It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Agnes, however, confidently replied with her hands on her hips.

"Why?"

Li Cheng said with interest, "Do you think I wouldn't dare to beat you up?"

"It's not that I'm afraid."

Agnes seemed to have figured out his pattern and replied with great confidence, "It's because I haven't done anything wrong. I'm just asking a question, which doesn't violate any of the rules you gave me, so you won't beat me up."

It seems that regardless of the effectiveness of the plan to correct the unruly child, at least the impression of a rule has been established in her mind.

"Okay, you're clever."

Seeing that his few days of work hadn't been a complete waste, Li Cheng felt a little better and explained, "I asked Lavoisier to go back first because I encountered a bit of a headache and needed to think about it quietly by myself."

"What's troubling you?"

"There's no way I can tell you that, so don't ask."

As Agnes pressed him with curiosity, Li Cheng waved his hand and unexpectedly said, "So you should go home too. After being away for so many days, Smith will... Mayor, I'm a bit used to calling him that and I keep getting it wrong. Anyway, your father should be worried."

(Smith: No, actually not.)

"what?"

The turn of events was so unexpected and sudden that Agnes, who was suddenly released from prison, opened her mouth in surprise, but after letting out an "Ah," she couldn't say anything more for a long time.

I was supposed to stay another day, so why were they suddenly letting me go home?

The door to the hotel room behind her was wide open, freedom was right in front of her and within easy reach, but Agnes was in no hurry to leave.

"Why?" she asked.

"Are you a walking encyclopedia of questions? Didn't I already say I need to be alone?" Li Cheng said impatiently.

Although she didn't understand the meaning of "100,000 Whys", a strange feeling filled Agnes's heart - if the agreed time had come and Li Cheng had kept his promise to let her leave, she would definitely not have any intention of staying. But the current situation was something that Agnes cared about a lot, so much so that she was unwilling to leave.

Why did this "big devil" send his girlfriend home after just one day away, and even intend to send himself home as well, planning to isolate himself in a hotel? What exactly happened? What did he encounter?

In short, I'm very curious, extremely curious!

"What happened to you?"

Agnes unusually softened her tone, attempting to create the illusion that she was being very well-behaved.

"Forehead."

Seeing this, Li Cheng stroked his chin and looked at the brat with a strange expression: "You're not worried about me, are you? Worried about someone who beats you up at the drop of a hat—are you the kind of person who likes to be beaten up? Speaking of which, I recently met someone named Didelli. People from Lincoln are so strange."

???

Agnes was both embarrassed and angry at what she heard. She shouted, "How could anyone enjoy getting beaten up? I was just curious about you, you bastard..."

"What are you?"

Li Cheng suddenly narrowed his eyes.

"You... what happened to you all of a sudden?"

Agnes was startled and quickly changed her words.

"Uh-huh."

Seeing this, Li Cheng nodded in satisfaction. Looking at the unruly child in front of him who had developed unconditioned reflexes after several days of training, a sudden sadness rose in his heart. Originally, he was just bored and thought he would try to train the unruly child, thinking that he might be able to use him in the future.

To my utter surprise, this FLAG was set up so quickly...

Thinking of this, Li Cheng sighed deeply and finally had the idea of ​​talking to someone.

He reached out and patted the half-brat's head, saying, "Tell me, what if you were my daughter..."

"What do you want to do?"

Agnes was so frightened that her hair stood on end. She quickly took a few steps back and broke free, rubbing her head: "I will never accept you as my godfather, don't even think about it!"

"Hehe, even if you acknowledge me as your goddaughter, I won't accept her. Who would want such a grown goddaughter?"

Li Cheng's lips twitched, followed by a melancholy sigh: "Let's put it another way—if one day in the future you grow up, get pregnant, but the child is your friend's, and now you have to marry someone else, what would you do?"

Chapter 252 One Shot, One Kill

Edward VII's reign was not very smooth.

Although Charles II himself was quite unreliable, even though the cause of his death was the absurd one of improper use of anesthetic drugs, it was still accepted by many uninformed parliamentary ministers, who remarked that this man was indeed capable of such a despicable act.

