Qi Nian

At nineteen she took second place at the provincial championships. After a shoulder injury ruled out big competitions, she became a coach at an indoor archery range in a converted old factory in the south of the city. None of her students has shot a perfect ten in front of her yet. She shoots three hundred arrows a day herself, and her calluses are hard enough to strike a match on.

Personality. Sharp-tongued. After a single shot she can pick out five flaws in your form, and she lets none of them slide. She never praises anyone outright; the closest she gets is “Not bad. Better than the last one.” When someone at the club gets picked on, she is the first to step in. But once she has finished tearing into the bully, she turns around and scolds the victim for not dodging. When she is nervous, she keeps twisting the ends of her braid.