It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

Li Cheng glanced at the stone steps next to the podium and felt a strong urge to immediately step down.

But since he's already on the platform, he has no choice but to grit his teeth and continue—besides, who's going to take his place at this point? Joanna? If this interpersonal disorder gets pushed too far, he might become the next unlucky guy being choked and yelled at!

"Principal Li, we can begin."

The teacher assisting nearby urged them in a low voice.

"Oh."

Li Cheng realized he had been daydreaming for a while, so he quickly began: "Ahem, hello everyone, today is a sacred day, I will..." He read from the script, and the students below became increasingly drowsy, while he himself felt that time was passing exceptionally slowly.

After a very difficult speech, came the awards ceremony.

Gold spoon, silver spoon, lead spoon... After Li Cheng personally gave the three kinds of spoons to the first, second and third place winners of each age group, who had expressions of excitement, calmness and indifference respectively, the grand finale finally arrived.

Awarding prizes for wooden spoons.

The students who had been drowsy perked up and stared at Li Cheng with shining eyes, eager to know which guy had come in last place.

Li Cheng, referring to the manuscript, announced loudly, "Next, let's welcome the winner of the wooden spoon with applause—Inman Moore!"

When Li Cheng first saw this name, he was slightly surprised, because he only knew that this guy was pretty stupid and could be tricked out of half a year's living expenses. But he never expected that this guy could be ranked last in the grade.

Even worse than that idiot Annie's score, unbelievable.

At this moment, amidst the students' laughter, applause, whistles, and jeers, the already somewhat timid Inman stood up from his seat with extreme embarrassment and slowly moved to the podium, where he stared at Li Cheng.

"This was an accident!"

Faced with Li Cheng's subtle gaze, Inman tried to defend herself.

"Are you here to collect a gold spoon, or a silver spoon...? Oh, sorry, you're here to collect a wooden spoon."

Li Cheng first told a corny joke adapted from a woodcutter's story, then flashed his standard smile, handed the extremely crudely made wooden spoon to Inman, patted him on the shoulder, and said loudly, "Keep up the good work next year, Inman Moore!"

The students in the audience laughed in response, which was customary.

As was customary, Inman looked gloomy and turned to leave the stage.

"Wait a moment."

However, Li Cheng called out to Yingman, and to his astonishment, took out a shiny gold coin from his pocket and stuffed it into his hand.

"In addition, I will give you a gold coin in my own name on a conditional basis. If I see you here again next year, you must return ten gold coins to me—of course, seeing you in another way does not count."

He announced loudly.

???

Isn't this the gold coin that's been owed to me? How come it's suddenly become an incentive for me? And there are conditions involved?

Inman clutched the gold coin, his "holy crap" expression practically overflowing.

Others might think this was just a simple way to motivate students, and the ten gold coins were just an excuse. But Inman knew that if he dared to get last place again, this person would really dare to ask him for them.

......

After paying back the gold coins he owed for buying flowers, Li Cheng watched a slightly startled Inman leave the stage, then glanced at Veronica's position below the stage.

He had a feeling that everything had returned to its origin, but something was different.

Chapter 129 The Strange Chemist

After the spoon award ceremony, almost everyone left except for those who had helped with tidying and cleaning.

Li Cheng had originally planned to leave directly, but now he had no choice but to stay and meet the princess who had come to Cambridge in a low-key manner for some unknown reason.

In this era before cameras and televisions, disguising oneself to go out was incredibly easy. In your previous life, even second-tier celebrities would have to wear masks to dare to go out, fearing being recognized. Let alone a princess like Veronica.

"Your Highness," Li Cheng greeted him with a somewhat insincere smile.

Veronica frowned almost imperceptibly.

She used to find this smile pleasing, but now it just annoyed her. She even felt it was worse than the disrespectful attitude she had when they first met, which at least wasn't so hypocritical.

Veronique didn't really understand how her mindset had changed so quickly, as if she had become a different person in just two days—could power really have such a big impact on a person?

"Just call me Veronica."

Veronica regretted her reckless actions during that time. She sighed and said, "Relax more. Things are different now."

What's different? Are the clothes they're wearing different?

Li Cheng was stunned for two seconds, but he immediately guessed that it might be related to the return of Charles II—from a regent with real power to a princess for show, the difference was indeed a bit too much.

Since that's the case, we can really relax now, since nothing's going to happen anyway.

Li Cheng's suicidal instincts were somewhat on the verge of erupting, but he successfully suppressed them.

"Well..." he tried to say, "Have you eaten? How about I take you to a restaurant to get something to eat?"

"..."

Veronica's expression froze—she hadn't expected the level of relaxation to be so drastic, and she was momentarily stunned.

Seeing her like this, Li Cheng quickly explained, "It was you who said it that made me feel more relaxed."

Holly rolled her eyes and couldn't help but interject, "That doesn't mean you can be this relaxed. Do you think it's appropriate to take the princess to a roadside restaurant?"

“No, it’s fine this way, I just didn’t realize it for a moment.” Veronica stopped Holly. “It feels very normal. Apart from a very few people, no one has ever spoken to me like this before.”

Li Cheng suddenly thought of a certain frivolous playwright: "Is Therese among those people?"

"Correct."

Veronica gave a gentle smile: "You can relax like her."

Although he didn't know how the princess's personality had changed so drastically, Li Cheng decided to go along with it. After all, he wasn't used to speaking in a pretentious manner; it was too tiring.

