It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

"Now, Her Highness the Third Princess is in the very front row of the audience. Let us give a round of applause to the great Her Highness the Third Princess!"

*Clap clap clap clap clap...*

applause.

Even though all the audience members in the Great Hall knew this, as he introduced it, everyone's attention turned to the Third Princess in the very center of the front row, as if they were hoping that she would stand up and say a few words amidst the applause—even if she didn't speak, just standing up would be fine.

Unfortunately, no, the Third Princess simply nodded to Hope from an angle out of the audience's sight.

This left the audience slightly disappointed, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Hope didn't seem to care about that, and after a brief opening, he continued his speech in an orderly manner.

He said, "What I'm going to talk about today may conflict with the ideas of ancient sages, but science always develops through innovation, and I am no exception."

This first sentence shocked not only Li Cheng, but most of the audience present.

It should be noted that Hope has always been a staunch old-fashioned, stubborn, and antiquarian, and a core member of the Aristotelian branch of the Cambridge School. What has gone mad today that he is advocating innovation?

Hope ignored the whispers from the audience.

He had previously insisted on Aristotle because there were many members of the Aristotelian faction within the academy, and both Dean Abbott Roberts and His Highness the Prince were supporters of this faction, so it was natural for him to firmly support Aristotle.

But now that the dean is dead, and the prince's reputation has plummeted because of his escape during the plague, he naturally has to consider his future.

Hope himself was well aware that, apart from having a loud voice, good looks, and being good at public speaking, he didn't have much real talent or ability, and his main job was giving speeches.

This speech was a golden opportunity for him to curry favor with the Third Princess and change his allegiance.

The inspiration came from an interesting paper—

He smiled slightly, straightened his collar, and continued his speech in a loud voice.

"Regarding innovation, I want to talk about an innovative discovery I made some time ago. It was this discovery that made me abandon Aristotle's doctrine, because I firmly believe that my discovery is correct."

Upon hearing this, the previously noisy audience immediately fell silent.

They were very curious about what discovery could have led Professor Hope, the core of the Aristotelian school, to abandon Aristotle and choose a new doctrine.

Under the watchful eyes of all the audience, Hope's voice suddenly rose, becoming impassioned and passionate.

"I call this discovery—universal gravitation!"

Chapter Thirty: The Clown

Li Cheng's mind was in a jumble, and he could no longer hear what was being said on stage.

He immediately understood what was going on—Newton's groundbreaking paper, written with painstaking effort and countless sleepless nights, was being shamelessly presented to an entire audience in the Great Hall, including the three princesses, by this scoundrel, scoundrel, and fraudster named Hope.

His breathing began to tremble.

From a rational perspective, refuting him now is unwise. He lacks solid evidence and witnesses; this red-haired pauper, who seems to have appeared out of nowhere, clearly has no credibility and cannot convince everyone of his nonsense. Furthermore, with the Third Princess at the forefront, this would leave a bad impression on the powerful Iron Princess, and it's even possible he'd be imprisoned...

Moreover, the fact that the Third Princess would specifically attend this little speech that should have been ignored suggests that she might have known beforehand what Hope was going to do and tacitly approved of it all. Could she not be the mastermind behind it all?

Li Cheng slowly closed his eyes, but Hope's shrill voice seemed to pierce his eardrums.

However, he didn't want to endure it.

He felt an urge to go up and punch that bastard hard, no matter what.

Yes, that idea is very irrational.

But in the end, everything right now is just a farce. Seventeenth-century London, the Three Princesses, fame, intrigue... to him, it's all just a game. If he doesn't want to, he can simply delete the account and leave.

The only person he still cared about was Newton, but perhaps Newton would be better off without him.

That's all.

So far, his actions have been serious and cautious, carefully planning each step to avoid getting involved in major crises and to develop more steadily in this game.

But occasionally, he also feels the urge to act impulsively.

Don't choose the easy path; don't let the world corrupt you.

Having made up his mind, Li Cheng pressed his right hand to his chest, feeling his heart pounding violently and his blood rushing wildly through his body. He couldn't help but give a bitter smile and mock himself.

Li Cheng, Li Cheng, you used to laugh at Newton for publicly refuting Hope, but look at what you're about to do now, isn't it a hundred times more impulsive and more Newton-like than her?

After making a self-deprecating joke, he stood up, walked straight to Inman's side, and patted the unfortunate kid next to him on the shoulder.

Hi, long time no see?

Inman looked up in confusion, and upon seeing Li Cheng, exclaimed in shock, "It's you again? What do you want? Can you please leave me alone?"

"It's nothing, just a coincidence, it's not important."

Li Cheng pointed to his robes and said, "Your flowers are quite nice. How about you sell them to me? I'll offer you a silver coin."

Inman scoffed, "Why would I sell you?"

Li Cheng gave a friendly smile: "If you don't sell, I'll tell Mr. Moore about your sneaking out to deliver flowers to the Third Princess, and he'll confine you for three months."

"you you!"

In Inman's eyes, the smiling Li Cheng was simply the most terrifying devil in the world.

He straightened his chest, trying hard to appear tough, but when he thought about how the man in front of him had already signed a contract with his father, and how his father would definitely lock him up at home without a second thought if he complained, he immediately deflated.

