Mute Words

After all, there were still a lot of people waiting behind me, so I didn’t linger too long and moved on.

There were two different doors for entering and exiting: the main door at the front for entering and a small door at the back for exiting. Outside the door was a long path that wound its way down the mountain.

There was a huge canopy of trees above me, and the cold winter mist formed crystal frost between the branches, glistening in the sunlight as I walked along the path.

As I walked slowly downhill, eating congee, I noticed that there was a large bag at regular intervals along the roadside for people to dispose of their garbage – very thoughtful indeed.

After I had eaten and drunk my fill, I took out my mobile phone and called Yan Chuwen to ask where they were.

Yan Chuwen had already gone down the mountain with Guo Shu and was now watching an archery competition in the open space to the west of the village.

“…Let me ask, wait a second…” For a while, the background noise was very loud, and Yan Chuwen didn’t know who he was talking to. Suddenly he asked me, “By the way, Baiyin, did you join the archery club in college?”

I was surprised, “I did for a while…”

Actually, it was for one semester.

“It’s like this, a team competition is about to start, but one of the representatives of the Pengge team just hurt his hand while moving the equipment and can’t compete. Can you come and replace him now?”

“Replace…..”

Before I could say anything, the other person on the line took over.

“Little brother, please help!” Nie Peng’s voice was full of anxiety, “I really can’t find anyone else, we don’t really care about the ranking, just replace him for a while, I’ll treat you to dinner some other time!”

With these words, the village chief himself was begging me, so I couldn’t refuse.

“Okay, wait, I’m coming.”

After hanging up, I trotted through the crowd, and the twenty-minute walk took half the time.

Before I could catch my breath, Nie Peng squeezed past me, slipped a blue fake flower necklace around my neck, patted me on the shoulder, and then pushed me into the competition arena with three other young men.

They said it was a big annual festival, but since it wasn’t professional, the venue was a bit simple, with no grandstands. Everyone spontaneously formed a semicircle around the players.

There were white lines on the ground marked with plaster powder, and the distance between the players and the target was about 30 meters, which was a relatively moderate distance.

I arrived in time, as the other teams from the villages had just finished the first set, and it was Pengge’s turn next.

The other three teams went first, and I stayed at the end to get used to the bow in my hands.

In college, I actually did not join the archery club, but the archery club.

Nowadays, when you watch archery competitions on TV, you will mostly see the use of “competitive recurve bows” with metal bows, sights and arrow rests, and a three-fingered string hook. In contrast, traditional hunting bows usually have a maple or mulberry bow body, no sights or arrow rest, and a thumb string hook.

After pulling the string, the bow was quite pliable in my hands, and I could tell that it had been carefully maintained.

Yan Chuwen had also been a blind cat that stumbled upon a mouse. I had learned to use a traditional hunting bow. If I had learned to use a competitive recurve bow back then… I would be disqualified today.

“Come on, don’t be nervous!”

“Brother Yin, you can do it, believe in yourself!”

Yan Chuwen and Guo Shu were cheering me on, looking even more nervous than I was.

Each team has eight arrows, two per person. The first team shoots four arrows in a row, then the second team, and so on until all teams have shot. There are two rounds in total, and the team with the most points wins.

Soon, the other three members of the Pengge team had finished shooting their arrows, and it was my turn.

“Oops, Nie Peng, why did you send a Xia people on the field? Are you running out of people?”

A dark-skinned man on the sidelines with a toothpick in his mouth half-jokingly teased Nie Peng in a heavy Xia accent:

“What Xia people and non-Xia people, the two tribes are family, this is my little brother!” Nie Peng crossed his arms and said without blinking an eye.

There’s a lot of psychological warfare on the sports field, and I didn’t expect it at the village sports meeting.

I stood astride the shooting line, pushed the bow, pulled the string, and aimed. No matter how accurate I was, I had to put on a show.

I ignored all the noise, slowed my breathing, and the moment my fingertips released, the arrow shot like a shooting star across the sky, straight to the target.

Unfortunately, my hand was too raw and I had never practiced before, so I missed the target a bit, hitting only the sixth ring. I frowned, a bit annoyed.

“Not bad!” But even so, Yan Chuwen and Guo Shu still burst into the warmest applause for me.

“Very good, little brother, keep it up!” Nie Peng vigorously put his arm around my shoulder and led me to the rest area, “If we keep up this pace, we still have a chance to win.”

On the second lap, I noticed that there was an additional small black target behind the 30-meter target.

“What’s that?” I asked Nie Peng.

