23 National Trials (2)

Hearing his words, Cao Yan and Han Tianfu were stunned.

Who the hell did this kid think he was?

"Kid, don't get cocky just because you can beat some trash from your province. I could do that in my sleep. But do you dare compete with me?" Cao Yan asked glaring at Tang Yan.

"No, thanks." Tang Yan refused without hesitation.

Tang Yan's direct refusal stunned Cao Yan.

When he recovered, he burst into laughter: "Haha~ kid, are you afraid? If you are..."

"No." Not waiting for Cao Yan to finish, Tang Yan interrupted. "There is no point in competing here. I won't gain anything from beating you, plus these people are obviously hostile towards us. Even if I won, they would probably say that I lost. So, what's the point?"

There was a slight grumbling in the crowd.

Tang Yan's words naturally attracted dissatisfaction from them.

"If you don't want to compete, then what's the point of running your mouth?" Cao Yan looked cold and asked with a voice filled with frustration.

"Why are you so anxious? Isn't the competition tomorrow? If you want to see the gap between us, just wait till then." Tang Yan said disapprovingly.

"Good! Good! Remember what you've said today. Everyone heard that, right? We'll see if you can still be so cocky tomorrow!" Cao Yan said angrily; being provoked by some 18-year-old kid naturally infuriated him.

Tang Yan shrugged. His face was indifferent as he pulled back Pan Yu and returned to his training area.

"Brother Cao, calm down. Let him run his mouth until tomorrow's results. We will crush them. When they fall down the rankings, we will see if they dare show their faces here again. Plus, this is also an opportunity." Han Tianfu said with a cunning smile.

Compared to Cao Yan, he was a lot calmer.

"An opportunity?" Cao Yan asked, looking at Han Tianfu with a puzzled gaze.

"Yes, an opportunity." Han Tianfu nodded, then lowered his voice and said: "The people from the Zhejiang province always fly over and stay in luxury hotels. Although it's not with the organizing committee's money, it has a negative impact on the association's image. Not to mention that kid has also provoked the other provinces this time. We can get Lao Lai and the rest to report them, and the other provinces will definitely help us file a complaint to the association against them and their province."

"Hahaha... Brother Han, you really are a genius." Hearing Han Tianfu's plan, his mood became better. He took Han Tianfu and went back to their training area.

After this round of conflict, because of Tang Yan's words, while they were slightly isolated by the others earlier, now they were being completely ignored. No other archers came around their training area.

Tang Yan began to inquire about Cao Yan and Han Tianfu.

The level of the two wasn't too different from his. They scored around 660 points, slightly better than him but not by a huge margin.

However, this was based on their results from last year, so they were bound to have improved. Moreover, this pair were experienced, psychologically stable, and were always the starter archers in their respective teams.

The threat brought about by these two was indeed much higher than that of Pan Yu. It was no wonder that Pan Yu, who was usually arrogant and filled with self-confidence, wavered with doubt and jealousy when he saw them.

After they finished training, they took the business car rented by the team and returned to the hotel.

In the car, several of the female archers began complaining about the other provinces. The young Lin Biao was one of the more aggressive ones filled with self-righteous anger.

"Tang Yan, those two are no worse than you, and they have experience in competing. Don't underestimate them." Turning to Tang Yan, Dong Jie, who was in the front row, gave him a bit of advice.

"Which province are they from?" Tang Yan smiled and asked.

"Han Tianfu is from the Shanghai team, and Cao Yan is from the Guangdong team. Both teams are strong teams. Last year's champion, Qiu Tian, was from the Shanghai team. He is the nephew of Shanghai City's Head Coach, Qiu Anguo," explained Dong Jie.

"Qiu Anguo..." Tang Yan muttered. He had heard of this person. Qiu Anguo had once entered the top 16 at the Olympics. He was a legendary figure in men's archery in China. He didn't expect that his nephew was none the weaker, excelling at the sport as well.

This Qiu Tian was way more interesting to him than the other two.

"You can't afford to make a mistake. They won't let you back down tomorrow." Dong Jie reminded him earnestly. The two had developed a friendship over the months training together.

"I don't plan to back down anyway. I can defeat them, my goal is the championship afterall." Tang Yan declared with a faint smile.

This sentence was filled with absolute confidence.

At this time, Pan Yu looked at him with a complicated gaze, then turned back without saying a word.

"Brother Tang is amazing, naturally he will defeat them!" Ling Biao said full of enthusiasm.

Tang Yan turned and smirked slightly at her.

....

The National Archery Championship was the largest archery competition in the country and the most high-profile event in the field of archery. It was held once a year. It was for the 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities, and Hong Kong and Macau. A total of 34 teams and well over a hundred archers. The contestants gathered in Kaiyuan to compete for the championship, representing the highest honor in archery nationally.

Among the 34 teams, the top three were Shanghai, Guangdong, and the Macau team. A major archery province and two municipalities. They were the main winners of the championship over the last ten years.

In other words, they were fighting for the top three while other provinces were fighting for fourth place. For a weak team like the Zhejiang Province, it would be a miracle to just enter the quarter-finals.

This was also the origin of Cao Yan and Han Tianfu's confidence. The main force of the Zhejiang Province was Pan Yu and Dong Jie, but these two had never broken into the top 10. So what good could a mere rookie do?

Although archery wasn't a highly engaging sport, it was still able to draw a crowd of viewers to watch the game.

More than half of the seats in the stadium were filled, and there were about five or six thousand people at the scene, which was a big increase compared to last year.

There were also several TV stations on-site at the stadium for real-time broadcasting.

The Zhejiang Province TV station occupied a very prominent position. Although the performance of the Zhejiang team was quite average, it didn't seem to affect the provinces eagerness to invest in the team.

Shi Min was a beautiful reporter from the Zhejiang Provincial TV Station and a former archer of the Zhejiang Provincial Team. She had managed to enter the national top eight back in the day, but now she had been retired for many years.

"Lin Yibin... this year, our provincial team has sent a lineup of 2 veterans and 2 new faces. Do you think they will be able to improve on last year's performance and climb up the ranks?" As the athletes in the field were preparing, Shi Min seized the opportunity to talk to Lin Yibin.