Stringy Wind in the Ear - Chap 52
At 12 o’clock, the club opened the entrance, and within just ten minutes, the venue was full and noisy, which was unusual for the athletes, because even in national archery competitions, the audience seats were sparsely populated.
More than half of the people present were fans of Liao Tingyuan. They wore white cheering uniforms, cheering hats, and held light boards and customized banners in their hands. They obviously regarded this as a rare idol meeting.
Song Yang sat in the open-air rest area and whispered, “It’s great to have fans. This scene is like a concert.”
Li Xun’s mouth curled up, but he was not envious. He had seen more magnificent scenes than this.
In international competitions, there is always a group of people wearing bright red “cheering” T-shirts, with national flag stamps on their faces, holding high red flags and banners. Printed on the huge banners are five simple words – Go China.
They are a group of people regardless of age, nationality, region or profession. They cross the rivers of time and space, meet on the field, and get nervous, shout and shed tears for the bright red glory.
He rubbed Song Yang’s head, hoping that one day, the wheat seedling in front of him would also be able to enjoy its own glory and honor.
After a series of humorous opening remarks by the two hosts, the exhibition match officially began.
The first round of the knockout round is at a distance of 30 meters, but the target is specially made by the club for this event. The target paper is cut in half along the diameter, leaving only half a circle. In other words, when an athlete shoots outside the semicircle, it is considered to have missed the target.
Each athlete shoots ten arrows in each round. The top ten athletes with the combined total scores will advance to the third round, while the bottom ten athletes will be eliminated directly.
The order is by drawing lots.
The first person to go up was Liu Haotian from Nanjing University. Song Yang remembered this person because Liu Haotian had been hospitalized due to food poisoning in the friendly match a few years ago.
This man was of average strength and was a little nervous. He aimed at the target for a very short time and every arrow he shot missed the target.
Song Yang held the telescope borrowed from Wu Jianian and calculated the result in his mind: “It’s only thirty meters, how can he shoot an eight-ring?”
Li Xun made a simple analysis: “There are ten arrows in total. If one arrow is lost, the target will be eliminated. He used the nine rings as the bull’s eye, which makes it difficult to miss the target. It is the safest way to shoot. You will see that someone will miss the target later, and there will be more than one person.”
Song Yang put down the telescope and turned to look at Li Xun. He crossed his arms, with a calm expression, like a calm prophet. Song Yang knew that it was the confidence that gave him the calmness.
Halfway through the first round of eliminations, among the thirty contestants, the highest score was 91 and the lowest was 71, and three of them missed the target. This caused the athletes behind them to become more and more cautious, and their scores were not good.
Before it was Song Yang’s turn to play, Li Xun counted the points with his fingers and explained the tactics: “There is no need to fight for a bye in the first round. Ten rings are dangerous. Ten nine-ring shots are enough. Don’t be too nervous. Just treat it as a game.”
Song Yang made an “OK” gesture and went on stage with a bow and arrow. With him was a tall girl.
The afternoon sun was very strong and there was no awning in the open air field. Song looked up at the target thirty meters away and squinted his eyes. The already tiny center of the circle was cut in half and could not be seen clearly.
Watching from the audience and watching from the stage are two completely different experiences. There are countless pairs of eyes staring at you, which doubles the tension. The audience’s cheers are enthusiastic and full of restlessness. He can’t clear his mind and pretend that the people around him don’t exist.
Especially when you look at the 50% that has been cut off with one eye, there will be an illusion of distortion, as if it is not a complete semicircle.
The referee blew the whistle and both of them shot their arrows at the same time. Song Yang’s first arrow was an upper eight-ring.
Li Xun forgot his identity for a moment and shouted from a distance of several meters: “Very good, lower the sight and press it again, don’t be afraid.”
The surrounding contestants all looked over, but Li Xun didn’t take it seriously and took out his cell phone to record a video for Song Yang.
In the arena, coaches are to athletes what generals are to the army, comrades-in-arms tied together tightly. When Song Yang realized that he was not fighting alone, his confidence immediately rose several degrees, and after finding his form, he scored five nine-rings and one ten-ring in a row.
Li Xun led the applause: “Beautiful.”
The disciple benefited greatly from the master’s encouragement and praise, and Song Yang became more and more courageous as the battle went on.
He shot another arrow and hit the ten rings. The audience instantly boiled over and applauded.
Most of the spectators today were not paying much attention to the competition. To be able to hit a ten-ring at such a distance was simply a miracle to them. They shouted exaggeratedly, completely forgetting that they were still wearing white cheering caps on their heads.
Song Yang finally got the highest score in the field, 92 rings, and directly advanced to the third round.
