Chapter 340: An Untitled Chapter

There was a group of teenagers in the training camp. All of them had joined the live-streaming session, so they knew Fu Zhi very well. When they saw her, they all got a little excited, and some of them even wanted to ask her for an autograph.

Ouyang Ya shot daggers at them and hissed, “Have you all finished your training? Are you sure you can win the competition?”

The group of teenagers fell silent.

Fu Zhi was pretty, and many cadets were looking at her out of the corner of their eyes.

Ouyang Ya felt annoyed, so she pointed toward the house. “The field target shooting competition is scheduled at 2:00 p.m, and my eldest brother is going to take part in the competition as well, so why doesn’t President Li stay back and join us? It will be a lot of fun.”

Li Nanli nodded as Ouyang Ya walked beside him.

Meanwhile, Fu Zhi followed them. She seemed rather bored overall, and it was only when she passed by the firearms exhibition hall that she stopped in her tracks.

Her eyes fell on the pile of gun parts in front of the contestants’ table, and she frowned. “Is this the gun you guys will be using for the competition this afternoon?”

The person who replied to her question was a man in his mid-thirties. He seemed well-trained as he straightened his back and replied, his voice thick with pride, “That’s right! This 658 rifle was designed by Ms. Ouyang Ya herself, and it’s rated as the best gun ever made by the Ouyang Family. With its small size, long firing range, and built-in silencer, this gun is capable of firing 12 consecutive rounds, when guns designed overseas can only fire eight rounds. Also, because of its strong performance and lethality, it has always been used as the first choice of other members of the family, and out of the 68 students competing this time, 50 will choose the 658 rifle to increase their probability of winning!”

Fu Zhi was stunned. “You mean this gun was designed by Ouyang Ya herself?”

She remembered that this gun had been designed by her by referring to the notes left by Ouyang Zhui. She’d even incorporated some of Ouyang Zhui’s ideas while designing this rifle.

In order to achieve the goal of firing 12 consecutive rounds, she had even gone overseas to study the concept of air rifles. However, the level of technology at the time had not been as advanced as it was now, and there were many design flaws, not to mention that designing purely for the sake of killing without any regards for the safety of the user was against the original intention of the firearms designer.

Also, since she did not want to work for free for Ouyang Yue’s father, the elder of the Ouyang Family, she decided to stop learning about firearm design and submit all of Ouyang Zhui’s notes, along with her designs, to the relevant state departments. She hoped that the professionals in the department could one day fix the loopholes in her designs and perfect the rifle, but now—

Fu Zhi’s eyes scanned the parts on the table, and other than the newly-added silencer, she did not see any improvement…

The male cadet then held his head high and replied proudly, “That’s right! Ms. Ouyang Ya has designed more than 20 firearms, and other than the 658 rifle, her most famous creations include the 927 sniper rifle and the Silver Fox in the second row of the exhibition room!”

It could be said that these three firearms were what had led Ouyang Ya to her current status in the Ouyang Family.

Fu Zhi looked over in the direction the male cadet was pointing at. On the first row were the creations of Ouyang Zhui. However, out of the three guns displayed on the second row, two had been designed by Fu Zhi, while the last one was the unfinished design of Ouyang Zui, the Silver Fox.

Except for some lesser-known guns that Fu Zhi could not name, none of the three classics had been designed by Ouyang Ya herself.

Well, she did not know about the Silver Fox since she was not the one who had designed it, but she was very certain of the problems of the other two rifles.

She said, “It’s true that the 658 rifle is capable of firing 12 rounds consecutively, but when it reaches the 10th round, several malfunctions, such as unintentional discharge and explosion, may occur. You guys are going to fire at moving targets, as well as at your own people, at the match this afternoon, so I suggest you don’t use this rifle.”

Unintentional discharge and explosion were both serious firearm malfunctions, especially the latter. There were two possible explanations for the explosion. One was that the bullet was lodged in the barrel, while the second was poor manufacturing quality.

However, this was a family that specialized in firearm design, so how was there any chance issues like these would occur?

The few cadets around were so exasperated at Fu Zhi’s rudeness that they laughed.

Ouyang Ya noticed the situation over there and stopped speaking. She doubled back and asked, “What happened? What are all of you laughing at?”

One of the cadets then repeated everything Fu Zhi had said to Ouyang Ya. He was still laughing, and there was a hint of disdain in his eyes. In the end, he asked, “Ms. Ouyang, is she your friend?”

He wanted to tell Ouyang Ya to stop becoming friends with ignorant kids like her, but he did not say it out loud in the end.

Ouyang Ya made a silent gesture to the cadets and then turned to Fu Zhi, her voice confident and firm. “This rifle has been put through round after round of trial and error by the Ouyang Family after I designed it, and there haven’t been any performance issues in the past year. You don’t understand the concept, so I understand your concern. However, a malfunction such as unintentional discharge, which is shown in movies, only happened in ancient times, when firearm technology was still backward. Our technology has improved a lot since then, and this kind of issue will not happen in the Ouyang Family.”

Ouyang Ya was confident that no one in the Ouyang Family could see through the principles behind the firearms that she designed at a glance. After all, ever since the passing of Ouyang Zhui, the Ouyang Family had started to go downhill. That was the reason the Ouyang Family had adopted her, someone who had originally been just a disciple, and she had then been crowned the genius of firearm design.

This was the first time Fu Zhi had come across someone who wanted to work for the Ouyang Family for nothing.

She wondered if she was afraid that she would follow the footsteps of Ouyang Zhui and pass away due to over-exhaustion?

That said, unintentional discharge and explosion were considered serious firearm malfunctions.

Even though Fu Zhi wanted nothing to do with the Ouyang Family, she did not want anyone to die because of that. Therefore, she frowned and said, “658 rifle, chrome-plated barrel, and effective firing range of about 600 meters. On top of the continuous firing, the recoil buffer has been removed to increase the firing speed. As a result, recoil will occur during the firing process. Then, coupled with the heat generated by the friction of continuous firing, the gun is subjected to violent vibration, and if the material is not up to standard, there is a good chance that it will cause problems such as unintentional discharge and explosion.”

Ouyang Ya and the other cadets were stunned.

Everything Fu Zhi had said was true save for her last sentence, but Ouyang Ya thought she was just bluffing about that.

The reason she had gotten so close to Li Nanli was to pave the way for a future business alliance between the two families, as well as to solidify her position in the Ouyang Family. She did not like him very much. However, if Fu Zhi was making a scene here because she was jealous of her closeness to Li Nanli, then Ouyang Ya felt that she should teach her a lesson.

With that thought in mind, Ouyang Ya pulled a long face and replied, “Ms. Fu, even though you did some homework before coming, you should know that telling such lies will only bring you disgrace!”

“Yeah, but I never lie,” Fu Zhi said, grinning from ear to ear.

“Since you’re so confident, I’m sure you won’t say no if I ask you to show everyone how to assemble a gun, right?”