Ace Special Forces in Movies and TV Shows

Chapter 0018: The Best Soldier in the Recruit Company

The target papers were collected, and Shi Jin and Wu Liuyi were checking them one by one.

As Wu Liuyi inspected the item, he muttered to himself, "Not bad, three hits on the target, and an 8-ring. Not bad for a lucky shot."

Shi Jin smiled and said, "What if it's about strength?"

"Two shots were just grazed on the edge of the target paper, and one was a perfect eight-ring shot. I don't believe that's skill."

Shi Jin glanced at the distribution of bullet holes and agreed with Wu Liuyi's statement. Indeed, with the bullet holes distributed like this, hitting an eight-ring was definitely luck—there's a saying in the army that luck is also a part of strength.

"This one is good, four hits, number 12... is Cheng Cai's." Wu Liuyi smiled. Three out of four hits were valid. Although it was less than 13 rings, this result was not bad for a new recruit who was shooting for the first time.

Shi Jin glanced at it and praised, "It's really good. You should look for Zheng Yingqi's. Those two are always arguing about it. I wonder how good Zheng Yingqi's shooting talent is."

"No rush, let's check them one by one." Wu Liuyi said with a bit of pride. They were all soldiers from the Fifth Platoon, how could he, as the platoon leader, not be proud? However, he remembered Zheng Yingqi's confident boast that he was playing very steadily, and he felt uneasy.

Wu Liuyi sped up. Anyway, most new recruits' first shooting results were terrible, so there was no need to look at them carefully. He quickly found the No. 5 target paper. When he saw the bullet holes on the target paper, Wu Liuyi was obviously stunned.

After silently adding a ring to the score, Wu Liuyi nudged Shi Jin: "Take a look at this."

Wu Liuyi was deeply shocked. Zheng Yingqi had acted very confidently, but Wu Liuyi was planning to use the results as an excuse to scold him – so what if he only hit the target with five bullets? He didn’t even get a good score, so why was he so proud?

Wu Liuyi, who had even thought of his lines, never expected such a change to happen!

42 rings!

Shi Jin took the target paper that Wu Liuyi handed him and was shocked by the number of rings on it. He asked, "This...whose is this?" Shi Jin wanted to say that he had deliberately poked it with his finger, but of course that was impossible. Bullet holes and holes made by fingers might fool new recruits, but veterans could tell the difference at a glance.

"Zheng Yingqi".

Shi Jin couldn't help but recall Zheng Yingqi's performance during target practice. After his initial surprise, he exclaimed, "I never knew Zheng Yingqi had such a talent for shooting!"

To paraphrase a Mongolian comrade of mine, a new recruit shooting is like a novice riding a horse. You might be able to explain the theory clearly and make riding a horse seem easy, but once you're actually on the horse, you're completely lost. The first time a new recruit fires a gun, not to mention the psychological factors, the recoil after each shot can easily make them forget everything.

But some people's talent is just ridiculously unreasonable—Shi Jin thought to himself as he looked at Zheng Yingqi's grades.

……

The soldiers of the fifth squad gathered together, guessing their scores.

After giving a few perfunctory replies, Zheng Yingqi sat down to the side and slowly recalled the state he had been in when he was shooting.

Just then, Xu Sanduo sat down next to him, flashing his signature goofy grin: "Yingqi, how do you think of your shooting score?"

When Xu Sanduo asked this question, everyone else perked up their ears to listen, and even their voices instantly became quieter. Zheng Yingqi was thinking about his previous performance when he heard Xu Sanduo's question, and without thinking, he said, "It was alright, I should be able to score around thirty rings."

More than thirty rings?

The dormitory of Class 5 fell into a deathly silence.

There are five bullets in total when shooting at a target. To get a thirty-ring score, each bullet needs to score six rings. That sounds like it, but...

Everyone stared at Zheng Yingqi with strange expressions:

But what are we discussing? Are we discussing how many bullets hit the target, and the ring score? Is that something we can consider right now?

Cheng Cai's expression was the most complicated. Just now, his comrades were discussing and he heard his comrades in the class praying that they could hit the target with two bullets. He was proud of himself. He was sure that he had hit the target with at least three bullets and was eager to compete with Zheng Yingqi. But unexpectedly, Zheng Yingqi casually marked that he could at least get a thirty-ring score.

He looked at Zheng Yingqi, trying to determine from his expression whether the guy was joking.

"Squad Leader Zheng, are you telling the truth?"

