It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Li Cheng estimated that Lavoisier should have finished his work after so many days, and if he succeeded, it would be the first high-end product he had created since his transmigration—soap was too low-end and had already been overused by the revolutionary predecessors.

'Finally, they've managed to produce something decent.'

Thinking of this, Li Cheng, who had suffered many setbacks in developing his tech tree, felt much better. He even had the leisure to tend to the blue potted plant in the corner that didn't produce oxygen—mainly because such a big, living girl was too much of an eyesore standing in the corner.

"Ahem, I have a few questions for you."

Having attracted the other person's attention, Li Cheng quickly said, "Just nod or shake your head."

Joanna nodded gently.

Seeing this, Li Cheng smiled with satisfaction, inwardly applauding his clever idea, and then asked, "Did your brother send you?"

Joanna thought for a moment, then nodded heavily twice, then shook her head slightly, and finally nodded again.

Chapter 127 Lottery Experiment

Li Cheng propped his chin up with his hand, looking at Joanna's head, which had just shaken four times, with a rather pained expression.

He truly hadn't expected that even a simple nod or shake of the head could be interpreted in so many ways, and for a moment he didn't know how to answer—nod, nod, shake, nod, is this binary or Morse code?

"What do you mean?"

Li Cheng couldn't help but ask again, "Was it your brother who sent you to follow me? Is it 'yes' or 'no'?"

Joanna stepped out from beside the potted plant and glanced at Li Cheng: "Your question is somewhat leading. In fact, considering the differences in viewpoints between Mr. Miller and me, as well as some specific circumstances in reality, although most people may not like such detailed answers, this matter cannot be simply summarized as 'yes' or 'no'."

?

Li Cheng's head ached from listening. He rubbed his temples and said, "So, is it 'yes' or 'no'? Please answer me with just these two words."

Joanna looked at Li Cheng seriously again: "I can't give you a binary answer, but if you really need me to make a choice that goes against reality between the two answers that are not entirely correct, then my answer is—'yes', but also 'no'."

Li Cheng: "???"

After wasting his breath and getting nowhere, Li Cheng's blood pressure rose a little.

He decided to treat Joanna as a mere decoration, the kind that doesn't speak—from another perspective, at least having a pretty girl in the office is quite pleasing to the eye.

So Li Cheng continued to sift through the pile of reports, picking aside any one or two that seemed reliable.

It has to be said that the imaginations of this group of people have truly surpassed his expectations. He thought that the previous research on turning feces into cannonballs was outrageous enough, but there were even more outrageous ideas later on. Li Cheng clicked his tongue in amazement as he read it.

"Then send the stack on the right to Miller's table."

After completing the screening, Li Cheng gave a brief explanation to the decorations, not holding out much hope.

"Ah."

Joanna nodded casually.

Finally, he heard a normal answer again, and Li Cheng's previously elevated blood pressure dropped a bit. He breathed a sigh of relief and took out his pocket watch to check the time. He realized it was almost lunchtime, so he stood up and prepared to check on the situation at the laboratory before having lunch.

......

Lavoisier wasn't in the lab, but that green-haired girl named Joan was there, enthusiastically fiddling with a bunch of bottles and jars.

"Where is Lavoisier?" Li Cheng asked curiously.

"The teacher had to go out and wasn't sure if she would be back in the afternoon. Before she left, she asked me to prepare some more chemical reagents independently and store them for future research."

As Joan spoke, her chin was slightly raised, as if she were proud to have gained Lavoisier's recognition for this independent experiment.

Oh, so you're doing manual labor here... Li Cheng nodded knowingly: "How's the ether preparation going?"

“It’s already been prepared.” Joan seemed very excited when talking about this. “This stuff is really amazing. I just put it under my nose and took a slight sniff, and I passed out for several minutes. I really lost consciousness immediately.”

?

Li Cheng stared at the green-haired girl with a horrified look, as if he had seen a mad scientist: "You experimented on yourself?"

"Oh, is there a problem?" Joan asked curiously. "How can we determine the effect without doing it right away?"

"At least catch a mouse, right?"

"The mouse tried it, the cat tried it, the dog tried it, and we only dared to try it ourselves after we were sure it was safe—back then, the teacher and I drew slips of paper to decide who would use it, and I drew the slip."

"What the hell? Grabbing a note? These two teachers are too ruthless..." Li Cheng wiped away his cold sweat, feeling that if this continued, a tragedy would eventually occur in the laboratory. So he said seriously, "Listen carefully, no matter what, neither of you can use your bodies to do this kind of dangerous experiment."

"understood."

Joan nodded somewhat perfunctorily and continued, "The problem now is that the reaction is not very stable, it's a bit difficult to control the temperature, and this stuff is not easy to store. There are only a few small bottles left in the lab. Do you want it?"

It still needs improvement... Li Cheng silently kept this in mind and said, "It's not needed for now, but you can make a little more first, and it should be used soon."

"By the way, actually I've had a question for a while now."

Joan suddenly spoke, looking at Joanna, who was following behind Li Cheng without saying a word, with a strange gaze: "Who is she?"

Joanna strictly adhered to her previous code of conduct, which was to always follow behind Li Cheng, but resolutely not to speak first.

"..."

Li Cheng said earnestly, "Just treat her like a potted plant, or as if she doesn't exist, and whatever you do, don't ask any questions."

Joan blinked strangely. "That sounds weird... Never mind, do you have something else to do? Don't bother me if you don't." She was clearly engrossed in the experiment.

"It's alright, you can go ahead with your work."

Li Cheng nodded, then turned and left with Joanna.

He figured he'd have to keep Joanna, this troublesome girl, with him for a while longer before he found Miller.

