The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 150

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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 150

The pickpocket boy I had caught pulled his arm with all his might.

He probably thought he could slip away since I was holding him lightly, but there was no way he could escape so easily.

“Mi dispiace…!”

When he confirmed that my hand wouldn’t budge, he looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

“He’s saying he’s sorry?”

“Oh, admitting to the crime?”

He had planned the pickpocketing attempt with a lookout, but now that he was caught, he was immediately playing the pitiful victim.

“Ah!”

This scream came from beside Hwangseoyeong.

The man who had just warned me about the pickpocket had roughly grabbed the lookout’s arm.

“What’s he saying?”

“He’s saying ‘You bastard, you were lurking around here last week too, weren’t you?’ and the kid is denying it, saying he doesn’t know anything about it.”

“Hmm.”

“Whew, that startled me. How did you catch him?”

Min Jeong-eun looked at the pickpocket boy with great curiosity.

“Haha, I have pretty good reflexes.”

“Check if anything was stolen first.”

I had been sensing subtle gazes for a while now. He must have targeted me because I obviously looked like a tourist, right?

Though I knew nothing had been stolen, I didn’t bother to stop everyone in line, including our group, from checking their belongings.

After checking her wallet, Hwangseoyeong asked with relief.

“But what are we going to do with him?”

“Good question.”

I smoothly lifted the boy’s arm up.

Good question indeed. What should I do with this?

In the martial arts world, if he got caught doing this, he should be grateful just to keep his wrist intact.

This kid was looking up at me with bright eyes as if asking to be let go.

“Shouldn’t we turn him over to the police?”

“We caught him right away and nothing was stolen, so would they even take our report?”

“Looking at him, this clearly isn’t his first time doing this….”

After donning the robes of the Sichuan Dang Family, no one dared to mess with me, but before that, I used to face pickpocketing attempts from time to time.

The first one I caught was really a child attempting theft for the first time. He begged for forgiveness, saying something about his mother’s illness, so I treated his mother and then used him as a servant for a while, making him gather medicinal herbs and such.

…But that kind of good resolution only happened once.

I once trusted a child with teary eyes and gave him some money, only to encounter him as a bandit when leaving the village.

“If we go to the police station to report this and give testimony, it might disrupt our travel schedule.”

Hwangseoyeong seemed to want to just let him go.

“It would be a bit troublesome. When I lost my phone before, it took half a day at the police station. Though I had no choice since I needed it for insurance.”

Min Jeong-eun added her input.

“Are you tourists?”

It was fluent English.

While the three of us were discussing what to do, the man from earlier interrupted while still holding the lookout’s arm.

Hwangseoyeong looked back at me, then answered at my gesture for her to speak.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Since it was English, I could roughly understand, but I wasn’t confident about communicating smoothly.

“I’m Roberto, and I work at this gelato shop. If it’s alright with you, I’ll call the police. Sigh, this is already the third time they’ve targeted customers waiting in line at our shop.”

“Oh my goodness!”

“I’m really glad there was no harm to our customers.”

He didn’t seem like a first-timer, and apparently the shop clerk had been keeping a sharp eye out too.

“…!”

When I tried to hand the pickpocket over to Roberto, the kid desperately tried to escape once more.

He tried to bite and even attempted to kick.

Of course, it remained just an attempt.

I dodged the kick right away, flicked his head back with one finger, and subdued both his arms.

“Oh!”

Several people in front and behind us in line clapped lightly.

Roberto’s face also showed admiration.

“Keep them secure until the police arrive.”

He grabbed both pickpockets firmly and went inside the shop.

Then he started lecturing them extensively with another clerk.

Seeing him make a phone call, the police would probably arrive soon.

“I’m glad it was resolved well. That was startling.”

“I know, right. What kind of situation is this? Italy is scary.”

“If we’d been robbed on the first day, it would have ruined our mood for the entire trip, but fortunately the Clinic Director noticed. Ah, I should have told you instead of responding to the lookout, I’m sorry!”

“Hey, why do you keep apologizing?”

There was a slight commotion, but we had come to eat gelato.

