Reborn in 1977

Chapter 245 It Doesn't Take Much Effort Anyway

After lunch, Zhang Wenliang took the spoils that Team 9 had helped clean up and rode his mule home.

Chen Fan, on the other hand, followed Old Peng to his house.

Or rather, his son-in-law's house, a "one-main-room-with-four-side-rooms" style house that was "soft inside and hard outside."

The so-called "soft inside and hard outside" meant that the walls were made of adobe bricks on the inside, and a layer of red bricks was attached to the outside. This would prevent moisture and water damage, and would last longer than traditional adobe walls, while also being more aesthetically pleasing.

Moreover, the adobe walls inside were also plastered with lime. If the thatched roof was replaced with red tiles, it would look almost the same as a brick house. Even so, in Lujiawan, it was considered a top-notch house.

There was no one else in the house, probably because Old Peng's daughter and son-in-law were still busy together on the threshing ground at the top of the slope.

Old Peng walked into the room on the west side, towards the back. Chen Fan didn't want to enter other people's rooms, so he waited in the main room.

After a while, Old Peng came out, holding a bow and a quiver of arrows in his hand. He gestured, led Chen Fan out of the house, and said as he walked, "I've been here for more than three years, and I usually have nothing to do, so I made a few bows and quivers of arrows myself."

He led Chen Fan to the threshing ground next to the house, took out a tattered dustpan with a large round wooden board inside from the corner, hung it on the gable wall, and walked a few steps further away, smiling at Chen Fan, "Have you ever learned archery before?"

Chen Fan shook his head, "I've only learned how to shoot guns."

After thinking for a moment, he added, "And I learned a few moves from Team Leader Xiao, but I don't know how good I am."

Old Peng didn't take it to heart when he heard this. As everyone knew, Chen Fan was someone who drifted to Lujiawan from the water on the first day of the twelfth lunar month and was picked up by Yang Chuanfu from Team 6. It was only just past Qingming Festival now, the eighteenth day of the second lunar month, which meant it had only been two and a half months at most.

In two and a half months, could he even learn how to stand in a horse stance?

Old Peng shook his head and chuckled inwardly. Then, he struck a pose, holding the bow in his left hand and drawing the arrow with his right hand. With a "thwack" sound, the arrow hit the center of the wooden board ten meters away.

Chen Fan immediately raised his hand and applauded, "Beautiful!"

Old Peng smiled and said, "Archery uses the strength of the shoulders and back, but at the same time, the waist and legs must be stable. If the waist and legs are not stable, it will be like reeds on the wall without a center of gravity, and the arrow will easily drift. Then, use the strength of the shoulders and back to draw the bowstring. The arms are just supports. If you use the strength of your arms, you will run out of strength after drawing only a few arrows. So, the seemingly simple archery posture actually has a lot of tricks in it."

Chen Fan was here to learn today, so naturally, he agreed with everything he said.

Afterwards, Old Peng explained in detail the archery posture to Chen Fan, as well as how to aim and adjust the angle according to the wind. From any point of view, he was doing his best.

It was just that Old Peng didn't have much expectation in his heart, thinking that today was just a simple lesson on archery posture and letting him experience it. If he wanted to learn archery, it would take at least a few...

Just as Old Peng's thoughts were running wild, he heard a "thwack" sound, and the arrow pierced into the dustpan.

Seeing the arrow, Old Peng's heart skipped a beat, and he turned to look at Chen Fan.

He saw Chen Fan take out another arrow, draw the bow again, aim, and with another "thwack" sound, hit the bullseye.

Old Peng's eyes twitched, and he stared at Chen Fan, "Have you practiced before?!"

Chen Fan was in high spirits. While taking out an arrow, he looked at him and smiled, "No, today is the first time I've practiced, but I've been practicing boxing with Team Leader Xiao for two months, and I've also practiced the spear stance. I have a little understanding of strength. After listening to your explanation of archery techniques and precautions just now, I found that archery is quite simple."

As soon as he finished speaking, he didn't even look at the dustpan, released his finger, and the arrow flew out, hitting the bullseye again.

Old Peng took two deep breaths, covered his chest, and was stunned, unable to speak.

Seeing that his face didn't look right, Chen Fan couldn't help but stop taking the arrow and asked with concern, "Master Peng, are you okay?"

Old Peng let out a long breath and waved his hand with a stiff face, "It's okay, maybe I ate too much meat just now, and my stomach hurts."

Chen Fan looked at his hand in confusion.

Why are you covering your chest when your stomach hurts?

After a two-second silence, he reluctantly handed over the bow and said, "You're not feeling well today, why don't you go back and rest for a while, and I'll come back another day."

Anyway, he had found a tool person now, and he could run out to slack off at any time. The leaders of the team couldn't wait for him to come out, so that Zhang Cuie would have more opportunities to practice. Naturally, he had plenty of time and could come over any day.

As a result, Old Peng waved his hand and said, "It's okay, it's just a small problem."

Then he said, "The archery posture is not immutable, especially in the mountains and forests. You have to adjust your archery posture accordingly depending on the location of the prey. Sometimes you have to shoot upwards, sometimes you have to shoot downwards, and sometimes there are abnormal archery postures.

But no matter what posture you use, it all comes down to the same principle. As long as you master the technique of holding the bow and the skill of drawing the bow, you can shoot accurately no matter what posture you use.

I'll demonstrate it to you now, you have to watch carefully..."

More than ten minutes later, Old Peng demonstrated all the archery postures he could think of, including Guo Jing's most handsome back shot, but not horseback archery.