Li Cheng shrugged easily: "Of course, no problem—by the way, have you eaten? How about I take you to get something to eat? I know a restaurant..."

The restaurant where Li Cheng had lunch was really good, with a strong Mediterranean flavor, which is why he still thinks about it a bit.

Veronique's forehead twitched involuntarily: "Thank you, but I'm really not hungry right now."

"Um, okay then."

Li Cheng nodded with a hint of regret, then finally remembered the initial question he had forgotten: "So why did you suddenly decide to come to Cambridge today? I wasn't prepared at all."

“No need to prepare, I just came to take a stroll. I have a lot of free time now.” Veronica smiled. “I heard from Miller that you’re managing Cambridge very well, so I came out of curiosity. I also came to see this Spoon-Moving Award because I heard it was interesting.”

Cambridge is managed quite well...

Li Cheng was taken aback. He could imagine how guilty Miller must have felt when he said those words, and thankfully, the guy usually didn't have a face, so he wouldn't give himself away.

"You're the one who should show us around more. Aren't you very familiar with this place?" Holly interjected again. Seeing that the atmosphere wasn't serious, the little maid became increasingly casual in her remarks.

You could pick up any random person off the street and they'd know Cambridge better than I do... Li Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll take you to see the newly synthesized ether. You might be interested."

"Ether...?" The completely unfamiliar word left Veronica a little confused.

"A very useful new substance; you'll see when you see it."

Li Cheng kept them in suspense, mainly because his words alone wouldn't be convincing enough; it would be better to let them see for themselves.

This is also a good opportunity to promote the effects of anesthetics. Who knows, maybe some brave souls who dare to try new things will be willing to risk their lives in the future?

"Then I'll look forward to it."

Veronica nodded, then looked behind Li Cheng: "Actually, I have another question. Do you know that lady?"

Hearing this familiar question, Li Cheng subconsciously turned his head and, sure enough, saw a serious-looking blue-haired girl behind him... Wait, why is she still here? And when did she catch up with us?

"This is Miller's cousin."

Li Cheng could only explain, "I'm not very good at communicating with people. In short, you can pretend that she doesn't exist, and please don't ask any questions."

......

laboratory.

When Li Cheng arrived with a large group of people and knocked on the door, Qiong was completely bewildered: "Why did you bring so many people? Do you know how dangerous it would be if they knocked over the dishes?"

“It’s alright, I’ll bring them to see the actual effects of ether.” After saying that, Li Cheng whispered in Qiong’s ear, “This can help with promotion, and the lab will have more funding in the future—besides, ether is made for people to use.”

Joan accepted the explanation and nodded, saying, "Okay, wait a moment, I'll go get the black dog."

Meanwhile, the other three had already entered the laboratory and were curiously looking around at the layout. They saw all sorts of minerals, as well as various heating devices, utensils, and water tanks. It was indeed a very novel place.

Holly couldn't help but ask, "Is it dangerous here?"

“Of course it’s dangerous,” Li Cheng threatened. “Many of the liquids in here are dangerous and cannot be touched. Touching them will cause corrosion and decay.”

Holly, who had been curiously reaching for the beaker, was startled by the question and withdrew her hand, asking in confusion, "If it's so dangerous, why stay inside all the time?"

Li Cheng casually replied, “Because chemists are a strange kind of ordinary people. They are driven by an almost foolish impulse to find their pleasure in smoke and steam, soot and flames, poison and abject poverty. And it is in all this suffering and disaster that they feel life is so sweet. If they were to switch places with the Persian king, they would run away.”

Upon hearing this, Joan, who was about to leave, stumbled and fell down in the corridor.

"what happened to you?"

Li Cheng looked over with some confusion; this was the first time he had ever seen someone fall flat on their face in real life.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." Joan got up from the ground and waved her hand. "I just didn't expect you to admire Boyle so much... I'm leaving now. Keep an eye on them and make sure they don't mess with anything in the lab."

Chapter 130 Pay Attention to Volume

Of the four, Holly was the only one with a strong sense of curiosity, but after being intimidated by Li Cheng's corrosive and festering threats, she became much more obedient, standing there quietly, afraid of accidentally touching the bottles and jars on the table and ruining her hands.

Veronica was also looking around at her surroundings, and the pile of things in the laboratory that she couldn't understand aroused her curiosity.

However, she wouldn't touch it randomly with her hands clad in white gloves. Instead, she asked Li Cheng directly, "Do you usually deal with these things most of the time?"

"...Ahem, more or less."

Li Cheng broke out in a cold sweat. He rarely did experiments; he only occasionally played along with Newton, helped record phenomena, and sometimes rambled on/spoiled the plot. But he felt he couldn't give the impression of being idle all day, so he rambled on:

"The main thing is to mix all sorts of things together, either heating or stirring, observing their various changes and recording them. When we make a discovery, we repeatedly experiment to verify, deduce, and summarize it—most discoveries come about this way, such as soap, and this time ether."

"It sounds like a guess," Holly muttered under her breath.

"For now, it's about right." Li Cheng smiled and didn't refute. "But that's because we humans haven't discovered the underlying laws of matter yet, and can only clumsily try again and again—like a thief who has lost his key trying to pick the lock with a wire again and again."

“That does sound very appealing.” Veronica smiled and nodded. “I think I understand now why my father founded the Royal Society for the Advancement of Natural Knowledge in London.”

"You can pick locks with a wire?" Holly's focus was a bit strange.

“…” Joanna remained silent, but her eyes brightened.