Chapter 646: 646: Picking Walnuts

—— Inside the lush forest, Fu Miaoxue brushed off the dried grass and twigs stuck to her clothes, her mood sunk to the bottom.

She had initially thought herself lucky, the preliminary game she entered seemed simple enough; it was merely about plucking walnuts.

The more walnuts one collected, the closer they were to victory.

Being a doll, no one could beat her in terms of stamina, so naturally, she believed she would be the one to collect the most walnuts!

But to her damn luck, the game surprisingly didn’t prohibit violence!

No matter how many walnuts she picked, they would all be snatched by the other players!

She just was a doll, even if her physical strength was better, and her strength greater, she was powerless in the face of those brute forces! After all, she was a lady!

Fu Miaoxue missed Du Lai terribly.

Leaning against a tree for rest, through a thin layer of black veil, she could see green walnuts hanging from the branches, heavy with promise.

Fu Miaoxue kept her gaze upwards, showing zero interest in picking any more.

After all, they would probably be snatched away by others anyway.

This game was an unforgiving design, not only did it not prohibit violence, but it also dragged for 48 hours! But the forest didn’t hold that many walnut trees!

Which meant, in two days, this was basically a heist of the walnuts!

How could she possibly compete against the gangs formed by the others? Furthermore, the two walnuts in front of her would barely make a dent.

Fu Miaoxue sighed endlessly, backed against the walnut tree.

From the direction of the forest came the rustling sounds of footsteps, looking up she saw a child with a basket approaching.

Fu Miaoxue recognized the child, the elementary school student that always accompanied Bai Youwei.

Eyeing the basket the child carried, she smirked—there was only one walnut. It seemed he had experienced the same fate of thievery.

Pan Xiaoxin was carrying his basket, walking carefully while scouting the surroundings for walnut trees.

He stopped under a tree, struggling to reach the high-hanging walnuts, but no matter how hard he jumped, he simply couldn’t reach them.

Then, he set his sights on Fu Miaoxue’s walnut tree.

Fu Miaoxue calmly watched him.

Pan Xiaoxin stood still, hesitated for a moment, then asked, “May I… ask for those two walnuts? Will you need them?”

“If you want them, then pick them.” Fu Miaoxue said indifferently, “Only the top five players with the most walnuts can win. The presence or absence of these two walnuts won’t make a difference for me.”

Pan Xiaoxin stayed silent upon hearing this.

He quietly walked under the tree, set down his basket, and then slowly climbed up, picked the two walnuts, and tossed them into his basket—

Now, his basket held three walnuts.

Fu Miaoxue curiously eyed him, “Even with three walnuts, you can’t win, hey, I suggest you just give up. If someone snatches them away again, you might not survive.”

Pan Xiaoxin climbed down the tree and grumbled, “The game’s ending is still a few hours away, I have time. I’ll collect slowly, little by little, there might be hope.”

Fu Miaoxue scoffed at him, “Just give up, it’s impossible. Haven’t you noticed that the others have formed alliances? Teams of three or four are forever ahead of you, a lone child.”

Pan Xiaoxin frowned, “There’s still hope. Although the forest seems filled with walnut trees, only about thirty actually bear any, and each tree holds no more than 50 walnuts. Therefore… as long as I can collect 300 walnuts, I can definitely rank in the top five.”

Fu Miaoxue rolled her eyes, “Ha! 300! You only have 3 now. Boy, you sure know how to boast!”

Pan Xiaoxin didn’t bother responding, he just picked up his basket, remaining silent as he moved on.

Fu Miaoxue paused for a moment before realization hit her, she hurriedly caught up with him, “Woah~ Kid, you’re not playing fair. Tell me, have you been hiding walnuts? How many have you hidden?”