14 – “Is someone else’s target meant to lure your bullets?”
Song Yuan’s head happened to be right at his Adam’s apple.
However, Huo Yuzhou deliberately controlled the distance between them—aside from the warmth of his hand holding hers, there was no other contact.
Song Yuan stared straight ahead, but her heart was pounding wildly.
She could clearly feel the warmth and breadth of his palm against the back of her hand, but it was purely instructional, nothing overstepping.
Guided by the chief instructor’s hand, Song Yuan fired a shot that hit the bullseye dead center.
Huo Yuzhou released his hand and said, “Continue.”
Song Yuan loaded another bullet and was about to assume her stance.
Huo Yuzhou immediately hooked one hand around her waist. “Stand straight.”
Song Yuan’s waist tensed.
Releasing her, Huo Yuzhou said, “Shooting doesn’t need all that fancy posturing. Just aim directly at the target.”
Song Yuan suppressed her emotions, fired a shot, and hit the rings.
A bit of improvement.
Huo Yuzhou only said sternly, “Continue.”
Then he circled around to check on the others.
Peng You fired several shots in rapid succession, all hitting the rings.
The scores were announced in real time.
He was feeling quite pleased with himself, thinking his marksmanship wasn’t bad.
His enthusiasm was growing by the minute.
But Huo Yuzhou frowned deeply and said coldly, “Is someone else’s target luring your bullets?”
Peng You was stunned. “Huh?”
Seeing his dazed expression, Huo Yuzhou’s brow furrowed even tighter. “Haven’t you noticed you’re shooting at the wrong target?”
“You can barely manage single shots, and now you’re trying rapid fire!”
For someone like this, he had neither the patience to teach nor the inclination to guide his aim hand by hand.
If you wanted to make a name for yourself here, it couldn’t be done with empty posturing.
Once the show recording ended, he’d pack up and leave immediately.
Huo Yuzhou felt there was no point wasting bullets on him here. He barked an order: “Fifty push-ups. For every one you miss, add ten!”
Then, Huo Yuzhou reached out and dragged Nian Yu over. “Count for him!”
“For every one he misses, you do fifty!”
Nian Yu had just performed well yesterday, and he didn’t want to make any mistakes and get punished again. He kept his head down, staring intently at Peng You, counting one by one—not a single one was going to slip past his mouth!
Walking over to Xu Su, Huo Yuzhou stood a meter away. “Raise your arms higher!”
Xu Su had been doing fine, but the moment she heard his voice, she flinched in fear.
“Again!” Huo Yuzhou told her to continue.
Xu Su immediately loaded a bullet and aimed, but her hands wouldn’t stop trembling.
Seeing this, Huo Yuzhou lost his patience. “If you can’t control yourself, you can choose to leave!”
Xu Su stood there, not daring to move, her fear and dread of him deepening.
A shooting session, riddled with problems from start to finish.
When lunchtime came around.
Their group had fallen from the first wave to the very last.
“What’s going on with you guys?”
A Dong was long accustomed to eating with Song Yuan and chatting about gossip, so he carried his tray over. “You’re so late today.”
Song Yuan said, “He’s angry.”
“Who?” A Dong was puzzled.
Song Yuan: “The chief instructor.”
Hearing that the boss was angry, A Dong had no shortage of stories to share. “You guys have it easy. If it were us, forget about eating—you wouldn’t even get a drop of water.”
“Then you’d know what it means when water only goes out and never comes in.”
“And what comes out of your body isn’t sweat—it’s salt.”
At that, A Dong paused and took a different angle. “Honestly, you guys are the most lenient group I’ve ever seen him take on.”
Song Yuan thought to herself, it’s probably because they’re the worst group that he’s being the most lenient.
Otherwise, he’d be furious enough to die.
The topic didn’t go on much longer. Song Yuan asked A Dong, “Does he usually not come to the cafeteria to eat?”
She’d only ever seen him come by to grab a bottle of water.
As for eating—she’d never once seen him do it.
A Dong explained to her, “The cafeteria is specifically for us trainees. Someone of the boss’s status—you’d rarely get to see him at all.”
“Anyone who gets trained by him personally is elite.”
“They all use code names.”
“Here, if you have a code name, it proves your skills are solid.”
“Like me—I have one.”
Song Yuan couldn’t tell. “What is it?”
A Dong said proudly, “Black Whirlwind?”
Song Yuan: “Li Kui?”
“Did you buy the copyright before borrowing someone else’s title?”
“That’s not the kind of ‘set’ they sell outside—anyone can use it, it doesn’t matter who you’re copying. Using one is safer than not using one.”
A Dong was a bit embarrassed by her words. “No, the meaning of this title is that I’m dark-skinned and fast.”
“It’s not that kind of ‘set.'”
He lowered his voice for the last sentence.
Huo Yuzhou had just walked in and overheard the two of them chatting about “sets.” His entire body radiated cold pressure. “You! Get out here!”
A Dong walked out, completely confused.
He had a feeling he was in trouble.
Sure enough, the boss punished him with twenty kilometers of weighted running on the spot, citing the rule of “no talking while eating, no speaking while sleeping.”
Song Yuan finished her meal, returned her tray to the designated spot, and had just stepped outside when she saw the chief instructor.
But the moment she approached, he moved away.
Song Yuan had no idea what was going on with him.
She kept walking forward.
He didn’t stop either.
The two of them played this game of advance and retreat, one in front of the other, until a faint cry of pain pulled the person in front around.
Huo Yuzhou saw Song Yuan on the ground and immediately rushed over to help her up. “Where does it hurt?”
Song Yuan looked at him, embarrassed that she had fallen in front of anyone at all. “You knew I was behind you, yet you still walked so fast.”
Huo Yuzhou could tell from their exchange that she was just upset. “Where did you hurt yourself?”
“Your arm, your leg, or your foot?”
Song Yuan said, “I twisted my ankle.”
Huo Yuzhou asked her, “Can you still walk?”
Song Yuan simply shook her head.
Without another word, Huo Yuzhou wrapped one arm around her waist and hooked the other under her knees, effortlessly lifting her into a princess carry.
He felt that she was lighter than she had been half a month ago.
His brows furrowed slightly.
Song Yuan raised her arms to loop around his neck, resting her head against his shoulder, and whispered, “Chief Instructor, do you know what I was thinking while you were teaching me shooting today?”
Huo Yuzhou glanced down at her. “Remembering the stance.”
Song Yuan hadn’t expected him to guess correctly and was startled. “How did you know?”
Huo Yuzhou simply said, “You’ve always been like this.”
The same in bed too.
She’d fuss at the slightest discomfort.
But Song Yuan just thought that she must have made an impression on him these past few days, and her ears turned red.
They went to the infirmary and got an X-ray. No bone damage.
A few days of rest and she’d be fine.
Base Commander’s Office.
Song Yuan was set down on the sofa by him.
She looked around in astonishment. It was huge!
About the same size as Huo Yuzhou’s villa.
This guy was loaded too!
Huo Yuzhou pulled out his usual medical kit from the cabinet, took out the red flower oil, and crouched down, lifting her foot to rest on his knee.
Her toes were a delicate pink, fair and smooth.
Just looking at them was alluring.
Suppressing the emotions beneath his gaze, Huo Yuzhou averted his eyes, poured the red flower oil into his palm, and then pressed it against her swollen right ankle.
Song Yuan felt that at this moment, he had a certain air of submission.
Neither of them spoke.
Yet the atmosphere was even more charged with ambiguous tension than their usual teasing.
“The Chief Instructor’s hands make me…”
“So comfortable.”