Knife Seller

Things had gone even more smoothly than Du Chengfeng had expected.

By Du Chengfeng's original estimate, he and Carpenter Li would at least have to reach the fair, then spend some time searching before they had any chance of running into someone selling weapons steeped in Sha Qi—after all, Carpenter Li had only heard of such people and had never sought one out himself. Of course, finding a vendor in a market was hardly like fishing for a needle in the sea, but without any connections, they would still have to make a few extra rounds.

Yet before they had even reached the fair, the weapons seller had come looking for them.

"You're..."

"Brother Du! Don't buy!"

Before Du Chengfeng could ask the price, Carpenter Li, who had turned back, hurriedly pulled him aside and lowered his voice.

"Everyone selling knives in town is a swindler. Don't buy anything from them, or disaster will follow."

"Swindlers?"

Du Chengfeng froze. He had not expected there to be so many twists and turns behind it.

Fortunately, Carpenter Li saw Du Chengfeng's confusion and simply continued.

It had happened a couple of years ago. Back then, Carpenter Li's axe had broken, and his children had been clamoring for meat. So he drove his cart to the town fair, intending on the one hand to sell some little things he had made, like boxes and stools, to help support the household, and on the other to see whether he could find a handy new axe and pick up a few pounds of pork to take home.

Just as Carpenter Li had sold out of his wooden goods, finished his shopping, and was preparing to head home, someone wrapped in a thick cloak stopped him and immediately tried to sell him a knife.

Faced with someone so furtive and shady, Carpenter Li naturally had no intention of paying attention to him. But the price the man offered was simply too cheap. After turning it over in his mind, Carpenter Li ultimately decided to spend a little money and add another kitchen knife to his home.

Of course, Carpenter Li was no fool. He had seen the faint, dried bloodstains on the blade. But when he asked about them, the knife seller had merely smiled.

"It's normal for it to have a little blood on it. These are pig-slaughtering knives picked up from butcher shops. Why else would I sell them to you so cheaply?"

Carpenter Li thought about it and found that reasonable enough. He tossed the kitchen knife onto his cart and took it home.

The newly bought knife truly was sharp, far sharper than the old kitchen knife at home. It cut meat as easily as tofu, and even slippery fatty pigskin could be sliced through in one stroke. According to Carpenter Li's wife, she had never used such a smooth, handy kitchen knife before. Carpenter Li had really bought a fine thing this time.

His wife was happy, his children had eaten meat, and Carpenter Li's spirits rose considerably. After three rounds of wine, he fell into a blissful sleep.

But who could have expected that trouble would strike that very night?

The children were the first to suffer. The two half-grown boys woke in the middle of the night, shrieking and crying, insisting that someone had entered the house to kill them. Then there was Carpenter Li's wife, curled up in the corner of the bed, trembling so badly she could not speak.

As the pillar holding up the family, Carpenter Li had to summon his courage no matter how frightened he was. But when he ran to the kitchen, intending to grab a kitchen knife to bolster his nerve, he was scared limp as well.

There, atop the stove, the new kitchen knife he had bought that day was dripping blood.

Carpenter Li already fainted at the sight of blood. How could he bear to see something like that? He passed out on the spot, unconscious of the world.

Fortunately, the village was not large to begin with. Carpenter Li's family wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves, setting every dog in the village barking along with them. Even the Yang family within the fort could not sleep peacefully. Thankfully, once everyone grabbed torches and rushed over, they discovered that only Carpenter Li's household was in trouble, not that the Hu barbarians had attacked under cover of night.

"You should never have bought that kitchen knife."

Carpenter Li still remembered Yang Xuan, the man in charge of Yang Family Fort, saying that to him.

"That kitchen knife is a murder weapon. It has killed someone, and who knows what wrongful case it carries on its back. You dared to bring something like that home just because it was cheap? Do you not value your life?"

Only then did Carpenter Li learn that the blood he had seen before had all been fake, and what his family had seen had all been illusions. Put plainly, his whole family had been timid, cowed by the Sha Qi of a weapon that had killed someone. They had frightened themselves so badly that they had nearly died of fright on the spot.

Naturally, Carpenter Li refused to keep such an unlucky thing any longer. Under Yang Xuan's guidance, he found a crooked-necked tree outside the village and buried the kitchen knife beneath it.

