17 Authority

Dong Jie nodded and didn't bother to explain further. He turned back and resumed training.

Tang Yan stared at the back of Dong Jie for a while, then put his bow down.

He had just entered the provincial team and with Pan Yu's arrogant nature and status in the team, he didn't want to provoke him.

After gathering up his stuff, he moved to another booth. Turning to Dong Jie, he asked, "Is this one ok?"

"Yes, the rest are fine. It's just that booth," answered Dong Jie simply.

Tang Yan smiled and said "thank you," then he took up his bow and continued training.

Archery was a very stressful exercise. After practicing a round of 72 arrows, he felt his arms become sore. So he put down the bow, stretched his arms and began to rest.

After repeatedly shooting and adjusting his stance, his level was gradually stabilizing. He could consistently shoot 8 pointers and occasionally 9 pointers along with a few 10 pointers.

"You can shoot 70 meters?"

Dong Jie asked as he also set down his bow.

"Yes, but it's still not stable." Tang Yan replied modestly.

Dong Jie glanced at him and then pointed to the scoreboard and said, "Modesty won't help you here, you will get left behind."

"Errr... yes... sorry." Tang Yan said awkwardly with a smile.

Dong Jie didn't respond. He placed the bow back on the shooting rack. It seemed that he was ready to leave.

Seeing this, Tang Yan hastily began to ask, "Dong Jie, can I ask about Pan... Yu...?"

Tang Yan slowed his words to a stop after Dong Jie turned back and looked over him with a glare.

"I don't mean anything by it. I'm just curious. It's just the coach seems to trust him very much. Also, everyone seems to follow his lead..." Tang Yan said, looking around avoiding Dong Jie's glare.

After nearly a minute of silence, Dong Jie actually replied:

"You will know sooner or later. Just remember, don't provoke him." Then carrying his bag, he turned and left.

Tang Yan looked after Dong Jie's figure, shrugged helplessly, and then smiled.

After Dong Jie left, he was the only person left in the training hall. After stretching, he began his second round of shooting.

In the first round, he had shot 610 points out of 720 points.

It seemed that he still needed more practice.

He pressed the reset button and got ready to shoot.

Just then, he heard the sound of conversation coming from the corridor.

"This year's rookies are actually so subpar, compared to how we were back then."

"Pan Yu, what do you think coach will do for the national trials?"

...

Their words were transmitted into the training hall. Tang Yan heard some of it intermittently.

They should be Pan Yu's group.

Sure enough, after a while, the group entered the training hall.

"It's because they rushed everything for the Youth Olympics, Coach will probably....." Pan Yu was talking to the people around him when he entered through the doorway. Noticing someone was inside, his words stopped.

Seeing it was Tang Yan.

Pan Yu said with a ridiculing smile: "Speak of the devil, look it's a rookie. Hard at work are we?"

Hearing them enter, Tang Yan decided not to get involved with them and pretended not to hear them and continuex training.

Pan Yu's brow wrinkled.

"Hey, you!! Didn't you hear Pan Yu talking to you!?" Sun Ji, who was besides Pan Yu yelled.

When Tang Yan heard this he turned his head back and asked "Oh you were talking to me?"

Sun Ji became enraged., this Tang Yan was obviously intentionally ignoring them. He moved as if he was about to confront Tang Yan.

But Pan Yu stretched out his hand and pulled him back.

Sun Ji looked back at Pan Yu with confusion.

Pan Yu licked his lips. His eyes were full of ridicule as he said: "Let the rookie practise he probably needs it. Unfortunately without talent there is only so much practising can do."

Sun Ji immediately understood that Pan Yu was trying to provoke Tang Yan into acting first, so he could find a reason to punish Tang Yan.

He immediately laughed and shouted at Tang Yan:

"True, what is the point of forcefully practising if you have no talent.

You should be one of the older rookies right, haha watch out that you don't let those hatchlings over take you. Or else you will really be the biggest trash to enter this team"

Tang Yan's brows wrinkled up.

He glanced at them coldly.

At this moment, his anger suddenly disappeared, and he laughed in a self-deprecating tone.

He was actually letting some kids get under his skin.

"Forget it, treat them like a fart and forget it."

His goal wasn't the provincial team; anyway, he had bigger dreams.

So he paid them no mind, turned his head back and continued.

Seeing Tang Yan being unresponsive to their mocking, Pan Yu grew bored and lost interest.

He headed of to his shooting booth.

The old players, seeing Pan Yu's lack of interest, left as well to their own booths.

"Who the hell!" They hadn't even arrived yet, when Pan Yu's curse soon attracted them back.

Pan Yu's face was filled with anger as he came out of his booth and looked in Tang Yan's direction:

"Kid, did you used my booth?"

Tang Yan stopped his actions and just as he was preparing to lie and deny it.

Pan Yu threatened without waiting for him to speak: "You better tell me the truth. I will find out if you lie to me. Then you can forget about staying in the provincial team."

Tang Yan didn't want to get into a fight, but Pan Yu's overbearing attitude was starting to get on his nerves.

He calmly said, "What's wrong with using that booth?"

"So you did use my booth..." Pan Yu said with a calm face.

"Rookie, you are looking for death! That's Pan Yu's private booth!" Sun Ji shouted.

"Oh... I didn't know that there was a rule against using certain booths in the training hall." Tang Yan said steadily.

The general training hall didn't stipulate which booth's can't be used, but over time Pan Yu had begun to claim the last booth as his.

As for the newcomers, it was expected they would gradually begin to learn these hidden rules over time, but no one would have thought that Tang Yan would spend his first day in the training hall.

In fact, this wasn't much of an issue, but seeing Tang Yan's indifferent attitude, which was completely different from Li Cunde's sincere fear during the day, Pan Yu felt like his authority was being challenged.

He said coldly: "I have the final say here. Since you used my booth, kneel down and admit your mistakes. Then maybe I'll forgive you; otherwise, you can forget about staying in this team."