I Became the Oriental Doctor for Divine Beasts - Chapter 104

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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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Physician to the Divine Beasts
#104
I pressed Hae Seong-woo further.
“The vomiting hasn’t been happening for a short time, either. You’ve been doing this for at least several months, haven’t you?”
……
Hae Seong-woo’s mouth fell open in surprise, but no words came out.
After a moment of silence, he laughed weakly.
“Wow, you’re really something. Does checking the pulse reveal things like that?”
“The pulse combined with other signs shows more than you’d think. So be honest with me.”
Faced with my firm expression, Hae Seong-woo finally bowed his head.
“Well, that’s… the thing.”
After hesitating for a long while, he spoke in a low voice.
“I’m not doing it to chase views with sensational content. I’m not obsessed with view counts to that degree.”
“Then?”
“It’s just… some days I get really hungry. And on those days, I stream while eating. But… after overeating like that, my stomach feels so heavy and uncomfortable that.”
He bit his lip and continued.
“I end up making myself vomit.”
……
“Or sometimes the day after I film a mukbang, I fast all day.”
Just as I suspected.
I let out a small sigh.
‘I thought something was off from before.’
Hadn’t Jo-mi even remarked how strange it was that his body never changed despite eating so much?
I’d assumed it was because he was a Divine Beast, but that wasn’t it.
“Still, it’s only like once or twice a week.”
When I stayed silent, Hae Seong-woo glanced at me nervously.
“That much is okay, isn’t it?”
I shook my head firmly.
“No. Seong-woo, that’s still a disease. In my assessment, it looks like the early stages of Bulimia Nervosa.”
“This… this is a disease?”
Hae Seong-woo jerked in alarm and set down his teacup.
He then offered an awkward smile.
“Come on, I’ll admit I have some eating habits issues, but calling this a disease over something so minor… you’re joking, right?”
……
But I didn’t laugh.
Only then did the smile fade from Hae Seong-woo’s face.
I explained to him, who had visibly drooped.
“Of course, your case is somewhat different from a typical patient with this condition. Most patients develop it because of body image obsession.”
Bulimia Nervosa is an illness characterized by repeated cycles of binge eating and compensatory behaviors.
Most sufferers deliberately vomit or exercise excessively because of fear of weight gain.
“That’s right—I don’t have that kind of obsession.”
“But the very act of repeating the pattern you do—eating, vomiting, fasting—is already not normal eating behavior. I’d categorize it as either an early-stage eating disorder or stress-induced binge eating followed by compensatory behavior.”
……
Hae Seong-woo remained silent, his head down.
I continued quietly.
“Which means your health is already showing warning signs.”
“Warning signs? What do you mean?”
“Your throat becomes hoarse after vomiting, right? That’s a sign your esophagus is being irritated. And your stomach is already badly damaged from what I can see.”
I recalled the flow of the meridians I’d confirmed with my Spirit Eyes.
The Stomach Meridian running through Hae Seong-woo’s body was withered in places.
The result of repeated vomiting.
“In terms of traditional medicine, it’s closer to Stomach Yin Deficiency.”
“Stomach Yin Deficiency?”
“It’s a state where the fluids that protect the stomach have dried up. It can happen from repeated vomiting.”
I explained calmly.
“Normally you’d have a frequently dry mouth, a scratchy throat, and either a burning or bloated sensation in your stomach. You probably can’t sleep deeply either, and you become easily irritable.”
The strike hit home—Hae Seong-woo’s lips pressed tightly together.
I smiled.
“The good news is that it hasn’t reached a serious stage yet.”
“Really?”
“Yes. With proper management from now on, it can definitely improve. I’ll send you Sha Shen Mai Men Dong Tang by courier—it replenishes the dried stomach fluids.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Only then did his shoulders relax slightly.
But I didn’t stop.
“However, we need to address what originally caused the eating disorder.”
Hae Seong-woo’s eyes wavered again.
……
“Seong-woo. Is there something troubling you with your family?”
My quiet question made him flinch.
A moment later, Hae Seong-woo laughed without strength.
“You’re really scary. It’s like you don’t just read the pulse—you see right into people’s hearts.”
I spoke seriously, without smiling.
