Absorbed Every Last Drop

"I'm ready."

Jiang Xueming nodded, raised his hands, and waited for the shooting instructor's next command.

"Uh..." Teacher Liu looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't. To be honest, he hadn't taken Bu Liuxing's inexplicable urgent invitation seriously at first.

A Xing often came up with wild ideas and made all sorts of bizarre requests.

This time, too, the young master had casually summoned big names from every local field with a few words.

All just to give this kid Jiang Xueming a physical assessment?

If not for A Xing's mother, the three instructors present would probably have found such a sudden, absurd request to work overtime completely unreasonable.

But just now, Teacher Liu had changed his mind after seeing Jiang Xueming's meticulous expression and calm, solemn demeanor as he disassembled and reassembled the firearm.

Looking at the young man, Teacher Liu was reminded of what many students had been like when they first entered the police academy. They were all like this, as if they carried some kind of mission, full of energy and vitality.

All this made Teacher Liu feel that he ought to take the assignment seriously.

"Just humor him a little," Teacher Li called from the side. "As long as Young Master Xing's satisfied."

Teacher Liu ignored his old friend's sarcasm completely. He pulled a MOLLE system out of the weapons bag and helped Xue Ming put it on.

"Mr. Xue Ming, come on. Let's run the course."

"Should I get familiar with the range first?" Jiang Xueming put on the gear.

Teacher Liu pushed open the low gate at the entrance to the range. "You're pretty smart."

Xue Ming followed close behind him. "I've seen one at a shooting club."

Teacher Liu jogged ahead, leading Xue Ming along a series of narrow, winding paths.

"Watch carefully. We're only running it once. Remember as much as you can, because you'll be shooting at these targets later."

"Okay."

"The test is the simplest kind of introductory CQB shooting. The full name is..."

"Close Quarter Battle," Jiang Xueming answered. "Close-quarters combat indoors."

"Don't interrupt when your instructor is talking, Jiang," Teacher Liu barked at the student behind him as he led the way, though he looked quite pleased. "You're not wrong. It simulates rapid-response close-quarters combat in complex environments like urban streets, buildings, and homes. But not every fight that happens indoors is called CQB."

They passed through six rooms with complex layouts and targets of varying heights, followed by a long straightaway with four windmill targets on either side.

"Jiang Xueming, there are sixteen indoor human-shaped targets here, three groups of fixed targets with three in each group, and four groups of windmill targets of different sizes with eight in each group. There are uphill and downhill sections, sudden stops, right-angle turns, and close-range targets. Fifty-seven targets in all. Got that?"

"Got it."

"How many do you remember?"

When the two of them ran back to the entrance of the range,

Jiang Xueming said, "All of them."

"All of them?" Teacher Liu's eyes widened, and his blood pressure shot up. "Think before you answer! This place was just renovated. CQB training is dangerous. The shooting booths have solid-wood walls, but there are steel bars buried in some spots. If you miss, the bullet could ricochet. Don't hurt yourself."

"Thanks for your concern, Instructor," Jiang Xueming said with a smile. "But I really did remember them all."

"All of them, huh." Teacher Liu frowned and said nothing more. He gathered up his pistol and magazines, muttering, "Young people are all talk. This is my first time running this course, and I haven't even remembered everything. But you've got it all memorized?"

Old Liu didn't say much else. He kindly reminded Xue Ming, "One shot at each target, whether you hit it or not. I'll say it again: be careful. I didn't bring a bulletproof vest or helmet, so don't get hurt."

"Okay. Thanks, Instructor." Jiang Xueming followed his example and gathered his gear alongside Teacher Liu.

The Sig Sauer P220 held only eight rounds, and even an extended magazine could hold just ten.

For the fifty-seven targets, Teacher Liu had prepared seven extended magazines. He put three in the pouches on his waist belt and attached the other four to the front of his chest-mounted MOLLE panel.

This had two advantages.

In the complex first half of the course, he only needed to reach for the magazines on his left waist to reload, without being hindered by the tight spaces.

In the uphill shooting section later on, once he ran out of the magazines on his waist, the ones on his chest wouldn't get in the way as he climbed and charged uphill. The chest rig was closer to his firing hand, so reloading would be faster.

To keep the magazines from falling out while moving quickly, Teacher Liu had prepared seventy rounds, even though there were only fifty-seven targets.

Jiang Xueming's SVI Infinity was a competition pistol to begin with. Its magazines held twenty-three rounds with extended base plates, so he only needed to carry three magazines to complete the course. That meant three fewer reloads than Teacher Liu, and all three magazines could be carried on his chest instead of his waist. The SVI's grip had a magazine well, which made reloading even faster.