As for the money he had lost, Carpenter Li could only grit his teeth and accept it, treating it as the price of a lesson.

"This... really was."

Du Chengfeng could not help nodding. Carpenter Li truly had been unlucky. An ordinary person—especially an ordinary person who was timid and fainted at the sight of blood—really could not face something like the Sha Qi of weapons.

But the matter did not end there.

"After some time passed, I came to Ji Town for the fair again."

Carpenter Li continued, his face extremely ugly.

"Then I ran into that knife seller again. Maybe I hadn't come by for a while and he had forgotten me. He stopped me again, threw open his clothes, and asked whether I wanted to buy a knife... Then guess what happened?"

At this point, Carpenter Li paused.

"The kitchen knife I'd thrown away was hanging inside his clothes."

"Huh?"

Only then did Du Chengfeng understand why Carpenter Li had said he had been tricked.

So this was how the Sha Qi of weapons could be used. Once an ordinary person bought a knife that had killed someone, they would surely throw it away. Then the seller could pick it back up and sell it again, creating a perpetual cycle. Heaven knew what kind of mind could come up with such a damned business. Du Chengfeng's eyes had truly been opened.

"Hey, it's fine. Rest easy, big brother. You know as well as I do that I'm not afraid of Sha Qi from weapons."

Du Chengfeng patted Carpenter Li's hand to reassure him, then turned back toward the knife seller.

Carpenter Li had helped him quite a bit these past days. It was only right for him to help Carpenter Li get some payback for being cheated.

As for whether the knife seller before him was the same one Carpenter Li had met back then, Du Chengfeng did not care. They were all doing a wicked business anyway. There was not much difference.

"You're the one selling knives, right?"

Without waiting for the man before him to speak, Du Chengfeng swept out a hand.

"Bring out however many you have. I'll take them all."

"...Huh?"

The furtive man choked, clearly having never seen a customer make such a grand purchase.

"Th-this... sir, you mean all of them? You want all these knives?"

"I'll take them all. Keep the change."

As he spoke, Du Chengfeng tossed over a silver ingot, startling the knife seller into hurriedly stuffing it inside his clothes.

One did not flaunt one's wealth. Who would not be tempted by such a silver ingot? Naturally, it had to be hidden carefully.

It was at that moment that Du Chengfeng's large hands settled on the knife seller's shoulders.

"Since you don't need to give me change, you should at least throw in some wrapping."

The moment his words fell, the knife seller flew into the air.

The sudden spinning of sky and earth nearly made the knife seller think he was about to be beaten to death on the spot. Heaven knew what kind of savage he had encountered, someone who dared strike openly in the streets of Ji Town under Commander Liu's rule.

But just as the knife seller believed his life was over, he suddenly realized that his feet had landed solidly on the ground.

Only, the outer robe covered in hanging knives had already been taken into the hands of that savage before him.

"Don't look at me like that. One silver ingot for your pile of junk—even with an extra set of clothes thrown in, you're still making a profit."

With that, Du Chengfeng put on the oversized outer robe.

To say nothing of the knives hanging inside it, the robe was so excessively large that it actually fit him rather well.

"May your business prosper. I'm off!"

"Safe travels, sir!"

Though still somewhat at a loss, the knife seller instinctively called out to the retreating figure.

It really was a good deal. That was an entire silver ingot. Besides, he would soon be able to retrieve both his clothes and those knives anyway. There was no way he could lose, inside or out.

Today, fortune had come his way. He was destined to buy two taels of wine and have himself a proper celebration.

Thinking this, the knife seller reached into his clothes.

"Wait a minute? Where's my silver ingot?"

As the cold wind on the street blew against his body, the knife seller finally realized that he was now wearing only a single thin layer of clothing.

The outer robe containing the silver ingot had long since been taken away.

"Hey! Just you wait!"

Left with neither goods nor money, the knife seller stamped his feet in fury.

"I'll remember you! Just you wait! I'm not done with you!"

Thanks to Scissors Beats Rock, Crab-Full King 39, Book Friend 20220903230735693, Wandering Book-Loving Single Dog, Dreaming of Writing Books, and everyone who cast recommendation votes. Your support is the driving force that keeps me moving forward. Thank you all.