The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 342

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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 342

Ting-. Ting-.

I deliberately flicked the needles as I inserted them.

It didn’t have much meaning other than providing slightly more stimulation, but I calculated that someone like An Myeongja would enjoy the impressive performance.

“Oh!”

Her build wasn’t too thin.

Since she wasn’t frail enough to require reducing the number of needles, I treated not only the points where qi and blood were blocked but also the common trigger points for back pain.

“Huk!”

“Euhuk!”

An Myeongja made strange sounds each moment the needles went in.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

“No, it does hurt a bit. But it’s good. I can feel it piercing through!”

Unlike some patients like Kim Ijin who had sensitive perception and could truly recognize the moment when blocked qi and blood were released, she didn’t seem to have that ability.

She probably just felt good when the needles went in deeply.

Regardless of An Myeongja’s subjective complaints, I checked her pulse to monitor her condition stabilizing.

“I’ve finished inserting all the needles. Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”

“No. It feels refreshing. I can clearly tell this is different from before.”

“Good. Please rest. Today we’ll just do this treatment, and you can pick up your medicine at the front desk.”

Her pulse was stable, and I had loosened the blocked areas to help her body accept the medicine, so she should improve somewhat in a day or two.

That would be enough for An Myeongja to forget about Guan Yu.

“Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I won’t be here tomorrow, but another clinic director will treat you well.”

“…Then I’ll come the day after tomorrow.”

Wait, has she already forgotten?

I felt proud that I had turned another patient who came to complain into a fan.

If she comes to the oriental medicine clinic with such goals and hope, she’ll be able to receive the necessary treatment and recover her health.

“Teacher, please check the quantity of Ojeoksan and let Teacher Juhui know if we’re running short.”

“Ah, yes.”

“You don’t need to worry about Ms. An Myeongja anymore. Fortunately, she wasn’t someone we couldn’t communicate with.”

“That’s because you’re the clinic director… Phew, no. I understand.”

I also gave Jin Minjeong a hint about how An Myeongja came to visit our oriental medicine clinic.

When I mentioned that there had been an incident where I briefly infiltrated a martial arts school that was practicing illegal medicine, she looked slightly surprised.

“Weren’t you in danger?”

“Not at all. It was an easy opponent.”

“…Opponent? Don’t tell me you fought?”

“Ahem.”

“I’ll pass this information on to the others. If another patient like Ms. An Myeongja comes, we’ll handle it well.”

“Please do.”

I expressed my slight apologies to the staff for constantly making them encounter unusual patients.

Of course, Jin Minjeong didn’t mind at all.

“That’s quite refreshing to hear. This level is actually on the ordinary side.”

Ah, is that so?

…Come to think of it, we’ve had many more peculiar people come and go.

* * *

The day after visiting Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic.

When An Myeongja opened her eyes in the morning, she thought she had returned to 20 years ago.

She couldn’t believe how much her back condition had changed in such a short time.

Just until yesterday, it had been difficult to sit up straight from a lying position.

Even when getting up from bed, she had to go through a complicated process of first rolling over to lie face down, then kneeling and using her arms to prop herself up before sitting.

But strangely, today she had enough strength to naturally lift her body, and the usual aching sensation didn’t come.

“Oh my, that can’t be right.”

Of course, she hadn’t actually become young again.

An Myeongja looked at the date on her phone and in the mirror, feeling something between relief and regret.

Anyway, she was so amazed that her back pain had decreased this much that she wanted to tell someone about it right away.

“To Unjangdogwan… Oh my, how silly of me. I can’t go there anymore.”

For a while, An Myeongja’s daily routine after waking up and eating breakfast was to get acupuncture at Unjangdogwan.

She would lie on the dojo floor to receive acupuncture while chatting with people, and after treatment, she would take a walk around the park before coming home.

In the evenings, she would just sit around doing nothing or watch YouTube, so Unjangdogwan was essentially her only reason for going outside.

But how could it be that after she took three days off due to a cold, the dojo had closed down?

“Sigh…”

She had been angry and frustrated.

After the treatments, she had felt like she was getting a little better.

