Chapter 67: Archer Xiang Kun
Tang Baona had arranged to take Xiang Kun to an archery range she and Yang Zhen'er had visited five or six times before. For Xiang Kun and Xia Libing, though, it was their first time at an archery range—and their first time holding a bow.
But Xiang Kun showed an extraordinary talent for archery. They started with 18-pound recurve bows, shooting at targets 10 meters away.
After some basic instruction and a few practice shots at close range, they began a formal 12-arrow scoring round. Except for his first three arrows, which missed the 10-ring, Xiang Kun hit the 10-ring with every one of his remaining nine arrows. His last four arrows all hit the bull's-eye.
Of course, they were beginners, so they were using 800-millimeter target faces, and the distance was only 10 meters. It wasn't particularly difficult.
Still, scoring 114 with his first 12 arrows was extremely rare for someone who had just picked up a bow.
Even the coach thought his form was beyond that of a beginner.
After shooting two more rounds of 24 arrows at the 10-meter range, all of them in the 10-ring, Xiang Kun was taken by the coach to the 18-meter range. There, he switched to a 26-pound bow and a smaller target face with full scoring rings.
After three arrows to adjust to the bow's draw weight and the arrows' trajectories, Xiang Kun's performance stabilized again. Every arrow after that hit the 10-ring, and half of them even struck the bull's-eye for an X10.
He shot 36 arrows in a row, and his form never wavered.
They switched bows again and moved to the 30-meter range. At last, Xiang Kun's accuracy declined; he wasn't hitting the bull's-eye with every arrow anymore. The coach used the pretext