Chapter 2420 — Winter Outing

Hearing Wei Zhao's tone, You Panhu thought Wei Zhao was trying to hustle him out the door as quickly as possible — and naturally, You Panhu would not let Wei Zhao have his way! After all, there was Kang Jinglong's example to learn from. He had come to approach Han Jingyi in the first place on his family's orders, wanting to see just how good Han Jingyi's alchemy really was, so of course he would not give up so easily.

"I was afraid that after I told you, you wouldn't be able to help and would lose face — and you really don't know what's good for you!" Wei Zhao said.

"Damn it, I already said it — if I can't help, I'll bring my grandfather in, and he'll definitely be able to help!" You Panhu said angrily. "You're not me, so how do you know whether I'd lose face? Besides, with the strength of the You family in alchemy, there's really no help we can't provide!"

You Panhu was so confident because the You family had the Xuandan Sect backing them up. If the You family couldn't manage it, surely the Xuandan Sect could? That was why he had spoken so boldly.

"All right then, since you put it that way, I'll tell you the truth," Wei Zhao said. "Actually, Han Jingyi ruined all the materials you gave her before — she burned them all in her refining. Now she has no materials left to practice alchemy with, so she's quite depressed and can only pretend to refine pills on her tablet! If you want to help her, then get her some more materials for second-grade pills! Of course, materials for third-grade pills would be even better."

"Gah!?" Hearing Wei Zhao's words, You Panhu's jaw dropped in shock, and for a moment he found himself caught between a rock and a hard place! Materials? The materials he had brought out before were already worth no small amount of money, and among them were not a few rarer ones — and now Wei Zhao was actually asking for more, which left You Panhu at something of a loss as to how to handle it!

He had already made his big talk. If he couldn't solve it, couldn't his grandfather? On the matter of materials, You Panhu had no say — but did his grandfather have no say either? The key problem was this: have a say he might, but the You family would take a huge loss over it!

And besides, if Han Jingyi had brought this up herself, then even if You Panhu had to grit his teeth and discuss it with his grandfather, giving the materials would have been giving them — it could at least be counted as currying favor with Han Jingyi and drawing closer to her. But this was Wei Zhao demanding them, and that was a different matter entirely from him voluntarily presenting them to Han Jingyi — which naturally put You Panhu in a difficult spot.

But if he didn't give them, he had already talked big. And if he lost face and left this time, next time he would have no way to come back and cozy up to her again. So You Panhu gritted his teeth and could only put on a brave front: "Materials, is it? We have them! As a family of alchemists, the You family has as many materials as you could want — how many do you need? Fine, I'll go back right now and discuss it with my grandfather, see about getting some materials for Han Jingyi. We alchemists ought to help each other out!"

"Oh, no worries. If you go back and then decide you don't want to give them, I understand. Just brush it off and say your grandfather didn't agree — those materials are quite expensive, and I imagine your family can't afford them anyway," Wei Zhao said mildly.

"!" That had been exactly You Panhu's plan — to go back, think it over for a few days, then bring back one or two lots of materials as a token gesture and say his grandfather had refused and there was nothing he could do, and let the matter drop. But now that Wei Zhao had spoken it aloud, he naturally could not do that anymore, and could only say with some awkwardness, "How could that be? Don't worry, I'll definitely bring back no less material than last time!"

"Oh, then I'll thank you on Han Jingyi's behalf," Wei Zhao said. "Class is starting. Classmate You Panhu, you should go back to class too."

"Ah... class is starting. All right then..." You Panhu was suddenly rather dejected. He hadn't gotten a single word in with Han Jingyi, and had instead dawdled half the day away with Wei Zhao — not only failing to build any connection with Han Jingyi, but losing a whole pile of materials into the bargain first. What rotten luck.

He rose somewhat helplessly and walked back to his seat, and just then Instructor Bai also walked into the classroom.

"Fellow students, I've just received notice from the school. This weekend, our biology department is organizing a winter outing. The location is the natural ski resort in Jidun City, near Donghai City. The department doesn't require every student to take part, but in our major, you all are all the students there are. I hope everyone will go — otherwise our group will be too small, and it just won't be the same." Instructor Bai went straight to the point: "As for the cost, the other majors collect a fixed fee, but our class is different. Everyone can pay whatever they like — no ceiling, no minimum. Those with money can pay more, those without can pay less, and not paying at all is fine too. Whatever's short will be made up from the class fund, and whatever's left over also goes into the class fund."

In doing this, Instructor Bai was in fact trying to get everyone to attend without letting the cost become a hindrance. But anyone who could study in Instructor Bai's class had some influence at home — they were all luminaries of the medical and pharmaceutical world — so a little outing fee was truly nothing to them!

"Ha ha, as your senior fellow student, of course I wholeheartedly answer Teacher Bai's call. I'll put up ten thousand yuan to start — for classmates whose financial circumstances are poor, I'll cover them!" No sooner had Instructor Bai finished speaking than Kang Jinglong declared: "Instructor Bai hopes everyone will take part in the group activity, and we can't let Instructor Bai's kind intentions go to waste!"

There was a reason he jumped up so eagerly to donate. Kang Jinglong had been worrying over how to get close to Wang Xinyan, and now the school had organized a winter outing — how could he not be delighted? He was afraid Wang Xinyan wouldn't go, which was why he deliberately stood up and made that speech — that way, once even the classmates with poor finances were going, what reason would Wang Xinyan have to refuse?

As for how to get close to Wang Xinyan on the outing, Kang Jinglong had not yet had time to think it through in detail — but there would always be a way.

Instructor Bai was rather pleased with Kang Jinglong's gesture. Though he had disapproved somewhat of the harmful medicines that the Kang family's Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Company had put out, Kang Jinglong was, after all, his student, and he did not know that Kang Jinglong actually took part in running the family business — he assumed it was Kang the Divine Physician's doing — so he did not hold much of a grudge against Kang Jinglong.

"Classmate Kang Jinglong has set a good example. But ten thousand yuan is about enough for the whole class's expenses. Since Classmate Kang Jinglong is so generous, then it's settled — no one else needs to pay a cent." Though Instructor Bai bore Kang Jinglong no ill will, he felt that the money in Kang Jinglong's hands was all dirty money the Kang family had raked in, and there was no shame in spending it. Since he was being so openhanded, let him cover all the costs. RQ