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

The sunlight on Xianyu Island was dazzling, and the warm Pacific breeze, carrying fine sand, blew slowly by. Li Chengqian clutched the specially made satellite phone tightly in his hand. The receiver, which originally represented the highest communication authority of the Tang Dynasty, was now held at an odd angle to his ear.

He cleared his throat, and the languor in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a superb acting skill that could win top awards in every theater in the Tang Dynasty. His facial muscles began to twitch slightly from the "exertion," and his brows furrowed into a deep frown, giving him an air of strain, as if he were communicating across interstellar distances.

"Feed? Feed? Is that Father Emperor? Speak louder!"

Li Chengqian roared at the empty void, his voice so loud that even the reporter watching the camera nearby was startled and shivered.

"Oh dear! Father, did you hear that? The sea breeze is so strong here, it seems the quantum communication base station is malfunctioning! Buzz...buzz..."

As he spoke, he raised his left hand and rhythmically produced a series of harsh, high-frequency screeching sounds by scratching the edge of the receiver's microphone hole with his fingernail. The sound was monotonous, like an old power line struggling to survive in a storm. To enhance the realism, he deliberately turned his body to the side, pointing the receiver directly at the surging sea, trying to let the roar of the waves drown out any rational communication.

"Buzz buzz buzz! Um... quantum entanglement is a bit unstable! Father! You said you were going to treat me to hot pot? Oh dear, the signal is really intermittent!"

In that instant, the jaws of billions of viewers worldwide dropped in astonishment.

The reporter holding the microphone was completely petrified from the sheer overload of his brain. His eyes were wide open, his gaze darting back and forth between Li Chengqian's "deliberately playing dead" face and the communication repeater next to him, its signal strength displaying full bars and even flashing green due to the excessively strong signal. This idiotic, Oscar-worthy performance had pierced his heart, which had previously been filled with boundless admiration for the Crown Prince, with a sharp dagger of "disillusionment." His lips twitched, and his inner voice screamed: Your Highness, the signal repeater is right under your feet! That green light is blinding me! Do you really think the entire world is blind?

Meanwhile, in the distant Chang'an, in the Imperial Study of the Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin's condition at this time could no longer be adequately described as a "steam boiler about to explode."

He gripped the red receiver tightly, and in his extreme rage, the veins on the back of his hand, which was in its prime at twenty, throbbed violently. His deep, starry eyes were now spitting out a fury powerful enough to ignite the entire Sahara Desert.

"Bullshit! Li Chengqian, shut your mouth!"

Li Shimin, tens of thousands of kilometers away, let out a roar powerful enough to shatter the floor-to-ceiling windows of the imperial study.

"I saw it clearly in the back-end monitoring! All three quantum satellites above Salt Fish Island are operating at full capacity, and the base station signals are at full strength! Don't play dead for me! That 'buzzing' sound is clearly the sound of your fingernails scratching plastic! I'm not so old and senile as to be confused!"

Li Shimin laughed in exasperation. He cursed as he slammed his other hand on the mountain of electronic memorials on the table. The humiliation of being made a fool of by his own son made him feel his blood pressure soaring out of the atmosphere at a speed defying the laws of physics. He wished he could immediately crawl into that damned telephone line, fly along the satellite signal, drag that rebellious son who was sprawled on the beach pretending to be insane, and then hang him from a crooked tree and whip him for a whole day.

"You get back here! Attend court! Assume the throne!"

Li Shimin's voice was somewhat hoarse due to the high-frequency vibration of his vocal cords, yet it still exuded an undeniable imperial majesty.

However, on this side of Xianyu Island, Li Chengqian seemed not to hear the reprimands that would make an ordinary person's legs go weak on the spot.

Not only was he unfazed, but he even leisurely shifted to a more comfortable slouching position, his right leg swinging casually in mid-air. A slight upturn to his lips, that signature salty smile, looked particularly irritating in the afterglow of the setting sun.

"Oh dear, Father, is it raining where you are? I can only hear thunder here!"

Li Chengqian's voice suddenly rose eight octaves, his tone filled with deep concern and worry, making him the quintessential filial son who was deeply concerned about his elderly father's health.

"I really can't hear you! The signal delay is too severe! Father, please take care of yourself. It's cold in Chang'an, remember to have the Imperial Household Department heat up the heating! Also, drink more hot water, health is the most important thing! Take your time approving those 50,000 memorials, consider it brain exercise to prevent dementia!"

As he spoke, before Li Shimin could unleash another terrifying roar, his right index finger precisely and decisively locked onto the blood-red hang-up button on the receiver.

For a split second, Li Chengqian's expression was sacred.

He slightly raised his eyelids, his fingertips hovering over the key for less than a fraction of a second, yet it seemed as if he had made a momentous decision that transcended civilizations.

"Your signal has completely dropped, I'm hanging up now! Beep beep beep..."

To give the performance a perfect ending, Li Chengqian even personally mimicked three short, rhythmic "busy" sounds with his mouth.

"Click".

The moment the bright red button was pressed, the entire beach seemed to fall silent for a second.

Li Chengqian let out a long sigh of relief, a feeling of liberation after a long-standing burden had been lifted from the depths of his soul. He looked at the satellite phone in his hand, which still faintly radiated the lingering heat of Li Shimin's anger, and gave him a disdainful expression.

With a slight flick of his wrist, the top-of-the-line quantum communication terminal, whose cost was enough to buy a courtyard house in Chang'an's Second Ring Road, traced a beautiful parabola in the air, just like a useless piece of broken stone.

"thump."

With a soft splash, the satellite phone landed precisely in the ice bucket next to the beach chair, which was filled with ice and sparkling water.

The icy water instantly submerged the red indicator light that was still trying to reconnect to the satellite signal.

Li Chengqian patted the sand off his hands, looked up again, and gazed at the stunning purple glow on the distant horizon.

The roars in my ears are gone, those annoying memorials are gone, and that damned, competitive life is completely gone.

The world is quiet now.

Li Chengqian decisively pressed the red hang-up button and casually tossed the satellite phone into the ice bucket beside him. The world was quiet again.