After a while, the line cleared out, and we each ordered the ice cream we had decided on.

“This is a gift.”

Perhaps because we caught the thief who had caused trouble for the shop, Roberto smiled brightly and handed over a cup of tiramisu.

“Oh, thank you.”

I said “thank you” and accepted it.

“Try a bite each.”

The three of us finished it quickly with one bite each, but sweet food had the effect of instantly improving our mood.

“Oh, some of the tourists have left too!”

Calming our startled hearts, the group moved back to the Trevi Fountain.

In the meantime, the tour groups had left, so we were able to get some decent photos in front of the fountain.

* * *

After visiting a few more tourist spots, we returned to the hotel.

“Wow, this hotel is insane! Is it okay to give us such a nice room?”

“They said they gave us the best available room. They told us to expect that the Paris branch has many suites, so at least one would probably be empty.”

“Ah! Why don’t patients like that come to our hospital?”

Hwangseoyeong hugged a pillow and marveled.

You could come here anytime if you paid for it yourself, so what’s the big deal.

“But wasn’t that Italian man from earlier really handsome?”

“Roberto?”

“Yeah, he looked like a movie actor!”

Hwangseoyeong made a big fuss. So that was her type?

A blonde, blue-eyed handsome man selling ice cream did give off that “Ah, so this is Italy?” feeling.

“Chairman Rich’s son is incredibly handsome too. He was cute like a doll.”

“Really? Is he coming out the day after tomorrow too? Should I go?”

“I’m not sure about that. Since it’s a weekday, wouldn’t he be at school?”

“How old is he? A college student?”

“Elementary school student.”

“Ugh!”

Hwangseoyeong turned away in disbelief.

What would you do even if he were a college student?

“Ah, forget it! I’ll just look at handsome men in novels!”

She turned on her phone while grumbling for no reason.

The protagonist wasn’t even set up to be handsome, so who was she fixated on.

I thought I should probably take a break from that orthodox fantasy.

Whether it was because of the dream I had on the plane, I kept hearing something like auditory hallucinations throughout our sightseeing.

[Nothing unusual happening?]

Instead, I sent a message to Hwang Sanghun asking if there was anything unusual at the Oriental Medicine Clinic.

Is it too early in the morning? Maybe he’s not awake yet.

[Yeah. It was just a bit busy. There were a few patients looking for you, but I treated them well, so don’t worry.]

He replied immediately.

[Did you arrive in Rome? Nothing unusual there?]

[Yeah. We came this morning and did some sightseeing, it was fun. Almost got pickpocketed, but fortunately it was resolved well.]

Hwang Sanghun was a bit surprised, but quickly felt relieved when I said nothing was lost.

Fortunately, the Oriental Medicine Clinic seems to be running well too.

* * *

By not reading the novel and going to bed early like that, this time I was able to sleep soundly without dreaming of the fantasy world.

Thanks to that, the Vatican tour was much easier.

Min Jeong-eun recommended a tour, saying the Vatican has separate group entrance lines, so we toured the museum while listening to a professional guide.

It was incredibly fascinating to see with my own eyes the sculptures made by people like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, whom I had only heard about in art class long ago.

Repeatedly exclaiming “Wow, amazing! Magnificent!”, we finished our second day’s travel itinerary.

On the third day, after looking around the plaza a bit, we went to meet Chairman Rich.

“Will you be okay staying alone?”

“What would I do butting in there?”

I asked Hwangseoyeong if she wanted to join us, but she declined, saying it would be awkward for everyone.

“I should go to the Trevi Fountain one more time. I think I’ll keep thinking about that gelato after we return to South Korea.”

Would what she keeps thinking about really be the gelato?

Anyway, since I couldn’t go with her, I warned her to be careful of pickpockets and we parted ways temporarily.

“Annyeonghaseiyou!”

And Chairman Rich, whom we met again.

He greeted me cheerfully just like last time.

If anything, being on his home ground, his energy seemed even higher than before.

“Hello, have you been well? Paolo is doing well at school without any relapses, right?”

When I asked about his current situation, he was extremely delighted.

