A week passed without much notice, as everyone had settled into a routine.

Shen Qingqiu spent most days doing one of three things: gossiping with Ning Yingying, Sha Hualing, Hua Yuelian, Jin Xun'er, and Ming Yelan; teaching his few students; or reading in his quarters searching for ways to kill the beast.

Currently, the former Peak Lord found himself doing that second thing, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his classroom with his guqin on his lap.

Sitting before him were his four students: Luo Tianyu, Luo Junhao, Luo Meilin, and Luo Qingge.

Each of his students were paying close attention to his skillful plucking of the strings so they could attempt to recreate it once he was done, unaware he was playing the most basic song in his expansive repertoire.

Also in attendance were the beast's other children, excluding the youngest six as the former Peak Lord refused to watch infants as he was not a nursemaid.

Sitting beside him, with her little head resting against his side, was Luo Yingmei.

Shen Qingqiu was unashamed of picking favorites, just as he had openly favored the girl's mother as Peak Lord; he thought parents and teachers who claimed not to have favorites were liars and setting the children up for failure as life always had those it favored above others.

Though, Shen Qingqiu found he didn't mind having the toddlers with him as they didn't seem to be causing much fuss, just watching him play the piece.

All ten children were staring at him with wide eyes, as if they were watching him hang the very stars in the sky.

Once he finished performing the beginner piece, Shen Qingqiu looked to the eldest of the children and told him to attempt to play the song.

Luo Tianyu nodded and started to clumsily play.

Shen Qingqiu internally cringed at how badly the crown prince was performing, hiding his expression behind his fan immediately, but as the point of the lesson was to see if they knew the strings and could identify the different strings by sound alone he said nothing.

While mentally grading the eldest prince's work, Shen Qingqiu ran the porcelain fingers of his free hand along Luo Yingmei's silky wavy hair, getting the stray strands out of her face.

He could not help favoring the young girl when she looked so much like her mother, and how warm his cold dead heart felt when she called him 'lao ye'.

Another warmth touched his other side, and Shen Qingqiu noticed that the youngest of the children in attendance, Luo Ruoxi -who was nearly three years old-, had laid her head on his thigh.

Using a bit of qi to hold his fan in place, the former Peak Lord used his now free hand to pat the little girl's head, dispelling the light smoke imitating off her and exposing her nub-like horns.

The rest of the young children that were not his students, the 'triplets' and Luo Qianyu, seemed to take him patting Luo Ruoxi's hair instead of rebuking her affections was an invitation to also bog him with attention.

Luo Qianyu immediately crawled into his lap while the 'triplets' hugged his back and the back of his neck.

Shen Qingqiu scoffed at the blatant disrespect for his station and their lack of decorum, but did not tell them to stop, just acting unbothered and continuing the lesson.

"Little beasts..the whole lot of you." Shen Qingqiu said, though his tone was more fond than annoyed and the children just laughed in reply like they found his inconvenience hilarious

Behind him, out of sight, Luo Binghe had walked into the classroom just moments before, his red eyes wide.

Luo Tianyu finished his song around that time, so Shen Qingqiu told him, "You must be more mindful of the strings, you consistently plucked the back two strings when trying to play the middle one."

"Yes, shizun." The Crown Prince replied

It was only then that Luo Binghe was noticed and he was greeted by all his offspring, but none of the ones hugging Shen Qingqiu moved.

"What brings you to this humble teacher's classroom, your majesty?" Shen Qingqiu asked, making no move to shake off the six toddlers hugging and/or cuddling him

"Mere curiosity." Luo Binghe replied, a smile on his lips

Shen Qingqiu seemed amused by that, "A mere music lesson could drag you away from ruling your empire?"

Luo Binghe chuckled slightly, his right arm bending to rub the back of his own neck, "Guilty as charged, shizun."

"I was hoping to see you today." Shen Qingqiu added, lowing his fan via qi since his hands were still busy

The Emperor of the Three Realms perked right up at that, "You did, shizun?"

"Indeed, let's speak in my quarters." Shen Qingqiu replied, starting to stand

Though he did face significant resistance as the children did not wish to let go of him, but ultimately did.

