The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 239

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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 239

From the early days of opening until recently.

How much had she contributed to our Oriental Medicine Clinic from behind the scenes?

I made efforts to compensate her financially as much as possible, even creating excuses to do so.

At the same time, I knew her capabilities were much greater than what she was displaying.

Especially now that our business was expanding beyond just a neighborhood clinic.

From a business owner’s perspective, I wanted to draw out her abilities even if it meant paying her more.

But ultimately, the energy a person can use is limited, isn’t it?

She had her own business, and if I made excessive demands at what she considered a comfortable lifelong workplace, she might quit… so I had been restraining myself as much as possible.

“Director, what do you mean by that?”

Seo Inae turned to look at me in surprise.

“We’re here.”

Since it was evening after work hours, the roads weren’t too congested, so we quickly arrived at Seo Inae’s home.

She had mentioned it was an apartment complex that included an elementary school, and indeed the complex was large and nice.

I parked the car and looked at her with a gentle smile.

“Please come up for a moment. I’ll serve you some tea at least.”

Seo Inae tried to hold me back, but.

“No. Just rest today. Sleep well, and when you’re fully recovered, think about it slowly.”

“How can I sleep soundly after what you said!”

I pointed to the car door and recommended she rest.

Although we had argued back and forth at the clinic about whether she was fine or not, it was clear her condition wasn’t good.

Even if her illness wasn’t progressing, just keeping her eyes open and sitting upright looked extremely difficult for her right now.

Also, wouldn’t it be too much to pressure someone to make an important decision when their mind was weakened by illness?

If I started talking, I wasn’t confident I wouldn’t steer the conversation in my favor.

When I had talked with Gong Nari, I had a firm direction that I believed was right.

But I wanted Seo Inae to decide her future entirely on her own.

“I need to rest too. I came down from Seoul today, and I have to go to work tomorrow.”

“Ah…!”

Eventually, Seo Inae got out of the car reluctantly.

She had done well so far and had the ability to succeed either way.

She could live following her heart’s desires.

* * *

Seo Inae barely managed to walk into her house on shaky legs.

After changing clothes and lying down on her bed, all the strength drained from her body as fatigue washed over her.

It was amazing how she had managed to hold up until just moments ago.

How long had it been since she was this sick? It must have been before Director Hanyewon took over the clinic.

Back then, when one of the two workers was absent, there was no one to cover the shift.

Of course, even if there had been someone, she probably wouldn’t have taken time off anyway.

It was more relaxed then, not as busy as now.

‘I need to make as much money as possible while I can…’

As she closed her eyes to sleep, her parents’ faces suddenly came to mind.

That period when she worked part-time at a convenience store after the clinic and studied how to run a smart store.

Seo Inae had vowed every day that she would definitely become rich and not live like her mother and father.

‘Are those people still living like that? Now that my older sister cut off their living expenses, they’ll have to work.’

In her childhood, the family’s financial situation had been quite good.

Her father ran a business importing electronic devices like MP3 players and electronic dictionaries cheaply from China to sell.

Although she never heard the exact income, it certainly wasn’t small.

In her vague memories, Seo Inae’s family lived in a large, nice house.

“Honey, it’s our wedding anniversary today… shall we have a glass of wine?”

“What? I told you I have an appointment with an important client.”

“When? You only mentioned last week and next week. I naturally assumed you’d be free today…”

“Be quiet! I have to go right now!”

Father’s schedule was always filled with important client golf appointments and such.

“He seems to be on business trips all next week. Shall we go on a trip by ourselves?”

“Yes!”

Instead of fighting with such a father, Mother would relieve stress through spending money as a hobby.

Whether it was her own clothes or the children’s clothes, she always bought them at department stores, and took overseas trips at least once a year without fail.

Then the business collapsed.

Looking back now, Seo Inae thought it was a natural result of the changing times. They should have wrapped it up at the right time.

“You want us to live in a house like this?”

“Just stay for two months. It’ll be resolved soon.”

Father optimistically held on, believing things would improve once the immediate cash flow problem was solved.

Once payments started being delayed, everything collapsed in a chain reaction.

After losing their one house, they moved from place to place in rental housing.

“It’s so cramped there’s nowhere to put clothes…!”

“Stop being so extravagant! If you had just saved the money you brought in, this wouldn’t have happened!”

