— In a lush, verdant forest, Fu Miaoxue was slapping the dead grass and dry twigs clinging to her body, her mood at its absolute worst.

She had thought her luck wasn’t bad, because the qualifying round she’d entered was extremely simple — all it required was picking walnuts.

Whoever picked the most walnuts would be the winner.

As a puppet, no one had better stamina than her. So naturally, the one who could pick the most walnuts would be her!

But this was absolute nonsense — the game apparently didn’t prohibit violence!

No matter how many walnuts she picked, they’d be taken by other players!

She was just a puppet. Even if her stamina and strength were a little better, she had absolutely no way of dealing with those rough fighting styles! After all — she was a lady!

Fu Miaoxue really missed Du Lai terribly.

She leaned against a tree to rest. Through the thin layer of black veil over her face, she could see green walnuts hanging heavily from the branches above.

Fu Miaoxue kept her head tilted back in that upward-gazing pose, but had no interest in picking.

There was no point. Someone would just steal them anyway.

This game was too hostile to human decency. Not only did it not prohibit violence — the game duration was a full 48 hours! But there simply weren’t enough walnut trees in this forest!

In other words, these two days were essentially going to be one giant walnut-grabbing battle!

Those people had formed alliances and gangs. How could she possibly compete with them? And besides, the two measly walnuts in front of her wouldn’t solve the immediate crisis anyway.

Fu Miaoxue was consumed with frustration, leaning against the walnut tree and sighing one long sigh after another.

From somewhere ahead in the forest came the soft rustling of footsteps. She looked over and saw a small child carrying a bamboo basket walking this way.

Fu Miaoxue recognized the child — it was the elementary school student who followed Bai Youwei around.

She then looked at the child’s bamboo basket, and the corner of her mouth quirked in a teasing smile — there was only one walnut inside. It seemed he’d had the same experience as her, and had been robbed too.

Pan Xiaoxin carried his basket and walked along, looking around with careful attention, observing whether there were walnut trees nearby.

He walked up to a tree and reached for the walnuts on the branches. Due to his limited height, it was quite a struggle. Even jumping with all his might, he still couldn’t reach.

Then he spotted the walnut tree on Fu Miaoxue’s side.

Fu Miaoxue watched him with composed ease.

Pan Xiaoxin stood where he was, hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Excuse me… do you want those two walnuts?”

“Take them if you want,” Fu Miaoxue said carelessly. “Only the top 5 with the most walnuts win. Having or not having these two makes no difference to me.”

Pan Xiaoxin said nothing after hearing this.

He quietly walked to the tree, set down his basket, then slowly and carefully climbed up to the branches and plucked the two walnuts, dropping them into his basket —

Now his basket held three walnuts.

Fu Miaoxue looked at him curiously. “Even with three walnuts, you still can’t win. Hey, I think you should just give up now. Otherwise if someone robs you again, you’ll risk your life.”

Pan Xiaoxin climbed back down the tree. In a subdued tone he said, “There are still several hours until the game ends. I’ll accumulate slowly. Little by little adds up — maybe there’s hope.”

Fu Miaoxue said coolly, “Give it up. There’s no possible hope. Haven’t you noticed those people have all formed alliances? Three or four of them are searching together. Can they really be slower than one little child?”

Pan Xiaoxin frowned slightly. “There’s still hope. The walnut trees here look like a lot, but in reality only thirty of them actually bear fruit. Each tree has no more than 50 walnuts. So… as long as I can accumulate 300 walnuts, I’m certain to make it into the top five.”

Fu Miaoxue immediately rolled her eyes. “Ha! Three hundred! You only have two right now, you little kid. You sure can brag~”

Pan Xiaoxin paid her no attention, picked up his bamboo basket, and continued walking forward without a word.

Fu Miaoxue froze for a moment, then suddenly caught on and quickly took a few steps to catch up. “Wow~ Kid, you’re not being straight with me. Tell your big sister — have you secretly been stashing walnuts? How many are hidden?”

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