The Difficult First Step

Although Young Newton's sleeping habits were truly terrible, his snores were on par with his ear-scratching.

But perhaps it was due to the sheer exhaustion from a day of labor, Xu Yun eventually drifted off into a deep sleep.

The night passed without incident.

After an unknown amount of time, bird chirps suddenly echoed from outside the window.

Xu Yun lazily opened his eyes, scratched his messy hair, stretched, and yawned, waking up just like that.

It was already winter on the British Isles, and the morning air was extremely damp and cold. Xu Yun exhaled, and a cloud of white mist quickly appeared before him.

Then, he suddenly thought of something and turned to look to his right.

He saw that Young Newton's bed was empty; clearly, this esteemed ancestor had been awake for quite some time.

The sky was already slightly bright, estimating it to be around 6:30 AM, at most 7:00 AM.

Back home, some struggling writers who stayed up all night might just be getting into bed to rest at this hour.

Then, Xu Yun clasped his hands together, blew into them to warm them, rubbed them vigorously on his face, and quickly scrambled out of the covers—any working stiff knows that in winter, you have to seize the moment when the blanket isn't paying attention and get out in one swift motion.

After a simple adjustment of his clothes, Xu Yun gently pulled open the bedroom door and peered out, tilting his head.

Just as expected.

Young Newton was currently sitting at the desk outside, head bowed, writing furiously, seemingly calculating something.

Hearing the movement of the bedroom door, Young Newton looked up and gestured with his chin towards a tea table near the entrance:

"The bread is on the table, just one piece. Eat breakfast, rest a bit, then go patrol the orchard."

After speaking, Young Newton hesitated for a moment. Before Xu Yun could reply, he changed his tune:

"Never mind. Today is your first day doing this. I'll take you through the process first. You can go alone starting tomorrow."

Xu Yun nodded:

"Understood, Mr. Newton."

After speaking, he glanced at Young Newton, who was still writing, and continued:

"Mr. Newton, I'd like to go get some water to moisten my throat. My mouth is a bit dry after sleeping all night."

Young Newton didn't speak this time, merely letting out a soft "Mm."

Having received permission, a strange glint flashed in Xu Yun's eyes. He grabbed a wooden cup he had made the previous day and went out the door.

To the side of the garden house was a slightly old water vat. Judging by its age, it was likely William's doing. Its location was just outside the line of sight of the window behind Young Newton.

Xu Yun leisurely walked over to the water缸, scooped up a mouthful of water with the wooden cup, and, not minding the cold, directly poured it into his mouth.

He gargled with the water.

One had to admit, in the cultural context before the 19th century, the mainstream customs of Huaxia were far superior to those of Europe.

For example, although ancient Huaxia didn't have toothbrushes, there were many ways to clean one's teeth.

The Book of Rites, for instance, records "At the first crow of the rooster, all should rinse their mouths." Ancient Huaxia commonly used wine, vinegar, salt water, and tea water for oral hygiene.

Wine, vinegar, and salt water have antiseptic properties, while tea contains fluoride.

Fluoride has a certain effect in preventing cavities, and it also cleans the mouth, protecting the teeth.

Later, the famous willow twigs and pig bristles emerged, considered early prototypes of toothbrushes.

But ancient Europe was different; they generally did not brush their teeth or bathe—especially England.

Even now, many British people still don't have the habit of brushing their teeth, which is why dental health in England has always been a major issue.

Of course.

This is mainly related to their political and cultural background, which is a topic for another time.

In short, from a modern perspective, if some customs didn't have significant consequences, Xu Yun would be happy to respect them. But he couldn't compromise on the customs of not brushing teeth or washing his face.

Therefore, he had to seize every opportunity to keep his body as clean as possible.

If there was a chance, correcting the habits of Young Newton and William would also be necessary.

Although there was no direct evidence in later generations linking their lifespans to not bathing or brushing their teeth, correcting these habits was harmless and beneficial. Living a few more months was a gain, wasn't it?

