The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 169

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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 169

 

Lee Hiwon, age 62.

 

She was born as the daughter of a well-off family and even graduated from art school in those days.

 

In her youth, she opened a small art academy and ran it quite well, but closed it upon marriage.

 

Through her parents’ introduction, she met a man who was a teacher in Busan and decided to marry him after six months.

 

Though it was essentially an arranged meeting, Lee Hiwon experienced a romantic love for those six months.

 

They had a long-distance relationship, exchanging dozens of letters.

 

She even received a thousand paper cranes that were popular in those days.

 

And she received a wonderful proposal along with a diamond ring.

 

The two lived happily.

 

The husband diligently worked at school and brought home his salary, while the wife was a devoted homemaker faithful to household duties.

 

Lee Hiwon frugally managed the salary her husband brought home, raised the children, bought a house, and even managed to prepare for retirement.

 

From the outside, it looked like a harmonious family straight out of a painting.

 

Now that their son and daughter had found jobs and were earning their own living, there seemed to be no worries.

 

But Lee Hiwon’s heart was burning away more each day.

 

“Let’s try having some hobbies. Hiking, or golf…”

 

“Wouldn’t hiking be good? We don’t know how long we’ll do it, so buying too much equipment seems excessive.”

 

It started with a hiking group.

 

The two found a local hiking group and joined as a couple, but unfortunately, Lee Hiwon sprained her ankle on the first hike.

 

So while she rested for the first few times, her husband attended the meetings alone.

 

If she hadn’t injured her ankle then, would this have happened?

 

Or would what was meant to happen have happened anyway?

 

When the group planned a 2-day, 1-night trip to Jirisan, her ankle had completely healed.

 

But her husband worried and told her to rest a little more.

 

He scolded her, asking if she wouldn’t become a burden if she fell behind.

 

He persuaded Lee Hiwon, saying his heart would ache if she got injured again.

 

Given her track record, she felt uneasy… but not wanting to acknowledge it, she ignored her intuition.

 

One day, while turning away and spending each day like that, an unbearable sadness suddenly overwhelmed her.

 

So she checked the car’s black box, and her suspicions were confirmed.

 

A woman’s voice was recorded there.

 

Moreover, when her husband went out, she opened his laptop and checked PC KakaoTalk.

 

[Honey~~~^^* I’m,, going to be late today,,, my wife won’t let me go^^*]

 

[Aww! So sad! I’ll go into the motel first and wait for you!]

 

[I’ll come quickly,,,,;; Tonight will be a Paris night~~~]

 

It was absolutely ridiculous.

 

She thought grabbing the back of one’s neck in dramas was an exaggerated gesture, but she really felt dizzy.

 

“My stomach feels really bad today, so I came urgently. Please treat me~”

 

The Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic that had treated her ankle and where she went whenever her shoulders were tense.

 

Unable to bear staying still in the empty house, she rushed there.

 

“Thank you. I feel much better thanks to you.”

 

After receiving treatment, she could barely manage to eat.

 

But once it caught her eye, everything seemed suspicious.

 

He would go to public baths he’d never visited before, spending hours there as a new hobby, and why did his old juniors call her husband so frequently?

 

When she saw her husband coming in with wet hair, claiming he’d grown fond of the baths, her hand would suddenly tighten around the kitchen knife.

 

“Clinic Director, I have a severe headache today~”

 

When the caring director thoroughly treated her painful areas, she felt very good when leaving.

 

“How are you feeling today?”

 

“Oh, I was fine, but my husband made me feel frustrated again…”

 

Since she ended up saying she felt worse every time she visited, Lee Hiwon felt unnecessarily sorry.

 

“Sigh, I wonder what my fate really is. What did I live so hard for~ My husband is having an affair~ My son and daughter say they can’t even come for holidays~”

 

Even so, complaints about her life kept spilling from her mouth.

 

It was partly because the Clinic Director listened well to her stories, and partly because she had no other friends to talk to.

 

Even when she resolved that she shouldn’t do this and should stay quiet today, when she went to the clinic, her heart would ease and the stories inside her would keep spilling out.

 

After repeating cycles of improvement, deterioration, improvement, and deterioration again.

 

She had gotten much better after taking medicine.

 

When her heart pounded and she felt breathless, she thought something terrible had happened, but fortunately it was caught early.

 

“Hmm~ Mmm~ Hmm~.”

 

But while cleaning the house, letting the ridiculous excuse about her husband’s college friends coming down from Seoul go in one ear and out the other.

 

She ended up seeing the gift he had forgotten to take.

 

Was it the 100th day with his mistress or something?

 

Under the bed, there were densely written letters, a glass bottle of paper cranes, and a luxury wallet.

 

“…The pattern is exactly the same as 30 years ago?”

 

It was absurd.

 

In the living room, there were still paper cranes her husband had folded during their dating days over thirty years ago.

 

Though the glass bottle had become much prettier as times changed, what was contained inside was the same old thing.

 

“When on earth did he get something like this… Good heavens, they even sell it as a finished product?”

 

In the midst of all this, when she opened the letter.

 

“Hahaha.”

 

The sentences were familiar.

 

An old letter she would open every time she did a thorough cleaning.

 

Back then, her husband would act like a proper Korean language teacher and even write poems, putting carefully considered beautiful sentences in his letters.

 

Is even that too bothersome for him now?

 

To the point where he’d take out old letters and copy his thirty-something-year-old self.

 

“Haha, haha.”

 

Will he come back in to get his gift?

 

If so, if so, I’ll hit his head with this glass bottle…

 

Lee Hiwon placed the glass bottle by the foyer and waited for a long time, but all she received from her husband was a message saying he’d drunk a lot with his friends and would sleep over for the night.

