The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 15

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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 15

First week of August.

It had already been a month since I boldly opened my clinic.

The blazing sun poured through the south-facing windows of the spacious examination room.

“Wow~ What beautiful weather!”

I’d rather have rain so I could blame it for something.

There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and not even a hair of a patient could be seen in the traditional Korean medicine clinic.

“Haaah.”

I let out a deep sigh.

Though I had opened with minimal expenses, I still used 20 million won that I had saved up doing part-time tutoring during college, plus a 40 million won loan. In other words, loan interest and commercial rent were going out even at this very moment.

I also had to pay employee salaries, management fees, gas bills, electricity bills, and various other expenses…

‘Money is evaporating even at this very moment.’

Aaaaargh!

Why on earth did I make such a choice?

Impulsive clinic opening – are these two nouns that can even be used together?

If I had just stayed home doing nothing, it was enough money to become a ranker!

“Location… is important. Yeah.”

I shouldn’t have opened so hastily.

No, even if I did, I should have contacted Hwang Sanghun once, who had confidently said he’d take care of me, before signing the contract.

If I had done that, I wouldn’t have had to come all the way to Busan and choose a location like this where you have to climb uphill.

“I didn’t even realize this was a slope…”

When I read the earth’s energy flow, the qi circulation was very good.

From a feng shui perspective, it was an excellent location with mountains behind and water in front.

It was also good for building internal energy in my spare time, so I thought it was perfect the moment I saw this place.

“They can’t climb just 5 minutes without a car.”

Hwangseoyeong, who took the train down with me as soon as I told her the news, was horrified the moment she saw the location.

– There are many apartment complexes nearby, and no traditional Korean medicine clinics?

– People in this world don’t call a place that requires 0.7km of mountain climbing ‘nearby’!

She actually had to rest halfway while climbing up here.

It was a reason I could never have imagined.

Being this far from residential areas is actually quite reasonable.

No, I really had patients come even when I opened a clinic in mountain valleys that required hours of walking to reach!

But no matter what I said, it wouldn’t make modern people easily traverse a 0.7km slope.

‘Aaaaargh!’

I screamed silently while spinning my tilted chair around.

But suddenly, the culprit that made me open impulsively caught my eye.

‘That guy, if not for that book!’

The autobiography of a person I had briefly respected.

I picked it up.

What was so great about this that I read it so eagerly?

Actually, I don’t think it said to do business this way…

“Argh! I don’t know!”

Whoooosh!

I immediately burned the book in my hand with samadhi true fire.

It seemed like patients weren’t coming because this ominous object was in the examination room.

After completely eliminating the autobiography, I put on my gown and transformed into the appearance of a kind traditional Korean medicine doctor.

“I should do some breathing exercises.”

I opened the window and took deep breaths.

What’s wrong with being idle? It’s not like I’m running a deficit… right?

I cleanly erased that certain person from my mind and began meditating.

Ding~.

A moment later, I heard the sound of someone entering the traditional Korean medicine clinic.

“Oh!”

I jumped up, removed the screen saver, and looked at the chart.

‘Kim Ijin, 19 years old. Knee problems?’

The information entered during registration at the desk appeared.

In the address field was an apartment that was a 5-minute walk from where I was.

‘Great. She lives nearby too!’

The only patients who had come so far were people who had twisted their ankles while hiking from other regions.

Half of them recovered instantly because my treatment was so excellent.

The other half were satisfied as their pain significantly decreased, but they didn’t return for follow-up visits to this place when there were plenty of traditional Korean medicine clinics in front of their homes.

But if it’s a patient who lives nearby, she might come often and even bring friends!

“Hello.”

A tall girl entered the examination room and greeted me with a husky voice.

Wow, I’m pretty tall myself, but she must be about 180cm?

“Hello~. Please sit over here!”

I smiled brightly with the single-minded determination to definitely capture that friend’s heart.

‘His physique, posture, and even that clear aura… there’s something familiar about it…’

The child who strangely gave off the atmosphere of a martial artist awkwardly nodded his head and sat in the chair I pointed to.

* * *

While injuries are like fate for athletes, Kim Ijin had lived a life avoiding that fate for quite a long time.

“Our daughter is naturally tough! Haha, she’s really born with it. I guess I played basketball just to see Ijin win medals!”

The single word “tough” left no room for doubt.

Of course, it wasn’t like she had never been hurt before.

But unlike friends who would suffer for a long time if they twisted something, she would recover in just a day or two even if she occasionally collided with other players and fell.

‘Ugh.’

So when she felt a sharp pain during landing, she didn’t think much of it.

‘It’ll heal quickly. I can do more, and if I say I need to rest over something like this, that’s not giving my best.’

Kim Ijin participated in training and games as if nothing was wrong. She didn’t want to seem like she was making a fuss by covering herself with pain patches.

And indeed, the pain subsided after a few days.

“I thought it was completely healed… Sigh.”

Then it flared up again. And healed again.

This process repeated several times.

“Shoot! 3 points… Huh!?”

“…”

Then finally, disaster struck.

Between cheers and jeers, she sat down clutching her knee.

“Ijin?”

“Captain, are you okay?”

She had made a mistake in an important game.

“Kim Ijin, let me see that knee right now.”

The coach, who noticed her landing posture was strange, questioned her about various things.

“How long has this been going on?”

“…I don’t remember exactly.”

“You’re the captain and you hid an injury!”

It wasn’t particularly because she wanted to play in this game. The coach was very angry.

“It won’t even bend properly. You’re banned from training participation until treatment is complete!”

Only then did she realize that her knee condition had become very bad.

‘…I should have gotten treatment right away.’

She was banned from even attending basketball club activities, and heard comments from the team members.