“Weren’t you the one telling me not to dress the kids tackily in grandmother clothes from the market?”

“What ancient story are you talking about? Right now we can barely survive on just rice and kimchi!”

Mother and Father fought constantly.

The topic was always similar.

There’s no money. Where did you spend it when you were earning a lot? Stop spending so much. You should go out and earn some money.

Money, money, money and money.

“Next time will be successful.”

At first, it seemed like she believed those words.

If they all struggled together and endured just a little longer, Father would make a comeback.

“Please just stop everything now and go work at a construction site! We don’t even have money to buy side dishes!”

“You know I can’t work under someone else because of my personality. The next item will definitely be successful.”

But from around age 10, when I have clear memories, it was always similar.

Father was a terminal patient of business addiction.

When Mother worked briefly or borrowed money from somewhere, he would blow it all in less than a month.

Soon Mother stopped working too.

“Doesn’t your company pay overtime? Find a job that pays 4 million won!”

“Mom, please, face reality a bit…”

“How old is Inae? When does she graduate? Even if it doubled, we could live decently.”

“Inae, just apply to any university. I heard the government supports living expense loans. With even 2-3 million, Father’s business could be revived quickly.”

Seo Inae’s older sister supported the family of four all by herself.

Everything was so utterly disgusting.

She hated both Father and Mother.

Every moment that required spending money was terrible.

The fact that they might even be kicked out of their cramped house and end up on the cold streets was incredibly anxiety-inducing.

Once I graduate high school, I’ll earn money.

I’ll leave this house and become free.

When Seo Inae became an adult like that.

“Now I can feel relieved. Older Sister will have less burden too.”

Older Sister’s words gave her goosebumps.

If I get trapped here, it’s over.

I’ll never be able to escape until I die and will have to pour water into a bottomless jar.

So Seo Inae ran away.

Abandoning Mother, Father, and even Older Sister.

She lived in a gosiwon and worked at a factory to earn money.

After living like that for nearly a year, she had saved up quite a bit of money.

But when she came home after work, she was too tired to do anything. At the factory too, countless people got sick or injured.

Could I do this job for life? What if someday I become unable to work like Father?

Seo Inae worked part-time at a convenience store while getting her nursing aide certification.

The salary was low and didn’t increase much, but getting hired was supposedly easy. Wouldn’t it be enough just to never starve to death?

She could go to a place with as little work as possible, save her salary, and maybe even work a second job.

Paying rent took away 1/4 of her salary.

Even combining the convenience store part-time job, money accumulated too slowly. This was despite not spending money at all except for the minimum consumption needed to eat for survival.

What more could I do? Short-term part-time jobs? Smart Store? Stocks? Real estate? YouTube? Blog?

She did everything that was said to make money.

Though Father was disgusting, maybe she learned something by watching over his shoulder. She started buying and selling goods relatively fearlessly.

She even won a bid for a school store at a nearby high school and installed vending machines.

Her blog gradually gained followers.

She quit the auction business, but the studying had been meaningful.

When the director of the Oriental Medicine Clinic where she worked changed, she worried a lot that they might fire her and hire new staff.

But when Director Hanyewon came, the clinic’s situation improved much more.

Though it became incomparably busier than before, she received much more incentives.

The Oriental Medicine Clinic kept growing.

People who could be called ‘colleagues’ appeared.

The worry about being fired disappeared.

Recently, she was even able to buy a house.

Then now.

Where to?

– Are you very anxious?

– Pardon?

– I thought you really wanted to succeed with your own business and investments, but it seems like something else is bigger than that.

Am I anxious?

Of course I’m anxious.

How many years was it that we moved around everywhere because we had no money?

Though quite some time has passed, the memory of being fired also remained as trauma.

The money the Director spent on Seo Inae was not small.

She had to be worth that money.

If she couldn’t, there were plenty of people who would work for cheaper…

Didn’t Father also earn a lot of money at one time?

– I want to use you in a bigger capacity.

It was the very first time in her life she had heard such words.

At the factory, she was cursed at for not being able to do even one thing properly.

The first director of Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic always emphasized being even more kind.

At real estate offices, looks asking if she had money to buy were daily routine.

“In a bigger capacity… me, bigger…”

Seo Inae hugged the blanket tightly.

She had never dared to dream of becoming very wealthy.

Just to have a complete home where she could rest comfortably.

