The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 53

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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 53

“Director, don’t you do diet treatments at all?”

A month ago, Chu Miyoung asked me the same question less than 30 minutes after Park Seon-yun had asked the same thing.

“What? Didn’t I just say I do them?”

“Ah… you literally just don’t do non-face-to-face treatments. Last time you said you only do necessary treatments, so I thought you didn’t do cosmetic procedures.”

What is she talking about? I answered in bewilderment.

“Do you know how many obesity complications there are? Diet treatment is absolutely necessary. Not to mention diabetes and hyperlipidemia, there are cases where back pain won’t improve no matter how much acupuncture you get if your belly is severely protruding and your balance is disrupted.”

“Ah… so you approach it from the same perspective as other treatments.”

“That’s right.”

“Then the reason you don’t do non-face-to-face treatments is to filter out unnecessary people…?”

She seemed to have quite a grudge against cosmetic treatments. How on earth did she end up working at Haneul Clinic and even opening her own practice?

“That’s part of it, but the biggest problem is that you can’t lose weight with medicine alone.”

The composition of diet pills itself is simple. You just need to combine herbs that suppress appetite and activate metabolism with herbs that suppress their side effects.

But just because you take them doesn’t mean everyone will lose weight rapidly. If that were the case, who in the world would suffer from obesity?

“With other treatment medicines or tonics, all the patient has to do is take them regularly. Eat when hungry, sleep when tired, and the body naturally recovers. But with dieting… even when the medicine reduces abnormal appetite, too many people eat out of habit.”

The important thing is management.

You have to coax, comfort, and sometimes even scold people who keep eating when stressed or habitually can’t put down snacks to make them control their diet.

“That’s right. When I was at Haneul Clinic, I made them take pictures of all the food they ate and send them, but when I told them not to eat carbohydrates, there was someone who ate pork belly five times a week.”

Chu Miyoung gritted her teeth as if she was utterly fed up. Hey? That’s bad for your jaw joint, you know?

‘Well, I’ve seen plenty of incredible people too.’

At least in modern times, there’s common knowledge about high-calorie foods. In the martial arts world, I had to explain from the beginning why they shouldn’t eat sweets.

Eating three meals a day, no, five meals a day alternating between spicy hot pot and sweets in a salty-sweet-salty-sweet pattern while hoping to lose weight. Even if I were really Hua Tuo, I couldn’t do it.

“Director Chu would know the importance of management better than I do.”

The individual cases had strong impact, but if I count them, I probably haven’t treated even 100 obese patients. After all, those who had problems with weight gain were mostly wealthy high officials or merchants.

Whether she liked it or not, Chu Miyoung, who had been at a franchise, would have much more experience.

“Yes, but the manager handled all the management by staying on the phone all day… so I don’t really know much about it.”

“I see. Let’s compare notes next time a diet patient comes.”

* * *

When we had that conversation, I thought we’d see a diet patient soon.

But surprisingly, there wasn’t a single one until Park Seon-yun, whom I thought wouldn’t come, brought her cousin.

Now that the days when Chu Miyoung could observe were almost over, I was thinking we should show her at least once when they appeared.

“Hello, I’m Park Seseun.”

I just thought her pronunciation was quite clear and her manner of speaking elegant.

“Oh my!”

“Should I write my name here?”

“Yes, sister. Over there…”

“Please write on the reception slip too, and, um, could I possibly ask for just one autograph?”

“Of course.”

Our desk staff, who always handled patients skillfully, was in quite a commotion.

What’s going on? I was giving Chu Miyoung a prescription lecture while there were no patients, so I slightly opened the door and looked outside.

“Is she a celebrity? Director, do you know who she is?”

I whispered quietly to Chu Miyoung, but she was much more excited than the two staff members outside.

“Wow, crazy! That’s really Park Seseun, isn’t it? I can’t ask to take a picture together, can I? Do celebrities come here often?”

“This is probably the first time. But who is she that…”

“You don’t know the movie actress Park Seseun?”

Of course I don’t know her. I probably didn’t know her before being dragged to the martial arts world either.

I’ve read web novels where Cheonma becomes a movie actress or director, but I had no interest in the real entertainment industry.