Setting aside the ergonomic design of the other firearms, this was the most obvious difference in performance between a five-thousand-dollar gun and a fifteen-hundred-dollar one.

The instructor had gone to considerable trouble arranging this shooting test so he wouldn't lose face in front of Bu Liuxing.

Teacher Li sat before the monitors, watching the cameras in each partition as he prepared to hit the timer.

"Ready?"

Jiang Xueming leaned in as well, hoping to get a good look at the instructor's demonstration.

"Ready."

"Go!"

An invigorating whistle rang out.

On the monitor, Teacher Liu charged into the first room and opened fire as he moved, barely stopping before entering the next room.

He occasionally faltered while reloading and often misjudged how much ammunition he had left.

But he was fast. Very fast.

He showed no intention of stopping. He moved through one small room after another in the narrow passageways, staying in motion as he hit the targets.

The CCTV audio picked up his heavy breathing. It was difficult to hold his breath while shooting and move quickly at the same time. For someone running the course for the first time and firing on their second attempt, this CQB exercise was certainly no easy task.

As he charged uphill, they could hear the wheezing roar of Teacher Liu's breath over the crackle of gunfire.

The windmill targets rang one after another.

His final time was two minutes and forty-four seconds.

Of fifty-seven targets, he hit fifty-three and missed four.

He hit every fixed target, but in the latter half of the course, Teacher Liu seemed to have run out of strength and could barely stay focused. The little targets spinning with the windmill wheels were hard to hit.

Old Liu ran back to the entrance, panting heavily, his face flushed.

"Whew... I'm out of shape. I need to smoke less. Whew... How was that, Old Li? Not bad, right?"

Teacher Li grinned. "Still sharp as ever."

"I could've gone faster." Teacher Liu saw the numbers on the timer and scoreboard. "It was my first time. I didn't remember the positions of a few targets, so of course I was a little rusty. And this damn gun jammed, too. What lousy luck."

"Your turn, kid!" Old Liu braced himself against his knees and accepted a bottle of cola. "Be careful, okay? Really careful."

Teacher Li turned and added, "Safety first. Just finishing the course would be impressive. It's difficult. Ready?"

"Mm." Jiang Xueming held his pistol at the ready. "Ready."

"Three, two, one."

"Go!"

The whistle rang out again.

The three instructors at the entrance heard the unbroken roar of gunfire from the Infinity's five-inch barrel.

Old Liu was still resting, his cola half-finished. Teacher Li went to the bathroom.

Jiang Xueming charged up the slope and all the way back to the entrance, then slapped the big red button on the timer.

The final time on the timer was

one minute and forty-four seconds.

Teacher Li had just returned to the CCTV monitors and was about to greet Teacher Liu.

Teacher Liu, meanwhile, stared at the screen with a dazed expression, speechless, as if he'd seen a ghost.

Only Bu Liuxing's fitness instructor turned his head to take a closer look.

Xue Ming removed the magazine and took out the eleven remaining rounds, lining them up on the table.

He pulled the slide back and removed the last round from the chamber. As before, before the extractor could fling it away, he snatched it from the air.

Primer down, bullet tip up.

When he finished, he finally let out a long breath. His face had gone pale. He'd run the entire course holding his breath.

It was like finishing a battle. Only after he'd completely disarmed could he finally relax and catch his breath.

"Was that kid just firing randomly? He ran through once and came straight back out?" Teacher Li finally realized what had happened and asked Old Liu in a low voice. "What's going on?"

"Old Li, check the scoreboard and the footage before you say anything. Don't insult me. You're saying he was firing randomly?" Old Liu tugged Coach Li over. "Look at when he reloads. It's like he treated the targets as enemies. CQB competitions don't restrict when you can reload, but he reloaded both times only after clearing the current scene or confirming he was behind cover."

"Look at his centerline retention technique here."

"Now look at him switching to the triangular shooting stance."

"He didn't have a single round left in any magazine when he reloaded. Even while moving that intensely, he kept track of every round he had."

"Fifty-seven shots, all hits, and you're saying he was firing randomly? He wasn't. He came prepared."

Teacher Li was only a combat-sports instructor, so he only half-understood. "Y-you're not joking? He beat you by a whole minute? Was the gun we gave him just that good?"

"It was. He beat me by a full minute. It was his first time handling an Infinity; no matter how good the gun is, it can't make that much difference." Old Liu turned to Jiang Xueming and asked with utmost caution, "Who exactly are you, sir?"

