It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

"I estimate it will take a while."

"I bet it will take at least three more minutes. Do you want to bet?"

"Shh, keep your voice down."

"..."

The cacophony of voices reached Kevin's ears, and he finally lost his temper. With a grim face, he said to the sycophant beside him, "Go and call the men I brought from the corner. I'm going to teach them a lesson."

In such situations, it's generally not allowed to bring guards or similar personnel in, but Kevin was different. He forced his way in with a male servant, and the gatekeeper didn't really dare to stop him.

The sycophantic man paused for a moment: "Here?"

Kevin frowned: "You don't want to?"

"Yes, yes, leave it to me!"

He nodded vigorously and ran towards the corner.

Soon, the lackey returned with two male servants. It wasn't that Kevin didn't want to bring more, but he still had to abide by the rules of the nobility, and bringing two was the limit.

After Kevin exchanged a few words with the two male servants, they nodded and charged menacingly toward Li Cheng.

Li Cheng caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye and knew that Kevin was finally enraged.

If they were fully prepared now, with Li Cheng's six-pack abs and Annie's regular workouts and her frequent performances wielding wooden swords on stage, they wouldn't be afraid of these two male servants. But unfortunately, he's currently embracing Annie, leaving him no free hands.

So he simply let go of her mouth, then hugged Annie's waist even tighter and lifted her into the air.

"Stretch your legs straight!"

At the same time, Li Cheng shouted this.

Anne thought she had won and was just about to cheer when she heard this and froze. However, her body reacted quickly, tensing her long legs.

So Li Cheng grabbed Annie, his human weapon, and swung his arms around her, unleashing his ultimate attack.

Whirlwind Slash!

Chapter 191 An Indispensable Figure

"Hmph! Hmph! Hmph!"

Annie seemed to understand Li Cheng's idea, and with a loud shout, she used the momentum to deliver a side kick.

After gathering momentum with the windmill kick, Anne delivered a powerful and heavy blow, which, under her control, accurately struck the side of the male servant's body—specifically, his kidneys—delivering a critical hit to a vital spot.

"what!"

The male servant A instantly lost his fighting ability, letting out a scream as he clutched his waist and collapsed to his knees on the floor tiles.

Male servant B: !!!

Witnessing his companion's tragic state, the male servant paused in his charge, seemingly hesitant about whether to continue—he wasn't married yet, and if he were unlucky enough to lose a kidney, where would he go to seek justice?

"Scared now? Do you still dare to ambush us?"

At this moment, Li Cheng's armor, which had just been combined, disintegrated, and Annie stood back on the ground, asking triumphantly.

The male servant A had beads of sweat on his forehead and was gasping for breath, completely unable to answer the question. Although the blow to the kidney hadn't caused permanent damage, the pain was real, and extremely, extremely, extremely painful.

As for the male servant B, although he didn't answer, his retreating steps clearly revealed his true thoughts.

"Two useless people."

Kevin was so angry that he cursed and wanted to fight them himself, but with his skinny body that never got any sun or exercise, he probably couldn't even withstand being spun around once, let alone roll up his sleeves and fight Li Cheng and Annie.

Looking at what was in front of her, Anne felt...

That was so much fun!

So funny.

I never expected Li Cheng to be so good at this; I really want to do it again.

Annie subconsciously turned her head and met Li Cheng's gaze, who was also looking over. They smiled at each other, a sense of tacit understanding and intimacy welling up in their hearts.

Just then, Chairman Smith, who had disappeared without a trace, was hurriedly summoned by his servant.

After all, what started as a mere verbal feud—two men fighting over one woman—was far from a cause for concern. The servants, instead of trying to dissuade them, watched with great interest—how novel! Even the young master of the Garcia family had his moments of defeat.

But now that the two sides have started fighting, they have to call on Chairman Smith to mediate the conflict.

Chairman Smith was entertaining distinguished guests who would be arriving at the end of the banquet when he heard from his servants that a fight had broken out during the event. He was furious.

But he couldn't just ignore it, so after apologizing, he rushed over to mediate the conflict.

When the guests saw their host arrive, they made way for Smith and his servants to enter.

"You've come at the perfect time."

When Kevin saw Smith arrive, he pointed at Li Cheng and said, "This man openly caused trouble, beat my manservant, and trampled on my dignity as a nobleman. As the host of the banquet, you should know what to do, right?"

Seeing that he was the one who accused her first, Annie said angrily, "This bastard clearly started it! We are fighting back for justice!"

Smith felt that neither of the two men was very reliable and hesitated for a moment.

At this moment, a male servant who hadn't seen the whole thing whispered in Smith's ear, "It seems that this red-haired gentleman stole Young Master Kevin's wife. The two argued for a while, and then Young Master Kevin ordered the male servants he brought to take action."

Upon hearing this, Chairman Smith immediately gave him a look that shattered his worldview.

Holy crap, so this pretty boy isn't a lolicon, he's actually a wife-obsessed guy! That's way too perverted!

I was worried about Agnes, afraid that this lolicon pretty boy would target her, but now it seems that I should be worried about my wife, not Agnes?

But soon, Chairman Smith realized there was a loophole in this statement... Wait, I remember that young master Kevin was not married, so where did he get a wife?