The last to take the stage were Li Xun and Liao Tingyuan. Before they even stood at the starting line, Liao Tingyuan’s fans had already started cheering, shouting words of encouragement like “must win” and “first place”.
Song Yang also knocked on the mineral water bottle in his hand to cheer for Li Xun, but his small voice was no match for the thousands of troops. It was completely drowned out by the sound waves that resounded through the sky. He could only take advantage of the brief pause of the army to shout: “Brother Xun! Come on!”
His voice was clear and loud. Li Xun recognized the little guy’s voice and looked back. They smiled at each other like they did more than ten years ago. Song Yang was sitting in the front row and waved to him. With the sun on his head, he smiled with a row of neat teeth.
He suddenly had the illusion that time was going backwards.
Even now he can still recall the feeling of Song Yang’s cheek poking him, soft and slippery, like jelly.
He regretted very much that he should have kissed the little guy back then.
Liao Tingyuan looked at Li Xun from the side. He had wheat-colored skin, fluffy short hair that stuck up casually, and a calm and deep look in his eyes. He was wearing an affordable sportswear, with thriving and smooth muscular arms under a black short-sleeved shirt, and a protective gear on his chest that outlined his muscles. He held a red and black recurve bow in his hand.
Li Xun was too tall, so Liao Tingyuan did not walk over to shake hands with him as usual, but waved to the audience and interacted with them. However, he accidentally discovered that a girl in the front row wearing a cheering hat was taking a photo of Li Xun.
His expression suddenly changed, and he looked at the bull’s eye with a fierce look in his eyes.
When the whistle sounded, Li Xun raised his arm, pulled the bowstring to the bottom, and pressed it against his chin, leaving a shallow mark at the corner of his lips.
The audience held their breath in unison, and the water bottle in Song Yang’s hand was crushed.
The moment the signal piece landed, Li Xun released his fingertips, and the reaction speed was frighteningly fast, almost accurate to 0.1 seconds. The shorter the time, the more greatly its accuracy was improved.
The silver arrow pierced deeply into the center of the bull’s eye, with a small half of the arrow shaft embedded in the target.
Song Yang clenched his fist and said “Yeah” with a smile. Even the host couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows and stretched his mouth into an oval. The audience cheered enthusiastically, half of them applauded Li Xun and the other half cheered for Liao Tingyuan.
There were two enlarged targets on the screen in the distance. Li Xun scored ten rings at the start, and Liao Tingyuan scored nine rings at the last minute.
Song Yang proudly chatted with the staff around him: “He will definitely get ten rings next time.”
The man didn’t believe it and made a bet with him that Liao Tingyuan would have a higher score in the end. Several etiquette ladies who were presenting the awards joined in.
Those girls were invited by the program team. It was obvious that they didn’t pay much attention to sports games. They just bet on their looks. Song Yang pricked up his ears when he heard them talking about Li Xun.
“I prefer the one with short hair. She’s tall and looks very safe.”
The other one smiled and nodded vigorously: “And he is a very nice person. He even helped me move things backstage just now.”
“You didn’t ask for a phone number?”
“No, I didn’t think of it at the time.”
“Sweep it after the competition.”
Song Yang turned around and smiled kindly: “He is our school’s archery coach and he already has a girlfriend.”
“ah……”
Song Yang was worried that they would not give up, so he stabbed them again: “They are childhood sweethearts, have known each other for more than ten years, are already engaged, and have even booked a hotel for the wedding.”
Those girls could not hide their disappointment and bet on Liao Tingyuan to win, but the result went against their wishes. In the end, Li Xun crushed the whole field with a high score of 98 rings and advanced, while Liao Tingyuan only got 94 points.
Wu Jianian was also watching the game in the back row. He stretched his neck and said faintly, “When did the coach start dating someone? How come I don’t know?”
Song Yang was frightened and stammered: “I, I, I, I just found out by accident.” He was worried that Wu Jianian would go to confirm with Li Xun, so he specifically reminded him: “Don’t tell the coach about this. He asked me to keep it a secret for him.”
Wu Jianian: “And that’s how you kept it a secret for him?”
“…” Song Yang was speechless. He knew that in Wu Jianian’s mind, he would be seen as a wicked person who talked behind others’ backs.
Wu Jianian seemed to be thinking deeply: “Being in a relationship is a good thing, why does he want to keep it a secret… Is it because his girlfriend is not good-looking? Is he afraid that we will gossip about her? Have you seen what his girlfriend looks like?”
This snowball can’t roll any further. Song Yang said perfunctorily: “How would I know? Let’s go watch the game. How many players are left?”
Just then Li Xun came over and asked, “What girlfriend? Wu Jianian, do you have a girlfriend?”
