It wasn't an apple that hit Newton.

When faced with the mysteries of nature, humans unconsciously feel a sense of longing, provided that no formulas are involved—as an elderly man in a wheelchair once said, for every additional formula, the sales of imaginative books would be halved.

While Li Cheng was still chatting idly with the three men, a silver figure wearing a white coat walked in from outside.

"That's right."

Lavoisier was slightly agitated; Li Cheng's words had truly touched her heart: "The atomic hypothesis alone can already explain many phenomena, and I believe that in the future we will definitely be able to grasp the laws of matter!"

She had been observing from outside, mainly because the sudden appearance of a group of people in the lab puzzled her. However, after confirming that Li Cheng was among them and hearing his explanation of chemistry, she couldn't resist coming out.

Li Cheng was a little embarrassed when he was caught bragging by someone he knew, but fortunately Lavoisier did not reveal that he was not in Cambridge all day.

"Ahem, you've come at the perfect time. Let me introduce you to each other."

Li Cheng first faced Lavoisier and pointed to the princess next to him who was probably traveling incognito: "This is Princess Veronica. It's not just a coincidence that she has the same name; it's the real Veronica. The green-haired girl next to her is her maid."

He then turned to face Veronica and pointed to the laboratory owner: "And her name is Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, one of the most famous professors at Cambridge..."

"Your Highness Veronica?"

Lavoisier opened her eyes in surprise. She really hadn't expected that the woman in front of her, dressed in an ordinary white dress, would be Veronica. She couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

After thinking for a moment, she took two steps forward, grabbed Li Cheng's arm, and pulled him aside, asking somewhat nervously, "Your Highness, why did you come? Why didn't you tell me beforehand? And why haven't you come over for so many days?"

Li Cheng lowered his voice and said, "You weren't in the lab this morning, and besides, it was just a coincidence that I ran into her today—oh right, and your voice was too loud."

"...Just call me Veronica."

Veronica overheard their undisguised whispers and shook her head helplessly: "As for why we came... it's because we have a lot of free time now, so we're just taking a stroll. You don't need to be too nervous."

Lavoisier was still a little nervous. She glared at Li Cheng with a hint of reproach before saying to Veronique, "I'm sorry, the conditions here are not suitable, and I cannot entertain Your Highness."

"It's really nothing."

Veronica shook her head: "Look at Li Cheng, he seems quite casual too."

Li Cheng defended himself, saying, "You were the one who told me to order whatever I wanted."

Lavoisier quietly pinched Li Cheng on the back and whispered a warning: "Be respectful when speaking to Her Highness the Princess, or you might be held a grudge. When I lived in Paris, I almost offended a duke's daughter because of a single wrong word..."

However, her tone didn't lower at all, and Veronica didn't know if it was intentional or not, so she could only laugh and cry and say, "I told you, you really don't need to be so polite... Never mind, you'll get used to it."

After such a boisterous introduction, Lavoisier realized that he seemed to have overlooked something.

She pointed to Joanna, who had been quiet the whole time, and asked in confusion, "And this lady? Is she also... uh, a distinguished lady?"

No, you're really overthinking it. She's just an ordinary girl with a serious illness...

Li Cheng really wanted to completely ignore Joanna, but unfortunately, this living person followed him without saying a word. Wherever Li Cheng went, she followed. Her presence was so strong that he couldn't ignore her.

He smirked and reiterated the same excuse he'd said countless times: "Just pretend she doesn't exist, and whatever you do, don't ask."

"okay."

Although he didn't quite understand why, Lavoisier accepted the premise.

......

Joan soon brought over a black dog used for experiments. With her and the dog's arrival, the room, which was not small, became somewhat crowded, mainly due to the dog, men, and women, in order of decreasing numbers.

Why the hell am I cursing myself in my heart...? This is the first time Li Cheng has ever felt "Holy crap" about his own wild imagination.

Since Lavoisier had returned, she took over the demonstration of the effects of ether, with Joan assisting her.

She first carefully washed her hands with clean water, and then took out a sealed glass bottle from the black cabinet.

