The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 348
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 348
Jeong Siwoo made eye contact with me and gave an awkward smile.
It seemed he had tried to quietly brush it off despite knowing he was injured.
“Haha, it was almost fine since you fixed it right away.”
Almost fine meant it wasn’t completely fine.
Jeong Siwoo, who got caught before he could even take a few steps, scratched his head in embarrassment.
“Why would you hide something like this? Let’s sit down first.”
When I pointed to a chair, he sat down as if he couldn’t resist and fidgeted with his hands.
“Well… I’m sorry.”
“I understand how you feel. You have to rest briefly and perform soon, so you were worried the schedule might get messed up because of your knee.”
“Yes. You already fixed it for me, so making a fuss over just a slight twinge seemed a bit…”
He couldn’t exactly tell the people who came from the United States to shoot another time.
He finally got to appear in Sasha Rian’s music video, so he probably didn’t want to sit while performing because of some vague pain.
“Still, the Clinic Director is right here.”
Kim Ijin was right.
Did he expect that even after hearing all those ‘introductions,’ I would just tell him to rest or go to the hospital?
I knew very well how important this music video was to Jeong Siwoo, no, to all of Melon Soda Horizon.
I wouldn’t tell him to skip the performance.
I always carry acupuncture needles with me, and I could just treat him right away.
“Haha…”
“What’s wrong? Where did Siwoo get hurt?”
“Is it okay?”
Hearing me and Kim Ijin scolding him, Kang Jaekyung came over in surprise.
I was also startled for a moment because of Lee Seungmin standing behind his shoulder.
“Oh, yeah. My knee a little.”
“Ask the Clinic Director to take a look right away. Clinic Director, if it’s okay with you…”
“I was just about to check it anyway. Would it be okay to roll up your pants just to the knee?”
“Of course.”
As people gradually gathered around, Jeong Siwoo closed his eyes with a face that had given up on everything.
I rolled up Jeong Siwoo’s pants to expose his left knee, the injured side.
“Visually it looks fine for now. If there was already bruising, it would be really serious. When the impact hit, did you feel a pop! or a sharp pain?”
Jeong Siwoo blinked as he recalled what had happened earlier.
Kim Ijin urged him on as he did so.
“I also suffered for a long time after injuring my knee.”
“Ah, right. That’s true. But it wasn’t quite a popping sound. It was more like a slight force going into the inside of my knee.”
At Kim Ijin’s concern, who had informed everyone about ACL rupture and its recovery process regardless of time and place,
Jeong Siwoo waved his hands saying it really wasn’t that serious.
He meant it didn’t feel like something was tearing.
“Let’s start with a simple Valgus Stress Test.”
Since I had an idea of the location, I performed a physical examination.
First, while he was sitting, I flexed Jeong Siwoo’s knee about 30 degrees and fixed his ankle with my left hand.
“I’m going to push like this. Don’t be surprised, and tell me if it hurts. I’ll go gently at first.”
“Yes.”
After explaining the test method, I grabbed the outside of Jeong Siwoo’s left knee with my right hand and applied force inward.
“Oh, oh.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes. I should say it hurts, there’s stimulation going to the inside of my knee.”
I applied slightly more force, and Jeong Siwoo admitted there was pain on the medial side of his knee.
It seemed to match the expected ligament damage, so I palpated the medial collateral ligament (MCL) on the inner line of the knee.
“Yes, yes. That’s it. It hurts when you press there.”
I roughly identified the location and extent of the injury.
“It’s fine when I push and pull back and forth like this, right?”
“Yes.”
Considering the possibility of complex injury, I also performed anterior and posterior drawer tests to check the cruciate ligaments.
Fortunately, there were no particular problems there.
“When you almost fell earlier, an external force bent your knee inward, and the impact went to this ligament that supports the inside of your knee.”
I explained how Jeong Siwoo’s leg had bent and traced the ligament with my finger.