Female actresses whose names I’ve heard of… Kim Taeeui, Song Yegyo, Jeon Jiyeon maybe? Even if they came to the clinic, I wasn’t confident I’d recognize them.

Whether I recognized her or not, Park Seseun skillfully gave autographs. Chu Miyoung couldn’t contain herself and rushed to the desk, holding out the notebook she was taking notes in.

“Could I have an autograph too!”

“Of course. What’s your name?”

“Please write Chu Miyoung. And… could I possibly ask for a photo too?”

“I’m sorry, but that would be difficult. Next time, if I succeed in my goal for coming here.”

Park Seseun said this while tapping the reception slip.

Of course, it had ‘diet’ written as the reason for the visit.

She seemed reluctant to have her appearance photographed while overweight.

“I’m sorry if that was an inappropriate request!”

It was awkward for me to be alone in the examination room during all this commotion.

I also went out to the desk and greeted Park Seon-yun and Park Seseun.

“Hello, it’s been a while.”

“It’s been a while, Director. This is the cousin I mentioned before.”

“Nice to meet you. Seon-yun said you’re good, so I came. I really want to get help from you, Doctor.”

“Ah, welcome.”

While Chu Miyoung and Seol Yuhui were quite excited about seeing a celebrity, Seo Inae finished the reception and guided Park Seseun to the examination room.

“We’ll just do a quick body composition analysis and then escort you to the examination room.”

Wow, wow. Wowwww!

During the short time Park Seseun went to get her body composition measured, Chu Miyoung let out exclamations several times.

“Is it really that amazing?”

“Aren’t you amazed, Clinic Director?”

As I said before, I find Cheonma more fascinating than chaebols or celebrities. Really, I felt no excitement at all.

Besides, seeing how she won’t let us take photos now, she probably won’t let us use this for promotion either, so what’s different from a regular patient?

“Celebrity or whatever, the diet patient we’ve been waiting for has finally come, so let’s observe carefully.”

“Of course we should! …Oh, but is it okay for me to observe?”

Chu Miyoung suddenly became worried and asked for permission as soon as Park Seseun entered.

“I’m Chu Miyoung, a Korean medicine doctor who’s been learning from Dr. Han in various ways. I was observing, but if it makes you uncomfortable, I’ll step out.”

For the past two months, she’d been stuck to the wall like a decoration, naturally observing, and suddenly now? The celebrity’s visit must have really gotten to her.

“It’s fine. As long as you keep my visit here a secret, I don’t mind. Oh, please also ask the staff outside not to spread rumors.”

Park Seseun spoke with a truly actress-like, camera-ready smile.

“Of course! Maintaining confidentiality is naturally our duty!”

Chu Miyoung said this while moving to her usual corner by the wall, and Park Seseun’s gaze naturally turned to me.

“As you probably heard from Seongyun, I came here for none other than dieting.”

“Yes.”

“Originally, I was the type who never gained weight, but what I thought would naturally disappear after childbirth hasn’t budged at all…”

Park Seseun touched her forehead and began talking about what had happened in the months following childbirth.

* * *

Park Seseun was a film actress who debuted in her mid-twenties against her family’s opposition. Initially, like other actors, she played supporting roles, but after about ten years since debut, she met with one work that elevated her to the ranks of great actors and brought her golden age.

She then spent several years doing many works, showing various character portrayals, and only announced her marriage after earning the title of national actress.

Her partner was a famous younger male actor.

Though she was somewhat worried due to her relatively late age, Park Seseun succeeded in getting pregnant shortly after marriage and smoothly completed childbirth.

But the problem occurred after that.

Park Seseun originally ate small portions. She heard “Is that all you eat?” and “You’re too skinny” until her ears were sore, but she naturally felt full after eating just a little food.

She had never tried to diet forcibly, but since she was always slim, she simply thought she had a constitution that didn’t gain weight easily.

But when she became pregnant, strangely, she kept craving specific foods. Others said they couldn’t eat even their favorite foods due to morning sickness, but perhaps because her husband took on the morning sickness for her, Park Seseun had endless things she wanted to eat.

And she had the financial means to obtain all of those things.

