I Became the Oriental Doctor for Divine Beasts - Chapter 24
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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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She Became a Doctor of Oriental Medicine for Divine Beings
#24
That night.
Though consultations had ended long ago, the lights in the Baek Myo Clinic burned later than usual.
Outside the window, the faint cry of cicadas drifted through the summer night.
I was tidying the consultation room while waiting for my last patient when I suddenly recalled what Jeong Ra-bit had said.
─ “Couldn’t you give herbal medicine in two different versions like that?”
That simple remark had lingered in my mind ever since.
Ideas sprouted from it, bubbling up one after another.
‘But even if I use this method, I need to understand the patient’s condition to some extent.’
That’s also why I haven’t been able to close the clinic until now.
That was when it happened.
Someone gave a light knock at the clinic door, pulling me from my reverie.
“Coming!”
I rushed toward the entrance.
As the door opened, a soft voice reached me.
“Yeon-hui.”
It was Yang Si-heon.
Faint traces of makeup still clung to his face—he must have come straight from filming.
His straight nose ridge and cleanly defined jawline radiated an understated elegance.
Beneath long lashes, his eyes were deep and serene; he could stand in silence and the very air around him would grow calm.
As he stepped into the clinic, he glanced around with a slight embarrassment.
“I apologize for coming so late. You haven’t even clocked out because of me.”
“Not at all. I was the one being stubborn about starting acupuncture treatment as quickly as possible. I’m grateful you came so readily. But you should be going home after work—what are you doing here?”
“Well, even if I go home, I can’t sleep and have nothing to do anyway.”
Yet as he answered with a smile, something stiffened in Yang Si-heon’s demeanor.
Was he nervous about the acupuncture?
I gestured gently to ease his anxiety.
“This way. Just lie comfortably on the treatment bed.”
Yang Si-heon acquiesced and climbed onto the bed.
As I stood beside him and tore open an acupuncture packet, the light caught the silver needle tips and gleamed.
I began sterilizing his hands, feet, and head as I spoke.
“I haven’t decided on the herbal prescription yet. But we can still do acupuncture.”
Herbal medicine carries a high cost each time it’s prepared, and above all, incorrect pattern differentiation can lead to side effects.
Acupuncture, however, is different.
It’s far less expensive, and even if the differentiation is slightly off, there are rarely serious side effects.
‘Besides… I did get a hint from what Ra-bit said yesterday, but I still need to talk more with Si-heon himself.’
Through spiritual sight, I still couldn’t see Si-heon’s spiritual energy.
In other words, I hadn’t yet grasped the patient properly.
That’s why I was insisting on starting acupuncture treatment first.
…….
Si-heon, lying still, stared at me intently, then his brow furrowed slightly.
I smiled and began inserting needles.
“Si-heon, are you perhaps afraid of acupuncture?”
The first acupoint I selected was the Spirit Gate.
The hollow of the wrist crease on the inner side of the wrist, toward the pinky—a point commonly used to calm anxiety and alleviate insomnia.
“That’s not it… Actually, I’m a bit worried.”
“Worried?”
“About whether my fans—or rather, people who call themselves my fans—might show up around here.”
His voice dropped, darkening.
At those words, my hand holding the needle faltered.
‘Ah… He wasn’t worried about himself. He was worried about me.’
That’s rather touching.
I deliberately smiled with spirit.
“Don’t worry. The Baek Myo Clinic’s barrier is reinforced—it can withstand most sorcery. Besides, I wear protective talismans myself. I think we can keep overzealous fans at bay, no?”
I gently moved my left wrist, and my jade bracelet glimmered softly beneath the light.
Only then did Si-heon let out a breath, seeming somewhat reassured.
“By the way, I was surprised to hear that Director Yang Byung-geun is also a divine being.”
I continued inserting needles while steering the conversation forward.
This was an opportunity to understand Yang Si-heon better.
“The director is quite famous, after all. Does he perhaps see future works through precognitive dreams beforehand, or something like that—”
“……No.”
Just as I was speaking cheerfully, Si-heon suddenly cut me off.
His gaze clouded in an instant.
“My father has no precognitive ability.”
“What?”
“Despite being a direct divine being, he inherited almost no power. You could say he’s a kind of mutation.”
……!
I couldn’t even breathe at this unexpected confession.
He laughed softly, briefly.
“He’s been ashamed of it his whole life. In divine society, it’s a serious flaw. So even in the human world, he became obsessed with gaining recognition—by making good films.”
