Chapter 1181 — The Kang Family's Shock: Watching Dr. Guan's Trauma Ointment Roll Out in Bulk and Pour Steadily into the National Market, the Whole Kang Family Was Left Gobsmacked

"Didn't I tell you to lock down the supply channels for raw materials? What happened? Where on earth did Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical Company get hold of so much?" Divine Doctor Kang stared at the reports in the newspapers and on the television, hurled the teacup from his hand onto the floor, and roared at Kang Guifeng: "Kang Guifeng, explain this to me — what is going on? Weren't you the one in charge of the raw materials?"

"Father, I really did buy up every last bit of raw material... including the poor-quality lots... There shouldn't be a scrap of stock left on the market!" Kang Guifeng said with a bitter face. "Unless they began purchasing raw materials in bulk years ago, everything on the market has been monopolized by our Kangjia by now!"

"Years ago? How could that be? Are you telling me they brooded over it for years before putting the product on the market? Do you honestly think that's possible?" Divine Doctor Kang said angrily.

"I don't think it's possible either... but there simply is no other explanation!" Kang Guifeng said rather helplessly. "I've already asked every raw-material supplier — not one of them has any stock left. I even offered to buy at a premium, and they still couldn't produce any. That proves nobody has goods left..."

"No goods? Then it must be ghosts. This Dr. Guan trauma ointment is streaming into the market without end — more of it than our own supply, everything you could possibly ask for. At that price we couldn't even cover our own costs!" Divine Doctor Kang snorted coldly.

"They may be taking a loss just to keep up the cry — bleeding money to crush us..." Kang Guifeng hesitated a moment, then said. "It's a standard business tactic, and plenty of people use it. Once they've squeezed our product out of the market and driven us into delisting, once they've captured the whole market, they raise the prices — that way they recover every penny they lost before."

"Oh? You mean they did it deliberately? All that stockpiling was meant to bring us down?" Divine Doctor Kang asked.

"That's certainly possible..." Kang Guifeng had turned it over and over in his mind for days and still could not work out how Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical Company had managed to blanket the entire market within the space of a few days.

"Hmm — then let us discuss it. How should we respond?" Divine Doctor Kang frowned and asked.

"Well... Grandfather, I happen to have a splendid idea!" Having lost face before, Kang Zhaolong made a point of speaking up ahead of Kang Zhaoming this time.

"Oh? What splendid idea? Tell us." Divine Doctor Kang looked at his eldest grandson and smiled faintly. In truth, the grandson he favored most was still the eldest, Kang Zhaolong — though as matters stood, Kang Zhaoming was proving quite capable as well.

"It's like this. Since Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical Company is willing to sell at a loss, let them. On the surface we carry on exactly as before, making no adjustment whatsoever to our product's price or sales volume — while in secret we buy up Dr. Guan's trauma ointment by the truckload." Kang Zhaolong said: "If we can't even cover our own costs, we'll purchase their product in bulk and stockpile it. Then, when Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical Company can no longer hold on, we swap the packaging and push the goods right back onto the market at the original price — and we'll take Dr. Guan to the cleaners for a very tidy sum!"

"Hmm... there is something to that." Divine Doctor Kang nodded, feeling that Kang Zhaolong's plan did have a measure of practicality to it. Still, he turned his gaze toward Kang Zhaoming, wanting to see whether his second grandson had anything worth saying; Kang Zhaoming had lately achieved a thing or two of his own, so Divine Doctor Kang asked: "And you, Zhaoming? What do you say — how should we handle this?"

"Grandfather, I don't agree with my elder brother!" Kang Zhaoming was a good-for-nothing to begin with, but lately, like a blind cat stumbling onto a dead mouse, he had scored one success after another, and his head had begun to swell — so right from the outset he took the opposite side from his brother.

"Oh? Why?" Divine Doctor Kang asked quickly.

"That..." Kang Zhaoming frowned. He had objected purely out of reflex; what reason was there to give? But since Grandfather had put the question to him, he could hardly say he did not know. He had no choice but to steel himself and start spouting nonsense: "Grandfather, think on it. You said yourself not long ago that Dr. Guan's Pharmaceutical Company could not possibly have begun laying the groundwork to buy up those raw materials years ago. And if they had possessed this miraculous prescription all along, they would have launched it ages ago — why would they have delayed until now? A few years back they could have held their own against our Divine Doctor Kang's Golden Wound Medicine; why bother waiting? So that theory simply doesn't hold water!"

"Then what do you suppose the reason is?" Divine Doctor Kang nodded, himself rather inclined to think Kang Zhaoming's words were not without reason.

"I'm wondering whether this Guan Xuemin has substituted some inferior herbs for a few of the costly ones in the formula. Remember, Guan Xuemin is an expert in the medical world — it's not out of the question!" Kang Zhaoming said. "If he swapped in some cheap, inferior herbs, then naturally the cost drops — and he wouldn't need to purchase any of those expensive rare materials either..."

"Aren't you talking through your hat? Didn't you already wheedle the prescription out of them? Are you saying the one you got is wrong?" Before Divine Doctor Kang could speak, Kang Zhaolong shot back. "Besides, if the herbs in that prescription could be changed, our Kang family would have changed them long ago! Don't forget — I studied medicine too. For years our Kang family's laboratory has been devoted to researching whether the rare and costly herbs in the prescription can be replaced by others!"

"Can you compare yourself with Guan Xuemin? He is an expert; you've only just graduated! Confidence is all very well, Elder Brother, but push it too far and it becomes arrogance and conceit," Kang Zhaoming said. "Either way, I still hold to my own view. I did lift the prescription — that much is true — but you can't guarantee they won't alter it when they actually go into production!"

"Enough! Stop bickering!" Seeing his two grandsons come to blows of words, Divine Doctor Kang grew vexed on the spot. At a time like this they were still squabbling over nothing — if their own house could not stand united, how on earth were they going to deal with anyone else?

Kang Zhaolong and Kang Zhaoming shut their mouths at the same moment, though each still wore the look of one refusing to yield to the other.

"What Zhaoming said has a certain logic to it, but the likelihood is slight. After all, a prescription cannot simply be altered at will — this is an ancient miraculous formula; you don't change it just because you say so," Divine Doctor Kang said. "I say we go with Zhaolong's plan: buy up Dr. Guan's trauma ointment in bulk."

"Thank you, Grandfather!" Kang Zhaolong was delighted at once. Divine Doctor Kang had made his decision this way, which meant he was backing him — and so this round of argument had been won by Kang Zhaolong himself!

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