“There are people who want to talk to their family but can’t.”
As I spoke, Dong-soo’s face flashed in my mind. And my own face from childhood as well.
“If you have the chance, open your heart and talk. If you don’t speak, no one will ever know.”
……
“That’s all the advice I can give you.”
Hae Seong-woo bit his lip.
He stared out the window in silence for a long time.
* * *
After parting with Go Yeon-hee that day.
Hae Seong-woo didn’t go home; instead, he wandered the streets of Jeonju with heavy steps.
The air around him was filled with the bright, vibrant energy of tourists and merchants.
‘……’
But nothing entered Seong-woo’s mind.
Only one person’s voice kept echoing in his thoughts.
─ “There are people who want to talk to their family but can’t.”
Perhaps it was because Go Yeon-hee’s eyes looked so pained when she said that? The words lingered in his chest in a strange way.
It was like a shock of cold water—sudden clarity washing over him.
‘Talk to family when you have the chance?’
Until now, he’d lived the exact opposite.
Running away, avoiding, pretending not to know.
All while believing it was the path best for everyone.
“Sigh……”
Seong-woo exhaled deeply.
And with bitter eyes, he retraced an old memory.
As a child, Hae Seong-woo was a culinary prodigy.
Everyone around him said so.
The first time he held a knife, the first time he handled fire—adults were always amazed.
“Incredible!”
“At that age, he can do this?”
“The greatest talent in Hae Clan history.”
His father was immensely proud of him.
The family elders spared no praise either.
The problem was that the praise gradually shifted into comparisons with his older brothers.
“The youngest is already as skilled as the second son, Hae Jung-woo?”
“Sometimes he even seems better than the eldest, Hae Il-woo~”
Each time, his brothers would just laugh.
“Haha. Our youngest is really that impressive.”
“If we don’t want to be left behind by the youngest, we’ll have to work harder.”
So Seong-woo never noticed. That his brothers were actually hurting.
It happened at a Hae Clan family gathering.
In front of many guests, the brothers presented their dishes in turn.
“This braised short ribs is made by the eldest.”
“The mixed vegetables by the second son are also quite good.”
But then.
“My goodness! Did the youngest really make this beef brisket soup?”
“One taste of this, and it brings back memories of gathering around the table with family, eating in harmony.”
“Sniff… I don’t even know why I’m crying. Such remarkable talent at such a young age.”
Seong-woo’s single dish, served last, drew all the attention away from everything else.
After the gathering ended.
Seong-woo accidentally overheard his brothers’ conversation in the Back Yard.
“It’s the youngest again.”
The eldest’s voice was hollow with disappointment.
The second son laughed bitterly as well.
“I should be used to this by now, but sometimes it’s hard… He catches up with everything we’ve spent lifetimes doing in the blink of an eye.”
“What can we do? We just have to work even harder.”
……!
Seong-woo froze where he stood.
His brothers hadn’t cursed him or hated him. They simply hid their disappointment and whipped themselves harder.
And that made it hurt all the more.
From that day forward.
“Seong-woo, want to go downtown with your brothers? There’s supposedly a new cookbook.”
“Oh, I… I have something else to do.”
“Is that so? Can’t be helped then. We’ll go on our own.”
Seong-woo began to subtly avoid his brothers.
Because their smiling faces had started to look different from before.
Then came the decisive incident, when Seong-woo was fifteen.
One day his father called him aside.
“Take this.”
What he offered was an old sword.
“Father, this is……!”
It had no ornate decoration and was small in size, but anyone from the Hae Clan knew its value.
A Practice Sword passed down only to candidates for the position of family head.
A symbolic object through which countless master craftsmen had first learned to wield a blade.
“Thank you! I’ll work hard!”
At that time, Seong-woo hadn’t thought deeply about its meaning—he’d simply been overjoyed.
But.
From that day on, the atmosphere between the brothers changed markedly.
The time the three of them spent together in the Kitchen cooking gradually became less frequent.
And then… Hae Seong-woo happened to overhear.
“How could Father give that sword to the youngest?”
“We worked ourselves to exhaustion!”
The sound of his brothers’ resentful voices drifting from beyond the Kitchen door.

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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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