Chapter 383 — Go See for Yourself
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"That's my guess… very likely connected. Otherwise, why would that old fox Liu Tianyi suddenly bring the matter up?" Kang Guifeng nodded. "That Life-Prolonging Toxin-Dispelling Elixir may well be the real thing. It's just that I don't know where Kang—uh, where that friend of ours got it from!"
"The fellow looks like some rich family's young master. It's hardly surprising that he could get his hands on rare things… But is this Life-Prolonging Toxin-Dispelling Elixir truly genuine?" Still unconvinced, Divine Doctor Kang picked up the "dog dung" in his hand and examined it again. "It stinks so foully—how could it be of any use?"
"Grandfather, as the saying goes, good medicine tastes bitter. I'd say there's something to that!" Kang Jingming had worked out this reasoning earlier and now brought it out to show off. He wanted to redeem himself for his earlier blunder, so he did his best to make himself seem important.
"Mm, Zhaoming has a point there! Good medicine tastes bitter!" Divine Doctor Kang nodded in agreement. "Still, what one hears from others is hearsay after all. Only after you've verified it yourself does seeing become believing!"
"Grandfather, you mean…?" Kang Jingming asked.
"Here—cut this Longevity and Detox Elixir in half and take it. We'll see whether it has any effect." Divine Doctor Kang hesitated a moment, then spoke to Kang Jingming.
"What? Me?" Kang Jingming had assumed his grandfather meant to take it himself; he had never imagined the old man would hand it to him.
"What, you don't fancy a longer life?" Divine Doctor Kang shot him a glance. The doctor himself did not quite dare take it—he was advanced in years, after all, and could not withstand much turmoil—but Kang Jingming was another matter.
"No, it's not that... I..." Kang Jingming faltered, his nerve failing. This Longevity and Detox Elixir looked like a fine thing, but that was only the family's own guess; until there was a definite conclusion, who would dare swallow it at random?
"You're afraid it's poisoned?" Divine Doctor Kang gave a contemptuous snort. "Fool. Even if Kang ** were the biggest idiot alive, he wouldn't bring a poisoned pill here—not in front of all those eyes, that would be deliberate murder, and he'd rot in prison for it! Even if this pill isn't the Longevity and Detox Elixir, it won't do you any harm."
"Father... perhaps I should be the one to try it..." Kang Cuipu hesitated, then stepped forward. Kang Jingming was his son; how could he stand by and watch the boy swallow some nameless thing?
In the Kang household, the old master came first, then the eldest son Kang Guifeng and the eldest grandson Kang Jinglong; he and his own son were reckoned of little account. A matter like testing a pill could only fall to him.
The crux of it was that this affair could be known only to the Kang family's inner circle—no outsider could be brought in to test it.
Otherwise, if word got out that the great Divine Doctor Kang's household had picked a crushed pill up off the floor and swallowed it, they would be laughed out of countenance.
The Kang family could not afford to lose that face.