"All right, let it sit overnight. You can eat it tomorrow. Now, time for bed."
Chen Ming put the lid back on the metal barrel, then set up a cold-storage room to keep things chilled from then on.
"What?! I have to wait until tomorrow to eat it?"
Di Qiu'er wilted at once. After all that work, she still couldn't eat it?
"Have some snacks to tide you over, then get some sleep. You can eat it tomorrow."
Chen Ming could only soothe her. It was getting late, so they went to bed and zipped up the tent.
Di Qiu'er nestled against Chen Ming and fell asleep, looking peaceful and quiet. Before long, the middle of the night arrived.
Unable to sleep because she was craving it, Di Qiu'er could think of nothing but ice cream. She was practically lovesick.
A pair of bright purple eyes snapped open. She stared without blinking at Chen Ming, who was fast asleep.
Once she was sure he was really asleep, Di Qiu'er furtively slipped out of Chen Ming's arms, climbed out of bed without a sound, and tiptoed out of the bedroom. Soon, she was standing outside the cold-storage room.
Di Qiu'er rubbed her hands together excitedly, then checked the time: 12:05 a.m.
"Hehe, it's already the next day. Chen Ming said I could eat it tomorrow, and it's tomorrow now!"
Without another moment's hesitation, she put her hand on the cold-storage room's doorknob. She opened the door, went inside, and shut it in one smooth motion.
A wave of icy air hit her, but it was nothing to Di Qiu'er. The cold-storage room was divided into three sections: a cool zone, a deep-freeze zone, and an ultra-cold zone.
The cool zone was kept at around zero to two degrees, the deep-freeze zone at around minus ten, and the ultra-cold zone at around minus thirty.
To freeze the entire five-liter tub of ice cream as quickly as possible, Chen Ming had put it in the ultra-cold zone.
Di Qiu'er quickly made her way from the cool zone to the deep-freeze zone, then crossed another room and reached the innermost ultra-cold section. There she spotted the metal tub surrounded by ice and rushed over, unable to wait any longer.
"Finally, I found you!"
She hurriedly hauled out the tub and took off the lid. Inside was a solidified white substance, its rich milky aroma wafting up to her.
"I'll just try a little."
Di Qiu'er pulled out an iron spoon, scooped up a huge spoonful of ice cream, and ate it in one bite. The rich milky flavor burst in her mouth, filling her with satisfaction.
Sure enough, sticking a bite of ice cream into the hole beneath your nose felt amazing.
"Delicious! So this is ice cream? It's all mine!"
Di Qiu'er immediately started wolfing down the ice cream. But before long, negative status effects appeared on her.
[Cold][Chilled][Common Cold]
"Delicious!"
"Five ants!"
"Delicious!"
"Ow, that hurts!"
But then Di Qiu'er suddenly clutched her head. It hurt, her health was starting to drop, and she felt weak all over.
She checked the negative status effects on herself. It seemed they had used all the milk to make the ice cream...
Should she put the ice cream down? But it tasted so good... Her head hurt, so she'd eat another bite and see if that helped. Her stomach hurt, so she'd try another bite and see if that fixed it...
A little while later, Chen Ming, still fast asleep, suddenly felt as if he'd been hit hard—as though a cannonball had slammed into his stomach.
"Ahhh! It hurts! It hurts! Chen Ming, help!"
As soon as Chen Ming woke up, he saw Di Qiu'er crawling around on the bed in the dark, rolling about in pain.
"What did you do?"
Chen Ming checked Di Qiu'er's many negative status effects: internal chills, a cold, extreme cold, bone-deep freezing, stomach pain, and more. Most were above level two.
"I... I just ate a tiny bit of ice cream..." Di Qiu'er said guiltily.
Chen Ming immediately understood. If she was in that much pain, she'd probably eaten too much.
"I can't believe you! Didn't I tell you to eat it tomorrow?"
"But... it's already tomorrow! It hurts so much... Chen Ming, help me! I think I'm going to die!"
Di Qiu'er wailed nonstop. Ordinarily, with her Golden Dragon King Martial Soul, even without Ultimate Light and Ultimate Fire, the little Auspicious Beast wouldn't have been taken out by a little ice cream.
But this was a game world, and that was how the code worked. Seeing that she still had enough energy to argue back, Chen Ming crossed his arms and said,
"You still have enough strength to argue, so you can probably tough it out. I'm not helping you."
"Don't! Chen Ming, I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Big brother... Big brother~ Qiu'er's sorry. I'll be good from now on..."
Di Qiu'er threw herself at Chen Ming and looked up at him pitifully, begging him over and over to help.
"...Sigh... Wait here."
In the end, Chen Ming couldn't bring himself to refuse. She was the little sister he'd taken in, so he'd just have to spoil her. Surely she wouldn't sneak food again after this.
Chen Ming scooped Di Qiu'er up, and she immediately clung to him like an octopus.
At the same time, Chen Ming transformed into his Silver Dragon King form. He activated the fire element within him, using his body as a heat source to warm her.
Then he spread his enormous silver wings. Supporting Di Qiu'er's little bottom with one hand and grabbing the metal tub with the other, he flew outside.
He soon found the only cow in the palace. He right-clicked it with the metal bucket, and a bucket of milk appeared at once. Chen Ming immediately began heating it.
As soon as the milk was warm, he fed it to Di Qiu'er. She gulped it down, and the moment the milk reached her stomach, she felt the tension leave her body.
All her status effects disappeared, but Di Qiu'er's temperature gauge was still in the extreme-cold range, and she was still shivering.
"You brought this on yourself. What, you couldn't freeze to death?"
Chen Ming clicked his tongue, then prepared more than a dozen buckets of milk, just in case the golden British Shorthair—the silver-eyed, purple-eyed little glutton—got into trouble again.
Di Qiu'er kept quiet. She knew her best option now was to play dead and admit she was wrong.
After storing the milk, he put it away, supported Di Qiu'er's little bottom with both hands, and flew back to the bedroom with her.
Chen Ming kept her warm for an hour before her temperature gauge returned to normal. By then, it was daylight.
Di Qiu'er knelt on the bed, looking like the picture of innocence, her head bowed as if she were sorry.
"Do you know what you did wrong?"
"I know I was wrong... Big brother~ Qiu'er won't do it again..."
Di Qiu'er made her voice sound soft and sweet. Chen Ming was the sort who responded to gentleness, not force. Seeing how sincerely she apologized, he gave her only a token punishment.
"Good. No snacks for you today. That settles it."
"Got it, big brother..."
Di Qiu'er obediently agreed. Chen Ming had said she couldn't have snacks, but she could sneak some anyway. She'd just hide in the bathroom and eat them.
Then she could pretend she was showering or using the toilet. Chen Ming definitely wouldn't come in.
p.s. The second update for February 25, bringing the total to four thousand words.
Before you continue