Chapter 409: Also a Peace Talisman

For some reason, Gu Fei’s heart leaped. Without a second thought, she headed for the door.

But as she neared the entrance, she stopped in her tracks.

’What’s wrong with me? So what if he’s here? Why do I have to come out specifically to see him?’

As she hesitated, Xiao Yu strode in. He stood before her, looking down. "I went to the military camp today."

"Mm," Gu Fei murmured. ’I know you go to the camp every day,’ she thought. ’Why are you telling me this?’

After a moment’s thought, she asked, "Have you eaten?"

"I have. At the camp," Xiao Yu said softly, his gaze fixed on her fluttering eyelashes.

"By the way, don’t worry about what happened yesterday."

"Some people were injured, but Qinglian Academy paid for their medical expenses. I also had someone give them an additional payment."

This was exactly what Gu Fei had been worried about. "I heard someone died?"

Xiao Yu shook his head. "No, but a few were seriously injured."

Gu Fei relaxed. She had always felt that while Xiao Yu could be a bit arrogant and domineering, he wasn’t the kind of young master who would treat human lives as worthless.

After a few moments of pointless small talk, Xiao Yu spoke again. "I have to leave again tomorrow for a while."

"News just came in today. A large band of pirates has landed near Yunzhou. They’re burning, killing, and plundering. They’ve already slaughtered several coastal villages. Now, the pirates are heading toward Yunzhou proper. They might even try to attack the city."

Gu Fei clenched her fists. "Those pirates are despicable!"

"Isn’t there any good way to deal with them? Do we just have to wait for them to kill our people and steal our things before we fight back?"

Xiao Yu looked at Gu Fei’s small, indignant face and smiled faintly. "For now, there’s no other way. These pirates come and go like ghosts. The coastline is so long, there’s no telling where they might land."

"What makes it even harder to defend against is that they collude with local bandits and even some powerful merchants. Right now, all we can do is eliminate as many of them as we can."

Gu Fei suddenly remembered the bulletproof vest and pistol that Xiao Yu had refused last time. She lowered her voice. "Come inside with me. I have something for you."

Xiao Yu’s heart leaped with joy. Having spent years in military camps, he’d long heard that before a campaign, the soldiers’ wives would pray for protective talismans and sew them into their husbands’ clothes. The men loved nothing more than to show them off.

’Is Little Fei going to give me a protective talisman too?’

The two of them entered Gu Fei’s room. "Wait here," Gu Fei said.

She disappeared into the bathing chamber in the back for a moment and came out holding a bulletproof vest and a pistol.

She casually grabbed a piece of cloth and wrapped the vest in it. "This... you must wear it when you go into battle. It has steel plates inside. Swords and spears won’t be able to pierce it easily."

She held the pistol in her hand. "Come on. Let’s find an open area. I’ll teach you how to use this."

Xiao Yu stared at the pistol, the desire in his eyes overwhelmingly strong, but he shook his head. "No. You should keep this for your own protection."

"What if something like yesterday happens again, and I’m not there in time to help? What would you do?"

Gu Fei was taken aback. She knew perfectly well how badly Xiao Yu wanted this. A man of war would have a natural intuition for weapons. She could only imagine the immense boost to combat effectiveness if a weapon with such destructive power could be widely used in the army.

Xiao Yu had always wanted the blueprints, always wanted to find her so-called "master," all so he could mass-produce this weapon.

But Gu Fei had always been reluctant to give it to him. For one, she was afraid of the trouble it would cause. For another, she feared that if this weapon fell into his hands, the world would leap from an age of cold steel straight into an age of firearms.

Casualties would skyrocket, and in an era with such underdeveloped production and medicine, that was not a good thing at all.