The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 57

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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 57

I thought my expression might be a bit cringeworthy, but it was an unnecessary worry.

“I… wanted to make a similar scouting offer. The moment the Clinic Director inserted the needle, I felt something fateful as lightning struck from the top of my head to my toes with a tingling sensation.”

Park Seon-yun went even further.

Lightning? Lightning?

Um… that wasn’t something fateful, it was just the needle touching a nerve. Your thoughts went that far just because of that?

What was fortunate was that Park Seon-yun was speaking in past tense. It must have been just her thoughts when she first received acupuncture.

“Sigh. There wasn’t a concrete proposal. I was just hovering around with the desire to do something together. At first, I thought there was a separate head director at the clinic and you were just an employed doctor.”

“I did open my practice at quite a young age.”

It seemed she had briefly considered something like recruiting for research then gave up.

“Yes… If you opened your practice in your twenties, I thought you must be truly committed to clinical work, so I abandoned the scouting idea.”

Park Seon-yun looked dejected, but I grinned and nodded.

She was right.

I enjoyed directly communicating with patients, treating them, and seeing the results. While research is undoubtedly very important work, clinical practice suited my aptitude much better.

And if I had any interest in research, I would have stayed at school rather than taking a corporate job.

“But wouldn’t you quickly realize I’m the head director just by coming and going for a few days? For that, you showed interest for quite a long time?”

“Ah, yes. Even if employment was difficult, I thought we might be able to collaborate. That’s what I’m proposing this time! For instance, I was thinking we could formulate something like the diet medicine you prescribed for Seseon into health functional foods.”

“Ah.”

In the end, my very first guess was correct.

Park Seon-yun might feel wronged, but if you strip away the romantic coating on the surface, the gist is this:

When a merchant shows interest in a doctor, it’s ultimately about making money by selling medicine.

Of course, my answer was the same as I had repeated dozens of times in the martial arts world.

“If it’s health functional foods, I’ll have to decline.”

Medicine must remain medicine to the end. Once it leaves the doctor’s hands and is sold as a product, it can no longer be medicine.

“You can make big money while continuing your clinic work as usual. Just providing some ideas and research consultation…!”

“I appreciate that you think well of me, but that’s a notion only someone who isn’t a traditional Korean medicine doctor could have.”

I’ve heard that story many times, but my thoughts haven’t changed.

I shook my head.

“That prescription was very good for Seseon. But what if you took it? It would have almost no effect. Conversely, if someone with a weak constitution like our Yu Hee took it, they’d suffer from headaches, insomnia, and chills. The dosage must be determined considering body weight and constitution.”

“Couldn’t we just use amounts that are safe for everyone, even if less effective?”

I calmly explained to Park Seon-yun.

“There are so many medicinal herbs commonly used in both traditional medicine and food, and most have minimal side effects, so it’s easy to think lightly of them. But among them, there are definitely herbs that can cause serious side effects and become toxic. Ephedra used in diet medicine is a prime example.”

“Ah, we don’t have to insist on diet products.”

“Even prescriptions composed of mild herbs like Ssanghwa-tang can cause digestive disorders. The drinks currently sold at convenience stores wouldn’t have this problem since they’re just flavored.”

Actually, if you think about Western medicine, it obviously doesn’t make sense. You can’t sell acetaminophen from Tylenol as a health functional ‘food’ for fatigue recovery just because it’s a small amount.

But Ssanghwa ‘tea’ is sold in cafes and convenience stores. Even though Ssanghwa-tang is medicine that can save people who have collapsed from extreme physical labor.

Since that’s the reality, I couldn’t entirely blame Park Seon-yun for being ignorant in wanting to enter the health functional food market.

“Personally, I believe that if something can’t be poison, it can’t be medicine either. If you put in extremely small amounts that have absolutely no possibility of causing side effects to anyone, there’s no effect either. I can’t sell such things for money.”

After hearing my story, Park Seon-yun paused to think for a moment.

“…”

But soon she nodded as if convinced.

“…I see. My thinking was shallow. I lacked awareness.”

She probably didn’t expect to be rejected so sharply, but she understood the gist of what I said quite well.

“Still, it was good that you asked. I almost proceeded with the planning alone and it could have been a big problem.”

Even if it wasn’t me, someone in the company would have stopped it. There must be reasons why PK hasn’t entered the health functional food business until now.

“I’m glad you understand. This is really… it would be nice if we could prescribe medicine made by pharmaceutical companies without having to prepare each one individually… but it’s not easy under the current system.”

