Chapter Nineteenth: Shooting Gallery

  Ji Xin'an's trip to the shooting range was a success, and early this morning, Ji Xin'an followed Zou Weiguo to a somewhat simple outdoor shooting range in the suburbs.

  When two people came here, someone was shooting a target. Ji Xin looked excitedly at them and wanted to move forward, but was pulled away by Zou Weiguo.

  "Where are you taking me? Didn't you say you were going to take me to shoot guns?" Ji Xin'an looked at him in confusion.

  "You think you're something, huh? You've never even held a gun before! You want to shoot, what a joke." Zou Weiguo looked at her disdainfully, making Ji Xin'an grit his teeth in anger.

  "Who says I've never held a real gun? Let me tell you, I played with guns even when I couldn't lift them." Ji Xin'an grumbled, but still followed him obediently.

  He brought Ji Xin'an to the only room in the shooting range, which was very shabby but not small, like a warehouse converted into one. The ceiling was high and every word spoken would echo.

  "Here comes Wei Guo, I'm all set, you go." A middle-aged man with a sunny disposition opened the door proactively as they approached.

  "Lao Zhao, I won't be polite with you anymore. Next time, I'll invite you to have a drink." Zou Weiguo also laughed heartily.

  "Don't be polite with me, go quickly." With that, he walked out first.

  Two people walked in, and Ji Xin'an saw a spacious room with a row of exercise mats commonly used in physical education classes placed against one wall, while the other side had fixed targets standing along the edge.

  "You wait here for a while, I'll go out for a bit." Zou Weiguo pointed to these things and let her take a look at them casually.

  Ji Xin'an nodded, looked around and pondered what this place was used for. If it was an indoor shooting range, the targets were too close. But if not, why were there so many targets?

  Zou Weiguo had just walked to the door when the man from earlier handed him a long gun.

  Ji Xin'an was overjoyed as soon as he saw the gun and immediately forgot everything else, grabbing it with his hands and excitedly examining it up and down.

  "Do you know what kind of gun this is?" Zou Weiguo looked at Ji Xin'an with excitement.

  "Rifle?" Jing Xianan naturally couldn't recognize what model it was, a standard-issue long-barreled rifle.

  "This is the Type 81 automatic rifle, a standard-issue rifle in our army." Zou Weiguo didn't say too many complicated parameters, fearing she wouldn't remember, so he just mentioned the name.

  "Type 81 automatic rifle? Isn't this the 'Eighty-one gun'?" Ji Xin'an suddenly remembered that in "Soldier Assault", Chengcai used it to become a gun king, and he couldn't help but like it even more.

  "Oh, you know quite a bit, huh? What else do you know?" Zhou Weiguo was quite surprised, after all, a little girl who had never even touched a gun before could say the nickname for a gun, it really was astonishing.

  "That's all I know." Ji Xin'an said with a bitter face.

  Zou Weiguo was amused by her bitter expression, "Alright, it's okay if you don't know the rest for now. Just remember what it's called and I'll teach you how to aim first."

  "Alright." Ji Xin'an heard this and immediately grinned from ear to ear.

  "Find a mat for yourself and lie down." The two of them arrived at a row of mats, and Ji Xin'an obediently lay down on one.

  Zou Weiguo held a gun and lay down on the ground with her, demonstrating once for her, then let Ji Xin'an practice by herself.

  "With her feet 45 degrees apart, in an outward figure-eight stance, the inner sides of her feet pressed against the ground, her right index finger on the trigger, and her left hand pulling the gun back, without swaying from side to side, her hands tightly gripping the magazine, the buttstock's tail end snug against her shoulder socket." Zou Weiguo stood up and occasionally guided her movements.

  Ji Xinan aimed at the red bullseye in front of her with a standard three-point stance, and Zou Weiguo nodded his head in satisfaction.

  Ji Xin'an had always known that his eyesight had improved, but now when all his attention was focused on one point it became even clearer. This discovery made Ji Xin'an even more delighted, although the distance was much worse than the actual distance.

  Listening to the gunfire outside, Ji Xin'an knew that he himself had fired the bullets, and every shot hit the bullseye.

  Ji Xin'an was seriously doing the action, and didn't notice the person next to her leaving and coming back. Zou Weiguo looked at what she did correctly and walked over to hand her something.

  "Bullets?" Ji Xin'an's eyes lit up at a glance.

  "It's fake, let you practice assembling and loading." Zou Weiguo smiled and began to teach her how to assemble and load the gun.

  Ji Xin'an began to repeat the actions of loading, aiming and firing, looking at the red heart in front of her, listening to the sound of the gun's hammer striking the primer, although it wasn't real bullets, but she still found the feeling of shooting.

