"Tiantian, the male lead really submitted an application, requesting a transfer!"
At the moment He Tiantian was being escorted by her family to the sports academy and had just entered the dormitory, Student Xiao D suddenly blurted this out in her mind.
He Tiantian remained unfazed, continuing to feign arrogance while nodding at the other three roommates, as if to greet everyone.
Seeing this, Seo Juan felt somewhat dissatisfied. Both her parents were athletes, and she came from a sort of sports noble family.
Discovered to have a talent for archery at the age of fourteen, she had started intense training.
Now, at twenty-one, she had won a bronze medal in the individual event at the National Games two years ago.
In preparation for the upcoming Asian Games, she trained day and night and, through her parents’ connections, had even made a special trip to Cosmic Country.
Currently, Hua Country’s biggest rival was Cosmic Country, who they had been defeated by at the last Olympics.
For various reasons, it wasn’t feasible to hire a foreign coach at the moment, so Seo Juan could only visit a coach from Cosmic Country in a personal capacity for technical advice.
After a short period of training abroad, Seo Juan seemed to have found her groove.
She was determined to take home a victory at the upcoming Asian Games, and the Olympic Games two years later.
Even if she couldn’t defeat the athletes from Cosmic Country, she aimed to win a medal.
Seo Juan was very confident; she also considered herself the leading lady of the women’s team.
However, a rumor had been circulating in the team for the past few days: Coach Chen had discovered a little archery prodigy outside the gates of the sports academy. Without ever having touched a competitive bow and arrow, this prodigy had still managed to shoot a perfect score of ten.
At the gates of the sports academy?
And a little prodigy?
Seo Juan found the idea laughable.
Hua Country was certainly not lacking in talent.
Take her, Seo Juan, for example; she was extremely talented.
But when it comes to competitive sports, it’s not just about talent; it also requires training, mindset, technique, and more.
And this so-called prodigy was already eighteen—what could she really hope to achieve starting training at that age?
Yet Coach Chen had recruited this person into the team, taking up a spot in the provincial team, and judging by the level of attention Coach Chen was giving her, likely she would be given more opportunities!
The more opportunities this new girl got, the fewer would be left for veteran team members like Seo Juan.
The more Seo Juan thought about it, the more indignant she felt.
However, her roommate Zhao Yufen said, "It’s nothing much, just some country bumpkin."
The underlying meaning was that they thought some village girl, even if she made it to the provincial team by luck, might not be able to stay.
Seo Juan thought that made sense. Rural girls like her might not even have known what archery competitions were.
Relying on a smidgen of talent to get into the provincial team and undergoing years of closed training, they might not be able to endure for long.
Seo Juan and Zhao Yufen were city girls; they had been exposed to sports from a young age and had a certain sense of superiority.
As they spoke, they did not notice the awkward expression on another roommate, Liu Jianhong.
Liu Jianhong also came from a rural area. She happened to be spotted by a city team coach who thought she had suitable physical conditions and psychological qualities for archery, so he asked if she was willing to give it a try.
Thirteen-year-old Liu Jianhong, still naively asked, "What’s an archery competition?"
After coming to the city sports school and truly getting into archery, she fell in love with the sport.
Aside from passion, Liu Jianhong was well aware that becoming an athlete and winning medals in competitions was her ticket out of the countryside and a way to earn money for her family.
Liu Jianhong had some talent, but not as much as Seo Juan.
And, having started late with no foundation, she could only rely on desperate training to achieve results that satisfied the coaches.
It was also for the sake of preparing for the Asian Games that Liu Jianhong had been selected from the city team for the provincial team.
After joining the provincial team, Liu Jianhong learned what it meant to have mountains beyond mountains, people beyond people.
Not to mention anyone else, just the Seo Juan in her dormitory was like a towering peak she looked up to.
Great talent, great stamina, and it was said that before practicing archery, Seo Juan had even trained in track and field.
Stamina was very important for archery competitions.
For a professional archer, shooting a perfect ten was not rare, but the key was being able to hit tens and nines consistently—that was true excellence.
And in Olympic competitions, archers had to shoot 72 arrows in a single match.
This was a process that greatly drained one’s stamina.
So, when He Tiantian said that becoming an archer didn’t require overly arduous training, she was just trying to appease her real mother and family.
Which athlete doesn’t endure hardships?
The only difference was the focus of the training.
Archers don’t have specific stamina benchmarks, but they need enough strength to support them throughout a whole match.