He has a scapegoat

Hua Jing sat in silence long after Hua Ling had left, her fingers tapping lightly against the wooden armrest of her chair.

The afternoon sun filtered through the delicate silk curtains, casting intricate patterns of light and shadow across the polished floors

Her heart, however, was anything but calm.

She had spent all this time focused on survival, on finding a way to escape this world and return to where she truly belonged.

But after everything that had happened—after nearly dying in that prison, after Zhao Yan carrying her out with an expression so filled with rage and desperation—it had struck her.

Escape was no longer her priority.

Power was.

Hua Jing's fingers curled into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. If she wanted to live without fear of being stepped on, she needed absolute authority.

She needed to be untouchable. And in this world, that meant one thing: she had to become Empress.