The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 262

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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 262

I had left my contact information with those I treated at the hotel, but most of them didn’t contact me.

Even when they did, it was just to let me know they were receiving good follow-up treatment at other hospitals and to thank me for the good initial care.

This family was the only one who came back wanting proper consultation again.

The very neatly dressed couple came to see me with their daughter.

“We are scientists from England. My wife had a conference to attend, so my daughter and I came along for a trip as well. We were planning to stay for about a month, but… as you know, a major accident occurred. We were truly grateful at that time.”

The Evans couple looked back and forth between their daughter and me with very worried faces.

Since the mother kept stroking the child, the father explained the situation to me.

The patient’s name was Victoria Evans, 7 years old.

A little student who had just entered private school.

“This conference is extremely important for my wife’s career, so she absolutely must attend. We’ve tried other hospitals, and I’ve considered returning home early with just my daughter, but she won’t even consider being separated from her mother. Sigh, she’s occasionally complained of test anxiety due to academic stress before, but never this severe…”

“It’s different from tests! Mom almost died, so how can I act like nothing happened?”

Victoria, who had been keeping her mouth tightly shut, interrupted and shouted sharply at her father.

She seemed like the type who rarely raised her voice normally. Even after saying this one thing, she was breathing heavily.

The father, like a true scientist, responded calmly and rationally.

“Dad wasn’t going to die. Even if that ‘hero’ hadn’t saved us this time, our country would have paid the ransom and gotten us released.”

“That’s a lie! The British government maintains the principle of not negotiating with terrorist organizations and not paying ransoms. There have been people who went to Syria and died by beheading.”

The problem was that even the young daughter was too smart.

“Oh, Victoria! Mom told you not to look up such things. Should I confiscate your smartphone? Nothing will happen from now on. As soon as Mom finishes her business, we’ll return to London right away.”

“There have been bomb attacks in London too.”

“That’s very, really very rare. Actually, this terrorist attack was the same. Nothing like this will happen again during our daughter’s lifetime!”

“Honey, that violates the law of independent events-“

“You be quiet for a moment!”

“What if the plane back gets hijacked?”

Still, a child was still a child.

Perhaps imagining a plane hijacking, Victoria’s eyes suddenly turned red.

“Victoria, it’s okay!”

“Waaaaah! Waaah! Huaaaah!”

When her mother hugged her tightly, Victoria cried her heart out just like she had at the hotel.

“Phew. She was a child who rarely cried even as a baby, but this time she seems really shocked, Doctor.”

I nodded to the child’s father, then helped comfort Victoria.

At first, she twisted her body trying to avoid my hand.

But when I extended my hand and waited slowly, she placed her own hand on mine.

I felt her pulse while asking her father questions.

“What are the specific symptoms? Besides not sleeping at night, crying, and being scared like this, are there others? Is she eating well?”

“She can’t eat well. She feels nauseous just smelling food. She only had soup for dinner and went hungry, but at night she struggles with retching.”

“Victoria, can you lie down for a moment?”

Having barely stopped crying, she obediently lay down on the bed prepared in the makeshift clinic.

“The teacher is going to press on your belly gently. It won’t hurt at all.”

From the epigastrium to the lower abdomen, I carefully performed abdominal examination, being careful not to startle her.

“The rectus abdominis is very tense. Her arms and legs are also quite tense.”

“Really? Oh… I didn’t realize. It’s incredibly tight.”

“Are there any spasms?”

“She’s fine during the day, but when she wakes up from sleep, she was trembling like this. We wondered if we should go to the emergency room, but she got better after drinking a little water.”

The father mimicked the spasms Victoria had experienced.

He tensed his arm muscles hard, then they spasmed and relaxed as if bouncing.

“Ah, I know what this is.”

Muscle twitching and flesh trembling of the limbs.

Originally a symptom where muscles jump and tremble as if startled due to severe deficiency of qi and blood, but currently it seemed to appear as part of palpitations due to liver deficiency and heat generation from PTSD.

“Victoria, doesn’t your heart pound?”

“When I think about it…”

“Do you feel heat rushing to your head?”

“Yes.”

I narrowed down the prescription while listening to Victoria’s answers.

When the questions ended, the couple looked at me with expectant eyes and asked.

“Can our daughter be cured with the acupuncture and herbal medicine that treated the prince? Should we give her sleeping pills or sedatives to force her to sleep? Actually, we looked up a bit about you, Doctor. You’re quite famous.”

