It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Li Cheng waved his hand weakly and said, "Go, go, don't disturb my thinking in the study anymore."

Lurengar felt that this was not enough, and she solemnly assured them, "I deeply regret that I was ordered by the lord to supervise you before."

"But don't worry, I will never report your situation to the lord again—even if you are having an affair with someone, I will pretend I didn't see it and even help you cover it up!"

Haha, serves you right for being disliked by Newton.

Facing the housekeeper's foul mouth, which was so offensive even when she tried to curry favor, Li Cheng's lips twitched, and he said wearily, "I know, you can go now."

Chapter 207 Humanity Cannot Bear It

After the housekeeper left, the study was finally undisturbed.

While Li Cheng was adjusting the drawstring of his pants, Susie sat down on a stool to regain her strength. Perhaps realizing how outrageous her behavior had been, a blush would occasionally flash across her face, and she clutched her skirt tightly in her hands.

Seeing the girl blush, Li Cheng regretted his earlier actions. But being accused of being a lolicon because he was a girl with enoki mushrooms was something he found extremely difficult to accept.

But it's all in the past now, let's just pretend nothing happened...

Just as Li Cheng was lost in thought, Susie's muttered words reached his ears: "How is this even more exaggerated than Rida's..."

?

Li Cheng asked in confusion, "Who is Ruida?"

Could it be that she had met other men before? No wonder this girl only exclaimed twice when she saw her Shenzhou-13 spacecraft, and didn't even blush much. Had she met them before?

"It's a big black dog that my second uncle keeps."

Susie answered readily.

What the hell is Rida a big black dog? You've been observing this thing all the time, haven't you?

For a moment, Li Cheng didn't know what expression to make—in most cases, using animals to describe humans is a negative expression, but in this regard, perhaps... it could even be considered a compliment?

In short, Li Cheng didn't really like this kind of praise, or rather, being praised was a very strange thing to him!

After answering the question, Susie seemed to recall the Shenzhou-13 launch pad she had previously set up. Her brow furrowed, and with a puzzled expression, she muttered to herself:

"How could this be so exaggerated? Could it be that they used witchcraft to transplant the werewolf's [beep] into their own body?"

Putting aside the fact that I have absolutely no knowledge of witchcraft, what kind of evil human experiment is this?! Do you think I'm some kind of Kang Youwei? Don't describe me as that scumbag who married six wives and had to have chimpanzee testicles transplanted!

"Could it be fake? Otherwise, why didn't Lord Newton die because of it?"

You naive, clueless girl, no one's going to die from this! At most, you'll just be in pain for a week and then recover!

Considering Newton's petite stature and imagining some rather incongruous situations, Susie blushed slightly, then said with absolute certainty, "Yes, it must be fake, a hallucination. After all, with such thick pants in between, it's easy to tamper with it..."

Seeing this, Li Cheng finally couldn't hold back and said, "It's not an illusion, it's real—and I've emphasized it a thousand times, I don't know witchcraft."

After receiving affirmation from him, Susie fell silent.

A moment later, she seemed to recall a possible scenario, her body trembled violently, her face turned pale, and she cried out in terror, "No! This is too terrifying! I'd rather go back to the construction site and carry bricks!!!"

Li Cheng casually replied, "If it's about moving bricks, I'd wholeheartedly agree..."

"sorry."

Susie seemed not to hear, and bowed deeply to Li Cheng: "I was so naive before. I didn't know that becoming a maid would be such a difficult thing."

Still haven't given up? First of all, you're not even a maid! Real maids don't even sleep with the emperor, you idiot! Stop using your own fabricated ideas to imagine the maid profession, okay? Even a certain maid in a green dress wants to punch someone after hearing this!

And you yourself said that maids are like family members, right? So, according to this logic, ordering a maid to serve you in bed is the same as ordering a family member [beep—], isn't it? It's absolutely absurd!

