Chapter 863 — Tricked Again

"Three hundred thousand, Xiaobo—go on, take it. Since your cousin means it as a kindness, there's no reason for you to refuse!" As he spoke, Wei Zhao rose to his feet without further ado and snatched up the cash box sitting in front of Kang Jingming.

Kang Jingming was overjoyed. So Wei Zhao wasn't so bad after all, he thought—the man hadn't come here just to freeload a meal; at the critical moment, he had proven himself enormously useful! The fellow was greedy for money, true, but that was fine—greedy men were exactly what he liked. With a grand old miser like Wei Zhao at Kang Xiaofeng's side, the things he meant to accomplish would go all the more smoothly!

"That's right, Brother Lin speaks the truth—with this much money, there's no reason to refuse!" Kang Jingming chimed in, all smiles. The unspoken second half of his sentence he left unsaid: take a man's money, and you spare him his troubles.

Kang Xiaofeng was struck dumb by Wei Zhao's move. Why was Wei Zhao telling him to take the money? Didn't that amount to handing the formula over to Kang Jingming? He stared at Wei Zhao, alarmed and uncertain, wanting to ask what this was about, yet afraid that some plan of Wei Zhao's would be thrown into disarray if he did.

"Xiaobo, it's only a formula, isn't it? As the company's vice-president, you must have access to these core secrets. When the time comes, just give the formula to your cousin—isn't that simple?" Wei Zhao shot Kang Xiaofeng a look, then went on: "As for the purchasing channels for the raw materials, I'm afraid those won't be so easy to dig up—but we'll do our best!"

"Yes, yes, let's get the formula first and worry about the rest later!" Kang Jingming did not press the point. So long as he got his hands on one thing first, and thus held in his grasp the evidence of Kang Xiaofeng taking a bribe, what information couldn't he have for the asking?

"The formula? Naturally, no problem at all!" Wei Zhao thumped his chest in assurance. "Isn't that right, Xiaobo?"

"That... yes..." Seeing that Wei Zhao had already agreed, what grounds did Kang Xiaofeng have to refuse? Though he had no idea what Wei Zhao was up to, he could only play along.

Kang Jingming had not expected to achieve his aim so easily, and was elated. After dinner, dispensing with further pleasantries with Kang Xiaofeng, he arranged on the spot that once Kang Xiaofeng had secured the formula, he was simply to call him.

Not until they had left the restaurant and Kang Jingming and his party had gone did Kang Xiaofeng, lugging the box of cash, remain utterly bewildered. "Boss, what does this mean? They want the formula—are we really going to give it to them?"

"Ha, of course we're giving it to them. Otherwise they'd have spent three hundred thousand for nothing." Wei Zhao smiled. "But there's no need to steal anything. I'll just write one out for you."

With that, Wei Zhao produced a promotional flyer he had casually picked up at the restaurant, wrote out a formula for Kang Xiaofeng on the blank space on the back, and said: "Here, take it. When the time comes, just call Kang Jingming."

"What? This is a real formula?" Kang Xiaofeng found it hard to believe. He knew a fair bit about Doctor Guan's wound medicine; its ingredients were said to differ from those of Kang the Divine Physician's, not only lowering the cost but even outperforming it. If Wei Zhao handed the formula to Kang Jingming, wasn't that simply handing the profits over to someone else?

"Of course it's a real formula." Wei Zhao nodded, but then smiled. "Only, this formula is the formula for Kang the Divine Physician's wound medicine. Didn't he suspect that you knew their formula too? Well then—perfect. We'll fob them off with this one."

"The formula for Kang the Divine Physician's wound medicine? Boss, how do you have it?" Kang Xiaofeng was taken aback, astonished.

"I've seen Kang the Divine Physician's wound medicine—it should be this old formula. Only many of the ingredients are rare and precious, and the cost too high, so I swapped a few of them out; not only did it save on cost, the efficacy improved as well." Wei Zhao shrugged. "Now I'm merely returning the old formula to them. A formula they already had, sold for three hundred thousand—isn't that a bargain?"

"That is quite the bargain!" Only now did Kang Xiaofeng understand Wei Zhao's intent. "Boss, you're something else—you casually fleeced another three hundred thousand out of Kang Jingming! That really feels good!"

Kang Xiaofeng had harbored a grudge against Kang Jingming for longer than a day or two. Had Wei Zhao not been here today, he could never have sat at the same table with the man. He had been puzzling all along over why Wei Zhao did what he did; only now did he realize that Kang Jingming had been tricked by Wei Zhao yet again.

"I hadn't planned on fleecing him either—I only wanted to tag along and see what new tricks he was up to." Wei Zhao smiled wryly. "But since he brought three hundred thousand to our door, how could we not take it?"

"True enough! I was scared half to death earlier—I thought the formula had been sold off for a mere three hundred thousand, and my heart nearly burst!" Kang Xiaofeng breathed a sigh of relief. "Boss, here, you take the money. I'm going to the shantytown to pick up Xiaofen and bring her to the company with me."

Lately Kang Xiaofeng had been going to the company every day to study under Fat Lai and Fat Lai's friends. Though he had already absorbed a good deal of theory, without practical application it was nothing but empty talk on paper; and so Kang Xiaofeng treasured this chance to learn on the job.

Xiaofen was the same, though her legs made getting about inconvenient, and so naturally she went wherever Kang Xiaofeng went each day. Xiaofen's family home had been torn down, and her mother had rented a place near the new house, waiting for the renovations to be finished so they could move in.

"You keep the money. Get a driver's license, buy a car—otherwise carting Xiaofen around every day won't be easy. And with what's left, buy some appliances for Xiaofen's family?" Three hundred thousand was nothing in Wei Zhao's eyes; naturally he would not lug a box of cash back to school.

"This... how can I accept it?" Kang Xiaofeng was startled. He had never imagined the money could be his. True, Wei Zhao had taken it in his name, but Kang Xiaofeng knew his place and had never set his sights on it—which was why, on the way out, he had proposed returning the money to Wei Zhao. He had never expected Wei Zhao to give it to him.

"What's so hard about accepting? Take it." Wei Zhao patted Kang Xiaofeng on the shoulder and waved off any further protest before it could be voiced.

Wei Zhao was a man who kept clear accounts of kindness and grievance: good to his friends, merciless to his enemies. Even when an enemy had done nothing to provoke him, Wei Zhao would seize the chance to give him a good drubbing. Just now, for instance, Kang Jingming had once again lost three hundred thousand for no reason at all.

Kang Xiaofeng had not been able to do much for Wei Zhao, but Wei Zhao did not mind in the least. Back when Zhong Yongliang had come knocking, Kang Xiaofeng's readiness to stand by him through thick and thin had been enough to make Wei Zhao regard him with new respect. Friendship was not a matter of taking from one another, so Wei Zhao would not grow cold toward Kang Xiaofeng merely because he could be of no help to him now.

"This... all right! Thank you, Boss!" Hearing Wei Zhao's words, Kang Xiaofeng knew the decision had been made. He nodded gratefully and gripped the case firmly in his hands once more...