The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 101

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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 101

“Is it really that surprising? From what I found out, tenants often end up buying the building.”

It’s not impossible, right?

When I tilted my head just like Seo Inae had done earlier.

“Of course it’s surprising!”

Seo Inae shouted loudly.

“I don’t know anything about building auctions! What I studied was villas. And even then, I’ve never actually won a bid! I thought I could buy an apartment if I kept earning like now, so I studied briefly and then quit!”

Ah, really?

She’s never actually won a bid…

That’s unfortunate.

“Ah… that’s unfortunate. No wait, I support you getting your own apartment.”

“My house isn’t the problem! How can you think about buying a building without knowing anything?”

Wow, this is the first time she’s been this excited since Lady Heo’s incident.

Seo Inae grabbed the back of her neck and complained of pain.

She won’t collapse, will she? At least her qi doesn’t seem to be flowing upward, so it’s probably just dramatic performance.

“Honestly, even clueless kids like me often try their hand at one or two villa units. But buildings are really something you shouldn’t do. Only people who can precisely calculate ‘this building cost several hundred million to build, adding this much more would be appropriate’ should do it!”

Seo Inae desperately tried to dissuade me from rashly jumping in.

But the more she does that, the more it stimulates my competitive spirit.

Who knows everything from the start? I can learn from now on, can’t I?

“I also think bidding is a bit much. I don’t know very well, but… 1 billion seems a bit off.”

Hwang Sanghun also strongly advised against it.

“For the profitability reason you mentioned before?”

“Right. The Old Man who was the original building owner would have built the building much cheaper decades ago, so he could profit even with this monthly rent. But if you buy it for 1 billion and inherit the contracts, it’s less than 40 million per year. With this kind of return rate, it’s better to put it in the bank. It’ll probably fail to sell, so let’s watch for now.”

Unlike Seo Inae, he wasn’t saying absolutely don’t do it, but he meant buying it for 1 billion wouldn’t work.

“It would be good if I could ask my aunt… Sorry. It’s a bit awkward to contact family.”

“No no, don’t feel sorry about that!”

“At least try asking Hwangseoyeong.”

Hwang Sanghun felt very sorry for not being able to help me.

No, asking him to contact family he cut ties with over this would be too much.

I’m always grateful just for him working hard six days a week.

“I was just thinking about it for now. I’ll watch how the auction proceeds and look for suitable places to move to.”

Of course I hadn’t completely given up on the idea of buying, but I conveyed this response policy for now.

Ah, I contacted Hwangseoyeong just in case.

– Aunt? I don’t even know her number~ Didn’t I tell you? Dad is the outcast among his brothers.

The answer came back that she knew nothing at all.

That’s fine. I wasn’t expecting much anyway.

How could I spend hundreds of millions based on hearsay from someone I barely know?

* * *

Regardless of how much debt was on the building, patients kept coming.

I casually asked patients who claimed to know something about real estate, and also went around looking for commercial spaces to relocate to.

I watched a few online lectures too… but they weren’t very helpful.

“Since it’s come to this, why don’t you come to Seoul too?”

Kim Chunsik made such a suggestion.

But how could I leave patients in this area who rely only on me?

Even if I had to move, I didn’t want to go beyond a one-subway-station range.

“I’m not going~! I absolutely need to receive the energy of the Rear Mountain here.”

“Hehe, if that’s the case.”

“That’s right! Dr. Han should protect Busan! I left everything to you and came here!”

Huh. Come to think of it, didn’t Chu Miyoung say her father was also a building owner?

“Clinic Director, could you ask your father what he thinks would be an appropriate price for this place?”

“Eh, my father probably bought this at a pretty high price too?”

Chu Miyoung said that while still asking her family for their opinion.

“He’s not sure, but he says 1 billion definitely isn’t right.”

…For everyone to discourage me this much.

After agonizing until the day of, I didn’t go to the auction site.

* * *

Some time later, the first auction bidding took place.

The result was as everyone had predicted.

Failed to sell.

“Wow, it would have been a disaster if I had bought it.”

After wanting to buy it so badly and racking my brain over it, when it actually failed to sell, I felt relieved.

Indeed, you shouldn’t rashly jump in when you don’t know anything.

I expressed my gratitude to Hwang Sanghun and Seo Inae who had earnestly dissuaded me, then waited for the re-auction.

Not long after, the second notice was posted. Since no one was willing to pay a little over 1 billion, they lowered the minimum price by 20%.

Now it’s a system where you write an appropriate amount starting from a minimum of 800 million won, and whoever writes the highest amount wins the bid.

“800 million… if I take out a full loan, I could do the interior and… excluding the herbal decoction room…”

“Director! Hold back!”

“No way!”

The second auction day arrived quickly.

“I told you, I’m not going!”

I had done my own research.

And I came to a conclusion.

This time too, I decided to just watch.

“…”

But the staff didn’t trust me and checked the examination room several times.

“Do you really think I’d abandon today’s consultations and run off there!”

Since you had to write the amount on-site, it was already too late even if I left now, so I didn’t understand why they were treating me like a child left by the water’s edge.

But that leisurely attitude was only brief.

Soon patients came rushing in and we got busy, and everyone had to focus on work without being able to check the results.

“This, this is unbelievable…”

Only when the restaurant on the 2nd floor owner came up clutching his upper stomach did I learn the results of the second auction.

“It failed again?”

The restaurant owner, nodding his head frantically, was now completely in a panic.

“You know what? They say auction costs are deducted before bank loans. Tax arrears take absolute priority over everything… and penalty taxes keep accumulating too…”

If it had been won at just 800 million, it would have been a happy ending, but next time, even if it’s won, he might not get all his deposit back.

