Chapter 647: The Most Walnuts

“Nope,” Pan Xiaoxin stopped, showing her the bamboo basket. “That’s all I have.”

“You really think I’d buy that?” Fu Miaoxue scoffed. “You’re one of Bai Youwei’s mates. God knows what tricks you’re up to!”

Pan Xiaoxin sighed, an old man’s sigh, helpless and resigned, and glanced at Fu Miaoxue’s bamboo basket, asking: “Sister, you didn’t pick a single walnut?”

Fu Miaoxue flared up at the mention of it, rolling her eyes dramatically, “They got stolen!”

Not just stolen, someone even threw rocks at her head. If not for her miraculous transformation into a puppet, her head would have been gushing blood by now!

Fu Miaoxue irritably brushed off the leftover dirt on her veil, her face a picture of sulking.

Pan Xiaoxin picked out a walnut from his own basket and put it in hers, saying: “Sister, stop dawdling. There are still a few hours left till the game ends. If you pick more, maybe you can win.”

Having said that, he sighed again, picked up his basket, and walked away.

Fu Miaoxue was left dumbstruck, looking at the walnut and then back at Xiaoxin’s retreating figure, a little taken aback.

She thought to herself: This annoying kid is actually a lot more adorable than Bai Youwei.

…

Pan Xiaoxin moved over to a bush, looked around to confirm that no one was near before crouching down and crawling into the low underbrush.

He gently pulled aside a layer of dried leaves and stuffed two walnuts he just picked into the pile of leaves.

Underneath the pile of leaves was the stash of walnuts he’d been collecting for a while.

Being small, he knew he was an easy target, which is why he’s been playing weak since the game began.

While others filled their bamboo baskets full, he never did. He only kept two or three walnuts, inciting no interest in stealing even if someone saw them.

Then he would hurriedly hide the walnuts, fearful of getting caught.

This strategy worked efficiently because most people were drawn to the players with “fulfilling” bamboo baskets, completely overlooking him.

However…

Every time he got two or three walnuts, he would have to hide them, which made his walnut collection very slow. After spending a day and a half looking for walnuts without food or drink, he had only saved up ninety-eight.

Short of a hundred…

Pan Xiaoxin looked at his stash of walnuts and sighed wearily.

It seems he was really about to become one of the commoners.

Although being a commoner would probably be safer, who doesn’t want to win?

“Ha-ha! I knew you were hiding walnuts!”

The crisp voice of a girl rang out. Pan Xiaoxin jumped in surprise, whirling around to find Fu Miaoxue standing right behind him in the bushes!

Pan Xiaoxin’s face went pale with shock!

Seeing this, Fu Miaoxue huffed scornfully: “What? You think I’m going to steal your walnuts? Who’d bother with such a small amount of walnuts? Even if you gave them to me, I still couldn’t pass!”

Upon hearing this, Pan Xiaoxin slowly recovered from his shock, looking gloomier than ever.

He muttered grumpily: “There’s still some hope… There are 1500 walnuts in total; if they select five people who have the most walnuts, that’s 300 walnuts each on average. But if players outside the top five hoard walnuts, or…or the number one player takes more than half of the total walnuts, then even though these walnuts are inadequate, they might squeeze into the top five.”

Fu Miaoxue’s heart stirred, she repeated his words with a mutter: “Get more than half of the total walnuts…”

Pan Xiaoxin glanced at her, suspicious.

As if struck by an idea, Fu Miaoxue’s lips curved into a tricky smirk. She ruffled Pan Xiaoxin’s hair and said with a laugh, “Don’t worry, I’ll get more than half of the walnuts. That way, you’ll definitely enter the top five! Kid, be sure to thank your sister~ ”

Pan Xiaoxin asked in bewilderment: “…What…what are you planning?”