“I don’t want needles!”

“It’s okay. If you’re scared, you won’t get acupuncture. You came at the right time.”

I first reassured Victoria, then spoke to the couple.

In a situation where fear was this severe, giving unfamiliar acupuncture seemed unreasonable. Even if the efficiency was slightly lower, I’d have to be satisfied with holding her hand and gradually correcting her qi and blood.

I had already decided what medicine to use.

Since decoction wasn’t possible and I had to use available preparations, there weren’t that many options.

Considering what I heard over the phone, I had prepared several useful preparations like Modified Guibi Decoction, Modified Xiaoyao Powder, and Bupleurum plus Dragon Bone and Oyster Shell Decoction, so I just had to choose among them.

“First, you can take this medicine. Since the symptoms are severe now, take two packets twice a day. When you start sleeping well, reduce it to one packet.”

I put Yokukansan in a bag and handed it over.

It was the very medicine that Lee Dajeong had gotten angry about, asking why I was giving her psychiatric medication.

Though the diseases were different, the symptoms manifesting physically due to anxiety, restlessness, and excitement were similar.

The physical tension was extremely severe, including the rectus abdominis, arms, legs, and even face.

Actually, using it for Victoria now was a relatively typical correct indication.

I explained the composition of the medicine and told them they could take it with peace of mind since there were no ingredients that could cause dependency.

“Ah, thank you. I’ll make sure she takes it properly.”

After receiving ten days’ worth of medicine, the couple was satisfied.

And they were about to get up and leave.

“Huh? Wait a moment. Medicine is medicine, but let’s talk with the child a bit more.”

Discussing the illness and receiving medicine.

They seemed to think that was the end of it.

In fact, in situations like this, the method of shifting essence and transforming qi was more important.

It was essential to guide her to change her mind and transform the flow of qi.

“There’s more?”

Look, wasn’t the child’s expression full of doubt?

She was full of questions about how this medicine could prevent kidnapping and hostage situations.

If she built walls with this mindset, it would be difficult to accept even the best medicine.

In terms of physical illness, it was like taking joint medicine while running 42.195km every day and asking why the knees weren’t getting better.

“Come on, Victoria. Look at the teacher.”

“….”

Unlike her parents who had researched information about me and came with trust, I had barely built any rapport with Victoria.

But like a model student, she listened well.

“Is Victoria safe right now? Or not safe?”

“Of course I’m not safe. The bodyguard outside might turn on us and shoot us.”

She answered the first sentence clearly, but when she mentioned they might shoot, she started trembling again.

Indeed, her trauma from gunshots seemed to be very severe.

I immediately handed her water and medicine so Victoria could take it.

She looked at the medicine suspiciously, then drank it all as I instructed.

“Are airplanes safe?”

“As I told Mom and Dad earlier, they’re not.”

“What about England? Roads? The way to school?”

“Terrorists could appear anytime, anywhere.”

Naturally, one or two doses of medicine wouldn’t make the fear subside.

The mother hugged her trembling daughter tightly.

“Calm down, dear. Such things in London happen occasionally, really very occasionally.”

The mother looked at me somewhat resentfully while trying to comfort her, but I actually stopped her.

“Victoria is right. It’s not safe.”

“That’s right.”

“Are only terrorists dangerous? Cars are dangerous too. In the past 10 years, fewer than a hundred people died from terrorism in England. But over a thousand die in traffic accidents every year. Even more die from heart disease, cancer, and strokes.”

Victoria’s shoulders shook violently.

The tears that had stopped earlier began flowing again, then burst out completely.

“There’s no completely safe place anywhere.”

“….”

I calmly stated the truth.

The mother was anxious to comfort her immediately, while the father looked rather relieved.

“Still, despite all that, Victoria is much more likely to be alive and healthy in 10 years. Same for Mom and Dad. Same for 20 years from now, 30 years from now.”

“…Really.”

This was also true.

“I understand that you’re scared, anxious, and nervous. How could you not be scared after what happened? It’s okay to cry, it’s okay to tell Mom and Dad about that day. Taking medicine won’t cure you immediately tomorrow, and you might have more dreams about it for a few days.”

“I wish it wouldn’t appear in my dreams. Bang! Bang! Bang! …The shooting… it’s so scary.”

Good. I had set the right direction. We were almost there.

The martial arts world was a place where disturbances frequently occurred even in ordinary inns.

In that place without the term PTSD, some people lived as if nothing happened, while others trembled in fear.