Even when she got old and couldn’t work anymore, it would be enough if she could live without being a burden to others.

To someone, it was a modest dream.

No, what should be an ordinary daily life, not even a dream.

For Seo Inae, it was so big that it could never be achieved without abandoning her family.

* * *

Seo Inae took one day off and returned immediately.

Fortunately, after taking medicine and getting up, her body aches subsided quickly.

She said she took one more day off to think about my proposal.

“I think it would be enough if I earn at least three times more than my current home loan principal and interest payments while saving money, then receive national pension and housing pension when I can no longer work.”

…I did tell her to reflect on her desires.

But how far did she go? How did housing pension come up?

“For assets beyond that, I need to think more about whether to buy US stocks or purchase additional real estate… As you said, Clinic Director, I was very anxious, and I think I’ve run far enough to resolve that.”

Retirement planning and asset management too.

It seemed she had thought about it quite extensively.

“Then it would be okay to reduce your business?”

“Yes. If I can avoid doing it, I’d like to stop. Even though I reduced it to minimize risk, the smart store kept causing anxiety, and I realized there’s no need for that anymore. Rather than business, I’ll develop my capabilities more in my current position.”

Seo Inae said she would eliminate everything from her smart store except for the two items that were selling best and most stably. She said she would wrap everything up once she cleared the inventory.

She said she would finish the vending machine business when the contract ended, and keep the blog and YouTube only as hobbies without being constrained by upload frequency.

“Now that I think about it, I really don’t have the right personality for business. Business suits people like you, Clinic Director, who are really… no, never mind.”

“What? Please tell me.”

“No, it’s nothing.”

What?

What was she trying to say?

Like me, what?

“People like me who aren’t afraid of anything are well-suited for it?”

“No. That’s not it. My father wasn’t afraid of anything either, but that man just had no tomorrow… everything about you is completely different from him, Clinic Director.”

“Did your father do business?”

Seo Inae nodded.

She shuddered, saying it was disgusting just to think about it.

How did she manage the smart store while feeling that way? Well, since she limited it to a side business while maintaining her salary, it might be different from typical business.

I didn’t know what kind of person was good at business, but I could think of several who weren’t well-suited for it.

Even Jang Jungjae, whom I met the day before yesterday, wouldn’t it have been better for him to continue as Vice Director?

Among Korean Medicine Doctors too, some opened clinics overflowing with enthusiasm and ambition, while quite a few started reluctantly.

‘I should stop talking to Sanghun about opening a clinic too.’

Not recently, but in the early days when I was working with Hwang Sanghun, I often mentioned that he could earn much more if he opened his own clinic.

Did that subtly become a burden for him?

I reflected slightly and welcomed Seo Inae’s decision.

“Anyway, you’ve thought about it really well. There are several things I’d like to entrust to you, Teacher Seo Inae, but I’ll start with the important and urgent ones.”

“Yes.”

Sigh, if I could follow my heart, I’d want to dump all the administrative work on her.

From the hospital’s trivial tasks to overseas business.

Aren’t there too many things I have to decide on with hardly anyone to consult with?

But if I request all of that at once, she might run away, right?

“They say staff keep quitting at the Daegu Branch, and related complaints keep coming in. Could you go on a business trip as manager to assess the problem?”

When I mentioned Jang Jungjae’s story yesterday, Chu Miyoung and Seon Nayeon immediately complained about the difficulties of staff management.

Chu Miyoung’s situation was particularly serious.

When I went to Daegu before, things seemed fine, but after the oldest staff member quit, personnel management became a mess.

Im Suchul and I tried to help think through the problem together, but Chu Miyoung hadn’t even accurately identified the problem yet.

“Are you asking me to handle overall personnel management for other branches too? You’ll provide travel expenses, right?”

“For now, yes. We’ll naturally cover travel expenses including accommodation and meals.”

“Then that’s fine with me.”

If I suddenly asked her to review the business plan that Park Seon-yun had given me, it would be very burdensome.

I first brought up something similar to what she’d been doing but that Seo Inae was very good at.

“This is the salary I’m thinking of.”

And I also handed over a new contract.

Fortunately, thanks to a certain prince, our financial situation was very comfortable.

“Let me read this for a moment.”

Seo Inae’s gaze immediately fixed on the salary section.

Soon, her eyes widened more than I had ever seen before.

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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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