Huang Zhong brought me into a square courtyard. The flat ground was made of rammed red soil, with high walls on both sides. The length and width were about twenty steps. There was a weapon rack next to one wall with several weapons on it. There was also a human-shaped target hanging on the wall opposite the door. I thought it was the place where Huang Zhong practiced martial arts.
"This is where I practice martial arts. You can practice here."
"So what should we practice first?" I seemed very excited and anxious.
"Wait a minute, I'll come." He turned and left. I was excitedly touching this and that in the yard. After a while, Huang Zhong came back with his hands behind his back. I guess he must be holding what I practiced today.
"Today, what you are going to do is - catch mice."
"Catch a mouse?" My hearing has always been good, but this time I still doubted its accuracy. However, it was confirmed that Huang Zhong and I were right. When he brought his hand behind his back to the front, I saw that Huang Zhong was holding a big mouse.
He threw the mouse to the ground far away, turned around and left, and closed the gate. "The mouse can't run away. Catch it and call me. I'm outside the yard." Another meaning of this sentence is that I can't go out either. If I can't catch it, I won't open the door for you. After the mouse rolled on the ground, it looked for a hole everywhere. When it found no hole to drill, it tried to dig the soil in the corner of the wall. How could you succeed? I was about to run over, but I didn't expect to see someone chasing it from behind, so I ran away immediately. This guy's speed was so fast that I couldn't even get close to him. Fortunately, this place for martial arts training was not very wide, so I could use the advantage of my long legs to move back and forth a few steps. In the end, we were wasting time like this. I couldn't catch up with it, and it couldn't rest for a moment. About an hour later, I don't know if it was because it was tired, or I could more and more foresee where it would go. I was almost always close to it, but I couldn't remember what I was going to do for a while. "Why do I feel like you're always running? Why don't you catch it?" The reminder from the person outside the door reminded me of this and I hurried to take action. However, because of my height advantage, I suffered a great loss when I bent down to catch the mouse. When I bent down, the mouse ran away. This guy often changed direction when running. Even if my hand touched the ground, it could easily slip away from my hand. For this reason, I often fell because of my big movements. The sun was setting. I had been chasing it for three hours. I was tired, which was a rare feeling for me. But my opponent seemed to be exhausted. He ran slower and slower. He no longer ran around everywhere. He just barely escaped from my hand and found a place to stop. But I would not let him rest. I didn't believe that I couldn't tire you to death. My temper also came up. In fact, I have always had a good temper. I always thought so.
Huang Zhong looked at me, covered in dirt, carrying the exhausted mouse. He probably didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he still said frankly: "You are the most clumsy martial arts prodigy I have ever seen, and your physical strength is really great. If you can still get up tomorrow, come again."
"Wait, I think you still have some strength." I just said goodbye and wanted to go back, he stopped me again and handed me a bow. "This is the bow I used when I was young. Now I feel it's hard to pull it open. Try it." I took the bow. This bow is not very eye-catching. The black bow body exudes a metallic luster. It feels heavy in my hand. I tried it, nodded, and pulled the bow to the full. "Good!" The instructor shouted loudly beside me. "This bow is given to you. Anyway, I won't need it in the future. Here is a tube of arrows. Go back and find straw to tie it into a pillar. Just shoot at it every day. You don't need me to teach you the shooting skills. You can experience it yourself. But you have to come again tomorrow. Remember to catch mice. You can practice shooting at night." I think Huang Zhong must have been taught by the same person as our teacher. The tone of his words is exactly the same. Let's not talk about this for now. It is indeed much harder to practice martial arts than I thought, but I am still very happy. I think practicing martial arts is what people like me do. Just don’t let my sister and teacher know this, otherwise they will scold me for not being ambitious.
When I got home, Zhou Yu and Zhou Cang had already returned, but my sister seemed to be still busy. When they saw me, their eyes were full of surprise. Zhou Yu started chattering as I expected: "Brother, are you okay? Why are you covered in dirt? You were not like this in the morning. You had a fight with him. Do you want us to arrest him? It's outrageous. You are the governor and you saved his daughter, but he treated you like this." I waved my hands and said, "That's not the case." "Then did you fall in love with that girl, so you wanted to take action, but you were beaten by her father?" "Why are you so mean? I thought you would become smarter if you were with my sister often. Now you can finally connect the cause and effect. It's a pity that I don't know what you are thinking. Heel? You will have such strange ideas. I won't talk to you anymore. Help me prepare some water. I need to wash. Help me find some straw. Any straw will do. Anyway, help me make a target." I thought about it and felt that there was nothing wrong with my confession. I put down my bow and arrow with confidence, took some clean clothes, and went to take a shower.
