Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 665

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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 665
“…Ah… could it be the skin scraping from last time….”
Sama-hye recalled those days.
The days when I resolved pockmark scars by performing dermabrasion, fixed patients’ facial scars as a form of saving lives, and then passed on that technique in its entirety.
Everyone thought I was mad—why use such a precious realm for mere skin scraping?
First, there was the question of whether one could even reach that level.
Sama-hye could barely manage it, but I never entertained such thoughts.
It was simply exhaustingly difficult.
Eun Gong and Baek Rin-ui-seon were bound together by fortune and spiritual medicine, possessed abundant inner strength, and their martial arts transcended life and death—they could simply pat their shoulders and say, “Phew, a bit tired.” That was all.
Sama-hye had none of that.
That’s why everything was far slower, required far more rest, and yielded far less efficiency.
“Hair removal…? Hair removal, you say? You use that technique for removing hair too?”
“The essence is similar. Hye-a, you’ll manage with practice. I’ve already prepared experimental pigs anyway! The verification that takes several months is already complete, so Master and I can proceed immediately. Now we just need you!”
Sama-hye, having heard the circumstances from Eun Gong, spoke somewhat casually.
“Ah…. If that’s the case, I should definitely handle areas like the chest. It’s not a life-threatening situation, and we’ll need to continue the hair removal treatments.”
“Right. Hye-a! Well said. If this succeeds, we can transform the patient’s life.”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes gleamed.
Sama-hye asked in return.
“But what if it’s something like a curse? What if the hair grows back?”
“….”
Jin Cheon-hee’s shoulders sagged.
It was pitiful.
Sama-hye spoke.
“Perhaps… we should perform a cleansing ritual before the procedure?”
“A non-scientific ritual hoping our work isn’t cursed? Wishing for a scientific disease instead—how ironic.”
A folk purification ceremony praying for science.
Though it seemed absurd, Jin Cheon-hee nodded.
“Yes, we should. We perform one in front of the research hall every spring anyway.”
The laboratory kills tardigrades that survive even on the moon, yet somehow the children seem to grow better when we do this properly.
Isn’t this a world governed by yin-yang, five elements, and feng shui?
Jin Cheon-hee performed the folk ceremony praying for science together with Sama-hye.
* * *
The long-awaited procedure day arrived.
The facial hair had been trimmed beforehand to expose the hair roots clearly.
Rather than shaving completely smooth, I left about 3-5mm by Earth standards and trimmed the rest.
Before beginning the actual procedure.
Jin Cheon-hee handed a mirror to Ga-won.
Ga-won forced herself to gather courage and looked at her own face.
Only briefly—she quickly covered the mirror and set it down.
“I’m quite ugly. With the hair still remaining, it looks like chicken skin and it’s even more grotesque. Ugh, I feel nauseous.”
Sama-hye and the other doctors beside him were slightly startled by such raw self-deprecation.
The Gassi Sega of the Eight Great Families of the Empire.
They hadn’t known that the successor would be wounded to this degree.
‘There’s no helping it. Meeting children her own age would only deepen the wounds….’
From what Sama-hye remembered, children weren’t necessarily kinder.
Rather, because she was so consumed with herself, she was immature in respecting others’ feelings.
Learning to endure what you dislike is something that requires practice.
Jin Cheon-hee answered.
“What would you like me to do about the eyebrows? I’ll need to preserve that area.”
“….”
He offered neither words telling her to stop such talk nor comfort.
Only what was necessary came first.
Ga-won deliberated. Then she suddenly looked at Sama-hye.
She had a beautiful face and beautiful eyebrows.
Jealousy didn’t arise.
In fairy tales, beautiful people are always envied by someone as ugly as herself, and later they receive punishment.
But in reality, she didn’t even have the energy to dare feel jealous.
Even when she thought about wanting to be her for just one day, it felt somewhat pitiful, so she tried hard not to think about it.
And she simply told herself that since she was ugly, she should at least live virtuously.
In the past, she’d tried to act bright or funny, but the reactions were so poor that she gave up.
Suddenly she looked at Jin Cheon-hee’s eyebrows.
Soft and gentle eyebrows.
But her own nature was neither soft nor gentle.
Knowing that made it even harder.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“If nothing comes to mind, then reasonably….”
“…Please make them like my mother’s eyebrows.”
“….”
Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened slightly.
It was understandable.
Even an outsider doctor knew well how her mother thought of her.
But despite that, she couldn’t let go of her affection.
“I wish they were exactly like my mother’s eyebrows.”
“…I understand.”
If the daughter had similar eyebrows, perhaps even if the hair grew back, her mother wouldn’t forget her.
Sama-hye couldn’t contain her curiosity and asked.
“Um, may I ask just one thing?”
She knew it was rude. But as someone participating in this situation, she felt she could ask this much.
“Originally, I was planning to do a preliminary test on the arm area, but I’m curious why you declined that.”
Ga-won answered.
“Despair, you see, is best when it’s brief and intense.”
“That is….”
“Rather than stumbling halfway, it’s easier to accept things if you fall properly.”
It was a peculiar philosophy.
Yet somehow, I found myself understanding it.
I answered.
“Then I’ll make sure to draw them to resemble your mother as closely as possible.”
Another doctor stepped forward and began sketching in the eyebrows.
I answered.
“You said it would be easier to accept things if you fell properly, but my thoughts are somewhat different.”
My voice was professional, yet carried an oddly warm quality.
I continued.
“But if you overcome this, if you stand again, you’ll never forget it your whole life.”
“….”