He looked at it and said that it was a “ghost head target” and that you could get 20 points for hitting it.

When you hit the bull’s-eye, you only get 10 points, but when you hit the ghost head target, you get 20 points?

But the ghost head target is small and far away, so you might miss it and get no points at all.

I thought that was probably the point of introducing it. It’s a risk or a safe choice, it all depends on how you choose.

I decided to replace the first team and go back to the field. I saw that there was still some time left, so I took my bow and quietly went to the practice area next to the field to check.

According to my personality, I would not have joined any interest clubs at the university, let alone one that I knew nothing about.

I would have joined the archery club, and I have to thank the people I was dating at the time.

Shortly after the freshman year began, the seniors of the Hunting Bow Club started going to different departments to recruit people. Babyface was convinced by them and wanted to join, but he didn’t want to do it alone, so he dragged me along.

I didn’t go very often, maybe three or four times in two months, and I went reluctantly because Babyface wouldn’t leave me alone. Not long after that, he broke up with me, saying that I had a face but no heart, that I showed him no affection at all, and asked why I accepted him in the first place if I didn’t want a relationship.

It was obvious that he was the one who said he was looking everywhere, but when it failed, it seemed like it was all my fault.

“Because I was bored.” I accidentally told the truth.

“Pang!”

Of course, I was hit. I deserved it, so I wasn’t particularly angry.

“Don’t let me see you again!” After saying that, the other person walked away with a pale face, leaving me alone in the grove.

I touched my jawbone, which was aching, and stayed there for a while, then walked out the other end.

This small forest near the library has a lot of fallen leaves in the fall, a lot of nasty insects, and the street lamps are dim, so very few people come here after 8 p.m. So when Mo Chuan and I unexpectedly met under the dim street lamp, we were both a little surprised.

“What a coincidence,” I said in amazement and greeted him unnaturally.

Mo Chuan was wearing only a thin dark green sweater and was carrying a notebook and two books. He looked like he had just come out of the study room.

He glanced at the small grove where I appeared and then looked at my face, or rather the left half of my face that was still burning. But he didn’t ask anything, didn’t say anything, as if he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. He just nodded slightly and walked past me.

It was obvious that he didn’t want to get to know me better.

To be honest, there was nothing wrong with his attitude. I couldn’t expect everyone I met to accept my sexual orientation. But maybe I was already upset from the beating I had received earlier that day, and his indifference suddenly ignited my anger.

“Wait!” I gritted my teeth, but finally called out to him.

With my hands in my pockets, I turned and looked at him through the streetlight. “Are you aware that there is a psychological phenomenon called ‘reverse projection’?”

He stood there, leaning slightly to look at me, with a face of disinterest that was so fake it was disgusting.

“Not really,”

I said with a sneer, “It means that sometimes the emotions inside people can be completely different from what they show. Fear is not disgust, but fear of one’s desires. For example, some people are afraid of homosexuality, which is a prejudice on the surface, but is actually just a cover for their uncontrollable inner desires.”

He nodded, with a “I’ve learned a lesson” expression: “That’s it.”

His answer was so bland that my exquisite punch felt like it had hit a lump of cotton, suffocating and uninteresting.

Dare to do it, but not suffer the consequences.

I snorted and said nothing, turning and walking away.

I thought that as long as I avoided Yan Chuwen, I should have no more contact with him for the rest of my life. However, a few days later, when I attended the archery club’s activities, I unexpectedly saw him again.

The reason was that my senior called me and asked if I could go to the club’s activity that night. She also said that this year’s recruitment of new students was unsatisfactory, and if no one participated in the daily practice, the archery club would probably not be able to continue next year.

She sighed with worry, and her words were full of sorrow. My heart softened and I agreed.

In the evening, I went to the meeting on time. I was afraid of meeting the baby face and being embarrassed, but my senior said that he had already quit the club a few days ago.

“You didn’t know? I thought you two were so close he would have told you,” my senior said in surprise.

I tightened the gloves on my hand as I said, “We broke up.

My senior probably didn’t expect me to be so honest either. After a moment of silence, I could see embarrassment on her face.

I ignored her and picked up the bow from the rack to practice on my own.

After practicing for about half an hour, I heard clapping behind me: “Everybody, stop for a second and look over here.

I put my bow down and looked in the direction of the sound.

“Today I’d like to introduce a new member…” Standing next to the senior student was a tall, straight figure. The other person was facing sideways, talking to the senior next to him. His black sweater made his skin look very white, much whiter than the senior next to him.

Maybe he had just come in from outside, because his whole ear was red from the cold, and the lapis lazuli earrings in his earlobes stood out.

