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

Inside the Imperial Study, the dim air was still filled with the dust from the pulverized wood.

The curve of Li Chengqian's lips was exceptionally clear in the cold light. It was a confident smile, carrying a cunning that could see right through people. The echo of his words, "Please be the chairman," reverberated and lingered in the deathly silent room. Each syllable was understandable on its own, but together they struck like a thunderbolt capable of shattering logic, directly impacting the souls of everyone in the room.

Li Shimin was at the peak of his rage.

His bloodshot eyes, which had been burning with a fury capable of incinerating everything just a moment ago, suddenly froze the moment those words were uttered. It was as if a rusty iron rod had been forcibly shoved into an overloaded steam engine, causing it to creak and groan from inertia.

The scene froze completely in that second.

Li Shimin still gripped the broken half of the wooden stick tightly in his hand. The stick hung precariously in mid-air, originally intended to strike his wayward son at any moment, but now it froze in a comical pose. His nostrils, which had been flaring in his extreme anger, suddenly froze. The curse that was about to burst forth from his throat was abruptly stopped halfway.

The violent look on his once handsome face was visibly fading, replaced by a clear-eyed stupidity and a deep sense of skepticism.

That was the instinctive bewilderment of an emperor who could not fathom the unknown.

"Chairman...?"

Li Shimin muttered to himself. The bloodshot in his eyes hadn't completely faded, but his pupils revealed a bewilderment he'd never felt before. These three words held no corresponding explanation in his decades of life experience. It felt as if he were leading his troops in battle formation on the Wei River, only to have his opponent suddenly pull out a book on quantum mechanics from his robes and loudly recite it before his troops.

It wasn't just Li Shimin.

Wang De, who was hiding in the corner of the imperial desk and was originally preparing to witness a tragic scene like a thunderbolt striking the earth, also quietly raised his head at this moment.

The old eunuch, who had served two emperors, had a face full of wrinkles that screamed absurdity. He cautiously opened one eye, his gaze darting back and forth between the Crown Prince's composed smile and the Emperor's blank expression. Overwhelmed by his dazed state, Wang De even forgot the sharp pain in his forehead from the shards of porcelain, his Adam's apple bobbing nervously.

During this long, slow-motion standoff, Li Chengqian made a move.

He appeared calm and unhurried, even as if he were strolling in his own backyard. He casually pulled over a sandalwood chair that hadn't been damaged in the earlier riot, brushed off the dust, and sat down with an air of nonchalance.

"Father, please stop staring at me like that. The words 'I'm talking nonsense' written in your eyes are practically plastered on my face because you're so close."

Li Chengqian patted non-existent dust off his trench coat and chuckled softly. He shifted into a more comfortable position, his right leg naturally crossed over his left, his hands clasped together on his abdomen. This completely relaxed posture created a stark contrast in the room filled with signs of destruction.

"You just said you were an old ox, a beast of burden. When I heard that, my heart ached as if someone were tearing it apart. How can this be allowed? How can our Great Tang's Heavenly Khan grind his teeth over a few pounds of tax difference every day?"

Li Chengqian's voice was clear and crisp, carrying an undeniable guiding quality.

"The reason you feel tired is because you're still stuck in the mindset of a country bumpkin emperor from thousands of years ago. That kind of hands-on approach, where you 'personally handle everything and criticize everything,' might have worked in the agricultural era when traveling tens of thousands of miles would take half a year. But what is the world like now? It's the age of steel and data."

Although Li Shimin was still in a daze, the violent aura had indeed dissipated considerably. He slowly put down the wooden stick in his hand, let out a heavy snort, and plopped down on the edge of the broken imperial desk.

"Hmph, fallacies and heresies. Without my personal approval, wouldn't those corrupt officials and scheming powerful clans rebel? Without me balancing the various factions, the Tang Dynasty would be in chaos within three days. You want me to ignore the practicalities of daily life? Do you want me to be a mere figurehead?"

Li Shimin retorted with a cold laugh. But at this moment, his words contained less of a murderous intent and more of a desire to debate.

Li Chengqian had anticipated this response. He leaned forward slightly, his eyes fixed intently on Li Shimin, and began the highest level of ideological indoctrination.

"Father, you have a typical employee mentality. You think the chairman doesn't do anything? You're wrong. The chairman manages the two most important things in the world: the purse strings and the power to appoint people."

He held up two fingers and waved them in the air.

"What were you doing when you were approving those memorials? You were deciding whether a bridge should be built in a certain place, or whether an official should be promoted. That's administration, that's trivial matters. It's like a head steward having to personally go to the fields to count the ears of wheat. If you weren't tired, who would be?"

"And the 'Chairman' I'm talking about is a god standing on the clouds. You don't need to see how a bridge is built; you only need to see the global revenue for this quarter. You don't need to keep an eye on every seventh-rank county magistrate; you only need to control the share distribution of each department's executive directors. As long as you hold the power of profit sharing, anyone who dares to disobey you can be made to leave with nothing, physically bankrupt."

Li Chengqian's words were full of allure. He used simple language to depict a picture of the control of high-dimensional power.

"Think about it. Before, when you approved a troop deployment request, you had to consider military expenses, provisions, and the loyalty of generals over and over again. Now? You just sit behind that control panel and watch the numbers representing military power jump around. If you don't like something, just tap your finger, and that province's energy quota is cut off, and their mechs instantly become scrap metal. That's called a dimensional reduction attack, Father. That's what true 'power over all' means."

Li Shimin's back, which had been tense with anger, began to relax unconsciously in that instant.

He unconsciously stroked the jade thumb ring on his thumb. The exhilarating feeling of "only having control over the purse strings and personnel" described by Li Chengqian was like a warm current, slowly seeping into his limbs and bones along his thoughts. As a commander who had fought all his life, he understood all too well the charm of "focusing on the big picture and letting go of the small details."

But he still harbored a sense of unease befitting an emperor. This unprecedented management system was simply too impactful for him.

"That sounds easy... but what if those executive directors collude to deceive me? Without cross-referencing the memorials, how can I know if the figures they're showing me are accurate?"

Li Shimin's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, and his tone carried a hint of inquisitiveness that he himself was unaware of.

Seeing the renewed glimmer of "interest" in the old man's eyes, Li Chengqian breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that this fish had finally taken its first step towards turning its fortunes around.

Of course, he wouldn't tell the old man that the "fully automated monitoring system" was designed to make it easier for him, the chairman, to view the financial reports.

This kind of thing can't be proven with words alone; you have to show some real evidence.

Li Chengqian slowly pulled a small, palm-sized, silver-gray metal disc from the inside pocket of his black trench coat. The disc's surface was covered with intricate geometric patterns, giving it a captivatingly high-tech feel in the dimly lit imperial study.

He stood up and walked to Li Shimin.

Wang De shrank back in fright, fearing that the Crown Prince might cause some other earth-shattering commotion.

Li Chengqian ignored the reactions of those around him. In front of Li Shimin, he gently pressed the silver disc onto the only intact corner of the imperial desk.

"Father, words can lie, but data can't. You always feel that I'm fooling you. Well then, I'll pay for this myself today to broaden your horizons. Let's not talk about grand principles like the fate of the nation, let's just talk about... if you were the chairman of the board, how much money would be sitting in your private treasury right now?"

A cynical smile appeared on Li Chengqian's lips, a premonition that the bait was about to be swallowed.

His long, slender fingers gently caressed the edge of the disc.

"Father, I'll show you something exciting."

Seeing the renewed light in the old man's eyes, Li Chengqian knew words were insufficient. He pulled a small silver holographic projector from his pocket and gently pressed the start button: "Father, I'll show you something exciting."