It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Why would a cat run away as soon as it sees someone inside a house?

Li Cheng suddenly thought of a possibility and turned to ask Susie, "When you lost things, did you close the door?"

Susie thought for a moment: "I don't remember clearly, it seems like it wasn't closed?"

"Alright, let's go and verify it in person."

With that, Li Cheng turned and walked towards the door, with Susie following him.

......

outside the house.

Watching Susie lead Li Cheng into his room, Lu Renjia, a man in his thirties who was still unmarried, frowned deeply and muttered to himself:

"What kind of behavior is this? What kind of behavior is this? How could she just bring the male homeowner into her room like that? She's clearly trying to seduce him."

Looking at the half-closed door with a large gap, she really wanted to go up and eavesdrop, but considering that her mission wasn't exactly honorable, and that it would be too embarrassing to be caught, she gave up.

A moment later, Lu Renjia's eyes lit up when he saw the two of them come out: "They changed clothes! Why did they change clothes all of a sudden? I have to remember this!"

Unexpectedly, reliable evidence was obtained so quickly. She felt that her job suddenly became important, and she no longer had to worry about being fired by the lord.

"But isn't this a bit too fast? It feels like they've only been inside for a few minutes, not to mention the time spent changing clothes..."

"Where are those two going this time? Let's follow them and see."

.......

The castle was very spacious because Elizabeth had her own little nest.

This is Li Cheng's destination.

After being trained by Annie to fetch towels for a long time, this cat developed the habit of carrying things back to its nest, and the beautifully shaped stones and branches that Susie collected were perfect objects for it to carry.

He made the connection after seeing Elizabeth's unusual behavior before she met her—after all, a normal human wouldn't think of stealing stones and branches, would they?

Sure enough, the two found that in addition to a blanket, there were several oddly patterned stones and branches in the cat's nest.

Li Cheng glanced at them casually and said, "Take a look, are these your collection?"

"......Um."

Susie was completely dumbfounded. She pointed to the cat's bed, then to herself, and exclaimed in shock, "So I was stolen by a cat???"

Li Cheng shrugged: "Then you can take it back."

The treasures were right in front of her, but after thinking it over carefully, Susie actually gave up on the treasures she had gone through so much trouble to find: "Never mind, since it likes them so much, I won't take them back."

"I was initially angry because I thought someone had stolen it, but if it's a cat... I can't be angry at all. I might as well just give it to it."

So after all this trouble, why not just give up?

What kind of mess is this?

Although the outcome was rather frustrating, Li Cheng still breathed a sigh of relief, at least he had gotten the matter sorted out.

After Susie finished answering, seeing Li Cheng's extremely troubled expression, she lowered her head, thought hard, and then made a decision.

She quickly took two steps closer, stood on tiptoe, and before Li Cheng could react, gently kissed him on the cheek, then quickly moved away, the kiss lasting only a moment.

All of this happened so fast that Li Cheng only felt a soft, moist touch on his face for a moment before it disappeared without a trace.

Li Cheng: ?!

"Thank you for taking the time to help me find these worthless things."

Susie scratched her cheek, which was clearly kissed by Li Cheng; it was a little hot there. "I know you don't care about me. Newton is much prettier than me, smarter, and richer... but I really don't know how to thank you, so I just did this... Please don't mind!"

Chapter 174 Li Cheng's Teaching on Pretending

The next day.

At the entrance of the Carter Chamber of Commerce.

"I'm sorry, Chairman Smith is very busy and can't find the time today."

Several tall and burly guards blocked the entrance. The head employee, A, very politely advised Darlena to stay away from the chamber of commerce. Although the chairman had ordered her not to enter the chamber again, Darlena was, after all, a noblewoman, so he had to be respectful.

"I told you, I need to speak with your president. Get out of my way."

Darlena's coal business has been greatly affected recently, especially by the Carter Chamber of Commerce, which had been consistently acquiring her coal, but suddenly stopped buying it for unknown reasons. Not only that, some large clients have also stopped buying her coal.

Although she could still sell to individual investors, it was much more troublesome than before, so she decided to talk to Chairman Smith in person.

Just then, a plainly decorated four-wheeled carriage, far less luxurious than Darlena's, slowly came to a stop outside the Carter Chamber of Commerce.

Inside are Li Cheng and Annie.

The two had been running around all morning, just to help Annie roughly choose a place to stay. In order to save time, they rushed here without resting. Annie was just there for the fun of it, but Li Cheng really admired her boundless energy.

After recognizing Darlena, who was being stopped at the door, Annie said excitedly, "It's her again. Our previous training can finally come in handy."

Li Cheng stopped Annie, who was about to get off the car, and said, "Wait a minute. It seems she already knows you're a fraud, so the original approach might not work."

"what?"

Hearing that she had been exposed as a fraud, Annie frowned deeply: "What should we do? She found out about us. Will we get scolded if she catches us this time? Should we come another day?"

Li Cheng rolled his eyes and said, "What are you afraid of? Although we didn't invest in that textile factory, we did invest in a coal briquette factory! Have you forgotten what we did here last time? Be bold, be tough!"

"That's right. Although we've gone from being investors to attracting investors, the results seem to be about the same."

