Chapter 807 - A Blind Cat Meets a Dead Mouse
Chapter 807: A Blind Cat Meets a Dead Mouse
Jin Lei chuckled, then glanced at Yun Xi. “If that’s the case, then show me what you’ve got. You need to show your best performance today. Because if you don’t meet my expectations today, we’ll have to spend the night on the mountain,” Jin Lei said to Yun Xi in a condescending tone.
“No problem!” Yun Xi swiftly accepted his challenge.
Yun Xi knew that she had really excellent vision and that she had mastered quite a few fundamentals from Li Zilan, Yun Xi was confident that some of those skills would be of assistance in the mission at hand.
That being said, as Jin Lei’s figure disappeared into the distance, it did not take long for Yun Xi to realize the challenges awaiting her. Yun Xi acknowledged to herself that this mountain training was going to be extremely difficult.
Yun Xi checked out a few high-ground positions and moved toward them. She patrolled and rotated among these spots for more than two hours, searching for Jin Lei. However, try as she might, there seemed to be no sign of Jin Lei.
Even though she was dressed in the appropriate winter apparel and equipped with the proper equipment, Yun Xi could feel the cold engulfing her as she lay on the high ground in the snow searching for Jin Lei. To make matters worse, her legs were becoming numb, not just from the cold but also from the fact that she was having to maintain a prone position while lying in the snow for a prolonged period trying to get a glimpse of Jin Lei.
Looking through the gun’s eyepiece and working on perfecting her precision was an action that Yun Xi was repeating over and over. However, in the vast, shadowy ground covered with snow where everything seemed to have the same white appearance, Yun Xi had trouble deciding on a target.
Although Jin Lei had not said that he was expecting a perfect, precise hit, Yun Xi was pretty sure that a shot too far off the target would not be deemed acceptable.
After enduring the cold for what felt like an eternity, Yun Xi had reached her limit. She flopped over and lay on her back on the snow. She was thinking over every possible suitable spot, and those that weren’t suitable, for hiding. She didn’t want to neglect any unexpected, but possible, positions.
Just when Yun Xi thought she had gone through all the likely places where Jin Lei could be hiding, she had a light-bulb moment. An unlikely location popped into her mind. Although the odds of finding Jin Lei hiding in that spot were long, Yun Xi held onto that thought with optimism. Without further ado, she flipped over, aligned her sights with the target, and fired.
As the thick red smokescreen created by the smoke grenade dissipated, a familiar figure appeared in the distance. It was Jin Lei. Just like Yun Xi, he had been hiding himself in the snow for hours. As he shook himself to get his body functions moving, he picked himself up and shot Yun Xi a thumbs-up.
Often, the least likely place will be the one most overlooked. Subconsciously, one would assume that an area that was only 200 meters from a sniper’s line of sight would be a difficult place to stay hidden. Jin Lei had taken advantage of this trick of the subconscious and had made the decision to hide there.
If it had been anyone else, it is unlikely that they would have thought that a place like that could turn out to be a potentially good hiding spot.
Yet, Jin Lei had chosen to hide in a spot like that, and Yun Xi had coincidentally decided to pick the unlikeliest of places to target and had actually succeeded in hitting her target. This is a prime example of the saying, a blind cat meets a dead mouse, which is a metaphor for having great luck by chance, which is something that Yun Xi seems to have a lot of.
Seeing Jin Lei making his way toward her, Yun Xi gathered up her equipment and went to meet him. Yun Xi was thinking that a location that has been already tested will no longer require the need for another assessment.
“Your performance was very impressive, but I’m pretty certain that luck was on your side.” Jin Lei glanced at his watch and continued, “You spent three hours and made a lucky guess. This is unacceptable. To be a professional sniper, you have to make an accurate analysis of the potential high ground and hiding spots from your knowledge of the Earth’s topography alone. Your timing was also too long. Three hours is adequate time for your enemies to conceal and position themselves at a distance unfavorable to you. Do you realize that they can kill you within three hours?”
Yun Xi stayed silent as she listened to Jin Lei’s assessment of her performance. She knew that he was right. She understood that she was lacking in skills.
“Now, let’s switch roles. You hide, and I’ll try to find you.”
Without waiting for Yun Xi’s reply, Jin Lei left for a place that he thinks will make a good spot on the high ground.
Glancing at Jin Lei’s back growing smaller and smaller by the minute, Yun Xi dared not waste a minute. Plowing through the thick snow, step by step, she steadily made her way to a hiding place.
Jin Lei is a professional sniper. So naturally, Yun Xi should not present him with the opportunity for her to be caught within 200 meters of his line of sight. That aside, regardless of the distance of her hiding spot from Jin Lei, the fact that she had to hide from Jin Lei was already no easy task.