The Lawyer Who Reads Tomorrow - Chapter 127
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 127
“Why did you do that?”
The words came out first.
The Old Professor, who had looked powerless, nodded as if he had expected this.
“I received word about what happened in the counseling room. You have objections to the medical records…?”
He picked up the old glasses that were placed on the table, put them on, and spoke.
As expected. This was quite different from the Yoo Pil-chang I knew.
The one in my memory was a fairly confident doctor.
He was younger than now, and full of conviction.
He was a doctor who always greeted patients energetically, even while caring for those who had only final farewells left.
‘He’s such a good person.’
Mother always talked about him.
Though still painful, thanks to his help, she was gradually accepting that final moment everyone must face.
‘Wook-han.’
Doctor Yoo Pil-chang’s office is quiet.
All that could be heard was the sound of him moving his lips to give an answer.
Even that could hardly be called a sound, so what filled this silence was only the creaking mechanical noise of the old heater rotating.
Through that, I heard Mother’s voice.
No, this is fake.
I pressed the area around my pounding heart, even though it wasn’t even my own memory, and looked at him.
“Hmm-.”
Yoo Pil-chang, who had been silently examining the detailed records, slowly opened his mouth.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong…”
“Are you certain?”
“That’s right. I manage all of this 5th floor myself.”
That’s right, the 5th floor.
I let out a faint smile.
Yoo Pil-chang was no longer the professor I once knew.
Then there was no need to bury his wrongdoings with thoughts of Mother.
“5th Floor. Right now, patient Lee Yeon-woo is on the 3rd Floor. Do you know that?”
“…I know. I gave that instruction myself.”
Yoo Pil-chang was relaxed.
In his powerlessly sunken eyes, cynicism that seemed to have developed from dealing with complaints countless times was planted.
How many patients must have passed by him?
The passion that time had worn away seemed unable to make his heart beat anymore.
“Professor Yoo Pil-chang.”
Still, I felt somewhat frustrated.
I loosened my necktie slightly while looking at him.
Yoo Pil-chang was staring at me intently with an unreadable gaze.
“When I came up to the 5th Floor, I had this thought.”
“…?”
He tilted his head for the first time, as if my words seemed somewhat like chasing clouds.
“This place seems like a different area.”
“….”
“Isn’t it too run-down?”
That was right.
It wasn’t just Professor Yoo Pil-chang’s personal office that was run-down.
That hospital room where 404 is currently hospitalized.
The 3rd Floor with its large name plate reading VIP showed signs of money being spent to an admirable degree from the moment you rode the escalator up.
How should I describe the feeling when I witnessed the large chandelier in the lobby on the 1st Floor?
[Premium sanctuary for VIP and VVIP customers!]
The banners scattered here and there were like that too.
This hospital has such promotional messages hanging everywhere.
Only VIP, VVIP, premium service you’ve never experienced anywhere else.
From the first floor to the third floor.
No, everything I witnessed while following the employee’s guidance up here was all like that.
The fourth floor was supposedly the VVIP section, requiring several stages of card recognition to access.
But the fifth floor was different.
“….”
Yoo Pil-chang looked at me without saying anything.
“Is that really a problem?”
Then he stubbornly continued speaking.
“Everyone only likes new things, that’s why this industry is the way it is.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“There’s also the word vintage, isn’t there?”
Ah, so he’s going to spout sophistry.
“Here it is, right here. Look. See.”
The Old Professor, as if trying to play word games now, turned on the screen of his large mobile phone and showed it to me.
“Vintage. It means old and aged, doesn’t it?”
“Haha.”
“These days, this kind of thing is considered more high-class. Am I wrong?”
Perhaps I had unconsciously made a crooked smile, as Yoo Pil-chang’s eyebrows twitched.
Meaning he didn’t like it.
What an old man.
The worn-out state of this office right now couldn’t even qualify as vintage, no matter how generously you looked at it.
“Professor.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“I didn’t come here to play word games.”
My heart, which had been unnecessarily caught up in emotions, cooled down coldly.
That’s right. He was spouting nonsense like vintage.
Besides, if we’re talking about word games, that was my specialty. Not his.
“When recalling certain words, especially in situations like this. There are bound to be expectations from a typical layperson’s perspective.”
“….”
“Of course, Professor, what you say is also correct. The meaning of the word is indeed as you stated.”
“…That’s right.”
“However, in this premium service ‘VIP Sanctuary,’ the ‘vintage’ that typical laypeople would expect wouldn’t be something like this.”
When I quoted some promotional phrases I had seen in several places, Professor Yoo Pil-chang stared at me intensely.
And his lips twitched as if he was about to argue back again.
“That’s….”
But I had no intention of listening to more of Professor Yoo Pil-chang’s vintage theory nonsense.
“You said that patient Lee Yeon-woo received Professor Yoo Pil-chang’s ‘vintage’ care on the 5th floor before being moved to the third floor, correct?”
“….”
“I don’t really understand what vintage care is. But this doesn’t appear to be the VIP section, is that correct?”
Yoo Pil-chang pressed his lips tightly together and looked at me.
The light quickly faded from the powerless old professor’s eyes.
It seemed to mean he didn’t want to talk anymore.
The reason I was able to come this far was probably due to the special nature of my profession.
Most guardians would have been rejected or ignored.
“…As I said again, our hospital treats all customers as VIPs. This is true.”
He now changed his voice as if trying to appease me.
“What’s written in the detailed records, it all means that. Don’t you understand? Patient Lee Yeon-woo is, well, a paralyzed patient who’s difficult for even our hospital to care for….”
