I Became the Oriental Doctor for Divine Beasts - Chapter 42

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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 the physician for Shin Su’s family
#42
The young girl Su-ah’s fingers gripped her garment, then released it.
The child nodded, barely perceptibly.
“……Yes.”
That voice was far smaller than expected, and it made my chest tighten.
To hide such feelings, I forced a bright smile.
“I’m Goh Yeon-hee.”
“…….”
“I’m going with Su-ah today to meet your mom.”
The moment Su-ah heard the word “mom,” her pupils visibly trembled.
Hope and fear flickered across her face at once.
I extended my hand to the child.
“If you get nervous, you can hold my hand.”
Su-ah hesitated for a moment, then grasped my hand very carefully.
It was small and light.
And so—
we began walking side by side down the hospital corridor.
Tap, tap.
The entire walk through the hospital corridor, Su-ah’s hand remained firmly held in mine.
‘So this is Jo Mi-so’s daughter.’
The very child I’d carefully asked Detective Jin Do-gyeong to find.
I squeezed the child’s hand a little firmer and turned my head toward Do-gyeong.
“Thank you, Detective.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Detective Jin nodded.
“You said this child might be the key to waking Mi-so. I thought that possibility was certainly worth pursuing.”
“Did the child agree to this?”
As I asked quietly, Detective Jin glanced at the child once.
“Yes. Her determination to meet her biological mother was clear. When I brought up the subject, she was the one who said she wanted to see her.”
“Did the biological father raise any objections to bringing the child to the hospital?”
“He wasn’t pleased.”
The corners of Detective Jin’s mouth dipped slightly.
“However, since I accompanied her as a temporary guardian, it’s fine. We notified him of the official reason as ‘hospital visit for the purpose of emotional stabilization of the child.’ Police accompaniment and responsibility for her safe return were the stated conditions. There’s no legal issue.”
As we walked, we arrived at the entrance to Jo Mi-so’s hospital room.
I stopped before the door and crouched down to Su-ah’s level.
It was to match eyes with the child.
“Su-ah. Once we go in there, your mom will be waiting.”
The child’s pupils trembled slightly.
“It’s been a while since you’ve seen your mom, right?”
“……Yes.”
Su-ah nodded very softly.
Then, after hesitating for a long moment, she spoke hesitantly.
“A few years ago, on my birthday, she gave me a gift, and after that I haven’t seen my mom even once.”
“…….”
“So I thought maybe my mom had forgotten about me.”
Thump—
My heart plummeted.
In that instant, a completely different landscape overlaid itself across Su-ah’s face.
Seventeen-year-old me.
A mother who vanished without a word of where she was going.
The time I spent sitting desolately under the eaves of Baek Myodang, desperately waiting for her.
The pale, lifeless face I finally met in the mortuary…….
And from that moment on, a question I repeated endlessly.
‘Did Mom abandon me? Was I a burden in her life?’
It was a question too heavy for me to bear as a high school student.
But—
I never thought I’d hear something so similar coming from the lips of such a young child.
My chest ached.
I steadied my breath and looked directly at Su-ah.
“No. Your mom never abandoned you. Never.”
“…….”
“She’s in there right now. Her body isn’t feeling well, so she just looks like she’s asleep.”
Su-ah’s eyes wavered.
“But she can hear everything you say.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Every single word.”
As I said this, I felt strangely like I was speaking to my younger self.
“So will you go in and tell your mom something?”
“…….”
“Tell her to stay strong. That you’ve missed her.”
Su-ah bit her lip, then carefully nodded.
“……Yes.”
* * *
We quietly opened the door to the patient room and stepped inside.
In the single room, with its steady machine sounds humming low.
Su-ah’s trembling eyes slowly shifted toward Jo Mi-so on the bed.
Even taking a few steps seemed difficult; the child’s feet seemed rooted to the floor.
Pat, pat.
Without a word, I patted the child’s back.
Only then did Su-ah approach the bedside carefully.
She worked through her words for a moment, her lips moving silently, before finally opening her mouth, very softly but with clarity.
“Mom… I’m here.”
A moment of silence.
