He Froze Me Out, so I Made His Legacy Burn

As the quality control supervisor of an import company, I need to finish up the storage of the final batch of king crabs before the holiday.

Just after entering the subzero freezer, the door is immediately locked shut. The alarm system also fails.

When I realize I'm starting to lose body heat, I immediately take out the hand warmers from the emergency kit.

However, the moment I apply them, a chilling sensation makes me instantly realize something is wrong.

I scream from the cold, and the walkie-talkie transmits the boisterous laughter of my fiance, Martin Clay.

"We're live-streaming the challenge of locking the company's 'Ice Queen' in the freezer. Let's see how long she lasts!"

The flirty voice of his female colleague, Lilian Saunders, also comes through, "Sierra, smile for the folks in the live stream! The number one donor wants to see it!"

I instantly understand that they're live-streaming a prank on me.

Not only do they lock me in the freezer, but they've also replaced my life-saving hand warmers with cooling patches meant for fevers!

I grit my teeth, trying hard to stay calm as I call out to them for help. "The spare… spare hand warmers… Give them to me!"

My fiance's voice rings out from the walkie-talkie, sounding unconcerned, "Oops! Lily gets cold easily, and it's her time of the month. The spares are all being used to keep her belly warm!

"You're so healthy that you can just jump around a little and you'll warm up! You might even get some tips from the number one donor!"

I stop arguing with them.

With frozen hands, I pull out the signal flare gun and aim it at the most valuable and mysterious cargo in the freezer—a tube of frozen sperm worth 200 million dollars.

The cold metal casing of the flare gun pressed against my palm, and I steadily aimed the muzzle at the silver metal canister marked "AF-001".

"Martin, are you sure you want to take it this far?" My voice trembled from the cold, but my tone was resolute.

On the other end of the walkie-talkie, Martin Clay's laughter stopped abruptly.

This was followed by Lilian Saunders' panicked voice saying, "Sierra, don't be impulsive! T-That can't be messed with recklessly!"

"Oh? So now you know I can't just touch that?" I shot back.

I chuckled coldly, and my breath formed a cloud of white vapor before me. "When you locked me in here, why didn't you think about the consequences?"

Martin remained defiant. "Sierra, stop trying to scare us! It's just a prank, isn't it? Is it worth taking it out on the company's valuable cargo?

"Do you even know what that is? And you dare to randomly aim at it? Put the flare gun down now!"

I ignored him and instead used my free hand to lightly tap the metal canister beside me. The canister emitted a crisp echo, sounding particularly piercing in the dead silence of the freezer.

"That's Ms. Jameson's lifeline! In order to have an heir, she spent a whopping 200 million dollars to acquire it from an Almoran tribal chief! It's said to be top-tier genetics that occur once in a century!

"As the quality control supervisor, I personally handled the warehousing procedures. You tell me—do I or do I not know how important it is?" I retorted.

Silence fell over the walkie-talkie. I could imagine the sudden shift of Martin's and Lilian's expressions in the monitoring room outside.

They knew better than anyone the value of this item.

Our boss, Ms. Jameson, personally supervised the process on the day this item was stored. She even demanded that the movers use brand-new gloves.

She said that if anything went even slightly wrong with this, everyone involved would be erased from this planet.

Lilian, now sounding tearful, spoke up. It was as if she had suffered a great injustice. "Sierra, we really just meant to play a joke on you and lighten the mood… You're the one who's always so cold and aloof that everyone is kind of afraid of you.

"Quickly put the gun down, okay? Martin will open the door for you in a moment."

As soon as she finished speaking, Martin immediately chimed in, "That's right, Sierra, we were just joking. I'll find a way to open the door right away. Maybe the door's too old, and the lock's circuit froze over. Don't worry. I'll go get the tools!"

While listening to their coordinated act, I felt the last bit of warmth in my heart vanish completely.

The circuit froze over? This Gorban-imported constant-temperature freezer door could operate normally in environments as cold as -58°F.

Martin seriously thought I was a fool.

"Stop pretending," I said, my voice turning cold. "You have ten seconds to open the door. Don't forget that you're still live-streaming. If Ms. Jameson sees online that her lifeline was completely destroyed because of you, do you think you'll live to see tomorrow?

"I'm giving you ten seconds. Open the door now! Ten… Nine…"

I began the countdown as my frozen finger rested on the flare gun's trigger.

The sounds of Martin's furious growl and Lilian's sobbing transmitted over the walkie-talkie.