Emperor Binghe, ruler of realms and master of a nearly uncountable harem.
Cue rogue cultivator going by the name Shen Yuan. A seemingly wandering, chill guy who chances upon Luo Binghe on Wife #330 Side Quest, and decides, he's a guy and he's, like, was non-existant up until he transmigrated and the system had pulled his body in. He wasn't part of the book, so. It's okay to be friends, right? It's okay to fanboy over THE Luo Binghe, because, who wouldn't!?
And then yada yada helping Binghe acquire this gemstone which would cure Wife Something and all that stuff.
Binghe's actually impressed with this careless, ordinary, strange etc etc cultivator who knows a good amount of things, from gemstones to Abyss monsters to temporary cures for Xin Mo's influence. In fact, Shen Yuan is, in the most infuriating, fascinating of ways, smarter than any creature he has met, human or demon alike. (Airplane's ideal character IQ is that of a chair with no back rest)
He's unfathomably kind. He has strange way of saying things, of writing, strange morals. Where one might think before speaking about women welfare, he speaks without thinking.
"You don't need a man," Shen Yuan once suggested to a brothel girl. Blasphemous. What would she do without someone to protect her, especially a girl of such origin? When Bingge posed this question, pointedly, he was told (him!) to just amend the laws (equality? Where would his wives go, if they don't have him to rely on?) and spread awareness as a good emperor ought to. Surely, his word as the infamous ruler is obliged by all?
Where one might think before interacting with a demonic being, Shen Yuan soars at his conditional idiocy.
"This guy's got crazy abilities!" Shen Yuan once cooed at Binghe's most prized mass weapon, the Death Plant. (Again, airplane is not known for his naming skills and for a good reason) "It's adorable."
What, of this dangerous plant which infects a chosen region at an impossible speed, and all on the command of a heavenly demon, is adorable, he had no idea.
Why do you not find it repulsive, he asked the strange cultivator. A killing hybrid. A greedy, insatiable hoarder, a creature that has no use in the world but for it's hunger. Impressive, but is it lovable?
Who says it has to be useful to be loved, Shen Yuan replied, and then—
''Just existing is enough.'' Just existing is enough.
Just existing is, to Shen Yuan, enough.
Ridiculous. (Something long buried in him stirs)
But he's not—not entirely kind, either. He isn't remorseful when he needs to kill. But that is strange, isn't it? A person with such disposition as Shen Yuan should have blanched at the mere thought of hurting someone, regardless of how unjust that person is.
Everybody behaved that way. Except him. Where—everyone is simple, uncomplicated— two dimensional, Shen Yuan is a web of contradictions and complexities.
He's confusing. And that is what draws Binghe's interest initially.
It was supposed to be mere curiosity. It was curiosity in the beginning. But then... how did he end up....
Obsessed?