The store owner, who loves to complain, surprisingly didn’t say anything bad about Zhang Feng.
Because they’ve been partnering up for over ten years.
Although Zhang Feng is still on a fixed salary without much in bonuses or allowances,
the two are considered friends, at least closer than those classmates.
"Old Zhang is acting strange today too."
Even though they are close, he complains about other things, "He usually works silently every day and is always the first to act. Why did he let me do it alone today?
According to his usual temper, if I wanted to take something apart, he would always say, ’You step aside, it’ll be more trouble if you break it.’"
Meanwhile, in the small supermarket next door.
After buying some high-energy canned meat, Zhang Feng turned his attention to the store next door. Fresh chapters posted on novel·fıre·net
This store sells kitchenware and shares a large room with the small supermarket, with a small aisle between the shelves.
Zhang Feng’s gaze passed through the aisle, staring at a long-bladed kitchen knife for a few seconds.
Its design resembles a broadened single-edged dagger, with a blade about thirty centimeters long, including the handle, nearly forty centimeters, completely meeting the standard for controlled knives.
In Zhang Feng’s view, it’s quite a decent close-range weapon in the area recently.
As for something more advanced, it would be the cars parked by the roadside.
With his car repair skills and some knowledge of circuitry, he can open most of the cars in the world.
"That’s two hundred in total..."
The supermarket owner was quoting a price.
"Okay." Zhang Feng was paying in cash, with an electronic watch showing the year, 15, behind him.
After settling the bill,
Zhang Feng said, "I’ll leave this with you for a bit while I check out the store next door."
"No problem." The owner nodded with a smile; they’re all neighbors.
"Thanks." Zhang Feng took the two cans, eating while going over to the shop next door.
He poured the whole can into his mouth but only opened one.
"Old Zhang?" The kitchenware shop owner saw Zhang Feng approaching and was about to ask something.
Zhang Feng turned back again, eating and moving forward.
"What are you doing?" The kitchenware shop owner was confused.
Zhang Feng pointed to the knife on the shelf and inquired, "Brother Peng, how much for this?"
"It’s not for sale." He refused outright, "It’s custom-made for a client, and they’ve already paid the deposit."
"Let’s be frank." Zhang Feng straightforwardly said, "One thousand, how about it?"
"That’s not how it works." The kitchenware shop owner frowned slightly, getting up, "Old Zhang, don’t joke with me.
Just like when clients park their cars at your place for repairs,
can you sell their car?
That’s not how business works, right?"
"I’m not joking." Zhang Feng quoted another price, "Two thousand, just for this dagger knife."
"What are you doing!" The owner saw Zhang Feng’s insistence and sat back down, "Fine, just give me the deposit and cost. We’re neighbors and have known each other for ten years; let’s not mess things up over this."
He said, rummaging through the receipts and pulling out the customer’s deposit receipt.
The small store used a special red-blue book for invoices; writing one down would print out two copies, red for the customer and blue as a record.
Zhang Feng looked at the slip, a fifty deposit plus five hundred seventy for production.
After all, there’s no production line for this mold at the factory; it’s entirely handcrafted by the master.
But this is cheaper than some manufacturers specializing in custom weapons.
Zhang Feng could tell the customer wasn’t buying a kitchen knife but, on a budget, wanted to make an ideal ’long dagger’.
The most important thing is that this boss and the factory, for the sake of profit, dared to handle controlled knives manufacturing.
Kitchen knives and controlled knives are different.
At least, a kitchen knife blade is generally less than 22 centimeters, with the tip almost 90 degrees.
As Zhang Feng recalled the regulations from his time as a detective, he watched the easy-going boss and felt he was both kind and criminally liable.
"Two thousand it is," Zhang Feng insisted, handing over the money, "I’m tarnishing your reputation; the customer might not come back next time to buy a knife."
"No need." The owner shook his head, "My kitchen knives are top quality, one knife lasts a decade, so if he buys my knife, he won’t return for another ten years.
So it’s a one-off deal.
But we’re neighbors, for heaven’s sake, seeing each other daily, let’s not let an outsider’s fifty deposit affect our relationship."
As he spoke, he was dead set on just taking the cost price, five hundred, considering the fifty deposit his loss.
"I’ll leave the two thousand, and take the knife with me."
Zhang Feng feigned a cold face while putting down the money, and grabbed some newspaper to wrap the knife, otherwise, walking with it on the street would really shock people.
"Don’t rush off!" The owner happily accepted the deal, then pointed to a nearby table with raw peanuts on it, "Take some."
"No, thanks." Zhang Feng actually wanted to chat with these neighbors and experience the life of individual business owners, but time in this world is too short, just 12 hours.
According to the current time, it’s 10:47 AM.
It ends before 11 PM.
’In this world, I went to bed at 11 PM yesterday and got up at 7 AM.’
Zhang Feng was currently calculating whether he’d feel fatigued within the 12-hour window, ’If possible, best to take a one-and-a-half-hour nap.
This way, I won’t experience fatigue in regular mental conditions.
Since I always feel drowsy around 1 PM.
Or buy some mind-clearing medicine, I remember there’s a Chinese medicine shop not far from here.