Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 59

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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 59
-How could I sit idle after hearing such words? Should I ensure this pig never moves his legs again for all eternity?
As she drew her blade, Cheon Yu-rang urgently stepped in to stop her.
-I don’t know which sect you hail from, but I ask that you merely cripple his legs rather than sever them.
-Why is that?
-Crippling his legs would be satisfying enough, but if you sever them, I fear my dreams will be troubled.
-Very well.
Crunch—
She cheerfully shattered both of the official’s legs.
Even as he lay unconscious, the official wailed like a pig being slaughtered. She spoke thus.
-So you are Cheon Yu-rang of Namcheonju-ru. I shall remember you.
The next day, she made her way to Namcheonju-ru. There, she rented the largest room and ordered every delicacy under heaven.
The proprietor wrung his hands in delight, remarking that she had the generous bearing befitting a princess.
At Namcheonju-ru, she was a guest unlike any other in the world.
Then, she summoned only Cheon Yu-rang. A vast chamber with an enormous feast table.
Gazing upon the magnificent spread of dishes covering the table, Cheon Yu-rang felt his spirit sink. And there, draped loosely in a crimson silk robe, sat Ju Wang.
-What say you? Does the mood strike you to spend the night with me?
Upon hearing her voice, Cheon Yu-rang prostrated himself in a deep bow.
-Spare my life, I beg you!
-Ho, no answer regarding the night with me, and now you plead for your very life?
-This humble one did not witness what transpired that night due to my ignorance.
-How did you discern it?
-I recognized you by your stature and movements.
-I have seen countless dancers and entertainers across my many establishments, yet never have I met one with eyes as keen as yours. Is that all you discerned?
-…I found it strange that one as exalted as Your Highness would seek out a lowly entertainer such as myself.
She burst into hearty laughter at his words.
-So you take me for some petty creature who cuts down men’s necks for mere nighttime amusement? Let me simply ask: if it were I instead of that pig, would you consent to spend the night with me?
At that time, Ju Wang, the Princess Pungju-ha, was the dream of every entertainer.
She did not strike entertainers as other officials and royalty did, nor did she force them into her service.
She merely drank wine and enjoyed refined pleasures. Her spending was generous and unrestrained.
Moreover, she composed poetry with great skill, and whenever her verses were hung beside the establishment’s sign, the profits increased the very next day.
There were not a few who wished to spend a single night in her company.
Cheon Yu-rang bowed deeply once more.
-Then take my life, I beg you.
-You refuse to spend the night with me, then?
-Though I am ignorant, I believe one may sell their dance, but not their body.
-One cannot sell their body?
She laughed for a long while.
-You have taught me a lesson this day. I shall not play such tricks again. Then, will you dance for me?
-I would dance, but without music… I fear I must ask that you summon musicians.
“A musical accompanist? Why would I summon one when I am here?”
She ordered someone to bring the guqin.
She rolled up her crimson silk sleeves and plucked the strings.
In the depths of night, the guqin’s melody rang out with crystalline clarity.
She recited poetry slowly in time with her playing.
To that melody, Cheon Yu-rang danced.
Having lived as an entertainer and heard countless musical compositions, having surrendered his body to their rhythms, Cheon Yu-rang had never experienced a timbre that made his heart tremble like this.
Pungju-ha spoke to Cheon Yu-rang.
“I wish only to watch your dance.”
Their love began in this way.
Before even a year had passed since they began courting, she placed the most expensive red jade ring in Hwangdo upon his finger, pledging her love.
“Please… accept this offering.”
“Haha, if I accept the red jade ring, next you’ll seek the green jade. And if I accept that, then perhaps the diamond would suit me.”
Despite the opposition of countless people,
Ju Wang made Cheon Yu-rang his Prince Consort.
She who had even disdained the throne itself for its tedium.
There was no way she could endure a political marriage.
‘This was as far as the plot I knew extended.’
On the surface, it was a Cinderella romance for the ages. But what if this had been planned from the beginning?
What if Cheon Yu-rang was a spy for Haomu, and his purpose was to become the lover of Pungju-ha, one of the princesses at that time?
He wouldn’t have even hoped to become a favored concubine.
For Haomu, it would have been profitable enough if he simply became one of the entertainers who came to the Juru to dance and sing.
‘Strangely, he never accepted any such service requests back then.’
What manner of sect was Haomu?
In martial arts novels, it was always the sect that expanded its influence by controlling the Juru.
They purchased children with nowhere to go, taught them dance and music, then had them sell alcohol.
As an unorthodox sect, they engaged in all manner of illicit profit-making, but the most valuable commodity was information.
Just as there is no place where beggars do not exist, there is no place without alcohol.
One of the moments when humans are most truthful is when drunk.
The information gathered at such times is sold dearly through Haomu.
When Ju Wang was still called Pungju-ha, the struggle for the throne was at its height.
Information about Pungju-ha would have been extremely valuable.
If ordered to accept such service, he surely would have been commanded to extract information through it.
Yet he refused.
I found this strange.
‘The novel’s description truly stated he was prepared to die. But what if it wasn’t fear of Ju Wang’s anger and the sword at his neck? What if he feared Haomu would kill him…?’
As I cleaned up after the surgery, my master spoke.
He said that the gu parasites in Gangho each possessed different efficacies and behaviors, but they shared one commonality.
All gu parasites enter during their larval stage and grow by consuming the host’s inner force.
All the Gu enter as larvae and grow by consuming the host’s vitality.
