Chapter 12
Even though they were still some distance from the corner where Le Xinzhou had been that morning, Leng Zhi and Jiang Mingzhe could already smell the enticing aroma.
It has the alluring aroma of roasted wheat, mixed with the fragrance of butter and sugar, making it incredibly tempting.
Whether it was when the original owner was alive or after Leng Zhi transmigrated, Jiang Mingzhe's diet was always strictly controlled. When he arrived at the program, he thought he could eat some delicious snacks, but instead, he was given one nutritious children's meal after another.
His heart immediately soared away.
It's delicious! I want to eat it!
Leng Zhi didn't notice Jiang Mingzhe's change. He was still concentrating on observing whether there were any green play mats belonging to Le Xinzhou on both sides of the road. He didn't notice that the more he walked forward, the more noisy voices could be faintly heard in the originally quiet shopping street.
After turning the corner, the aroma of the delicious food finally revealed itself.
The huge signboard is shaped like an ice cream cone, shining with a warm yellow light. Inside the store, there are various exquisite cakes and an Italian gelato counter.
A kind-looking woman saw the guests arrive, immediately adjusted her chef's hat, and warmly greeted them, "Little friend, would you like some delicious ice cream?"
As she spoke, she scooped out a small spoonful to taste and handed it to Jiang Mingzhe.
The noisy background noise was also revealed to be real.
Shaoqi, Youyou, Yun Jingcheng, and Xiaoyu were all here.
Leng Zhi sensed something was wrong. Although he didn't know where this unease came from, the fact that so many people were gathered here instead of looking for a playmat was definitely not a good thing!
The three guests remained silent, while the children ate heartily, creating an awkward atmosphere.
Yun Jingcheng broke the silence: "Brother Leng Zhi, are you also here to find Brother Xin Zhou's mat?"
Le Xinzhou's actions in the morning were very conspicuous. He even sent a seemingly random "Help!" message in the group chat, which drew the attention of all the other guests.
Yun Jingcheng assumed that Leng Zhi, like himself, had come because of Le Xinzhou's words "help me."
What he didn't know was that even without the conversation in the group chat, the mini-map built into Leng Zhi's mind would automatically record Le Xinzhou's movement route.
Leng Zhi didn't explain further, he simply said, "It seems everyone is."
Before Yun Jingcheng could reply, Jiang Mingzhe jumped up—little Mingzhe didn't care about adult conversations; he had just finished tasting the gelato his older sister had given him, and his eyes lit up.
Okay! Okay! Eat!
It tastes better than anything the housekeeper bought before!
He immediately shouted, "Dad, I want to eat this!"
That sound was like flipping a switch, and Youyou also shouted, "Mommy, I want to eat too!"
As the main character, Xiaoyu possesses a maturity beyond his years—but even he wavers when faced with delicious food: "I...I want to eat too, really I want to eat, Dad, you should try some too."
Yun Jingcheng gave a wry smile and looked at Leng Zhi: "This is the situation you see now. We've actually been here for a while, but the two of them insisted on eating."
Leng Zhi asked, puzzled, "Then why don't you just buy it?"
Then, following Shaoqi's hand, he saw the price:
[Italian gelato, two stars per serving!]
Leng Zhi: "...?"
No, this is some kind of abstract, astronomical price.
Leng Zhi almost suspected that the store had mislabeled the price, but after hearing his question, the chef in the hat smiled slightly: "It's not mislabeled. Two stars per serving, fair and square. A customer bought it at this price this morning as well."
A customer who happened to be following behind a nearby shelf heard this from afar and almost spat out the water he had just drunk.
"Cough cough cough! Is this...is this talking about me?" Le Xinzhou choked and let out a series of earth-shattering coughs.
The commotion drew the attention of the staff at the ice cream shop, and Le Xinzhou could only awkwardly emerge from behind the shelves: "What a...what a coincidence, everyone's here."
