#but very few of them are actually contemplating divorce now so they're. they're not okay

[stiltonbasket]

One scene I often think about of A Wife by Any Other Name, is when LBH is having a banquet with his wives, and SHL tells him she'd rather spend the night with Shunlei: it stuck to me when she said how, while LBH has other kids, she only has Shunlei, and it made me think of his wives. LBH refuses to have more kids because of what happened with Qin Wanyue, which is understandable, but on one hand, it was something that none of them knew, and on the other, it's something that can be taken into consideration in the future. If it was just LBH, then not wanting to have four kids is fine, four is plenty, but it's not just him. He has another 30 women in his palace, and there must be a variety of desires in them. Some of them uninteresting in ever having children, others wanting them for a rise in position, and others who genuinely want to have them, to have their own families. They are all married to LBH, they can't marry anyone else; LBH is scared and doesn't want to repeat such a tragedy, which is fair, but he is also creating another kind, but taking away the hopes of some of the women in his protection who would want families.

Aaaahhhh, I don't know how to articulate it, I am going crazy thinking about the entire dilemma and how it's honestly sad because of the multiple decisions that LBH himself took that placed him in his position.

It is a sad dilemma, especially for the wives who have desperately wanted children for the last decade or longer and were never allowed to have them. Some of them are understanding of Luo Binghe's hesitancy on the subject, since there were also two well-publicized attempts at forced miscarriages in the harem (both successful to some degree; Sha Hualing poisoned Qin Wanyue and caused the loss of her first child, and Qin Wanrong poisoned Ning Yingying right before Luo Suoxin was born).

However, some of Bingge's wives truly want to be mothers and have absolutely no interest in gaining favor over the other consorts or raising their children to fight for the position of crown prince/princess; and as a result, these women have not seen Luo Binghe outside public banquets for years. They now have no one but a few sincere friends in the harem; and by this point, some of them have fallen out of love with Luo Binghe and resolved to leave him if the chance ever presents itself.

This fic will have a Binggeyuan happy ending, and unlike the very young Shen Yuan who's often caught off guard by Bingge's good looks and charm in many Bingge/SY fics, this Shen Yuan is an exhausted centenarian who cannot and will not consider a relationship with Bingge until his wives have 1) divorced him of their own accord and 2) been properly provided for. The ones that want to have their own families will be able to do so, and many will return to the true loves they were forced to abandon because they were, in essence, compelled to follow PIDW's plot.