Chapter 2396 — Divine Physician Kang's Analysis

"Over here—well, I absolutely refuse to agree to it!" Xiao Ben said. "I sternly rejected my sister's proposal. This is a major matter our two families agreed upon long ago—how can it be changed just like that? Brother Kang, the thing is, I was actually trying to be helpful in reminding my nephew Zhaolong. If his wife gets snatched away by someone else, it's the Kang family's face that gets dragged through the mud! What is the Kang family's status? You're the spokesmen for the hidden You family!"

"Quite right. This absolutely must not happen! The Kang family cannot afford that shame! If the daughter-in-law we've settled on gets taken from us, how will the Kang family ever hold its head up again?" Kang Guifeng said, seething with righteous indignation. "That said, Brother Xiao, your words are a bit off—the Kang family is no longer the spokesman for the hidden You family."

"Eh? Not anymore?" Xiao Ben was stunned. He did not quite grasp what Kang Guifeng meant. Had the Kang family fallen out with the hidden You family?

"Our Kang family's Kang Jingming has been taken as the final disciple of the Fifth Elder of the Xuandan Sect, and is destined to be one of its future elders!" Kang Guifeng said proudly. "So in the future, the Kang family may well become a hidden family. At present, our relationship with the You family is much the same—both of us answer to the Xuandan Sect…"

"Gah!" Hearing Kang Guifeng's words, Xiao Ben's eyes flew wide open. He had never imagined that the Kang family's Kang Jingming could be so extraordinary—taken as the final disciple of the Xuandan Sect's Fifth Elder? And a future elder of the Xuandan Sect? This was simply incredible!

Yet when Xiao Ben came back to his senses, he did not for a moment suspect Kang Guifeng of lying—after all, who would dare joke about such a thing? At this thought, Xiao Ben grew excited. He had been clever after all, refusing to yield to Wei Zhao. Otherwise, the Xiao family would have been finished for good!

What a force the Xuandan Sect was! Among the ancient sects, it was a major power in its own right; wiping out the Xiao family would take them all of a minute. He had truly bet right this time. By following the Kang family from now on, he need not worry about failing to rise to wealth and honor!

"Congratulations, Brother Kang! In the future I'll have to call you the young head of the hidden Kang family!" Xiao Ben said at once, fawning. "Young Master Kang, from now on the Xiao family will follow your lead. Whatever odd jobs need doing, please don't forget us!"

"Surely, surely!" Kang Guifeng said, somewhat puffed up with pride. "By the way, first tell me—what exactly is going on with Wang Xinyan?"

"Wang Xinyan… right, the man she likes is your Kang family's sworn enemy!" Xiao Ben said, grinding his teeth. "That man is Wei Zhao! With anyone else, this could still be endured, but Wei Zhao—absolutely not, you hear? Your Kang family's company went bankrupt because of Wei Zhao, you hear? You're now the spokesmen of an ancient sect, a future hidden family—how can you let a little punk push you around, you hear? In the past we didn't dare provoke Wei Zhao, but now our backing is Kang Jingming, Kang Jinglong's own elder brother, you hear? Could Kang Jingming stand by and watch his sister-in-law be taken from him? Never, absolutely never, you hear?"

"Wei Zhao…" Kang Guifeng spat the two words out through clenched teeth. "My Kang family has a hatred with you that nothing short of death can settle. Brother Xiao, rest assured—the Kang family will see this through to the end! If we can't win the bun, we'll win our pride; the Kang family must have its face back!"

"Exactly—this is a slap in the face, plain and simple!" Xiao Ben said. "The key point is that Wei Zhao is in the wrong here. This can't be let go!"

"Mm, I understand. But on your side, you ought to rein in your Wang Xinyan. She's engaged to be married—she should conduct herself with some decency!" Kang Guifeng said.

"Naturally, I understand that!" Xiao Ben nodded. "Don't worry, Brother Kang!"

Kang Guifeng hung up the phone and recounted what Xiao Ben had said to Divine Physician Kang, Kang Cuipu, and Kang Jinglong. Kang Jinglong and Kang Cuipu were quite agitated; they felt this absolutely could not be let go—it was a slap in the face, and they had to win back their pride.

"Father, this can't be let go! Wei Zhao bullied us before, and we had no backing, so we let it pass. But now we have powerful backing—are we still to let him bully us?" Kang Jinglong had long since regarded Wang Xinyan as his private property. When Wei Zhao had sabotaged the Divine Physician Kang Pharmaceutical Company, Kang Jinglong had already been stewing in resentment; now that Wei Zhao had taken his woman, even he—cunning and deep as he was—could no longer quite hold himself back.

Yet Divine Physician Kang's expression remained utterly placid. He waved a hand at the hopping-mad Kang Jinglong and said, "Zhaolong, don't lose your temper yet. There's no telling what good intentions the Xiao family really has in this matter!"

Snobbish as Divine Physician Kang was, he was also a crafty and sinister man, and so he had at once caught a certain whiff of something in Xiao Ben's phone call. For the Xiao family to call at this juncture, their intentions might not be kindly at all.

"Oh? Father, what do you mean?" Kang Guifeng asked, slightly taken aback.

"The Xiao family is really trying to maximize its own interests. If Wang Xinyan goes to Wei Zhao, it does the Xiao family no good at all!" Divine Physician Kang said. "The Xiao family and Wei Zhao are also mortal enemies, with little chance of reconciliation. So if Wang Xinyan goes to Wei Zhao, the relationship between the Xiao family and ours will rupture—for them, the harm outweighs the benefit. But they don't quite dare provoke Wei Zhao either, so they kick this ball to us and then work you up over the phone, so that our Kang family will lock horns with Wei Zhao…"

"This…" Hearing Divine Physician Kang's analysis, Kang Guifeng finally grasped some of the issues at play. "Then shouldn't we sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight—stay out of it?"

"Of course not. Wang Xinyan is, after all, the wife our Kang family has settled on. If she's snatched away by Wei Zhao at this point, the loss of face for the Kang family would drag Zhaoming's name through the mud, and the hidden You family would mock us as well!" Divine Physician Kang waved a hand. "As things stand, the Kang family's face is of the utmost importance! If any unfavorable rumors get out and reach the Xuandan Sect, they could very well block our path to becoming a hidden family!"

"Then Father means we should go head-to-head with Wei Zhao? But our current strength doesn't allow for that…" Kang Guifeng asked cautiously.

"Head-to-head is naturally out of the question. Setting aside whether we have the strength for it, even if we did, for the time being we must still keep a low profile!" Divine Physician Kang said, waving a hand.