An Myeongja immediately rushed to the police station.

Who on earth, and why did they do this to our teacher?

– “No, this matter isn’t under our jurisdiction… Don’t you have a son or daughter?”

But the police officers didn’t properly deal with her.

Where could an old person go to find comfort?

If she contacted her children about this, they would obviously be annoyed.

– “Auntie, how have you been?”

Then, a phone call came from the nephew who had raised her since childhood.

“Oh my, I can’t live like this! I’ve been holding on all this time trusting only our Teacher Gwan, but someone says they took the teacher away?”

– What?

Even though it would be troublesome for her nephew, he looked into what had happened in detail.

Unlike her children who would get annoyed even when asked for simple bank errands, seeing this completely different side of him almost brought tears to her eyes.

– I called the contact person you gave me and the health center to find out. The place you were going to was illegally operated by an unlicensed person, so they took measures to shut it down. Don’t go there anymore, and from now on, go to a hospital for treatment.

– If it wasn’t the police, then who took him away?

Complex emotions that could be anger or resentment.

An Myeongja beat her chest and sought out Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic.

While her whole body felt heavy and difficult, she wanted to pour out at least the resentment in her heart.

– The tightness in your chest and anger are also due to qi stagnation. Cold accumulation and dampness accumulation caused the back pain.

But this oriental medicine clinic was somehow different.

An Myeongja hadn’t gone there for treatment.

She had definitely gone to look for her teacher.

– If you trust me and follow along, I’ll cure everything for you!

She was completely captivated by the words of this renowned doctor who said something roughly like that.

‘I wasn’t being deceived.’

Even when she finished treatment and came out, she was uncertain, but this clinic director was real.

It seemed like the weight of years that had been pressing down on her whole body would all disappear if she just followed this clinic director.

“My goodness.”

Even when getting up in the morning, she felt light, and even walking out to the park, her back wasn’t too bad.

Her feet, which had always been like ice, also seemed somewhat more comfortable.

“….”

Should she call her nephew to tell him about this?

But this child would be busy too.

If she kept calling and talking about useless things, he might cut off contact like her children did.

She thought about going to the senior center, but there was someone there whose personality didn’t match hers, and they had a big fight not too long ago.

Just imagining sitting there awkwardly made her chest feel stuffy.

“Oh my.”

Since her back wasn’t completely healed yet, after walking a little, her back started to hurt again.

“Hello….”

“Hello, what is your name?”

Having nowhere particular to go, An Myeongja just entered Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic.

They said that renowned doctor from yesterday wasn’t here today, but it would be better to get acupuncture one more time than staying at home.

That renowned clinic director had also said it was fine to come even when he wasn’t there.

“I’m here~!”

“Oh my, Ms. Heo Sunnam! Why haven’t you come for so long?”

“Ah! I didn’t come because I wasn’t sick! Have you been well?”

“We’ve been doing great. I’m glad you’ve been fine. Doctor Han isn’t here today, but is there anyone specific among the two you’re looking for?”

While she had been received normally, when a regular customer entered, the staff greeted her very warmly.

Was this grandmother like the veteran of this oriental medicine clinic?

‘Ah! I don’t get along with that type!’

An Myeongja felt annoyed for no reason.

Someone with an elegant personality like herself could never get along with such outgoing grandmothers.

She sat in the farthest seat and squinted her eyes, then went to the desk and said.

“Please assign me to a different clinic director from that patient.”

“What? Ah, yes. You’ll see Dr. Hwang.”

Of course, An Myeongja didn’t know the other two besides yesterday’s renowned doctor.

“I’ve reviewed your chart well. You must be suffering a lot from back pain. How did you feel after yesterday’s treatment?”

…What kind of clinic director is this handsome?

“Oh, getting up was much more comfortable.”

“I’ll treat you well.”

Her heart, which she thought had been frozen for 40 years, was beating.

Getting acupuncture on her back and legs from this Korean medicine doctor she was seeing for the first time today, it seemed to feel a bit more comfortable.

After the treatment ended, An Myeongja scanned the waiting room before payment.

