The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 218

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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 218

Since it was my first time going there, I left a bit early in case I got lost, but ended up arriving too early.

Would I have to wait an hour in an empty place?

Fortunately, there was no need to worry. The students had already arrived.

‘Oh, I should go say hello while I have time.’

Just as I got out of the car and started looking for Seol Yuhui, I heard someone’s aged voice.

I quickly closed the distance and approached in that direction.

From what I could roughly hear, it seemed like they were asking to brew medicine with herbs they had brought.

‘There used to be quite a lot of people like that back in the day, right?’

In South Korea, there’s at least the justification that you can’t prepare herbal medicine with herbs not approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, but that other world had no such thing.

Sometimes they’d buy from merchants, but when needed, they’d go dig them up from the mountain themselves and brew them.

Especially when I had just fallen into the Martial Arts World, I met all kinds of people in the marketplace, and I didn’t even know how to refuse requests.

When they heard I was a doctor, they’d bring unknown weeds from the mountain asking me to identify them, and back then, having only seen sectioned herbal medicines from school, I was so flustered.

They’d even catch snakes and consult about what herbs to add when making snake wine…

‘I was tender-hearted back then too, yeah.’

Anyway, it’s different now. I’m quite familiar with grandmothers who make outrageous requests unreasonably.

Whether it’s someone who throws tantrums without any intention of listening, or someone who genuinely lacks the intelligence to understand, there are solutions for each type.

“You bought Daeduhwangkwon?”

But an unexpected herbal medicine came out of the grandmother’s mouth.

Of course, Daeduhwangkwon is also an herbal medicine, but…

“That’s right. I bought it at the Community Center event last time because they said it was a precious herbal medicine!”

“Let me see it.”

Sure enough, when the grandmother opened her bundle,

‘Bean sprouts’ revealed themselves.

Daeduhwangkwon . The name sounds grand.

Doesn’t it sound like a mystical elixir like Thousand-Year Flower Pear or Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng?

But ultimately, the origin of Daeduhwangkwon is bean sprouts.

Of course, they look a bit different.

Bean sprouts used as food have long tails because they’re grown in shade with only water supply to let the roots grow, but when used as medicine, they’re dried immediately when the roots have grown about 1cm.

So the grandmother probably couldn’t recognize them at first glance.

“…How much did you pay for this?”

“400,000 won!”

It was undoubtedly a scammer.

It looked like a bit less than 300g, and even considering what she’d already eaten, this would cost 2,000 won to buy.

Selling bean sprouts at deer antler prices.

“Ma’am, please listen to me carefully.”

“Oh, yes.”

“This is bean sprouts. Bean sprouts sold at the market. The person who sold this is a scammer. You need to report them and have them caught.”

“This is Daeduhwangkwon!”

I spoke calmly, but the grandmother couldn’t quite understand the fact that she had been scammed.

“They said if I eat it, toxins will completely drain out, and back pain, knee pain, and diarrhea will all be completely cured!”

Bean sprouts do have detoxifying effects.

That’s why people eat bean sprout soup as hangover soup the day after drinking.

But Daeduhwangkwon isn’t originally such a strong medicinal herb. It’s only added as a supplement, and even then, it’s not used much these days.

“…That damn scammer!”

I shouted angrily.

Perhaps because my voice carried a bit of inner energy,

the grandmother flinched and stepped back, overwhelmed by my presence.

“Scam… what?”

After moving her lips several times, she asked me back.

“It’s a lie. Scammer! Quack! Trash!”

“That young man said it was Daeduhwangkwon…”

“Daeduhwangkwon is bean sprouts. Look. If you search for Daeduhwangkwon, it says bean sprouts, doesn’t it?”

Since people these days trust the internet more than doctors’ words, I showed it on the screen,

but she seemed unable to read Korean.

Well, if she could have searched for it, she wouldn’t have fallen for this trick.

