King of Sports 213 Archery Show 1

"Alan Covington, Tang Yan"

After McCann came up, he introduced Tang Yan and the kid to each other.

"You'll both be shooting for this exhibition." McCann continued.

Tang Yan and Covington looked over each other with interest. 

"We'll begin in about ten minutes. When you're ready. I wish you both the best of luck and I'm looking forward to your performances." McCann said to them before giving a slight bow and leaving.

As soon as McCann was gone, Tang Yan and Covington were left squinting at each other.

After a while, both sides buried their doubts and picked up their bows and arrows and began to prepare for the show.

At this, Zhuang Jiajie took out his phone and started flickering through it.

Tang Yan checked his bow and arrows again, and after confirming that there was no issue, he turned his gaze to Covington.

To his surprise, Covington wasn't using a competitive recurve bow, but a compound bow.

This discovery made him even more confused as to what was going on.

 Just then, Zhuang Jiajie suddenly said with a smile.

 "Huh, that's interesting."

"What's interesting?" Tang Yan said looking over at him puzzled.

Zhuang Jiajie showed him his phone and lowered his voice saying; "I was curious as to who the kid was, so I searched him up and it seems that we might not be the protagonists of this exhibition game. This Alan Covington, is a British archery wizard who just suddenly emerged out of nowhere this year. But he's already being proclaimed as one of the most promising marksmen in Britain, some are even calling him Robin Hood reincarnated."

"Robin Hood reincarnated, interesting." Tang Yan said with a smile. This situation was indeed beyond his expectations. It seemed they might have been a slight after thought rather than the main guests.

Ten-minutes was rather quick and fleeting and it wasn't long before they saw Prince William and the ambassadors begin to appear in the royal backyard.

Prince William was in a suit, and he looked rather suave and proper.

The emergence of Prince William suddenly made the atmosphere of the scene solemn, the guards lined up and the band began to play music.

Both Tang Yan and Covington were asked to stand in specific positions.

"William, I managed to get the sharpshooter from China I told you about. The one who won at the Asian Games not long ago." Next to Prince William, was the Duke of Argyll smiling as he spoke to the Prince.

The Duke of Argyll, who was next to Prince William at this time, was only 43 years old and was the youngest Duke in active service.

The British honour system and its noble titles were divided into five ranks: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount and Baron, all of which were hereditary. When the aristocracy were still prosperous, Britain had more than 40 Dukes, but due to the lack of male successors and the decline of the families, there were only 20 or so left.

The rank of Duke was the highest title possible, all the first generation Duke's were basically either related to the royal family or had completed exemplary service to the crown allowing them to enjoy the highest treatment in the UK. But it was also precisely because of this comfortable state that many Non-Royal Dukedoms were on the decline.

Torquhil Campbel, Duke of Argyll, fell into this category. His family assets had declined to little more than 60,000 acres of hereditary land and the family whiskey business, their financial strength wasn't even comparable to some marquises and viscounts.

But he was a member of the Scottish polo team, which was how he got to know Prince William and began hugging his thick thighs to success, through their mutual love of sports. 

Following Campbell's gaze, Prince William looked over at Tang Yan in the distance and nodded slightly. Campbell had told him that he had found an interesting archer and asked him to send out an invitation. So he agreed. 

"And over there's Alan Covington, the one I mentioned to you before, our very own marksman, hailed as this generation's Robin Hood, he could shoot an apple from 100 meters away." When it came to Covington, Campbell seemingly spoke with a hint of pride.

Prince William looked at Covington with a smile on his face. Modern archery and modern boxing originated in the United Kingdom, but the performance of the United Kingdom in the World Championships was unsatisfactory. Which left Prince William hugely disappointed.

Covington's name, he had heard before, but this was his first time seeing him in person. 

During their small chat, several marquises as well as the ambassadors to the UK all finished making their way into the Palace Garden.

At this time, Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to the UK, noticed Tang Yan in the distance.

With Tang Yan's repeated achievements for the Chinese national teams, Liu Xiaoming had naturally heard about him. But seeing him appear in the backyard of the British royal family, he was taken aback in surprise.

Duke Campbell gave a look to the Earl beside him. The Earl named Louis followed up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, today the prince's arranged an archery show for everyone. To perform is a young archer from the English countryside.... Alan Covington. And alongside him is a gold medalist from China....Tang Yan. "

After introducing the two on the field, Earl Louis paused and continued: "We felt an ordinary game would be boring, so today, our two marksmen will be showing us a 150 meter shot and their target will be a cantaloupe melon, just freshly picked from the orchard."

As soon as the Earl's words came out, discussion was immediately sparked among the ambassadors. Although they weren't archery fanatics, receiving an invitation letter from the prince, naturally they did their due diligence and at least had some basic understanding of archery.

The official Olympics target distance was only 70 meters, but now the two were actually going to pull off a 150 meter shot. This left them stunned and filled them with anticipation.

"150 meters, a cantaloupe, interesting." Even Prince William was full of interest when he heard the distance and difficulty.

At this time, Tang Yan had also just learned what the competition was and his mouth nearly fell open. 

But when he turned to see Covington's reaction Covington's expression was just serious without a hint of surprise, he gave off a sense of self-confidence, it seemed that he had obviously known in advance.

Tang Yan couldn't help but smile wearily, it seemed that he was being pushed into a pit by someone. 

Chapter end