The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 226
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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 226
I turned the first page of the business plan that Park Seon-yun had handed me.
And I read through from the first letter to the last letter on the first page in one go.
I turned the page.
Again, I read from the first letter to the last letter.
“….”
Huh?
How long has it been since I couldn’t read text like this?
It felt like the first time since I had just fallen into the Martial Arts World and faced medical texts written in archaic language.
It wasn’t even that Park Seon-yun had mixed in business terms I didn’t know.
I was simply overwhelmed by this brick.
“Would you like to sit for a moment? Would it be more comfortable to talk in the examination room? I’ll explain everything step by step. For now, I think it would be good to proceed with the pharmaceutical approach based on my judgment.”
Park Seon-yun asked, alternately pointing to the examination room and the waiting room sofa.
What, you want me to read all of this here? That’s ridiculous.
“I’ll read through it carefully and let you know.”
I wanted to run away, but I had to maintain my composure in front of someone who would soon become my business partner.
I smiled brightly and issued an order to leave.
“Ah, I see? Please review it at your leisure. I’ll come back tomorrow!”
My uncontrolled eyelids and lips trembled slightly.
Tomorrow?
Tomorrow is a clinic holiday.
But even so, to read all of this in just one day…?
“Oh, sorry! You’re closed tomorrow. I’ll come the day after tomorrow!”
…That’s the same thing.
If we’re meeting the evening of the day after tomorrow when I have appointments, I still have to read everything tomorrow!
“Sorry for visiting so suddenly! I was so excited that I was rude. I’ll see you again!”
Park Seon-yun handed me the brick and disappeared.
Even though he had made a somewhat wasted trip for something that didn’t even require a personal visit, his face showed nothing but joy.
To be that happy.
‘Whatever. I’ll look at it tomorrow.’
In complete contrast to him, I threw down the documents and went to sleep.
I even postponed my breathing exercises until the next day.
I’m someone who doesn’t usually get tired easily, but thanks to someone, I had exhausted all my mental energy since morning!
* * *
The next day.
I opened my eyes, waking from a nightmare of being crushed by a pile of documents.
“Ugh, what a truly horrible holiday.”
Like a modern person, I turned on my phone as soon as I woke up and checked the time.
Even though I had things to do, my holiday routine was to postpone them briefly and handle my game tasks first.
After that, I casually accessed a portal site and browsed the news.
“…Ha.”
But there was nowhere to escape.
Words like ‘Saudi Arabia’, ‘Prince’, ‘Faisal bin Amir’, and ‘Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic’ were visible everywhere.
Half of the news titles on the page contained such words.
Is this really newsworthy enough to become such an issue?
It’s not even ‘that Crown Prince’ but just an associate who came?
Unless they deliberately ordered a lot of news coverage!
I clicked on one Prince-related article that seemed least related to the Oriental Medicine Clinic.
It was about when Faisal would be in South Korea and what schedule he planned to handle.
It came with a photo of him waving with a greasy smile.
[Meanwhile, Prince Faisal bin Amir visited Busan yesterday and received headache treatment at Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic. He reported that his head felt very clear and he had escaped from pain he had considered a natural affliction.]
I quickly pressed the back button.
And took a deep breath.
I prepared myself mentally and checked an article that had our Oriental Medicine Clinic’s name in the title from the start.
I had to look. There might be strange content written.
This one started with the Prince’s story, but it even mentioned other celebrities who had received treatment at our Oriental Medicine Clinic.
It even included where our branches were located nationwide.
What? They wrote it as if I had paid for advertising!
[Clinic Director!!!!!!!!!! What is this!!!!!]
A message push notification appeared. It was Chu Miyoung.
She seemed to have checked SNS as soon as she woke up too.
[That’s how it happened.]
I explained this absurd situation in the group message room where the branch directors were gathered.
Everyone was flustered because it happened so suddenly, but the atmosphere was generally congratulatory.
