Could it be that Liang Zheng reminded the Emperor of a trauma from his past?
Could it be that Liang Zheng has a personality similar to someone the Emperor hated?
That would explain his cowardice in not confronting Liang Zheng and telling him how he truly feels.
Based on my experiences reading many other Danmei novels, these are the most accurate speculations I can come up with.
I feel that the Emperor does love Liang Zheng; if it weren't true, he would have tortured and killed him by now.
As for stripping him of his title of general and making him a concubine, I think it was just a pretext to keep him.
He loves him, but he's incapable of being direct and telling Liang Zheng how he feels.
He's too cowardly, to be honest. _:
If he doesn't have the guts to come clean, Liang Zheng might be better off finding another man with more courage.
or the other is that he has a complex of feeling unworthy of being Liang Zheng's lover..
