It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Compared to his previous life, Li Cheng's era had not yet established a stable and harmonious business environment.

England in 1666 was at a very crucial juncture.

The power of capital is gradually developing, but there has been no industrial revolution, no disruptive force.

The artisan guilds gradually disintegrated under the influence and control of merchants and their guilds through the currency they held, and no longer possessed the powerful force they had in the Middle Ages, which could even drive out feudal lords.

The power of the royal family was never truly centralized before it began to gradually weaken in various struggles. With the great geographical discoveries, the wealth of feudal landlords was also gradually diluted by the emerging bourgeoisie.

In short... you need to find a backer. You can manage on your own small scale, but if you really go big, you might not even know how you died.

.......

After Anne got in touch with Mr. Stoller, she had both funds and a powerful backer.

The next issues to address are personnel, venue, and raw materials.

The hiring of staff and the rental of the site were handled by the Stoller family, who were more familiar with London, knew which families had a good reputation, and knew which plot of land could be acquired at the cheapest cost.

As for other aspects, Mr. Stoller did not speak up. Li Cheng guessed that this was probably a test of his ability to become a partner.

After all, if he does everything, what's the point of having Li Cheng?

After understanding this, Li Cheng first considered it in his mind.

He first estimated the approximate sales volume. There are about 500,000 people in London. Even if only one percent of them buy, that's still 5,000 dollars. The monthly sales volume could easily be tens of thousands.

With such a large production scale, relying solely on small street shops is far from enough; it is necessary to find large distributors.

After making his plans, Li Cheng took the token stamped by Mr. Stoller, stuffed a small bag of coins into his pocket, and then found Anne, who was playing chess with Newton in the living room. He called out, "Let's go, Anne, I'll take you to talk business."

Annie maintained her enthusiasm for the game from beginning to end. As soon as Li Cheng called out, she abandoned the game, which she was losing more often than winning, and came running over like a happy little mare.

Generally speaking, horses are meant to be ridden, but unfortunately... Li Cheng glanced at Annie's round and full seat, then looked away and let out a sigh.

Unfortunately, people cannot, and should not, ride horses.

Where should we talk?

Seeing that Li Cheng was standing still, Annie urged him enthusiastically.

Li Cheng snapped out of his reverie and casually said, "No rush, let's see which side is more convenient first."

At this moment, Newton, who was standing to the side, saw that Anne could be called away to discuss business while he was not, and he immediately felt resentful.

But her personality ultimately prevented her from saying anything. She simply glared at Li Cheng with her azure eyes before storming back to her room and slamming the door shut.

Li Cheng was sweating profusely, thinking to himself that he had forgotten to pay attention to this little bean sprout's temper; what a sin!

So he told Annie to get ready and change her clothes, and then he went upstairs alone to knock on Newton's door.

Knock knock knock—

Li Cheng knocked on the door and called out, "Don't be angry. I didn't take you because I was afraid you would be in danger. Annie is a must-bringer. Besides, she's tough and can run fast, so there's no need to worry about her."

There was no movement.

Helpless, Li Cheng said, "I'll go now, I'll bring you a gift when I get back," and went downstairs to meet up with Annie.

......

Li Cheng led Annie out of the Stoller family's house and into an oil shop on the street.

This is an ordinary oil shop where nearby residents buy their daily oil.

A quick glance around the shop revealed a sparsely furnished interior; aside from a few tables, there were only wooden barrels filled with oil. Early in the morning, apart from two young men tending the shop, there were no other customers.

Annie found the task Li Cheng was about to undertake very interesting, and she looked around as soon as she entered the room.

When she was still very young and naive, Stoller took her out to do business a few times, but after that, he never took her again. The reason for this remains unknown to Anne; only Mr. Stoller, the person involved, knows.

Without going into specifics, all the words can be summed up in one word: "Bear".

A young man in a short-sleeved shirt, who was doing the accounts, greeted the two customers warmly when he saw them enter the store. He asked, "Are you two gentlemen and ladies here to buy oil?"

Upon hearing the young man's question, Annie eagerly answered, "Yes, yes, we need to buy a lot of oil."

Ignoring Annie's obsequious behavior, Li Cheng went straight to the young man and asked, "Buddy, do you know where your family's oil comes from?"

The young man was taken aback, probably because he had never seen anything like this before. After a moment, he said, "Sir, if you have a lot of oil to buy, we can give you a discount."

Li Cheng shook his head and said, "Your shop can't supply the oil I need."

The young man remained undeterred, fearing he might lose business: "Sir, tell me how much you need first, I think our shop can supply it."

"Alright," Li Cheng said with a smile, "I need four or five hundred catties of oil a day, can you supply that?"

"Four or five hundred jin?"

The young man gasped in astonishment at the number: "So much oil, sir? Are you going to make candles?"

"That's none of your business."

Li Cheng took out a silver coin from his pocket and waved it at the young man: "Take me to the largest oil refinery around here, and this silver coin is yours."

The young man stared at the shiny silver coin, hesitated for a moment, and thought to himself that these two people didn't seem like the type to buy oil from their house. In the end, he nodded in agreement.

The three of them crossed several more streets, leaving the city limits of London, and then walked half a mile to a courtyard in the suburbs.

There was a large shop at the entrance of the courtyard. The young man pointed to the shop and said, "That's the biggest Moore oil shop in the vicinity. They can supply not only four or five hundred catties, but even seven hundred catties."