 

Then when she went to the traditional Korean medicine clinic, the always kind clinic director said:

 

“To get better, I think you ultimately need to eliminate the source of your anger.”

 

For a moment, she genuinely mistook it as telling her to eliminate her husband.

 

She had been searching online for assassination costs while receiving physical therapy.

 

“I’m a law-abiding citizen who would never think of committing murder.”

 

“Oh, of course. You’re joking. Haha.”

 

“Even if by any chance he had an accident, I would have absolutely nothing to do with… Oh my, what am I saying?”

 

The more she spoke, the more suspicious it sounded, so Lee Hiwon shut her mouth.

 

Didn’t this sound exactly like someone who had been seriously planning a murder and got flustered?

 

Really, I was just, just thinking about it!

 

“Have you ever considered divorce? Your relationship with your spouse is having a severely negative impact on your health. In fact, you can’t even call him a spouse anymore.”

 

“That’s right. Husband my foot, he’s literally just an enemy now.”

 

The clinic director very carefully brought up the topic of divorce.

 

Given how much she had complained about her husband so far, it wasn’t that surprising.

 

“The second time, I seriously thought about it and even consulted with a lawyer once. I should have done it then if I was going to, but what’s the point now…”

 

But Lee Hiwon didn’t particularly want to get divorced.

 

Just, wasn’t it all too late for that?

 

She had already spent her entire life living as that man’s wife, so if she divorced and lost even that, what would remain?

 

“It’s a 100-year lifespan. You still have to live another 40 years. Rather than continuing to suffer from the same thing, wouldn’t it be better to be deeply sad once and live a new life? …In 10 years, you might think you should have done it then.”

 

“Do you think so?”

 

“What do the other family members say? You said you have two children?”

 

“Oh my, my son and daughter don’t know. They’re busy working, so what’s the point of telling them about this?”

 

“Try telling them once. If your daughter got married and you were hiding the fact that your son-in-law was cheating…”

 

“If that happened, I’d have to smash his skull right away!”

 

Lee Hiwon shouted without realizing it.

 

“Hmm, ahem.”

 

“Yes. Your son and daughter would think the same way.”

 

“Ah…”

 

“Children also know who was faithful to the family and what’s right or wrong.”

 

And she thought for a moment.

 

“But if we unnecessarily become a divorced family, it might be a blemish when the children get married.”

 

Dr. Hwang shook her head.

 

“The children won’t think that way. Among my patients, there’s a lawyer, and she says there are very many cases where children bring their parents for twilight divorces.”

 

Lee Hiwon had heard such stories too.

 

It was a term that appeared quite often on the news.

 

– What divorce at this age. If you’re married, you should take responsibility for my family for life!

 

She remembered something her husband had said while watching TV together once.

 

It must have been him saying he would take responsibility no matter what happened, but…

 

He probably never thought his wife might leave first.

 

“I’ll think about it.”

 

Thinking about it this way made her even angrier.

 

“If there’s anything I can help you with, I’ll definitely help. I hope you make a choice that’s truly for yourself.”

 

“Yes, thank you.”

 

Usually she felt refreshed after receiving treatment.

 

Today she felt much more troubled than when she went in.

 

When she dragged her heavy body home, her husband wasn’t there.

 

And the gifts she had put out in the foyer had also disappeared.

 

When he was caught before, he would at least beg for forgiveness, but now there wasn’t even a word of excuse.

 

“…”

 

All the affection she had tried so hard to maintain fell away.

 

The option she had buried deep in her heart became clear.

 

* * *

 

A while later.

 

“Fortunately, she decided to get divorced. As soon as the mutual divorce was rejected, she hired a lawyer, and it looks like things will work out well.”

 

“Oh, once she makes up her mind, she’s really decisive.”

 

Hwang Sanghun shared news about the patient.

 

Ever since our first consultation about intervening in personal matters, he had been updating me whenever the situation changed bit by bit.

 

The patient herself had a clear will to improve her situation, and since Hwang Sanghun was actively helping, things seemed to be progressing well in many ways.

 

“I hope she lives well after the divorce.”

 

Hwang Sanghun spoke very seriously.

 

“You’re being quite sentimental? Does this patient particularly weigh on your mind?”

 

“Oh, was I like that?”

 

“You were… Have you gotten quite close?”

 

He originally paid a lot of attention to all patients, but honestly, it felt like he was excessively invested in this particular case.

 

In fact, he could have said a word or two, or not said anything at all, but hadn’t he gone through an awful lot of deliberation?

 

“You’re right.”

 

Hwang Sanghun blinked as if he had just realized it.

 

“Well, there are often patients you’re particularly concerned about.”

 

As long as you’re human, there are people whose personalities match yours, and when you learn their stories, your heart goes out to them more.

 

Would I have felt quite attached too? Patients who talk about complicated family matters at the traditional Korean medicine clinic are rare.

 

In fact, patients who come with their families usually have good relationships.

 

As for stories I’ve experienced before, there was that woman who witnessed her husband’s affair in the bedroom and actually cracked his head open?

 

Then she came running to me saying he shouldn’t die, which quite flustered me.

 

Back then, I hadn’t been in the martial arts world long and wasn’t used to trauma patients…

 

“I guess that’s it. I think I saw similarities with my own family.”

 

“Huh? Your family…”

 

“My mother left home when I was young. But even so, my father stubbornly insisted that divorce wasn’t an option, and it was so painful to watch.”

 

Wait, what?

 

I was quietly nodding my head when I was startled.

 

They say there’s no family without its stories, and I knew his family was frustrating and complicated in many ways.

 

But I never expected there would be this kind of problem too.

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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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