After rinsing his mouth, Xu Yun splashed some cold water.

He patted his face a few times.

The cool sensation seeped into his skin, instantly making him feel more refreshed.

Having finished washing up, Xu Yun didn't rush back. Instead, he looked up at the sky.

"Tsk, tsk, not a cloud in the sky, bright sunshine, what a perfect day for fishing."

Xu Yun rubbed his hands together and chose a spot by the wall where sunlight and shadow were equally divided.

He took off his 900-degree glasses, and then...

He did nothing, just pricked up his ears, carefully listening for any sounds from the garden house entrance.

Meanwhile, inside the house.

At this very moment, Young Newton was rapidly doing calculations on paper:

"(A+B)m/n = (P+PQ)m/n = Pm/n + (m/n)·AQ + [(m-n)/2n]·BQ) + [(m-2n)/3n]) + [(m-3n)/4n]) +..."

"Hmm, if I write it as e^(n*ln(1+1/n)), and use the 0/0 indeterminate form for the exponent to make it 1, damn it, that's not right either!"

As the tip of his pen paused, Young Newton, annoyed, ruffled his hair.

He puffed out his cheeks and let out a breath of stale air.

Around this time yesterday, he had met Xu Yun, who had fallen from the sky, and a series of subsequent events had unfolded.

In reality, the event itself wasn't particularly special; it was just a rather coincidental encounter, and that was that once it was explained.

However, the scene of Xu Yun falling had subtly overlapped with a question Young Newton had previously pondered:

Why don't things that lose their support float upwards, but instead fall downwards?

Of course.

The real emergence of this question was far from yesterday, and the first person to even conceive of this idea wasn't Young Newton himself.

But Xu Yun's appearance had significantly deepened the impression of this question in Young Newton's mind.

And unlike others.

Young Newton actually had a slight lead on this mysterious 'force,' which was Kepler's Three Laws.

According to Kepler's Three Laws, all the planets in the solar system move in elliptical orbits around the sun.

Therefore, many people, including Young Newton, speculated that there must be some connection between the inverse square law and Kepler's Three Laws.

But the problem was, to derive one from the other, a mathematical tool that did not yet exist was required—Young Newton called this tool Fluxions, a method for finding the relationship between their rates of change, given the relationship between quantities, and its inverse operation.

Currently, Young Newton had completed a small part of his derivation but was stuck on simplifying the binomial (P+PQ)^m/n.

This was already his sixth attempt to simplify the binomial, yet he still couldn't successfully expand it into a series.

If he couldn't even get past this hurdle, how could he hope to analyze that mysterious 'force'?

Thus, for a time, Young Newton became somewhat agitated, and his thoughts naturally began to wander:

He would be leaving for Uncle William's house in a few more hours.

He really wanted to kiss Lisa.

He wondered how much food Uncle's house had left, especially with the extra mouth to feed in Fat Fish.

Wait!

As he thought, Young Newton suddenly realized something and quickly turned his head a few times:

Where was Fat Fish?

It had been over half an hour since he went out to get water, and he should have been back by now—there was no way that kid ran all the way to the Thames to get water, right?

Thinking of the living expenses he had agreed upon with the man from the East, Young Newton immediately felt restless.

So, he quickly put down his pen and walked out of the room.

Creak—

After opening the door, Young Newton familiarized himself with the path to the water tank.

Unexpectedly, just as he rounded the corner, he saw Xu Yun squatting on the ground in an Asian squat, holding his glasses in one hand.

Seeing that Xu Yun wasn't in trouble as he had imagined, and even seemed to be slacking off, Young Newton's temper immediately flared:

"FU"

However, before he could utter the word, he forcefully choked it back.

What stopped his utterance wasn't the censorship system of Qidian Chinese Network, but rather...

In the shadow of the wall behind Xu Yun, a patch of not-large but clearly visible

Seven-colored light!