Perhaps the scammer’s plan was to insist he told no lies even if caught?

“‘Wife’ and ‘spouse’ mean the same thing, right? It’s like that.”

“Uh…”

She still didn’t seem to understand.

But she nodded her head.

She instinctively felt that I was more trustworthy than that scammer.

“Then the reason it doesn’t taste like herbal medicine…”

“That’s the original taste.”

“And the lack of effects too?”

“The liar exaggerated the effects. …It probably helped just a tiny bit.”

“My body is in such bad condition that with this…”

“That person isn’t even a Korean Medicine Doctor. Someone who doesn’t know how to treat anything just spoke convincingly.”

The grandmother hung her head low.

“The problem isn’t the running around, it’s that this won’t cure anything…”

“You must have suffered for such a long time. It’s hard to get better with just one dose of medicine.”

“…I paid 400,000 won for this.”

That’s not a small amount of money for anyone. For Grandmother, it would be enough money to believe she could buy a cure-all.

“What should I do.”

Grandmother looked at me with tears welling up in her eyes.

I patted her back to comfort her.

“Please register and sit for a moment. I’ll give you different medicine.”

“How much will it be…?”

“I’ll give it to you for free. Of course, it won’t cure you 100%, but.”

“Can I take it together with this?”

“Yes, of course.”

Grandmother hugged her bundle preciously.

Sigh, I should leave some evidence though.

I decided to take photos first and resolve this problem quickly.

“Can we contact your children? Are there any other acquaintances who bought this together?”

“My kids are busy so they don’t answer the phone well. There are friends who bought it together though.”

“Please give me their contact information. Those people are…”

Grandmother pointed to the welfare center.

Even at a glance, there were very many people. It seemed like all the elderly people from the entire neighborhood had gathered.

“Senior, shall we go check?”

It was the tall male student who had been dealing with Grandmother before I intervened.

“I’m Lee Dongwon, the club president.”

“Ah, please do. Ask around in the waiting room once, and if possible, please make some kind of notice board at the reception area.”

“Yes.”

I asked the President and Staff to look for additional victims.

“Thank you so much. Oh, by any chance… are you Director Han Yewon?”

“Yes, I came at the request of student Seol Yuhui.”

“Ah! I really wanted to meet you once, but I received help first like this. I was really at a loss about how to persuade people, but you’re really amazing as I heard! Thank you for coming!”

“Haha, not at all. This is just the beginning, so let’s work hard.”

Lee Dongwon, who kept expressing gratitude with admiring eyes, found other victims together with the Community Welfare Center Staff, and even completed setting up the volunteer activities by directing other students.

I received the contact information for now.

Tomorrow when the Community Center Staff comes to work, I’ll have to find out who conducted the event.

As treatment time gradually approached, the Professor and other Korean Medicine Doctors also arrived.

“What is this… Make sure to file a complaint.”

The Professor in charge of the club frowned deeply, and the other Korean Medicine Doctors were also indignant, wondering if there were still such scammers.

“There’s someone among our patients who was victimized by this too!”

One of them was especially unable to contain their anger and stomped their feet.

“Wasn’t it the same scammer? One hit in this neighborhood, another hit in a different neighborhood.”

“I think so. Our patient also had bean sprouts. I persuaded them to report it, but their daughter said it was troublesome and just let it go… How much money did they make!”

That Korean Medicine Doctor said they would try to persuade them once more.

I also promised to continue following up on this incident and let them know.

“But you’re not a professor…”

“Ah, I’m a 43rd class graduate. I’m Baek Suji, running a Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic in Gimhae.”

I also introduced myself and exchanged contact information.

“Professor, Director! We need to start soon!”

That’s right, the incident is one thing.

Since I came to do volunteer work, I should get to work.

I entered the Community Welfare Center and found my seat.

* * *

There were 2 accompanying Professors, 4 other Korean Medicine Doctors including me, and 6 fourth-year students scheduled to see patients.

