The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 128

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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 128

Setting aside whether the energy of heaven and earth is thick or thin, the sense to feel and handle it doesn’t develop overnight. Even when taught breathing exercises, some children wander for months, even years.

‘Does Lee Jini have good instincts? Or is it because I opened the path for her…?’

She couldn’t have focused on breathing exercises for hours each day like children from martial families.

Perhaps it’s due to the efficiency of her body being close to the Heavenly Martial Constitution, or maybe she was born with the instincts.

Though the amount of accumulated energy wasn’t very large, it was clear.

By the standards of the Tang Family’s later disciples who had their pulses checked frequently from a young age, she was about at the level of a child who had learned mental cultivation for half a year.

‘At this rate, with 10 years of internal energy, she’d become a proper martial artist.’

She might really become an ecosystem disruptor.

“How is it? Is everything okay?”

“Yes. You’ve been diligently practicing what I taught you last time, haven’t you? It’s become incredibly, um… smooth.”

“Of course. You recorded it directly for me. Plus, I can really feel my athletic ability improving. I can run much longer without getting out of breath, and I can feel the strength entering my muscles better too.”

Kim Ijin answered with her face slightly flushed.

“You’ve gained enlightenment. Don’t be too greedy with that, and build it up slowly.”

At this point, there was almost no danger of qi deviation, but I gave a warning just in case.

“Yes!”

“I’m watching your games well. Fighting until the end of the season!”

I encouraged Kim Ijin’s future.

“Are you really watching the broadcasts?”

“Of course. Whenever I’m not working. No, I even watch the highlight videos of games during work hours.”

“…I’ll work hard.”

She stood up abruptly.

And just before opening the examination room door to leave.

“I’ll become the most famous and hang my autograph at the very top.”

She said that.

Huh?

Kim Ijin found her way to the treatment room on her own.

Only I was left staring blankly at the autographs next to the water dispenser.

As it happened, Hyeon Jumi’s autograph was hanging at the very top.

Below that was Park Seseun. Below that were Lee Sora and Kim Ijin, which I received today.

‘I didn’t particularly hang them in order of fame…’

It wouldn’t matter at all if I hung hers at the top?!

She’s still just a kid. To think she’d care about such things!

Instead of dampening her ignited competitive spirit, I kept my mouth shut and started working on Lee Sora’s shoulders and back.

* * *

Swoosh-. Swish!

A 3-point shot went in, ending the practice game.

It was a shot thrown by Lee Sora, the captain.

Even in one practice game, scoring happens dozens of times.

In today’s trend where long-distance shots are so common that the term “archery basketball” was coined, 3-point shots aren’t rare either.

However, scoring just before the end of a game, a buzzer beater, always draws attention anywhere.

“That last one was really perfect.”

“In that urgent moment, shooting in 0.1 seconds but so accurately, I thought you were taking a free throw?”

Both the coach and teammates praised Lee Sora’s 3-point shot as perfect.

“You should all go there once too. I’ve been reborn.”

Lee Sora, who had been thinking about something else, casually said while wiping her sweat.

“Huh? Go where?”

“Oh, the Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic.”

Only then did Lee Sora, who had just caught her breath, hear what the others were saying.

“The clinic? The one Lee Jin regularly goes to? Did you go there too, Captain?”

When they said “the one Lee Jin regularly goes to,” everyone generally knew which place it was.

In fact, just saying “Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic” made most people on this team think of that place.

Other players listening to the conversation soon understood what they were talking about.

“Yeah. I went there and fixed my chronic habit of pulling my left foot back every time I shoot a 3-pointer.”

“Come on, that’s an exaggeration…”

Kim Ijin had just quietly gone out frequently, but didn’t make a big fuss like this.

When asked if it was good, she said it was, but does it make sense for shooting form to improve just from receiving treatment a few times?

“No, if you look at the receipt reviews there, they say things like ‘went in as Australopithecus and came out as a human,’ you know?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I also went in thinking ‘ah, that’s quite an exaggeration~’. Well, my back wasn’t extremely bent or anything, I just expected muscle relaxation, you know? But now that my pelvic balance is aligned, the strength is distributed perfectly through my lower body!”

“Mm-hmm.”

Some teammates didn’t seem to believe it much.

“Really?”

“What was the name of that place again?”

Some of the juniors showed interest too.

“Seong… what was it again?”

“Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic.”

Kim Ijin, who had played against Lee Sora, answered instead.

Everyone knew that her skills were improving day by day too.

Those who became interested in Lee Sora’s words started looking up the location on their map apps.

“Captain isn’t just exaggerating, is she?”

“Is that why you’re going too?”

“I’m being reborn as a new species of human, beyond just evolving from ape to person.”

A moment of silence fell.

“Oh… so Lee Jin knows how to joke too.”

“Ahh! Right, right! Since I’ve only been once, I guess I just barely became human!”

Lee Sora found the analogy very amusing and played along enthusiastically.

“No, that much is…”

Myeong Seonju’s eyes wavered as the only other person besides the two who had been to Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic, but her voice was drowned out by their praise.

“Can’t you ask him to be our team doctor? It would be great if he could come support us during games.”

“Right, right. Captain, suggest it!”

“Well, I don’t think the clinic director would have time for game support. He seemed incredibly busy… I’ll bring it up with the coach next time. Oh, don’t wait until you get injured to get treatment – go right away this weekend!”

“That’s one thing~. Then take me along too!”

That week, five team members visited the oriental medicine clinic as a group.

Lee Sora and one other member were added to the weekly treatment outings.

And some time later.

In the waiting room of Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic, a nameplate for the Busan BUK basketball team doctor was hung next to the nameplate indicating it was a partner hospital of Sowon General Hospital.

