The Familiar Ning Qiu'er

Upon hearing Ning Qiuer introduce herself, Xia Yu was very surprised.

Before Ning Qiuer came to him, Xia Yu had been wondering where Liu Manman had found this young girl. It turned out that the girl who looked like a high school student was actually the almost thirty-year-old Ning Qiuer.

He took another close look at Ning Qiuer's face. It indeed matched what he had seen online.

It was mainly a matter of her attire.

His gaze shifted, sweeping over Ning Qiuer's white JK uniform and the black bunny bag behind her.

He didn't know if this woman was really childish or just pretending to be.

From what she just said, "I am Ning Qiuer" instead of "My name is Ning Qiuer", he didn't know whether she was childish or not, but she seemed quite narcissistic.

It had nothing to do with Xia Yu, and he quickly looked away, introducing himself calmly: "My name is Xia Yu."

Ning Qiuer didn't show any reaction to Xia Yu's indifferent response, she moved closer to Xia Yu's face and unabashedly looked him over.

"I think I've seen you somewhere before," Ning Qiuer said.

"It must be on TV, Xia Yu is quite famous," Liu Manman answered for Xia Yu. When mentioning this topic, she became a little depressed again.

"No, not that. I've heard about the piano, violin, guzheng, and sheng from you. It's something else that makes me feel familiar," Ning Qiuer said with her hands behind her back, turning around Xia Yu, brow slightly furrowed.

Xia Yu felt a little cold.

Although there was no specific age for Ning Qiuer online, her peak of her acting career was five or six years ago, so she should be at least twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

At this age, she still behaves like a little girl, making Xia Yu feel a little uncomfortable.

Ning Qiuer's performance looked like she had a low mental age, just like Kong Hanyue, but Xia Yu didn't feel that was the case in reality.

"Let's hurry up and register," he changed the subject, keeping his distance from Ning Qiuer and moving closer to Liu Manman.

Looking at the registration form, Liu Manman didn't see Xia Yu's name: "You haven't registered yet?"

"I have a membership," Xia Yu answered.

Xia Yu was already prepared to practice here, while Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer only wanted to have a try.

"Get us two memberships too," Liu Manman said with an inexplicable feeling of unwillingness to admit defeat.

After getting the membership cards, the receptionist led the three of them to the equipment room, where a female coach came over and took charge of them.

After learning that all three of them were beginners, she first briefly introduced the essential equipment to them, then handed each of them a recurve bow and taught them how to put on the protective gear.

The protective gear mainly consisted of gloves and arm guards.

Generally speaking, the dangers of archery come from the bowstring. When drawing the bow and placing the arrow, the fingers may get injured, and if the movements are not standardized, the bowstring will hit the arm.

Once everything was prepared, with the arrow quiver on their backs, the four went to the target range.

It was an indoor range with targets set up at a distance of five meters, which was the beginner's distance.

The first lesson for beginners was to learn the proper posture. To maintain the enthusiasm of most people, the coach mixed practical training and learning.

With the help of shooting and agility, Xia Yu quickly mastered the correct posture. The coach let him be and focused on Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer.

Xia Yu practiced shooting at the target by himself.

At first, he was somewhat unskilled, only barely able to hit the target.

However, the coach secretly nodded in approval. For beginners, accuracy was a luxury; posture was the most crucial aspect, and Xia Yu's posture was very standard.

The completely reassured coach then focused on teaching the other two students.

Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer essentially graduated from the posture class simultaneously.

Learning speed was connected to talent and previous experiences during the early stages. For example, a guzheng master who tries to play the piano would still outdo someone with piano talent in the early stages due to experience.

Although Liu Manman had a talent for shooting, she was just an ordinary otaku girl, so she merely learned a bit faster than average.

With the coach's help, Liu Manman successfully shot her first arrow, hitting the outer part of the target.

Excited, she shot her second arrow, which landed even further away from the first one.

Unwilling to accept failure, she shot her third arrow, which missed the target completely.

"Maintain a good posture; without it, there's no accuracy," the coach corrected Liu Manman's form.

"How long will it take to hit the yellow mark?" Liu Manman asked.

The center of the archery target was yellow, with red surrounding it.

"That depends on talent and practice. The fun of archery is gradual improvement; there's no need to set specific goals," the coach advised Liu Manman.

"What about the fastest? Can someone hit the bullseye within a day?" Ning Qiuer interjected.

"For someone who just started with archery, it's almost impossible. However, for someone like a doctor with exceptionally steady hands, there's still hope," the coach patiently explained, used to dealing with ambitious individuals.

"What about hitting the red mark within ten minutes?" Ning Qiuer asked again.

"That wouldn't be human," the coach joked.

Ning Qiuer approached Xia Yu, patting him on the shoulder, "Did you hear that? They said you aren't human!"

Xia Yu, who had just shot an arrow straight into the ten-ring, sighed in response.

It was at this moment that the coach noticed that all the arrows on the target across from them were in the ten-ring.

"Have you practiced before?" the coach asked in shock. "No, that can't be right. If you had practiced, you wouldn't have forgotten the basics. To be able to reach this level from the very beginning is incredible."

"Can we move to a more distant shooting range?" Xia Yu interrupted the coach.

"Yes, but your friends..." the coach glanced at Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer, who hadn't even mastered the basics yet.

"No problem, we came just for fun anyway," Liu Manman said.

The group switched shooting ranges.

The coach continued teaching Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer basic postures, as muscle memory was essential for any sport.

After two hours, Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer lost interest, and the coach had nothing left to teach Xia Yu. At the suggestion of the three, she returned to the lounge.

Liu Manman stood beside Xia Yu, watching him mechanically load and shoot arrows at the target, and marveled in astonishment.

"I didn't expect you to like archery," she said.

"I don't really like archery, but I feel like I might have a talent for shooting, so I came to try it out," Xia Yu replied.

This answer was something he had thought about for a long time. He decided to say that he could sense his own talent, making it much more likely to convince Liu Manman to develop her shooting and playing skills.

"Can you really feel that?" Liu Manman was indeed very interested, "What do you think my talent is?"

"You also have a talent for shooting," Xia Yu replied.

"How is that possible?" Liu Manman didn't believe it, "I learned just as quickly as Qiu'er, don't tell me she also has this talent."

"It's because you don't have any experience in sports," Xia Yu chose another option, "Besides, you can try playing musical instruments."

Just as he was about to explain further, Ning Qiuer suddenly clapped her hands.

She said to Xia Yu, "I remember where I've seen you before."