The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 214

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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 214

“Kim Jinsang~ It’s been a while since you’ve come? What’s bothering you?”

“Can I see Doctor Han right now?”

Usually when entering the oriental medicine clinic, the desk handles registration along with a simple preliminary examination.

The treatment room can predict how long the consultation will take, and I try to think of expected conditions as well.

However, Kim Jinsang didn’t answer the desk staff’s question and urgently pressed them.

‘Could it be neuralgia from postherpetic complications?’

It had been a while since Kim Jinsang came alone without Park Seon-yun.

Was the neuralgia suddenly so severe that he was this urgent?

Just from hearing his voice, Kim Jinsang seemed as anxious as when he first visited our oriental medicine clinic, so I sent a message to the staff not to make it difficult for him and to let him into the examination room.

“Hello, what’s bothering you?”

I threw out the basic greeting along with the standard question, but I guessed at the same time I asked.

It was noticeable as soon as I saw his face.

“Why are your eyes so severely bloodshot? Haven’t you been sleeping?”

I thought he was a Makyodo member who had fallen into qi deviation.

His eyes were bulging, the whites were reddened, and dark circles had settled heavily beneath them.

Though it was a bit different from being completely red from conjunctivitis.

Had he been looking at electronic devices all night? Or was he exposed to a dry place for a long time?

“That’s exactly why I came. My eyes are so blurry. There’s nothing in them but I don’t know why they’re like this. The ophthalmologist said it’s not inflammation and gave me artificial tears, saying if it continues I should go to internal medicine.”

Kim Jinsang leaned his body toward the desk and poured out everything he wanted to say.

“Wait, please calm down first.”

“Ah, yes.”

Still, he listened well since there was trust built up between us.

“How many days has it been?”

“Uh… about 1 or 2 weeks?”

“Is there no suspected cause?”

“No. I didn’t particularly do anything to my eyes, so I don’t know why they’re like this…”

Kim Jinsang said he didn’t know, but.

I thought I knew.

“It seems like your blood pressure is high.”

“Huh?”

I had just seen a blood pressure patient, and was in a situation where I was wondering how to send Kim Jinsang to the martial arts school too.

At a time like this, he came with symptoms related to high blood pressure – I couldn’t not know.

Kim Jinsang hesitated.

“Really? Do eyes get red when blood pressure is high? Has it really gotten higher?”

He too thought it seemed plausible.

Kim Jinsang turned his body completely and kept glancing at the examination room door.

When was it that he was making a fuss wanting to come in quickly?

There was a blood pressure monitor in the waiting room, so he wanted to go check it.

Sigh, not all hypertensive patients are impatient, but it seemed like many impatient people develop high blood pressure as they age.

“Are you taking blood pressure medication?”

The initial chart said he wasn’t taking any medication, but since quite some time had passed since I first saw him, I asked again.

“No. I don’t take any. My blood pressure isn’t always high. When I run or get angry and check it, it shoots up, but if I rest a little it goes down quickly.”

“I see. But right now it seems to be maintained at a slightly high level. Let’s go out and check once.”

“Yes.”

I accompanied Kim Jinsang to check his blood pressure.

The result was 144/82.

…According to diagnostic criteria, it was stage 2 hypertension.

“Huh, that’s strange. It was normal when I had my health checkup last time?”

Kim Jinsang was very flustered.

I brought him back into the examination room and asked.

“When was that?”

“You know, the health checkup at the end of the year.”

If he’s an office worker, he means the national health screening that should be done every two years. It doesn’t particularly have to be done at year-end, but most office workers procrastinate and end up doing it at the end of the year.

Anyway, it really wasn’t that long ago.

“It could be temporarily elevated. Since the eye redness has only been 1-2 weeks, the blood pressure could be about the same duration.”

“Ah, but today I didn’t run here, and usually it would go down after resting for 20-30 minutes…”

“If you get momentarily angry and then calm down, that would be the case, but if stress is continuously maintained, blood pressure can last longer too.”

When stressed, the sympathetic nervous system becomes activated, and hormones like adrenaline and cortisol are secreted.

This induces increased heart rate and blood vessel constriction, naturally raising blood pressure.

“Ah…”

“Do you have any suspected stress factors? Including both mental stress and physical stress like overwork without rest.”

