won't be as extravagant as before.

However, this is based on Anderson backing down. If he really gets angry and insists on fighting a price war to the death... Li Cheng is not afraid. The flying shuttle loom is already a game-changer in terms of production efficiency compared to the traditional loom, not to mention that he has plenty of funds on hand.

Just as the atmosphere was quite harmonious and pleasant, a supervisor suddenly rushed over and whispered a few words in Roy's ear.

After hearing the report, Roy's expression became much more serious: "Where are they now?"

"At the main gate."

The supervisor looked a little nervous: "Manager, what do you think about this...?"

Roy waved his hand and said, "You don't need to worry about this. Go back to work."

"understood."

After the supervisor left, Li Cheng asked, "What happened?"

Roy sighed, his expression grim: "Two men claiming to be Earl Anderson came to our door to warn us, and threatened that if we continued to try to drive down the price, they would be ruthless."

"Wow, you moved so quickly?"

The very thing they were just discussing suddenly happened right before their eyes, and Holly couldn't help but gasp in surprise. Then she looked at Li Cheng with a strange gaze: "Is this... your jinx?"

"You're such a jinx! How can you say this has nothing to do with Anderson himself?"

Li Cheng rolled his eyes, showing great disdain for the green grasshopper's arrangement: "If Anderson were to pay attention to such a trivial matter as someone selling a little bit of cheap cloth every day, even if he had ten people, he still wouldn't be able to keep up and would have been exhausted long ago."

"But now they've all arrived."

Holly retorted, unconvinced, "Besides, couldn't it be that you angered Earl Anderson, so he's been keeping an eye on you?"

Why the hell are you staring at me like that? Do you think I'm a tank, attracting all that aggro? I didn't even use taunt. Even if you hate me, you don't have to stare at me like this!

Before Li Cheng could speak in rebuttal, Veronica shook her head: "Li Cheng is right. Earl Anderson would never use such a petty method. This could only be the idea of ​​his subordinates."

Holly didn't dare to argue with Veronica and obediently admitted her mistake: "I understand."

Seeing this, Li Cheng gave up on refuting: "Yes, that makes sense—but anyway, since they're here, I still have to go and see them. Are you going to continue shopping or come together?"

After Li Cheng finished speaking, he glanced at Veronique. Although she was dressed simply today, she still brought two tall and burly guards with her. They were standing by the door. He estimated that if Veronique gave the order, she could easily take down more than a dozen workers, let alone just the two of them.

Veronica smiled. "Of course, we're all in this together. I'm part of it too, aren't I?"

Li Cheng felt something was off, but couldn't quite put his finger on it, so he simply pretended there was nothing wrong.

......

Inside the gate stood two men, one fat and one thin. The thin one looked arrogant, while the fat one was much less so, barely managing to maintain a serious expression.

However, his serious expression quickly faltered when the fat man noticed two burly men, each over two meters tall, not far away. He gestured to the difference in height, then was startled and said somewhat timidly to the thin man, "Brother Bob, won't we get into trouble if we just barge in like this?"

"What could possibly happen? We're Anderson's men now."

The skinny man called Bob waved his hand impatiently: "Can you stop being such a coward? You're just embarrassing me."

The two men were thugs hired by a fabric shop run by Earl Anderson's men. They had just discovered someone selling cheap fabric and immediately inquired about this newly opened textile factory in the suburbs, intending to demonstrate their abilities.

The fat man shrank his neck: "But this doesn't necessarily have to be done by us, and look at those two over there, they look a bit like knights."

"Screw you! How could there possibly be any riders? What kind of riders would be guarding this run-down factory in the suburbs...?"

Just as the skinny man was showing a look of utter disappointment and cursing the coward, Li Cheng arrived with a large group of people.

Along the way, Roy and his workers would greet him with a "hello," and the two guards standing near the door would immediately become respectful upon seeing him... well, actually, they were only respectful because of Veronica behind him, it had nothing to do with him.

However, this did not affect Li Cheng's attitude. He deliberately swaggered up to the two men, one fat and one thin, and said with a serious face, "Are you two the ones who came to cause trouble?"

Holly muttered in a very low voice, "Pretending to be a big shot."

Li Cheng smirked, pretending not to hear.

The main reason he did this was that the two men in front of him really didn't seem to be Anderson's men—if they really were Anderson, it would be too beneath him. The thin man barely looked fierce, but the fatter, stronger one looked like a coward. He really didn't know where these two got the courage to come to someone's door and threaten them...

"You're the owner here? Let me tell you, I'm here to warn you."

The skinny man was not intimidated by the scene and shouted directly at Li Cheng, "We can pretend that nothing happened before, but if you dare to deliberately lower the price again, we will not be polite."

"You're welcome?"

Li Cheng was quite curious. After all, this factory already had dozens or even hundreds of employees. Could they really possibly demolish it?

So he asked, "Why are you being so impolite? Tell me."

The thin man was taken aback, thinking to himself, "This is just a harsh remark, how come someone actually asked how I was being so impolite?"

After a very brief moment of thought, he sneered, "Heh, you'll find out when the time comes."

Li Cheng shrugged after hearing this: "So you just don't know, you don't even know how to be impolite, yet you're trying to threaten people at their doorstep?"

The thin man suddenly felt a surge of anger: "You...!"

"What?" Li Cheng pointed at the two men at the door. "See those two big brothers? Genuine knights, just not wearing armor today. And you dare to come here and threaten people?"

As he spoke, he waved towards the door, but the two guards standing there exchanged a glance and completely ignored him.

This was really awkward... Li Cheng's hand froze in mid-air. Fortunately, Veronica noticed the situation was amiss and nodded to the two guards, preventing an awkward moment.

"knight?!"

The chubby man, who had been standing silently to the side, suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Brother Bob, I was right!"

The skinny man was still sneering: "Heh, looks like you don't believe me. In a while, you'll see..." But before he could finish speaking, he was lifted up by a pair of thick, strong arms.