As everyone observed, the bottle contained half a bottle of slightly brownish transparent solution—ether. Although ether should be colorless and odorless, the laboratory conditions in this era were relatively rudimentary, so the solution contained many impurities.

"This is ether, named by Li Cheng."

From the very beginning of the experiment, Lavoisier's expression changed from the restraint he had shown when he first met the princess to a serious one, and his tone became much more solemn and earnest: "And in our experiments during this period, we discovered that it can cause organisms to fall into a coma for a short time."

Chapter 131 Workaholic Li Cheng

"To induce a temporary coma in a living being?"

After hearing Li Cheng's introduction, Holly couldn't help but ask more questions out of curiosity.

Li Cheng nodded and explained in detail: "Yes, just this small half bottle is enough to put a creature into a temporary coma. During this time, no matter what you do to the creature, it will not wake up."

As Holly marveled at the effect, Lavoisier had already found a clean white cloth, held his breath, poured the small half-bottle of ether onto it, and then quickly covered the dog's nose with it.

Li Cheng explained to the three of them, "Ether is more effective when inhaled."

Holly thought for a moment and said, "What if we drink it?"

Li Cheng replied, "It could be poisonous, because it contains more than just ether."

The ether took effect quickly. After chatting for a short while, the black dog's once bright eyes gradually became unfocused, and its muscular body seemed to soften considerably. About three minutes later, it kicked its legs, closed its eyes, and collapsed unconscious on the ground.

"Is it ready?" Lavoisier asked.

"That's enough." Joan slowly exhaled and released her grip on the black dog.

Seeing this, Li Cheng stepped forward and pried open the black dog's mouth, daring to put his hand between its sharp upper and lower canines. He then turned to the audience behind him and said, "It's completely unconscious. You can try to pry it open too—but remember to wash your hands afterward."

Lavoisier and Joan were already used to the effects of ether (Joan had even tested it on himself), so they didn't bother to reach out and instead made way for others to step forward.

Holly, the curious little maid, rushed forward first. At first, she was a little cautious, but after confirming that the black dog really wasn't moving, she became bolder and touched the dog's head all over: "It's really real, it's not moving at all."

Although Veronica didn't touch it, she showed interest and nodded in amazement, saying, "It's really amazing."

Oh right, and Joanna too. This blue-haired girl finally couldn't resist and squatted down next to the black dog, poking it with her finger.

Looking at the ravaged black dog, Li Cheng replied, "This is the power of chemistry."

Upon hearing this, Joan, who considered herself a chemist but was actually a construction worker, involuntarily straightened her back. Lavoisier, on the other hand, a proper chemist, didn't react much, only offering a stiff smile—the experiment was over, and she began to worry about Veronica again.

After tormenting the unconscious black dog for a while, Holly and Joanna both lost interest. One returned to stand behind Veronica, and the other returned to stand beside Li Cheng. Anyone who didn't know better would probably think that the blue-haired girl was also a maid.

After everyone's initial excitement wore off, Veronica turned to ask Li Cheng.

"What are your plans? This ether looks like it might be very useful."

"Of course—my idea is to popularize the use of ether in surgery so that patients do not have to suffer intense pain."

Li Cheng shook the glass bottle on the table, which still had a little light brown liquid left, and made a gesture of holding a knife: "The only difference between the current surgical scene and the slaughtering of pigs is the mortality rate. The skill of a surgeon depends to a large extent on their speed of operation rather than their accuracy. Outsiders judge them by whether they can reduce the pain of patients."

"Ah."

"However, no matter how fast the knife is, it can't compare to the effectiveness of this anesthesia. From now on, patients will no longer have to endure the pain of surgery, and doctors will no longer need to practice their hand speed excessively."

Li Cheng concluded with a smile and added, "Science and technology are the primary productive forces."

"...Your words are quite similar to those of my father."

Veronique seemed to recall something and said with a touch of emotion, "He once told me that we should promote scientific development."

"Oh?"

Li Cheng was a little curious.

This is unexpected good news, although it may not be of much use.