Because the gu parasite was composed of inner force perfectly identical to the host’s, it was said to be difficult to detect through pulse diagnosis.
If it could be detected by pulse diagnosis, then it wouldn’t qualify as a true gu parasite, he said.
‘If that were possible, all the Demon Sect spies embedded within the orthodox and heterodox sects would have been rooted out.’
Based on the size and color of the gu parasite inside Cheon Yu-rang’s body, it appeared to have been established within him for a very long time.
‘It seems… it was likely fed to him and implanted when he was very young.’
And this gu parasite, unlike those used by places like the Demon Sect, had less lethality and caused less pain, he said.
But it did one thing that was absolutely fatal.
‘If the designated medicine isn’t taken within the set timeframe, it induces anorexia in the host.’
No matter what food is consumed, it becomes impossible to eat, and even if eaten, it causes vomiting.
There is nothing more terrible than starving to death.
I processed the information rapidly.
‘How did the Prince in the novel die?’
Deeply grieving the fact that he could never dance again….
He starved to death.
Another puzzle piece clicked into place.
Click.
“Ugh….”
The moment my thoughts crystallized, the Prince’s eyes opened.
He let out prolonged groans before speaking.
“Ugh… where… ah, no. Did the surgery end well?”
He spoke to me with formal language even in this state.
As if declaring himself unworthy of being a Prince.
I deliberated before speaking.
“A gu parasite was found.”
In that moment, the Prince fell silent.
An ominous premonition washed over me.
I immediately shoved my finger into the Prince’s mouth to check.
Crunch!
“Gack!”
As expected, he was trying to bite his tongue and commit suicide.
If I hadn’t wrapped my inner force around my hand, my finger might have been severed.
‘This is why martial artists are like this! Everything leads to suicide. Everything! What do you think your lives are worth, you fools!’
I groaned in pain.
The Prince was startled and opened his mouth. Even so, I had no intention of withdrawing my finger.
Instead, I struck the back of his neck with my other hand, sealing his pressure point.
“I’m on your side, Prince!”
“….”
He didn’t believe me.
Well, a man who received Haomu spy training instead of gifted education from childhood couldn’t easily trust others.
After the surgery, his strength was depleted, so he could only bite his tongue, but once he regained his vigor, he would undoubtedly attempt suicide through various methods he’d learned from martial arts novels.
I pondered the situation.
‘I spent ten hours operating without food or water to save your life, you fool….’
The temporary external fixation on the Prince’s leg was truly my masterwork born from desperation.
It wasn’t as if I had done nothing—I had sweated blood for ten hours to keep him alive, so how could I let him take his own life like this!
“Do you know how many doctors are in this place? No matter what you attempt, we will save you. Besides, if the Prince were to pass away, do you think the King would remain calm?”
He shook his head.
I cried out.
“What if you fall ill from the grief you cannot bear!”
Of course, that was a lie.
In the novel, he grieved deeply, but his physical health did not deteriorate.
Still, he did become a recluse, abandoning all state affairs to build a thatched hut beside the tomb and live there.
Whether my words took effect, the strength drained from his eyes.
west
I’m losing strength.
When I released some of the pressure points, only then did he speak.
“The King is not such a weak man.”
“Yet every time he thinks of the Prince, he will suffer for the rest of his life.”
….
A single tear rolled down from his eyes.
West
A single tear rolled down.
“After countless hardships, I finally obtained a secret elixir to kill the Gu in my hands. I was certain it was dead… I thought I was free, but how….”
put in
“I was sure I had killed him… I thought I was finally free, but how could this be…?”
“You killed the Gu to wash your hands of Haomu? That must have been difficult.”
“Yes. The medicine was not potent enough.”
The Gu had not died.
It had merely entered a comatose state due to the medicine the Prince consumed.
Of course, if it had remained in that state for long enough, it might have truly perished.
But the Gu awakened again. Why it awakened was obvious.
‘The Baekrin Divine Elixir must have had some effect. Since it contains qi, it would have special properties.’
A Gu sustains itself by feeding on a portion of its host’s inner force.
Rather than the antibiotic effect of penicillin, I suspect it was due to the miraculous medicinal properties that came from being a Gangho-made product.
‘In the novel, he went to the Hwaju Medical Sect and had his leg amputated. At that time too, they would have given him spiritual medicine to preserve his vitality, so the Gu would have fed on it and awakened.’
Whether at Baekrin Uijak or Hwaju Medical Sect, the Gu’s awakening was inevitable.
The fortunate thing was that this time it awakened during surgery at Baekrin Uijak, allowing us to discover and treat it immediately.
Had it been at Hwaju Medical Sect, they would have simply amputated the leg and prescribed long-term medicine, so only the patient himself would have known the Gu had awakened.
‘Now that the most difficult puzzle piece has fallen into place, everything else follows in sequence. If someone addicted to a Gu caused this incident, then surely….’
Finally, I asked.
“Was it truly a fall from a horse?”
“….”
He bit his lip and did not answer.
The testimony of the guards who witnessed it aligned with what I saw—the wounds were indeed consistent with a fall from a horse. Yet something didn’t sit right with me.
A horse ridden by a prince would be thoroughly trained, so for it to suddenly rear up and bolt during a hunt seemed unlikely.
‘As I thought. He knows exactly why he fell from that horse. The reason almost certainly involves Haomu.’
Even so, I couldn’t very well tell them that he himself was a Haomu spy who had severed ties with them, creating this predicament.
I pondered this.
‘That’s simply the nature of criminal organizations, after all.’

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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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