Chapter 61: The Shark Knife

From my perspective, this blade possessed a dark, subdued luster and a restrained murderous aura, clearly indicating it was an antique with considerable history. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about antiques and could only analyze its origin and utility from the perspective of a kitchen knife.

In all fairness, however, I had never seen a knife shaped like this in my entire life.

As everyone looked on, the blade was about the size of two palms, roughly rectangular in overall shape. The body was pitch black, with a slightly raised spine radiating immense rigidity. The cutting edge featured a crescent-shaped arc, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that the edge was not a smooth, uniform curve, but rather composed of countless tiny, serrated teeth.

Those numerous small teeth were arranged neatly, definitely not the result of wear and tear. They were interlocked in an orderly fashion like a shark's teeth, concealing a chilling gleam that could make one's heart skip a beat if stared at for too long.

I had truly never seen a knife of this make and style before. From this blade, I could not discern its school of craftsmanship or place of origin.

In fact, I felt... it resembled a weapon much more than a kitchen knife.

Setting aside specialized cutlery, I knew that standard Chinese kitchen knives essentially fell into a few major categories based on their design, such as mulberry leaf knives, bone choppers, and dual-purpose knives. Although they had undergone some variations since ancient times, they all shared the same fundamental roots.

Yet, I could not categorize the design of this "shark knife" at all. Not only could I not name it, but I had never even witnessed such a thing.

Therefore, I could not help but ask my grand-uncle, Zhao Haikun: "Grand-uncle, what kind of knife is this? I've never seen one before!"

Seeing that I was perplexed, Zhao Haikun was about to answer when Lei Ren, who had been standing to the side all along, preempted him.

Seizing the opportunity, Lei Ren put on a disdainful expression and "educated" me: "Indeed, a cook's kitchen knife only comes in a few standard styles, but if you break them down by place of origin, there are numerous renowned time-honored brands and skilled bladesmiths."

With many bladesmiths naturally came many "subspecies."

Among these famous civilian knife brands, there were quite a few prominent names. Restricting the discussion solely to kitchen knives, there were half a dozen or more prestigious, time-honored brands, such as Yinjiang Shibazi’s dual-purpose flat-backed knife, Beijing Daoshun Factory’s laminated-steel black-iron knife, and Wuhan Cao Zhengxing’s three-steel four-mouth knife.

Behind every century-old cutlery house lay a rich heritage of stories and skilled artisans. Because these bladesmiths were living craftsmen, they tended to be very flexible in their craftsmanship, modifying their knife-making techniques to suit regional characteristics and dietary habits.

Through these modifications, they derived many special knife-shaped "subspecies" from the five basic blade designs.

At this point, Lei Ren gave an example: "Take Cao Zhengxing’s 'three-steel four-mouth knife' from Hubei. Initially, it didn't sell well in Wuhan. Left with no choice, the Cao family conducted deep market research to find the root cause."

After investigating, the Cao family discovered that the people of Hubei loved spicy food and soups, maintaining a local lifestyle habit of drinking pork or beef bone soup before and after main meals.

At that time, Cao Zhengxing’s cutlery factory primarily manufactured genuine-edge mulberry leaf knives. These implements were meant for slicing vegetables and were completely incapable of chopping through bones. If one could not chop bones, naturally one could not drink soup, and there could be no talk of sales.

Thus, the Cao family forged a new path. Building upon the standard mulberry leaf knife, they rapidly developed a unique "tapered plate knife" that was thin at the front and thick at the back, suitable for both slicing at the front and chopping at the back.

This knife handled bones with ease while retaining the function of vegetable cutting, making it immensely popular. Leveraging Wuhan's strategic position as a hub of nine provinces, it became famous overnight and was sold far and wide across the country, ultimately establishing the market landscape of the late Qing Dynasty Chinese cutlery market: "Wang Mazi in the North, Cao Zhengxing in the Center, and Zhang Xiaoquan in the South."

Having finished, Lei Ren did not forget to "criticize" me: "You young people are too shallow in your experience. You need to study more!"

To be honest, no one had asked him for such a lengthy lecture; I merely wanted to know the origin of the Zhao family's imperial kitchen knife, yet he went off on such a tangent. It felt somewhat like an attempt to put me down.

Therefore, I impatiently told him: "I have a slight understanding of all those things you mentioned. Actually, you just need to tell me why this knife is so bizarre and shaped like a shark."

"Hehe! Isn't that simple?～" Lei Ren said complacently, spelling it out word by word: "This knife serves another dual purpose—that is, killing people!"

"Killing people?" Everyone gasped in shock!

"Killing people!" Zhao Haikun nodded slightly and said: "This kitchen knife is called a 'shark-head saw.' It was military marching cookware used in ancient armies."

Following that, Zhao Haikun revealed the mystery behind this "shark knife."

As it turned out, the world was unstable in ancient times, and marching to war, rebellions, and uprisings were everyday occurrences. Against that backdrop, almost every cook kept a knife by their side at all times. A knife could be used for self-defense or to make a living. Most importantly—aside from the abnormal Yuan Dynasty—kitchen knives were not controlled weapons, so carrying one would not invite trouble.

However, for cooks within the military, a kitchen knife was not quite so simple.

In the army, kitchen knives also served a self-defense function. Furthermore, because kitchen knives were short and compact, they could easily be concealed by malicious individuals to assassinate commanders. Consequently, the "regulation" over them was actually stricter than that of standard long weapons.

By the Ming Dynasty, this management had even developed into an institutionalized system: a specific knife for a specific person, a specific person for a specific knife, complete with serial numbers. The cook could not leave the knife's side or lend it out, and losing the knife was punishable by flogging. If someone used a lost kitchen knife to commit murder, the military cook would be implicated with the exact same crime.

Moreover, the culinary conditions in the army were far worse than those among the civilian population, so kitchen knives frequently emphasized "multi-functionality." Aside from cooking meals, military cooks frequently used them to chop firewood, clear paths, build bridges, and, in times of emergency, take them out to slash at enemies and kill.

For this reason, the kitchen knives of cooks back then frequently suffered from broken blades and chipped edges. Over time, they synthesized their experiences and had military blacksmiths forge this kind of "shark knife," which could be used for killing and featured a blade half-resembling a saw. People of that era called it a "shark-head saw."

Also because this kitchen knife possessed the dual functions of a weapon, Zhao Qingshan—who had shaken southern Shandong with his might back then—used it as a weapon, wielding it with sheer brute force like an axe to cleave boats, slaughter demons, and repel evil.

Through Zhao Haikun's explanation, my doubts about this knife were suddenly illuminated.

Unconsciously, viewing it with a chef's discerning eye, I inspected the knife all over again.

At this moment, the knife was in Zhao Haikun's hands. He tossed it over to Lei Ren with a flick of his wrist and sneered, "If you want to look at it, look quickly. Once you're done, get lost immediately!"

Faced with Zhao Haikun's cold hostility, Lei Ren appeared exceptionally enthusiastic.

He nodded with a beaming smile, received the Zhao family's precious blade with both hands, and then pulled a magnifying glass from his pocket to examine the spine of the shark knife.

His actions were extremely professional, resembling a genuine antique expert. This sparked our intense curiosity.

What on earth was this fellow looking at? Was there something special about the knife's spine?