Chapter 5
I turned my face away angrily, refusing to look at him nor talk to him.
It was him who punished me to kneel, and it was him who made me lose face in front of so many palace people. He wanted to protect the new queen who was carved out of the same model as Princess Lisa, and earlier, he even had to put up a show to do it.
Probably because Zach himself was ashamed of me, so he rarely comforted me with kind words, "Okay, don't be angry with me, you know Lucille had just entered the palace, I couldn’t embarrass her in front of so many palace people."
Yes, Lucille only entered the palace, so he couldn't possibly embarrass her in front of so many palace people, so instead he let me, the concubine who has been in the palace for many years and was not favored, take the shame instead!
I sneered in my heart, still ignoring him.
However, Zach didn't seem to care. He sat on the collapsed edge and gently rubbed my aching legs, "If it hadn’t been for me, your legs wouldn't have been..."
Everything was fine and he didn’t have to mention it, but he just had to, so I got angry. I sat up from the bed and looked at him sarcastically, "The Emperor remembers it? The Concubine thought you had forgotten it a long time ago."
Back then, Zach went on a tour, but unexpectedly encountered an assassin on the way. Fortunately, he met my father who had just taken me back to the general's house from his hometown in the countryside.
I still remember the fierce battle. In order to save Zach, my father ended up seriously injured and dying. As a last resort, I stood up and positioned myself in front of Zach.
At that time, I thought I would die there.
Unfortunately not. I was only pierced by a sharp arrow in both legs, and my father, the great general who fought with Zach in the Northern War in the early years, did not die on the battlefield, but died in the hands of the bandits.
I was taken into the palace by Zach and was sealed as a concubine. He asked the best Imperial doctor in the palace to treat my leg injury. He felt that my father and I had saved his life and allowed me not to kneel down to anyone in the palace in the future, including him.
But today, he completely ignored the feelings and promises of the past, and commanded me to kneel in the ice and snow for a woman whose face looked like Princess Lisa’s, and whose cultivation and knowledge was not as good as one-thousandth of Princess Lisa.
I don’t blame him either. I knew he loved Princess Lisa so much that even after her death, he searched for women who look like her from all over the country and kept them in the Cold Palace, missing her day and night.
I only blamed myself for not looking like Princess Lisa, so I deserve not to be favored by him.
"My Elisa, stop fooling around," he rarely calls my name, and usually always calls me Lisa, except for when he feels ashamed of me.
I resisted the hand he stretched over, and said in a cold tone, "Emperor, please go back, the Concubine is tired."
Zach’s hand froze in mid-air, neither stretching nor retreating.
"Besides, Emperor, since the Concubine is the only person in this harem who does not look like Princess Lisa, then the Emperor does not have to come here every night. The Concubine believes that the Empress should be more sacred."
I just wanted him to leave quickly, it would be better not to bother me in the future. I forgot for a moment that the two words "Princess Lisa" are taboos in the harem.
Sure enough, the expression on Zach’s face went cold, and he withdrew his hand, "Elisa Lin, I’ve clearly said that I don't want to hear her name from anyone in this palace!"
Oh.
He obviously collected people who look like Princess Lisa in the first harem, but he wouldn’t let people mention these words. Is it because he was guilty about it?
Guilty about seeing those similar faces day and night, but knowing deep down that none of them was Princess Lisa.
I seemed to have suddenly discovered his weakness, so I couldn’t wait to use it against him, "If Princess Lisa knew that all the women in the Emperor’s harem were her shadow, would she..."
"Elisa Lin!" Before I could finish speaking, Zach grabbed my neck in a rage, gritted his teeth and asked me, "I told you not to talk to me again about her! Do you want to die?"