Chapter 7 The Knife

Luo Xingyu followed Gao Yuan into the bedroom, where Gao Yuan took out two knives from his bag, one longer than the other, and laid them both out in front of Luo Xingyu.

"Take this knife."

Luo Xingyu was somewhat surprised as she took the longer knife.

"Draw it out."

Luo Xingyu released the buckle on the leather sheath and drew the knife out.

The blade was bright, and the wooden handle had a beautiful pattern.

Gao Yuan said with a straight face, "The handle is made from stabilized burl birch wood. The blade is 33 centimeters long, 3 centimeters at its widest, and 5 millimeters thick. It's made from Crucible Industries' S30V powder steel, with BOS heat treatment; the Rockwell hardness is 61. It has excellent retention and toughness—it should last you a lifetime."

Luo Xingyu couldn't help saying, "It's so beautiful, and the way you describe it is so professional!"

Gao Yuan sighed and said, "From now on, carry this knife with you no matter what you do. Don't let it be out of reach. Get familiar with it, use it, treat it as an extension of your arm. If you meet a bad person, don't hesitate to stab with the knife. If you face a wild beast, stab it."

Luo Xingyu paused, then nodded and said, "I know, I will."

Gao Yuan continued, "The knife is very sharp, but because it's so sharp, don't hack at something particularly hard with it; it could damage the edge. A knife is the most important tool for survival in the wild, more important than anything else. Treat it well, just as you would treat yourself."

Luo Xingyu turned serious and nodded, "Understood, I will definitely cherish this knife."

"The hardness of burl birch isn't high, so the handle is relatively fragile. Be careful when using it. Also, the handle was shaped based on my hand, so it might be too thick for you. If you find it too thick, I can help you adjust it to fit you best, but I can't change the length; I don't have the right tools for that."

Luo Xingyu looked surprised and said, "When you called on the radio just now, you called yourself a Bladesmith. Did you make this knife?"

Gao Yuan spread his hands and said, "What else? Of course I made the knife. It's actually the first piece I'm really satisfied with. And the steel was expensive; working with heat-treated steel is a pain. It hurt to buy the steel, and it was a headache to make the knife. It breaks my heart to give it to you, so you must treat this knife well."

"Wow, I've just realized how talented you are. That's amazing! Thank you, Brother Yuan."

After expressing her astonishment, Luo Xingyu suddenly said, "May I have a look at the knife you carry yourself?"

Gao Yuan hesitated, clearly reluctant, but he still drew his own knife out.

However, Gao Yuan did not hand the knife to Luo Xingyu.

The knife that Gao Yuan carried didn't look as nice as the one he gave Luo Xingyu.

It had no rust but some black oxidation spots and many signs of use, the leather sheath was full of scars, and the black handle looked quite ordinary.

"This knife is forged from high-carbon steel, using rail steel; actually, from old railroad tracks decades old. I designed and forged it myself and also did the quenching. It's 32 centimeters long, with a Rockwell hardness of about 58. The advantage of high-carbon steel is that it sharpens quickly and easily. This knife is very sharp, but its retention isn't as good as yours. Yours is modern technology, powder steel at best; mine is traditional craftsmanship."

Luo Xingyu asked curiously, "You must have many knives, so why do you use this one?"

Gao Yuan smiled then sheathed his knife and said, "This knife... I've just gotten used to it."

After putting away his own knife, Gao Yuan handed the smaller knife to Luo Xingyu, saying, "This one is bought, a Swedish Mora, stainless steel, with a Scandinavian grind—extremely sharp. It's best for working with wood. Of course, you can also use it to cut meat or peel fruit."

The small knife looked very ordinary—a plastic handle and sheath, and it looked like a fruit knife.

Luo Xingyu drew the small knife out and looked at it, saying, "It's not as good-looking as the one you made."

"It's not pretty, but it's useful. This is a utility knife; you'll use it every day in your daily life. So, carry this knife too, and you'll find it's the one you use most frequently."

Clapping his hands, Gao Yuan said, "It really is a bit hard to part with a knife I've given away. Alright, now I'll give you something else."

Gao Yuan took a waist pack out of his backpack. He held the waist pack in his hands and said, "This is a PSK (personal survival kit) waist pack. It contains means of starting a fire, antihistamines, diarrhea medicine, cold medicine, fever reducer, a small box of water purification tablets, three pieces of chocolate, a whistle, and band-aids. This is the PSK I use daily. You can easily take it on the subway and the bus, so it's not that full, but if you had this kit before, you wouldn't have had to suffer so much recently."

With a look of emotion, Gao Yuan handed the pack to Luo Xingyu, who was surprised to ask, "Do you really carry this pack with you every day?"

"Yes, that's why people think I'm a crazy." Gao Yuan laughed self-deprecatingly.

"You actually look quite handsome when you laugh... Thank you." Luo Xingyu's eyes were already glistening with tears as she whispered, "Thank you, apart from my parents, you're the kindest person I've ever met in this world."