She had to go to the hospital.

She told her father exactly what had happened.

“You’re not faking it, are you?”

Her father, who believed in grit, took her to a large hospital in Seomyeon with half suspicion, half worry.

The entire building was an orthopedic clinic. It had a 3-story inpatient ward and rehabilitation facilities she’d only seen on TV.

They waited there for a long time to see a doctor, and took X-rays and CT scans as instructed.

“We’d need an MRI to see the ligaments accurately, but it looks like an anterior cruciate ligament tear.”

“What?!”

The doctor said this while pointing at the computer. Of course, she couldn’t understand what the black and white screen meant at all.

Except that it was a very serious situation.

“Let’s schedule surgery. Older people sometimes just live with it, but since you’re still young, ligament reconstruction surgery is the right approach.”

The word surgery made her head spin.

Her father asked the doctor several questions, but there was only one thing she wanted to know.

“Um, can I exercise right after surgery?”

“Absolutely not. You’ll need to rest for at least 3 months, possibly 6 months, focusing on rehabilitation.”

The father and daughter left the hospital without scheduling surgery.

Her father was greatly indignant.

“It’s definitely a hospital that performs unnecessary surgeries through excessive treatment and charges big money!”

Led by her father, she received another examination at a small orthopedic clinic in the neighborhood.

“Hmm? It’s not completely torn. Partial tears don’t necessarily require surgery, but those big hospitals are gree… Let’s try a conservative treatment approach first.”

The older doctor here prescribed muscle relaxants and painkillers, suggesting they observe progress with physical therapy.

Her father was very satisfied with this diagnosis, and Kim Ijin was happy too.

For about a month, she went to the hospital every single day without fail for physical therapy.

It was a treatment where four cup-like devices were attached to her knee and crackling electrical current flowed out.

“Huh? You came yesterday too, right? You’re so young, what’s wrong with you?”

Then one day, a grandmother who came to the hospital daily for treatment just like her, struck up a conversation.

“I hurt my knee playing basketball.”

“Oh my! How could a young lady do such rough sports.”

“It just happened that way. What made your condition bad, ma’am?”

“For me, it’s been 40 years! It’s been bad ever since I gave birth to my fifth child. I farmed and ran a business, so it’s understandable.”

“You must have suffered a lot… Are you getting better with treatment?”

“Treatment at over 70? I don’t even expect it. I just come because I have nothing else to do.”

Kim Ijin looked around.

Half the beds were occupied, all by elderly people over 60. Though she hadn’t looked closely at their faces, they weren’t much different from the grandfathers and grandmothers who always came.

She hadn’t even seen the doctor since the first day, and her knee showed no signs of improvement at all.

‘…It’ll get better, right? I’m strong.’

While she was feeling troubled like this, a friend of her father who was a professional athlete visited her house.

“The coach must be discriminating against our daughter. What’s the big deal about hurting her knee a little, not letting her come to the basketball team for a whole month!”

“If her ACL is injured, she needs treatment. Something serious could happen.”

“She’s been playing just fine without overdoing it until now. What if she loses her touch?”

“Hey, don’t be like that. Try sending her to an oriental medicine clinic once. Whenever I have even a little pain, I go there right away for treatment and it’s really good.”

Oriental medicine clinic?

Hearing those words, she suddenly remembered the oriental medicine clinic she had seen while walking on the mountain behind her house.

‘Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic. Graduate of Korean University Oriental Medicine College. Must be a doctor who came from Seoul.’

The treatment wouldn’t be as expensive as the first hospital she went to, would it? She entered the oriental medicine clinic with some worry.

“Yes, Ms. Kim Ijin. You have knee problems. How did you find out about our clinic?”

The front desk welcomed Kim Ijin warmly.

The interior didn’t look much different from the other hospitals she had been to so far.

“I remembered it because it somehow felt good.”

However, from inside, she seemed to feel a mysteriously refreshing energy.

As soon as Kim Ijin finished registration, she was guided to the examination room without any waiting.

“Hello~.”

A female doctor? She let her guard down a little.

Unlike the previous doctors who seemed indifferent, this clinic director welcomed Kim Ijin with a very bright smile.

“When did it start bothering you?”

“I’m not sure exactly when it started. I think I hurt it playing basketball…”

“Oh my, how wonderful! Are you a player?”

“Ah, yes.”

“It’s such a precious knee, you must have been extremely worried!”

The oriental medicine doctor asked in great detail about how the knee was injured and what treatments she had received.

This was different from the first doctor who only repeated that surgery was necessary while looking at the computer, and the second doctor who spoke in choppy sentences.

“You must want to get better quickly and exercise again.”

“Yes. I want to… participate in the final high school athletic meet.”

The moment she said those words, something welled up in her chest.

She thought she was fine. Even while telling herself that treatment would make it better, she was always anxious and frustrated.

‘I wanted to get better quickly. I wanted to play basketball.’

The clinic director nodded and showed a gentle smile.

“I’ll do my best to help make that possible. Let’s do some tests first.”

Even though nothing had been done yet, somehow a sense of relief washed over her.

* * *

I smiled slightly.

‘I wondered why she gave off such a sage-like aura, turns out she was an athlete.’

From the moment Kim Ijin first entered the examination room, she reminded me of the masters from Mount Hua or Wudang. That untainted immortal energy unique to those who had grown up in the mountains practicing cultivation from childhood? Her attitude was also blunt like late disciples who had just come out into the world for the first time.

I carefully approached her and drew out her story.

‘Got it!’

I raised the corners of my mouth seeing the sharp gleam in her eyes when talking about sports.

‘This child is now my patient.’

I had her lie down on the bed and began the examination.

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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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