His tone was calm, but beneath it lay old cynicism and exhaustion.
“The problem is that he used me to do it.”
The conversation had taken an unsettling turn.
I asked carefully.
“He used you?”
“He forced me to have precognitive dreams. Father would choose scripts based on my dreams, and if the scenes I saw in my dreams didn’t match what we filmed, he’d reshoot it over and over again.”
His voice began to crack.
“At first, acting was fun. But later… there were times I really didn’t want to do it, and yet I was forced to anyway.”
Good heavens.
I paused to collect myself, then asked.
“Didn’t your mother stop him?”
“My mother?”
Si-heon’s brow furrowed.
After hesitating for a moment, he spoke quietly.
“My mother was an unknown actress. When she was young, she appeared briefly in bit roles, but ultimately she never gained recognition and gave up her career when she married.”
He exhaled slowly.
“That’s probably why. She tried to fulfill through me the dream she couldn’t achieve herself. Both of them ultimately just imposed their own desires onto me.”
A bitter smile touched Si-heon’s lips.
His low voice echoed darkly through the quiet treatment room.
“And some fans too. At first I took it lightly, but after more than ten years of it, I’m fed up now. My parents dismissed it as proof of my popularity and did nothing about it.”
I stopped my hand holding the needle.
Then I looked at Si-heon’s face with a pitying gaze.
“These days I don’t even know anymore. Why I act, or whether my fans actually like me.”
Yang Si-heon’s eyes, fixed on the ceiling, wavered.
And in that moment.
I began to see his spiritual energy.
Yang Si-heon’s spiritual energy bore a faded, murky golden hue.
‘Yes… Now I’m beginning to understand.’
His insomnia wasn’t a simple bodily ailment.
Suppressed rage and sorrow had been trapped deep within his chest for over a decade, corroding his spiritual essence.
I carefully placed the final needle. At the same moment, I grasped the thread of a treatment approach.
* * *
Five in the morning.
The sky outside was still a deep blue, and a thin mist wrapped around the Baek Myo Clinic’s courtyard.
I opened my eyes and rose immediately.
I’d barely slept the night before, wrestling with how to prescribe for Yang Si-heon.
‘Still, at least I’ve worked out the general direction of the prescription, so that’s something.’
I eagerly gathered my hair and tied it up.
Then I rushed to the decoction room and set a pot of water over the herbal medicine burner.
Bubble, bubble—
Listening to the water boil, I recalled Si-heon’s pulse again.
The wiry, rapid pulse.
Outwardly calm, but beneath lay deep tension and suppressed energy.
The tautness of that pulse lingered still in my fingertips.
‘That’s right. There’s no point just brooding. Let me try the medicine first and see how he responds.’
Normally, treatment should begin only after the root cause of the illness is completely identified.
But very rarely, one uses a method of reverse-inferring the cause from the response after medication.
That’s what I’m doing now.
‘I’m not certain yet, but the response after taking it will make it clear.’
Thanks to Ra-bit’s “Version A, Version B” idea, I’d thought of this approach.
The herbal material was beginning to steep.
I took the Jade Eye Stone in my hand.
At once, a gentle golden shimmer rippled beneath the jewel’s clear surface.
I slowly channeled that energy into the herbal burner.
Whoosh—!
As the stone’s energy made contact, the liquid’s surface gleamed and rippled like waves.
Golden energy seeped into the herbal burner.
I watched for a moment, then adjusted the burner’s temperature.
‘I could be wrong. But right now, this is the best I can do.’
Given his divine nature, the response would come quickly.
And since this medicine carried my spiritual energy directly, even a single day’s dose should be sufficient to judge whether the treatment direction was correct.
I carefully transferred the completed medicine into a box.
Then I took out a notepad and wrote a brief note.
The pen nib scratched against the paper, its sound cutting through the quiet dawn air.
Instructions for use
Warm gently by steaming and take.
Do not stop your Western medicine abruptly. Take both medications together at thirty-minute intervals.
After taking the medicine, keep your phone’s light away and rest calmly.
Today, I sincerely hope you sleep well and peacefully.
─With warmth, Go Yeon-hui
I placed the note inside the medicine box, then stuck a “Handle with Care” label on top.
Then I pressed my hands together in prayer.
Earnestly hoping that this medicine would grant Si-heon a peaceful night’s rest.
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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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