Sculpting

What Chef Liu had said just now gave Zhou An some ideas.

If his proficiency was not increasing, the problem definitely lay with himself.

Now that Chef Liu had said this, he suddenly found the root of the problem.

When he chopped vegetables, he seemed to have always followed the original method, never changing it.

According to Chef Liu, chopping vegetables was far more than simply chopping.

If he changed the way he chopped, would his proficiency increase?

With that thought, Zhou An voiced his doubts.

"Old Liu, how do you think I should improve my vegetable-chopping skills?"

Though Old Liu was already around sixty, his cooking skills were anything but ordinary.

And he was astonishingly strong. He could wield an iron wok specially made for cooking huge batches with incredible ease.

Chef Liu asked, "Are you really planning to make a living at this?"

"These days, having another skill means having another way to survive. If I ever stop doing this, I can still make a living as a chef," Zhou An said.

Chef Liu thought it over. That was true enough.

In the entire yamen, Zhou An was the only kitchen helper.

Now that Zhou An had run into trouble, Chef Liu felt that he ought to help.

If he did not, and Zhou An no longer wanted to do the work, Chef Liu would be too busy to handle everything himself.

"As for chopping vegetables, there aren't that many useful techniques. Generally, there's straight chopping, push chopping, pull chopping, sawing cuts, guillotine cuts, and rolling cuts. You've always used straight chopping, but you can learn the others."

Chef Liu took the kitchen knife from Zhou An and demonstrated every cutting method.

As he did so, he explained the essentials of each technique.

Zhou An listened attentively beside him.

But after he finished listening, a strange expression appeared on his face.

He took the knife and followed what Chef Liu had just taught him, trying every cutting method once.

His proficiency still did not budge.

This method would not work.

Chef Liu was surprised as well.

"This kid has a solid foundation!"

Zhou An had handled every basic Knife Skills technique with effortless ease.

Talent!

It had to be talent!

Seeing Zhou An's unimpressed expression, Chef Liu said, "Still not satisfied?"

Zhou An did not hide it and spoke bluntly. "It's not very interesting. There's still no improvement."

Chef Liu's face darkened.

This kid was really arrogant, though he had the ability to back it up.

"Take this."

Chef Liu found a piece of wood in the corner of the kitchen and tossed it before Zhou An.

It was ordinary firewood, piled in the corner when not in use and taken whenever needed.

Zhou An picked up the wood and asked strangely, "What are you giving me this for?"

"Didn't you want to practice Knife Skills? Carve this. Once you can carve it so realistically that it looks genuine, you can practice something else." Chef Liu casually took out a stalk of bok choy and placed it on the table.

Zhou An raised an eyebrow.

"I heard some people carve tofu. You're giving me a chunk of wood?"

He had heard of this before. It seemed that chefs at the restaurants in An Ding County had mentioned it.

With exquisite knife work, one could carve flowers from tofu.

Chef Liu smiled. "Start by carving something hard. Once you've mastered that, take it one step at a time."

Since his proficiency had not increased anyway, Zhou An figured he might as well give it another try.

With that thought, he picked up the kitchen knife.

Chef Liu shook his head. "Not that one. Use the knife at your waist."

Zhou An froze.

He wore a long blade at his waist, but using it for carving would make things far more difficult.

"Handle weight as though it were light, and control it freely. When you can use the long blade at your waist to carve something that looks real enough to pass for the genuine article, using any other knife will be effortless," Chef Liu said.

Zhou An drew the long blade at his waist and gave it a try, only to find it especially unwieldy.

Asking him to go outside and chop someone down would be easy, but carving a piece of wood no larger than his palm sent the difficulty soaring.

The long blade was especially too long. If he wanted to carve wood with it, he had to be extremely careful.

Zhou An tried scratching the wood with his blade. He used too much force, and a crack appeared in the wood.

His Butchering Ox Technique had gained one point of Precision, allowing him to control his blade freely, but that was when it came to cutting people down.

For carving, that extra point of precision in his Knife Skills was not quite enough.

Yet after he tried carving a few strokes, the words before his eyes changed.

Butchering Ox Technique (Speed +2, Precision +1): 4/40000

His proficiency had increased!

Zhou An kept his expression calm, but inwardly, he was overjoyed.

His guess had been correct after all.

The reason his proficiency had not increased was because he had not challenged a new level of difficulty.

Now it seemed that he had made the right choice.

With that thought, Zhou An said nothing and continued carefully carving the wood.

That stalk of bok choy had already been etched into his mind, and he did not need to look at it.

Instead, he continuously refined the carving according to his memories.

His proficiency was rising, and it was rising quite well.

With that motivation, Zhou An focused even more intently.

Chef Liu watched from the side the whole time and discovered that Zhou An was exceptionally serious when he concentrated.

"Is this kid really interested in Knife Skills?"

He had only been joking earlier, intending to make Zhou An back down in the face of difficulty. He had not expected Zhou An to take it seriously.

He did not make a sound to disturb him and simply waited patiently.

About half a shichen later, Zhou An finally sheathed his blade.

His right hand trembled slightly. It was not from exhaustion, but a side effect of intense concentration.

"Phew..."

Zhou An let out a long breath. As the flow of energy circulated within him, the trembling in his right hand subsided.

Before him was a stalk of bok choy carved from wood.

But the wooden bok choy did not look very good.

Wood shavings were scattered everywhere. There were several cracks, and a few parts were misshapen.

"Not bad." Chef Liu praised him sincerely. "For your first time carving wood with a long blade, being able to carve it like this is already quite good."

"Old Liu, if your expression weren't so sincere, I'd have thought you were mocking me," Zhou An said.

In that half a shichen just now, his proficiency had increased by over a hundred points. That was good news for Zhou An.

"Alright, the vegetables are all chopped. Keep carving for now. I'm going to cook."

It was nearly time for lunch, so Chef Liu stopped chatting and went to the stove to prepare the meal.

There was nothing for Zhou An to do with the cooking. He took another piece of wood and continued carving with his long blade.

This carving session lasted until noon.

After lunch, Zhou An did not idle around either.

As usual, Head Constable Xie came by to teach blade techniques for a while before dismissing everyone.

Zhou An took several pieces of wood from the kitchen, carried them back to his room, and carefully carved them with his long blade.

Naturally, this drew curious looks, but once Zhou An said he was practicing Knife Skills, everyone lost interest and said no more.

Yu Hang had been absent the whole time. He only came in shortly before the end of the shift.

Zhou An glanced over and noticed that Yu Hang's expression was somewhat ugly.

Yu Hang walked up to Zhou An and said in a low voice, "Old Zhou, keep a lower profile lately. Division Magistrate Zhang is investigating the mysterious expert."