Since my Alma Mater had up to a hundred students per grade, the Medical Volunteer Club alone had about 20 to 30 members per grade.

Perhaps because this school had few students to begin with, the treatment staff was modest.

‘Is one Professor going around to see if the students are doing things properly?’

11 makeshift examination rooms with just desks and chairs, and one bed next to them.

Additionally, several blankets were laid out in case patients needed to lie down.

‘Wow, it’s been really long since I’ve done acupuncture sitting on the floor.’

Even if acupuncture is done for short 10-minute sessions, I can’t make people wait until one person gets up. I’ll definitely have to do acupuncture on the floor too.

I’ll be fine, but will the other Korean Medicine Doctors’ backs and knees be okay?

It’ll be no joke after treating patients while kneeling.

Baek Suji happened to be in the seat next to me.

She said she came a few times as a student, but as a graduate, this was her first time coming at the earnest request of a junior.

“The floor… it’s rough conditions.”

“Fighting.”

It’s volunteer work, so it can’t be helped.

It would be stranger if the Community Welfare Center had hundreds of beds at the appropriate height for acupuncture treatment.

It was fortunate that we were able to rent a space of this size.

“Let’s begin treatment!”

The structure was set up so that patients would register on one side, then have preliminary examinations done by 2nd and 3rd-year medical students on the other side before coming to the Korean Medicine Doctor.

It seemed they were checking both the affected areas and current medical history during the preliminary examination stage to provide treatment as quickly as possible.

Since I was sitting at the very end, I could observe how the other Korean Medicine Doctors were conducting their treatments.

“Your shoulder is bothering you, right?”

“Yes, it hurts all the way from here to here.”

“Please lie down right away.”

The graduate who seemed to have participated in many such volunteer activities skillfully just confirmed the location.

1 minute examination, 1 minute treatment.

“Oh, the place that hurts most is your head…”

“Everything hurts from head to toe.”

“Treating everything would be difficult. I’ll start with your head and neck.”

“My knees ache, my ankles hurt every time I walk, and just holding my phone bothers my wrists…”

“So you’re saying this started after childbirth?”

“That’s right. I gave birth to eight children, and I took good care of myself after the first one. But when I was pregnant with the second, I had to live with my mother-in-law and couldn’t rest, doing farm work instead, so ever since then…”

The 4th-year Medical Student, who seemed to be seeing patients for the first time today, was flustered.

Though not to that extent, since this was Baek Suji’s first volunteer activity, she was examining each patient thoroughly and carefully.

“So you’re saying your back has been hurting ever since you fell at a construction site 30 years ago? Do you still have numbness?”

This was problematic – there were over a hundred people waiting outside.

At this rate, we’d never finish on time.

Wouldn’t we need to see patients at almost the same speed as registration and preliminary examinations to prevent a backlog?

“Doctor, this is Mr. Kim Kilyeong.”

Finally, it was my turn.

A student brought a patient along with the preliminary examination chart.

84 years old, Kim Kilyeong.

His knees had been hurting for 40 years, his back for 25 years.

His surgical history was recorded on the chart.

“I’ve reviewed the preliminary chart well. Could you point out the locations for me?”

“It hurts all around here like this.”

Kim Kilyeong pointed to the entire front of his patella and complained of pain extending to the popliteal fossa behind his knee.

His back naturally hurt everywhere from the thoracolumbar junction to the pelvis.

“You must have suffered a lot.”

“That’s right…”

I quickly checked only the ROM and palpated the potentially problematic areas to identify the lesions.

“To get acupuncture on both front and back, you’ll need to lie on your side. There will be many needles to treat both your knees and back – will that be okay?”

“The more the better, isn’t it?”

Without hesitation, I had Kim Kilyeong lie down and bent the leg that would be underneath to create a position where I could treat both knees.

Then I gathered five packages of 20 needles each into one bundle.

And tore them open simultaneously.

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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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