“I believe that experience is what keeps a person alive.”
The adult I was speaking to Ga-won, who was still a child.
It was also words I was speaking to the child I once was.
“Once we finish well, let’s eat something delicious.”
“…Something delicious, you say…?”
“What do you like? Do you perhaps enjoy sweet things that make you gain weight? I do.”
A cheerful voice, though tinged with exhaustion.
Ilgwang remained Ilgwang.
* * *
According to the teachings of Seon Hyeon, inner character matters more than outward beauty.
How wonderful it would be if more people were like that, but most prioritize what they see and act based on appearances.
That was simply the truth.
The eyes are the windows of the soul, after all.
The eyes always move first, and then reason corrects them afterward.
But even that amounts to merely not expressing disgust—and that alone is remarkable.
‘In the end, the world doesn’t flow according to Seon Hyeon’s words.’
This wasn’t merely an ugly face—it was a face that didn’t look human.
Ga-won smiled bitterly.
Since awakening from the acupoint, she hadn’t looked in a mirror.
She didn’t want to harbor hope.
She hadn’t met her mother either.
Surely she would have expectations.
She still loved her mother.
Just as a chick follows the first creature it sees, a child pursuing a parent seems to be instinct—something unavoidable.
But conversely, she couldn’t see any reason to hate or despise her mother.
If her mother cherished her and solidified her position as successor, the Head of Gassi Family would still fail to function properly—so the answer was annihilation.
If her family were to face destruction, Ga-won herself would be the first to lose her head—what meaning could sympathy hold in such circumstances?
Ga-won plucked the seven-stringed zither and read from books.
One of the many annexes within Baekrin Uiseon.
Long-term hospitalizations occurred frequently enough that this presented no particular issue.
Mother had given her permission.
It meant she should give her absolute best, as this was her final opportunity.
Suddenly.
The thought struck her that this wasn’t merely her own story—Ga-won’s story—but also Mother’s.
‘If Mother also needed to go through the process of giving up… if it’s like that….’
Her chest grew slightly warm.
Yet she tried not to hope again.
“Today I’ve brought sweet rolled egg~ Your condition is…. Shall we take a look?”
This room had not a single mirror.
Only Ilgwang came to visit, bringing delicious things.
“Please don’t tell me about the condition of my face.”
Ga-won spoke again.
Ilgwang nodded.
“Well, understood. If you’re really curious, you can ask. But you can roughly tell from looking at your own limbs, right?”
“I’ve looked. But… I’m afraid of hoping, so I’m trying not to.”
“Hmm. I see. You’re worried that hair might grow back again, aren’t you?”
Ga-won nodded.
* * *
Time passed in this manner.
She examines the back of her own hand.
It had darkened.
Yet perhaps it was her imagination—it seemed less grown than before.
The hair had become sparse.
Did that mean her face was the same right now?
She couldn’t know. But afraid to ask, she clenched her teeth again.
Looking in a mirror still frightened her. She knew it was foolish.
Yet old wounds continued to pull at her.
There was only one thing she could do.
Pass the time. Remain alive until then.
She underwent the procedure again.
And once more, she spent her time plucking the seven-stringed zither.
‘Will Mother abandon me.’
She couldn’t know.
‘Am I worthless.’
Even if that were true, she had resolved not to die.
Drrring—
One day, Jin Cheon-hee approached her again.
“I believe you’re simply settling into this situation because you’re afraid of reaching a conclusion.”
Before anything is decided.
That state of limbo.
Aspiring actors, aspiring idols, countless hopefuls in this world.
Some break free and become professionals, while others recognize their limits and explore different paths.
Yet there are those in fields where results don’t come from exams like civil service tests—those who crave that ambiguous stage before a conclusion is finalized.
A lukewarm hope.
‘Endings are painful. I want to run away.’
An obsessive hope.
One thing was certain.
Reaching a conclusion required courage.
And what she needed was a mirror.
Covered in cloth so she still couldn’t see anything, but the fact that he brought it meant he had resolved himself.
“It means you’ve done everything you could.”
Eventually, a bird must break free from its shell.
A bird that cannot will simply die within it.
“Yes. That’s right.”
Did she truly have the courage for this?
Yet she couldn’t live in the Medical Guild forever.
Whether treatment succeeded or failed, the patient had to leave someday.
“Call me if you need anything. Understood?”
The man spoke cheerfully while mercilessly shattering her lukewarm hope.
“….”
After Jin Cheon-hee left.
Ga-won stared at the pitch-black mirror for a long time.
Her heart ached.
It was something she had avoided her entire life. What she had cursed most.
All the despair in this world lay within it.
She resented the doctor for leaving it behind, yet part of her understood it was inevitable.
‘Is he telling me to reach a conclusion?’
Absurdly, the man saw through her shallow schemes with such cold clarity.
Yet he didn’t rebuke her or make her feel ashamed.
He simply smiled and pushed her forward.
Was what lay ahead a cliff?
What if only her face hadn’t lost its hair?
If people mocked her again for looking like a beast her entire life.
‘This place was truly comfortable.’
But this was the Medical Guild, not her home.
Soon, Ga-won made her decision.
The hesitation didn’t last long. She knew something was wrong with this too.
Gathering my courage, I trembled as I lifted the mirror.
As I pulled away the cloth, what reflected back was… my own face.
“…I’m ugly.”
The first words I spoke to the woman staring back at me.
Then I released the anguished sobs I’d been holding in my throat for so long.
The weeping echoed through the bamboo grove.
It was a cry of despair from the depths of my being.

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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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