Immediately afterwards, Susie clenched a fist and said with great confidence, "But don't worry, as a maid, it's my inescapable responsibility. I will definitely go back and prepare myself properly. I won't die because of this."

What are you trying to do, you idiot?! Try to accommodate the steel shell of Shenzhou-13? Seriously, how exactly are you supposed to try?!

“Although I’m not ready yet, if you really need it now,” Susie said shyly, her head bowed and her fingers twisting together. “It’s not impossible. After all, even Lord Newton survived, so I think I’ll at most be half-dead…”

It's half-dead, it's stubbornly surviving.

Li Cheng couldn't listen anymore. He walked to the bench where Susie was sitting and slowly extended a strong arm under her slightly panicked gaze—he wanted to simply and neatly throw this idiot who had suddenly lost her mind out of the study.

Before he could even grab Susie by the collar, she suddenly sprang up from her seat, her face deathly pale, and frantically shook her head, saying:

"No, no, no, it still won't work! I'm not ready!"

Hmm, what's going on?

Seeing that this usually arrogant girl had suddenly become timid, Li Cheng's heart stirred, and he slowly said, "What do you mean you're not ready? Didn't you say you could come anytime?"

"Although that's what I said, but... I never expected... that you weren't human."

Susie clutched her head and wailed, "Suddenly going from a mushroom level to a werewolf level is really hard for me, a human, to handle! Please, can you turn back?! I'd rather be a mushroom, at least mushrooms don't kill people!"

Li Cheng snorted coldly: "What do you mean by 'go back to normal'? I've always been like this—stop talking nonsense. Didn't you give yourself the identity of a maid? Are you planning to disobey your master's orders?"

"That's different."

"What's different?"

"Forehead......"

Susie hesitated for a moment, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, as if wondering whether to answer.

But in the end, she raised her head, looked into Li Cheng's eyes, and said, "Because I quite like you and want to be with you, but it's obvious you can't marry me. I was thinking that if I could be a maid, I could stay by your side openly and legitimately—and maid sounds much better than servant."

"So my maid is a little different from that one!"

Susie looked into Li Cheng's eyes and said these words with great courage.

Although it's a bit melodramatic, it's really the story of a naive country girl who falls in love at first sight with a strange man who suddenly enters her world, and even decides to follow him.

My head hurts...

The situation took a very unexpected turn, and Li Cheng felt a headache coming on.

Actually, Li Cheng had made a rough guess about Susie's general idea beforehand, although he was completely wrong.

In his mind, this was still an extremely feudal era. Not everyone was lucky enough to inherit a large title and estate from their fathers, or for their parents to be wealthy and enlightened. Most women had a low social status and spent most of their time revolving around men. Therefore, finding a decent person to rely on was a very important thing.

Most women just settle for someone and that's rare. It's extremely rare for someone to actually like someone. Although free love was mentioned with the rise of the Enlightenment, it was ultimately only a matter between wealthy members of the bourgeoisie.

So Li Cheng initially guessed that Susie might have thought he was a suitable husband, perhaps not disliking him, but without much romantic feeling involved. It seems he might have been wrong.

In short, it's quite troublesome...

In modern times, Li Cheng would never have agonized over this matter, because what makes us human is largely the need to abide by certain conventional moral standards in human society, and monogamy in modern times is a dual standard of law and morality.

If you dare to engage in polygamy, even without obtaining a marriage certificate, although many people may not say it out loud, they will secretly despise you and you will also be subject to moral condemnation.

However, in that era, the so-called monogamy in Europe was merely due to religious reasons. In people's customs, it was not considered immoral for men to keep mistresses. In fact, it was even used as a topic of conversation. Kings even had so-called "royal mistresses" with legitimate official status.

So even if Li Cheng kept a mistress after marrying Newton, Newton's anger upon unexpectedly finding out would most likely not exceed the level of being insulted about her height—unless Li Cheng became cold towards her because of the mistress.