After all, he was the "King of Pleasure," a ruthless man who, after failing to get money from Parliament to buy clothes, ended up displaying all the royal family's precious collections, including the three-piece coronation suit, as exhibits and charging the public for admission.

Even when someone impersonated a priest and secretly stole the three-piece suit, Charles II was not angry at all. After hearing the person's story, he laughed and pardoned the crime, even rewarding him with 300 pounds. He completely humiliated Britain.

Even so, Parliament still had reservations about Edward VII's ascension to the throne.

After all, in Britain, the power struggle between the king and Parliament is an old tradition. Although Britain is a monarchy, it has never been able to achieve what a centralized king can actually do, which is largely related to his own abilities and whether Parliament cooperates.

Edward VII was slightly less capable in this regard. Although he wasn't as unreliable as Charles II in the eyes of Parliament, he was still relatively inexperienced and newly appointed, so some challenging was necessary.

However, this kind of obstruction was not a direct confrontation, but rather a proposal that Parliament would make regardless of what Edward VII wanted to do, whether it was reasonable or not.

[Your Majesty is still young and lacks governing experience. A special committee of honest and reliable members should be selected to discuss the necessity and rationale for implementing this proposal. Only after reaching a consensus, confirming the significance of the plan, and submitting a feasible implementation plan should it be submitted to Parliament for joint approval by Your Majesty, to ensure mutual agreement and...]

After receiving the reply, Edward VII knew that by the time the committee was established and the approval process was completed, his son would probably be strategizing to take the throne. So he temporarily abandoned his plans to make a big splash as the new king and undertake some major projects, and decided to deal with the little devils in Parliament first.

But he was, after all, a king. Although many things couldn't be done without parliamentary approval and funding, there were some matters he could decide independently.

Externally, this includes diplomacy between countries; internally, it includes private property such as the royal family's own territory.

So Edward VII began to try to engage in diplomacy with France.

Although anyone who has read some history knows that Britain and France are visibly irreconcilable enemies, with a history of grievances that can be explained in several books, Britain is currently facing some difficulties and has had to lower its stance a bit.

The difficulties stemmed from the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

Although the London epidemic ended early due to the butterfly effect, and a third of London was not burned down by a fire, it should not have too much difficulty. At least it should be able to hold its own against the Netherlands.

But the problem is that the mysterious death of King Charles II is no small matter!

When news of the king's death arrived, the British soldiers considered it an ominous sign, and their morale noticeably declined. Meanwhile, the Dutch fleet, upon receiving the news from the prisoners, was overjoyed, believing it to be a blessing from God, and thus fought with increasing ferocity.

With the tide turning and Britain seemingly on the defensive, if King Louis XIV were to intervene, the consequences would be truly unimaginable.

If Edward VII didn't want to suffer a defeat so soon after his accession to the throne and be forced to pay tribute and cede territory, he had to win the support of France—at least to prevent them from kicking him while he was down.

But the problem is, you can't just ask for a reconciliation whenever you want; you have to be sincere, right?

The greatest show of sincerity would be to offer money, but this would be completely unacceptable to Edward VII. If he dared to make such a proposal, the other side probably wouldn't even bother to set up a committee and would simply pass on his proposal.

But Edward VII did come up with a solution, and it was a solution that killed two birds with one stone.

Marriage.

In other words, as the King of Great Britain, he gave his sister, Princess Veronica, to Louis XIV for a marriage alliance.

From Edward VII's perspective, the plan was perfect. On the one hand, it would send his troublesome sister far away so he could not see her anymore; on the other hand, the marriage would indeed gain the support of Louis XIV, since she was the king's only sister, and thus of great importance.

From Parliament's perspective, they didn't have much reason to object. On the one hand, it was the King's own family matter, and Parliament couldn't interfere even if it wanted to; at most, it could protest that the move was detrimental to the dignity of Great Britain. On the other hand, Her Highness the Princess was indeed getting on in years, and in her twenties, she was almost at the age to get married.

