chapter 52

After Gu Ning left the home, she turned into a small alley on the side of the street, and when she reached the phone booth, she dialed the mobile phone number that she had already memorized in her head.

After a burst of melodious music, a sleepy, lazy and slightly impatient voice came from the other side of the receiver: "Hello?"

Gu Ning said, "Hello, good morning, , it's me."

The on the other end of the line seemed to wake up at once: "Gu Ning?"

"Mm. It's me." Gu Ning paused, then said, "That, I wanted to ask about the thing that I asked you to do yesterday ..."

Without waiting for Gu Ning to finish, interrupted her, "It's already done, come and get the money."

After saying that, he hung up the phone.

Gu Ning looked at the busy receiver in her hand and felt as if was angry?

"What's wrong with this? So stinky face early in the morning? Who has offended you." Old Li said slowly as he sat down opposite after fetching boiling water.

"Ugh..." sighed, but uncharacteristically did not fight with Old Li, instead lying on the table and frowning sadly, "I feel like a fool."

Old Li was happy to hear this and said with a smile, "Hey! Looks like something big has happened!"

"Ugh-" sighed again.

When received the call and went out, he had already made up his mind to make it clear to Gu Ning that he would not do these things for her in the future. It felt like I was just like an errand boy. If she asked for her help again this time, she must firmly refuse, to let her know that he is not someone who can just come and go, he is also very busy, okay?

The was mentally played out and then he walked towards Gu Ning who was standing in the courtyard.

Before he could hand over the plastic bag, Gu Ning snatched it up and handed over a very delicately wrapped cardboard box.

"What is it?" looked at the paper bag Gu Ning handed over and subconsciously took it before asking, "It's for me?"

Gu Ning nodded, "Mm. I bought it when I passed by the cake shop, I don't know if you like it."

Faced with Gu Ning's vaguely expectant gaze, had forgotten that the thing he disliked most was these creamy and sweet things, and subconsciously said, "I like it ..."

Gu Ning revealed a lighthearted smile, "That's good."

The paused, handed over the black plastic bag in his hand: "Because you want money urgently, people also pressed the price a little, estimated to be a little less than the market, here is 17,000 yuan. Here's seventeen thousand dollars. You can give me an account for the other twenty thousand, and he'll put it on your card."

Gu Ning took it and held a thick pile of banknotes, he couldn't help but sigh with relief and reveal a smile, then he took ten of the twenty thousand dollars and gave them back to , "This is the money to pay you back."

After taking the money, put it directly into his pocket, then glanced at the black plastic bag clutched in Gu Ning's hand and said, half jokingly and half seriously, "You're not counting it? I'm not responsible for anything less than that when it's out of my sight."

Gu Ning smiled, then looked at and said, ", I don't have many friends, and I'm glad to have a friend like you."

froze for a moment, struck by the sincerity in Gu Ning's eyes, he sighed inwardly, then said, "I'm quite happy too."

Gu Ning smiled and said, "I've been all too busy lately. When I have time, I'll treat you to dinner."

said, "You should buy yourself a mobile phone first ... It's not even convenient to try to contact you."

"Hmm. Good. I'll call you when I buy a phone. I'll go first then." Gu Ning said and waved a hand at him, grabbing the gum bag and heading outside.

watched Gu Ning walk out the door, then lifted the paper bag up and stared at it, scratching his head, only to not use a single word of the belly-flop he had typed.

"Hey? Goldie's cake! I just saw it, that little girl is Gu Ning, right? She seems to be getting along well, she actually went all the way to bring you a cake." Old Li said gossiping.

A policeman said, "Li, are you talking about the little girl with blonde hair who came yesterday? The one who's been missing for three months? The is dating her? You're fast enough, !"

said, "What nonsense! I did her a favour and she bought me a cake to thank me, right?"

Another policeman smiled and said, "Hey , I remember you don't like sweets. I'm in a hurry and I haven't had breakfast yet, so you can give me the cake."

"Roll on roll on roll on roll!"

