Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
While Yuan Zhou was busy thinking, Master Cheng placed his case to the side as its earlier position was obstructing the traffic slightly.
“Pa da”
Master Cheng unbuttoned the case, revealing six gorgeous knives in it.
The first group of knives Yuan Zhou noticed were the tiny and light shaving knives. The handles of these knives had natural wood textures.
There were three of them and the body of the knives were rather thin with sharp edges. Among them, the Sang Knife was used to cut meats and vegetables, the Pian Knife was used to slice out transparent slices of meat, while the Wenwu Knife was used to open up meat with tiny bones within.
Among them, the Sang Knife was most frequently used. Its handle was sleek and glossy, and it was obvious that this was a handle that was frequently held on.
“Master Yuan, this is the knife I use most often,” Master Cheng pointed at the Sang Knife.
“Um,” Yuan Zhou nodded without saying anything else.
The other knives were two cleavers, comprising of a Bone Knife and a Jiujiang Knife. The final knife was a fusion cleaver, a rather common knife.
The Jiujiang Knife could be used to handle seafoods and meats, thus it was very frequently used as well. The wood handle of this knife looked glossy and sleek as well.
As for the Bone Knife, it was made of pure steel, a heavy and sharp knife. It could even cut a Jinhua Ham into two. However, this was a knife not used often among Master Cheng’s collection.
“Although my knives are not as good as your knives, but they have also been with me for two years. I am already used to using them,” Master Cheng said, an honest and simple smile surfacing on his face.
“Um, but it’s time to sharpen them,” Yuan Zhou said after looking at the edge of the knives.
“Yes, you’re right. It has been quite a while since I sharpened them,” Master Cheng nodded.
“Put them down. We will sharpen them later,” Yuan Zhou told Master Cheng to put the case down.
“Oh, I will sharpen them myself later,” Master Cheng probed.
“No need. Just watch,” Yuan Zhou shook his head.
“Alright,” Master Cheng nodded and said nothing else. With a pair of eyes burning with excitement, he gazed at Yuan Zhou. He was waiting for Yuan Zhou to start. Since he was a loyal fan of Yuan Zhou, he believed that Boss Yuan was capable of everything. Even his sharpening skills should be different than others.
While the two were preparing to start sharpening, the crowd was completely confused by the many variations of knives.
“I thought in Chinese Cuisine, the chefs will only use one knife,” said a man in a white long-sleeved shirt in astonishment.
“Same here. I see that Boss Yuan is using his kitchen knife even while ice sculpting. Why does Master Cheng have so many knives?” the middle-aged woman said.
“In truth, Boss Yuan has many knives as well,” said a woman with a pair of sharp eyes as she pointed at the row of knives arranged beside Yuan Zhou.
“You’re right. I neglected that because I often see Boss Yuan using only the kitchen knife,” said the man in a white shirt with a nod.
Under everyone’s gaze, Yuan Zhou picked up the brush, soaked it, and brushed it twice on the third whetstone.
He was wetting the whetstone in preparation for the sharpening.
Although Yuan Zhou’s sharpening technique wasn’t exactly textbook perfect, his sharpening flowed in a completely natural and smooth manner with no pause whatsoever.
Grinding sounds rang in the air without a stop as Yuan Zhou changed the angle of the knife in his hand without hesitation.
Yuan Zhou would only grind each side of the knife five times before lifting the knife and taking a look at it.
Yuan Zhou had good eyesight and with the enhancement provided by the system, he could even see the minute vein lines on the blade. Each of those lines were where they should be.
Swish! Yuan Zhou switched to another yellow whetstone and continued sharpening.
This time, he only stopped after grinding two additional times. In total, a single knife was ground 14 times. This time, when he lifted the knife to look at it again, his expression was much more relaxed.
Yuan Zhou did not stop. He switched to another whetstone that was ash blue color with a cuboid shape, an extremely exquisite looking whetstone.
Yuan Zhou continued grinding, this time, with much lesser force behind it.
After switching four whetstones, the sharpening for this one knife was finally completed.
“Look at it,” Yuan Zhou passed the knife to Master Cheng.
“Ok,” Master Cheng immediately bowed and accepted the knife. He then started seriously studying it.
This was, in fact, a Sang Knife. Its edge was thin by design. Before Yuan Zhou sharpened it, it already looked extremely sharp. But now, after sharpening, it was not shiny anymore.
“It feels sharper, but not shiny anymore,” Master Cheng remarked.
“Even if it does shine, it will only shine in a straight line from now on. The vein lines are all ground off, only the pure edge is left,” Yuan Zhou said.
When light bounced off objects, the process would be known as reflection. And if the surface was smooth and shiny like a mirror, the light would reflect at the same angle it hits the surface, resulting in a reflection that looked like a straight line.
Subsequently, Yuan Zhou continued grinding all the knives that he often used. Each of them were shown to Master Cheng after grinding. It was obvious Yuan Zhou was teaching him.
In the process, Yuan Zhou maintained an extremely serious look. He was so serious he had forgotten the world around him, and needed Master Cheng to remind him that it was time to prepare for lunch.
The current Yuan Zhou was filled with curiosity on anything related to cooking, wanting to learn everything.
“Master Yuan, I will put these things away. You can prepare the ingredients,” Master Cheng offered.
“It’s fine. Just put your knives away,” Yuan Zhou said as he passed the final knife to Master Cheng.
Then, Yuan Zhou quickly cleaned everything up. He moved in an agile fashion, to the point where Master Cheng had no chance to give him any help.
During the sharpening, Master Cheng had many urges to sharpen the knives himself, but he had not said anything. He knew that Yuan Zhou was a person who would stick to his words. Since Yuan Zhou had said that Master Cheng need not grind the knives, that would be the case.
“Looks like I can only test it out after I go back,” Master Cheng thought inwardly.
That’s right. Master Cheng had learned a lot from watching Yuan Zhou sharpening knives. After all, it was rare for him to get a chance to observe Yuan Zhou working from such a short distance. A one on one lesson like this was even rarer.
In Master Cheng’s eyes, this was considered as a one on one lesson.
During lunchtime, Yuan Zhou first washed all the knives before started cooking.
“Um, they feel better now, but the sense of control is now lost. Looks like I still need to work hard,” Yuan Zhou thought as he compared the difference before and after sharpening.
As usual, Yuan Zhou cooked incredibly well during lunch. After the lunchtime ended, Yuan Zhou reminded Master Cheng to stay behind.
And when all the customers, left, Yuan Zhou started preparing to sharpen knives again.
The time, Yuan Zhou got Master Cheng to take the makeshift signboard out.
That’s right. Now that both their knives were already sharpened, it was time to sharpen the knives of others.
The signboard had just be taken out and there weren’t many pedestrians around. A person could be seen slowly walking over, and after seeing the signboard, he quickly rushed away.
This person was Cao Zhishu, the winner of the second Sichuan Cuisine Exemplary Restaurant appraisal, once a chef at Zhang Guangwu’s private restaurant, and the current head chef at Shu Restaurant that was renowned throughout the nation.
When Cao Zhishu arrived, before he could speak to Yuan Zhou, he saw the signboard.
“Free knife sharpening? Interesting,” thought Cao Zhishu as he turned and left.
