Chapter 354: Ning Qiuer Who Seems Familiar

When Ning Qiuer introduced herself, Xia Yu was greatly surprised.

Before Ning Qiuer approached him, Xia Yu had been wondering where Liu Manman had picked up this young girl. He hadn’t expected this girl, who looked like a high school student, to actually be Ning Qiuer, already in her late twenties.

He studied Ning Qiuer’s face again carefully. Her face indeed looked exactly the same as the photos he had seen when he searched online previously.

It was mainly due to her outfit.

His gaze moved downward, sweeping over Ning Qiuer’s white JK uniform and the small black bunny bag on her back.

He couldn’t tell if she was genuinely childish or just pretending to be.

Based on her earlier introduction—saying “I am Ning Qiuer” instead of “My name is Ning Qiuer”—he couldn’t confirm her maturity, but she definitely seemed self-obsessed.

This wasn’t Xia Yu’s concern, so he quickly withdrew his gaze and calmly introduced himself: “My name is Xia Yu.”

Ning Qiuer didn’t show any reaction to Xia Yu’s indifferent response. She stepped closer to him, openly scrutinizing his face.

“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before,” Ning Qiuer said.

“It must have been on TV. Xia Yu is quite famous too,” Liu Manman answered on his behalf. Mentioning this topic made her slightly gloomy again.

“No, I already knew about the piano, violin, guzheng, and sheng from you. Something else makes me feel like I’ve seen him before.” Ning Qiuer walked around Xia Yu with her hands clasped behind her back, slightly frowning.

Xia Yu felt a bit chilly.

Although Ning Qiuer’s exact age wasn’t clear online, considering her peak in the entertainment industry was five or six years ago, she should be at least twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

Seeing her behaving like a young girl at that age made Xia Yu feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Ning Qiuer’s behavior seemed as childish as Kong Hanyue’s, but Xia Yu sensed that wasn’t truly the case.

“Let’s go fill out the registration form,” he changed the topic, subtly moving a bit away from Ning Qiuer and closer to Liu Manman.

Looking at the registration form, Liu Manman noticed Xia Yu’s name was missing: “You haven’t registered yet?”

“I already have a membership,” Xia Yu replied.

Xia Yu had decided to continue practicing here, while Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer were just here for the experience.

“Then give us two memberships too,” Liu Manman said, inexplicably feeling unwilling to lose.

After getting the cards, the receptionist led the three of them to the equipment room, where a female coach approached and took over their training.

Learning that all three were beginners, the coach first briefly introduced some essential equipment, then gave each of them a recurve bow and taught them how to wear the protective gear.

The protective gear mainly included gloves and arm guards.

Generally speaking, the danger in archery came from the bowstring. When drawing the bow and placing the arrow, fingers might get injured. If the movements were not standardized, the bowstring could hit the arm.

Once fully prepared and with quivers strapped to their backs, the four proceeded to the shooting range.

It was an indoor range, with targets set at five meters, the standard distance for beginners.

The first lesson for beginners was learning the correct posture. To maintain most people’s short-lived enthusiasm, the coach usually mixed practical shooting with learning.

With the help of his shooting skills and dexterity, Xia Yu quickly grasped the correct posture. The coach then left him and focused her attention on Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer.

Xia Yu practiced shooting at the target by himself.

Initially, he was somewhat unskilled, barely hitting the target.

However, the coach nodded secretly in approval. For beginners, accuracy was a luxury; posture was the most important. Xia Yu’s posture was very standard.

Confident now, the coach concentrated on teaching the other two.

Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer almost graduated from the posture lessons together.

Learning speed, in the early stages, was not only related to talent but also to prior experience. For example, a guzheng master playing the piano might, despite lacking piano talent, initially outperform someone with innate piano talent, simply because of their transferable experience.

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

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

Excited, she shot her second arrow, which landed even farther out.

Unwilling to accept this, she shot a third arrow, which completely missed the target.

“Maintain your posture. If your posture falls apart, you lose accuracy,” the coach corrected Liu Manman.

“How long does it take before I can hit the yellow center?” Liu Manman asked.

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

“That depends on talent and practice. The joy of archery lies in gradual improvement. There’s no need to set specific goals,” the coach encouraged Liu Manman.

“What about the fastest cases? Is there anyone who can consistently hit the bullseye in just one day?” Ning Qiuer interjected.

“For complete beginners, that’s almost impossible. However, for someone with particularly steady hands, like a doctor, there might still be hope,” the coach, accustomed to ambitious expectations, patiently explained.

“What if someone could consistently hit the center within ten minutes, not even a whole day?” Ning Qiuer asked again.

“In that case, they wouldn’t be human,” the coach joked.

Ning Qiuer came to Xia Yu, patted his shoulder, and said, “Did you hear that? They said you’re not human!”

Xia Yu sighed in response as his arrow flew straight into the bullseye.

At that moment, the coach noticed that all the arrows in the target across from Xia Yu were hitting the bullseye.

“Have you practiced archery before?” the surprised coach asked. “No, if you had practiced, you wouldn’t have forgotten the basics completely. It’s just impossible for a beginner to be this good from the start.”

“Can I move to a longer distance range?” Xia Yu interrupted.

“You can, but what about you two…” the coach looked at Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer, who were still struggling with the basics.

“It’s okay. We’re just here for fun anyway,” Liu Manman said.

The four moved to a different range.

The coach continued teaching Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer the basic posture. No matter the sport, muscle memory for the correct form was essential.

After two hours, Liu Manman and Ning Qiuer lost interest. The coach also had nothing more to teach Xia Yu. Following the suggestion of the three, she went back to the rest room.

Standing beside Xia Yu, Liu Manman watched in amazement as he mechanically pulled out each arrow and shot it into the target.

“I didn’t expect you to actually like archery,” she said.

“It’s not that I like archery. I just felt I might have a talent for shooting, so I came to try it out,” Xia Yu replied.

This was a carefully considered answer. He decided to claim he could sense his own talent, making it more convincing for Liu Manman to consider developing her talents in shooting and musical instruments.

“You can actually sense that?” Liu Manman was naturally curious. “Then what talent do you think I have?”

“You also have a talent for shooting,” Xia Yu answered.

“No way,” Liu Manman didn’t believe him. “I learned at about the same speed as Qiuer. Don’t tell me you think she has this talent too.”

“That’s because you have no athletic experience at all,” Xia Yu offered another explanation. “Besides that, you could try playing a musical instrument.”

As he was about to elaborate, Ning Qiuer suddenly clapped her hands.

She said to Xia Yu, “I remember where I’ve seen you before.”