Anne suddenly realized, but then looked confused again: "But I still don't know what to do. She definitely doesn't believe us anymore."

"...I gave you a chance to show off, but you couldn't even seize it." Li Cheng shook his head and sighed. "Fine, I'll do it. You just watch and learn from me."

"Okay, okay!"

Annie's eyes lit up immediately. In her opinion, this meant that Li Cheng, the great actor who had long since read "An Actor Prepares," was about to show off his skills, and she had to learn from him.

A moment later, under the watchful eyes of Darlene and clerk A, the carriage door slowly opened.

Then a young man with long red hair and black-rimmed glasses jumped down from above, turned around and helped a lady with brown hair down from behind, and walked straight into the Chamber of Commerce, seemingly ignoring Darlene next to him.

Annie: Didn't we agree to show off?

Li Cheng: No one's going to start acting like this right away. Shut up and watch carefully.

Instead of stopping the two men from barging in, Employee A respectfully bowed to them.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Banana, Miss Anne."

Good afternoon, you've worked hard too.

"Thank you all for your hard work."

After Li Cheng and Annie greeted everyone with smiles, they walked into the house unhurriedly, in a manner completely out of character for them—of course, ignoring Darlene.

"Wait a moment!"

A sweet shout stopped Li Cheng in his tracks; it was Darlene, who had been kept out the door. Seeing this seemingly ordinary man walk right in, she finally couldn't contain herself any longer.

She was a noblewoman, after all. The man's carriage looked so ordinary, not at all like someone of higher status than her. Why was he allowed to go in?

Darlene then directly questioned, "Didn't you say Chairman Smith was busy? How could these two just walk in like that?"

Employee A said in a serious tone, "Mr. Banana and Miss Anne are distinguished guests of our Chamber of Commerce. President Smith came here specifically to meet with you two."

Darlena was furious: "So I..."

She was only halfway through her sentence when a surprised voice interrupted her.

"Hey, isn't that Baron Darlena?"

Li Cheng exclaimed in surprise, seemingly only then noticing Lord Dalena, who lived next door to Newton. He then very politely removed his hat and bowed, saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you again—but may I ask what brings you here?"

Anne also gave a polite smile: "Baron Darlene, we meet again. How have you been since we last parted?"

"You know me?"

Darlena was just angry and called out to Li Cheng. When she heard that the two of them seemed to have seen her before, she looked at them with suspicion.

Upon closer inspection, Darlene immediately recognized the red-haired man and the despicable brown-haired woman beside him as the same ones who had conspired with that little brat Newton to deceive her, and she became even more furious.

What a load of rubbish about investments and big London businessmen! It's all a scam!

However, Darlene didn't rush to hurl insults. Although she had already cursed Li Cheng and Annie's ancestors to the eight generations in her mind, it was still a public place, and she had to be mindful of her image.

"So it was Miss Anne and Mr. Banana."

Darlena gave a mocking smile: "I'm fine. I wonder how your 'investment projects' are progressing?"

Li Cheng nodded with a smile: "Thanks to Baron Todarina, the progress is going relatively smoothly."

Hehe, keep bragging, keep bragging.

Darlena sneered inwardly, thinking that Chairman Smith was also an idiot for being so easily fooled by these two swindlers. A sense of superiority welled up inside her, and even her patience improved considerably.

She patiently continued, "Then how much have you earned? Could you tell me so I can broaden my horizons?"

"Not much, just a few thousand pounds, after all, the project has just started."

Li Cheng waved his hand and casually said to Employee A, "Hey, Employee A, how's the matter I mentioned to Chairman Smith last time? I'm not very familiar with Lincoln, so I'll have to trouble him too."

Employee A said respectfully, "The chairman has already made contact. If you are really willing to purchase coal, iron ore, and graphite in a long-term and stable manner, we can offer you low prices and guarantee that the prices will not increase within five years."

"At the same time, another matter was also settled. The chairman urgently contacted the headquarters and, after receiving approval, we have gradually gained control of Lincoln's main coal production over this period of time."

At first, Darlene just found it funny, thinking the conman sounded very convincing, talking about thousands of pounds and an acquisition, but it was all just empty promises. But then she thought about their conversation more carefully and realized something wasn't quite right.

Wait, is coal being produced?

Darlena suddenly remembered the time when she couldn't sell the coal in her territory, and instantly realized that someone was behind it all.

But then she suddenly remembered something, her eyes widened, and she looked at Li Cheng with a puzzled expression: "Wait, I remember now, you wanted to buy my coal mine back then?"

Li Cheng turned his head, a half-smile on his face, and said, "Oh, Baron Darlena has changed her mind? Then the price is negotiable."

"How could I possibly sell you, you bastard! Dream on!"

Darlena finally couldn't hold back and swore, but then her voice trembled slightly as she said, "But how dare you... how dare you collude with others to prevent my territory's coal from selling?"

To maintain her luxurious lifestyle, she had always had some financial problems, relying entirely on coal mining. Li Cheng's method had truly damaged Darlena's lifeline, making her somewhat afraid.

"You ask why?"

Li Cheng didn't look at her again, but put his hands in his pockets and said indifferently, "Why should I explain my actions to you?"