***

His quarters were just barely down the hallway, and Shen Qingqiu told the children to go play outside in his private garden while he spoke with their father.

Once the ten of them were outside, Shen Qingqiu sat on a chaise and Luo Binghe sat across from him at a chair.

"Is something the matter, shizun?" Luo Binghe inquired

"Nothing is wrong, but there is a matter that has been concerning me." Shen Qingqiu began, "I was told that you have two thousand, nine hundred and thirty-four wives. Is that correct?"

"It is, shizun."

"I must admit my confusion about such a number, I am well aware that kings and emperors through time have substantial harems but to have nearly three thousand brides...it must be a logistical nightmare."

"It can be."

"I was also told that you have not visited some of your wives in well over a year."

"I have been amiss of my marital duties to some of them."

"Which proves my point."

"This lord would be grateful for shizun's advice."

"Downsize your harem substantially. Anyone you have not slept with in over six months should be sent home with a divorce settlement and your blessing to remarry -including a dowry for said new husband when they marry."

Luo Binghe did the mentally math quickly, "That would be about a third of them."

"Additionally, you should divorce any who you have only slept with a handful of times."

"That would be another few hundred."

"Ideally, the harem should not exceed one thousand." Shen Qingqiu stated, "And of those that remain should be organized into a proper hierarchy."

"I thought it best to avoid a ranking to prevent sqaubbling."

"Making all of them rankless, or rather sharing an unspoken rank, is leading to more drama, your majesty. A goddess, a princess and a farmer's daughter should not be on equal standing." Shen Qingqiu stated, "Traditionally, an imperial harem has roughly six ranks: empress, noble consort, consort, concubine, noble ladies and attendants. Since you seem to not wish for an empress, I believe just three ranks would suit your needs: noble consort, consort and concubine. The noble consorts can be the mothers of your children, consort for the noble women, cultivators and goddesses, and concubine for everyone else."

Luo Binghe seemed to consider his words, being deep in thought until eventually saying, "Shizun is most wise. This lord will greatly ponder shizun's suggestion."

"Good." Shen Qingqiu said, snapping his fan open with a flick of a gold-plated wrist, lightly fanning himself

Luo Binghe glanced towards the window, seeing his children running around and playing together for the first time, "Shizun must feel pride to have accomplished uniting the children."

Shen Qingqiu looked outside as well, "It seems so."

***

By the weeks end, the harem was informed of the Emperor's wish to downsize.

Those being divorced were informed privately to avoid embarrassment and given a very generous amount of gold and a written decree granting them their now ex-husband's blessing to remarry as well as a promise of a dowry payment if they chose to remarry.

The once massive harem of two thousand, nine hundred and thirty-four was down to nine hundred and eighty-six.

And of those that remained, all were now a bit on edge as they also worried about being dismissed as well.

But of those nine hundred and eighty-six: sixteen of them were now Noble Consorts, three hundred were Consorts and the remaining six hundred and seventy were concubines.

Of the sixteen Noble Consorts, four of them retained the special titles they already had: Sha Hualing was still the Second General that worked with Mobei-Jun to lead the armies, Liu Mingyan was still the Head of the Harem and managing the squabbles among them, Hua Yuelian was still the Palace Mistress responsible for ordering supplies and organizing events held in the palace, and Ning Yingying would forever be the very First Wife.

Shen Qingqiu, however, was very satisfied with how he had eliminated roughly two-thirds of the harem for the sake of his own plans; though, with how easily the beast had caved to his whims it did make him wonder what other requests he could make before the beast put his foot down.

On the other hand, Luo Binghe thought his own plans were going perfectly and assumed shizun wanting to trim down the harem was a sign that his feelings were slowly being reciprocated and was trying to get rid of competition for his affections.

Though, the Emperor of the Three Realms had an insatiable desire to answer the questions brought forth by his viewing of Yue Qingyuan's memories, and he had tasked Meng Mo with searching for anyway to see shizun's perspective of the events.

The dream demon had so far come up with nothing, just as he had failed with getting into Shen Qingqiu's mind at all during his imprisonment, but Luo Binghe refused to give up hope.

Because despite finally having a kinder shizun, he still desperately wanted to know what had happened in the past that prevented his shizun from being like that kind shizun he had met in that other world.