“Then I’d like to take a look around that hospital room.”
It was certain that the facilities on the 5th floor were not good.
The old professor pondered for a moment before speaking.
“That’s impossible due to security reasons. And regarding this sedative as well.”
“Please tell me.”
“This patient, well, whenever he opened his eyes he would have seizures, so we had no choice but to keep him asleep all day. That’s really an unavoidable part of our manual. If our employees got hurt because of that…!”
“Professor Yoo.”
How could 404, who couldn’t even move, have troubled the other staff?
Surely he doesn’t mean his heart was hurt.
Ah, if that’s what he means, I understand. 404 was just a child after all.
“Do you mean those seizures were psychological?”
When I asked that, he hardened his face as if he found it absurd.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. Patient Lee Yeon-woo is very difficult and-”
“Please explain why he’s difficult. Logically, I don’t understand how a patient with total paralysis could have tormented the staff.”
“Because he doesn’t sleep!”
A loud voice burst out.
“…Is not sleeping a problem?”
However, Yoo Pil-chang didn’t answer this question.
I roughly understand now. 404 was treated like baggage here.
To the point where they administered excessive sedatives just because he wouldn’t sleep, making him unconscious all day long.
“So as you mentioned earlier, did you administer sedatives to make him sleep ‘all day long’?”
“….”
“All day long?”
“….”
“If you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.”
“….”
“How surprising. To think you’d directly admit that all the rehabilitation treatment written in these detailed records was a lie.”
It seemed he couldn’t bear this remark either.
Yoo Pil-chang slammed the table as soon as I finished speaking.
Oh my, hoping his elderly joints were okay, I looked at his aged face.
“Do you have an orthopedic department here too?”
However, instead of answering my question, he trembled his hands finely in anger.
Actually, I couldn’t tell whether he was trembling his hands from anger or from pain.
There was no need to distinguish either.
“I’ll say it again, our hospital treats all customers as VIPs. No matter how much you’re a guardian, I can no longer tolerate such unreasonable demands-”
“Professor.”
“Stop it! I have nothing more to say!”
“You haven’t answered anything so far. I heard the hospital was the one who introduced the caregiver too, is this correct?”
His hand trembled even more in the empty air.
He’s not answering.
I looked at him pitifully and continued speaking.
“Treating all patients as VIPs would be the intention, I suppose. Though the hospital rooms are clearly different.”
There were quite a few puzzling points while coming up to the 5th floor.
The brightly open 3rd floor, the 4th floor that required a card key.
They were all marked as VIP rooms and VVIP rooms.
Rest rooms where guardians could sit and rest were also prepared here and there.
But the 5th floor was not like that.
“The path coming in was quite treacherous.”
“That’s all to protect the patients! What do you know to be babbling like this?”
“I’m asking because I don’t know. Professor.”
5th floor.
This area, which I received confirmation from Professor Yoo Pil-chang, the person in charge, that 404 had been here, had a large iron gate as if it were some kind of special zone.
Entry was so difficult that you had to swipe the card key twice to get in.
When I glanced around, there was only one freight elevator.
It wasn’t at a level you could dismiss by talking about vintage.
The 5th floor, which seemed to have only this one personal office of Professor Yoo Pil-chang, let alone a guardians’ rest room, was, so to speak, ruins.
“Fine! Fine!”
Finally, Yoo Pil-chang shouted loudly and shot up from his seat.
“Do you think I’ve only dealt with troublemakers like this once or twice!”
He began pounding his chest as if frustrated and pointing his finger at me.
“Just because you’re a lawyer, I treated you with some courtesy. This is why I hate people. Every single one of them gets caught up in their own selfish thinking…!”
“I merely asked questions. Professor Yoo was the one who gave permission first.”
“You only want one thing anyway, don’t you think your mouth is running too long?!”
He shouted angrily, then took a deep breath and glared at me.
“Enough! Take that patient and get out.”
“You’re not the attending physician right now, are you?”
“No, enough! I can’t look at that patient anymore. Take her out right now! I’ll give you a refund! A refund! That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
So this is how he’s going to play it.
“Shouldn’t discharge require the word of Section Chief Han Kyung-ho, who is currently the attending physician?”
“Hey! You think this is my first time dealing with a bastard like you?!”
Why was he so angry?
I looked at the Old Professor who seemed ready to throw the pen in his hand.
Was he really this kind of person?
In my memory, he wasn’t.
Then had time changed him like this?
That was something I couldn’t know.
Because no matter how much hardship a person goes through, not everyone changes like that.
“Professor Yoo Pil-chang.”
“Don’t call my name! I’ll refund you right now. That’s what you want! Right? Isn’t it!?”
“I’m asking whether the medical treatment listed in the detailed statement was actually performed. Though you’ve half-admitted it wasn’t.”
“Coming all the way here spouting nonsense about the 5th floor and 3rd floor!”
He really had lost his reason.
A proper conversation was impossible like this.
“Fine. It seems conversation is impossible. We should continue the rest of our talk at the police station.”
At my words, his already reddened face turned even more crimson.
“Did you come from the foundation? Huh? That’s it, right? Damn it, hey! Because of bastards like you I-”
…Foundation?
But the question couldn’t continue.
While he clutched his throat and gasped, the heated atmosphere suddenly froze.
“Th-these… bastards are really trying to kill me…!”
Before I could say anything more, his eyes widened greatly.
“Cough, cough-”
Damn it.
Yoo Pil-chang collapsed beside the sofa with a loud thud.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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