“Of course not, we were just talking about you…” Wu Jianian was halfway through his words when he felt someone stepped on his toes. He looked at Song Yang with wide eyes, “Why did you step on me?”
“Sorry.” Song Yang felt guilty, his cheeks were burning, and he pulled Li Xun’s wrist and walked out, “Come with me to the toilet.”
Li Xun staggered as he was pulled by him and almost tripped over the bow and arrow rack. His chin hit Song Yang’s shoulder and he grimaced in pain.
The surrounding contestants all looked at him, as if asking – are you high school students?
Li Xun was carried away by the force of Song Yang’s hand, his body was limp: “Do you need me to accompany you to the toilet?”
“I’m not familiar with it…”
“I’m not familiar with it either.”
“Then let’s get familiar with each other.”
In the sunlight, Song Yang’s skin was white and rosy, and Li Xun couldn’t help but reach out and poke his chubby cheek.
Song Yang looked at him and touched the place where he was poked: “What’s wrong? Is my face dirty?”
“Nothing.” Still as soft as when he was a child.
Li Xun sighed and said meaningfully: “I suddenly want to eat jelly.”
“Buy it. I’ll buy it for you later. What flavor do you like?” Song Yang kept nagging, “Didn’t you say last time that you don’t like snacks?”
Li Xun said, “I like it now.”
Song Yang: “Your taste is really hard to figure out.”
“It’s not hard to figure it out.” Li Xun curled his lips, “If I fall in love with it, I won’t change it and eat it for the rest of my life.”
After five rounds of elimination, only the last four remained out of the sixty-two players on the field. They were Li Xun, Song Yang, Liao Tingyuan, and a girl named Wang Yuer.
This girl was sitting behind Song Yang just now and had followed Song Yang in placing bets. She had bet on Li Xun to win, just like Song Yang. Now the two of them were nodding and smiling at each other on the field.
This smile made Master Li jealous again. He bumped Song Yang’s arm and said, “During the competition, don’t keep flirting with people. People won’t be seen after the competition. If you want to pick someone, pick someone more realistic.”
“Tsk, there are no women in our archery team.”
“You have to choose…” Li Xun almost made the shape of the word “female” at the end, but he swallowed it back with difficulty, “You have to choose to date in college? Your mother told me during the New Year to keep an eye on you and not let you date in school.”
Song Yang was very surprised and raised his voice: “My mother actually told you this!?”
“That’s right.” Li Xun shamelessly spread rumors, raised two fingers, pointed at his eyes, and then pointed at Song Yang’s, “I promised your mother to watch you, so I have to watch you. When you go home tonight, ask your WeChat friends to check for me.”
“…Thank you for your trouble.”
“You’re welcome. This is what a teacher should do.”
The final round was more difficult. The host announced the rules: “The shooting range is still 30 meters, each player has three arrows, and the time limit is 60 seconds. After standing at the shooting line, our staff will blindfold the players, and the one with the highest total score will win.”
Blindfolded archery is a plot that only appears in movies and TV dramas. The audience was shocked and did not think that there would be any high scores.
Song Yang was unsure. He had been practicing for so long but had never tried shooting with his eyes blindfolded. Although his muscles had a certain memory and knew which direction to shoot, even a deviation of 0.1 centimeters would cause the arrow to deviate from the center. If the range was farther, it would miss the target directly.
For safety reasons, two coaches were specially assigned to the scene of this round of competition to keep an eye on the athletes.
The first person to take the stage was Wang Yuer, who was ranked fourth.
Song Yang observed an interesting detail. When the staff blindfolded her, she pulled arrows from the quiver much slower than before, and used her other hand to confirm whether her arrow was in the center of the arrow rest.
Song Yang was usually slow at aiming at the target, and worried that he would have the same problem, he closed his eyes and practiced the actions of drawing the arrow and putting the arrow on it several times until he was smooth.
Li Xun stared at him without blinking, secretly scratched his nose, then quickly turned around and applauded the host before he opened his eyes.
Song Yang touched his nose and poked his side. Li Xun hissed and pretended to be angry: “What are you doing?”
Song Yang whispered, “You do mine first.”
Li Xun showed his Oscar-level acting skills: “Who did that to you? What did I do to you?” He also asked, “You poked my kidney and it hurts. How are you going to compensate me?”
Song Yang was also naughty, and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity: “I’ll give you a good massage when we get home tonight. I also know how to use cupping. Can I give you one?”
“Who taught you this?”
“I’m self-taught. Our teacher even did experiments in physics class.”
“Is it reliable? Don’t blame me. It will be on the hot search tomorrow. A man was cremated on the spot after doing cupping late at night.”
Song Yang raised his neck and laughed like a goose, then he pouted several times, saying it was unlucky.
