Piped text does not appear (embedded data)

I am trying to show an embedded data value in my questions (named as question_cnt). The embedded data, contains a counter that I update using java-script during the survey.
In java-script code for the first question of the survey, I added following line, to initialize the counter:

localStorage.setItem("question_cnt", "0")

Also, in the survey flow, I set the value of the embedded field to "Piped Text". (I am assuming this will allow me to update the value using java-script)

However, when I insert "${e://Field/question_cnt}" in my questions text, the value of the counter does not appear in the preview.
(In my question, I have an image following the question text, which I am not sure if it is contributing to the problem or not).

Am I missing something?