It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Therese shrugged and said, "I have some vague guesses, but I'm not sure."

...Unbelievable, they really just randomly picked him, I'm speechless.

Li Cheng imitated Holly, keeping his mouth tightly shut to show his determination not to say a word.

Chapter 101 Next Time, Definitely

Li Cheng pursed his lips and used his facial muscles to put on a look that said, "Keep away."

Although this trick is not very original, it works well—if someone is not thick-skinned enough, they will most likely back down after some hesitation.

"Don't be so serious, come on, give me a smile~"

Therese's shamelessness is clearly exceptional; her cheeky, flirtatious manner is exactly like someone openly harassing a respectable woman in the street... Pshaw, who the hell is a respectable woman! At most, she's just a handsome, respectable young man!

But speaking of which, how did this guy know I was younger than him, since he called himself "older sister" the moment we met?

Li Cheng remained silent, but he was pondering the question in his heart.

His first thought was Holly, the little maid who was always leaking secrets, but upon closer reflection, the two seemed to have barely exchanged a few words since they met, indicating that their relationship was not very good. Moreover, Holly had secretly spoken ill of Therese.

So the suspect became Veronica. Since Therese was her childhood friend, sharing this information would have been very easy...

Li Cheng's lips twitched involuntarily. Seeing this, Therese thought it was effective and became even more outspoken.

"Well, although I prefer little boys, you seem to be younger than me, so maybe there's a chance?"

That's absolutely impossible for someone to say that, right? Besides, I have my own aspirations, okay? Who says someone else will necessarily be interested in you!

Li Cheng resolutely implemented the plan to ignore it.

"Do you like drama? Would you like me to tell you about the embarrassing things that happened to Xiao Zhuyu when she first went on stage? It's very interesting."

I've reviewed enough of Annie's embarrassing moments; I could even reverse the process and tell you about them.

Li Cheng continued to ignore it.

Li Cheng wasn't in a hurry at all, but Holly watched anxiously from behind, terrified that Li Cheng had really gotten together with Therese. There was nothing she could do but grit her teeth and silently pray.

Hang in there, Li Cheng! Don't let yourself be tempted by that kind of bad woman!

However, her anxiety was inadvertently noticed by Therese, who immediately brightened up.

Yo?

Something interesting seems to be happening?

Spurred on by Holly's anxious gaze, Therese's interest grew even higher.

Instead of backing down to Li Cheng's aloof demeanor, she put her right arm around his shoulder, then turned her back to him, adopting an intimate pose where she stood shoulder to shoulder with Li Cheng while her backs were turned to Holly.

From this angle, Holly could only see that she seemed to be talking to Li Cheng about something, but it was difficult to observe the changes in their expressions.

"Shh, I'll tell you a secret about His Highness."

To prevent Li Cheng from resisting this intimate position and to better imagine Holly's expression, Therese even sold the truth that her best friend really liked the other person's book.

It turned out to be Veronica's gossip... Li Cheng, who was originally feeling a bit humiliated and was about to move, silently withdrew his foot.

"Your Highness—she—ah—"

Therese was speaking, but she spoke very, very slowly, drawing out each word.

And while she spoke at an extremely slow pace, she was also secretly glancing at Holly behind her, who was so anxious she looked like she wanted to bite a handkerchief. She felt incredibly refreshed, like enjoying an ice cube on a hot day.

If Li Cheng knew what she was doing right now, he would be shocked to find that this girl not only had a penchant for lesbians, but was also a NTR enthusiast. Unbelievable.

She enjoyed it, but Li Cheng couldn't stand it.

Not only did he have to endure the deliberately slowed-down, cryptic tone, but he also had to suffer the ticklish sensation from the hot breath on his ears, making it a double torment for both his body and mind.

Enough is enough!

Li Cheng frowned, extended his right hand, and, to Therese's somewhat astonishment, slowly but firmly pushed away her head that was pressed against his side. He then took a step to the right, maintaining a certain distance from her.

Having done all this, he declared righteously, "In public, Miss Therese."

Nice!

Holly was thrilled by this development, and for the first time, she mentally applauded Li Cheng, almost blurting out a shout of approval.

Therese was also surprised: "Eh? Don't you want to know the secrets related to His Highness?"

“I’m a little curious, but it doesn’t really matter.” Li Cheng turned around and walked towards the VIP lounge where Veronique was. “I’ve watched the rehearsals pretty much, so we should be able to perform soon, right? I think Princess Veronique must be getting impatient.”

"Tsk..."

Therese glanced at the overjoyed Holly with a hint of regret, but quickly composed herself and said, "Everything is ready. Let's go invite His Highness."

After all, it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing for her to want to flirt with the little maid who always followed Veronique.

------

Compared to the previous rehearsals, the performance for Veronica was undoubtedly much more formal, with at least an announcer and background music.

This performance is the prologue. The male protagonist unintentionally provokes a nobleman, who tricks him into agreeing to duel multiple knights simultaneously. He eventually succumbs to exhaustion and is defeated. However, Countess Rose is moved by his indomitable will and upright spirit, and rescues him.

Although Li Cheng didn't understand drama, he still enjoyed it quite a bit—it would have been even better if it weren't based on his original work.

After the performance ended, the group left the theater and boarded a carriage to return home.

