Chapter 382 — Go Phone and Ask
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
The same held true for host and guest alike—Kang the Divine Doctor had never once shown Kang Xiaofeng's parents a kind face. Kang Xiaofeng's parents were helpless about it too. Though the scene Kang Xiaofeng had kicked up earlier had been loud enough, they knew in their hearts that it was not really his fault.
Kang Xiaofeng had brought his second granduncle a grand gift, a precious pill. It was meant kindly, but Kang Jingming would have none of it and callously crushed the pill underfoot—and when Kang the Divine Doctor saw it, he did not so much as stop him. That told them everything.
It told them that in Kang the Divine Doctor's heart there was a vast gulf between Kang Jingming, his own grandson, and Kang Xiaofeng, merely a cousin's grandson. However outrageous Kang Jingming's conduct, he was still his grandson, and he could forgive him. But Kang Xiaofeng had done nothing wrong at all—he had only harbored a little doubt that Kang Xiaofeng had brought a fake pill to undercut his reputation as a divine doctor—and yet he had let Kang Jingming carry out such an insolent act.
Even if a few of Kang Jingming's later remarks had been somewhat over the line, they were excusable. Boys will be boys—there is no boy who does not get into fights. So Kang Xiaofeng's parents understood, and what gladdened them more was that Kang Xiaofeng's good friend seemed a formidable figure: so many great personages knew him and treated him warmly, and with such a man at his side, Kang Xiaofeng could surely never come to harm.
So although Kang Xiaofeng's parents had been given cold looks and indifference by Kang the Divine Doctor's family, they still took some comfort in their hearts.
Kang the Divine Doctor's family gave them no welcome either. After the birthday banquet broke up, Kang Xiaofeng's parents left—and no one so much as acknowledged them with a word. Clearly the family was still seething over the loss of face.
"If you ask me, what kind of relatives are these?" Kang Xiaofeng's mother, no Kang by blood, was utterly disgusted with the day's events. "Once they've made their fortune, fine, they don't help us out—we don't hold that against them. But to go to a birthday banquet and press our warm faces to their cold backsides—what was the point of any of it? Relatives like that, we should cut off for good!"
"Let it go. If Father hadn't told me to come, I wouldn't have wanted to either," Kang Xiaofeng's father said with a bitter smile. "Though your son really did make my second uncle lose face today."
"Hmph—my son? Isn't he your son too?" At the mention of her son, Kang Xiaofeng's mother could not help a note of pride. "Look at the friend our son has made—how loyal he is! He's not even kin, yet he stood up for him and spoke out for what was right, and he knows all sorts of important people! And then look at your cousins—what a worthless lot!"
"By the way, that girl our son was holding on to today—why does she limp a little? And the things Kang Jingming said..." Kang Xiaofeng's father looked awkward, unwilling to bring the topic back to his own family. Second Uncle was blood kin after all, an elder; whatever he was, it was his own father who had come to take him to task, and there was little he could say.
"I saw it too..." Kang Xiaofeng's mother was worried as well. "The things Xiaobo said today—he couldn't really be in love with that girl, could he? The way he acted, it was as if he was deliberately standing up for her..."
"I think so too..." Kang Xiaofeng's father nodded. "So what are we to do? The boy's not only carrying on a puppy love affair, he's picked a girl who limps! I can't imagine what's going through his head."
"Exactly. Should we go home and have a proper talk with our son? What if it's just a passing infatuation and that girl is taking him in?" The more Kang Xiaofeng's mother thought, the more worried she became.
"A talk about what?" Kang Xiaofeng's father gave a helpless snort. "Our son being taken in? I'm not so sure."