See I never get how in these kinds of stories the emperor be emotionless and have a harem ...

Ikr, like did he just donate his seeds or something lmao. Can he even climax?? How??? Lolol

Actually, from knowing families that have multiple wives, it very much depends on whether a culture traditionally segregates men and women. In cultures where there is no segregation, even if there are multiple wives, the fathers are actively involved with their children. In cultures where segregation is traditional, the children are raised by the moms and house help, while the fathers visit and are not actively involved with the children. In those cultures, the fathers are usually only actively involved with the kids from the "first wife" and live with them in the "main house". The first wife is also usually a relative of the father. The children of each wife in segregated families do not usually spend time together except for major family occasions, and do not usually get along, especially if the family is wealthy. I've seen some ugly shit, for example, one guy after his father's death kept his assets frozen for a long time (delaying paperwork etc) simply because his father's newest wife was young and had a baby. He knew she couldn't survive the delay, so he kept delaying till she agreed to accept a small amount so he could cut her baby out of the inheritance. For another example, I had a friend married to a man from such a family, and I had two acquaintances who were sisters. I knew all these people for years, and it wasn't until four years into knowing the sisters that I realized (through mentions of their father, who they would only see on special occasions, they would go to visit his home to give their greetings and go back to their mother's home) that they were the half-sisters of my friend's husband. They literally never spent time together. Also, because one of the sisters got married without her father's permission, he not only refused to recognise the marriage, but he also refused to officially inform the family that she got married and forbade her and her mother from discussing it with the family. He ended up passing away suddenly, and she got divorced a few years later, but the rest of the family still has no idea that she was ever married and that she has a daughter (although a couple of her half siblings found out but also kept it secret from the older generation). As of the last time we spoke, which was years ago, she still does the family greetings, but without bringing her daughter since the older generation still didn't know about her.

I get what you’re saying, but I was talking more about his interaction with his wives than his children. Like, how he clearly doesn’t give a fuck about anyone and yet has so many wives which could be explained by politics and benefiting the kingdom by marrying certain people yada yada ya, but he clearly hates them all. The MCs mother he called a vixen in the beginning and she obviously was, but why did you have sex with her then? It must have been solely for reproduction since he doesn’t like her and he’s known as emotionless by everyone in the story, other than toward the MC, but that means he had emotionless sex purely for reproduction purposes.

Definitely, people in that position aren't free to marry just for love. Especially in the past, it was purely for political reasons and to ensure heirs, even with multiple wives. The "fun" emotions were normally saved for consorts, assuming the guy even had emotions about the actual act.