Since the first day He Yan made the bet with Wang Ba, the people in the barracks also started to bet in private.
Some people who were not present to see He Yan draw the bow even came to see how He Yan looked like before going to bed at night. He Yan remembered that the last time he attracted so much attention was when he won a battle as General Feihong and was rewarded by the imperial court.
Although the situation was different now, he was still famous.
"Those people are too much!" Xiao Mai came back from outside and said unhappily, "I heard that the number of people who bet that A He Ge will win can be counted on one hand. They are so sure that A He Ge will not win!"
"This is the normal choice of a normal person." Hong Shan facepalmed.
Thanks to He Yan's good fortune, these days, the recruits could do nothing but train and endure hardships. Once this matter came out, there was a lot of fun. Everywhere was brimming with cheers and laughter, as if they had come to the city square of the capital.
"Big Brother and I also went to join in the fun to boost A He Ge's morale. We bet that A He Ge will win." Xiao Mai looked at He Yan and said fawningly, "A He Ge, aren't we very loyal?"
Before He Yan could say anything, Hong Shan asked first, "How many biscuits did you bet?"
"Big Brother and I each bet one biscuit."
"One biscuit." Hong Shan deliberately dragged his voice. "Then how many biscuits did you bet on Wang Ba?"
"Ten." Xiao Mai answered without thinking. When he came back to his senses and met He Yan's gaze, he blushed and stammered, "No, no, we wanted to win more biscuits and share them with everyone. If A He Ge loses, we can't lose both the biscuits and the money … It's good to fill our stomachs." His voice became softer and softer. In the end, he did not dare to speak and looked at He Yan pitifully.
He Yan was very surprised. "Where did you get ten biscuits?"
Even if they saved one biscuit every day, they could not save so much.
"On credit …"
He Yan was very surprised that he could even buy on credit. He thought that this was actually a big gamble, and not just a small one.
She said earnestly to Xiao Mai, "Xiao Mai, you'd better quickly withdraw from Wang Ba's bet. Ten biscuits. Are you planning to starve for ten days? Can you survive that?"
Hong Shan had a headache. "A He, be reasonable. Now is not the time to be angry."
He Yan: "… What can I say to make you believe that I'm not acting out of spite?"
He refused to believe it. The other three almost had this sentence written on their faces.
He Yan had no choice but to stand up and say, "Then I'll go out and practice first." He left the room.
"Sigh." Mai Mai sighed with melancholy.
"Sigh." Hong Shan sighed gloomily.
Stone silently looked at the two of them. He didn't say anything and sighed as well.
The atmosphere in the room was gloomy.
The bet with Wang Ba was only the beginning of He Yan's fame.
These days, He Yan's name could be heard everywhere.
"Did you hear? That new recruit under Liang Jiaotou called He Yan is crazy! "
"I know. The one who bet with Wang Ba ten days later. Wasn't he crazy when he made the bet?"
"He's even crazier now. Instead of practicing his crossbow during the day, he's actually throwing stone dumbbells! He's not even shooting anymore? "
"Then he might indeed be crazy."
He Yan was throwing stone dumbbells in the open space. When everyone practiced their crossbow during the day, many people surrounded and watched her. She simply stopped practicing. She borrowed a big stone dumbbells from the instructor and threw them for fun.
She had to increase her strength.
In order to maximize the power of the crossbow, she needed to have enough strength to fully draw the bow. What she lacked the most now was strength. Stone weights were the best tool for training strength. Previously, when she was in the military camp, she had a strong man who was originally a street performer. He had learned stone weights from a young age and was able to play with them until he was very good at it. The stone dumbbells could fly up and down her body. She could do anything she wanted, such as catching lotus leaves, fanning the beam, chopping somersaults, covering the top of her head with snowflakes, taking off her robe, and so on.
This strong man was also good at archery. Not only was his aim good, but other people couldn't fully draw the bow like him. He could fully utilize the power of the crossbow. He Yan used to throw with him to train her arm strength. The two of them threw and dodged each other. She trained her arm strength, wrist strength, hand strength, and waist strength.
Now that there was no one to throw with her, she just wanted to train her arm strength and fully draw the bow.
Practicing stone dumbbells increased her strength much faster than drawing the bow. He Yan threw stone dumbbells during the day. At night, she sneaked to the practice field after everyone was asleep. Fortunately, there were one or two bows left in the practice field every day for her to practice in secret. What was even more fortunate was that ever since she saw Xiao Jue last time, she didn't see Xiao Jue again at night.
Although she wasn't afraid of meeting Xiao Jue, she always felt embarrassed when a Xiao Jue saw her secretly practicing at night. It made her feel like she was back in her youth. She saw her clumsy self working hard every night to make it to the "third from the bottom". She couldn't bear to look back.
This was probably the humiliation of being looked down upon by God's favored children.
Originally, she had already gotten rid of this feeling of humiliation. Who would have thought that the Heavens would come again, and by a freak combination of factors, she would feel this kind of humiliation again?
What did she do to deserve God's favor?
She practiced every day, and the people she couldn't understand the most were the people around her.
"A He," Hong Shan said hesitantly. "No matter how good you are at drawing the bow, if your aim isn't good, there's no way you can beat Wang Ba."
"Yeah, I've been watching Wang Ba for you every day. He can always hit the center of the target. He almost never misses," Xiao Mai said.
"Wang Ba is a good archer," He Yan said. "He should be good at using the bow to hurt people. It seems like he's even more skilled than Shi Tou."
Shi Tou nodded. He agreed.
"Then A He Ge, why don't you practice archery every day?" Xiao Mai was even more puzzled. "You should at least practice archery a few times. What if the arrow flies into the forest?"
"No need," He Yan said.
Xiao Mai stared at him with wide eyes. "Could it be …"
Could it be that He Yan had some secret magic weapon?
He Yan smiled. She didn't have any secret magic weapon. She was just practicing archery during other people's sleep. She would draw the bow and shoot every day under the moonlight. The bow was getting more and more full, and it was very effective. As for her accuracy, it didn't deteriorate. It was really a blessing in disguise.
"I'm not very talented." She thought seriously for a while and said seriously, "But I'm very lucky. You have to believe that even if I don't practice archery, as long as I can draw the bow fully, the arrow will fly to the target as if it has eyes. "
Everyone looked at He Yan, who was smiling, and the same thought flashed through their minds.
He Yan was really crazy.