Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 474

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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 474
The next day.
From dawn, people gathered once again in crowds at the clinic tent.
My brother’s work was always the same.
Everyone drew water together, and boiled it together.
More slum dwellers than yesterday joined in drawing water from the well.
Yesterday they had made three trips, but today two trips were enough to gather so much water, and so much firewood had accumulated.
The shapes varied and the dryness varied, but it was sufficient for use as firewood.
And then we boiled the water again.
“Boiling water is a precious resource in this era. You’ve all helped reduce the burden by sending so much water and fuel, but I think we should prepare more firewood. Winter is approaching now.”
My breath misted white in the Hangju dawn.
I gave detailed instructions to each of my bodyguards who had come with me.
Cheonwoo also received my instructions and picked up an axe.
Cheonwoo’s task was simple.
It was to split the firewood in half once more.
I had stacked bricks into a peculiarly shaped furnace, plastered mud over it, obtained an iron barrel, and created a hole for smoke to escape.
The furnace made this way maintained fire longer than a normal furnace, but there was a drawback to doing it this way.
The firewood had to be cut into smaller pieces than usual.
‘Master Gwon Je certainly made him chop a lot too.’
Axe work was good for training the upper body muscles.
Moreover, if the distribution of force was incorrect, the spine could be injured.
Master Gwon Je had said that if while chopping axes, a dangerous sensation came to the neck and back as if they would snap, it meant he was swinging with incorrect posture and he should ‘properly’ correct it himself.
Thanks to that, Cheonwoo had become a human firewood machine, splitting wood at an incredible speed.
“Oh, you’re doing great!”
I gave him a thumbs up in praise.
Seeing me pleased, Cheonwoo felt proud.
How much time had passed?
Just as the sun began to rise, my bodyguards appeared with carts and workers.
The bitter smell of medicinal herbs stimulated the nose.
“Cheonwoo. Once you’re done splitting the firewood, could you come here?”
“Yes, yes, brother!”
I and the medical staff quickly sorted the medicinal materials, and among them, the frequently used herbal ingredients were all portioned out in one place.
“I’ll use my inner energy to grind these medicinal materials. With your Taecheong Divine Art, you’ll be more than capable. The finer you grind these, the better, so don’t worry about how much you need to grind. Make it as powdery as possible.”
“Yes!”
“Good boy. My little brother.”
I patted Cheonwoo’s shoulder and then went back inside to treat patients.
Cheonwoo took his position and received the medicinal herb fumes.
The mortar and pestle for grinding herbs, and the medicinal mill—the yakson.
‘He wants me to do this with the Taecheong Divine Art?’
The medicinal herb tools were too small compared to Cheonwoo’s build.
Especially the ceramic mortar seemed like it would shatter if I applied too much force, which made me anxious.
Looking around, the Baekrin Uiseon martial artists were grinding medicine with vacant eyes.
What Cheonwoo had grasped was a yakson.
It was named that way because it resembled a pear, and the wheel on top was rolled to grind medicinal ingredients.
First, I tried it without channeling my inner energy.
Crunch—
One rotation of the wheel wasn’t enough to grind anything.
This time, I carefully channeled the Taeching Divine Art to grind the herbs.
Crunch-crunch—
Channeling inner energy definitely made the grinding more effective.
However, it required so much concentration that my shoulder muscles were already beginning to ache.
‘Hyeong said it before. If you exhaust your inner energy to its limit, replenish it, then expend it again and refill it repeatedly, your dantian and the eight extraordinary meridians will inevitably be trained.’
However, since I possessed the Taeching Divine Art of a shaman who wielded both yin and yang, I had to use yin and yang energy in equal balance.
‘This is… definitely training.’
Had Hyeong been training himself this way all along?
Was the act of saving people also a form of martial training?
It was remarkable.
* * *
Cheonwoo ground the herbs finely, and the doctors either dried them, made them into decoctions immediately, or gave them directly to patients.
I couldn’t know which herbs had which properties since I wasn’t a doctor, but I could sense how much Taeching Divine Art needed to be used for the herbs to grind finely.
‘Using more inner energy doesn’t necessarily make it grind better. Interesting.’
Efficient output was what mattered.
Crunch, crunch-crunch—
Sweat dripped down Cheonwoo’s forehead.
But absorbed in concentration, he forgot even that and focused solely on how to channel the Taeching Divine Art.
Then suddenly, he realized someone had grasped his shoulder.
“Let’s eat.”
It was Hyeong.
“Ah, Hyeong. When did you arrive?”
“Just now. You were so concentrated that I waited until your focus naturally broke.”
“I see.”
Only then did Cheonwoo release his hands from the yakson.
The moment he did, both his arms creaked and wouldn’t move at all.
“Gasp… huff!”
A round medicinal pill suddenly popped into Cheonwoo’s gaping mouth.
“Chew and swallow it.”
Following Hyeong’s instruction, he forced saliva into his mouth, chewed the pill, and swallowed it as soon as it became mushy.
It was so bitter that nausea threatened to rise.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“This is your first time channeling inner energy repeatedly for such an extended period, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“It’s fine. For your first time, you did well. I’ve prepared rice, so eat once you’ve recovered enough. First, let’s do some breathing exercises.”
Cheonwoo forced himself into a cross-legged position with trembling legs and began circulating his inner energy through the meridians.