After taking a shower, I felt much better. My sister hadn't come back yet, so I still had something to do before dinner. Fortunately, as long as I knew what to do, Zhou Cang and Zhou Yu were very efficient. But the pillar in the yard was too thick, which put a lot of pressure on me. If I couldn't shoot, I would be embarrassed. I took a deep breath and pulled the bow. "Brother!" "Don't disturb me, I want to shoot an arrow. Don't pull me. It's not good to shoot crookedly. What are you doing?" I looked at Zhou Cang angrily. "Brother... No... You didn't take the arrow." Zhou Yu had already laughed and collapsed in the chair. I was very embarrassed. Why do I always make this mistake? Helpless, I picked up the arrow, put the bow on, pointed the arrow directly at the straw pillar, pulled the bow to full length, released my left hand, and saw the arrow... No, I didn't see the arrow at all. Everyone, including the maid who was watching the fun nearby, helped me look for it, but it was not on the target. The most embarrassing thing finally happened to me. My face turned red all of a sudden. Fortunately, it was dark and no one should notice. Zhou Cang seemed to have discovered something. He looked at the wall, then at my previous position, and then at the straw pillar.
"Brother Xie, you hit the target, and you shot through it. The arrow is now stuck in the wall!"
The arrow really hit the wall, almost halfway into it. I couldn't help but take a closer look at the bow. I didn't expect it to be so powerful. Their tone immediately turned to admiration.
"What are you doing? Aren't you sick? You are wearing so little, do you want to get sick again?" Our governor finally came back.
"Brother Xie, are you sick?" Zhou Cang was very sincere, but I was afraid that the other person in our family would start talking. Unfortunately, I usually never have good luck in this regard.
"Whose? He was a hero saving a beautiful girl this morning, and then he followed her home because she was pretty. He came back home in the evening covered in dirt after being beaten. He just took a shower and felt refreshed, so he poked another hole in the wall." Then she sat down as if nothing had happened, returning to her girlish nature, and said, "Sister is back, let's eat."
It took me a long time to explain it clearly, but I don't know if I really explained it clearly, but I can see that she supports me to learn martial arts, maybe she also knows that I will eventually go to the battlefield. And I suddenly felt vaguely that although the Yellow Turban Rebellion was about to be quelled, it seemed that the war in the world had just begun. And this, my sister seemed to have foreseen it before me. My sister didn't say much, just listened to me quietly, and then told me to rest early. I felt relieved and went back to my room. I was indeed tired, but I only took two steps when my sister called me, "Hey, idiot, you haven't eaten yet?"
From the second day, my sister took over almost all the government affairs and told me to concentrate on learning martial arts. After she told me, she left. If I didn't learn well, I would be so sorry for my sister's hard work. For my sister, I couldn't think of an excuse to be lazy. Although I woke up with soreness all over my body, I still arrived at the Huang family early. Master, although I didn't call him that verbally, I treated him as a teacher and was waiting for me in the living room. As soon as he saw me, he smiled and said to me: "Your body is sore, right?" I nodded, "It's normal on the first day, it will be better in the future. Oh, did you practice archery yesterday? How was it?" At this, my eyes lit up, and I immediately told him what happened yesterday, but he didn't seem to be surprised, and didn't mean to praise me. He asked me, "How far are you from the target?" "More than 20 steps, it seems that you are more than 20 steps?" I pointed to the yard. "Oh, what about me? But why don't you think about it, why can't I shoot outside this yard? I looked towards the yard, thinking about the location of the target, "Oh, I see, it's not that far, only forty steps, isn't it? I can do it too." The master shook his head: "I can't just shoot outside the yard, am I shooting outside our yard?" "How is that possible? Do I have to let the arrow go through the wall?" "Well, follow me." He brought a bow, carried a pot of arrows, mounted his horse, and asked me to follow him.
I followed him outside the courtyard, and he rode his horse and took me to a red soil slope in the city. Along the way, he told me the story of this red soil slope. This red soil slope was the city wall of Changsha, which belonged to the Chu State during the Warring States Period. It was made of rammed red soil, and a layer of bricks and stones was piled on the outside. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he demolished many city walls of the original vassal states, leaving only a few red soil slopes to witness the history of Changsha. The current city wall was built by the Liu clan who were granted fiefdoms in Changsha during the reign of Emperor Gaozu. He pointed to a courtyard at the foot of the east city wall and said, "Now you can see my home."
In the late autumn mist, I could only vaguely see the high-walled courtyard of his house. "You're not shooting here, are you?" He didn't answer, but suddenly pulled up the bow and shot at the courtyard at high speed. There was a line of arrows in the air that went straight to a faint red in the courtyard in the distance. After shooting all the arrows in a moment, he turned around and smiled at me: "Thirty arrows, let's go back."
On the way back, I kept running in front until I was in front of the red heart of the human-shaped target. All thirty arrows hit the red heart. He came over and patted me on the shoulder, "I have practiced this for ten years. Practice well. Remember, you can't just aim at the red heart, because the wind speed will be different every time you shoot. So, 70% of it is about aiming, and 30% is about relying on your heart." I was still thinking about what he meant when he spoke again, "Okay, we have wasted so much time, let's get down to business. This is your mouse today."
Then the gate was closed.