Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

Li Chengqian accepted the crystal-clear stemmed glass. The scarlet wine slowly formed dark arcs on the glass, reflecting the cyberpunk-esque night view of Chang'an outside the window. He took a sip of the chilling wine, letting the spiciness of the alcohol explode on his tongue, only to be soothed by the subtle aroma of fruit and wood.

"A hundred years from now?"

Li Chengqian chuckled softly, his finger tracing a faint circle on the cold floor-to-ceiling glass, as if trying to reframe the city that never sleeps beneath his feet into his own palm.

"Meiniang, you've read history books, so you should know about the so-called 'three-hundred-year cycle.' The downfall of feudal dynasties was ultimately due to the annexation of land reaching its limit, and the contradiction between too many people and too little land reaching its extreme. In the end, the only way to redistribute wealth was through a bloody upheaval. It was like God scraping the bone to heal humanity; although it was effective, it was so painful that it made people want to die."

He turned around, leaning against the huge window that could block out thunder and gales, his eyes revealing a cold and clear-headed expression.

"But the foundation I'm laying for the Tang Dynasty now is no longer those few acres of barren land, nor those farmers who only know how to scrape a living in the cracks of the ground. The Tang Dynasty is now built on the bones of technology and the lifeblood of productivity. As long as the factory chimneys are still emitting smoke, as long as those madmen in the laboratories are still deriving new formulas, and as long as our ships are still transporting supplies abroad, this prosperous era will not collapse."

Li Chengqian's tone became more confident than ever before, carrying a sense of composure as if he controlled the laws of all things.

"As long as technology advances, it's like taking over the land from the heavens. Originally, one acre of land could only support one person, but now with fertilizers and machinery, it can support ten or even a hundred. As long as we run faster than that 'periodic law,' death will never catch up with the taillights of the Tang Dynasty."

Wu Meiniang stood opposite him, her red dress swaying in the lamplight. As she listened to these words, so full of epoch-making significance, she felt a sense of awe, though she still didn't quite understand them, but more than that, she felt an almost blind worship.

"But what if technology stops?" Wu Meiniang asked softly, her voice clear and melodious like the clinking of jade stones. "Human hearts are always greedy. What if future generations produce incompetent rulers, or if the artisans who have mastered the power of thunder start fighting amongst themselves? What if the course of history goes astray?"

Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian's lips curled up slightly, revealing a deep and irritating smile.

"Off track? As long as I'm still here, this ship won't capsize."

He put down his wine glass, his gaze seemingly piercing through the walls of the Eastern Palace, looking towards the system interface deep within his consciousness, glowing with a faint blue light.

"Although I am lazy, I control the most crucial variables in this world. I will be the eternal 'shadow guardian' of the Tang Dynasty. If anyone tries to lead this carriage into a pit, I don't mind reaching out and shoving their head into the mud to wake them up. Even if I don't sit on that dragon throne in the open, every gear in this world will still turn according to the rhythm I set."

At this moment, Li Chengqian appeared both unfamiliar and towering in Wu Meiniang's eyes. He didn't seem like a prince of the mortal realm, but rather like a god standing on a cloud, manipulating the world like a sand table.

But then, Wu Meiniang's gaze lingered on Li Chengqian's face.

She looked very carefully.

From the moment she entered the Eastern Palace, she had always stayed by Li Chengqian's side. Time flies, and decades have slipped through her fingers.

The young man who once infuriated His Majesty in court should now be middle-aged, perhaps even bearing the wrinkles of age around his eyes, like Prime Minister Fang.

But the Li Chengqian before him still had excessively firm skin, and his peach blossom eyes still sparkled with youthful arrogance and laziness.

Time seemed to have stood still before this Crown Prince.

Even though he was wearing this very modern bathrobe, and even though he had become the mastermind behind the entire planet, his face was exactly the same as when he first met him at the Hongwen Hall decades ago.

That sense of disharmony, forgotten by time, finally caused the doubts that had been building up in Wu Zetian's heart for so long to burst forth at this moment.

"Your Highness..."

Wu Meiniang stepped forward, her soft little hand hesitantly touching Li Chengqian's cheek.

Her fingertips touched that warm, smooth skin, without a single wrinkle, and without any signs of aging or sagging.

"Meiniang has always wanted to ask, but has never dared to speak. His Majesty has returned to his twenty-year-old appearance, thanks to the divine medicine bestowed by His Highness. But Your Highness... although you have never taken that gene serum bestowed in public, why has your face never aged an inch?"

Wu Meiniang's voice trembled slightly, a mixture of instinctive fear of the unknown and a yearning for eternity.