Gao Yuan waved his hand and said, "Don't thank me yet because you'll have a lot more to thank me for later. Save all your thanks until then."

After a moment's thought, Gao Yuan, looking as though he had made up his mind, said, "Follow me, oh, and hang the knives now, the big one on your belt, the small one can hang on the strap of your waist pouch."

Watching Luo Xingyu get her knives sorted out, Gao Yuan then led her out of the house and pointed towards an abandoned pigsty: "Hidden inside there are Type 90 compressed biscuits, sixty-four boxes in total, with four small pieces per box. A person can meet their calorie needs by eating just two small pieces a day. There are also twenty 400-gram cans of beef, from Russia - the beef is not tasty, but it's real and substantial."

Luo Xingyu appeared shocked once again as Gao Yuan pointed to another location and continued, "Behind that broken house, on the cliff wall, behind a slab of green stone is a small cave with fifty cans inside, including both luncheon meat and domestic military rations."

Tugging Luo Xingyu a few steps further, they arrived under a shed behind the house they were staying in. Gao Yuan bent down and moved aside a few pieces of wood, revealing a bicycle underneath.

"This bicycle, it's tied to a large escape bag that contains enough food and water for a week, a tent, a set of clothes, an axe, a long knife, two short knives, a saw, many sources of fire, lots of medicine, two bottles of alcohol, two packs of cigarettes, and two cans of tea in small packages. There's a few dozen boxes of various medicines in total - all these items were bought not long before the disaster struck, so they have a long shelf life,and many things in there can even be used as currency."

Pointing at a backpack hung in front of the bicycle, Gao Yuan said, "Fixed in front is a Bob pack, a spare one, with three days' worth of food and water, a knife, an axe. If you encounter danger and need to flee, and there's no time to take anything or no way to push the bicycle out, this is the pack you grab and run with."

As a dumbfounded Luo Xingyu watched, Gao Yuan covered the bicycle back up with wood and branches, then clapped the dust off his hands and said, "Additionally, among the tools we're using at the moment are a spear, a long-handled axe, a short-handled axe - the one that's hanging on my waist - a folding saw, a trench shovel, and some ropes; um, oh right, we have some more good stuff."

"What!"

"Twenty sets of toothbrushes, small bars of soap, shampoo, and there's also two rolls of toilet paper!" Gao Yuan said, somewhat embarrassedly, "Well, toilet paper is very precious. I'm giving them all to you. Try not to use them normally, save them for your menstruation."

Luo Xingyu stood there staring at Gao Yuan, and then her tears flowed once more.

Today, all Luo Xingyu did was cry.

"Why are you crying again?"

Luo Xingyu sobbed audibly, "You're too good, it's not just about giving me a pat on the back for being a good person, I'm just so moved, and I feel so fortunate now. You must be God's sending to save me," she said as she burst into sobs and suddenly hugged Gao Yuan tightly, resting her head against his chest and weeping loudly.

"Don't cry, don't cry. If you feel so happy, shouldn't you be smiling..."

"I was really starving, I don't know for how long I've had nothing but cabbage and radishes to eat, I was so cold, I really felt like I was going to freeze to death, and I was so scared, I couldn't sleep, I was unable to do anything, I was in despair, I really felt like I was about to die, thank you, thank you for saving me..."

Luo Xingyu's crying left Gao Yuan not knowing where to put his hands.

After hesitating for a moment, Gao Yuan placed his hands on Luo Xingyu's back and gently patted her, saying, "Stop crying, um, don't cry anymore, it will get better from now on."

"I'm really so grateful to you... Thank you, Brother Yuan."

Gao Yuan let out a sigh and said, "Actually, the reason I'm telling you all this is because I'm afraid one day I might die. If that happens and you're still alive, then all these things can still come in handy. You need to know, under the current situation, we could... we could meet an accident at any time."

Luo Xingyu paused for a moment, but then she cried even harder.

Gao Yuan continued to speak softly, "We are survivors of this apocalypse, we are companions, and I can only rely on you. So, of course, I have to give all these things to you. You should understand, to survive, two are much better than one, so you don't need to be too touched, what I'm doing is only what's right."

Luo Xingyu lifted her head, and after embarrassedly wiping off the wet patch she had made on Gao Yuan's chest, she said, "You're such a fool. And hey, even though it's easier to survive with two people, there's no way anyone would be willing to share everything like you do."

Gao Yuan laughed and said, "It depends on the situation. For example, if I met two people, then I would definitely not reveal myself because those two might already be a small group, and two people would always get more if they don't have to share with a third. If I met a man, I wouldn't easily bring him here, nor would I give him everything, because human nature is unpredictable."

After saying this, Gao Yuan patted Luo Xingyu on the shoulder and smiled, "Your brother here is very afraid of dying; I won't just easily trust anyone. I'm telling you this so that you'll be cautious if you ever meet strangers in the future, because in this kind of apocalypse, the deepest goodness in humans will show, but so will the deepest evil."