The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 152

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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 152

Let me calm down first and assess the situation.

Is there any possibility that the words “Mafia” or “Boss” have different meanings…?

“…!”

Of course not.

Seeing Hwangseoyeong’s jaw drop as well, it seemed I hadn’t misheard.

Perhaps because I never thought I’d find myself in such a situation in modern times, I almost escaped into denial for a moment.

But I came to my senses within a few seconds.

Anyway, this was definitely better than when Cheonma dragged me to the Cheonma Divine Palace asking me to treat her husband.

Before meeting Master, there was even a time when an evil sect leader came to the clinic with his daughter, begging for help, wasn’t there?

I looked at the 21st-century architecture once more to steady my mind.

Anyway, this is modern… well, not South Korea, but Italy.

Just treating this one guy wouldn’t get me entangled with the mafia.

“The pickpocket you two caught the day before yesterday seems to have been a lackey of a rival family. I wondered why he kept lurking around the shop.”

Roberto bit his lips nervously.

I was curious, but at the same time, I didn’t want to know.

I felt like I shouldn’t hear this.

“I have never committed any crimes with my own hands and have lived an unrelated life. But I also know I can’t completely escape from it.”

“Ah…”

“They had him lurking around me to threaten Father, but they got angry when he was handed over to the police.”

He said that although he tried to distance himself by having another employee report it, they somehow figured it out.

“So you’re saying we shouldn’t report to the police?”

“It’s not like we just watched – he was pickpocketing, so of course we’d hand him over to the police! And now they stabbed Roberto in retaliation?”

“Those guys probably didn’t really intend to stab me. It seemed like they only meant to threaten…”

When Hwangseoyeong burst out angrily, Roberto shook his head and swallowed his words.

I could roughly imagine the situation.

They probably got into a scuffle while he was reassured they wouldn’t really stab him, and then hands got involved.

“Well, if they meant to kill you, they would have used a gun.”

“Eek!”

But it still didn’t make complete sense to me.

He got stabbed for turning a pickpocket over to the police, so was he worried the rival organization would retaliate more if we reported this?

Or were the police in cahoots with that organization?

“Anyway, you don’t want to escalate things.”

“If Father finds out I was attacked, there will be war.”

Roberto spoke with great determination.

Ah, so he’s not afraid of the rival organization, but of his father starting a revenge war?

My martial artist self cried out that this was wrong.

How could one survive in the martial world with such a lax mindset?

A true warrior of the Sichuan Dang Family should fight to the last man…!

No wait, Roberto isn’t part of the Dang Family.

And he doesn’t want to get involved with the mafia either.

I shouldn’t judge by my own standards.

“But you’re going to endure being stabbed all by yourself?”

Hwangseoyeong held his hand, feeling very sorry for him.

There must be many stories we don’t know about Italy’s underworld and Roberto’s past.

Neither Hwangseoyeong nor I could solve all of that anyway.

“At least the bleeding has stopped while we’ve been talking.”

If he insisted on not going to the hospital, I could at least treat Roberto to the extent possible.

Fortunately, the bleeding had stopped well.

It wasn’t an urgent situation.

If Roberto were a martial artist, it would heal just by roughly wrapping it with bandages.

“Still, wounds that penetrate beyond the dermis should be sutured as a rule. I can’t gauge the exact depth of the current stab wound, but it went through the epidermis and dermis into the muscle layer. Looking at the wound, the blade seems to have been clean, but disinfection would still be safer.”

However, since Roberto couldn’t use internal energy healing, I was very concerned about sending him away like this.

“We’re staying right over there, so come up with us for a moment.”

I said, pointing to the hotel.

“I have suturing tools, so I’ll disinfect and stitch you up. If you go with it dressed, they won’t ask detailed questions about how you got hurt, so just say you got slightly cut by a kitchen knife and get a tetanus shot and antibiotic prescription.”

“Ah!”

Roberto’s eyes lit up.

His expression seemed to ask if that would really be okay.

But what came out of his mouth was something completely different.

“Wouldn’t it be rude for me to enter a hotel where two women are staying alone…?”

What nonsense about rudeness.

Is that the problem right now? After bleeding so profusely earlier?

“What are you saying when one poke to your wound would make you collapse?”