“Mom, you always sent me gifts on my birthday every year, remember? I… I still have the crayons you sent me a few years ago. I’m too scared of them breaking if I use them… so I haven’t used them.”
The child’s voice began to tremble.
“I… because you didn’t contact me for so many years… I thought you hated me now.”
Her small shoulders shook.
“Dad has a new woman he likes, and he’s annoyed with me. Grandma and Grandpa… they seem embarrassed by me. So now no one celebrates my birthday anymore.”
Silent tears began to stream down her still-downy cheeks.
“Mom. Wake up. We have to spend my next birthday together.”
And then.
The emotion she’d held back finally burst free.
“Mom, please open your eyes!”
It was a plea far too earnest for a child.
At that moment—
Jo Mi-so’s eyelids trembled very slightly, visibly.
“……!”
“Oh my, just now—”
“I saw it too! Her eyelids moved!”
The caregiver and Detective Jin Do-gyeong both drew in sharp breaths simultaneously.
I steadied my surprise and nodded with relative composure.
‘Yes. The child was the key, just as I thought.’
In comatose states, hearing is often the last sense to fade.
Even when consciousness is closed off, the voice of a loved one reaches that deepest place.
‘That’s exactly what doctors at the hospital explain.’
Continuous verbal stimulation from family can have a positive impact on recovery, they say.
The most precious person in Jo Mi-so’s life.
The stimulus that child provided was pulling her up from the deep darkness.
I spoke gently to Su-ah.
“Su-ah. Now your mom needs acupuncture, so will you sit beside her for a moment?”
“……Yes.”
Su-ah nodded, wiping away tears.
I took a deep breath and retrieved my needles.
This time, much more slowly than usual, I felt through every detail of Jo Mi-so’s condition and the flow of her qi as I inserted each needle.
After placing all the needles.
“Now you can hold your mom’s hand.”
I nodded to the child.
Su-ah grasped her mother’s hand firmly and sat carefully beside the bed.
She kept blinking to hold back the tears, yet forced brightness into her voice as she continued speaking.
“Mom, I won an award at school in art. My teacher said I draw really well. When you wake up, I’ll draw a picture of your face for you.”
The child’s voice continued in a gentle stream.
Jo Mi-so remained still, eyes closed as if in deep sleep.
Detective Jin Do-gyeong stood to one side, watching the scene silently.
Time passed like that—how much, I couldn’t say.
Finally, the detective spoke carefully.
“All right, Su-ah. Let’s go now, and we’ll come again next time.”
The child was reluctant, unable to easily release her mother’s hand.
“……Yes…….”
Su-ah looked down at her mother one last time and whispered.
“Mom, take care. I’ll come again.”
With that, the child’s hand slowly fell away.
We were leaving the room with the child.
Then—
“Oh my goodness, oh my! Mi-so!”
The caregiver’s urgent cry rang out through the room.
I reflexively opened the door again.
“……!”
Jo Mi-so’s eyes.
They were open. Weakly, but unmistakably.
“Mi-so!”
I rushed straight to the bedside.
Without a penlight, I turned on my phone’s flashlight and carefully illuminated her pupils.
Jo Mi-so’s eyes clearly responded to the light.
“If you can hear me, can you blink twice for me?”
I asked this and focused intently on the patient’s eyes.
“…….”
A few seconds that felt like minutes passed.
Blink, blink.
Slowly but distinctly, the patient’s eyelids opened and closed.
“!”
Everyone in the room covered their mouths in silent gasps of wonder.
Mi-so… had awakened.
* * *
Several more days passed after that.
Saturday afternoon.
Professor Choi Jin-wook of Baek Ho Hospital was in the middle of examining his patient, Jo Mi-so.
Beside him was a young acupuncturist named Goh Yeon-hee.
“Jo Mi-so. Please try to lift your right arm.”
A moment of silence passed.
The patient’s right arm moved very slowly, but unmistakably.
“Remarkable.”
Professor Choi let out an involuntary exclamation.
He always tried to maintain professional detachment before his patients.
But this time, his amazement was impossible to contain.
‘What exactly did that acupuncturist Goh Yeon-hee do?’

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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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