63: Chapter 63 Two beautiful women take turns urging for more updates.

Eight years passed in the blink of an eye.

On the banks of the northern Hudson River in New York, at the Rockefeller Estate.

One man and two women were riding three magnificent horses, strolling side by side across the spacious lawn.

The young man riding the pure black steed was about eighteen or nineteen years old.

He stood over 180 centimeters tall, with handsome features, sword-like eyebrows, and star-bright eyes. Having shed the immaturity of youth, he exuded an air of steady restraint.

The two young ladies walking on either side of him had also grown into graceful, stunning beauties.

On the left, riding a pure white Shetland pony, was Elizabeth, with her long, raven-black hair and brown eyes.

On the right, riding a Morgan horse, was Anna, with her long chestnut hair and bright blue eyes.

Eight years of time had turned the three childhood friends into an inseparable trio who talked about everything.

However, these eight years had also seen many changes.

First, Anna's mother, just as in history, passed away in 1884 due to a brain tumor.

When her mother passed away, Anna felt as if the sky had collapsed.

What made her gnash her teeth in hatred the most was that her own father, Edison, used being too busy with experiments as an excuse, and from the time his wife was hospitalized until she breathed her last, he didn't even show his face once.

If it weren't for Lin Tian and Elizabeth accompanying and comforting her day and night in the hospital, Anna might not have been able to hold on.

But after going through this, Anna completely broke ties with her father.

Stubborn by nature, she went straight to the police station to remove Edison's surname and changed it to her mother's maiden name, Mary.

She even wanted to change the surnames of her two young brothers, but was met with frantic obstruction from Edison. The father and daughter had a complete falling out, becoming sworn enemies.

Later, relying on her own talent, Anna joined the Umbrella Laboratory that Lin Tian had established north of Central Park in New York.

With this, the opposition between father and daughter became even more irreconcilable.

In a fit of anger, Edison cut off Anna's living expenses and kicked her out of their home in New York.

The reason was simple: ever since the Umbrella Laboratory opened, the research results they produced had consistently outperformed the Edison Laboratory.

For example, in the field of lighting, Umbrella developed a tungsten filament incandescent bulb with higher brightness and longer lifespan, which completely crushed Edison's pride and joy—the carbon filament bulb—instantly capturing the entire USA market.

Or take the phonograph; the movie phonograph created by Umbrella was an entire era ahead of Edison's wax cylinder phonograph.

Watching his own daughter work with his arch-rival to steal his livelihood, how could Edison not be furious?

Coupled with the fact that Anna later got into King's College for advanced studies, Edison's career suffered repeated setbacks, and everything went wrong for him.

On the horse track.

Lin Tian, riding the black horse, turned to look at Anna: "Anna, haven't you been home lately? Your two brothers must have grown quite a bit."

"Bruce, it's not like you don't know. I don't want to see that woman's face. As for my two brothers, I've already seen them in private." Anna's tone was very flat.

Just like in history, in 1886, thirty-nine-year-old Edison went on a business trip to Ohio and met nineteen-year-old Mina.

Not long after, the two had a whirlwind marriage and held a wedding banquet.

After the marriage, they had several children in succession.

For Anna, if it weren't for her two brothers, that home would have long since become a place full of exclusion and unfamiliarity.

Seeing the atmosphere become somewhat gloomy, Elizabeth quickly changed the subject:

"Let's talk about something happy! Bruce, how much longer do you plan on dragging out writing the third volume of 'Harry Potter'?"

Upon hearing the request for an update, Anna's originally dim eyes instantly lit up.

Back in September 1882, The New York Times had specially created a supplement section with a line of large text printed at the top:

"A birthday gift from Bruce Lin to a certain cute girl — 'Harry Potter'!"

The first volume, 'The Sorcerer's Stone', officially debuted in New York through newspaper serialization.

Leveraging Lin Tian's nationwide fame at the time, once this novel was released, it sold like crazy.

Major newspapers across the country went crazy following the trend and reviewing it.

The Washington Post commented: "This is the most gripping children's fantasy masterpiece of the end of the century!"

The Chicago Tribune exclaimed: "Platform Nine and Three-Quarters! Mr. Bruce has painted a mysterious London full of magical colors for us!"

Their own publication, The New York Times, was even more effusive with praise: "Brilliant imagination that knows no bounds, thinking that transcends the era! Following in the footsteps of a great inventor, business tycoon, and martial arts master, Mr. Bruce is about to be crowned as the great writer of the century!"

Soon, 'Harry Potter' crossed the ocean and became a hit throughout the European continent.

The largest publishing group in New York, HarperCollins, the very publishing giant that specialized in publishing books for world-renowned authors like Mark Twain, begged and pleaded with Lin Tian to sign a publishing contract.

Following that, the Oxford University Press in the UK also sent people to butter him up.

Even the mystery publishing house that would later specialize in publishing Conan Doyle's detective stories ran over to inquire if they could be granted the European agency rights for the novel.

Faced with worldwide acclaim, Lin Tian didn't take it seriously at all.

He wrote the novel purely to make a little girl happy and had absolutely no intention of becoming a full-time writer.

To be honest, if he really wanted to publish books, his system warehouse was filled with over a dozen sets of world-class bestsellers like 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Twilight'. He could just copy a few and make a fortune.

But he wasn't short on royalties. He left his readers hanging for a full eight years before slowly squeezing out the second volume, 'The Chamber of Secrets', under the frantic urging of Anna and Elizabeth.

This made book fans all over the world grit their teeth in frustration.

Readers had no way to deal with this big boss who was worth tens of millions and didn't rely on writing books for a living at all.

Many fans even pessimistically believed that they might not live to see the finale in their lifetime.

So today at the horse track, Elizabeth began her daily urging for updates again.

In truth, she was doing it more to divert Anna's attention.

Everyone knew that the clever and intelligent "know-it-all" Hermione in the novel was carved from the same mold as Anna.

Even Lin Tian had to admit that Anna was indeed exactly like Hermione.

They looked similar, and their personalities were identical.

Both were smart, calm in the face of trouble, and loved to bury themselves in books.

What was most precious was that she was kind-hearted and liked to stand up for justice.

Now, at the Umbrella Laboratory, Anna herself had led the development of several patented technologies, stealing the spotlight from the Edison company several times and making her own father so angry he was jumping up and down.