Wang Yuer’s first arrow hit an eight-ring, but her touch wasn’t good afterwards and she shot further and further off target. Although she didn’t miss the target, her total score was only nineteen. However, this was a result that was beyond the audience’s expectations.
Liao Tingyuan was the next to come on stage. This guy has a lot of idol baggage. When he saw Li Xun, he took a detour to avoid appearing shorter in the same frame. Then he complained that the color of the eye mask was too flashy and did not match the color of his clothes.
He raised his bow and drew his arrow, and the audience followed suit. Someone in the audience shouted, “Brother Yuan! Aim lower!”
Liao Tingyuan became hesitant and adjusted his angle slightly. Then the people below shouted again: “Liao Tingyuan! Believe in yourself!——”
Liao Tingyuan moved up a little bit.
Up and down like this, the first two arrows took fifty seconds, and the results were not ideal.
Because he was blindfolded, the contestant could only judge the passage of time by feeling. When he hooked the third arrow, Li Xun said, “He’s going to exceed the time limit.”
The audience in the front row also realized the time limit and reminded: “Liao Tingyuan, there are still five seconds!”
The more someone wants to win, the more easily they will be disturbed by the atmosphere on the scene. Liao Tingyuan shot his last arrow without waiting for the signal chip to land, and it landed outside the target paper, with a total score of fourteen.
The moment he took off his blindfold, he bit his back teeth and asked the host which one was his first arrow.
“The one with five points…” In order to save Liao Tingyuan’s face, the host added, “Actually, your first shot was quite accurate. But then you heard someone shouting, and you raised your arm a little bit, so you missed the target. You should be more determined next time and believe in yourself.”
“That’s for sure.” Liao Tingyuan pretended to be well prepared, but when he saw Song Yang got a high score of nine rings with his first arrow, his face was as long as a horse.
He curled his lips as the audience applauded and tapped the microphone twice perfunctorily.
Before Song Yang went on stage, Li Xun told him to first confirm the angle, and then the angle of his head could not move – use his lower jaw to determine the position.
This is because the basic movements of archers are based on muscle memory, just like those basketball stars who can throw the ball blindfolded and still hit a three-pointer. The lower jaw is a support point for the bowstring. Once the support point is determined, the overall deviation will not be too far. The rest depends on mentality and luck.
Song Yang was not afraid of the darkness because he couldn’t see anything, which made him more focused and gave him a more accurate grasp of time.
He could clearly hear his own breathing, heartbeat, and the sound of the signal sheet landing.
“Bang——”
The arrow flew out.
The audience gasped, exclaimed and applauded.
The host opened his mouth and was stunned for three seconds before he found his voice: “Twenty-eight rings! This is too scary!” He joked, “I now doubt whether there is something wrong with this eye mask. How do you usually practice?”
Song Yang took off his blindfold, checked the target, and was very satisfied with his performance. He immediately looked towards the rest area, grinned for a while before answering: “From the time I started to today, every move I made was taught by my master… His name is Li Xun, and he is much better than me.”
There were shouts from the audience, and some even whistled.
Li Xun was electrified by that innocent and passionate look, and his whole body was numb. He completely forgot about the flirting he had just done. He raised his eyebrows, and his eyes were shining.
This scene happened to be recorded by Wang Yuer on his mobile phone and sent to the dormitory group.
[It’s such a pity that you didn’t come…]
[Fuck! So handsome! ]
【Stunning beauty! 】
[Didn’t you say it was just that Liao or something? I didn’t go because I thought he was too greasy. If there were other handsome guys, I would have gone a long time ago.]
[Are there any more photos? A clearer one, of the person sitting in the back, too.]
You are asking for too much.
With the conversation between Song Yang and the host, the audience has high expectations for Li Xun’s next performance.
When Li Xun came on stage, he was treated like a star. The two hosts blocked him in the middle and showed concern for his relationship with Song Yang.
“Are you from the same school?”
“Yeah.” After leaving Song Yang’s sight, Li Xun regained his facial paralysis and said in a low voice, “I’m his coach.”
“Wow, so this means that the disciple is better than the master…”
Another female host interrupted: “Master hasn’t made a move yet, maybe he will give us a full score.”
Liao Tingyuan, who was standing nearby, had a dark face.
The male host said: “This is too difficult. Li Xun, how do you feel about it? Are you confident?”
Thirty-meter blind shooting is a piece of cake for international athletes. Li Xun came today just to join in the fun. Song Yang had signed him up excitedly, and he didn’t want to spoil his fun.
Li Xun thought about it, turned around, walked towards Song Yang, put his lips against the soft earlobe, and his eyes fell on the red tray in the distance.
He asked softly, “Which of those gifts over there do you want?”