“He’s been doing very well, and the tic symptoms haven’t recurred at all. His relationships with classmates have also improved, so he’s very grateful.”

It was welcome news.

“Is he consistently doing walking and running for exercise?”

I also asked how he was doing with exercise.

While he doesn’t need to take medication for life, it’s good to continue exercising.

Upon hearing that question, Chairman Rich was again extremely pleased.

“He’s taken up soccer as a hobby. It seems like he’ll even participate in competitions. He says his son becoming this active in sports is all thanks to you, Clinic Director.”

“Oh come on, what did I even do?”

The shower of praise continued after that, and I also repeatedly thanked him for letting me use the hotel.

I also mentioned how all the facilities were excellent and it was so convenient being close to tourist areas.

The steak was incredibly delicious.

Since he was an extremely sociable person, the conversation wasn’t boring either.

But after the catch-up talk went on for over 30 minutes, I was starting to feel restless.

“By the way, could you probe whether he really wanted to meet just to say hello?”

Of course it didn’t matter if there wasn’t anything else, but would such a seemingly busy person really make time to match my travel schedule?

Min Jeong-eun had a brief conversation with Chairman Rich, then spoke up.

“It’s not that he wanted to meet because of this, but he says there is some news he’d like to share.”

“Oh?”

So there was something after all.

Since he called it news, it probably wasn’t about a patient.

“He runs a small scholarship foundation, and among the people he sponsors, there’s a medical student who’s as interested in Oriental medicine as the Chairman. He’s been participating in acupuncture-related research since college and is graduating this time, and he was extremely intrigued after hearing about the Chairman’s son.”

“Really?”

An Italian doctor interested in acupuncture?

Is that… unusual?

I’d heard that many traditional Chinese medicine doctors had advanced into the United States, and that there was even an acupuncturist system there.

I knew absolutely nothing about Oriental medicine in Europe.

Min Jeong-eun had another conversation with Chairman Rich, then handed me his phone.

“This is a paper he partially participated in while working as a student intern at the Acupuncture Association.”

Min Jeong-eun even provided translation.

It was research showing that acupuncture treatment was effective for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by earthquakes that occurred in Italy.

They conduct this kind of research in Europe too?

I flipped through a few pages and memorized the acupoints.

…Would it be effective for dimensional travel PTSD too?

If I hear hallucinations again, I should ask Hwangseoyeong to perform acupuncture in the evening.

“He’s extremely interested in acupuncture and herbal medicine, so he’s wanted to study abroad in East Asia at least once. He says it’s frustrating that he would have supported him long ago if only he had mentioned it.”

“Oh… It wouldn’t have been easy from the position of receiving sponsorship.”

“Anyway, if he just gets accepted, the Chairman has decided to sponsor him through his doctoral program.”

“Where is he applying?”

Since he was telling me about it, it probably wasn’t China or Japan.

“Korean University. So if it’s okay with you, he’s asking if you could also write a recommendation letter to that research lab.”

I had a feeling it would be that, and indeed it was my alma mater.

If someone from abroad was going to come for master’s and doctoral studies to a Korean Oriental medicine university, they’d naturally want to do it at Korean University if possible.

“Of course I should do that. I don’t know if it’ll be helpful, but writing it isn’t difficult at all.”

My recommendation letter might be quite meaningful to Professor Lee Minseok. Would other professors also look favorably on it?

At least Professor Lee Minseok doesn’t seem like he’d reject a graduate student who’s coming, even without a recommendation letter.

“He says he’s extremely grateful.”

“Not at all.”

“And you operate a network of Oriental medicine clinics, don’t you, Clinic Director?”

I nodded without much thought.

“He’s also asking how about having that person learn your secret techniques while in South Korea and opening a Rome branch?”

“Cough!”

At those words, I choked while drinking wine.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

“He looked into it and found that a place called ‘Hwangje Korean Medicine Hospital’ even has a branch in the United States… wouldn’t it be worth trying?”

Chairman Rich clenched his fists and stared at me with sparkling eyes.

Min Jeong-eun interpreted dryly.

But his gaze, gestures, and hand movements.

I could feel overflowing excitement from all of it.

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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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