Besides admiration, what Du Chengfeng experienced the most was pig slaughter, which was another reason he found Fatty Yang impressive.
As the blade in hand, Du Chengfeng had firsthand experience of every pig slaughtering session with Fatty Yang. Although Fatty Yang's knife-wielding moves were exaggerated, as the large knife, Du Chengfeng could feel that Fatty Yang was not slashing aimlessly.
Every time a pig was slaughtered, the blade would easily slice through the pig's neck, the sharp edge sliding into the gaps in the bones, and then the thick body of the knife would push open the wound and enlarge the cut, making the pig's head fall with ease. Even when Fatty Yang was not at his best and missed the bone gap, this forward-weighted large knife would still use its heft to crack open the pig's neck bone, allowing Fatty Yang to complete his performance.
In a certain sense, Fatty Yang wasn't boasting; at least when it came to slaughtering pigs, he had his methods.
As the blade in hand, Du Chengfeng naturally learned this set of knife techniques through the constant rise and fall of the blade.
As the saying goes, in ancient times, there was Butcher Ding dissecting an ox, and practice makes perfect. Du Chengfeng straightforwardly named this knife technique "Butcher Ding Pig Slaughter," matching the identity that Fatty Yang boasted about.
However, after becoming a well-known butcher, Fatty Yang slaughtered pigs himself less and less. More often, he had the butchers he hired handle the pig slaughtering, except for occasions where he had to show off his skills. Fatty Yang preferred staying home to accompany his wife and children.
Like Du Chengfeng, it was clear that Fatty Yang wasn't someone with grand ambitions. As long as he was worry-free about food and drinks, had a place to stay, and had family by his side, those were already the best days for him.
However, the good times didn't last long, and Fatty Yang eventually faced disaster.
A rumor spread, and Fatty Yang's craftsmanship reached the ears of the Jizhou Governor. The governor, always up to something, specially sent someone to find Fatty Yang, asking him to kill a pig for display. Fatty Yang, though he seldom slaughtered pigs by then, had no choice but to accept the governor's invitation, so he brought his knife ready to slaughter the pig and return after exchanging a few pleasantries.
Who would've thought, that this time alone, his knife failed to kill the pig.
As the large knife, Du Chengfeng felt it most distinctly. Although Fatty Yang's moves were as smooth as ever, the large knife didn't cut into the bone gap but instead got stuck on the hard neck bone—this wasn't because of Fatty Yang's lack of skill but because this pig's neck bone was peculiar from the start. In other words, the pig was problematic.
The knife-wielding Fatty Yang obviously realized this too, but it was too late. The hurt live pig broke free from the ropes and ran wildly, causing chaos throughout the Inspectorate, with the Jizhou Governor himself knocked over by the pig.
So, that very night, Fatty Yang was imprisoned on the charge of "attempted assassination," and all the wealth he accumulated over the years was completely seized, his wife and children driven to death, and as a large knife, Du Chengfeng was also sealed in a storeroom as evidence.
Clearly, this invitation was a trap from the start. Only the competitors, who lost their business, could know to target the live pig that was to be slaughtered. But apart from Fatty Yang, only Du Chengfeng, as the large knife, could realize this.
What's it like to be a knife?
If it were when freshly forged, Du Chengfeng might have said it was painful, but after those pig slaughtering days, he felt sharpness more and more. Yet now, sealed in the storeroom, he realized that as a knife, the feeling was perhaps more of loneliness.
The old storeroom wasn't cleaned often, and as a large knife, Du Chengfeng couldn't grow arms or legs. He could only lie on the shelf, watching the alternating cold moon and warm sun fall upon him. Occasionally, sparrows would rest on the window lattice, perhaps the most joyful times, even their noisy chirping would ease Du Chengfeng a little, but more often, the storeroom remained silent; no one came, and no one glanced at him.
In boredom, Du Chengfeng could only ponder over Fatty Yang's Butcher Ding Pig Slaughter. Although he had no hands or feet, he could still keep thinking in his mind, simulating that slash over and over again.
Thankfully, such days didn't last too long. Just as Du Chengfeng, restless day and night, had slaughtered over ten thousand pigs in his mind, the storeroom door opened.
To Du Chengfeng's surprise, who pushed the door open was actually Fatty Yang, but by now, Fatty Yang no longer had his former amiable appearance, instead resembling a fiendish demon descended upon the world.
"Knife, my knife..."
While muttering to himself, Fatty Yang grasped the knife handle.
This time, the knife wasn't used to slaughter pigs, but people. Throughout the Inspectorate, Fatty Yang, now appearing insane, killed every single person with one sweep of the knife.
In a certain sense, this was also Du Chengfeng's first time killing humans.
If he were still human, perhaps he might still have some compassion or hesitancy seeing those of his kind suffer, but now, he was a knife, a sharp knife. He suddenly realized that he instinctively craved blood, or rather, the sensation of roaming through flesh and blood. That's a knife's greatest function, and also its most glorious moment. At the moment of piercing through flesh, Du Chengfeng had never felt such exhilaration.