He had knocked on Miller's office door before, but no one was home. He didn't know where that bastard had gone, leaving such a big thing to him and then running off.

"Ugh."

With a sigh, Li Cheng led Joanna to the restaurant—or rather, she automatically followed him. However, he had essentially given up resisting and simply ignored her.

As a result, Joanna still brought him unexpected trouble—the girl neither ordered food nor chose a seat at the restaurant, but just stood next to Li Cheng and stared at him longingly.

Seeing that the other customers in the restaurant were looking at him strangely, Li Cheng guessed that they suspected him of abusing the girl, so he quickly asked Joanna to sit down opposite him and called the waiter over to order another meal.

What would you like to order?

The waiter was a young man in his twenties who served Joanna very well and handed her the menu.

Joanna didn't take the menu immediately, but instead looked around the restaurant first—because it was lunchtime, the restaurant was crowded with diners, making the area very lively.

Joanna's face grew increasingly serious.

She stiffly took the menu from the waiter. Staring at the top dish, stewed potatoes and meat, she pondered for a long time before finally looking up at the young man and saying:

"Taking into account the nutritional advantages and disadvantages of beef and pork, and considering the actual economic conditions and the price difference between the two, it is a reasonable decision to choose potatoes as an economical staple food to be paired with different foods at different times."

After saying this cryptic thing, Joanna breathed a sigh of relief, then clasped her hands together on the table, her eyes looking much more relaxed, as if she was eagerly waiting for her meal.

?

The young waiter took the menu, looking rather confused: "Um... what exactly do you need?"

Joanna glanced at the waiter, perhaps wondering why someone didn't understand her detailed and clear answer, so she repeated, "Considering both beef and pork..."

The young waiter still looked bewildered: "Huh?"

Li Cheng, sitting opposite her, couldn't stand it any longer. He figured that if he let this girl order, she would starve to death, so he quickly said, "One serving of beef stew with potatoes, please."

He realized that Joanna wanted to replace the pork with beef.

"Okay, I'll be right there."

The young waiter perked up immediately, and without daring to ask any more questions, he quickly grabbed the menu and headed straight to the kitchen—he'd been working there for years and this was the first time he'd ever encountered such an order…

Chapter 128 Wooden Spoon and the Origin

The waiter's plight is sympathetic, but it also leads Li Cheng to speculate that Joanna may not simply be bad at communicating, but rather suffer from a mental illness called communication disorder.

Mental illnesses are often quite mysterious and subjective, seemingly plausible in every interpretation and relatable to oneself. So some people, just to be trendy, will add a label to themselves—but honestly, isn't it a shame for someone who makes a complete mess of their bed and room to call themselves obsessive-compulsive?

But Joanna's symptoms really do fit the description of communication disorder. The most obvious point is that the person involved doesn't seem to realize that there's something wrong with them.

Li Cheng felt he might have found the truth, and could even consider acting as a psychologist. So he tapped the table with his index finger, trying to get Joanna's attention, who was intently anticipating lunch.

Knock knock knock—

Joanna looked up at Li Cheng with a puzzled expression.

Li Cheng propped his head up with his right arm, lowered his voice, and said in a tone that sounded more like a street hustler than an expert's diagnosis: "Have you ever realized... that you sometimes have things that are different from ordinary people? Like you exist in two intersecting but different spaces from everyone else..."

?

Joanna gave her a look of pity, as if she were looking at a madwoman, then continued to look down at her beef stew, seemingly disdainful of answering the question.

Being looked at with pity by a mentally ill person made Li Cheng's lips twitch, and he almost fainted from anger. At the same time, he gave up his plan to continue working part-time as a psychologist—he suspected that he might become mentally ill himself before he could cure this mentally ill person.

------

Great Hall.

颁奖仪式这玩意，除了当事人通常是没几个人在意的，所以大会堂内只是稀稀拉拉的坐了1/4的人。而且就这还是因为强制要求，不然估计人数还得在这1/4的基础上减少1/3。

To Li Cheng's surprise, Joanna actually played a role.

She first disappeared for a while, then reappeared, carrying a brown double-breasted dress she'd somehow acquired, along with a black bowler hat—considering the girl's communication skills, Li Cheng guessed that she'd probably borrowed the outfit from her brother...

"Let me wear it?"

Li Cheng paused for a moment, then looked down at his simple casual clothes and realized that he had indeed overlooked the issue of attire.

Joanna hugged the double-breasted dress and nodded.

Although he didn't think clothing was a big deal—there were so few people outside, no one cared—since Joanna had gone to the trouble of getting him this outfit, Li Cheng readily agreed and changed into it.

After the preparation phase, it was Li Cheng's turn to give a speech.

As Li Cheng walked onto the stage clutching the speech manuscript, looking down at the drowsy students below, he couldn't help but recall how he had once been one of them, praying for time to pass quickly during the principal's hypnotic speech.

But before he could finish his reflection, he suddenly realized that the girl in the white dress on the far right of the second-to-last row of the audience looked familiar.

Although it was too far away and the lighting was too bad to see clearly, the combination of that head of black curly hair and white gauze gloves was so familiar that it couldn't help but remind him of a princess who often did some unrealistic things.

There were two points that truly confirmed Li Cheng's judgment.

First, there was a girl with green hair sitting to the right of the girl in the white dress, which Li Cheng guessed was Holly; second, she seemed to have noticed Li Cheng watching her and was giving him a slight nod!

Li Cheng was immediately shocked.

Hey lady, what's going on here? Why can't you just stay in your castle and come over here to join in the fun? Seriously though, this composition looks so familiar, doesn't it? I strongly suspect that a hunk will come up on stage next to present me with flowers!