Li Cheng stood at the door and looked inside. He saw that the shop outside the courtyard was very large, and several oxcarts carrying oil were parked in front of the door. A dozen or so workers were going in and out of the shop, carrying oil out and pouring it into the large wooden barrels on the oxcarts outside, one small bucket at a time.

Just by looking at it, you can tell that this is a very large oil refining workshop.

Li Cheng nodded and tossed the silver coin to the young man, who happily caught it, and after confirming its authenticity, put it into his pocket with a delighted expression.

Then he went into the yard and called into the house, “Tom, come out, a big customer has come to visit.”

"Don't shout."

A burly man emerged from the house, casually wiping his greasy hands on his stained pockets as he impatiently asked, "What big customer? Where is he?"

The young man pointed at Li Cheng and said, "This is the gentleman."

For some reason, Li Cheng felt that this strong and muscular man looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.

He suppressed his doubts and said, "It's me, I want to buy oil."

"you?"

The burly man sized Li Cheng up and down, and seeing that the man was not very old and had no servants with him, he immediately showed a suspicious expression.

The young man, having taken the money, did his job. He immediately began praising Li Cheng, saying, "Don't underestimate this gentleman; his family's business uses a thousand or eight hundred catties of oil a day..."

How come it's suddenly 1,800 jin...?

Li Chenghan interrupted, saying, "Stop, stop, stop. I don't need 1,800 or 1,000 jin a day for now."

"Temporarily? That's quite a boast."

The burly man turned his head, looked at Li Cheng, and said in a gruff voice, "How much do you need? Don't come looking for us if it's too little."

Li Cheng met the gaze of the burly man's eyes without a care: "Let's start with 500 jin a day. If you can keep up with that, I'll buy from you from now on."

Soap can be stored for several months without spoiling, so making more won't cause any problems.

Seeing that Li Cheng spoke with such certainty, the burly man began to believe him. He nodded and said, "Okay, if you can really buy that many, I'll go and ask our boss to talk to you."

Chapter Twenty-Five: Life is full of unexpected encounters.

The burly man didn't say much. He told Li Cheng to wait outside and then went in to call his boss.

A moment later, the owner of Moore Oil Mill came out, following behind the burly man.

He was a tall, thin middle-aged man, wearing a yellow shirt and with blue hair. Although his face was slightly sunken, his eyes were full of energy, making him look radiant.

Mr. Moore glanced around the doorway and asked, "Which gentleman wants to buy oil?"

"I."

Knowing he had met the person in charge, Li Cheng handed over the prepared token: "Mr. Moore, this is Mr. Stoller's token."

Mr. Moore took the item from him and looked closely: it was a double-layered, thick, gold-embossed letter paper with the logo of the Richmond Bank printed on it, and Stoller's signature and seal in the lower right corner.

He clearly recognized the mark, and after confirming that it was correct, he returned it to Li Cheng.

“It is indeed Mr. Stoller’s mark.” Boss Moore pondered for a moment and said, “Since he was introduced by Mr. Stoller, how about this, I’ll give you 17 pence per pound of oil, how about that?”

The young man nodded in agreement, saying, "Sir, we usually pay 18 pence for oil here, which is already a very fair price."

Li Cheng shook his head: "Boss, I'm selling 500 jin every day, not 500 jin at once."

"If it really doesn't work, the oil we use here is all locally produced, it's not that cheap." The shopkeeper smiled wryly, then after considering for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "How about this, 16 and 3/4 pence a pound, how about that?"

Li Cheng is being incredibly stingy, offering a reduction of only 1/4 penny.

Annie voiced Li Cheng's thoughts directly, exclaiming, "Boss, you're so stingy! Can't you just give me 16 pence?"

"Sixteen pence? Miss, my cost is exactly sixteen pence. Are you trying to make me work for free?"

The boss shook his head: "Well then, considering your large purchase volume, 16 and 1/2 pence is really the lowest I can go. Any lower and I'll have to go eat grass."

The 16p cost figure was definitely an exaggeration, but seeing Mr. Moore's pained expression, Li Cheng figured it would be difficult to negotiate a lower price. Besides, he wasn't familiar with the business yet, so it was better to wait until the business grew bigger before discussing price reductions.

"That......"

Just as he was about to speak to confirm, a young man ran out of the courtyard and shouted.

"Dad, why did you suddenly run away? Your..."

This young man had the same blue hair as Boss Moore, but he was shorter than Boss Moore and looked somewhat weak.

Li Cheng recognized the other person instantly.

Inman Moore.

There's no way around it, the impression is too deep. This person not only invested in Lavoisier's research for six months' living expenses, but also came to the library and was fooled by him pretending to be the librarian. Afterwards, when he came to take revenge, he was dumped.

At this moment, Inman also saw Li Cheng and looked somewhat stunned.

What's going on? Isn't this the bastard who tricked him so badly? I failed to catch him that day, and I got a severe scolding from my advisor. How dare he come to my door? Is he planning to tell my dad?

After a brief moment of mental contemplation, he suddenly became enraged and shouted.

"You actually dare to come to my house?"

Enemies meeting are bound to be furious. The blue-haired youth, forgetting all about finding his father, roared at Li Cheng, "Fine, today I'll make you crawl home on a limp—Uncle Tom! Help me beat him up!"