No way! Just as I was thinking this, the person turned his face just in time to make eye contact with me in the crowd.

“This is Mo Chuan from the folklore department, from the Cenglu tribe. Don’t look at him, he’s only a freshman, but he’s been studying traditional archery since he was a child, and he’s much better than me and the vice president. You can think of him as a mentor for our club, so if you have any questions, just ask him.

There is a rustling sound of discussion all around.

“Wow, he’s so good-looking, like a biracial person.”

“He’s from a minority group, so his looks are a result of his heritage…”

“Are all the freshmen this year of such high quality? Isn’t there a handsome guy in our club who has a very distinguished appearance?”

“Oh, that dish, I heard he’s in the art department and doesn’t like girls…”

“Shh, he’s behind you!”

Mo Chuan glanced at me briefly at first, then quickly looked away. He was surrounded by a crowd, receiving various curious questions and exaggerated praise from all around him like a moon surrounded by stars.

He responded appropriately, as if he had been born for such occasions.

He put on an act.

I smiled inwardly, returned to my position, and drew the bow to practice again.

Although the target for beginners is only ten meters away, the posture of drawing the bow does not change with the distance. After practicing for three sets, my arms began to hurt. Before, I could hit all the targets within the eight rings, but now, due to the loss of physical strength, my accuracy has decreased. Not only could I not hit the center of the target, but sometimes I even missed.

Gritting my teeth, I released another arrow. Not only did the arrow miss, but the recoil of the bowstring hit my arm, leaving a distinct red mark on my elbow.

Clenching my lips, my competitive instinct made me draw another arrow and load it onto the quiver.

As I aimed, the arm holding the bow was suddenly gently grabbed from behind.

“Your stance is wrong. Straighten your arm, then rotate your elbow.” A light scent of sandalwood, often found in temple halls, filled my nostrils.

I shivered and looked away to see that Mo Chuan was watching my hands, not me.

He adjusted my posture, straightening my horizontal elbow to make my arm a smooth line, and holding my wrist with his other hand, he pulled me back.

“Raise your elbow, don’t shrug your shoulders, aim and release.”

It was only at this point that I realized he was actually a little taller than me, about 188 or 189.

I felt a little uncomfortable when I heard the faint warmth of another person behind me, but despite that, a stubbornness to not lose arose in my heart.

Stay calm and natural, he doesn’t care about a single homophobe, so why should I?

“Shoot.” A cold voice brushed past my ear, and my fingers unconsciously loosened, and the arrow shot off like a rainbow, hitting the bull’s-eye with precision.

I looked at the arrow in amazement, and when I came to my senses, the person behind me had already stepped back.

Following the key points in my memory, I didn’t dare to practice any more for fear that I wouldn’t have enough energy when I went on stage later. When I felt that it was time, I returned to the team.

The other three members of the Pengge team were calculating the scores on the field. They calculated that we would have to score 40 points to have any hope of winning, which meant that everyone would have to hit the bull’s eye.

That was almost impossible.

“It’s okay, the important thing is to participate. If we don’t make it this year, we can try again next year!” Nie Peng patted my shoulder and told me not to worry.

The other members of the Pengge team also agreed.

“Yes, it’s very good to be able to participate, and it doesn’t matter if we don’t win first place.”

“We’ll practice and compete again next year!”

“Keep competing!”

Maybe it was because I had a good attitude and my body was relaxed, but I had an unstoppable momentum. Although I didn’t hit the bull’s-eye every time, the other three members of Team Pengge also scored a good 27 points with three arrows in the second round.

Even if I hit the bull’s-eye with my last arrow, Team Pengge still won’t win.

In that case, why not give it a try?

Looking at the distant target, I closed my eyes and calmed my mind and body. The noisy voices faded away, my skin was caressed by the breeze, and the air around me seemed to be scented with an indistinct Buddhist incense.

“A calm mind leads to a steady hand,” a soft voice whispered in my ear.

Slowly opening my eyes, I nocked my arrow, raised my bow, and the only thing in my line of sight was the ghost head target 50 meters away.

“Once you have your aim, don’t be indecisive,” the voice sounded again, drilling into my brain from the ear canal, controlling my thoughts so that all I could do was follow its instructions.

“Shoot.”

The action of drawing the bow, aiming, and releasing the arrow almost overlapped with the word “shoot” in my head. A few moments later, the sound of voices in the distance returned, and thunderous cheers erupted all around.

My arrow hit the ghost’s head on target. In the second round, Pengge scored 47 points, a perfect comeback.