The Ice Cream Tragedy

"Alright, let's wait until tonight. We can eat it tomorrow. Time to sleep, sleep."

Chen Ming put the lid on the large iron bucket, then organized a cold storage room, designating it specifically for chilling items from now on.

"Ah?! We have to wait until tomorrow to eat it?!"

Hearing this, Di Qiu'er immediately wilted. She had worked so hard for so long, only to find out she couldn't eat it yet?

"Just eat some snacks to tide yourself over for now. Get some sleep, and you can have it tomorrow."

Chen Ming had no choice but to soothe her. After that, it was time for bed. It was getting late, so the two of them climbed into bed and zipped up the tent.

Di Qiu'er snuggled into Chen Ming's arms to sleep, looking quiet and peaceful. Soon, the time reached the middle of the night.

Di Qiu'er was so tempted that she couldn't fall asleep. Her mind was filled with images of the ice cream; she was practically lovesick for it.

Immediately, a pair of bright purple eyes opened, staring unblinkingly at the soundly sleeping Chen Ming.

After confirming that he was truly asleep, Di Qiu'er snuck out of Chen Ming's embrace, climbed out of bed without a sound, tiptoed out of the sleeping quarters, and arrived outside the cold storage room.

Di Qiu'er rubbed her hands together in excitement like a fly, then checked the time: 12:05 AM.

"Hehe, it's already the next day. Chen Ming said it, tomorrow means we can eat it, and now it's already here!"

Without hesitation, she reached out, placed her hand on the cold storage door handle, opened it, stepped inside, and closed it in one fluid motion.

A wave of freezing air rushed toward her, but it was nothing to Di Qiu'er. This cold storage room was divided into three sections: a low-temperature zone, a deep-freeze zone, and an extreme-freeze zone.

The low-temperature zone was around two to zero degrees, the deep-freeze zone was around negative ten degrees, and the extreme-freeze zone was around negative thirty degrees.

To freeze the entire five-liter bucket of ice cream quickly, Chen Ming had placed it in the extreme-freeze zone.

Di Qiu'er quickly moved from the low-temperature zone to the deep-freeze zone, finally crossing into the innermost extreme-freeze room. Seeing the iron bucket surrounded by ice, she ran over impatiently.

"Finally found you!"

She couldn't wait to haul the iron bucket out and pry off the lid. The solidified white substance came into view, and the scent of milk wafted out.

"Just a little taste."

Di Qiu'er pulled out an iron spoon, dug out a large chunk of ice cream, and ate it in one bite. The rich, milky flavor exploded in her mouth, and she felt instantly satisfied.

Sure enough, stuffing a mouthful of ice cream into the hole below one's nose was incredibly comfortable.

"Delicious! Is this what ice cream is? It's all mine now!"

Di Qiu'er immediately began shoveling the ice cream into her mouth, but soon, negative status effects began to appear on her.

[Cold] [Body Chill] [Common Cold]

"Delicious!"

"So yummy!"

"Delicious!"

"It hurts!"

However, at this moment, Di Qiu'er suddenly clutched her head, feeling a sharp pain. She began to lose health, and she felt a sense of weakness throughout her entire body.

She looked at the negative status effects on her body. It seemed all the milk had been used to make the ice cream...

Should she put the ice cream down? But the ice cream was just so delicious... Her head hurt, maybe eating a bite of ice cream would fix it? Her stomach hurt, let's see if eating a bite of ice cream would help...

A short while later, Chen Ming, who was still fast asleep, was suddenly struck as if by a cannonball hitting his stomach.

"Ahhh! It hurts, it hurts! Chen Ming, help me!"

Chen Ming had just woken up to see Di Qiu'er crawling gloomily on the bed, writhing in pain.

"What did you do?"

Chen Ming glanced at the pile of negative effects on Di Qiu'er—internal chill, cold, extreme cold, bone-chilling cold, stomach pain, and the like—most of which were at level two or higher.

"I... I just ate a tiny bit of ice cream..."

Di Qiu'er's guilty voice drifted over. Chen Ming understood immediately; in this much pain, she must have eaten way too much.

"I'm speechless! Didn't I tell you to wait until tomorrow?"

"But... it is tomorrow now! It hurts so much... Chen Ming, save me, I think I'm dying!"

Di Qiu'er wailed incessantly. Logically speaking, the little Auspicious Beast possessed the Golden Dragon King martial soul; even without the Ultimate Light or Ultimate Fire, she shouldn't be defeated by mere ice cream.

But this was a game world, and the code was written this way. Seeing her still trying to talk back, Chen Ming crossed his arms and said:

"Seeing as you still have the energy to argue, I figure you can handle it. I won't help you."

"Don't say that! Chen Ming, I was wrong! I'll never dare to do it again! Brother... Brother~ Qiu'er was wrong, I'll never disobey you again..."

Di Qiu'er threw herself at Chen Ming, looking pitiful as she begged him for help.

"...Sigh... wait there."

In the end, Chen Ming couldn't bear it. She was, after all, the little sister he had taken in; he might as well spoil her. He trusted that she wouldn't dare 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, activating the fire element within his body to act as a heat source to warm her up.

Immediately after, he unfurled massive silver dragon wings from his back, cradled Di Qiu'er's little bottom with one hand, and grabbed an iron bucket with the other before flying outside.

He quickly found the only cow in the imperial palace, right-clicked on it with the iron bucket, and a bucket of milk appeared instantly; Chen Ming immediately began to heat the milk.

Once the milk was warm, he fed it to Di Qiu'er right away, and she immediately began to gulp it down; as the first mouthful went down, she felt her entire body instantly relax.

All status-related effects vanished, but Di Qiu'er's temperature bar remained in a state of extreme hypothermia, and she was still shivering uncontrollably from the cold.

"Serves you right, why didn't you just freeze to death?"

Chen Ming clicked his tongue, then prepared a dozen more buckets of milk, just in case this golden-gradient big cat, this silver-haired, purple-eyed glutton, ran into trouble again.

Di Qiu'er remained silently quiet, knowing that the best way to handle this right now was to play dead and admit her mistake.

After storing the milk, he put it away, cradled Di Qiu'er's little bottom with both hands, and flew up again to return to the bedchamber.

Chen Ming kept her warm for an hour, which finally brought her temperature bar back to a normal level, and by then, the sky had also brightened.

Di Qiu'er knelt on the bed, looking honest and well-behaved, with her head bowed in an apologetic manner.

"Do you know what you did wrong?"

"I know I was wrong... Brother~ Qiu'er won't ever dare to do it again..."

Di Qiu'er put on a cutesy voice, making it sound soft and sweet, and since Chen Ming was the type to yield to softness rather than force, seeing her sincere attitude, he only punished her symbolically.

"As long as you know you were wrong, I'll ban you from eating snacks today, and we'll call it even."

"Understood, Brother..."

Di Qiu'er agreed obediently, though she thought to herself that even if Chen Ming said she couldn't have snacks, she could just eat them in secret; she would just hide in the bathroom to sneak a bite.

Then she could pretend she was taking a shower or using the restroom, and Chen Ming definitely wouldn't come in.

ps: The second update for February 25th, totaling 4,000 words.