He came up to the clinic with his hands trembling from worry.

“Wh-what should I do? This restaurant is my entire fortune.”

The deposit was 50 million and buying various equipment cost nearly 10 million won.

It was truly an indescribably pitiful situation.

“How’s your stomach feeling?”

“I feel like throwing up. Ugh. Urgh!”

I had suggested he come up for acupuncture when his heart was heavy, but he rarely appeared.

The restaurant work must be busy too, so I understood. No matter how hard things get, or rather because they’re hard, he had to work even harder.

But seeing the second auction failure seemed unbearable for him.

“I’ll do Simjeonggyeok treatment along with digestive system treatment. Close your eyes and rest deeply, even if just for a moment.”

At such a severe stress level, all I could do was help calm his energy a bit.

Since empty promises that things would be okay would be more irresponsible, I treated the restaurant owner to the best of my ability and drew the curtain.

* * *

The minimum price listed in the third notice was 640 million.

From when this notice was posted, the same thought always circled in my head after work.

That ‘thought’ just wouldn’t leave my mind.

“Isn’t this really worth trying? No matter how remote, it’s a 4-story building in a metropolitan city?”

When it was 1 billion, I had just thought about the possibility.

Since I had uses for the building, wouldn’t it be okay to buy it a bit expensively, I had thought.

Of course, if I had acted on impulse, that ‘a bit’ wouldn’t have been just a bit.

But now it’s not even buying expensively.

With the auction price dropping this far, I really saw possibility.

“…Do you have financial leeway?”

Hwang Sanghun asked.

I hardened my expression and nodded.

I have 500 million won just in my bank account right now. It was money left after paying last year’s comprehensive income tax in May.

And recently, just our clinic’s sales – Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic Busan branch alone – exceed 100 million per month.

On top of that, there are network franchise fees sent from Daegu and Seoul branches.

Of course, after deducting herbal medicine costs, labor costs, and taxes to pay next year, my monthly income doesn’t even reach half of half the sales…

But if I buy a building, I can get a 70% loan, right?

Honestly, it was hard to say my current financial situation was tight.

“It seems like it might be okay? But… No! I don’t know anything! I can’t take responsibility!”

Seo Inae, who had been rolling her eyes around, suddenly waved her hands.

She said she absolutely would not offer any opinion.

“…I think it’s fine.”

Hwang Sanghun very cautiously offered a positive opinion.

My heart, having come this far, was considerably leaning toward it.

“Alright, then I’ll try bidding 640 million. If someone else bids higher and wins, there’s nothing I can do.”

The neighboring building is a bit larger with higher rent, but its sale price is a whopping 1.1 billion.

This building’s initial appraisal was also 1 billion.

Considering everything, I was confident that buying this building for 640 million wouldn’t be a loss.

* * *

With that resolve in mind.

The day before the third auction.

“What? The clinic director is buying this building?”

Grandmother Heo Sunnam, who had been listening to my story, suddenly stood up in the middle of her treatment.

“Just wait a moment! You should have asked me earlier!”

“Pardon?”

“Just wait 30 minutes. No, go see other patients first. I have something to look into!”

She asked me to postpone her treatment for 30 minutes.

That wasn’t a difficult request at all.

Grandmother Heo Sunnam rushed out to the waiting room and frantically searched for something on her phone.

“Can I use the printer?”

“What? Oh, Clinic Director.”

“Tell her she can.”

What is she trying to do?

It seemed like she was trying to help me, so I naturally gave permission.

Actually, even if it wasn’t for that, lending the printer to a regular customer like Grandmother Heo Sunnam wouldn’t be difficult.

‘Is it a property register?’

Was someone unexpectedly close to me an expert?

I wanted to quietly watch what she was doing, but…

“Clinic Director, bed number 7 needs acupuncture!”

I was too busy.

While Grandmother Heo Sunnam was searching for something and making phone calls, I had to continue treatments.

After making a full round of all the beds, Grandmother Heo Sunnam hurriedly grabbed me in the corridor.

“If you’re going to spend money anyway, spend just a little more! This will definitely have competition.”

“Higher than 640 million? How much…?”

Since there had been two failed auctions so far, I was actually worried that I might end up buying it if the third auction also failed.

But there will be competition?

“There’s a group chat for sharing property listings, and there’s been some talk about it. If you want to buy it, raise it just a little bit more.”

A group chat for sharing property listings?

She’s even in something like that?

This grandmother, she said she runs an art gallery in Seoul.

I already knew she had considerable expertise in art auctions. Does she also have connections to building auctions?

“If it were me, I’d bid a little over 680 million, but if you want to secure it for sure, go for 700 million! Even that would be buying it cheap!”

Grandmother Heo Sunnam declared boldly.

Raise it to 700 million. Suddenly?

My fluctuating emotions were strange.

This feeling of worrying about buying it 60 million won too expensive, when I had been interested since it was 1 billion won.

“Thank you for the recommendation.”

I first expressed my deep gratitude.

Since everyone had only discouraged me, I had barely considered raising the bid above 640 million won.

This could be a very important opportunity to buy the building I need at a low price, yet I was trying to leave too much to chance.

I spent the night pondering, excluding emotional factors.

Neither Hwang Sanghun, nor Seo Inae, nor Grandmother Heo Sunnam could make the decision for me.

In the end, it’s my money, and I’m the one who has to take responsibility.

Buy it a little expensively, but still much cheaper than market price, and do what I want to do?

Or miss this opportunity and wander around looking for another space?

A crossroads of choice.

I attended the auction the next day.

And wrote down my bid price.

681.5 million won.

It was an amount that didn’t stray far from Grandmother Heo Sunnam’s recommendation.

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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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