“…Come to think of it, there is something I can think of. Since then I haven’t been sleeping well, and my eyes seem to have gotten red too.”

Kim Jinsang frowned.

When I asked like this, there seemed to be something that came to mind.

“If you can’t even sleep, that would be the direct cause of the blood pressure rise and eye redness.”

During sleep, there’s a natural nocturnal blood pressure drop phenomenon where blood pressure naturally decreases.

However, if you don’t sleep well, the physiological processes that regulate blood pressure are disrupted, causing it to remain high even during the day.

“For now, rather than blood pressure medication, let’s try taking herbal medicine to help you sleep well and calm stress while monitoring changes in eye redness and blood pressure.”

“Oh, will my anxious feelings also be cured?”

Kim Jinsang’s face brightened with color.

Of course it would help with stress control too.

But his expression bothered me.

“Do you have anxiety?”

“Yes.”

“Among anger, anxiety, and depression, which seems the greatest?”

“…Right now, anxiety.”

This was somewhat unexpected.

In Kim Jinsang’s case, his emotions didn’t usually run wild but tended to explode quantitatively, so I had assumed he was arbitrarily expressing anger and chest tightness as anxiety.

But he actually has real anxiety?

“Would it be difficult to tell me the reason for your stress?”

Naturally, if possible, it would be best to remove the fundamental cause.

If it was ordinary work stress, or if he was angry at everything around him like Kim Jaegyu, there would be nothing I could do but prescribe medicine for symptoms and send him to a martial arts school to discipline himself.

Since a patient like Kim Jinsang was complaining of anxiety, I wanted to check first.

“Hmm…”

“All secrets that come out in the examination room will be strictly kept. It may be something I can’t help with, but just talking about it will make you feel somewhat better.”

“Please, keep it secret from the young master for now.”

From Park Seon-yun?

It was natural to keep medical history or personal stories secret from acquaintances.

I nodded.

“Actually, I think I caused damage to the company because of my hot temper. Sigh, it seems like we lost a business partner.”

“Ah… something like that happened?”

“After that, the young master hasn’t been taking me around lately. I’m worried I might get fired, and with everything feeling anxious and sorry, I can’t sleep well either. I should have fixed this personality long ago.”

Caused damage to the company because of his hot temper? Did the driver get angry at a company executive?

A whole drama played out in my head.

Kim Jinsang opened his mouth as if he had been waiting.

* * *

Two weeks ago.

Kim Jinsang was working as usual.

More precisely, he was taking a break between duties.

After driving Park Seon-yun to a location for an external meeting, he was waiting in the parking lot.

Originally, there wasn’t much to do during times like this.

Sometimes he would handle tasks when Park Seon-yun asked for personal errands, but usually he would kill time at a nearby cafe or just sit in the driver’s seat with the engine off.

Since he had accompanied Park Seon-yun on a business trip to Seoul the day before, he was quite tired today.

So Kim Jinsang had pushed his seat back and was lying comfortably, half-dozing.

‘He said it would take over two hours… there’s enough gas…’

Then an SUV entered the empty spot to the left of Kim Jinsang’s parked car.

Up until then, he hadn’t paid much attention.

Bang!

Suddenly there was an impact toward the driver’s side.

“…?”

It wasn’t that the cars had collided.

When he straightened his seat and checked.

It was what’s commonly called a ‘door ding.’

“Hey, anyone can see it’s cramped! Where do you have your eyes when you walk around?”

Like most underground parking lots in our country, each space wasn’t very wide.

Even so, if you opened it slightly and got out carefully, there was enough space for one person to exit.

What kind of behavior was this?

Kim Jinsang rolled down his window and burst out angrily.

He wanted to open the car door and get out completely, but there was no space because of the car next to him.

“Geez, damn it… I’m busy as hell and you’re making a fuss over nothing.”

But there was someone inside, and even seeing him get angry, the door-dinger was brazen.

He even hurled curses at Kim Jinsang.

“What, you bastard?”

Since he was dusting off his suit and trying to leave just like that, Kim Jinsang got out of his car as soon as the other car’s door closed and grabbed him.

Where was he trying to go just like that?

The car naturally had marks left on it, so he needed to receive compensation.

He was also annoyed that his door was hit while he was lying down and resting.

