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

With a gentle press of his slender fingers, Li Chengqian silenced the jarring busy signal, severing the only link between two timelines. He casually tossed the satellite phone—enough to buy a courtyard house in Chang'an—and sent it tracing a slow, deliberate arc before landing with a soft "plop" in a nearby silver ice bucket filled with crushed ice. The icy water overflowed instantly, a few glistening ice cubes swirling playfully around the edge before slowly sinking to the bottom.

Li Chengqian maintained that casual sitting posture for a full three seconds.

He first felt the cool sea breeze brushing against his damp hair, and then, the slight, excessive excitement from the cross-oceanic confrontation vanished in an instant, like the receding tide. He exhaled a long breath, stretched out his arms, and his fingertips touched the cool leather armrests of the beach chair. Every pore seemed to open up in the tranquil air, greedily inhaling the mingled scents of sea salt and coconut.

"Phew—that feels good."

He let out a comfortable groan, slumping down completely without any regard for appearances. This utterly relaxed state instantly softened his previously tense shoulder and neck muscles, and the ease emanating from the depths of his soul stunned the accompanying guards standing not far away. The young guard rubbed his eyes, utterly unable to believe that the man before him, dressed in floral shorts and utterly lacking in decorum, was the same Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty who made the whole world tremble. In his mind, a monarch should always stand upright, even when seated, like a spear standing tall between heaven and earth, but his prince was now as limp as a lump of malt candy melted by the scorching sun.

Wu Meiniang approached with a light laugh, her bare feet leaving a trail of beautiful, evenly spaced footprints on the sand. She bent down, her movements so gentle they didn't even stir a breeze, and steadily handed a freshly opened, chilled coconut to Li Chengqian. Fine droplets of condensation still clung to the coconut's skin, refracting the sunlight into sparkling spots.

"Your Highness, your 'signal failure' trick might make that person in the Taiji Palace so angry that they'll skip a couple of bowls of rice."

Wu Meiniang's voice held a hint of mischief. She knew Li Chengqian all too well; he had long since mastered the art of feigning death to avoid labor.

Li Chengqian took the coconut and rubbed his fingertips against the cool, damp shell. He lowered his head, put the straw in his mouth, and took a big gulp.

The cool juice flowed down his throat and into his chest, bringing a refreshing sensation. He squinted, and an image involuntarily flashed through his mind: Li Shimin, in that expensively floored imperial study, must be raging like a trapped tiger, his face ashen. Perhaps the old man was clutching that broken remote control on his desk, cursing and swearing at the static on the screen.

Thinking of this, a victorious smile appeared on Li Chengqian's lips. The smile was radiant, carrying a childlike quality of having succeeded in his scheme.

"Let him curse, he can't possibly hurt a single hair on my head."

He put the coconut down, laughing carefree, but his eyes revealed a worldly wisdom that saw through everything.

"Meiniang, just you wait and see. Although the old man is cursing fiercely right now, as long as I refuse to go back, he'll eventually have to obediently sit back in that chair. After all, he's the one who conquered this vast Tang Dynasty, and he personally approved the establishment of the base on the moon. A man of his character would never want to see this grand scheme fall apart because no one is playing it. He's destined to be a workaholic, a born top-tier laborer, and he can't escape it in this lifetime."

Wu Meiniang sat on a rattan chair to the side, elegantly crossing her long legs, and fanning him with a delicate little fan.

"You've got His Majesty's temperament figured out perfectly."

"That's called a clear division of labor."

Li Chengqian shifted to a more comfortable position, placing his right hand behind his head and gazing at the distant horizon with his eyes half-open and half-closed.

In the crystal-clear blue sky, a civilian airliner emblazoned with the Tang Dynasty's black-and-gold dragon flag streaked smoothly across the heavens, leaving a long white contrail. This was a scheduled flight connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, representing the pinnacle of civil aviation technology of the era. Below, on the vast Pacific Ocean, several massive nuclear-powered cargo ships, each displacing over 100,000 tons, were slowly setting sail, their drafts extremely deep, laden with goods from all over the world, carving white trails of foam into the shimmering water.

Looking at all this, Li Chengqian felt an overwhelming sense of peace.

Decades ago, this was a wild sea area that only canoes dared to venture into. Thousands of years ago, people fought tooth and nail for a few acres of meager land. But now, lying here, he only needs to move his lips, and every inch of this world, every wisp of wind, operates according to the orbit he has set. This sense of accomplishment and retirement after controlling everything gives him an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

He not only changed the Tang Dynasty, he completely reshaped the course of civilization on this planet.

Waves surged onto the beach, then swirled and receded. The setting sun cast long shadows. This profound tranquility created an eerie yet harmonious contrast with the distant industrial prosperity.

He lay back in his chair, watching the commercial airliners streak across the sky and the giant cargo ships cruise on the sea, feeling utterly at peace.

Li Chengqian gently closed his eyes, his breathing becoming even and deep. At this moment, he recalled the fear and unease he felt when he first arrived in this era, facing an unknown fate, and the frantic technological journey he had embarked on to survive. His initial motivation was so small, so small that he only wanted to keep his legs. But as he went on, the situation escalated to a point that even he himself found absurd.

He felt his consciousness drift to a great height in that instant. He looked down at the blue planet, watching the Tang Dynasty's railways spread across the continent like veins, the cables buried deep in the sea like nerves, and the lights of humanity forming a continuous expanse in the darkness. And all of this started with just the thought of escaping work.

"Your Highness, it's time to go back to your room for dinner. Tonight we'll have your favorite island-style grilled lobster."

Wu Meiniang's gentle call brought him back to reality.

Li Chengqian slightly opened his eyes, looking at the woman before him whose beauty was still breathtaking, and then at his extremely inappropriate beach attire. He stretched lazily, his joints cracking loudly.

"Alright, let's eat. After we've eaten our fill, we'll go deep-sea fishing tomorrow, and nobody will be able to find me."

He stood up and took one last look at the clouds, which were dyed as if they were burning in the sunset.

Having served as the crown prince for a century and amassed decades of technological prowess in this world, he finally lived the life he had always desired. There were no system notifications, no desperate pleas from courtiers, only the purest sunlight and the sea.

Li Chengqian whispered a sentence to himself, summarizing his life's transformation of this era.