It’s nutrition for the baby, and the weight will naturally come off after giving birth.

She never even thought that eating this much would stretch her stomach.

Even when her weight didn’t decrease as much as expected after childbirth, she didn’t feel much crisis. It was something her fellow actors had been doing routinely.

“Hehe. So I’m going to try this thing called dieting too.”

Park Seseun began eating a diet meal plan.

Chicken breast and salad, eggs, tomatoes. Foods that barely registered with her taste buds.

But she didn’t lose any weight at all.

Even though she clearly knew that to diet successfully she had to eat only that meal plan, she ate snacks in addition to it.

During her husband’s meal times, she would pick at side dishes bit by bit, and when taking care of the baby became tiring, she would eat snacks again.

“This won’t do.”

Initially, she thought she would leisurely lose weight and then make her comeback, but even after nearly a full year since childbirth, her weight hadn’t budged.

She consulted with her agency and hurriedly chose a project, signing on to a work with six months left until filming.

“I’ll definitely lose 10kg by then.”

That’s how she burned her bridges.

“Ahhhhh! I can’t do it! I can’t! I feel like I’ll die if I can’t eat jjajangmyeon!”

“Honey, don’t put too much pressure on yourself…”

“What should I do? My appetite won’t decrease. What am I going to do?”

But that alone didn’t solve anything.

She knew more than a few acquaintances who had lost 20kg, 30kg, but they all just said to eat less and exercise hard.

So exactly how do you eat less?!

There were even actors who deliberately gained dozens of kilos for movie filming and then lost it, making her professional consciousness seem so pathetic.

“How about increasing your exercise amount?”

“I don’t recommend increasing weights. Slightly increasing cardio time and speed is good, but it’s difficult without any dietary control.”

The PT trainer also emphasized the importance of diet.

While spending each day just continuously stressed like this.

“Seseun, if it’s really hard, should I introduce you to the Korean medicine clinic I went to? After taking the medicine, I completely stopped thinking about snacks.”

“Sis, want to try diet herbal medicine?”

She received the same suggestion simultaneously from an acquaintance senior and her cousin’s younger sibling.

It was a very tempting proposal when she was feeling her limits with her own willpower.

“Where is it?”

The two people each answered.

“It’s in Gangnam~ Let’s go together next time.”

“It’s in Busan, but they’re really good. The injury I got from falling in the study healed quickly too.”

Naturally, Park Seseun went to the nearby oriental medicine clinic that her senior had recommended first.

“Ah…”

And she regretted it the moment she walked in.

The walls of that clinic were covered with photos of various celebrities. Nearly ten celebrities, including the senior who had recommended it, had either signed autographs or taken photos with the director.

“You can just refuse any promotional requests~.”

Her senior had said that, but the staff at this place quite persistently requested her to participate in their promotions. It was annoying enough to make her feel bad.

They said it would be fine to refuse if she really wanted to, but she was also concerned about running into people she knew.

Park Seseun decided to look for a different oriental medicine clinic.

‘What should I do… Should I contact a place that does phone consultations?’

The internet was overflowing with information, but there wasn’t any place that really appealed to her. Phone consultations seemed like they just prescribed the same medicine to everyone, which somehow didn’t sit right with her.

“Seon-yun, where was that place in Busan you mentioned before?”

After going in circles, Park Seseun headed to the place her younger cousin had recommended.

The requirement to visit in person now actually appealed to her instead.

“Sis, childcare must be really tough, right? How about taking a complete break and staying down in Busan for a while?”

“Hm? Even so, leaving my husband and son behind…”

She had only planned to make a quick trip, but Park Seon-yun made an even bolder suggestion.

She proposed that Park Seseun should heal in Busan where their parents lived and focus solely on dieting for the time being.

“That’s a good idea. We were planning to hire another babysitter anyway once honey starts filming. We’ll do that ahead of time, and I’ll bring the child down to Busan every two weeks.”

Even her husband agreed.

He seemed to have felt sorry for her as she alternated between stress from dieting and childcare.

“Then… I’m really going down?”

And so Park Seseun came down to her ancestral home in Busan with a firm determination toward dieting.

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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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