One Minute

The sky was once again invaded by red,

and the entire world fell into red territory.

"Quick!"

Zheng Wuyou, standing before the Wooden House, seized the moment and roared. Everyone immediately sprang into action.

The man in sportswear closest to them frowned, ruthlessly reaching out while not daring to look to either side.

He tightly grabbed the two Red-faced Dolls with real tactile sensations on his left and right.

The dolls looked much like ordinary children, the only difference being the two bright-red patches of blush on their faces.

Smiling, the two dolls stiffly turned their heads to look at him in the middle.

Their giggling echoed in his ears.

It was as though countless dolls were dancing around him.

The uncle in capri pants quickly rose onto his toes, struggling to take down the string of firecrackers hanging above his head.

At some point, the fuse at the bottom of the firecrackers had been lit.

A gust of wind blew.

The flames swiftly spread upward.

The uncle in capri pants endured the pain of the firecrackers exploding in front of him. Even with his eyes closed, he had to take them down.

Only Toothless Pajama Man and the burly man stared blankly at the Willow Tree. The Wine Jar had not appeared...

"Daughter Red!"

After standing there dazed for over ten seconds, Toothless Pajamas spotted a corner of red cloth poking from the dirt by his feet. Inspiration suddenly struck him.

He and the burly man quickly crouched down and manually dug through that patch of soft soil.

The moment Bangs Woman turned around at the entrance to Garden Alley, she saw all sorts of vegetables growing densely in the garden behind her.

But the path ahead was covered in thorns.

Two hoes lay beside her.

Her vision went dark. Why was hers so difficult?!

Who could clear all the weeds in one minute?!

Bangs Woman anxiously picked up a hoe, no longer caring whether there was enough time.

She desperately raised the hoe and began digging into the alley.

Zheng Wuyou exchanged a glance with Navy Blue Pajamas. Corresponding items had appeared before everyone else's doors.

Yet the pig's head mentioned in the sentence had not appeared before the Wooden House.

Could the direction be wrong?

No, that was not right. If the direction was wrong,

everyone's positions would be overturned.

A pig's head placed in the north, celebrating with long smoke...

Could the key not be the pig's head, but the long smoke?

Wasn't long smoke the Smoking Pipe in the old man's hand?

"Smoking Pipe! Smoking Pipe!" Zheng Wuyou no longer cared how she phrased it.

She spun around and frantically searched behind her for a Smoking Pipe.

But why would there be a Smoking Pipe at the door?!

"Big Sister! It's a pig!" Seeing her look around in confusion, Little Girl immediately fixed her gaze on a pair of tusks two meters beyond the grass outside the Wooden House.

It was a Wild Boar!

When Zheng Wuyou followed her gaze and saw the tusks, she did not know whether to be happy or cry.

She desperately wanted to pull out her phone and make a post:

Looking for a guide to killing a Wild Boar in one minute.

Navy Blue Pajamas reacted quickly, picking up a Carrying Pole from the pile of clutter in the corner.

To Zheng Wuyou's stunned gaze, he struck the Wild Boar on the head with it.

The struck Wild Boar flew into a rage, let out an angry howl, and charged wildly through the village.

It first knocked over the man in sportswear. The Red-faced Dolls at his sides shielded him from the tusks.

No one could stop the Wild Boar.

Then it was startled by the firecrackers.

It charged straight toward the vegetable garden alley to the west.

A bang rang out.

A scream came from the alley, and the second hand overlapped with the minute hand.

The ticking of the watch amplified countless times.

The time reached five in the afternoon.

The Red Sun vanished.

The sunset hung halfway over the mountain, and the village returned to normal.

The man in sportswear lay sprawled on the ground, clutching a twenty-three-centimeter cloth doll in each hand, both punctured by tusks.

Cheap cotton stuffing continuously spilled from the cloth dolls and fell to the ground.

Still shaken, the uncle in capri pants raised the firecracker string in his hand, which now held only ashes.

The firecrackers above had long since been lit, leaving behind a ruined sight.

Toothless Pajama Man and the burly man strained to carry a Wine Jar half the height of a person out of the ground.

The moment they gently set it on the ground,

a crack appeared across the top of the Wine Jar, spreading like a winding Snake.

Then the upper half of the Wine Jar shattered like a blooming flower, its fragments scattering across the ground.

The yellow earth inside returned to the ground in heaps.

Bangs Woman stumbled out of the alley, gasping for breath, clutching a clump of uprooted withered sweet potatoes in her left hand.

Her right hand dragged the hoe she had taken in.

Various weeds still hung from the hoe.

The silent short woman followed behind her.

Only Zheng Wuyou and the other two standing before the Wooden House had failed to obtain any spoils brought out from the Red Sun.

Navy Blue Pajamas tossed the Carrying Pole in his hand aside.

He dusted off his hands.

With a calm expression, he raised a foot and headed toward the alley where the Wild Boar had vanished.

He seemed completely unconcerned that punishment might fall upon him.

Until two minutes later, everyone watched him drag an unconscious Wild Boar out of the alley.

The Wild Boar was covered in marks left by thorns.

Blood continuously dripped from its head.

The Wild Boar that had been full of vigor in the Red Sun was now unconscious before them all.

"That Wild Boar scared me to death! It suddenly charged in and slammed into the wall!" Bangs Woman consciously stepped aside for Navy Blue Pajamas dragging the Wild Boar.

She patted her chest. "I thought I was done for, but this Wild Boar accidentally helped me trample all the weeds flat!"

Thinking about how she still had to pick vegetables, she had thrown herself forward in the last three seconds and randomly grabbed a clump of vegetables, roots and all.

Was it a coincidence?

Zheng Wuyou no longer cared what Bangs Woman was saying. All her attention was on Navy Blue Pajamas dragging the Wild Boar.

Could that one strike really have been such a coincidence?

Navy Blue Pajamas dragged the Wild Boar with one hand. Toothless Pajama Man curiously stepped forward, took over, and tried dragging it.

The moment he grabbed the Wild Boar's tusk with one hand, its weight pulled him downward.

This Wild Boar probably weighed over two hundred pounds.

Yet this guy had dragged it away with one hand...

Was he even human?

Toothless Pajamas looked at his own arms and legs, then at the faintly visible muscles beneath Navy Blue Pajamas' clothes.

He wisely slipped back beside the Wine Jar.

Just as Navy Blue Pajamas dragged the Wild Boar back to the entrance of the Wooden House, its door opened automatically.

Zheng Wuyou lowered her head and discovered that the words on the List had disappeared.

The doors of the other houses remained shut.

The others standing on both sides of the road could only look suspiciously at the Wooden House, the only one with an open door.

The old man stood before the open door, still holding the Smoking Pipe in his mouth.

Seeing that this group had all obtained the necessary items, his expression visibly softened.

"Cough, cough... Looks like Old Zhu's family has already arranged other lodgings. Cough... It's getting late. Come in and eat." The old man hunched his back and turned toward the Backyard door beside the main table in the Main Hall.

Everyone sat around a dilapidated Black Round Wooden Table in a circle.

They were in one of the rooms in the Backyard.

Unlike the main two-story hall made of wood, the Backyard seemed to be entirely built from Black Soil.

Just like the buildings of Old Zhu's family and the other households.

They had originally intended to observe the surroundings when entering the Backyard, but the old man sternly rebuked them and forbade them from looking around.

So everyone entered this room with their heads lowered.

Other than the fragile Wine Jar, which had not been brought inside,

all the other items were placed by the feet of the people who had obtained them.