Chapter 571 — Divine Physician Kang Nearly Kicks the Bucket

The rest of the Kang family found this reasoning sound, so with great urgency they stewed up the dog meat. The dog had been a hefty beast, and it took the entire family the whole evening to demolish every last morsel!

Everyone wanted to extend their lives. Divine Physician Kang was ensured the largest share, but the others all scrambled to shovel it down as well. By the end, they were forcing it past their lips with clenched teeth, all of them waiting for a miracle to be born.

Their thinking was sound enough; the actual outcome was pathetic. The next day, beyond the fact that everyone had overeaten and produced more excrement than usual, not a shred of effect materialized. They had eaten all that dog meat for nothing.

Divine Physician Kang's heart was bleeding. What an ill-fated stretch this was—had the Kang family's luck not gone bad enough already? His heart truly bled. That fortune of over four hundred million had been scraped together over years of grinding toil, and now it had simply evaporated!

"Grandfather, since the dog ate the Longevity and Detoxification Pill, it surely couldn't have digested it completely, right? There might still be remnants of the pill in the dog's droppings. How about I try eating some of the dung?" Kang Jingming's mind was quick to adapt. With the dog meat proving useless, he had turned his attention to the feces.

"Well..." Divine Physician Kang listened to Kang Jingming and found the idea had some merit. There really could be undigested remnants of the Longevity and Detoxification Pill in that dung! If Kang Jingming went ahead and ate it, he might just score another windfall—who knew!

So Divine Physician Kang gritted his teeth and declared, "I'll eat this one. You already had your turn last time. This time, let me have a go!"

There wasn't much dung to go around, and everyone was eyeing it covetously. But with Divine Physician Kang having spoken, the Kang descendants had no choice but to yield this precious, solo opportunity to the old man himself.

This particular batch of dung was far more foul than usual. But for the sake of longevity, Divine Physician Kang had to steel himself and eat it. He nearly suffocated outright from the stench—if he hadn't bitten down and pressed on, he would surely have vomited it back up.

But this time, Divine Physician Kang was disappointed once more. More than disappointed—he very nearly forfeited his old life!

Once the dung went down, vomiting and diarrhea certainly followed. But there was no detoxification. After two or three days of writhing agony, Divine Physician Kang was on the verge of dehydration. The Kang family realized they couldn't let this continue and rushed the old man to the hospital. The diagnosis: food poisoning...

The doctor remarked that if they had waited even two more days, the old fellow would have been done for.

The Kang family were baffled at first—how could eating a bit of dog dung cause poisoning? But when Divine Physician Kang came to, a single sentence jolted everyone awake from their bewilderment. The pill was called the Longevity and Detoxification Pill—it was meant to expel toxins! All he had eaten was the very waste the dog had excreted. Was it any wonder he was poisoned?

After exhausting every trick in the book, the Kang family's great enterprise ended with Divine Physician Kang nearly losing his life. Summoning a family meeting from his hospital bed, he decreed that this entire affair was to be classified as the Kang family's number one secret—no one was ever to speak of it again!

The reason was obvious: it was simply too humiliating. If this ever came to light, the Kang family would truly be finished!

For now, they would just have to execute Kang Jingming's seduction plan in earnest. Going after Guan Xin was the pragmatic move—if they could get the formula for the Longevity and Detoxification Pill out of her, the Kang family could weather this crisis.

Wei Zhao watched the eyes of Zhong Yongliang as he lay in the hospital bed—calm, yet shadowed—and sensed something was amiss, though he could not figure out what Zhong Yongliang intended to do. By instinct, Wei Zhao suspected that Zhong Yongliang would seek revenge; he simply could not tell whether the target would be the Gu family or An Liwen.

On the ride back to school, Wei Zhao sat beside Kang Xiaofeng. Kang Xiaofeng made no effort to hide his glee—that little bastard Zhong Yongliang had finally gotten his comeuppance. A kidney carved out of him! Let's see how much he could still bounce around now.

"What exactly happened with Tang Zhi? Why didn't she come to school today? Do you have Xiao Fen's family's number? Give them a call and ask," Wei Zhao said, a touch worried. He hadn't seen Tang Zhi for days and found himself oddly missing her—and he still couldn't understand why she was avoiding him. Was there some misunderstanding?

"Oh, today? The shantytown is being demolished. They said surveyors came to discuss compensation, and every household has to leave someone home. Liu Xinlan asked for a leave of absence; Tang Zhi is probably at home too," Kang Xiaofeng replied.

"I see." Wei Zhao nodded. Tang Zhi's mother had mentioned this to him before, and they had already agreed that after the demolition, he would chip in some money for a storefront unit. Hearing Kang Xiaofeng's explanation, Wei Zhao relaxed. As long as Tang Zhi was safely at home, everything was probably fine.

"Boss, let me tell you something. Yesterday, Zou Ruoming's old man showed up at my house..." Kang Xiaofeng recounted everything that had happened at the teahouse, especially the look of terror on the Zou father and son's faces the moment they heard Wei Zhao's name. It had left Kang Buzzing on cloud nine.

Wei Zhao listened and offered only a faint smile. Making small-timers like that tremble in fear was hardly a source of satisfaction for him. Only Kang Xiaofeng could get so worked up over such a thing.

Today was a momentous day for the shantytown, for a development company was coming to redevelop the area. It was, in fact, good news. The residents had long dreamed of moving into proper apartment buildings—and naturally, they all hoped for a generous compensation payout as well!

This wasn't the first time a development company had eyed the shantytown, but each time it had fizzled out due to prohibitive costs. Compensation and resettlement for the displaced residents fell squarely on the developer's shoulders. But the shantytown was not like a typical old-town renovation project. The houses were ramshackle, true, but due to historical reasons, each family's plot of land was considerable in size.

Every household, apart from its dwelling, also owned a bicycle shed, a storehouse, and a thatched outbuilding—all of them bearing property certificates and all of them, upon demolition, to be compensated by floor area. Tally it all up, and each family besides its residence held several hundred square meters of sheds, warehouses, and the like. What would the demolition of all that cost?

The compensation for a single household might not be contained within three or five residences. Given this situation, what development company would dare undertake the project? Was this not a money-losing proposition?

Yet there was no help for it. The shantytown's predicament had its historical roots: this place had originally been farmland, later converted to a township. It was not until the close of the year 2000 that it finally bordered the city proper, and only over the following decade or so did it gradually grow into part of the urban core.

In the days when land was cheap, no development company had given this area a second glance. But later, when nearby infrastructure came into its own and property prices climbed, the place had become too expensive to demolish.