As if nothing happened, the carriage started driving forward..Leaning against the carriage sofa, Zhen zhu closed his eyes.

Though everyone was confused why the emperor refused to catch the concubine,nobody dared to ask..

'Maybe the emperor doesn't want to worry about a lowly concubine' everyone thought.

After some time, the carriage suddenly stopped in the midway.

The sudden jerk woke the emperor up from his slumber.

He threw a questioning gaze to the driver.

"Your highness, a woman suddenly appeared before the carriage"

Zhu Zhen furrowed his eyebrows.

"Bring her here"

Everyone present there was dumbstruck to see the woman there.

Why wouldn't they? It took them just one glance to recognize her.

It was Gongsun Li!!!!!!!!

As she was brought before the emperor, she fell on the ground and started kowtowing fiercely.

"Your highness, this lowly concubine didn't mean to run this way. Please punish this concubine"

"Get up." The king ordered.

Gongsun Li did as ordered but didn't dare to look up. She was so scared to death that her whole body was shivering furiously.

"Then why did you ran away that time?Don't you think his highness would believe any of your pathetic excuse!" Now it was an eunuch.

"Moron" Gongsun Li scolded inwardly..

"Your highness, jianqie (this lowly concubine) doesn't dare!"

Then she pulled her hand out of her sleeve. There was something green in her hand.. It was longevity leaves!!!!

"Your highness, when qie was near the carriage, this servant noticed a lady selling this far away. If qie would wait a little longer, it would be impossible to catch her. This longevity leaves are very rare and can be found only once in a decade. Xiaonu (this little women) didn't dare to lose it for his highness's sake. Please forgive nu(this servant)."

"So, you ran to catch up with the lady?" a guard asked dumbfounded.

Gongsun Li did nothing but nod with her head low.

"Where did you get the money to buy this?" The emperor inquired her with narrowed eyes.

Everyone was waiting for her answer holding their breath. There was intense suspense in the air...

"Ummm.." she hesitated to answer and threw a glance to the emperor.

He was looking at her intently as if he could see through her soul.

She could not bear the gaze anymore and blurted,

"Isoldmyfeathermadetampons"

"What?!", everyone asked harmoniously..

"Answer clearly", It was the eunuch again.

Gongsun Li looked at Zhu Zhen with pleading eyes, but he seemed to be waiting for her answer too.

Taking a deep breath, she answered

"I sold my feather made tampons"

Fea..feathermade tampons!!!!! While everyone was dumbstruck for the nth time, she was blushing as red as tomato.

Why, God, why??? It was better to die than be embarrassed like this.

Though feathermade tampons were not that valuable, it was more than priceless for a woman. As there were no pads that time, periods were extremely painful for them. There was a lower version of pads,which is feather made tampons, but unfortunately it was only available for the royal ladies.

It was the only aspect where a concubine was treated better, hehe.

Hearing her response, the emperor coughed helplessly. His tips of ears were turning pink.

"Get on the carriage" He ordered and the journey continued.

"Puhhh! Longevity leaves, you are my savior"Gongsun Li said inwardly

Feathermade tampons : 'You ungrateful bitch!'

...............

After the journey restarted, Gongsun Li breathed a sigh of relief. Now, on the carriage, she and Zhu Zhen sat facing each other. Zhu Zhen was looking out of the window where as she was thinking about what happened earlier. It was clear that everyone believed her story but actually what happened was..............

After running away, it didn't took her long to realize how stupid it was for her to run away like that. Firstly, she didn't have any money with her. Secondly, she didn't know anything about the ancient china. Sigh, she wouldn't survive a day out there but there was no way she could go back.

The emperor must have declared 'Shoot at Sight' order for her by then. As there was no gun invented that time, it must be called 'Behead at Sight' order.. tears'

While lamenting about her miserable fate, she noticed a crowd around a middle-aged lady. She was the one selling longevity leaves. According to what people said, they were very rare and costly.

"I want them." she told the lady.

"What can you pay in exchange of these?" the lady asked.

Eh? now she didn't have anything with her except

"Feather made tampons?"

"........"

........

Though Zhu Zhen seemed like he was looking out of the window, actually his eyes were on the foolish face in front of him. There was a mischievous grin on her face like a child who didn't get caught after stealing a candy.

So she thinks I bought her fabricated story.

Feeling his heated gaze, Gong sun Li turned to look at the emperor. Finding that he was looking at her weirdly, her eyes widened.

Then His moron highness mumbled something and looked away.

WTF???If she didn't heard it wrong,he called her,foo..foool!!

Hurrumph!you are fool!!!

Your full family is fool!!!!