Unlike Unjangdogwan or the oriental medicine clinic she used to go to, there were more young people here.

‘Do all the clinic directors here treat patients this well? Am I the only one feeling this good?’

She wanted to talk to someone, but she couldn’t see an appropriate person.

If she randomly talked to a young person and they said “Ah, yes” and looked back at their phone, wouldn’t that make her feel uncomfortable?

“Ah, Ms. Lee Hiwon, hello.”

“Hello, teacher. I’ll see Dr. Hwang.”

Just as she was about to give up and make her payment, an elderly woman who appeared to be around her age entered the oriental medicine clinic.

An Myeongja quickly went next to her and struck up a conversation.

“Have you been coming here for a long time?”

“What? Ah, now that I think about it, it has been a while. I suppose I’m something of a regular patient?”

* * *

An Myeongja came to the Oriental Medicine Clinic consistently every day.

At first, she said she would only come on days when I was working, but she ended up coming to the clinic faithfully even on days I wasn’t there to receive treatment from Hwang Sanghun.

“If Dr. Hwang is comfortable with it, you can receive acupuncture from Dr. Hwang even on days when we’re both here!”

So I wondered if she liked Hwang Sanghun’s treatment and asked whether she wanted to change her primary physician.

“No, no! Getting better is what’s most important! On days when the Divine Physician is here, I should receive treatment from you!”

It seemed that wasn’t what she wanted to do either.

How did I end up becoming the Divine Physician? I wonder if Master Gwanungjang was also a name she made up on her own.

‘She’s really an unpredictable person.’

So-called difficult patients get very angry when things don’t go their way, but they also have their own logic and circumstances.

If you somehow hit their narrow target, they can also become enthusiastic fans.

In An Myeongja’s case, I couldn’t be completely at ease yet, but she was definitely getting better.

Both her physical symptoms and her trust in the clinic.

“Do you exercise at all?”

“I walk around the park during the day. Originally, I got tired after just one lap, but now I can do three laps.”

When I held her hand, the heat that used to be there had improved significantly, and the redness on her face had also noticeably faded.

“How are your feet that used to be ice-cold these days?”

“Ah, that. That’s also better. My body below the waist didn’t feel like my own, but now I’m walking around like I did 20 years ago, you know? Thanks to that, I feel like I’ve gotten 20 years younger lately.”

If she was saying this, it was quite reassuring.

Since her symptoms were quite severe when treatment started and we were only doing treatments covered by insurance, it would take some time, but it seemed she would stick with us until sufficient treatment was completed.

“While you’re at it, try doing various activities. Like a cultural center or…”

“Actually, I’m already learning to paint. Last week, a grandmother I met here at this clinic said she teaches painting to elderly people, you know?”

“What? There was such a patient?”

“Her name is Lee, Hi, Won… Ah, don’t you know her?”

Seeing that I didn’t know, An Myeongja looked pleased for some reason.

Does she have a personality that likes having attention focused only on her?

“It’s a common name…”

“She said she’s divorced and living alone.”

She suddenly blurted out another patient’s personal information.

It was a potentially rude comment, but thanks to it, I remembered who Lee Hiwon was.

Wasn’t she the patient who suffered greatly from her husband’s affair, and whom Hwang Sanghun advised to divorce after much deliberation?

Since she wasn’t my patient, I couldn’t think of her right away.

‘How on earth did they become friends?’

That person seemed to have a delicate and timid personality, but the social circles of grandmothers were truly unpredictable.

“She’s Dr. Hwang’s patient, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen her. It’s good to have hobbies of any kind. Have fun with it.”

In any case, it was very good news for An Myeongja.

Aren’t most people who fall into cult-like places lonely people?

Having somewhere to focus your mind helps your health improve faster.

“Well then, rest for a moment.”

Just as I finished today’s acupuncture treatment and was about to leave the bed.

“Clinic Director, wait a moment.”

An Myeongja grabbed me again.

“Do you have pain somewhere else?”

“No. It’s about my nephew, I have something to ask. Do you happen to treat industrial accident patients too?”

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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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