Very simple, Old Peng couldn't ride a horse, and there was no way to ride a horse in the mountains.

But no matter what posture it was, as long as he explained it once and demonstrated it once, Chen Fan could immediately replicate it and hit the target every time.

There was nothing else to it, mainly because the archery skill was absorbed by the "Fishing and Hunting" skill.

After this period of crazy fishing, plus this morning's shooting and hunting, just now, his fishing and hunting skill had been raised to LV3.

Furthermore, martial arts skills greatly aid in quickly mastering archery. His martial arts prowess had already reached LV3, just a step away from LV4. If this were a hundred years ago, he would be qualified to accept disciples, pass on his skills, and work as a security guard or escort.

With these two skills as a foundation, learning archery would be a piece of cake, right?

Seeing Chen Fan learn archery so quickly and catch up to his own decade of diligent practice, Old Peng fell into silence.

Chen Fan looked at Old Peng, wondering if he was progressing too fast.

Just then, Old Peng suddenly said, "You've learned archery. The rest is up to you to practice diligently. As the saying goes, the master leads you to the door, but the cultivation is up to the individual. What level you reach depends on yourself."

Chen Fan was about to nod when Old Peng added, "Besides archery, what about the stone-throwing skill I mentioned earlier? Are you interested in learning that?"

Chen Fan's eyes lit up instantly. "Yes, please."

Then, he looked puzzled. "Didn't you say you hadn't mastered it?"

Old Peng sighed deeply, his gaze towards Chen Fan filled with complexity. "I haven't perfected it, which is the same as not having learned it, I suppose. However, I do remember the techniques they taught me, and I can still fling a few stones. If you want to learn, I can teach you, but the results will depend on your own efforts."

Chen Fan nodded repeatedly. "Great, great! Teach me, and I'll practice on my own."

Old Peng picked up a few small stones from the edge of the threshing ground, handed half to Chen Fan, then held one in the palm of his right hand and said solemnly,

"Stone-throwing is different from archery. The fingers control the direction of the stone, but the wrist controls the force.

But the wrist is just a node. You must treat your arm as a whip, using the strength of your whole body to transmit through this 'whip' to your wrist, and then use your wrist to fling the stone out."

After carefully explaining the technique, he gently pinched the stone between his fingers, then with a jerk of his body and a flick of his wrist, the stone flew straight out and hit the large bamboo sieve used as a target.

After hearing his explanation and seeing his demonstration, Chen Fan first tried the motion a few times without a stone to get a feel for it.

After a few tries, he seemed to get a sense of it. He took a small stone in his hand, started the force from his feet, ran it through his back and over his shoulder, and then swung his arm violently, creating a sharp crack like a whip.

The next second, the large bamboo sieve target suddenly 'bang'ed, and a large hole was smashed through it.

Chen Fan himself was startled. He quickly ran over and took a closer look. A fist-sized hole had appeared in the center of the sieve, and the arrows he had shot earlier had all fallen to the ground, scattered all over the place, along with some wood splinters.

That didn't matter; it wasn't worth much anyway.

Chen Fan then took down the large bamboo sieve target and carefully examined the wall.

At this time, Old Peng also walked over, and the two of them stared intently at the wall, scrutinizing it.

Fortunately, the red bricks only had a few marks where the stone had hit, with no pits as Chen Fan had feared.

Old Peng didn't know what to say at this point. After a long pause, he looked at Chen Fan with a complex expression and said, "You're strong."

Chen Fan chuckled dryly. "Heh heh, maybe it's because I eat a lot."

Old Peng looked at him again, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Chen Fan didn't know what he was laughing at, so he chuckled along with him.

After laughing for a while, Old Peng stopped and smiled at Chen Fan, "I've seen you hunt foxes, hitting them in the head every time. The other ones that were hit in the body were shot with a rifle, not by you.

If you didn't have such great skills, I would definitely recommend you to the provincial hunting team. You're a natural hunter. Any one of those skills—shooting, archery, stone-throwing—would allow you to gain a foothold in the provincial hunting team, and you might even become a captain."

After saying that, he gently shook his head. "Too bad. If I were to recommend you, the people of Lujiawan would definitely hate me. It's not worth it; I can't do that."

Chen Fan chuckled. "You're exaggerating. Even if I had the skills you think I do, I wouldn't want to go. The hunting team is too hard, always in the old forests, not eating well, not sleeping well. It's better to stay in the production team."

Old Peng laughed. "If someone else said that, I wouldn't believe it. After all, a monthly salary of over a hundred yuan—where else could you earn that? But I believe you. With your skills, where couldn't you earn that hundred-plus yuan?"

Chen Fan was about to speak when Old Peng continued, "I've taught you everything I can—archery and stone-throwing. The other skills, like hunting and setting traps, would have to be taught in the old forests.

A hunter, a hunter—the most important thing is how to find prey. If you can't even find prey, then shooting, archery, stone-throwing, traps, poison—it's all useless. Unfortunately, these things can only be taught in the mountains, so I'm afraid you won't be able to learn them."

Chen Fan chuckled. "Don't say that, Master Peng. If you can't teach me how to find prey, how about teaching me how to set traps?"

Old Peng looked at him, puzzled. "What's the use of setting traps if you can't even find prey? Besides, there's no need for traps in a place like Lujiawan."

Chen Fan coughed dryly and smiled. "It's not like I have anything else to do. While I have some time, it's good to learn more skills. It doesn't take much effort anyway."

Doesn't take much effort?

Old Peng was choked speechless.