The Prince and Campbell were chatting when suddenly Prince William, as if remembering something, suddenly turned back to Tang Yan and said: "I wonder, Mr. Tang do you think you could replicate such a feat!?"To which Zhuang Jiajie and Queen Elizabeth looked at him with surprise.
But Prince William just looked excited and expectant.
Campbell noticed the change in Prince William"s expression and turned to Tang Yan.
He went to interject but Tang Yan spoke up before he could, lightly saying: "If Her Majesty and Your Royal Highness want, I can perform it for you here."
"Perform here?" Earl Louis spoke up with a sneer. "You want Her Majesty and His Royal Highness to stop their dinner and wait for you to set up a stand, so you can attempt it now?"
As soon as Earl Louis spoke, the others nodded.
Indeed, it was a dinner with the Queen. It seemed rather inappropriate to disrupt it to set up an arrow target etc, just so Tang Yan could perform archery. Plus it was already too dark to go back outside so where were they gonna put the target, surely not in the dining hall.
"My performance only needs a bow." Tang Yan said calmly, looking to Prince William, directly disregarding Earl Louis.
"Just a bow! Guards, bring the bow from earlier." Prince William shouted at this moment.
One of the guards at the door, turned and left to get the bow and everyone turned to look at Tang Yan with a peculiar gaze.
There was no venue, no target, what was Tang Yan planning to do?
Even Zhuang Jiajie looked at Tang Yan with doubt.
After a while, the guard returned, holding in his hand the longbow from earlier, given to Prince William by the Queen.
Prince William waved his hand, and the guard gave over the bow and a pack of arrows to Tang Yan.
Tang Yan took the bow, put it aside and picked up the silver wine gla.s.s in front of him, poured a gla.s.s of red wine into it and handed it to Zhuang Jiajie.
"Stand against the wall back there and hold the cup with one hand on top and one below to support it. When I say when later I want you to let go of the cup!"
"Just move your bottom hand out of the way and let the wine gla.s.s drop, don"t move after that, okay!"
Zhuang Jiajie was shocked but nodded. He wanted to ask what Tang Yan was gonna do but Tang Yan had already got up and took up the bow along with a napkin.
Tang Yan walked to one side of the hall, whilst Zhuang Jiajie went to the other.
Although Zhuang Jiajie didn"t know what Tang Yan was going to do, he still stood with the wine gla.s.s according to Tang Yan"s instructions.
At this time, everyone in the hall, including the Queen and Prince William, had their eyes on Tang Yan. They wanted to see what he was trying to do.
Tang Yan unfolded the napkin then tied it like a bandana around his head.
Then he withdrew two arrows from the arrow pot he was given, to everyone"s confusion.
Tang Yan nocked the two arrows on the bow together and then bent his index finger and his middle finger to control the gap between the two arrows.
Before aiming in the direction of Zhuang Jiajie...
Zhuang Jiajie saw Tang Yan"s move, and his hands began sweating unconsciously. He really didn"t understand what Tang Yan was trying to do but it was already too late now the arrows were facing him.
Tang Yan took a deep breath, adjusted the positions of the arrows down slightly, and then flipped the bow from vertical to horizontal.
Tang Yan then reached up and drew the bandana from atop his forehead to over his eyes and then under the watch of everyone, began to draw the arrows back completing a full draw with the bow.
When Zhuang Jiajie saw that Tang Yan was about to shoot, he swallowed hard and got ready to let go.
Everyone in the dining hall looked to Tang Yan intently and became silent.
Tang Yan then shouted - "Release!"
Zhuang Jiajie already, ready to go, hearing Tang Yan"s cry let go to almost instinctive relief.
Tw.a.n.g!
Swoos.h.!.+
The arrows flew fast.
Everyone only saw the flicker of the arrows.
Boom!
The next second, everyone"s eyes were on the wall behind Zhuang Jiajie, a few meters away.
Zhuang Jiajie"s eyes were full of expression.
Beside him were both the arrows inserted parallel into the wooden wall, and right in the middle of the two arrows was the wine gla.s.s, stuck between them, still filled with wine.
If it weren"t for the still twitching arrows, he would have thought they had just magically appeared there.
Tang Yan had just shot two arrows and caught the wine gla.s.s that Zhuang Jiajie had dropped!
Such judgment, such grasp on time, such guts!
It was incredible!
Incredible!
Amazing!
"This….impossible!" One of the amba.s.sadors mumbled dazed.
"Pap! Pap! Pap!" Prince William stood up and applauded loudly looking at Tang Yan. Apart from excitement, there was even a hint of wors.h.i.+p.
The other n.o.bles and amba.s.sadors also recovered, clapping together and applauding.
Even the Queen had a radiant look on her face. Even she, who had experienced countless things in her life, couldn"t help feeling a shot of adrenaline just from watching.
"That...was incredible!" Earl Louis couldn"t help but sigh with emotion.
But soon, he noticed Campbell glaring at him and he quickly shut up.
"Tang Yan, that was amazing and daring." Prince William praised full of wonder.
"Thank you, your Royal Highness.." Tang Yan said lightly, returning the longbow to the guards as he walked back.
"You"re truly a top tier archer." Prince William nodded with a smile.
Buckingham Palace had a long history. It was built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 before it was purchased by King George III in 1761. The walls were made of stone. But the decorations of later generations included a lot of wooden frames and carvings. The two arrows shot by Tang Yan were shot into a wooden frame against the wall, so that the guards could still easily take care of it.
Prince William turned and began speaking with the Queen whilst the guards worked.
After a while, the guards had finished dealing with the two arrows and picked up the gla.s.s of wine and returned it to Tang Yan.
At this moment, Prince William also stopped communicating with the Queen, then suddenly stood up and looked at Tang Yan and said, "Tang Yan, as a thank you for your outstanding performance today, if you don"t mind, I would like to gift you this bow."