"I'll sell," Inman said helplessly.

Li Cheng nodded in satisfaction, then reached into his pocket to take out money, only to find it was empty.

He hadn't brought any money... Li Cheng stopped reaching into his pocket, and the atmosphere became a little awkward.

Inman was comforting himself that one silver coin wouldn't hurt, but when nothing happened for a while, he asked in bewilderment, "Where's the money? Didn't we agree on one silver coin?"

Li Cheng was silent for a moment before speaking, "I didn't bring any money with me today... Here's what we'll do, I'll owe you ten silver coins later, ten times the amount."

As he spoke, he snatched the bunch of daffodils, ignoring Inman, who dared not speak out in anger.

"Oh, right."

Thinking of something, Li Cheng turned to Inman and said, "If I can't give you the money back, you can go to 221 Baker Street and ask a blonde little girl named Newton for the money. Tell her not to look for me, I'm going home."

Inman looked somewhat surprised and asked, "What are you going to do?"

Li Cheng didn't answer, he just waved at him.

"This concept is a theory that I derived from my research on centripetal force, centrifugal force, and Kepler."

Hope's jarring speech was still in progress, and the audience was so engrossed in the wonder of the new concept of universal gravitation that they completely ignored the slight commotion caused by Li Cheng.

Li Cheng held the flowers and looked around.

Standing in the center of the marble podium was a clown who twisted right and wrong; the bustling crowd below consisted of people misled by his words. And he was about to step onto this stage, as another clown, to disrupt everything.

Isn't that interesting?

Being interesting is enough. How many people spend their lives without ever stepping onto that stage as a clown, destined to remain as the bewildered masses below? Wouldn't it be better to live a dull and uninteresting life?

Li Cheng took a deep breath, forced a smile to his lips, and approached the marble podium from the corridors on either side.

No one stopped them; most people were engrossed in Hope's brilliant speech. Occasionally, someone would notice, but when they saw Li Cheng's smile and the flowers in his arms, they would all look away.

It's not like we've never seen anyone send flowers before, but it's a bit strange that they sent a grown man instead of a young boy today.

Li Cheng walked smoothly to the podium, ascended the stairs on either side, and slowly and steadily approached Hope, who was positioned in the center of the podium.

At this moment, Hope also noticed the young man with fiery red hair, a smiling face, and a bouquet of flowers in his hand.

He was also puzzled as to whose people had arranged for these shills to appear on stage so early, when it was the most crucial time for the speech. He was determined to deduct their pay later.

However, Hope still showed enough grace, quickly taking a few steps toward the red-haired young man to catch the bouquet.

Who knew that at this moment,

The red-haired young man, Li Cheng, instantly stopped smiling. He suddenly threw the flower in his hand at Hope's face, then clenched his fists, strode forward, and delivered a powerful and solid punch to Hope's face.

—This is a punch poised to be thrown, a punch from a 23-year-old young man, brimming with anger.

The pure white petals and emerald green stems and leaves obscured Hope's vision, making it difficult for him to discern what was happening.

All he could feel was the excruciating pain on his face and the downward gravitational pull of the Earth on him as he was thrown backwards through the air.

boom--

Hope fell heavily to the floor with a thud.

Quiet, utterly quiet.

The auditorium was completely silent. Everyone, including the guards, students, teachers, and staff, stood there dumbfounded. No one understood what had happened or why Professor Hope had suddenly been knocked to the ground by the young man who was delivering flowers.

Everything before my eyes seemed like a carefully orchestrated twist by a theatrical performer, so unexpected.

The only person who reacted was the Third Princess, who was sitting closest to the podium. However, when she looked at the red-haired young man on the stage, she not only did not stop him, but also showed an interested expression.

Taking this opportunity, Li Cheng took a deep breath and roared at Hope on the ground with the loudest and angrier voice he had ever used, a voice loud enough to resound throughout the entire Great Hall of the People.

"You bastard, so you slept with my brother just to trick him into writing his thesis?"

Chapter Thirty-One: The Judge

"You bastard, so you slept with my brother just to trick him into writing his thesis?"

This loud, angry shout echoed throughout the Great Hall of the People, plunging the already stunned audience into even greater bewilderment, who couldn't understand what had happened.

Hope was seeing stars from the blow, and a large swelling appeared on her left cheek. She struggled to sit up so she wouldn't fall back down.

Hearing this, he was completely bewildered, covering his face and asking, "Who is your brother?"

"So you've slept with more than just my brother?"

Li Cheng's expression turned even angrier, and then he took the opportunity to kick Hope twice more: "You hypocrite, I knew I hadn't misjudged you!"

"My brother kept speaking well of you, saying you were thinking about their future, and this is how you repay him? Not content with lying to him about the paper, now you're just denying everything!"

The audience in the Great Hall of the People finally recovered from their shock and began to gossip with great enthusiasm.

"what's the situation?"

"It seems that Hope slept with someone else's brother and stole the paper."

"So Professor Hope is this kind of person?"

"Who knows? Anyway, I felt something was off earlier. That old geezer Hope doesn't seem to have the ability to write this paper."

"But sleeping with someone else's younger brother, that's just too..."