His dantian, completely empty, held only a single grain of inner energy remaining.
Moreover, since this wasn’t a sacred mountain like Mudang Mountain, the rate at which inner energy accumulated was painfully slow.
Why was I repeatedly depleting and replenishing my inner energy in such a place?
After finishing the breathing exercises and opening my eyes, my brother was still watching Cheonwoo from where he stood.
Night had fallen completely.
“Inner energy isn’t accumulating well, is it?”
“That’s just how foreign lands are.”
“True. But you don’t need to rely solely on pure qi from a blessed spiritual mountain. Just as a potato doesn’t discriminate against rainwater, scarcity helps growth more than abundance.”
“…?”
“Right. You won’t understand it through words alone. That’s fine. You’ll comprehend it through your body.”
Jin Cheon-hee patted Cheonwoo’s back.
At that moment, Cheonwoo’s stomach made an untimely gurgling sound.
Watching his younger brother’s face flush red, I spoke.
“Let’s eat. It’s late, but fried chicken tastes good even when reheated. Actually, let me chop it up, coat it in egg, and make it into a rice bowl. Chicken and egg soboro rice bowl!”
I didn’t know what it would be, but I was certain it would taste delicious.
* * *
Hangzhou, being the capital of Zhejiang Province, housed a large population.
However, from the perspective of Jin Cheon-hee, who had lived as a doctor in the Republic of Korea on Earth, it wasn’t quite so overwhelming.
Based on what I had learned before coming here, Hangzhou’s population was approximately five hundred thousand.
By my previous life’s standards, this would be somewhere between a small and medium-sized city.
Seoul’s population was ten million, and Busan, Korea’s second-largest city, had around five million.
Hangzhou was comparable to Busan in terms of the Republic of Korea, yet its population would be roughly one-tenth that of Busan.
Of course, this was only the registered population.
Considering the floating population moving for tourism and commerce, as well as those unaccounted for by the authorities, the actual number would be higher.
I estimated that roughly half of those were people so poor they couldn’t even afford treatment at a medical clinic.
The other half would consist of the majority of people who earned enough to live decently—with proper homes and stable occupations—and the middle class who employed them as workers (though certainly not wealthy), as well as the idle rich.
There would be even more children like Sama Hyeon, Sama-hye, and the children who followed Sama Hyeon in the past—those not even registered with the authorities at birth.
Those children preferred seeking opium over visiting doctors, since opium was cheaper than one might expect.
‘Even with simple calculations, treating a hundred people a day for a hundred days only amounts to ten thousand people. A hundred days is roughly three months.’
I stopped calculating the funds required for that.
‘Charity work is like pouring water into a bottomless jar.’
So I decided to develop my thinking further.
While half the population couldn’t receive proper treatment, the actual number among them who had contracted illnesses requiring treatment would be significantly smaller.
In this martial world without proper communication, recording devices, or statistics, I couldn’t accurately determine that population.
However, based on the statistical data Baekrin Medical Guild had compiled over the years, I could estimate that at least fifteen percent suffered from various illnesses but couldn’t receive treatment.
In other words.
Among two hundred fifty thousand people, approximately thirty-seven thousand five hundred would be patients—or so was my prediction.
Of course, I haven’t learned proper statistics, and this is merely a chaotic hypothetical inference, so the margin of error will be substantial.
Even so, a rough simple calculation suggests it might take nearly a year to treat all of them.
Lighter illnesses could still be treated, but if there are severely ill patients, the timeline would stretch indefinitely.
‘This is where welfare comes in.’
That’s the work of administrators.
So then, what can the Medical Guild accomplish within its scope?
‘Charitable work is indeed important. Hwaju Medical Institute maintains its image as a Medical Guild aligned with orthodox sects by occasionally treating the poor, and they build relationships with local magnates based on that reputation.’
In this Confucian society wielding swords, justification is tremendously important.
Today they slaughter people, but tomorrow they hope to follow the way of the gentleman—isn’t that how this world works?
‘Baekrin Medical Guild could do the same as Hwaju Medical Institute. But since we’re spending money anyway, I don’t want it to be merely for show and then forgotten.’
Hwaju Medical Institute’s approach ultimately spends money and then everything returns to normal the following week.
They gain more reputation from that contrast, but reality doesn’t change.
If we’re going to invest manpower and funds, I want it to make a tangible difference.
‘What if I station Baekrin Medical Guild members for a certain period and allow them to treat patients consistently throughout the day?’
It doesn’t need to reach the level of treating serious illnesses.
Middle-Aged Men and Ha Uiwon handle the cases, and anything beyond their capability gets sent to Sang Ui-won’s branch.
Besides, Middle-Aged Men and Ha Uiwon rarely get practical experience.
People from influential families expect even simple bandaging to be done by Sang Ui-won.
That difficult patient Yoo Ho once threw out is absolutely not a rare occurrence.
They want something special from Sang Ui-won’s bandaging that surpasses Middle-Aged Men and Ha Uiwon, but there’s nothing special about it.
It’s the same bandaging.
As a result, naturally the opportunities for Middle-Aged Men and Ha Uiwon to step forward diminish.
‘And though it’s odd for me to say it myself, Baekrin Medical Guild’s Middle-Aged Men surpass the level of Senior Medical Officers from other Medical Guilds.’

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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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