It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

She looked at Li Cheng and asked.

Li Cheng nodded and said, "Yes, Your Highness, this is the new machine we can rely on."

“Then let’s get started as soon as possible,” Veronica said.

Two female textile workers who had been waiting nearby immediately stepped forward upon hearing the order and began weaving at the flying shuttle loom.

The female worker operating the old-fashioned loom was completely focused, skillfully switching the shuttle quickly between her left and right hands, her feet clattering on the pedals, creating a lively and energetic scene.

On the shuttle loom, although it's called weaving, all the preparations have already been completed. She only needs to stand in front of the machine, grab a wooden stick, and push and pull it in a certain rhythm. Apart from paying a little attention to the fabric being woven, she hardly needs to use her brain.

Despite this, her efficiency was more than double that of her peers.

The difference in efficiency is immediately apparent.

Although the two female workers did not quite understand the significance of this matter, they still instinctively expressed their concern.

They were skilled female workers, recruited by Roy with high salaries, and quite proficient in the weaving industry—but the problem was that even a novice who had only been in the industry for a month could operate this new loom much faster than them.

As for Veronica, although she had prepared herself mentally, she still couldn't help but be startled and show a look of surprise.

It's actually true, more than twice as efficient...

Veronica watched with a mixture of surprise and bewilderment as the weaver, who was being pulled back and forth by a wooden stick at regular intervals, effortlessly spinning cotton cloth.

She couldn't understand why no one had ever thought of improving the machine before, given that its structure seemed simple, with only a few small parts added.

"It's truly an amazing invention. How did you come up with it?"

Finally, Veronica couldn't help but ask.

This is mainly thanks to my strong curiosity in my past life, which actually made me think of searching for this thing online... Li Cheng thought for a moment and gave a universal reason: "It was a momentary burst of inspiration, and I can't really explain it clearly."

Veronica asked casually, and when she saw that he was unwilling to answer, she gave up.

"Your Highness."

Taking this opportunity, Li Cheng brought up another matter: "Now that the flying shuttle loom is finished, it's not appropriate for me to continue relaxing here. I should get back to work."

He planned to get rid of that old lady with the iron ruler and the seemingly endless aristocratic etiquette as soon as possible—after a few days of novelty, he really didn't find the castle very comfortable to live in. Not only were the windows too small, resulting in poor lighting, but the location in the suburbs also meant there were many mosquitoes.

"Well, yes."

Veronica felt a little regretful at losing an assistant who could offer advice on handling political affairs, but she didn't try to persuade her to stay.

After all, she had achieved several objectives in keeping Li Cheng as a guest—to urge him to update his work, to observe him, and to exchange ideas.

Chapter 103 This is my lifelong request

After a brief farewell, Li Cheng, having nothing else to lose, didn't want to linger any longer. He immediately hitched a ride on Roy's carriage and left the castle located in the suburbs.

Inside the carriage, Roy handed a neat stack of documents to Li Cheng.

"This is?"

"These are the business partners I've compiled over the past few days, listing those suitable for cooperation and those not so suitable. Boss, you can take a look," Roy explained.

The bumpy carriage was not suitable for reading, so Li Cheng did not rush to open the book.

He carefully put the documents away and said, "Thank you for your hard work. I will read them carefully."

In fact, Li Cheng had already discussed this matter with Veronica in the past few days. She had provided several candidates with whom he had a good relationship, including government officials, big businessmen who usually cooperated with him, and a small number of nobles who had expressed goodwill to him.

Therefore, he plans to go back and carefully study both documents to find suitable partners and categorize them.

The two then chatted about some trivial matters, and the carriage smoothly transported Li Cheng to Baker Street.

After Li Cheng got out of the car, he was greeted by a tightly closed wooden gate.

He took out his key from his pocket with a puzzled look, unlocked the door, walked through the yard filled with flowers that were wilting from lack of watering, unlocked the door again, and finally pushed open the door of the small villa.

A heavy, stifling air rushed towards me, as if the room hadn't been ventilated for days.

Li Cheng glanced around the room with suspicion. By observing the dust accumulated on the floor and table, he roughly judged that Newton and Freya had been gone for at least three days, and considering the recent humid weather, it might even have been five days.

?

So...

Li Cheng looked bewildered and slowly asked, "Where is he?"

------

a few days ago.

An unexpected guest arrived at Newton's home—Edmond Halley.

Halley, who just graduated from Oxford University this year with a research paper on the solar system and sunspots, has a black wavy hairstyle that is currently very popular in London.

However, after such smooth sailing, she encountered a bottleneck: she could not fully understand why the moon revolves around the earth, just as the earth revolves around the sun. In other words, she got stuck on a trivial point.

Harley has tried for a long time to address this issue, but has been unable to find the right direction.

At this point, on the recommendation of a professor, Halley read Newton's brand-new paper on universal gravitation, which answered many of his doubts but also raised even more questions.