[I also received the business plan, so I’ll read it and let you know.]
Now I could no longer postpone it.
I spread out the documents piled on one side of my desk.
I struggled through reading from the first page, which had been nearly impossible to get through yesterday.
Fortunately, once I opened my mind to it, it wasn’t completely unreadable.
The readability was actually quite good.
I could almost see the phantom of Park Seon-yun’s eyes gleaming behind the paper, wondering if she had really written the entire thing herself.
Thud.
By the time I closed the last page, it was already late at night. The entire holiday had ended.
‘I roughly understand what she’s trying to do and how.’
There was an enormous amount of reference material, as if she had been reviewing overseas cases from before.
‘But this isn’t something that can be finished with just one or two royal hospitals…?’
To make a profit from an investment of this scale, it seemed like we’d need to expand to various places around the world.
In fact, a blueprint for that was also drawn out in the plan.
It was fortunate that the legal review regarding prescription rights, which I had requested special attention for, was well done.
But this.
Still, this.
“Director Park.”
I called Park Seon-yun as soon as I got to work the next day.
It was to ask about the plan I had reviewed.
– Oh, Clinic Director! Should I come over now if you have time?
“It’s fine. I read it well! I just have some things I’d like to ask about.”
I checked if there had been any similar inquiries from places other than Saudi Arabia.
Very naturally, there hadn’t been.
– If we show results in Saudi Arabia, we’ll be able to make proactive proposals to other countries we already have connections with!
Park Seon-yun was just dreaming big.
…Someone would stop her, right? Even if not me, there would be the board of directors or people like that.
– But did you read all of it? I was planning to summarize it for you. Clinic Director, are you the type who reads all the terms and conditions?
What kind of talk is this now.
“Wasn’t that what you gave it to me to read for?”
I was very flustered.
But Park Seon-yun was even more flustered than me.
– Um, the materials are for reference, and usually I give presentations while telling you to look at certain pages? I was planning to explain while flipping through it with you, Clinic Director…
Ah?
So that’s why she suggested going to the examination room?
– Haha, Grandmother always emphasizes that you should be able to explain things so even a middle schooler can understand.
Damn, that’s what it was.
If I had stayed quiet, I would have listened to explanations while she highlighted things with a marker.
I went through all that trouble reading that brick for nothing?
…No. Reading it is good, yes.
I should know how things work too.
“I see. Anyway, yes… I confirmed it well. I was surprised by Director’s overflowing passion. Thank you for checking the parts I mentioned before as well.”
Having taken double the mental damage, I smiled brightly just like yesterday.
“I’ll trust only Director Park.”
Even though Park Seon-yun wasn’t in front of me, I gave a thumbs up alone in the examination room.
– Clinic Director…!
Unlike me bursting into hearty laughter, Park Seon-yun’s tone was deeply moved.
– No matter what the board says, I’ll knock them all down. I’ll make it happen for you under the best conditions no matter what. Thank you for trusting me!
No, you don’t need to go that far.
But if I nitpicked every word here, this conversation would never end.
I just said I would trust her and asked her to handle things well.
– But are you going to keep calling me Director Park?
Just as I was about to hang up, Park Seon-yun threw in a strange objection.
“Since you’re not here as a patient but for work?”
Wouldn’t it be a bit odd to address her with the honorific ‘nim’ like I do with patients?
These days many companies do that internally, but even those places would use job titles when outside.
– That’s… true.
Strangely, Park Seon-yun ended the call with a disappointed tone.
How silly.
[I’ve finished my business. I’ll see patients right away if there are any.]
I had told the desk in the morning to have any new patients wait briefly since I had something to take care of.
Since the call ended quickly, I left a message saying I would see patients right away.
Business is business, and I need to see patients for medical care too.
[Someone just came and registered, so I’ll send them in.]
[Okay.]
Fortunately, it seemed no waiting patients had appeared during the brief interval.