I sought understanding from Hwangseoyeong with my eyes.

After covering the blood-stained area with the cardigan I was wearing.

I lifted Roberto up in my arms.

* * *

In case Chairman Rich might ask for someone’s treatment, I had packed several emergency medicines and acupuncture needles.

Fortunately, I had also put sutures and needles in my bag while doing so.

Though I never thought I’d use them like this.

“You’re going to suture it?”

“Yeah. I’ll stitch it up, so just help me with the dressing later.”

Perhaps because there was someone lying there who needed immediate treatment, she didn’t question when I had ever done such a thing.

“How did you even bring this… Do you have lidocaine too?”

Lidocaine refers to the local anesthetic commonly used during suturing.

Of course, I didn’t have anything like that.

“I’ll just have to do it quickly.”

I washed the wound area with saline solution and confirmed that the bleeding had completely stopped.

I concentrated much more than when I had started the hemostasis earlier, checking that there were no foreign substances.

“It’ll be distracting if you watch, so please wait outside for a moment.”

I sent Hwangseoyeong away.

It was fortunate that thanks to Chairman Rich providing the suite room, the living room and bedroom were separated.

Though I didn’t have lidocaine, I could create a similar anesthetic effect.

I had a powerful sleep-inducing incense that would keep him from waking up even if I pierced his flesh with a needle.

“I’ll place a few needles to help you sleep comfortably.”

I was about to burn that incense, but changed direction toward acupuncture instead.

It would be troublesome if he misunderstood it as drugs and caused a disturbance.

Even when he woke up later, he’d probably just think it was acupuncture anesthesia, right?

Though doubting whether he could fall asleep from acupuncture, Roberto quietly closed his eyes.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

I first pressed the sleep acupoint and slowly burned the incense.

Though it would be confusing, it would be better than watching me stitch up his flesh with his eyes wide open.

After confirming he had fallen asleep, I aligned the muscle and fat layers, dermis, and epidermis from the inside to avoid internal tension.

I first performed muscle suturing with dissolvable thread, then finished by stitching the skin layer on top.

Compared to the long struggle to bring him here, the suturing itself was over in an instant.

After quickly finishing the suturing, I inserted several needles into the wound area and infused it with energy.

By maximizing Roberto’s recovery ability while adding my own energy, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

“Phew.”

After finishing the treatment, I opened the window to disperse the sleep incense.

“It’s done.”

“That was quick?”

I called Hwangseoyeong back in.

“Wow, I do dressing often but I’ve never done suturing once since graduation… I should practice when I get back.”

She was very impressed looking at the wound I had stitched while doing the dressing.

Well, hopefully there won’t be any need to do this in the future.

But practicing wouldn’t hurt.

“You must have been very shocked. I’ll take care of the blood-stained clothes, so lie down and rest.”

Hwangseoyeong grumbled at me about why I wasn’t more surprised and lay down on the bed.

It was really fortunate that Chairman Rich had provided us with a spacious room with two king-size beds.

* * *

As soon as we opened our eyes the next day, Hwangseoyeong and I faced Roberto.

“I really didn’t know I would fall asleep like that. I apologize for the great inconvenience.”

He repeatedly apologized and thanked us with a face that didn’t know what to do.

He had woken up first but felt bad about waking us, yet couldn’t just leave either.

“How’s your wound?”

I checked the dressing area, but fortunately there was no blood seeping out.

“Yes, it’s improved so much that I can’t believe how much it hurt yesterday. Thank you so much. You saved my life.”

Well, of course it healed quickly since I infused it with my power.

“Good. You were lucky this time, but you could have died from excessive bleeding or sepsis. Never do this again.”

When I warned him not to take stab wounds lightly.

“That’s right. Be careful!”

Hwangseoyeong also added a word of concern.

“We’ll be in Rome until today, so it’s fine if you rest a bit more and go out in the afternoon.”

“I can’t cause you that much trouble. My friend said he can come pick me up, so I’ll go home and rest.”

Considering the surprising amount of bleeding compared to the wound not being very deep… even if he had gone to the hospital, they probably wouldn’t have kept him for a long stay, right?

I wanted to observe his progress a bit more, but intervening further would have been excessive.