Naturally, with my abilities, I couldn’t protect them all or make the martial arts world safe.

“That’s right. It would be better if it didn’t appear in dreams and you could sleep well, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“Shouldn’t we live happily while we’re alive? Rather than creating illness from worrying about things that won’t change, let’s beautifully fill the time heaven has granted us.”

“…Like Mom and Dad said, don’t look up things about terrorism?”

“That’s right. Focus on the happiness of this moment when you can hug Mom and Dad tightly. If you do that, you’ll get better at some point.”

Victoria blinked her eyes.

Though still a young child, she was bright and probably understood to some extent.

Perhaps it would be better to give her a sense of security by saying I would protect her always and everywhere.

I had responded similarly to Seon Nayeon’s patient who was afraid of ghosts and monsters.

But this was a real threat that exists in the world.

If there were incidents and accidents happening before my eyes, I’d want to prevent them if possible, and I’d want to treat all the patients I could see.

But I couldn’t save humanity.

I didn’t want to make irresponsible statements.

“What if something scary happens the moment I get better?”

“Worrying doesn’t prevent scary things from happening.”

“That’s right! This is the Precautionary Fallacy and the Illusion of Control. Worrying and suffering doesn’t control the external environment!”

So I just told her things as they were.

The child’s father supported me by pointing out the logical fallacy.

This time, Mother didn’t glare at her husband either.

Victoria’s frantically trembling shoulders also began to gradually subside.

“Is that so.”

Her eyes moved up and down, then soon fixed on me.

The couple was anxious on both sides, wanting to say something, but I quietly waited for her.

“But… what if I’m still scared?”

Just hold on a little longer. We’re really almost there now.

“Instead of worrying about things that won’t change, you should do what you can.”

I pulled out a kubotan from my sleeve.

Originally, I only carried acupuncture needles for real emergencies, but after experiencing this incident, I felt the need for blunt weapons and bought several.

I placed one of them in Victoria’s hand.

“You should be able to handle petty criminals with this. But don’t ever fight someone with a gun. To fight gun-wielding opponents, hmm… would you need to join the military?”

Victoria’s eyes sparkled.

“You stab like this, and throw like this. When you’re scared, practice. Think about targeting vital points like this.”

I demonstrated several techniques.

Methods for using it as an actual kubotan and throwing it like a throwing knife.

“Like this.”

Contrary to her seemingly weak appearance, her grip strength was quite strong.

She hesitated at first, but as she swung the kubotan around following my instructions, her fear seemed to disappear.

Her breathing was definitely calming down compared to the beginning.

“Will this really be okay…?”

“Hmm, shall I teach you some martial arts when you return to England?”

Mother looked back and forth between her daughter and me with a reluctant expression, blinking her eyes.

Father asked me with interest.

“If Victoria wants to. Make sure she takes her medicine properly, and when she talks about being scared, just listen well. She’ll get better.”

I answered firmly.

Victoria, who had entered while being extremely vigilant of her surroundings.

Left the makeshift clinic with a smiling face, holding her toy.

“Thank you for the counseling too, Doctor. She seems to have regained a lot of her spirit.”

The couple would be able to attend the academic conference as originally scheduled.

Victoria would probably struggle for a few more days, but she would return to London and be able to adapt to school life again.

‘She did seem to have some talent though…’

I had given her the self-defense tool for ventilation, but I didn’t really think she would practice enough to actually use it.

If she quickly forgot about this incident and threw away the toy, that would be good.

If she joined the Special Forces and really acquired the force to deal with terrorists, that would also be a good thing.

“Phew, that’s one case resolved. Are there any new patients?”

I left the makeshift clinic, wishing Victoria a happy future.

I even grabbed attendants, bodyguards, and drivers to ask if anyone among their relatives had any ailments.

Come to think of it, Seo Inae went downtown early in the morning with an interpreter, should I follow and look around?

“Clinic Director!”

As soon as I had that thought, someone called for me.

It was one of the staff members the Prince had assigned.

“I thought you were still in the examination room, but we missed each other.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Some people who want to meet with you have come, would it be alright to let them in?”

“I’m not royalty, what kind of meeting is this. If they’re patients, they’re more than welcome.”

“They’re not patients.”

“Then?”

I tilted my head.

The investigation should be mostly finished. Who else besides patients would come looking for me?

“Reporters from South Korea have come saying they want to cover you and your party, Clinic Director.”

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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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