Chapter 529 — Bought as a Makeup Box

Besides, the Kang family could not bankrupt itself buying this thousand-year snow lotus; having not a cent left to its name would hardly do either, would it?

Kang Jinglong sighed. There was no time to stop his father now! Yet since they had already locked horns with Fatty Lai, there could be no backing down; the Kang family was not the sort to shrink from a fight!

"On purpose?" Fatty Lai had been on the verge of giving up, but Kang Guifeng's outburst made him quite unwilling to give up after all. He rose to his feet and shot back: "What, does the general manager of the great Divine Doctor Kang Pharmaceutical Group not know what an auction means? You can bid, but I cannot?"

At this point Kang Jinglong had no choice but to stand up as well. He was a member of the Kang family too, and with his own father on his feet, how could a junior like him simply sit by and do nothing?

Kang Jinglong's tone, however, was nowhere near as aggressive as Kang Guifeng's. Neither haughty nor humble, he said: "Mr. Lai, my father did not say you cannot buy it; he asked what use this thousand-year snow lotus is to you. Could you tell us? Precious as this medicinal herb may be, surely not every Chinese medicine formula calls for it?"

"What use I buy it for?" Fatty Lai was instantly delighted. "Do I have to tell you what I buy it for? Can't I buy it just to play with? Or why don't you first tell me what use you buy it for?"

Kang Jinglong smiled faintly. Fatty Lai's words were exactly what he wanted; he could not have wished for the man to say anything better, for now he could move on to the next step of his plan! From the moment Kang Jinglong had risen to his feet, he had already mapped it all out.

"Mr. Lai, there is no harm in my telling you!" Kang Jinglong said. "We who run a pharmaceutical company do seek profit, but our guiding principle is to heal the world and save lives. That much is beyond dispute, is it not?"

Fatty Lai frowned, unable to fathom what Kang Jinglong was getting at, yet he did not argue.

"Mr. Lai, our Kang family is buying this thousand-year snow lotus to save a life! As the saying goes, saving a life is like fighting a fire, and this thousand-year snow lotus is a guiding ingredient; the patient we are treating needs only this one ingredient to complete the cure." Kang Jinglong went on, still neither haughty nor humble: "Though there may be some friction between us, I hope Mr. Lai will, for the sake of our shared calling as healers, put the greater good first and the patient above all! If you are merely buying it to play with, then please yield it to us, for after all we mean to use it to save a life!"

Once Kang Jinglong finished speaking, the whole hall fell silent at once! Kang Jinglong sneered inwardly. Play games with me? You are a hundred years too green. When it comes to playing dirty, who the hell do you think you are?

It must be said that Kang Jinglong's words had tilted the room's sympathies toward the Kang family! The man had said it was to save a life; were Fatty Lai to snatch it from them now, that would be going a bit too far, would it not? And Fatty Lai had said himself that he was bidding just for fun. You buy for fun, they buy to save a life; are the two the same?

If you refuse to yield it, then you are standing by and letting someone die! You work in the medical field too. Have you never heard the saying, "A healer's heart is one of benevolence"? Would you really stand by and watch another person die?

Of course, Kang Jinglong was not worried that Fatty Lai might change his tune and claim he too was buying it to save a life, because by now it was too late to change his tune. How could there be such a coincidence? You save a life, and he saves a life too?

He did not believe Fatty Lai would do such a thing, because that would invite even greater contempt.

Fatty Lai frowned. He had meant to give up anyway, so he had not played any tricks on the Kang family, only traded a few casual jibes and let it go. But he had never expected the Kang boy to be so venomous: a few words had left him standing in the position of a heartless, unrighteous man!

Fatty Lai, shrewd all his life, had capsized in a ditch! In truth, this was not his fault; Wei Zhao had already told him to give up, so why would he still spend his wits maneuvering against the Kang family?

"Who says we are snatching that thousand-year snow lotus from you?" Before Fatty Lai could speak, Feng Xiaoxiao rose to her feet.

"Oh? Then I must have misheard earlier?" Kang Jinglong smiled faintly, not at all put out, though inwardly his brows drew together. This Feng Xiaoxiao was no easy character; yesterday she had nearly ruined Wu Chengtian. This little girl was devilishly clever!

"What thousand-year snow lotus? I want to buy that box!" Feng Xiaoxiao pointed at the box on the auction stage that held the thousand-year snow lotus. "I just think it's a pretty box, and I want to buy it as a makeup box. What does that have to do with the thousand-year snow lotus?"

Feng Xiaoxiao's words brought the auction hall to an instant chill. So Fatty Lai had been calling bids all this time just to buy a makeup box for this girl?

Kang Jinglong sneered inwardly. The two of you spending a hundred million on a makeup box? Who are you trying to fool? Knowing Feng Xiaoxiao to be a cunning little imp who could lie through her teeth without blinking, Kang Jinglong did not believe a word she said!

In his view, Feng Xiaoxiao had probably stood up to rescue Fatty Lai from his predicament! After all, he himself had just said the thousand-year snow lotus was being bought to save a life! Fatty Lai would now have to lower his head and yield, but would that not cost him face?

Feng Xiaoxiao's move spared Fatty Lai the loss of face, for it was a makeup box she was buying, not the thousand-year snow lotus; thus no one was deliberately snatching anything from him.

"Oh? So it's a makeup box you are buying? Sister Xiaoxiao's taste is truly unique!" Kang Jinglong was no Wu Chengtian; how could he possibly believe Feng Xiaoxiao's nonsense?

"Exactly. So why not just let me have it? It's not often I take a liking to something!" Feng Xiaoxiao beamed at Kang Jinglong, radiating such adorable charm that it was enough to melt anyone's heart.

Kang Jinglong gave an inward snort of cold laughter. Playing that game with me, are you? It won't work! Who do you take me for, Wu Chengtian? Easy to fool? Fine, Feng Xiaoxiao. I still haven't settled accounts with you over that fifteen million you made me spend yesterday, and now you've come knocking on my door of your own accord. If I don't teach you a lesson, you'll actually start thinking Kang Jinglong is easy to push around, won't you?

At that thought, a plan took shape in Kang Jinglong's mind. He stopped looking at Feng Xiaoxiao and turned to Fatty Lai instead, still asking in that neither-humble-nor-haughty manner, "Mr. Lai, so this box is what you've been after all along? Not the thousand-year snow lotus?"

"That's right. I'm just here to bid on this box for her!" Fatty Lai had vaguely grasped what Feng Xiaoxiao meant and naturally played along now, though he looked a little unnatural, since he did not know the details of her plan.

Kang Jinglong caught that unnatural look, and it delighted him all the more, for it clearly showed that Fatty Lai's words did not match what was in his heart! People talked about putting on a brave front at any cost, but if Fatty Lai kept slapping his face to make himself look fatter, one wondered just how fat he would end up.