Shortly after, a first-time patient who had just arrived was registered on the chart.
Im Juweon, 17 years old. That would make her nineteen in Korean age.
The affected area was… headache.
‘She didn’t come after seeing the article, did she?’
Thanks to the extensive articles about the prince, I felt a bit of self-consciousness creeping in.
“Hello.”
The patient who entered didn’t show any particular signs of that.
People who come after hearing rumors usually display a certain expectation, or emotions like being amazed at meeting someone they’d seen in the media in person.
But the female student who entered the examination room was simply exhausted.
‘She’s about to enter her senior year of high school, so it’s understandable that her head would hurt.’
Even without the article, I see headache patients about once every two or three days.
“You came because of a headache. How long have you had it?”
I dismissed my suspicions and focused on the patient.
“I’ve had them occasionally before, but it’s been quite severe since this morning.”
Im Juweon pressed broadly from the back of her head to her temples.
“Have you taken any painkillers?”
“No. They make me drowsy, so it’s hard to study. I came to try acupuncture.”
“Do you usually have headaches on and off?”
“Um… No. It’s because I slept too much today. Once every month or two? Only when I sleep a lot. It hurts from sleeping, but taking painkillers and sleeping again is just…”
She trailed off, glancing at me unnecessarily.
Her tone sounded like she was making excuses.
“I was asking to check the severity and degree of chronicity. I wasn’t suggesting you take painkillers. You did well coming here.”
If it only hurt when she slept too much, it wasn’t in the category of chronic migraines.
“When you sleep too long, your blood sugar can drop from not eating during that time, and it’s common for muscles to tense up or blood circulation to be poor from staying in the same position for too long. The balance of neurotransmitters in the brain can also be disrupted.”
“Ah, yes. Is it that blood isn’t reaching my head? …It feels dull and throbbing on the sides.”
Only then did Im Juweon nod her head.
Actually, unless accompanied by conditions like sleep apnea, the cause isn’t that important for hypersomnia headaches.
I just need to treat the symptoms that appeared this time.
I smiled gently to reassure Im Juweon.
“That can happen. How many hours did you sleep?”
“Um… about 14 hours.”
But her gaze dropped back down to her knees.
While it wasn’t uncommon for young students to become timid in front of doctors, even considering that, her complexion didn’t look good at all.
“That is quite a lot of sleep. Did you sleep especially long just yesterday? Do you usually not sleep well on weekdays because of studying?”
Deep guilt flashed across Im Juweon’s face.
Now, warning signals were going off.
“I sleep a lot on weekdays too.”
“Roughly? What time do you go to sleep and what time do you wake up?”
“I sleep before 10 and wake up at 7 or 8. But I also sleep during study hall at school, and a bit during math class too.”
“Do you find it hard to control when you suddenly feel sleepy? Like narcolepsy?”
“No. I just want to sleep.”
Im Juweon shook her head.
Narcolepsy was ruled out.
“Let me check your pulse once.”
Despite more than sufficient sleep, Im Juweon’s pulse was weak and sunken.
Her shoulders drooped as if exhausted by everything in the world, and her eyes were only half-open as if it was difficult to lift her eyelids.
“You don’t have much appetite either, do you? Do you eat two or three meals? Haven’t you lost weight recently?”
“I eat when there’s school lunch, but I do skip breakfast or dinner because I’m sleeping. Whether I’ve lost weight… oh, maybe.”
“You can’t concentrate on studying well either.”
“…Yes. I do it, but well… I wasn’t originally very good at it anyway.”
Im Juweon lifted the corners of her mouth just slightly in a bitter expression.
“Do you tend to think a lot before going to sleep?”
“Not particularly? I just wish tomorrow wouldn’t come?”
This patient’s problem wasn’t the headache.
Sleeping 14 hours a day almost every day was clearly in the category of hypersomnia.
It also met the diagnostic criteria for depression.
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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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