Chapter 375 — A Loss of Face
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
But who could have guessed that Wei Zhao would come charging in from nowhere like a Cheng Yaojin to spoil it all?
"Never mind. Take it away. Real or fake, it is Cuipu's sincerity," said Divine Doctor Kang. He was no fool. Since Wei Zhao had spoken so confidently, the man must be sure of himself. To press the matter further would only invite humiliation, so he might as well own it with good grace. Everyone already knew what sort of goods his youngest son was; the man's reputation was ruined already, and this would not make it any worse.
Divine Doctor Kang acknowledged it so lightly that no great uproar followed. Since he had said as much, the others no longer had the heart to go on examining whether it was real.
Next came the turn of Kang **'s father to present his gift. It was quite ordinary — merely a lingzhi of a few years' growth. Kang Cuipu and Kang Jingming had been nursing a grudge and meant to find fault with it, but the man had made clear from the start that it was just an ordinary lingzhi of a few years.
A lingzhi of a few years offered no fault to pick. It had never been a rare treasure to begin with, and to insist on finding fault would be splitting hairs — and would only earn them more contempt.
Father and son Kang Cuipu and Kang Jingming had no choice but to wait, so they could vent all their resentment on Kang ** later.
When the sons' generation had all presented their birthday gifts, it was the turn of the grandsons' generation. But in keeping with Divine Doctor Kang's preference for males over females, only the men were allowed to come up and offer gifts; no granddaughter could ever take the stage.
The first to come up this time was Kang Guifeng's son, Kang Jinglong.
This Kang Jinglong looked somewhat older, in his twenties, wearing glasses and a refined, scholarly air. What he carried in his hands, however, was a sheet of paper, and he walked up with a steady tread.
"Grandfather, this is the medical research project I worked on during my doctoral studies at the university. It has already been granted a patent, and this is the certificate of merit the university issued me!" Kang Jinglong respectfully handed the certificate over.
The emcee was just about to take it, but Divine Doctor Kang waved him off and walked over himself, his face glowing, all trace of his earlier displeasure swept away: "Good, Zhaolong, you're a fine one! Grandfather is very pleased!"
With that, Divine Doctor Kang took the certificate, smiled as he looked it over for a while, then patted Kang Jinglong on the shoulder and said: "Work hard, now. You are the next generation's divine doctor in our Kang family!"
"Hua hua..." Applause rose from the audience. Everyone understood that Divine Doctor Kang was naming his *** heir!
"Your eldest cousin studied medicine?" Wei Zhao was rather surprised; he had not expected that there really was a younger member of Divine Doctor Kang's family who had studied medicine.
"Yes, eldest cousin graduated from a proper medical school and is currently working on his doctorate in traditional Chinese medicine..." Kang ** explained: "Actually, if you want to talk about who truly understands medical skill, he's the only one!"
The remark was somewhat ironic and laughable, yet it was the truth! Wei Zhao was left rather speechless too. How was it that Divine Doctor Kang's whole family seemed like a bunch of self-taught amateurs?
After that, Kang Jingming took the stage. His gift was even more remarkable — some ancient prescription or other. But after the precedent set by his father Kang Cuipu, no one had much curiosity left. They all figured it was fake; how could an ancient prescription be so easily obtained?
In this way, however, Kang Jingming had dodged a bullet! Had the prescription been made public for all to see, Wei Zhao would have recognized at a glance that it was nothing but an ordinary cold remedy — one written plainly in many traditional Chinese medicine books in any bookshop.