Chapter 44: Archery Competition

The five families each boarded their respective vehicles, and the production crew members got into theirs as well. A convoy of more than a dozen cars drove out of the city and headed toward the grassland.

After driving for a little over ten minutes out of the city, and another ten minutes or so, they entered the grassland. Along the road, herds of grazing cattle, sheep, and horses could already be seen. Fascinated by these novel sights, the fathers of the four families all pulled their children into their arms and pointed out the scenery outside to explain it to them. Only in the car of Xiao Siqi and his son, Xiao Siqi—who had been nonstop busy for over an hour—had fallen asleep, leaving only young Xiao Yao pressed against the car window, gazing quietly at the landscape of the grassland.

After about half an hour, the convoy came to a stop. Everyone opened the doors and got out, only to see Village Chief Chen Lei, dressed in traditional Mongolian attire, waiting for them with a large group of people.

"Welcome, everyone," Chen Lei greeted them with a smile. "There are very few paved roads on the grassland. To avoid damaging the grassland environment as much as possible, our cars will only go this far. From here on, we will travel to our camp on the grassland using these horse-drawn carriages."

" Wow!" everyone cheered in pleasant surprise. They had no objections whatsoever to abandoning cars for horse-drawn carriages; instead, they eagerly crowded forward with looks of wonder to inspect the carriages they were about to ride in.

At Chen Lei's command, the children, who could no longer contain their excitement, scrambled onto the carriages, and the fathers hurriedly climbed up to settle their kids in. Each carriage was provided with a driver. Seeing that everyone was seated, the drivers cracked their whips, and the carriages set off toward the camp.

Accompanied by the herds of cattle and sheep occasionally encountered along the way, the children shouted and squealed with excitement all the way to the camp, startling goodness knows how many leisurely grazing livestock along the route.

Upon arriving at any destination, the custom was always to sort out accommodation first, and this time was no exception. After reaching the settlement of herders—which served as the main filming location for this trip—Chen Lei first led everyone to tour the five residences prepared for them. The most common and distinctive dwellings on the grassland were yurts, and this time the production team had prepared four yurts for them. Although they were all yurts, there were still differences among the four.

Room Number One was spacious, grand, and luxuriously decorated, boasting a layout modeled after the yurts once inhabited by Mongolian princes, and was thus dubbed the "Prince's Yurts." Room Number Two differed very little in size or materials from the yurts inhabited ordinary herdsmen, but it was filled with all sorts of items rich in Mongolian character. Ranging from large items like armor and weapons down to small drinking cups, everything was uniquely Mongolian. Because these items were entirely handcrafted by artisans, Room Number Two was known as the "Artisan's Yurt." Room Number Three was completely identical to the yurts lived in by ordinary herders and was called the "Herder's Yurt." Room Number Four was smaller in space, and both the materials of the yurt and the furnishings inside were relatively old and worn; it was the yurt with the poorest conditions, dubbed the "Dilapidated Yurt." However, even though Room Number Four was called dilapidated, it was fully capable of sheltering them from wind and rain and supporting daily life, so it wouldn't require Xiao Siqi and his son to repair it and clean up debris themselves like the broken house they stayed in the first time. Room Number Five was not a yurt at all, but rather a highly modernized recreational vehicle suitable for living in. Although the space inside was limited, it was fully equipped with a bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom—a true example of a sparrow may be small, but it has all vital organs. Moreover, the most crucial part was that all the equipment inside was quite modern, feeling not much different from staying in a hotel.

After touring the five residences, Chen Lei briefly interviewed everyone regarding their preferences for the living quarters. Apart from Xiao Yao, the other four children all chimed in unison that they wanted to live in the RV of Room Number Five. It seemed the children were still quite dependent on the relatively familiar modern lifestyle. The fathers, on the other hand, were more interested in the yurts, choosing either Room Number One or Room Number Two, which were either luxurious or culturally distinctive.

The houses could not be chosen arbitrarily; rankings determined by a competition decided the order of selection. Since they were on the vast grassland, the competition naturally had to feature grassland characteristics. The contest to determine the house-selection order this time was archery, and the participants were, of course, the fathers from each family.

The production team set up five straw targets painted with red bullseyes in an open space, and the rankings would be determined by the participants' archery scores. The rules allowed five arrows per person. First, they would compare the number of hits on the target. If the number of hits was tied, they would compare the number of hits in the red bullseye. If those were also tied, they would finally compare whose arrow hitting the bullseye was closest to the exact center point.

Chen Lei announced the event and rules, and even invited two expert archers from the local herders to explain the key techniques of shooting and give a demonstration before the competition officially began.

Although it was not the complex compound bows seen in sports competitions, but rather the simplest ancient-style bows and arrows seen in TV and movies—which looked easy—the actual operation still proved quite difficult.

During the first round of the competition, three out of the five missed the target entirely; Xiao Siqi, Zhou Lixing, and Lin Shaohua all failed to land their arrows on the straw bale. This activity truly relied on natural talent, and other than reminding Xiao Siqi to mind the wind direction, Xiao Yao couldn't offer much help.

