It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Miller: "......"

Well, actually Li Cheng didn't expect Miller to answer; he just said all this to express his feelings.

Besides, the place he lived in in his previous life hadn't even broken through the solar system yet. The only place where people could live outside of Earth was a space station floating a little far away from Earth (really just a little bit). Talking about the stars and the sea was just wishful thinking.

However, if we're talking about giving time travelers a proper job, Li Cheng thinks it has to be something related to technology. Before, he was a newcomer and unfamiliar with the place, and he was also preoccupied with other things, so he didn't fully commit to his work. Now it's time to be more serious.

Chapter 125 The Spoon-Moving Award

After sighing, Li Cheng glanced at the application report and immediately questioned it.

Application for Research on the Meaning of Cat Meows — Ward Gary.

?

What is this... Li Cheng carefully read through the application and realized that this guy with a wild imagination believed that as long as he could understand cat language and communicate with them, he could completely protect the warehouse where grain was stored from rats.

The application was presented with great seriousness, even considering the potential dialectal issues among cats. It stated that the applicant had decided to purchase cats of different breeds and from different regions throughout the UK, for which he needed research funding. He also expressed his sincere gratitude to the newly appointed principal for this research scholar program and took the opportunity to flatter Li Cheng.

What the hell is this dialect issue?! Do cats even have dialects? Does that mean we have to categorize them by nationality? Should we buy some more French cats?

Ward Gary explained why he didn't go further afield to France to purchase cats for research: the research results should be applied to Britain first, not to those despicable Frenchmen, who should let the rats devour their food... So he was a patriot after all.

Snapped--

Tossing aside the seemingly absurd but actually serious research application, Li Cheng, with mixed feelings and a touch of reluctance, turned to the next application.

Application for Research on the Image of Body and Soul

???

This time, Li Cheng was too lazy to even look at it, so he downloaded another one. However, it was another piece of weird stuff, so he had no choice but to download yet another one...

After flipping through about half of them, Li Cheng couldn't hold back any longer. These guys who were talking nonsense kept pushing the boundaries of his imagination, even thinking about touching something related to the cycle of life.

"This is ridiculous."

Li Cheng couldn't help but speak up.

Although many studies seem very down-to-earth or even inexplicable to outsiders before they yield results, and in the early stages, the discovery of many new substances was due to the unconventional experiments of these scientists, resulting in accidental and stumbling discoveries.

The problem is, these reports are just plain boring...

“I’ve narrowed it down to a large portion, and these are some that are relatively feasible,” Miller said.

It's already relatively feasible...

Li Cheng suddenly realized that his previous idea of ​​allocating funds might have been a mistake.

These days, most scientists' research is in a stage of blind luck, and it has no effect on advancing the technology tree in the short term. What's worse, their possible theoretical achievements are not very useful to Li Cheng either.

"It would be more reliable for me to hire some skilled blacksmiths..."

Li Cheng murmured to himself, while beginning to doubt whether his work could proceed smoothly.

In fact, when it comes to tech trees, if you follow the progression from Civilization VI, the natural progression would be: Industry: gunpowder, metal casting, machinery, steelmaking, rifling, assembly line, steam power, steam engine, internal combustion engine; Agriculture: fertilizer, pesticides.

Even if you don't understand the industrial sector, just thinking about it gives you a headache, and the seemingly easy fertilizers in agriculture... well, that's only in appearance.

The ability to refine fertilizer in large quantities at low cost is a hallmark of a modern nation. Given the technological level of the 17th century, if they had insisted on using rudimentary methods to refine fertilizer from coal, one ton of coal could probably only produce a few kilograms of fertilizer. The cost would have been far less than hiring a fleet to dig up guano on an island.

Li Cheng's ambitions didn't even last a single chapter before being torn apart by the cold, ruthless reality.

Indeed, light industry is the foundation of capitalism. Jumping straight into heavy industry is too big a step and could easily lead to things that shouldn't be involved.

Miller.

He decided to focus on something more immediate, like the diligent secretary of the principal in front of him: "Why did your cousin choke you just now? Of course, it's okay if you can't say."