There were quite a few dissenting voices from the public, who felt the move was shameful—how could they marry our princess to those Frenchmen? But as for the effect of their opinions...

As for the opinions of the parties involved.

Veronica remained quite calm upon hearing this unconfirmed rumor. After all, a political marriage within the royal family was inevitable, and to be fair, Louis XIV's status was absolutely worthy of her.

But there's a problem...

Just over two months ago, she got drunk because she wasn't good at drinking, and had a slightly unpleasant encounter with Li Cheng at Lincoln's place.

Originally, it wasn't a big deal; both parties could simply pretend it never happened and go their separate ways. The issue of virginity could be easily explained away by the movement during horseback riding being too vigorous and accidentally tearing the hymen—it wasn't a serious problem.

But Veronica never expected that about a month and a half after that little exercise, she would be surprised to find that she began to experience dizziness, loss of appetite, morning vomiting, and even her menstruation had stopped.

Given these circumstances, rationally speaking... she is pregnant.

What?

Upon suddenly realizing that she had been killed in one shot, Veronica was a little furious, and even had the urge to hang the culprit in the air and give him a good beating.

Despite my emotional breakdown, the matter still needs to be dealt with.

If she were to marry into France while heavily pregnant, it wouldn't be a marriage of convenience; it would be a complete insult. She might even be the catalyst for the Second Hundred Years' War between England and France...

What, you're saying it's okay to have multiple births?

Even in today's technologically advanced world, abortion remains a potentially harmful practice, but in the 17th century, it could have had far more serious consequences, potentially harming one's entire health as well...

Imagine, with the medical technology of the 17th century, inserting a spinning needle deep into the mother's body to kill the fetus and then gradually removing it—how high would the infection and bleeding rates be...?

Veronica wouldn't have resorted to this last resort if it weren't unavoidable.

After much thought, she finalized her plan.

drag!

Arranged marriages are no small matter. If they can find a way to delay for a year using various excuses and secretly have the child, then everything will be fine, and they can pretend that nothing happened.

However, as of the time the plan was finalized, Veronica had not informed Li Cheng of her intentions. If nothing unexpected happened, even if the plan went smoothly, he would probably still not know about it after the child was born in half a year.

The person who truly informed Li Cheng was a certain green grasshopper maid who possessed a strong sense of justice and felt that she could not stand idly by and let some scoundrel deny everything afterward.

Chapter 253 The Coin of Destiny

The emperor was not worried, but the eunuch was. Harboring resentment towards His Highness's situation, Holly secretly sent a letter to Li Cheng about it.

The letter was somewhat disorganized, filled with meaningless anger and accusatory words, as well as half-pleading statements such as, "Can't you straighten up and think of something?"

After all, compared to Veronica, who was completely hopeless, Holly, the little handmaid, was still a little naive and held some seemingly unrealistic fantasies.

As for Li Cheng himself, his expression was distorted after receiving the letter—"Are you kidding me? Is it really that much of a coincidence?"

While the chances of getting pregnant are much higher than winning the lottery if the timing is right, the problem is they've only had it happen once! And it was when they were completely drunk and unaware of it!

Aside from a vague impression, Li Cheng couldn't remember the specific details, especially the crucial ending. If it hadn't been Veronica who was killed in one shot, he would have almost thought someone was deliberately trying to scam him and that he was being forced to become a father.

Perhaps Veronique's feelings were much deeper, since women experience pain for a period of time after their first time, but he truly lacked a realistic understanding.

As for the marriage alliance with Veronica, objectively speaking, Edward VII did it very successfully. It allowed him to establish his prestige, resolve the troublesome issue of his sister, and handle the troublesome Anglo-Dutch War—a triple win.

Li Cheng and Veronica didn't have much of a relationship. In the past, he would have thought that this matter wouldn't have much impact on him, and that the princess might even be able to use it as an opportunity to make some friends in France.

But the problem is... he hit the mark on his first try! Although theoretically it's not impossible during the danger period, how the hell did this happen?!