Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 117

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 117
“Given the nature of neuromas, there are cases where they recur probabilistically… but even if that happens, things won’t return to how they were before.”
“Yes, yes!”
“Through physical therapy, I’ve identified some excellent external cultivation methods. Don’t dismiss the breathing exercises—learn them step by step. This isn’t for fighting; it’s to restore your spine to normal.”
I could live a normal life.
I could finally do something I’d never dreamed possible my entire life. There was no way I would dismiss the breathing exercises.
“Now it’s just a matter of controlling the inflammation and allowing recovery. The nursing staff here is quite skilled. It’ll work out well. Yes!”
His manner of speaking was oddly informal for a doctor.
‘Seo Baek-ryong is quite an interesting person.’
I never imagined that the doctor my brother brought here would be the famous Seo Baek-ryong from the Gangho.
I was shocked beyond words when I learned this fact after being admitted here.
“Hehe. Doctor, can I walk now?”
“Of course. But you’ll need to put in the effort. You’ll need to keep seeing Doctor Buntta as well.”
After a brief moment of self-praise, he continued speaking sternly.
“It’s fortunate we could perform the surgery before you got much older. The effectiveness drops significantly after the growth period ends.”
“Yes.”
“Originally, something like this is a battle of time and patience.”
Jin Cheon-hee rubbed his chin. Wrinkles formed on his handsome face.
Watching him mutter to himself and fall into thought, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hehe… good.”
Suddenly, tears poured out.
Once the tears started flowing, they continued as if a dam had burst.
“It’s good. So very good.”
I could only repeat the same words like a fool.
Jin Cheon-hee, flustered, pulled out a medical towel and handed it to Sama-hye.
“Oh dear, oh dear.”
“Doctor, I’m so happy.”
“You’ll cry even more when you see your brother. Why are you already crying?”
Only the word “good” came out, but tears flowed with it, and Sama-hye felt this situation was foolish.
I couldn’t stop the joy flooding through me or the tears streaming down my face.
Jin Cheon-hee, flustered at first, eventually took Sama-hye’s hand.
‘So this was the hand.’
The hand that told me I could recover, that everything would be alright.
Though slender, the hand with prominent knuckles brought reassurance.
Seo Baek-ryong.
A small white dragon.
Everything felt like a dream, and fearing that if I released this hand I would return to the hut and my twisted spine, she held Jin Cheon-hee’s hand and wouldn’t let go.
She couldn’t let go.
“Ah…”
Jin Cheon-hee scratched his cheek, seeming at a loss.
Soon after, I gently soothed her as if to say everything would be fine.
“That’s right. I’m quite remarkable, aren’t I?”
There was something slightly annoying about that attitude. Yet Sama-hye was delighted by it nonetheless.
How much time had passed?
Thump, thump—
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed through the corridor.
Soon the door burst open. It was Sama Hyeon.
“Brother, the surgery was successful?”
“Oh, so you call it surgery?”
“Huh? Why. You called it surgery, so I called it surgery too.”
I thought, ‘Tch, as expected, his intuition is sharp,’ and gave him a thumbs up.
“Yes. We’ll need to observe further, but at this stage, I believe I’ve done everything possible.”
“So… it’s a success, right?”
“Yes.”
Sama Hyeon’s expression went blank for a moment. Then he wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
“Wow, living long enough to see a day like this.”
“There will be many more ahead. My friend.”
At my words, Sama Hyeon let out a soft laugh.
Seeing him like that, so childlike for his age, lifted my spirits.
“Come hold Sama-hye’s hand for me. I need to get free. My goodness.”
I deliberately exaggerated my exhaustion.
Only then did Sama-hye release my hand. She had realized this was no dream.
Even if she had to return to the hut with a body struggling to breathe, she felt no regrets.
“Hehe, brother.”
Foolish laughter kept bubbling up from within her.
Sama Hyeon grasped his sister’s hand.
“Hye-ah…”
“Yes, brother.”
“Hye-ah.”
“Yes.”
Sama Hyeon could say nothing more.
His words caught in his throat, and he could only roll his tongue silently in his mouth.
He couldn’t even cry. He simply sat beside her and held Sama-hye’s hand as I did.
Soon, with trembling lips, he spoke to me.
“Brother, you’re truly a strange person.”
“You’re grateful, aren’t you?”
“That’s hardly the way to put it…”
“Just don’t forget our agreement.”
Three debts of gratitude.
How to repay them would be entirely up to him.
Truly, it was a peculiar contract.
“Of course.”
I brushed Sama Hyeon’s head gently.
“I’m not telling you to live virtuously. That’s impossible in a world like this anyway. Just help others three times at appropriate moments in the future. Three times over a lifetime is manageable, isn’t it?”
“I’m still going to kill people, Senior. I already have many debts of blood, and my life is garbage anyway. I’ll probably live like garbage.”
‘My, how cynical.’
It wasn’t easy to observe one’s own life philosophy so accurately in the midst of all this.
To pinpoint one’s future self so precisely—it was remarkable in many ways.
Hao Munzhu. King of the garbage.
Inevitably, he would create rivers of blood.
There was no elegance like the Demonic Sect, no justice whatsoever.
A position that could only be obtained by rolling in the mire and fighting like a dog.
I felt pity for him. But if that too was his karma, he would have to navigate through it.
For me, it was enough to have reduced the bloodshed.