For example, regarding the detailed proof of Kepler's laws, Newton only gave a perfunctory few words and did not write out the proof method in detail, which made Halley very eager to learn more.

After making inquiries, she learned some of the story behind the paper. While marveling at the author's amazing experience, she also became increasingly curious.

For an ordinary person, the most they would do at this point would be write a letter, which would then be casually glanced at by Newton and tossed into the trash—a reply? What reply? Miss Newton wouldn't bother with anything she wasn't interested in.

If you don't receive a reply, most people will just give up and stop bothering you.

However, Harley was a woman of action, and she decided to visit the mysterious Miss Newton in person.

On a sunny day, Harley picked up some gifts sent from her hometown of Derbyshire and brought her research paper on sunspots, and went to visit them directly.

"Could I take a look at the detailed reasoning process?" After a few polite words, Harley asked her main question.

At that time, Newton had just solved another difficult problem and was in a good mood, so he agreed to Halley's request.

"The proof of Kepler's theorem? I wrote it in another paper; I'll go find it for you," Newton said.

So the two of them went together to the storeroom to look for the paper.

However, Newton had two bad habits. One was that once a theory or hypothesis was proven, he would stop paying attention to it and would only do the final review when he remembered. The other was that he liked to throw away his used manuscripts everywhere and then forget where he put them.

Freya, who was in charge of organizing, couldn't understand whether the drafts on the scrap paper were drafts or laws, so she could only try to pick out the neatly written drafts and organize them in chronological order. As a result, proofs were often lost or omitted.

"Where was it again? I remember it being around here..."

Newton stared at the mountain of manuscripts piled up in storage room number two, asking himself a question in distress.

Harley was initially helping with the search, but as he searched, his attention was drawn to a piece of paper.

(A+B)*(C+D) has four terms (2*2=4). If C=A and D=B, like terms A and B are combined, resulting in three terms.

Hmm, this is interesting.

So Halley began to peruse the few sheets of paper that had been arranged together. After spending some time trying to understand the meaning of the homemade symbols, she quickly became engrossed in them, leaving Newton to search on his own.

【...】

[This proves that the integer power of the sum of any two numbers can be expanded into an identity similar to the sum of terms.]

After reading the last line, Halley confirmed that this was a law that had not yet been published. Feeling a little excited, he quickly nudged Newton's back and asked, "Have you named this law?"

Newton glanced at the paper in her hand and replied, "Lee-Newton's Law."

Lee-Newton's Law?

Harley was taken aback: "Is there any significance to this name?"

"..."

Newton's face flushed slightly, and he snorted, "No, I just like calling you that."

This little incident was quickly forgotten.

Having made her discovery, Harley, like a mouse entering a warehouse, took in each sheet of paper with shining eyes—and was surprised to find that some of them were ordinary papers, but a small portion of them were actually unproven inferences.

"That's amazing, that's really amazing."

Although the paper detailing the proof of Kepler's laws was never found, Halley used her talent to the fullest, praising wildly: "Did you prove all these laws? That's amazing! No wonder you're Cambridge's most famous genius in recent years! You truly live up to your reputation!"

Newton was so flattered by this praise that he was completely disoriented, and his little vanity was fully satisfied.

So my reputation has reached Oxford already? Haha...

After praising him, Harley continued, asking, "But why not publish it? If the laws here were published, you would definitely become the greatest scientist of all time!"

"Publish?"

Upon hearing those two words, Newton snapped out of his euphoria and frowned slightly: "I don't want to."

Why?

Harley asked, puzzled, "Shouldn't this be a good thing?"

Because of the shadow cast by Hope, Newton decided not to publish her research for the time being. After all, she wasn't doing it for fame, but just to satisfy her own interests, so whether she published it or not didn't matter much.

Besides, if she really wanted to show off, she could go to Li Cheng.

However, Newton disdained to explain the reason. She raised her little golden head and proudly said, "I said no, and that's final!"

"I beg you!"

Unexpectedly, Halley shamelessly prostrated himself on the ground, grabbed Newton's leg, and cried out, "This is my lifelong request! Please! Publish it!"

Chapter 104 A Bright Future

In the second storage room, Harley suddenly grabbed Newton's leg without warning.

"What are you doing? Let go!"

Even though he was a woman, Newton felt extremely ashamed when someone suddenly grabbed his leg.

What's wrong with this person? Who tries to suck up to someone the first time they meet? They have no shame at all!

"I won't let go! I won't let go!"

Harley shouted shamelessly.

Edmond Halle is a modern woman who, when necessary, can shed some unnecessary pretenses.

Her most famous achievement was her repeated harassment of Framsted, the first director of the Greenwich Observatory, which ultimately allowed her to stand out among a group of senior students and even some young professors and successfully become Framsted's assistant as a sophomore.

Of course, the premise for her to do this was that she had already built up enough goodwill towards Flamsteed on a regular basis, and that she herself had the corresponding knowledge and ability.