  "When shooting, all parts of the body cannot be relaxed, otherwise the shoulder will be injured by the recoil of the gun." Zou Weiguo looked at her repeating an action, and after a long time, she couldn't help but remind her.

  Ji Xin'an listened intently, her body tense, as she seriously performed these dull and tasteless movements. After a while, the gunfire outside gradually stopped, and Zou Weiguo stood up, "Get up and take a break!"

  After listening to his words, Ji Xin'an slowly got up and only then did he feel that his body was sore all over, both arms were almost unable to lift. After slowly exercising for a while, he felt a bit better. "Master, you really made me 'feel' the gun! Lying here listening to the sound for half a day, if I wasn't holding the gun in my hand, I would have thought it was New Year's!" Ji Xin'an complained with his mouth, although he didn't feel much resentment in his heart.

  "I don't want to stay, that's great, I've eliminated all those real bullets myself." Zou Weiguo pretended to turn around and leave.

  "Wait, Master, there really are bullets to shoot!" Ji Xin was so excited that he jumped up, ignoring the numbness in his legs, but didn't stand firm and almost fell to the ground before being caught by Zou Weiguo.

  Zou Weiguo looked at her and smiled, then supported her as she limped out.

  Ji Xin'an suppressed his excited mood, grasping the gun loaded with real bullets. Although he was lying on the cold ground, he didn't feel the slightest bit of chill.

  "Hurry up and finish, get up after you're done, don't catch a cold from lying on the cold ground for too long." Zou Weiguo looked at her with concern, also lay down beside her to guide her, letting her practice in the room without worrying about her getting cold, but outside he was still worried that she wouldn't be able to take it.

  Ji Xin'an nodded, calmed down and aimed at the red heart in the distance, firing his first shot. Although he saw it clearly and his movements were standard, the recoil of the gun was very strong. The bullet hit the target but was some distance away from the red heart.

  Zou Weiguo nodded in satisfaction. At such a young age and being a girl, hitting the target with her first shot was quite impressive.

  Ji Xin'an felt like someone had hit her shoulder, but although it hurt, she didn't say anything. She knew this opportunity was hard to come by and she had to see it through to the end.

  He fired a few more shots in succession, slowly finding the feel and adapting to the gun's recoil. The closer he got to the red heart, the better his aim became. Ten bullets made up one group, and Ji Xin'an shot three groups. To his surprise, several of the bullet holes hit the center of the red heart. Ji Xin'an stood up, looking at the target paper that was brought over. The first group scored 35 rings, the second group scored 52 rings, and the last group scored an impressive 76 rings. Seeing this score, he couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.

  "Alright, stop gloating, or you'll lose your way! Zhou Weiguo chuckled lightly, his eyes full of praise. "To achieve such results on the first try... Not bad, barely passable! But still far from my expectations."

  "Master, don't pretend anymore, your eyes are already smiling. As a person, you must be honest, you have to say that Ji Xin'an's performance today is excellent, and therefore give her praise and reward her with a big meal." Ji Xin'an happily put away the target paper, planning to take it back and keep it forever.

  "It's not a big deal, but a big meal is fine." Zou Weiguo has now gradually become accustomed to the huge contrast between her serious training and leisure time.

  "Long live Master!" Ji Xin'an shouted, hugging his gun.

  Jing Xinan had been lying on the cold ground for a while, but was too excited to feel anything. Now that they had chatted for a bit, the cold wind blew and she finally felt the chill, her whole body feeling frozen through.

  "It's cold, isn't it!" Zou Weiguo saw her shivering and quickly took a military coat that had been prepared in advance from the side and put it on her. "Let's hurry back, once we get to the car and turn on the heater, it won't be cold anymore."

  He tightened his clothes and followed Zou Weiguo back to the car. "You wait in the car for a while, I'll go return the gun."

  Ji Xin'an nodded, and as soon as he got into the car, a wave of hot air rushed towards him, making him shiver. It seemed that Zou Weiguo had been prepared for a long time, and the car must have been started for half a day, making it warm inside. Here, not only did it feel cold, but his shoulder was also pressed against the gun butt, which felt sore, so he quickly used his hand to press it down.

  Zou Weiguo returned the gun and brought back a thermos of hot water, "Drink some hot water to warm up quickly, and this, take it back to wipe your shoulders." A bottle of red flower oil suddenly appeared from somewhere.

  "Thank you, Master." Ji Xin'an drank the hot water and felt a bit better, but his shoulder hurt even more, however, he didn't show it because he was afraid of worrying him.

  "It's getting better, let's go back." Zhou Weiguo saw that it was late, and the two of them set off on their way back.

  But what they didn't know was that from the moment Zou Weiguo put his coat on her, a puzzled gaze had been following them from afar.