"Instructor, I have a few more questions I'd like to ask you." Jiang Xueming skipped the formalities. "I couldn't find a chance to breathe just now. Since it was my first time in this kind of environment, the moment I let myself breathe, I lost focus. With only one shot, I couldn't risk missing."

Old Liu couldn't understand. This was outside his knowledge of competitive shooting. "Huh? You stopped breathing because of that?"

"Yes." Jiang Xueming held his chest, feeling awful. The intense anaerobic exercise had caused lactic acid to build up in his body. It would probably take ten minutes or so to recover.

Still, he wouldn't let it go. He pulled Teacher Liu over to the video monitor.

He pointed at several moments in the footage and played them on a loop.

"I felt really awkward firing around this corner. I tried to imitate your shooting stance, but we're different heights, and the situation was different too. I want to know how you hit the target without aiming. I could see it clearly on the monitor: you weren't using your eyes to aim."

"I have another question. In this room, you fired one extra round. We agreed on one shot per target, but you fired twice. I know—that was the Mozambique Drill. You shoot the target in the torso first to stop it moving, then in the head to finish it off. Could you teach me more? I only know one or two shooting stances, but I think that technique could be useful in many situations. How should I angle my neck and shoulders to adjust my aim?"

"Oh..." When Old Liu heard that, he explained as if he were teaching a student. "As for aiming, if you know a little about the centerline shooting technique, you don't actually need to aim at targets at that distance. Our arms and torso are like a ruler and compass. If you aren't too concerned about accuracy, you can use your body as a gun support to take down targets at that range."

Jiang Xueming considered this. "I see. Thanks."

Old Liu scratched his head awkwardly. "And the other thing—why I fired twice at one target with the Mozambique Drill? I simply forgot. Strenuous exercise starves your brain of oxygen, so you lose focus. Sorry, that was my mistake."

Jiang Xueming didn't care about that little detail.

He just kept asking Teacher Liu questions. Then he brought the instructor back into the range and used the targets as mock enemies, asking about how to time his breathing during each round of shooting.

This went on for more than half an hour.

Jiang Xueming ran the course over and over, more than twenty times.

He ran it eight more times with Old Liu.

Old Liu looked on the verge of tears when he saw that demon run back to the entrance still full of energy.

His fastest time had dropped to one minute and six seconds. Excluding reloading, he was hitting nearly one target a second.

"No, no, no! We don't need to practice anymore." Teacher Liu begged. "I'm hungry. Let's go eat, okay? If you went to every shooting association in Hong Kong and shouted in the range, I don't think anyone would dare compete with you for a medal. Are you even human? Humans have limits!"

"I don't want a medal," Jiang Xueming said sincerely. "I think the passage between the third corner and the fourth room is awkward. I've been trying to figure out how to adjust my stride. The passageways between rooms feel uncomfortable to run through. Three steps are too short, four are too many, and I..."

"Don't say another word, hero." Teacher Liu begged, his vision darkening as if his mental strength and concentration had been completely drained. "You've already sucked me dry. There's nothing left I can teach you, really. You'll have to walk the rest of this road on your own. Shooting is like martial arts: you need your own way. We've been teacher and student, so don't keep making me worry you'll outlive me, okay? I still have to tidy myself up before I go meet Young Master Xing. I don't want this to turn into preparing my remains instead."

"But..." Jiang Xueming still felt it wasn't enough.

"Give him a break," Teacher Li said, watching the show with a broad grin. "He's out of bullets. It's not just him you've sucked dry—his weapons bag's empty too."

Old Liu whispered to Teacher Li, "That kid's seriously weird. You think you can get away?"

"Please." Teacher Li scoffed. "Do you think you can compare your physique to someone who practices martial arts? He's been running with you for ages. I don't believe he'll have the strength to take me on afterward. Heh."

Old Liu looked aggrieved at first, then gritted his teeth. "Li Zongzhu! You're being so despicable right now!"

Jiang Xueming glanced at the titanium-nitride coating on the SVI's barrel. It had started to turn black from the long, continuous firing.

He still wasn't satisfied. He wanted to get stronger. Otherwise, how could he get proof that he was an armed employee at the station? How could he fight the Armadillo Hunters?

Seeing the look of sheer terror on Teacher Liu's face, Xue Ming finally sighed.

"How about next time?"

Old Liu looked like he'd just escaped a death threat. He hurriedly agreed with a smile.

"Next time for sure! Next time!"