Chapter 55: Temporary Instructor

Chapter 55: Temporary Instructor

After they stopped firing, no one returned their rifle. Instead, they began practicing the rifle-raising motion right there in the open space.

Xu Qiao had also transformed into their temporary instructor.

Watching several of them standing in formation with their rifles raised—even the squad leader included—she could not help laughing.

“That’s enough. We’ve all been staring at your front teeth for nearly half an hour,” Cheng Yifei said helplessly, holding her rifle as she watched Xu Qiao laugh.

Xu Qiao did not mind. “Of course I’m going to laugh while standing here supervising your training. I should be happy—and laugh happily, too.”

“But I’m not doing this just for my own amusement. I’m also training your mental resilience.”

“Marksmanship isn’t merely a matter of physical ability. Psychological factors are important as well. Look at how just my laughing here has affected you. That won’t do.”

As she spoke, she walked over to Cheng Yifei and stared at her face-to-face. Then she suddenly broke into a wide grin.

Cheng Yifei gave a startled jolt. Her rifle shifted, and the blade of grass hanging from it fell to the ground.

“See? Still not good enough.” Xu Qiao deliberately shook her head.

Xu Qiao glanced at the time. “Hold on for another twenty minutes.”

Cheng Yifei was both amused and exasperated. Xu Qiao was the one who had startled her, yet somehow she had ended up being blamed for failing.

Seeing that Guan Yuqi genuinely trusted her, Xu Qiao stopped joking and began correcting their postures.

Looking at their hands holding the rifles, she saw that their arms had already begun trembling uncontrollably.

As she spoke, she said, “When you hold your rifles, you need to pay attention not only to the movement of your hands, but also to that of your eyes.”

Unexpectedly, Guan Yuqi spoke up as well. “Xu Qiao is right. Your mental resilience really does need strengthening.”

“Choose a distant target and aim at it. You can start with something large, then gradually make the target smaller.”

“Take Xu Yang today, for example. Her score should have been much higher, but she lost her composure. Although she had the ability to score in the seventies or eighties, she only managed to demonstrate half of it.”

“You can control the pace yourselves.”

After hearing this, everyone fell silent.

But after holding their rifles for more than half an hour, their aim grew increasingly unsteady, and the blades of grass hanging from the rifles fell one after another.

“We don’t have that much time to train,” Xu Qiao interrupted her directly. “Don’t worry. This exercise won’t hurt your arms. You may feel a little tired tomorrow, but it will definitely be far less painful than the recoil of a rifle, and it won’t affect your work.”

As she spoke, everyone began following her instructions and searching for their own targets.

The moment she heard how long they would have to continue, Xiaoyu nearly dropped the rifle in her hands. “Xu Qiao, this is only our first day of training. Can’t we reduce the time a little?”

“Although the enemy won’t be a stationary target, what we’re practicing now is still stationary-target shooting. You need to start practicing the three-point alignment immediately.”

“This is only a blade of grass. If it were a spent cartridge case, would you have to keep crawling around on the ground looking for it?” Xu Qiao looked at one person picking up a fallen blade of grass, only for another to drop elsewhere, and was instantly filled with helplessness.

“You’re able to say that because you’re not the one suffering,” Cheng Yifei said through clenched teeth.

Xu Qiao did not mind in the slightest. “Exactly. I’m not suffering at all right now.”

“But can you score ninety points? If you could, you wouldn’t need to train here.”

With that single remark, everyone glared angrily at her.

End of Chapter