Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 257

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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 257
‘What on earth…’
On the surface, it appeared to have been accomplished with remarkable ease.
However, not a single person in the operating room was unaware that this was far from the truth.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke calmly to the astonished doctors.
“What are you doing? Get the sutures ready, quickly.”
“Y-yes…”
“Are you planning to skip lunch?”
“No, yes!”
At the sharp words of Busul Dangju Jin Cheon-hee, everyone in the operating room finally came to their senses.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke cheerfully.
“They’re frying chicken today.”
Fried chicken.
Modern capitalist Kentucky Fried Chicken, no less!
On a day when fried chicken and beer called to me like madness, I couldn’t resist and fried it myself in the kitchen, and the head chef was utterly captivated.
I immediately passed on the recipe, and the head chef occasionally prepares it as a special dish.
“And today they’re serving sauce too.”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke while moving her hands swiftly.
* * *
The surgery was complete.
The operation finished faster than originally anticipated and was far safer.
Yet the medical staff could only feel a sense of emptiness.
‘This is… impossible to follow.’
A doctor is not a warrior.
As a Gangho doctor, I possess some inner energy in my dantian, but I cannot achieve the martial realm that separates life and death, nor can I generate sword energy to cut away only the desired portion.
The medical texts of Buseol Hall are written quite clearly and in detail, but studying and executing are two different matters.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke while gnawing on a chicken leg.
“Normally, you’d need to retract the cerebellum. I just managed it through sheer force of will and understanding. Normally you start with cerebellum retraction, secure your field of vision, and then begin.”
“Isn’t it difficult to avoid blood vessel damage in that process?”
“You just have to do it without causing damage.”
‘But how on earth do you do that?’
One of the medical staff members clutches his head in frustration.
“Ahem, not before the sacred chicken.”
“Our inner energy and pulse-reading don’t even reach the tips of Busul Dangju’s feet. You know that yourself…”
Detecting not only the location and size of the tumor but also the blood vessels and nerves between them is difficult even for Jegalling.
For that to be possible, one needs inner cultivation, profound understanding, and anatomical knowledge.
All three must be present, and currently, only Jin Cheon-hee possessed them.
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee dismissed the medical staff’s protests.
“If it can’t be done, you keep trying until it can. Otherwise, should we let the patient die?”
“Ugh… We’ve already pushed ourselves to our limits. We can’t go any further.”
At those words, Yoo Ho fixed the medical staff member with a cold gaze.
It was the contemptuous look of one who had already honed themselves far beyond, cast upon a novice.
I let out a soft laugh.
“That’s why doctors have so much to study and such long training periods.”
“I am… afraid.”
“You should be afraid. When you’re dealing with human lives, you must be afraid.”
Was there a time when I felt that way too?
I recalled my time on Earth.
Perhaps because so much had happened since coming to Gangho, that memory felt distant and hazy.
A memory no one would believe.
‘Hmm… I did have those thoughts back then.’
My senior came to mind.
Back then, my senior… didn’t offer warm comfort to the inexperienced me, not at all.
He pushed me relentlessly.
My senior was struggling himself, so he had no energy to comfort others.
“It’s still embarrassing for the Buseol Hall to call someone a doctor at this stage. But what can we do? Humans are creatures who learn…”
I continued speaking while waving the freshly fried chicken.
“So if you don’t know something, ask. Study diligently during practice. And like that… after rolling around for a few more years… you’ll do well.”
“Ah… ah ah…”
I asked the dazed medical staff members.
“If you’re not going to eat those wings, can I have them?”
“…P-please do, Master.”
I grinned widely and tore off the wings.
Crunch!
‘Yes. Fried food really should be crispy. And the meat should be juicy.’
My Master, watching his disciple with satisfaction, gave me the chicken leg in front of him.
“Eat more. You need to eat more and grow bigger.”
My growth plates were already closed, so growing taller was impossible.
But growing wider still counts as growing, doesn’t it?
My Master was deeply concerned because his disciple’s weight had been decreasing.
And this Korean felt love for chicken legs.
‘My Master really cares for me terribly. To give up a chicken leg for me.’
I ate with joy.
Crunch—
* * *
How wonderful it would be if the surgery ended and everything healed and everyone became happy.
After surgery, the patient needed to lie in the intensive care unit for about two days.
To monitor whether consciousness properly returned.
It was good to continuously observe for cerebrospinal fluid leakage or signs of meningitis.
I and the other medical staff members replenished our strength with chicken, then continued to monitor the patient.
During this period, the patient drifted in and out of sleep, waking and receiving pulse checks in between.
So naturally, each time the patient opened her eyes, she saw my haggard face.
“I’m sorry to wake you, but I need to check your pulse and then you should rest again.”
“Ugh….”
“It hurts, doesn’t it? I understand. But I need to keep monitoring your condition. If it becomes too painful, I can increase the pain medication—no, actually, I can’t raise it any further. I’ll just place needles to help you sleep instead.”
If such a handsome face could look so irritating, that itself would be a talent.
Tears streamed down Han Yi-jeong’s eyes.