Therefore, this is essentially a conflict between modern values ​​and 17th-century values, as well as one's own emotional issues.

Emotions are truly a troublesome and complex thing, subtle and chaotic, and the principles behind them are completely incomprehensible.

For Li Cheng, among all the people in the world, he was certain that he liked Newton, and he was also certain that little Newton liked him too. Although he hadn't confirmed it with his own words, he judged it through long-term interaction and through the most subtle actions and words.

According to the values ​​he was taught from childhood, Li Cheng should have remained consistent.

But what if a girl comes along who has helped you a lot and likes you and wants to be by your side? You don't really need to do anything; you just need to go along with it, and no one else will object.

Should I refuse?

From a biological perspective, every man has an instinct to desire to have relationships with as many women as possible in order to spread his genetic material, so agreeing to such a relationship would be incredibly profitable.

From the perspective of 17th-century society, keeping a mistress would not have any negative impact.

From a resource perspective, you don't lack money or time.

Therefore, under the influence of various external conditions, rejecting this girl, which should have been the right thing to do, was actually a wrong and incomprehensible act—she really likes you, and you don't dislike her, so how could you let her down? You can't even be her lover?

Agreeing would be disloyal to Newton, while refusing would leave him feeling guilty—after all, from the girl's perspective, all Li Cheng needed to do was nod and give her a tiny bit of his time.

.......

Faced with this seemingly unsolvable ultimate philosophical problem, comparable to the 'train dilemma,' the 'prisoner's dilemma,' and the 'your mother and girlfriend fall into the water at the same time,' Li Cheng pondered for only one minute before arriving at his answer and making a decision.

He didn't answer directly, but instead continued to extend his hand, sneering like a villain: "Hehehe, since you say you like me and want to be my maid, then you have no choice!"

"Weren't you just clamoring to serve me in bed? Now I'll help you practice, so accept it with gratitude!"

“Sit still, good boy/girl.”

? !

"Wait, wait, no! I'm really not ready!"

Seeing that Li Cheng seemed to be really going to take action, Susie's face turned pale. Then, just before she was touched, she took off running towards the study door and quickly disappeared from sight.

Looking at his empty hand, Li Cheng first breathed a sigh of relief, then rolled his eyes: "That's it?"

The decision he made in a minute was to use a bizarre method to calm Susie down before making any decisions. Many problems arise from emotional factors; calming down brings more rationality, and more rationality may lead to the most reasonable solution.

Maybe Susie thought Li Cheng was too monstrous and couldn't handle it, so she found someone she liked better.

However, before Li Cheng could sit back down in the chair behind his desk, the door creaked open again, and Susie cautiously peeked out with half her face, seemingly afraid that Li Cheng might suddenly lose his beastly nature.

???

Why are you here again?

"Um, there's something else I forgot to mention." Susie observed Li Cheng's expression for a while, making sure he wouldn't rush at her, before saying, "The construction site isn't that busy right now, so they don't really need me. Where do you plan to send me next?"

Why didn't you say something about this trivial matter earlier...? Li Cheng said irritably, "Serve me in bed."

"what?"

Susie wore a sour expression: "Can we discuss this again?"

Li Cheng coldly replied, "No."

Susie scratched at the wooden door in great distress, and finally asked slowly, "If I don't serve you in bed, will you allow me to be your maid?"

So please stop messing around with that poor maid profession, okay? I'm not going to kick you out.

Li Cheng's lips twitched. He really wanted to say "yes," but seeing Susie's tragic expression, as if she were going to her death, he doubted that if he said "yes," she might actually try to come to his room to serve him in the middle of the night. So he said irritably:

"No, don't worry, go back and rest. You'll have other tasks assigned to you later."

"okay."

Hearing the answer that she didn't know, Susie breathed a long sigh of relief, as if she had escaped a disaster, and left happily, finally bringing complete peace to the study.