"Isn't it the same principle?" Yan Aohan said directly. "When you hold the golden needles, you never make mistakes. You can even pierce acupoints through clothes. Why can't you do it with a gun? Just apply the same skill you use for needles."
"That's different," Zhu Yanyi tilted her head and pouted, clearly disagreeing. "The golden needles feel right in my hand no matter how I hold them. But this gun feels wrong no matter what. It must be because it is too heavy."
Yan Aohan was speechless. "You have reached the late stage of hidden strength in your internal energy, yet you say this gun is heavy? It is not a sniper rifle. Where is the weight?" she looked at the ordinary manual pistol in her hand and couldn't see how it could be defined as heavy.
Zhu Yanyi felt a bit embarrassed. She spoke in a negotiating tone, "How about we stop practicing?"
"No," Yan Aohan said firmly. "If you cannot hit the ten-ring, I will have to delay your return to Sicheng Town." she knew her weakness well and looked at her with a half-smile.
Zhu Yanyi took a deep breath and said seriously, "Don't worry. I will definitely hit the ten-ring."
She picked up the pistol, ejected the empty casings, and manually loaded bullets. She kept her shoulders parallel, aimed at the target, and concentrated her mental energy. Actually, Zhu Yanyi was capable of doing it well. She just subconsciously disliked handling guns. She was a contradictory person. In her heart, she admired soldiers, yet she disliked touching guns herself. Perhaps she simply believed that guns were deadly weapons, so she avoided them.
Facing the target, her eyes focused. She aligned the sights in a straight line. Bang! The gun fired.
"Nine point two rings," the observer reported the score.
Yan Aohan nodded and looked at Zhu Yanyi. "So you weren't concentrating your mental energy just now? I saw shots hitting five, four, and three rings. Even Doumiao shot better than you. Now you seem to have regained your focus."
"I just feel afraid of guns," Zhu Yanyi said helplessly. "You said my hands are used to touching golden needles. Touching a gun is completely different. To me, golden needles save lives, but guns are for killing."
"That way of thinking is wrong," Yan Aohan rejected her idea immediately. "Who said guns are for killing? Guns are sometimes used to protect oneself. Without the protection of guns, where would modern China be today? Your golden needles save one person, but this gun has saved all of China."
Zhu Yanyi was stunned. She had always viewed guns as deadly weapons for killing, which is why she disliked them. She had never considered why guns existed.
"The existence of a gun does not lie in the weapon itself, but in who uses it," Yan Aohan said with a smile, looking at Zhu Yanyi. "Ani, there are only two kinds of people who truly use guns: those who overturn the world, and those who protect the world. Do you understand? The weapon is never the culprit. It is the hands that control it."
Yan Aohan knew how she had grown up. She lived in an environment full of love. Even when she encountered terrible people, they were mostly like Zhu Guifu—just petty scoundrels. She had never faced truly terrifying enemies. Therefore, she did not understand how hard-won peace was today.