“Earlier I did the test pushing from outside to inside, right? If the medial collateral ligament supporting the inside is completely normal, you’d feel firm resistance that doesn’t give way. And of course there should be no pain.”
“Ah…”
“Grade 1 injury only has pain, and Grade 2 injury or higher means the ligament is stretched so you can actually feel looseness during the test. The joint line has opened up.”
“Then it must be a Grade 1 injury! …Right?”
“That’s right.”
Jeong Siwoo was greatly relieved.
There are Grades 1, 2, and 3, so Grade 1 definitely sounds okay.
Actually, when I did the test, the knee didn’t feel loose or give way, so there was no need to scare him unnecessarily.
‘Well, if it was really severely ruptured, I would have heard the pop too, and he wouldn’t have been able to try hiding it.’
When the diagnosis was finished, Hasha put her hands together and looked at me.
Her eyes were incredibly bright and sparkling.
“The Clinic Director can treat it right away, right?”
“Ah, now I’ll have a treatment area too.”
Jeong Siwoo also seemed to relax once things turned out this way, making jokes and grinning sheepishly.
“Are we receiving healing energy before the performance? Great!”
Sasha was also full of fighting spirit.
…Naturally, Sasha’s new song this time wasn’t as bizarre as a healing song.
Even if the music video footage was somewhat strange, the song lyrics themselves contained very wholesome self-affirmation.
But why did she like healing energy so much?
‘Wait, did things go wrong the moment these people joined?’
Though they didn’t say it directly like Sasha and Hasha.
The members of Melon Soda Horizon also looked at me with subtle expectation.
“Of course I was going to treat it. I need to help you deliver maximum performance.”
If I wasn’t going to fix it, I wouldn’t have even let on that I noticed.
A medial collateral ligament strain wasn’t a very difficult situation.
But I didn’t know why I felt so uneasy and had this strange sense of déjà vu.
“I’ll insert the needles right away. You’ve had acupuncture before, right?”
“It’s been a while, but… I can handle it.”
Jeong Siwoo gulped nervously.
He seemed a bit scared, but the people around him were looking at him with such overwhelming pressure.
“Let me borrow a camera!”
Sasha even borrowed a camera from the staff who were resting separately.
In this atmosphere, saying he was scared would definitely be too much.
“You’re filming this? There’s no place to put it in the music video anyway.”
“We could upload the making film to YouTube or Instagram, right?”
At those words, Kang Jaekyung quickly pulled out his phone.
“Would it be okay if I film too?”
“Yes. I don’t mind.”
I readily agreed, and Jeong Siwoo closed his eyes.
So I began the acupuncture treatment in front of two rolling cameras.
“Alright, I’ve disinfected, and I’ll insert the needles right away. But regular treatment doesn’t have scenes cool enough to put in a making film.”
Jeong Siwoo said nothing in particular, and while Sasha and Kang Jaekyung’s eyes were sparkling, they didn’t really interrupt.
Trying to quietly insert needles in front of cameras felt awkward instead.
“Should I explain the acupoints? This is Hyeol-Hae, which translates to The Sea of Blood in Chinese characters. In the West, they don’t use acupoint names and call it SP10, right? It’s the 10th point of the Foot-Taiyin Spleen Meridian. It’s where the medial collateral ligament begins, and as an acupoint, it has the effects of promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis and reducing swelling to stop pain.”
Unable to bear the silence, I started talking randomly, and only then did people react.
“Ooh!”
The Director who came over to see what Sasha was filming let out an exclamation.
But I couldn’t provide content satisfying enough for their expectations.
I was placing needles directly on the damaged ligament, and there weren’t that many acupoints on the inside of the knee.
I rambled about Eumneungcheon and Gokcheon as words came to mind.
“This is Eumneungcheon. You know yin and yang, right? Neung means a hill or ridge, referring to a concave place, and cheon is a spring, a water source. So this is where meridian water springs forth from a concave place where yin energy gathers…”
“Ooh! Is there also Yangneungcheon on the outside?”
“Yes. There is.”