"The peach blossoms of Chang'an bloom and fade, fade and bloom again. Those young men who once rode alongside you on Zhuque Street are now mostly old officials with gray beards, even Commander Xu's eyes are etched with the marks of time. But you... you seem to be encased in ice, as if time has left not a single mark on you?"

Li Chengqian looked at the woman who had been with him for half his life, and saw the complex emotions swirling in her eyes.

He suddenly realized that at this point, there was no point in continuing to pretend.

Anyway, the old man is now very enthusiastic, and the foundation of the Tang Dynasty is as stable as Mount Tai, so there is no need for him, the "Shadow Guardian," to spend his days wearing a heavy human skin mask.

"Meiniang, do you really want to see it?"

Li Chengqian smiled slightly, his smile carrying a hint of cynical mockery.

"Once you see this secret, you'll never be able to leave. Even if the world is destroyed, you'll have to stay with me and count the stars in that cold void."

Wu Meiniang took a deep breath, her gaze hardening, showing no sign of backing down.

"Meiniang is already His Highness's woman. She's not afraid of death, so why would she be afraid of seeing a secret?"

Li Chengqian nodded, then took a deep breath.

He slowly reached out his hand, his slender fingers tracing a line across his handsome face.

The movement looked casual, as if it were wiping away a layer of non-existent dust.

But in Wu Zetian's eyes, Li Chengqian's temperament underwent a dramatic change in that instant.

The profoundness that was deliberately suppressed to match his age has completely disappeared, replaced by an absolute, pure, and timeless youthful spirit.

If Li Chengqian was a composed ruler before, he is now more like a creator who has just stepped out of a laboratory, with the spark of civilization shining in his eyes.

The vitality emanating from within even made the surrounding air seem to leap with joy.

Actually, I haven't gotten old.

Li Chengqian's voice was as clear and crisp as ever, without the affected hoarseness of his earlier self.

"The medicine I gave the old man was my modified 'workaholic' version. And I myself... I am immortality itself."

He looked at Wu Meiniang with a gentle yet profound gaze.

"The so-called passage of time in this world is nothing more than the constant decay of particles. But I can make these particles stop here."

Li Chengqian pointed to his heart, then faced the city's dazzling lights and opened his arms.

"Meiniang, welcome to my real world. Here, there is no aging, no death, only eternity..."

He paused, a mischievous smile playing on his lips.

"Only the eternal life of a salted fish."

Wu Meiniang stared at him blankly, as if she had only truly come to know the man before her at this moment.

"Your Highness...you've been keeping this from everyone all along?"

"Nonsense, if the old man knew that I could also live forever, he would smash this throne on my forehead on the spot and then go to Antarctica to fish for penguins."

Li Chengqian shrugged, his tone full of disdain.

"I have to pretend to be 'limited energy and physically weak' so that I can watch him shine in Taiji Palace with a clear conscience. I'm not tired of this kind of life where the old man works in front and I enjoy my retirement in the backyard."

Li Chengqian reached out and lifted Wu Meiniang's chin, his eyes full of mischief.

"Now that I've told you the secret, shouldn't you drink this elixir of immortality too? I don't want to be sitting next to an old, toothless 'Grandma Wu' while I'm fishing."

Wu Meiniang burst out laughing. The suppressed shock she had felt was instantly dispelled by Li Chengqian's irritating tone.

She took the small bottle that Li Chengqian handed her, which shimmered with a faint blue light, and drank it all in one gulp without the slightest hesitation.

"Your Highness, you are truly the most cunning and lazy crown prince in the history of the Tang Dynasty."

"You flatter me. This is called wisdom, this is called 'the self-cultivation of a salted fish'."

Li Chengqian, holding Wu Meiniang's hand, looked once again at Chang'an, which was shimmering with neon lights.

"Let's go, the show's over. We should go see what new tricks the old man's up to in the Imperial Study this time. I heard from Chancellor Fang that he plans to stretch the Tang Dynasty's railway all the way to the Sahara Desert? He's really not letting those barbarians live..."

The two of them nestled together and walked into the long corridor filled with the atmosphere of electrical civilization.

Amidst the red walls and green tiles illuminated by electric lights, an ultimate secret, kept secret for decades, is quietly seeping into the eternal pulse of the Tang Dynasty as the night falls.

"Your Highness, are we really going to keep pretending like this from now on?"

"Of course, we'll only work harder if we keep pretending until the old man thinks we're really 'about to die'."

In the depths of the night, the Crown Prince's smug, wicked laughter echoed.