Shaoqi knew him well and bluntly exposed him: "Teacher Le, you wouldn't happen to be that dashing guest from this morning, would you?"
Le Xinzhou scratched his head in frustration: "Sigh, it's me, Le. My daughter Duoduo was clamoring for some, so I had no choice but to buy it for her."
That's when everyone noticed that Duoduo had changed her painter's hat today, and none of the stars that were supposed to be pinned to it were left.
Last night, Le Xinzhou chose a two-star room, and with two stars used to buy ice cream, only one star was left for food.
Yun Jingcheng did the math quickly. Le Xinzhou had spent 9 gold coins on dinner the day before, so logically he and Duoduo couldn't even afford lunch today.
He chuckled and widened his almond-shaped eyes: "No wonder Brother Xinzhou borrowed a star from me at noon, saying he would give me two more gold coins tonight."
[Hahaha, how did Le Xinzhou manage to pay off his loan?]
[This is only the first official day. If he doesn't win enough coins in today's mini-games, Brother Le will have to take out another loan tonight.]
[Yun Jingcheng is still too honest. He should have seized this great opportunity to extort a large sum of money from Brother Le.]
"I only gave him two gold coins. If he asks me to borrow stars for food, I'll let him experience the thrill of 'nine out and thirteen back'," Shaoqi joked.
But her smile quickly faded, because her precocious daughter was plucking the last star from her collar and whispering in Xiaoyu's ear:
"Brother Xiaoyu, let's buy one together. I don't have two stars, I only have one. We can each contribute one star, and we can also split the ice cream in half, how about that?"
Xiao Yu agreed with Duo Duo's plan and even picked a star for himself. However, being the protagonist with high emotional intelligence, he looked at Jiang Mingzhe, who was clinging to Leng Zhi's thigh, and said, "We can't leave Jiang Mingzhe behind. Duo Duo has already eaten, so the three of us should eat together."
So he put on a grown-up act and asked the chef in the hat earnestly, "Auntie, can we buy a large portion with three stars?"
The chef in the hat was stumped. The show's director only told her to sell it at the price of two stars per serving. Lowering the price was not allowed, but it didn't say whether she could increase the price or add more quantity as a promotion!
Fortunately, the director's latest instructions came through the earpiece quickly: According to the children's wishes! Sell! As long as we can squeeze their stars out of them, then sell!
The chef in the chef's hat immediately switched to her professional smile for the kids: "Kids, you can do it! Give the stars to Auntie, and Auntie will scoop out ice cream for you. You can have any flavor you want!"
Seeing that the little ones were about to secretly hand over Xingxing in just a few words, Leng Zhi immediately and firmly refused: "No way."
Jiang Mingzhe was still somewhat confused about Xiaoyu's plan when his father coldly took back all the stars: "Let your dad keep the stars for you, otherwise you'll fall into one trap after another."
Leng Zhi stuffed the stars into his pocket—as expected, the production team wouldn't let the guests get a lot of stars easily. Although the daily mini-games had generous rewards, the high-end rooms, the expensive snacks in the restaurant, and the ice cream shop that was clearly designed for the young guests were all traps that could easily deduct all the stars if you weren't careful.
Le Xinzhou and Lei Shen are good examples. Before they had even played the game much, one was out of ammunition and the other was even in debt.
Jiang Mingzhe realized immediately after his star was taken away—he wouldn't be able to eat the super delicious ice cream anymore!
The thought of only being able to eat nutritious meals every day and not being allowed to buy snacks made Jiang Mingzhe feel like the sky was gray.
Leng Zhi's image in his eyes suddenly became less impressive. Then he remembered that although his bad dad had promised to break his record on the Little Genius Watch's mini-games, it had been two days already! His bad dad had secretly played games last night without helping him at all!
Jiang Mingzhe was utterly despondent. He plopped down on the ground and burst into tears, crying, "Bad Daddy—"
Leng Zhi, who had never seen a child cry before, stood rooted to the spot:
Holy crap, what's going on?
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