"Squad Leader Zheng, you'll get what you pay for by talking big! I heard that the squad leader will give us the target paper from our first shooting session to keep."

The soldiers of the fifth squad stood by and said in disbelief, "Although we knew, were certain, and understood that Zheng Yingqi was definitely a genius, it couldn't be that he was so extraordinary, could it?"

Xu Sanduo, standing to the side, was displeased and shouted, "When did Yingqi ever boast?"

Just as Zheng Yingqi was about to speak, Shi Jin walked in with a stack of target papers.

"Good morning, Platoon Leader!"

The soldiers of the fifth platoon immediately resumed their standard recruit posture and greeted Shi Jin in unison. Shi Jin smiled and gestured for everyone not to be so serious, saying, "Comrades, relax a bit. I've given you the target paper ahead of time. Well, consider this a souvenir from your recruit company."

Everyone rushed forward, scrambling for the target papers with their names written on them. Zheng Yingqi remained the calmest, showing little anticipation, and waited patiently. Shi Jin, who had been watching Zheng Yingqi closely, walked over and asked:

"Zheng Yingqi, why do you seem so unnerved? You were the fastest to finish shooting at the range, and you're still so calm now. Do you think your score is hopeless and you're too ashamed to compete?"

Shi Jin asked this question on purpose. Zheng Yingqi's shooting score was the worst in the entire recruit company, a fact known to all the veterans in the recruit company.

Zheng Yingqi said confidently, "Reporting to the platoon leader, I am not worried about my grades."

"Why?" Shi Jin asked curiously.

"Because I think I played well and my performance was very consistent."

What a baffling confidence! Shi Jin was speechless. He could have given a good talking-to to most people, but this attitude was a bit too much. But looking at Zheng Yingqi's achievements, he decided to let the kid be smug for a while. When he got to the Steel Seventh Company, the veterans would slowly bring him down!

"Good results. I remember you said you wanted to join the Seventh Company. If you keep this up, joining the Seventh Company is not a dream!" Shi Jin patted Zheng Yingqi on the shoulder and said this clearly for the first time.

Cheng Cai did not immediately snatch his own target paper, but instead found the target paper with Zheng Yingqi's name written on it.

The five bullet holes were exceptionally conspicuous on the target paper, and their extremely small size made them even more eye-catching. After silently calculating the total score, he felt a sense of despair.

42 rings, this score is so devastating it makes you want to cry!

He stood there, holding Zheng Yingqi's target paper, until Xu Sanduo's voice startled everyone. Xu Sanduo exclaimed:

"Wow, Cheng Cai, you hit all the targets? That's amazing!"

Xu Sanduo's voice startled everyone, including Cheng Cai. Cheng Cai instinctively tried to throw away the target paper that didn't belong to him, but Xu Sanduo snatched it away. The idiot kept chanting, "8 rings... 7 rings... 8 rings..."

The new recruits gathered around, all staring at the target paper that had brought Cheng Cai despair.

"42 rings?"

"42 rings!"

"My God, you actually scored 42 rings! Cheng Cai, how did you do that? You're amazing!" Xu Sanduo exclaimed in shock.

The new recruits stared in shock:

"Squad Leader Cheng, you're amazing!"

"Isn't this even better than the veterans' records?"

The new recruits exclaimed in surprise, but Cheng Cai's face turned bright red, and he shouted with all his might, "That's not mine!"

"Huh?" Xu Sanduo was stunned for a moment before looking at the name on the target paper. The three characters Zheng Yingqi came into view.

The other recruits also saw Zheng Yingqi's name, and the scene became awkward for a moment.

Shi Jin noticed this too. He clapped his hands and said, "Everyone has seen their target paper, right? Let me tell you, this is your first time shooting, and the results won't be counted in the assessment. Don't be discouraged. The first time shooting is just to let you get used to the feeling of firing a gun and calculate the gains and losses in your mind."

He said this without making a sound, taking Zheng Yingqi's target paper from Xu Sanduo's hand and handing it to Zheng Yingqi.

Zheng Yingqi noticed that Shi Jin still had a target paper in his hand. Then he looked at Xu Sanduo's empty hand and thought to himself: Could that be Xu Sanduo's target paper?

Xu Sanduo also remembered and hurriedly said to Shi Jin, "Platoon leader, I can't find my target paper."

Shi Jin was speechless. How could this guy be so stupid?

(Sorry, I drove to pick up masks yesterday. It took me a whole day and night. I have to deliver some to nurses tomorrow—medical workers are truly amazing; they don't even have all the N95 masks they're supposed to have yet!)