* * *

In the waiting room, a young woman was staring intently at Hyeon Jumi’s autograph and a photo taken with her.

While people of all ages would glance over there occasionally when the wait got long, this person was fixated on Hyeon Jumi’s not-so-large photo with persistent intensity.

“Mom was right, wasn’t she? Celebrities and athletes get treated here too. You should get good treatment here as well.”

At her mother’s words, the young woman turned her head.

In complete contrast to her plain, plump mother, the daughter had a skeletal frame thinner than most celebrities and wore heavy makeup.

“Ah, I’ll handle it myself.”

The daughter pushed her mother away with her arm.

The atmosphere was unsettling.

When people in their twenties come to an oriental medicine clinic for injuries or simple muscle strain, they usually come alone.

They might come with parents when getting herbal medicine, but family dynamics like this were rare.

‘Ah, so that’s her.’

I finally remembered the patient Chu Miyoung had sent to me a while ago.

A patient whose condition had worsened after taking diet pills at another oriental medicine clinic.

The patient still wanted to continue dieting, but her anorexia and insomnia were severe, and Chu Miyoung didn’t know what to do about it.

I had told her not to worry about such cases and just send them to me, but since she hadn’t come for a while, I thought maybe she went somewhere else because it was too far… But judging by the current situation, it seemed like it took time for the mother to convince her daughter.

Shortly after, their turn came.

Mother and daughter entered the examination room side by side.

“Ms. Shin Heejoo, hello. Please sit over here~.”

I called the name that appeared on the chart and greeted both of them brightly.

As always, I seated the patient in front of me and the guardian beside her.

Shin Heejoo sat in the seat I indicated without responding, but her attitude wasn’t very good.

Not only did she cross her arms and legs, but she deliberately turned her head to look elsewhere.

“Hello, Doctor.”

Only her poor mother greeted me on her daughter’s behalf, alternately looking between me and Shin Heejoo.

“You wrote down diet and health tonic as the areas you’d like to have examined.”

“Yes, our daughter wants to diet, but I think she needs to take health tonics. Her physical condition has deteriorated a lot from dieting.”

“But I did lose weight.”

Shin Heejoo interrupted her mother’s words with a blunt remark.

I prefer to talk directly with patients when possible, but these people were difficult in many ways.

“Specifically, how is your physical condition?”

Even though I asked the daughter, the answer came from the mother.

“This child was already thin, but now she’s way too skinny! Look at this. She’s nothing but bones!”

As she lifted up the skeletal arm to show me, Shin Heejoo snickered.

“When I prepare meals, she says just the smell makes her want to vomit and won’t eat. She doesn’t sleep either. Sometimes I see her clutching her stomach like it hurts, and I’ve seen her throwing up at night too.”

“Ah, it’s not that I’m nauseous – I’m spitting out what I ate.”

When the topic of vomiting came up, her face hardened coldly.

…Forcing herself to vomit is actually worse.

“I’ll tell you myself. That day I just couldn’t sleep so I stayed up a bit late. So the medication’s effect wore off, and without realizing it, I ate some food from the refrigerator. Mom and my brother keep buying stuff and leaving it there. Anyway, so I thought I shouldn’t eat at night and spat it out, but that’s all. But Mom made such a fuss and threw away the medicine, then said she’d get me new herbal medicine, so that’s why we came here.”

Perhaps she found the will to talk with me, as Shin Heejoo calmly explained the situation.

“After vomiting like that and taking two packets of medicine, she couldn’t sleep at all. …I was wrong to throw away the medicine. She’s not usually like this, but because of that incident, the child has been a bit snippy, you know?”

Shin Heejoo’s mother scratched her head.

I had no idea where to even begin addressing this.

So, first she took diet herbal medicine and experienced insomnia as a side effect.

Since she stayed up late, the appetite suppressant effect wore off, so she ate and then vomited.

She took two packets of medicine.

Her mother, seeing this, threw away the medicine.

So they fought… the daughter’s attitude became like this… and now she’s making excuses to me about it?

But all of this was just secondary issues.

“Did you lose this much weight from taking medicine at another oriental medicine clinic? Or were you already thin and wanted to lose more weight when you got the prescription?”

How can she take diet pills with that body?

“I wasn’t thin before and I’m not thin now. My thighs are still all flabby.”

“Heejoo! You’re going to die if you keep this up!”

Her mother grabbed her daughter’s arm, almost in tears.

It seemed certain she had taken the medicine when she was already thin.

Who prescribed diet pills seeing her in that state with anorexia?

“Mom said if I came here, you’d make medicine that wouldn’t make me gain weight and would also strengthen my body. The vomiting was something I forced myself to do, so don’t worry about it. The occasional stomach pain and not being able to sleep are a bit uncomfortable. I’d be grateful if you could make something that lets me sleep well while continuing to lose weight.”

Shin Heejoo said.

“Trying to strengthen the body while maintaining this nutritionally deficient state is nonsensical. Being healthy means being able to sleep well, eat well, excrete well, and properly utilize the energy your body needs. Having too much unnecessary fat isn’t good either, but I can’t strengthen your body while reducing your appetite in this state.”

“I thought so. Then forget the tonic and just give me diet pills.”

I had explained at length hoping she would give up on diet pills, but Shin Heejoo shrugged her shoulders and declared her intention to give up on health.

“Why do you want to lose weight so desperately?”

This time her mother stepped forward again to shield her daughter.

“Our child has been hurt a lot, you see. If the clinic director could prescribe what’s medically necessary within limits that don’t increase appetite…”

“Because I don’t want to get fat like Mom!”

Pushing away her mother once again, Shin Heejoo shouted irritably.

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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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