It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Strangely, everyone cast a strange look at him, even the strong man who usually took good care of him stood still.

"Uncle Tom?"

The blue-haired youth tentatively called out to the burly man again, but the man did not move. Instead, he looked questioningly at his boss, whose face was gradually darkening. The boss was Moore's father and the owner of Moore Oil.

It's true what they say, you never know where you'll meet someone in life!

Li Cheng looked at the familiar blue-haired youth and couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

The first meeting allowed him to get to know Lavoisier; the second meeting gave him an opportunity to negotiate the price.

Li Cheng knew this, so he pretended to be very angry and said to Boss Moore in a deep voice, "It seems that Boss Moore doesn't like doing business with me and is even going to have someone kick me out."

"In that case, I'll go ask around. If all else fails, I can buy it from somewhere else. London is such a big place, surely I can find oil somewhere?"

After Li Cheng finished speaking, he made a gesture as if he was about to turn around and leave: "Annie, let's find the next one."

"Okay, okay, let's go back and see who runs faster."

Anne actually thought they were going to talk to another company, and she even started running after saying that.

Li Cheng was sweating profusely, beginning to doubt whether bringing Annie along was a mistake. But the die was cast, and he had no choice but to grit his teeth and follow along, otherwise it would seem too fake.

"Wait, wait, it's all a misunderstanding!"

Seeing that a large deal was about to slip away, Boss Moore hurriedly shouted to persuade him to stay.

"I praise you, boss..." Li Cheng stopped abruptly after taking two steps, turned his head and said, "Misunderstanding? But your son just said that I should crawl back?"

The poor blue-haired youth, now vaguely realizing he had made a grave mistake, stammered, "I didn't mean that, I..."

Mr. Moore was so angry that he turned around and kicked his son twice: "You're always causing me trouble! Go back inside and don't leave the house before school starts!"

The blue-haired youth didn't dare to disobey, but looked like he wanted to say something, and said pitifully, "But Father, there's a speech in a few days..."

Boss Moore yelled at him, "No buts!"

The blue-haired youth was yelled at and scrambled back home.

Mr. Moore turned back and forced a smile: "Mr. Li, it was all a misunderstanding. Let's continue our discussion."

Li Cheng smiled and said, "It seems I did misunderstand Mr. Moore."

Negotiations continue.

However, with this unexpected event, Li Cheng took the initiative, so the price from before naturally didn't count.

Mr. Moore, realizing this as well, offered to lower the price, saying, "We must give Mr. Stoller face. I can offer you 16 and 1/4 pence a pound, how about that?"

Li Cheng glanced at him, shook his head, and said leisurely, "It's still a bit high. I think it could be lowered. 16 pence would be perfect."

Mr. Moore wanted to cry his heart out again, but seeing Li Cheng's calm expression, he realized that he probably wouldn't make much money this time. He hated his good-for-nothing son.

He gritted his teeth, his face flushed, and said, "Fine, 16 pence it is, I agree!"

"Deal! It's a deal!"

Fearing the other party might change their mind, Li Cheng immediately said, "Let's not delay, let's sign the contract now."

Mr. Moore also recovered from the setback. After all, earning less is better than earning nothing, and even better than letting competitors earn it.

He sighed, "Very well, very well. May I ask this gentleman's name..."

Li Cheng smiled: "Aber Lee."

------

Epilogue: The mare ran halfway and realized there was no one behind her. Looking confused, she ran back and questioned Li Cheng about why he had lied to her.

Chapter Twenty-Six: Gifts

After talking with Moore, Li Cheng inquired about the location of baking soda and prepared to follow suit by talking to the seller of soda ash.

This time, however, Anne insisted that she had to come.

Li Cheng initially wanted to refuse, but considering that Annie was nominally his business partner, he agreed.

Then a truly horrific conversation ensued.

The portly shop owner launched into a long explanation: "My alkali was shipped from Solvay, France, all the way by sea..."

Anne frowned, trying hard to listen.

After the fat boss finished speaking, he held up three fingers: "I supply half of London's alkali. I sell it to those small merchants for fifteen pence a pound. Even if you were introduced by Mr. Stoller, you should still pay at least this price."

Anne exclaimed in surprise, "Three pence?"

The fat shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, not knowing whether the man was really stupid or pretending, so he had no choice but to withdraw his finger and say, "It's thirteen pence a pound."

Anne then asked, "Would ten pence work?"

The fat boss was taken aback again, thinking to himself, "This is not how you bargain. Is this guy here to cause trouble?"

For a moment, the chubby boss didn't know what to say, and they were at a standstill.