I checked her pulse again.
“Mm, the surgery went really well. As expected, I’m the best.”
Even this self-praise was unbearably irritating. Was it because it was right after surgery? Or because of the circumstances?
“You should be able to speak soon. Would you like to try saying something?”
Han Yi-jeong let out a small groan.
The acupuncture technique the Acupuncture Guild Master had used was indeed a great help to the procedure.
Since the long needle was inserted deeply below the vocal cords, a certain recovery period was necessary before she could produce sound.
I infused my inner energy to aid her recovery and make it easier for her to speak.
And then.
Han Yi-jeong finally let slip what was on her mind.
“Do you know? Doctor, among all the people I’ve seen, you’re the most handsome… but also the most irritating.”
At those words, I chuckled.
“Wow, I’m the most handsome? If you’re the granddaughter of the Eunuch General, there should be plenty of handsome men falling at your feet.”
“All I do every day is wake up, read books, and study. What men would fall at my feet?”
“The Eunuch General must be quite strict.”
“…There’s no helping it. I’m the eldest daughter. And… everyone says I resemble my grandfather the most. Even though we don’t share blood.”
“Haha.”
I laughed bitterly.
In the past, I would have accepted this as a touching anecdote between grandfather and granddaughter, but I had already seen the other side.
Han Yi-jeong had made her choice.
And the world would move in yet another direction.
Even the patient’s petulance she displayed now would soon become one of the few remaining opportunities in her life.
‘From now on, she’ll hold more blood than ink.’
Power and politics are truly merciless.
Even calling them cruel feels inadequate.
“I may not know much about that, but I can tell you’ve been raised with great expectations since childhood.”
“I just wish my younger sibling could take my place instead….”
Han Yi-jeong took a deep breath.
“…But thinking about it, she probably can’t. She cries even when killing a single mouse, saying it’s pitiful.”
“….”
“What can I do? I’m the older sister. I have to do well.”
There was a time when I believed death would be the end.
I once thought that becoming a Minister of Personnel would be busier, but it was still such a brilliant position that it would be worth it.
So she must have thought that when she disappeared, the glittering necklace of the Ministry of Personnel would slip around her younger brother’s neck instead.
But reality was far crueler than that.
“I wish grandfather had held some ordinary, low-ranking position instead….”
“If he had, the two of you wouldn’t be here now.”
“Well… I suppose that’s true. Hahaha.”
Her lips curved into a smile, but the tears would not stop flowing.
“I was truly naive.”
“That’s not a sin.”
Han Yi-jeong fell silent for a long moment before speaking again.
“What part of me resembles grandfather, I wonder. I’m just clumsy and inadequate.”
“…”
I sensed this was an important question.
It was the kind of intuition only someone living a second life could possess—someone who had lived twice.
Han Yi-jeong was unstable, yet she had made her choice.
Standing at this crossroads, I felt that my answer would determine something fundamental about her.
The words would not come easily.
At last, I made my decision.
“The Eunuch General sacrificed one arm for the Emperor. His granddaughter sacrificed her life for her brother.”
Han Yi-jeong’s eyes widened. I continued calmly.
“One might call that sacrifice, but I do not. It is the resolve to abandon everything else because you truly understand what matters most.”
Loyalty in this era was a concept difficult for a modern person to comprehend.
Yet if one understood it as an extension of familial love born from sharing hardship with two children, it became comprehensible.
“Haha… when you put it that way… it does seem similar somehow….”
“I don’t mean the cold, ruthless side of the Eunuch General. Of course, there are times when such harshness is necessary. But even that serves to protect what truly matters.”
“…”
Han Yi-jeong stared at the ceiling for a long time.
Then she answered.
“Doctor. Do you know something?”
“Yes?”
“You have an uncanny ability to see the good in people. Just listening to you speak makes that monster of a grandfather seem like a decent person.”
An old man who sacrifices hundreds and thousands to serve the Emperor and protect imperial authority.
“You’re the first person to describe him that way—the old man everyone fears, the one called the Emperor’s trusted confidant.”
“That hardly seems like something to say about a grandfather you care for so much….”
“If he’s going to ruin his precious granddaughter like this, he deserves some cursing.”
She laughed softly.
“I never understood why grandfather gave me such large fish. I didn’t even know if he was catching them to offer to the Emperor.”
“…”
Her eyes grew distant and deep.
“What happened today must remain secret, Doctor.”
“Understood.”
“Is it alright if I visit when things get difficult?”
“Only if you have the time for it.”
Han Yi-jeong closed her eyes without wiping away her tears.
Her breathing gradually became rhythmic, and it seemed sleep was beginning to claim her once more.
‘I thought the pain would keep her from sleeping again.’
Perhaps some tension in my heart had eased.
Our brief exchange—it contained the words she had longed to hear.
Once Han Yi-jeong had fallen completely asleep, I whispered softly, “Sleep well,” and extinguished the lamp.
Yet in the darkness.
I remained motionless, continuing to read by her side.
I intended to keep watch beside her until the next shift arrived.

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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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