"Haha, look, you can't bear to part with it. The last time a little girl gave you a cake you gave it to everyone, it depends on who gave it to you, right old Lee?"

"That's right."

Gu Ning didn't waste any more time here, hailed a taxi and headed straight for the army.

Putting the plastic bag into the bag he carried with him, Gu Ning felt a little more relaxed in his heart, if he had the chance to get more things to sell in the future, and try to get out of poverty.

It was already after nine o'clock when they arrived at the army.

Third Brother was standing at the gate looking around, and when he saw Gu Ning get out of the taxi his eyes lit up, then complained, "Gu Ning you said why are you so slow?"

"My home is far from here, it takes two hours to come over, and I left home at seven." Gu Ning said as he handed over the money he owed Third Brother, "This is the money to pay you back."

Third Brother said as he took the money over, "Don't delay, carry out a new project today."

Gu Ning asked curiously, "What new project?"

Third Brother said mysteriously, "You'll know when you get to the range."

When they arrived at the range, Zhang Xiaobai and the others all enthusiastically came over to greet Gu Ning, and complained that Gu Ning had come too late.

"We've all shot one round, it's too hard to shoot." Zhang Xiaobai said.

Gu Ning's curiosity grew.

Third Brother took the binoculars from Zhang Xiaobai and handed them to Gu Ning, saying, "It's Zhai Jun on later, so pay attention and estimate the gap between yourself and him."

Gu Ning took the binoculars and nodded, then looked over at Zhai Jun who was standing at attention with his gun over there.

Gu Ning's arrival silently added a lot of pressure to the Second Company's side.

A soldier gestured for Zhai Jun to look this way.

Zhai Jun glanced this way and his face was a little strained.

The second company commander Zhang Yueguo's face was also very unpleasant.

The soldiers of the first company had never seen Gu Ning before, but apparently they had all been introduced to him by Zhou Zilai, but they were all a bit curious and looked over here for the first time.

A short while later, one by one, colourful hydrogen balloons rose up from a hundred metres away, and all eyes gathered.

Gu Ning looked at the hydrogen balloons with amazement, thinking that they were shot with guns, but when he took a closer look, he could see the fist-sized round cardboard underneath the balloons, with circles drawn on it like a target, which was not clear to the naked eye, and only Gu Ning's mutated eyesight could see the red dot on it.

San said: "That group of five-star brigade last year was engaged in this to make people fight. Twenty bullets, three of our companies, and the best score we hit was six out of ten targets, and only one bullet hit the bull's eye."

Zou Ming said in shame, "Last year I hit four. The best I can do now is six."

Zhong Xu said, "Last year I hit five, this year my best score is eight, and the worst time one or two of them."

Zhang Xiaobai smiled cheekily, "I wasn't here at that time last year. My best score this year was eight, just two shots hit the bullseye, but it was also a blindfold, I couldn't even see where the bullseye was, the balloon flew too fast."

When the few of them said that, Gu Ning immediately felt an invisible pressure.

As they were talking, Zhai Jun had already fired several shots.

The process was to hit the piece of cardboard first and then shoot the balloon down, if say you hit the cardboard but the balloon flew away, then it didn't count.

Twenty bullets, ten for the balloon and ten for the cardboard.

You have to hit the cardboard first, otherwise even if you hit the balloon and not the cardboard, it doesn't count. The balloon was rising, and in about ten seconds it would rise to a height of more than ten meters, and if it was any higher and further away, the cardboard would be completely invisible, and could only be judged by feeling and seeing the balloon. Gu Ning looked through the binoculars and saw that the cardboard was wobbling and occasionally swirling in the air, so it was indeed difficult to aim.

It didn't take long for Zhai Jun's twenty bullets to finish, and the balloons that had been burst wobbled and fell from the air, only one balloon wobbled and drifted further away, and some soldiers picked up all the balloons that had been shot down by Zhai Jun and sent them over.