“Today is Cambridge’s annual Spoon-Moving Award, and I’ve given it to Joanna,” Miller replied. “At the same time, to prevent Joanna from improvising, I prepared a speech for her, which made her very angry.”

"A prize for carrying a ladle?"

Li Cheng was somewhat curious about this award with its peculiar name.

“Gold, silver, and lead spoons are awarded to outstanding students, while a wooden spoon is awarded to the person who came in last place last year.” After explaining, Miller added casually, “Generally speaking, this is a customary practice that is personally bestowed by the principal.”

Li Cheng: "......"

He wasn't deliberately avoiding it; he genuinely hadn't heard anyone mention it!

"Ahem, well, since I'm here today, I'll take care of this."

Li Cheng coughed awkwardly, preparing to do a token job: "Um, where's the speech draft? What's the specific procedure?"

Miller said, "Joanna is in charge of this now. You can ask her."

Joanna?

Li Cheng then remembered that he had locked the blue-haired girl out and hadn't let her in yet.

He quickly got up to open the door, only to find Joanna squatting pitifully on the ground near the door, hugging her legs like an abandoned puppy.

However, just as Li Cheng was beginning to feel some sympathy, Joanna suddenly sprang up from the floor, looking as serious as if nothing had happened.

Li Cheng couldn't pretend nothing had happened, so he indeed closed the door on the girl without explaining: "Sorry, I just forgot about you."

Joanna said with a serious expression, "My psychological state and emotional level are relatively stable compared to the previous period."

?

What is this all about...? Li Cheng felt that he should also consider submitting an application like that guy, called "Application for Research on Joanna's Language".

However, after learning from Miller that the girl was simply bad at communicating and not deliberately trying to drive him away by not speaking human language, he became much more patient and even had the leisure to analyze the situation.

So Li Cheng used his divergent thinking to tentatively ask, "You mean 'I'm fine now'?"

Joanna: "......."

During Li Cheng's careful observation, after he expressed his guess, Joanna's stern face seemed to move slightly, but the movement was too subtle for Li Cheng to be sure.

I actually guessed right... No, to use Joanna's wording, I should say I "derived the correct answer by inferring from past experience and external observation."

Li Cheng silently complained to himself.

At that moment, he felt a sense of accomplishment, but he immediately realized that this was not something to be happy about. Instead, it only proved that he and this somewhat abnormal girl might have the same thought process... which was a bit sad.

Bringing his thoughts back together, and to avoid getting bogged down in a question-and-answer guessing game, Li Cheng said in one breath, "Miller said that you are in charge of today's spoon-moving award. He told me the process, time and place, and also gave me the speech manuscript. I will go on stage to give the speech and present the award."

Chapter 126 Ether

Upon learning that she wouldn't have to go on stage to give a prepared speech or personally present awards, Joanna's expression was no longer as tense as when they first met, but rather visibly much more relaxed.

She said, "Because..."

"You're welcome."

Li Cheng interrupted directly: "These are all part of my job... So what about the time, location, schedule, and speech?"

"Ah."

Joanna nodded: "The time is one o'clock in the afternoon, the place is the auditorium, and the speech is in my desk drawer."

"Oh, I see—not later?!"

Li Cheng first subconsciously agreed, then was startled and looked at Joanna with the eyes of someone who had seen something rare: "So you can talk."

However, he regretted it as soon as he said it, because he remembered Miller saying that Joanna didn't know how to communicate with strangers, but that didn't mean she couldn't give some standard answers—there were water-based robots in his previous life, so she couldn't be worse than a robot... Oh, it seems she really is worse than some, AlphaGo has wiped out all the human Go masters.

In short, Joanna could definitely answer some of the 'standard answers' that had no options; otherwise, she wouldn't have come to help Miller (and incidentally make contact with humans), but rather to cause trouble.

Joanna remained silent.

With this very absurd statement, the little bit of goodwill Li Cheng had just gained with Joanna vanished instantly.