Li Cheng couldn't stand it anymore. He pulled Annie behind him and said with a laugh, "Sorry, sorry, she was just joking."

Still unwilling to give up, Annie, who had been dragged to the back, asked again, "Boss, do you have a son?"

The portly shopkeeper asked, puzzled, "No, is there a problem, Miss?"

Li Cheng felt a little suffocated. He took a deep breath and then vowed in his heart that he would never take Annie out again. Taking her out again would be stupid.

Finally, he sighed and gave up: "Boss, thirteen pence a pound, it's a deal."

Fat Boss: ? ? ?

Although he didn't quite understand how the deal had been made so casually, he still nodded: "Okay, then let's sign the contract."

Thanks to Anne, we didn't get a good price this time, only a little below the market price.

As it turns out, even with money and connections, doing business is a very troublesome thing, especially when you bring Annie along.

.....

evening.

Stoller's House.

After a long day of running around, the two of them collapsed into their chairs as soon as they got home.

"I'm exhausted..."

Annie buried her face in the table, panting with her tongue lolling out.

Li Cheng sat across from her and glanced at her silently, thinking to himself, "What are you tired of? You've been causing trouble the whole time. I've been the one doing all the talking."

Anne was basically just a background character throughout the whole thing. Aside from causing trouble, her only role was to act as a mascot, showing the group, "Hey, this is Mr. Stoller's daughter."

Then she just stood there, vaguely listening to Li Cheng talking to the businessmen about 'bulk purchases,' 'how many pence a pound,' 'this is really no good, this is our cost price,' 'a quarter of a pence lower,' behaving in a barely acceptable way.

Now that everything has come to a standstill, she has started to worry.

Anne, unusually looking worried, turned to him and asked, "Li Cheng, do you think soap will sell well?"

"of course."

Li Cheng replied without hesitation, "Not only does it sell well, it sells extremely well."

With a groundbreaking product, excellent marketing, high quality, and sufficient production volume, Li Chengshi couldn't think of any reason why it wouldn't sell well.

Li Cheng's reply gave Annie a little more confidence—but even without that reply, Annie would have quickly regained her confidence anyway.

Step, step, step.

Just then, footsteps sounded, and Stoller walked in from outside. His brow, which had been furrowed for the past few days, was now relaxed, and he had a smile on his face, looking to be in a good mood.

Upon seeing the two people in their seats, he took the initiative to greet them: "Annie, Li Cheng, how did today go?"

Anne answered quickly, "It felt great, I played a big part in it."

Li Cheng's lips twitched, too lazy to refute.

"Well done, keep it up."

Stoller knew perfectly well what was going on. After casually praising Anne a couple of times, he turned his gaze to Li Cheng: "Li Cheng, what about you?"

"It was much more difficult than I had imagined."

Li Cheng pondered for a moment and said, "If it weren't for your help, sir, I suspect I might have been ripped off. And even with your help, apart from the Moore Oil Company cutting the price of oil to 16 pence a pound, the other chambers of commerce are sticking to their prices and refusing to budge."

"Sixteen pence a pound?"

Stoller was slightly surprised and a little skeptical: "How did you negotiate?"

So Li Cheng recounted what had happened, adding modestly, "Unfortunately, we couldn't negotiate a deal elsewhere; the price was only slightly lower than the market price."

After listening, Stoller looked at Li Cheng with increasing admiration, and liked him more and more as he looked at him.

"That's normal. They're businessmen, and businessmen are all about pursuing profits. Even I can't force them. You've already done a great job by getting oil prices this low."

Stoller commented, then tapped his cane and said, "If you're not tired, I can tell you about the chambers of commerce you'll be contacting next. Understanding them will help you conduct better transactions."

Li Cheng's eyes lit up, and he quickly said, "Not tired at all, thank you for your trouble, Mr. Stoller."

"I......"

Annie tried to say something, but was stopped by a threatening look from Li Cheng.

Stoller observed all of this and smiled, "Don't mention it. This is also helping myself, isn't it?"

......

Stoller's explanation lasted for about an hour, during which Li Cheng listened attentively and asked questions from time to time.

Judging from her expression, Anne really wanted to go play with Newton, but she held back, though she kept fidgeting as if a needle was pricking her on the stool.

Ugh.

Stoller took in his daughter's performance and sighed inwardly, thinking that she was hopeless and he should wait for the next generation.

Thinking this, he looked at Li Cheng more frequently, which made Li Cheng a little confused.

He asked, "Is there anything else you need from me?"

Stoller replied, "It's nothing. It's getting late, you should go wash up and get some rest."

After saying this, he left, leaning on his cane.