
In the OG story line she transgressed 2 years before their marriage so she wasn’t consider a villainess then and the emperor was madly in love with her and she was madly in love with him. When she died and got transgressed again she went to a different like timeline where it was like 2 years after they got married and she was considered a villainess at that point already the emperor didn’t care for her and she didn’t care for him so they had not done the deed or shown they were trying for a heir in anyway so the cabinet decided to ask the emperor to bring in concubines for the empire to get a heir. The emperor asked the empress and because she said she didn’t care instead of telling him the truth that she wouldn’t like that he decided to go ahead with the concubines because he was being petty in my opinion. I believe if she had said she cared and didn’t want concubines he would not have agreed to them. So since they were all lovely dovey in the OG story line I’m guessing even if the cabinet brought it up then it was shot down immediately. That’s what I think at least.
I don’t get why he has to get concubines this time when he didn’t have to in the OG storyline or the last timeline