The soldiers from the three companies who were eligible for this Five Star Brigade selection all gathered around and began to examine the marks on those cardboards.

There were nine cardboards in total, eight shots hit the cardboards, one empty target, one narrowly scraped by a bullet, and two shots hit the bullseye.

This was a very good result, but obviously did not meet the expectations of the Second Company. This was evident by looking at the faces of Zhang Yueguo and Zhai Jun.

Third Brother asked, "Gu Ning, what about it? Shall we go on now or see two more rounds?"

Gu Ning said, "I probably know what's going on, let's practise first."

Zhang Xiaobai then excitedly handed over a gun and said, "I don't think you've ever played like this before. Don't be nervous, relax, it's not an official test yet."

Gu Ning took his gun and said with a smile, "Mm, okay."

Then he stood at the yellow line.

After trying to aim first and getting a feel for it, he nodded to the soldier holding a small flag over there.

The soldier there then raised the flag and dropped it.

Then a red hydrogen balloon flew straight up a hundred metres away and everyone waited with bated breath for Gu Ning's first shot.

In Gu Ning's pupils the yellow piece of cardboard was reflected incomparably clearly, she aimed at the red dot in the very centre and then pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

"Bang!" Gu Ning's first shot rang out.

Third Brother held up his binoculars and clearly saw the piece of yellow cardboard being blown by the strong wind brought up by the bullet, the bullet brushed against the piece of yellow cardboard and did not hit it.

San couldn't help but shout regretfully, "It was so close!"

Zhang Yueguo, the second company commander over there, saw Gu Ning's first shot fall short and his face eased a little as he sneered, "Not even a hair's breadth, old Xie."

Gu Ning had already isolated herself from the outside world, she was fully focused, from the moment that shot fell short just now a lot more information came into her head, she adjusted her state according to this information and aimed at that piece of yellow cardboard again, and by this time, the second balloon had already flown up.

Zhang Xiaobai couldn't help but shout, "Leave the first one alone! The second one has risen!"

Although he was dissatisfied with Zhang Xiaobai for speaking out and interrupting, everyone, including Third Brother, thought that this was the time to give up on the first balloon, which had already floated too high.

However, Gu Ning was not affected by Zhang Xiaobai's comment, and just focused on his aim, the gun slowly moving with the rising balloon, and then pulled the trigger -

Bang! Bang! Two shots rang out in quick succession, no more than a second apart.

Then the burst balloon plummeted from the sky with its cardboard.

No one bothered to look at the burst balloon, eyes once again converging on the second balloon, by this time the third had also taken flight and the soldier was preparing to release the fourth.

The first and the second were just a metre apart.

The crowd held their breath.

Gu Ning stared.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" --.

Successive shots rang out, accompanied by the bursting and falling of a single balloon. Except for the first balloon, none of the balloons soared more than ten metres, and the time between each shot did not exceed two seconds.

This speed was considered fast even for normal target shooting, let alone such a difficult moving target shot, and until the last balloon crashed to the ground, the soldiers were still a bit overwhelmed by the reaction.

The soldier in charge of picking up the balloons picked up all ten of them and ran from a distance under the glaring eyes of more than twenty people stressed out.

Then one by one, they began to be checked.

Every time they counted one, people were silent for a minute, one after another, some were half of the cardboard was shot away, some were even the whole cardboard was hit only the point where the hole was punched to tie the rope, although not every bullet hit the bull's eye, but compared to the soldiers who had been trained for an unknown number of times, this was only Gu Ning's first time participating in such an event! And she had achieved such a result!

The soldiers were so shocked that they couldn't say a word, to be precise, they didn't know what to say to express their shock and disbelief at this moment.

It was only after half a day that Zhang Xiaobai shifted his gaze from the pile of burst balloons to look at Gu Ning and said in shock, "Gu Ning, you're simply a god!"

Zhong Xu added, "A true god."

Zou Ming said bitterly to his third brother, "Company commander, why don't I just go on with my training tomorrow, I feel like there's nothing left for me to do over here."