We left the hotel after emphasizing the tetanus shot and antibiotics one more time.

“What on earth is this all about? How do we run into the mafia just by coming to Italy?”

And we chatted with Hwangseoyeong about the impressions we couldn’t share the night before because we were too shocked.

“They’re not mafia though.”

“Whatever they are!”

Anyway, it was fortunate that we were leaving Italy tomorrow.

Nothing good comes from getting entangled in other people’s grudges.

A physician should quickly provide treatment and then leave to avoid unnecessary trouble.

Perhaps because of the incident, our last day in Rome was actually spent quite peacefully.

Surely nothing else would happen here.

When we returned to the hotel, Roberto wasn’t there, and we went to sleep to catch an early train to Paris the next day.

And the next day.

“Checking out.”

We were about to leave after returning our card keys at the hotel desk.

“Oh, someone left something for you guests last night.”

The staff member stopped us.

Huh? Something left for us?

“Is there someone who would give us something?”

Chairman Rich? If he had prepared something, he would have given it during our meal.

Then Roberto? He wouldn’t have been in the right state of mind to prepare a gift.

Surely it’s not from the rival organization…

“I certainly don’t know anyone.”

What the staff handed over was a paper bag with a luxury brand logo.

A bomb wouldn’t come out of this, would it?

Having such ridiculous thoughts, I opened the paper bag.

“It’s clothes?”

“Huh?”

Inside the bag were four sets of clothes in the same color.

“There’s a card too?”

There was also a black card.

[Thank you for the kindness shown to my son. We never forget favors or grudges.]

I couldn’t tell whose the contact information for some family written below was.

…but given the circumstances, it seemed to be from Roberto’s father.

“Don’t tell me this is to replace what we tore for the bleeding…”

Hwangseoyeong’s jaw dropped.

It was exactly the same color as the new clothes she had torn up for the initial bleeding control.

“What? How did they know?”

“Did his father find out?”

What was certain was that there was no one around when we found Roberto and stopped his bleeding.

Then how did they know?

Were there CCTVs on the street? Or was the person he called his friend this morning secretly in contact with the boss?

…A war between mafias. Is it brewing?

His determination to hide it like that is admirable, isn’t it?

“I don’t know. Forget it! I don’t want to get involved with favors or grudges!”

I shook my head vigorously.

Getting caught up in such matters is enough in the martial arts world.

We’re leaving Italy today, so when would we ever need help?

“It’s a bit creepy. How scary must Roberto be?”

“Ugh, right.”

We roughly stuffed the card and clothes into our bag and hurried to the train station.

Soon we left the terrifying Italy and crossed the border into France.

* * *

The Paris trip was very peaceful.

We didn’t go near any alleys and focused our sightseeing on museums and art galleries.

For night views, we didn’t desire anything other than the Eiffel Tower visible directly from our hotel.

That alone was enough.

The Eiffel Tower was beautiful no matter how many times we looked at it.

Unlike when coming to Europe, there wasn’t a dull moment on the return flight.

Being exhausted both mentally and physically, I slept and before I knew it, we had arrived in South Korea.

“Get home safely.”

“Yeah, let’s meet again soon.”

From there, I took another flight and came down to Busan.

Since I had packed my schedule tightly, I had to go to work the very next day.

“Director! Did you have a good trip?”

“Hah… I really went through a lot…”

I sighed as I handed out souvenirs I had hastily bought at the Paris airport.

It was exactly the same kind of comment Hwang Sanghun had made when he returned from visiting his grandmother’s grave.

Usually when you travel like this, it feels short, but those 8 nights and 9 days felt so long.

“Nothing happened at the clinic, right?”

I was incredibly happy to have my daily routine back.

When I asked Lee Ahreum and Hwang Sanghun, they replied that they had seen patients without any issues.

“Let’s see how busy it was while I was gone~.”

I turned on the computer and checked the charts from the past week.

There must have been people looking for me while I was away, so I wonder if they handled it well?

Maybe it was unexpectedly quiet since the patients who only look for me were missing?

“Huh? Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands…”

I opened the daily settlement in the chart program, and the numbers in the non-covered services column looked a bit strange.

“Does this daily revenue even make sense?”

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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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