She pursed her lips tightly, then said to Li Cheng very seriously, "In general, similar language structures do not conform to the brain development level of peers."

After leaving behind this short and powerful statement (for her), Joanna turned and went into her office to get her speech notes—she shared an office with her cousin Miller, not because they lacked space, but because Miller was worried about her being alone in the office.

"Forehead."

While Joanna was looking for her speech, someone lowered his head and pondered for a moment, guessing that she had just been calling him crazy.

Although he had witnessed Joanna choking her brother before, Li Cheng was still somewhat surprised by the other party's simple and crude expression... wait, it doesn't seem so simple and crude after all...

At this moment, Joanna had found the speech drafts and handed them to Li Cheng with a serious expression.

Li Cheng accepted the document with the same serious expression, pretending nothing had happened, and turned to walk towards the principal's office, which he rarely used. However, he hadn't taken two steps when he noticed a blue-haired girl following closely behind him.

Joanna made no attempt to conceal her footsteps, following behind with a loud thumping sound, quite openly and honestly.

"Why are you following me?"

Li Cheng also turned his head openly to ask, but as soon as he finished asking, he noticed that Joanna was making a pre-inhalation gesture, so he quickly interrupted her, saying, "Never mind, don't say anything, just follow along."

Joanna then withdrew her half-finished ultimate move. Judging from the terrifyingly long wind-up, Li Cheng estimated that the ultimate move he had unleashed was at least 500 characters long, and she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

......

Li Cheng went up to the third floor and arrived at the principal's office.

Although he doesn't come very often, the office is very clean. There is no dust on the floor or the desk, and even the potted plants in the corner are full of life, probably because someone waters them regularly every day.

"Find a seat anywhere," Li Cheng casually told him, then walked behind his desk.

Then, Li Cheng, who was sitting firmly, noticed that Joanna hadn't even looked for a stool. Instead, she had squeezed into the corner and stood next to the vibrant green potted plant, essentially transforming into a blue potted plant that couldn't produce oxygen. Li Cheng didn't know what the girl was thinking, but he didn't dare ask, for fear of unleashing a thousand-word nuclear-level ultimate move.

'I didn't see it, I didn't see it...'

While muttering to himself, Li Cheng focused his attention on the task at hand—he currently had two jobs: one was to sift through the remaining pile of application reports to find something acceptable; the other was to familiarize himself with the speech draft to prevent making mistakes in the afternoon.

He planned to check on the progress in Lavosina after he finished these two matters.

He initially gave Lavoisier many formulas, among which the most crucial were the lead chamber process for producing concentrated sulfuric acid and the production of diethyl ether, and then asked her to find ways to improve the process and production efficiency.

The production of diethyl ether is essentially a dehydration reaction between concentrated sulfuric acid and ethanol. Ethylene is produced by heating ethanol to 170°C under the catalysis of concentrated sulfuric acid. At 140°C, a reaction occurs to produce diethyl ether and water.

Leaving ethylene aside, ether is not only used as a raw material for explosives, but it also appears quite often in various films and television works. There are often scenes in TV dramas where someone is knocked unconscious by covering their face with a handkerchief soaked in ether.

First of all, it should be emphasized that that is impossible. There is no such thing as an inhaled anesthetic that fast. You have to wait at least one or two minutes. But this also reflects how well-known the anesthetic effect of ether is.

In ancient times, the three biggest problems with surgery were blood loss, infection, and pain.

The blood loss had already been dealt with, and the infection only required an extra mention of disinfection knowledge at the right time, so the only remaining problem was pain.

Anesthesia can solve the problem of pain, preventing surgery from turning into a slaughterhouse where four or five strong men are needed to forcibly hold the patient, greatly improving the patient's survival rate. Putting aside everything else, can a doctor concentrate on surgery while someone is screaming in front of them?

By the way, ether was actually accidentally created as early as the 14th century, but it was never taken seriously, let alone used for surgical anesthesia. It just goes to show that reality is much less illogical than fiction—in a novel, this would definitely be the author digging a hole and not filling it.