A wife created out of thin air?

Did Banana arrange a wife for Kevin first, and then cheat on him? That can't be right.

So Smith asked a servant who knew the whole story, and that's how he finally understood what had happened.

In summary, Kevin has his eye on Annie and has decided she will be his wife. Then, Li Cheng suddenly appears and performs a passionate kiss with Annie right in front of Kevin. Kevin is furious and orders the male servant he brought in to attack, but the servant is too incompetent and gets killed instead.

But after learning what had happened, Chairman Smith was shocked once again.

'Wait, so it seems it wasn't Banana cheating on Kevin, but rather Kevin trying to cheat on Banana, failing, and then being publicly betrayed... How come this is so confusing?'

Regardless of who cheated on whom, Smith needs to make a very complicated decision.

On one side is Mr. Banana, Jenny's business partner; on the other side is Kevin Garcia, from the powerful Garcia family.

Choosing to speak for the former might provoke retaliation from the Garcia family, directly damaging their interests; choosing to help the latter would severely damage their credibility under public scrutiny, reducing their potential business partners.

Such a troublesome matter would have given Chairman Smith a huge headache in the past.

But today was different. Smith just chuckled and said, "Gentlemen, how about this? An important guest who will be here later can judge who is right and who is wrong in this matter, how about that?"

Li Cheng spoke first: "I have no problem with it. Fairness resides in people's hearts."

Kevin had no objection at first; in his view, it didn't matter who came, since they couldn't compare to the Garcia family anyway. But seeing how readily Li Cheng agreed, he immediately changed his tune, saying arrogantly, "No one here has the right to judge my right or wrong. I'm only giving you face because you're the host of the banquet."

This is a bit like cheating, but unfortunately, nobody can do anything about it.

Just when everyone thought the situation would reach a stalemate, a high-pitched female voice suddenly rang out: "Doesn't Your Highness even have the qualifications?"

Who?

How dare you call yourself Your Highness?

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw a little maid with green hair, green eyes, and a green dress, dressed in green from head to toe.

This color... matches Kevin perfectly right now.

Everyone agreed.

But the maid wasn't the key figure; the key figure was behind her, a woman dressed in an elaborate and gorgeous court dress and wearing pure white silk gloves, walking into the banquet hall. She had a beautiful face, a full and tall figure, and perfectly curled black hair—a truly beautiful woman.

More than just her beauty, many people recognized the meaning behind that face and exclaimed in surprise, "It's Princess Veronica!"

"What? Why is Princess Veronica here?"

"Isn't she in London?"

"..."

Kevin was also puzzled, not understanding what merit President Smith had to invite Princess Veronica to his banquet, and why Veronica would travel all the way to Lincoln.

At this moment, Smith said leisurely, "I think Her Highness is qualified."

Despite having so many questions in his mind, Kevin managed a forced smile: "If it's Princess Veronica, then of course she's qualified."

Before the coal industry was developed, Lincoln was a backward small town, and the Garcia family only ruled over this backward and remote town. They were not considered any powerful nobles in Britain.

By this time, Veronica had reached the edge of the crowd, and the guests spontaneously made way for her.

But after Veronica entered, she ignored Kevin and Smith and went straight to Li Cheng, saying, "Long time no see, Mr. 'Barnana'."

She emphasized the syllable of Li Cheng's pseudonym and slightly curled the corners of her mouth upwards.

Li Cheng had already caught a glimpse of Holly's green figure earlier and was somewhat prepared, so he wasn't particularly surprised at this moment. He simply said slowly, "It's been a long time, Princess Veronica."

His demeanor was remarkably calm, as if the person before him was not the renowned Princess Veronica of England, but merely an ordinary friend.

Veronica didn't care at all. In private, she was a rather easygoing person; she only appeared stern in public. Besides, in her opinion, Li Cheng's abilities were more than worthy of such an attitude.

The flying shuttle loom is the best example.

Initially, this was just a small-scale effort to demonstrate the potential of the flying shuttle loom. However, with the establishment of the United Textile Association by the Roy Merchant Guild, this momentum became unstoppable.

Li Cheng created a 'franchisee' model.

By paying a franchise fee regularly and complying with the rules of United Textile, such as not engaging in malicious competition, maintaining uniform prices, and guaranteeing quality, one can join United Textile and receive technical support for shuttle looms.

As for how much you can earn, it all depends on your own abilities.

As Marx said, capital becomes bold once there is a suitable profit.

With a 10% profit, capital will be used everywhere; with a 20% profit, capital becomes active; with a 50% profit, capital will take risks; for a 100% profit, capital will dare to trample on all human laws; with a profit of over 300%, capital will dare to commit any crime, even risking the gallows.

Driven by profits, the Merchants' Guild unleashed a power that opened Veronica's eyes. She never expected that merchants, who usually seemed to live cautiously in the shadow of the nobility, could have such power at crucial moments.

They even dared to confront head-on the old textile industry system led by Earl Anderson and supplemented by the textile union.

They bribed the patent office, they began trying to control the market, they contacted the East India Company, they hired fleets of large and small ships... and all of this was accomplished in just one month.

In London today, who doesn't know the reputation of Union Textiles?