After five rounds of competition, the results were out, containing both unexpected and expected outcomes. As expected, Xiao Siqi brought up the rear, landing only two out of five arrows on the target. The surprise was that Sun Zhihao—who had never acted in historical costume dramas and, much like Xiao Siqi, had never touched a bow and arrow before—actually outperformed Zhao Tao and Lin Shaohua (who had both touched bows and arrows while filming numerous historical dramas) as well as the athletically-trained Zhou Lixing, taking the championship with all five arrows hitting the target. Zhao Tao and Lin Shaohua both landed four arrows, but Zhao Tao placed second ahead of Lin Shaohua because his arrow was closer to the center of the bullseye, leaving Lin Shaohua in third place, while Zhou Lixing, with three hits, ranked fourth.

There were no surprises when it came to house selection; the fathers all chose houses according to their children's wishes. Sun Zhihao claimed Room Number Five, Zhao Tao took Room Number One, Lin Shaohua took Room Number Two, Zhou Lixing took Room Number Three, and Xiao Siqi resignedly ended up in Room Number Four, which had the worst conditions once again.

"Now that the houses are chosen, everyone can return to your respective dwellings and sort out your own lunch. Remember to bring along the fruits of your labor from the morning market. Since the items everyone obtained are rather single-kind, the production team has supplemented you with some necessary ingredients at your lodgings. After lunch, you are free to rest, engage in free activities, or take in the grassland scenery. We will assemble at the entrance of Room Number One at three o'clock this afternoon," Chen Lei announced.

"Oh, right, Teacher Sun, just a reminder. Your residence is an RV, and that RV is mobile. So you can choose one of the other four families to be your neighbor and drive your RV right next to their place," Chen Lei added suddenly.

"Huh? That RV can be driven? That's fantastic!" Sun Zhihao's face lit up with joy at hearing this, and looking down at his beloved daughter, he asked, "Duo'er, who do you want to have as a neighbor?"

Everyone had already turned around to disperse, but upon hearing Chen Lei's subsequent remark, they all turned back with looks of astonishment. Hearing Sun Zhihao ask his daughter, Lin Qisan immediately shouted loudly, "Duo'er, come to our place! We have lots of fun things at our house."

Presumably, because Lin Shaohua had comforted and guided Lin Qisan over not getting the No. 5 RV and had described all the unique items in Room Number Two as toys, Lin Qisan was eager to be neighbors with Sun Tingting and immediately used the toys in the house to attract her attention.

To everyone's surprise, Sun Tingting was completely unmoved and firmly stated, "I want to be neighbors with Big Brother Baoyi's family. I want to be with Big Brother Baoyi."

Lin Qisan's expression instantly darkened, while the four adults wore expressions of *as expected*.

Zhao Tao even feigned jealousy and said, "Siqi, our two families should be considered family friends of generations, right? How come I feel that you and your son have a better relationship with Teacher Sun's family than with ours?"

Lin Shaohua chimed in from the side, "What kind of generational friendship is that worth? Who told you to bring a son instead of a daughter? Don't you know there's already a 'Baoyi and Duo'er faction' among netizens online? Siqi, I think you and Teacher Sun might as well arrange an engagement for the kids right now and become in-laws."

"Hey, Shaohua, when you say that, have you considered your son's feelings?" Zhou Lixing pointed at Lin Qisan and smiled at Lin Shaohua.

Lin Shaohua shrugged indifferently. "I'd love to become in-laws with Teacher Sun, the problem is Duo'er chose Baoyi, not our Qisan. Since our Qisan isn't good enough on his own, what can I do?"

"Shaohua, don't talk like that. How is your Qisan not good enough? Your mixed-race son is currently hailed by netizens as the most stunning youth, instantly slaying all those flower boys from the neighboring country," Sun Zhihao said with a smile. "Who knows how many female fans your Qisan has now."

"What's the use of having many fans? The key is that your Duo'er doesn't think much of him," Lin Shaohua said with a deliberate sigh.

"You've gone too far saying that," Sun Zhihao quickly replied. "What do you mean by thinking much of him or not? Duo'er actually likes Qisan a lot."

"Then let's make an alliance by marriage—why don't you drive your RV over and park it next to our house as our neighbor?" Lin Shaohua pushed his luck.

"Uh—" Sun Zhihao paused, then said with a wry smile, "That won't work. Duo'er said she wants to be neighbors with Baoyi. Although Duo'er likes Qisan very much, she likes Baoyi even more. I only hope you won't harbor undue low self-esteem about your son. Of all people to compare him to, why did you have to pit your son against that monstrous child Baoyi? Let alone your son, among the children of the four of us, or even all the children in Hua Xia, how many can compare to a monstrous child like Baoyi? Spare yourself the unnecessary grief. If we're really going to form an alliance by marriage, of course I'd still look for Siqi."

"Oh, Teacher Sun has agreed," Zhao Tao said with a laugh, pulling Xiao Siqi by the arm. "Siqi, it's up to you now."

"Huh?" Xiao Siqi gave a wry smile, spread his hands, and said, "Haven't you guys figured it out by now after all this time? I basically can't make decisions for Baoyi anymore. When it comes to daily life, I follow his arrangements much more often than he follows mine."

"Baoyi," seeing Xiao Siqi say this, Zhao Tao spoke directly to Xiao Yao, "How about you be Duo'er's husband when you grow up?"

With dark lines running down his forehead, Xiao Yao could only hope this joking topic would pass quickly. He hurriedly put on a naive and clueless expression and said, "What are you all talking about? I don't understand." With that, he turned around on his own and walked toward their family's Room Number Four yurt.

"Oh, Baoyi is even getting shy. A rare sight indeed." The cheerful and uninhibited laughter of the several unprincipled fathers drifted behind Xiao Yao.