Let's not talk about this anymore.

Veronica nodded, then suddenly changed the subject, saying, "So, is there anything I need to do? Or are you really just showing me this novel thing today?"

"Ahem... By chance, by chance."

Li Cheng coughed twice, a little embarrassed. Actually, he had only vaguely had this idea at first, but hadn't thought about it much—mainly because he wasn't familiar with other places in Cambridge and couldn't pretend to be someone who went there often.

"The most important issue now is how to convince people of the effectiveness of ether, and how to avoid blaming ether for accidental deaths caused by other reasons."

Li Cheng shrugged, then pointed to Qiong, who was cleaning up the scene: "To be honest, although we have tested the effects of ether on various animals and even on ourselves at risk, and confirmed that a dose of no more than three times the recommended amount will almost never cause problems, everyone's constitution is different, and there is still a possibility that someone might accidentally have an accident or something."

Joan, who was dragged out and whipped, curled her lip and decided not to hold a grudge against Li Cheng for the sake of her teacher, Lavoisier.

"Yes, it sounds like there are indeed a lot of problems."

Veronica pondered for a moment: "It seems you need some surgery to prove the effectiveness of ether, but you're worried about being slandered by malicious people, right?"

"almost."

Li Cheng nodded: "I don't have any good ideas right now."

"Okay, this thing called ether is really useful. I'll help you figure out a way to get it."

Veronica readily agreed, then added, "But I have a question: are you still able to handle it?"

"Thanks a lot then... ah?"

Li Cheng was taken aback, and he really didn't understand what Veronique was saying in the second half of her sentence—what do you mean by being busy or not?

Although he certainly can't say it directly, isn't he just being quite idle?

"Don't you realize it?"

Veronica's gaze softened as she looked at Li Cheng: "You're doing experiments now, managing the soap factory and Cambridge at the same time, and you're also busy with the loom matter. Now you have to deal with this ether... Can you really manage all of this?"

After hearing Veronica's explanation, everyone else at the scene stared blankly at Li Cheng, as if they had just realized how much he had done all by himself.

Aside from Joanna, she knew that her brother was basically in charge of things at Cambridge, and at this moment she couldn't help but show an extremely strange look.

Incidentally, Roy, who was on a cargo ship, sneezed at the same time as Miller, who was still in Cambridge.

The former rubbed his nose, suspecting some mold in the cargo hold, and planned to re-inspect the goods. The latter, however, blamed it on Joanna and simply ignored it.

"Forehead......."

Li Cheng hadn't expected that he was seen as such a workaholic in Veronica's eyes. He wiped away a bead of cold sweat and said, "Thank you for your concern, but I'm actually fine, I'm fine..."

Chapter 132 The Port

Perhaps future generations will record it this way: In the autumn of 1666, the British princess and her parents, the pioneers of modern chemistry, gathered in a small laboratory to witness the first practical application of ether.

This was not only good news for patients and surgeons, but also symbolized the first time that modern chemistry entered the public eye. The image of chemists in the eyes of the world changed from "a bunch of weirdos who don't know what they're messing around with all day" to "a bunch of people who are a bit weird, but still useful," and they were respected by the people.

People will likely add extra reading comprehension exercises to textbooks, such as "one of the beginnings of the Enlightenment" or "the intersection of theology and science," and then make these the focus of exams to highlight their significance.

But the reality was far less serious and solemn than they imagined—the meeting was simply because a certain Cambridge principal was unfamiliar with Cambridge and had to bring the visiting princess to the laboratory to boast, so as not to appear so derelict in his duties.

Moreover, the scene wasn't just limited to the three people recorded in the records; there was also a green-haired grasshopper spirit, a lab worker with similarly green hair, and a blue-haired girl with a slightly mentally unstable personality... Oh right, and a black dog.

......

After a few casual words, Joan was ordered by Li Cheng to take Veronica on a tour of the Cambridge campus, with Holly accompanying her as a maid. With three people gone from the laboratory, it suddenly felt much emptier.

"What are you planning to do next?" Lavoisier asked.