For some reason, Sasha, who had been adding interjections, was very pleased.
Treatment of the medial collateral ligament ended quickly, but I taught a few more acupoints using Jeong Siwoo as a model while waiting during needle retention.
Talking like this made me feel like a TV show doctor.
“Now try getting up.”
After about 15 minutes, I quickly ran out of things to say.
The needle retention time was a bit short, but since I treated immediately after injury and released the qi and blood right away to prevent blood stasis, it should be fine.
“Gasp! …It’s completely healed!”
Jeong Siwoo, who had been squeezing his eyes shut at the stinging needles during removal, was amazed after getting up and walking around briefly.
“I think I could even play basketball? Oh right. Player Kim Ijin actually played in a game after getting acupuncture during halftime!”
He was muttering to himself, conscious of the camera, when he made eye contact with Kim Ijin and startled.
Kim Ijin smiled very confidently and said.
“Our Clinic Director is the best.”
Why was Lee Jini acting proud?
Anyway, since the treatment ended cleanly, I gestured to end the filming.
“Clinic Director, you really have a broadcasting constitution…”
“What are you talking about. I ended it quickly because I had nothing to say.”
I quickly cut off Sasha who was starting to talk nonsense and gave final instructions to Jeong Siwoo.
“Try performing like this, and if filming goes long and there’s a break in between, let’s do it once more. It didn’t hurt much, right?”
“Yes. It was fine.”
“Even if it doesn’t hurt, ligaments take time to recover, so if you’re planning to be in Busan tomorrow, come to the Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic. Even if you feel fine, it’s better to come two or three more times. Avoid running or jumping that impacts the knee.”
“Yes!”
The break time should be ending soon, right?
Though we hadn’t specified exactly how long to rest, even the director was watching Jeong Siwoo’s treatment.
Now that it was finished, soon we would…
“Doctor Han, you were the one who filmed the Mancheonhwa-u video, weren’t you?”
I thought we’d properly resume filming the performance scene.
But he suddenly brought up my dark history.
“That’s right, but…”
“By any chance, can you also insert needles by throwing them?”
“I can, but…”
“Could we add just one scene where needles rain down from the sky when Sasha recovers from her injury? Of course, we’ll edit it so the doctor doesn’t appear!”
Then he asked me to throw needles before the martial arts scene.
I looked at Sasha.
Though there was a separate director, Sasha was ultimately the executive director.
There had already been many revisions, and if we added another scene like this on the spot.
Moreover, asking her to get hit by needles flying with acceleration.
“That’s such a great idea!”
…Of course she’d like it, yeah.
It was exactly the kind of idea Sasha Rian would love.
‘Hmm.’
I thought for a moment.
Throwing needles at someone doing breathing exercises?
As a martial artist, it was a truly horrifying idea.
Even the slightest disturbance could cause qi deviation!
‘That aside, placing needles over clothes could be hygienically problematic. No wait, it’s dangerous in the first place, isn’t it?’
I firmly refused.
“Let’s make it with CG and add it in. I might consider throwing at objects, but throwing needles at a person is absolutely not allowed!”
Sasha looked at me with a very strange expression.
She glanced at my sleeve and muttered quietly.
“The dates were…”
“Ah, I see how it is.”
Fortunately, the director readily accepted my words.
He looked somewhat disappointed as he noted something in his notebook, then called the staff over.
“Let’s resume filming!”
And so the brief treatment ended.
Now it was truly Melon Soda Horizon’s turn.
“Alright, shall we start playing?”
Ding-. Ding-. Ding-. Tiing!
Jeong Siwoo plucked the guitar strings.
Thump! Thump! Tada-dak! Woong-. Tiri-ring~.
Following that, the drums, bass, and keyboard each made their sounds.
Though it was simple playing close to a warm-up, the atmosphere changed once they stood before the arranged instruments.
Sasha, standing at the front, turned her head to make eye contact with each of the Melon Soda Horizon members.
And when she looked at the camera.
The director gave the signal.
“Action!”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————