Therese is still rehearsing; they are preparing at least three acts so that several theater companies can take turns performing them, in order to promote the play as soon as possible.

Anne continued to strive, and she finally found a place where she could shine, and it seemed she could maintain her enthusiasm for at least a long time, though who knows what the future held.

There is a big difference between interests and careers.

A career can erode the will, enthusiasm, and motivation that originally a person developed from their interests. Over a long career, one may lose their initial passion and even develop a dislike for this monotonous and repetitive life.

Like many programmers who have just entered the industry, after waking up from their initial lofty aspirations for programming and realizing that they are just modern-day bricklayers using some sophisticated tools, doing basically nothing more than crawling web pages, making spreadsheets, and copying and pasting the work of others, they completely lose their love for programming.

However, as Romain Rolland once said: "The true heroism in the world is to see through the nature of life and still love it."

There are still some heroes who can find enjoyment in the monotonous and complicated career, maintain their curiosity about the unknown, remain passionate about innovation, and have the courage to change the existing framework—and then, unintentionally, they may change the world.

What, you're asking about Li Cheng?

He has given up resisting; at worst, he'll just insist that it was written by that fictitious friend of his.

On the way back, Veronica asked him for his thoughts as usual, and Li Cheng replied that he was very satisfied... But he couldn't be dissatisfied either. Could he say that he wanted to stop rehearsals immediately and ban the performance forever?

Hearing that she was very satisfied, Veronica smiled slightly and asked, "Then... when will the sequel to your friend be finished? Therese often asks me about this."

"I'll definitely do it next time."

Li Cheng's lips twitched as he made this promise.

Chapter 102 Goodbye

Nine days later.

Carrying a huge box covered with a black cloth, the hero Roy arrived at the castle five days earlier than the scheduled deadline.

Although he refused to allow the guards to open and search the box at the door, claiming it contained classified information, he was stopped and suspected of plotting against His Highness, almost losing the chance to save Princess Li Cheng...

However, it wasn't a big problem. After some fuss, he brought the treasure box and several newly hired workers to the reception room.

"Boss, how have you been these past few days?"

Roy changed into a formal brown suit, but winked at Li Cheng with a slightly lewd grin.

Being able to receive the princess's hospitality and stay in the castle for so long is a privilege that many people don't even get... That's what he thought, which is why he asked with a slightly teasing tone.

However, upon hearing this teasing remark, Li Cheng's face turned pale, his arm trembled, and he finally managed to squeeze out two words through gritted teeth: "Not bad."

He has been living in dire straits these past few days.

There was nothing wrong with Veronica. She treated Li Cheng normally and attentively, and didn't completely ignore him. She would even call him to her study from time to time to ask for his advice on politics.

Although Li Chengzhen would probably mess up handling government affairs, as a keyboard warrior with the perspective and knowledge from his previous life, he is still quite adept at theoretical discussions and can often offer novel viewpoints and suggestions.

And when Veronica fills in the gaps and corrects the unreasonable parts of these novel ideas, they are often more effective than conventional solutions.

Therefore, he was called to the small study quite often. In a sense, wouldn't that mean he was being used as a tool?

What truly plunged Li Cheng into dire straits was something else entirely.

After unintentionally embarrassing himself at the banquet on the first night, Li Cheng agreed to accept instruction from a court etiquette teacher.

Three days later, a well-dressed, white-haired old lady appeared before him.

She vowed that she would do her best to help Li Cheng quickly familiarize himself with the key points and etiquette to pay attention to at aristocratic banquets, and politely asked Li Cheng if she could use some "little tricks to help him remember".

Li Cheng agreed with a beaming smile.

And this is the beginning of hell.

To his utter surprise, the old lady from the palace's so-called "little trick to help with memory" was actually just hitting him with an iron ruler.

From a young age, she was surrounded by mischievous sons of kings and dukes, who were incredibly ruthless. She always carried an iron ruler, and if she saw Li Cheng do anything slightly wrong, she would give him a merciless beating.

Who can withstand this?

Li Cheng, a modern man from the 21st century, was surrounded by people who didn't care about these troublesome etiquettes. He was a complete beginner, and after only an hour, he was being beaten until he was howling in pain.

Although he knew this was the teaching method, he could refuse and find another etiquette teacher at any time if he was unhappy.

But there was always a sense that he had lost, and he could only accept it with tears in his eyes.

......

Upon learning of Li Cheng's ordeal over the past few days, Roy didn't know what expression to make.

Can a smile lighten the mood?

This is definitely inappropriate; you might get fired one day for stepping into the office with your left foot first.

Roy could only try his best to keep a straight face.

Fortunately, Veronica, who had just learned that the finished product of the flying shuttle loom had been made, finally arrived late.

She still wore an elaborate court dress, but the patterns and styles were different each time—this was part of a necessary, but in Li Cheng’s opinion, very inexplicable etiquette.

Veronica looked at the large, unremarkable creature in front of her, which had lost its symmetry and even looked somewhat ugly in order to achieve its function as quickly as possible, and her delicate eyebrows furrowed almost imperceptibly.

Compared to the old-fashioned loom next to it, which was simplified and exquisitely crafted, this new machine did not look very appealing due to the rush to complete it.

Is this it?