“What? You bastard? Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t care, just apologize properly. You need to pay for the paint job before you go.”

“Ah, I’m the GMCL Korea Branch Head!”

Instead of apologizing, the guy showed off by mentioning his position.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of that company, what…”

“It’s Global Medicore Link, okay? It’s a company that handles global pharmaceutical distribution! Even if it’s not well known in Korea, it’s incredibly big worldwide…”

“Ah, save the company introduction for a presentation. Our young master is more successful.”

“Young master?”

The man looked Kim Jinsang up and down.

“You were a driver? How dare someone like you speak informally to me? I don’t know who your young master is, but even if the PK chairman came, he couldn’t do anything to me!”

“What? Someone like me?”

“Damn it, a useless bastard who can be replaced by anyone, acting all high and mighty like he’s some kind of boss…”

The man was the first to speak informally. Along with profanity.

So he had responded in kind.

Of course, Kim Jinsang had raised his voice first, but that wouldn’t have happened if there hadn’t been the door ding.

But as soon as the man realized he was a driver, he started pointing fingers and making personal attacks.

“Hey, I used to be…”

“Department Head, you’re late for the meeting.”

Just then, a woman got out of the driver’s seat of the car next to them.

He had been cursing at a driver like that, yet he had a driver sitting right next to him too.

“Oh, right.”

“Crazy.”

“I need to go up, so have this secretary handle it!”

Then he stopped fighting with Kim Jinsang and hurried toward the elevator.

So it wasn’t a driver, but a system where the secretary also drove.

“I’m sorry, sir. The company will compensate for the repair costs.”

At least he received an apology from the secretary instead.

Along with a promise to compensate for repair costs and her contact information.

“Ugh, what terrible luck today…!”

Of course, since he hadn’t received an apology from the person responsible, his mood remained sour.

About two hours later.

Park Seon-yun returned.

“Young master, do you know what just happened?”

Kim Jinsang was still fuming, unable to calm his anger.

“I see.”

Normally he would have offered a word or two of sympathy, but today’s Park Seon-yun seemed completely drained.

“You look like you’re in an even worse mood than me?”

“Ah, yes… Things didn’t go well.”

He seemed a bit depressed too.

“Well, that happens sometimes. I guess the meeting didn’t go well.”

Kim Jinsang calmed his anger and asked casually, intending to comfort him.

Having served him since childhood, they had a closer relationship than ordinary driver and employer.

Of course, if it was something he shouldn’t know about, Park Seon-yun would naturally be careful with his words.

“It was precarious, but the deal fell through in the end. I tried to persuade them well today… Well, it can’t be helped. You can’t catch two rabbits at once.”

It didn’t seem to be particularly secret, as Park Seon-yun spoke openly about it.

Suddenly, a possibility flashed through his mind.

“By any chance, the name of the company that was cut off this time…”

“GMCL, a foreign company not well known in South Korea. Sigh, now that it’s come to this, do we have to handle overseas distribution directly?”

GMCL.

It was the company of the department head who had fought with Kim Jinsang earlier.

* * *

“Hmm.”

I had imagined a story where he got angry and caused damage to the company because someone had insulted Park Seon-yun or Chairman Choi Gwi-jae.

But it was a different story than I had expected.

Well, he’s not a martial artist or a medieval knight.

He wouldn’t draw his sword for reasons like “How dare you sully my master’s honor!”

“You only got angry about the door ding, right?”

“That’s right.”

“It doesn’t seem like a deal would be cut off over something like that. It’s not like you really acted arrogantly asking if he knew who our young master was, and even if you had… Ah, he probably didn’t even know you were Park Seon-yun’s driver, right?”

“Well, he could have mentioned it upstairs at the meeting, couldn’t he?”

That doesn’t seem likely.

Why would he bring up such a story at a meeting as if it were good news?

“It wasn’t written on the car or work uniform either, was it?”

“Just a plain black sedan and a suit.”

Then maybe it was cut off for legitimate reasons?

“But it seems like the young master has been avoiding me since that day! When he went to handle business nearby on Monday, he didn’t call me and drove himself, and on Wednesday too, instead of me, he used the chairman’s driver…!”

This person, he didn’t seem like it, but he’s surprisingly sensitive.

He could just ask Park Seon-yun about it, but instead he’s been losing sleep and worrying like this!

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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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