Sama Hyeon had not gone mad, and his sister and the children had survived.
‘A doctor… simply does a doctor’s work.’
Treating the patient before me is a doctor’s duty. The patient’s life is now open to them.
I pretended not to know.
“Yes. I understand. Quite remarkable martial arts.”
“Yes. But at least I’ll repay three debts of kindness. And Senior.”
“What?”
“Why do you do this much for garbage like me?”
I chuckled softly.
“Think about that for the rest of your life. I won’t tell you.”
“….”
At those words, Sama Hyeon’s face hardened.
Would he truly ponder it for a lifetime? For me, there was no way to know.
But perhaps no one would ever find the answer.
‘Grow well.’
Sama Hyeon was somewhat mad, but not completely. I was satisfied with having preserved that balance.
From inside came the sound of Sama-hye’s weeping and Sama Hyeon’s voice.
“Phew, I need some rest too. I wonder if Hangzhou’s Buntta dongpa pork is delicious.”
If it’s not tasty, I’ll just head to an inn!
I said this and headed toward the communal dining hall.
The cold air felt pleasant. I took a deep breath.
* * *
Normally, I should have boarded a ship to Zhushan County by now, but I stayed longer for Sama-hye’s sake.
It was quite a major surgery, so it was only natural.
In the meantime, I continued treating patients here in Hangzhou.
‘Hangzhou has more patients at night than during the day.’
As a bonus, I was making swift progress in transmitting medical knowledge to the doctors of Buntta in Hangzhou.
Diseases that only my pair of hands could treat now would eventually be treatable by two pairs of hands, then three pairs of hands.
Medical texts spread the knowledge, and among those who learned from them, some came to the Main Clinic to study new techniques directly.
This time, teaching in person made the progress even faster.
“So you’re saying that even if we treat external trauma, the patient dies if infection management doesn’t accompany it?”
“You’ve surely seen many patients who stopped bleeding and had their wounds sutured, yet died from high fever. For at least 24 hours, we must monitor the bleeding condition, and infection management must continue for over a week.”
Advanced orthopedic emergency trauma training was also necessary.
“Compartment Syndrome is the most common traumatic complication we encounter. You must remember that the faster we diagnose it, the better we can save the patient’s limbs.”
“So it doesn’t simply mean muscle swelling.”
“Correct. If left untreated, it obstructs blood circulation and eventually causes necrosis starting from the extremities. It can be classified into imminent, confirmed, and chronic types. For an easy diagnostic method…”
Combining practical knowledge with hands-on practice meant that knowledge truly came alive.
They watched my every move and gesture.
They asked about what they didn’t know and practiced what they did. Then suddenly, one of the doctors spoke with a dark expression.
“I’m not confident we could ever do what Busul Dangju does, even after learning all this.”
What they were learning was treatment for emergency trauma patients.
The major surgeries I had demonstrated were not only unprecedented in this era but also difficult to dare attempt to replicate.
I answered them.
“We continue learning to reach that point. If we don’t become arrogant and simply do our best each day in an ordinary way, eventually we’ll get there.”
“That’s sound reasoning.”
This was unavoidable. There are no shortcuts or miraculous pills in medicine.
All we can trust are the steps we take forward each day.
“Because saving lives has no shortcuts.”
‘What a remarkable person.’
They all let out small exclamations of admiration toward me.
At such a young age, I held the position of Busul Dangju and heir to one of the three greatest Medical Halls under heaven.
One might expect arrogance, yet I had never once acted superior.
Of course, there were many times when training was harsh. But since the words rang true—that there is no easy path in saving human lives—I could only follow.
“Aren’t you nervous?”
Taking responsibility for a patient’s life is frightening. It’s nerve-wracking.
I’ve worried countless times about what a mere human like me could possibly do.
If I believed in God, I might rely on religion, but I had nothing like that.
How much did I agonize while operating on Sama-hye this time.
“I am nervous.”
At my words, all the Uigak-won murmured.
“None of us noticed.”
I even thought his shameless composure was irritating.
Looking at everyone’s bewilderment, I let out a small bitter laugh.
‘Senior. I’ve ended up sharing the secret you taught me in a different world.’
The senior who had guided me at my side.
Though the senior always struggled because he was poor at politics, he remained in my heart even now.
I cannot be certain whether it will be conveyed well, given that we come from different eras and dimensions.
“Originally, a good Doctor should be somewhat shameless.”
“Huh, is that so?”
“Yes. If patients cannot trust their Doctor, whom can they trust? If the Doctor himself becomes anxious, the patient loses all ground for faith. That is why it is better to be shameless to the point of being irritating.”
When tension rises, smile.
Because shamelessness to the point of being irritating is preferable.
I must never transmit anxiety to patients, nor to the staff working alongside me in surgery.
Humans are beings of empathy—sometimes one must swallow the bitter alone.
‘I wonder how that Senior is doing. Did he come to my funeral?’
I wanted to tell him that he was doing well, that people were once again following that Senior’s strange teachings.
I wanted to tell him that though the language differs, the clothing differs, the thoughts differ, and the places where we live differ in every way, still his teachings are being transmitted.
I craved alcohol, though I do not drink.
Jin Cheon-hee’s teachings were transforming Hangzhou’s Buntta.
It was some time later that the reputation spread—that the Doctors of Hangzhou’s Buntta were skilled, yet irritatingly shameless.
The teachings had taken root firmly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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