“That’s right. It would be good if we could prescribe them as pharmaceuticals under traditional Korean medicine doctor prescriptions, but that’s also impossible.”

Unlike her light consideration of health functional foods, she seemed to know quite a bit about pharmaceuticals.

It was a fairly famous incident in traditional Korean medicine circles, where several arthritis medicines composed of traditional herbs were designated as prescription drugs after their effects were verified through research and development.

Accordingly, only Western medicine doctors, who might not even know the ingredients were traditional herbs, gained the authority to prescribe those drugs, and the traditional Korean medicine doctors who consulted on that research became traitors to the industry.

“Under the current system, even if we formulate traditional medicine, the best we can do is pre-prepared traditional medicine like some external decoction rooms do. It probably lacks business viability for large pharmaceutical companies to attempt.”

“Yes…”

External decoction room refers to companies that brew medicine outside of traditional Korean medicine clinics.

I operate with an internal decoction method, brewing medicine directly within the clinic, but there’s also a system where they take orders from multiple clinics, brew the medicine, and send it by delivery to minimize troublesome management.

Such places pre-make prescriptions with particularly high demand like Gongjin-dan and Gyeongok-go, then make them easy for clinics to sell.

When the conversation reached this point, Park Seon-yun’s face fell slightly.

She had thought of ways to collaborate in her own way, but things weren’t going as intended.

“So here’s what I’m thinking.”

Clap!

I clapped my palms together in front of Park Seon-yun to refresh the mood.

“Not now, but much later. If I tremendously increase that demand, could you supply it?”

“You, Clinic Director?”

“Yes. I’m still just muddling through, but I’m trying to expand my network. Maybe I could even build a hospital? If a nationwide distribution structure through traditional Korean medicine clinics develops and large-scale marketing is conducted, wouldn’t there be something we could work on?”

“Ah…?”

Park Seon-yun looked extremely surprised.

The scouting offer was frustrated before even asking.

The health functional food research collaboration was sharply rejected.

I thought she had no intention of working together on anything, but now I was proposing something new from my side.

‘If she was going to kick me out, she would have done it long ago.’

Actually, I had something I wanted from Park Seon-yun too. It wasn’t urgent and there was no need to show my desperation, but I had been waiting to casually bring it up when we first went out to eat.

“Haha, without me even having to rack my brains, the Clinic Director was already planning a much bigger business. To think of scouting someone with such a big vision – that was completely presumptuous of me.”

Park Seon-yun burst into hollow laughter.

We’re all just trying to make money, so what’s presumptuous about it?

“In that spirit, there’s one favor I’d like to ask.”

Of course, I didn’t mean to start what I just mentioned right away. I had barely opened one network branch, so how much could I sell of products made by a large corporation?

There were steps I needed to go through first.

“From me? But you said it wasn’t ready for commercialization yet…”

“It’s more something you could do personally rather than at the company level.”

Park Seon-yun widened her eyes and tilted her head. She looked very surprised.

This was also interesting. She must receive a lot of requests for favors, so she should be more wary.

“Let me hear it first.”

Even so, she didn’t readily promise to help.

Tsk, was the romantic side just a disguise? In any case, she was an unpredictable person.

I got straight to the point.

“About those herbal ingredients you mentioned earlier for digestive aids and hangover remedies. You get them supplied from China, right?”

“Of course, right?”

Modern Koreans tend to unconditionally dislike anything labeled as Chinese-made, but there are medicinal herbs where Chinese products are valued higher than domestic ones, and many herbs that aren’t produced domestically at all.

Realistically, it’s nearly impossible to prepare herbal medicine without using any Chinese herbs.

And there are many misunderstandings about the low quality of Chinese medicinal herbs.

While incidents occasionally break out and get reported, basically anything that enters the country and is distributed as medicinal herbs goes through Ministry of Food and Drug Safety certification and meets safety standards.

But I wanted to go one step further.

I wanted to use the good stuff among them.

Of course, to do that, I’d need to judge quality directly… and I could confidently say my eyes, nose, and mouth performed better than running component tests with machines.

After all, didn’t I learn under Master who had tasted all ten thousand poisons and thousand medicines?

Though I haven’t tried the poisons.

“Next time, could you introduce me to that Chinese wholesaler? Of course, I don’t mean meeting directly – just a phone call would do.”

“It’s certainly not a difficult favor. But why there…?”

“This isn’t immediate either, but once the network grows a bit, I’m thinking of operating an External Decoction Room directly.”

And the reason I specifically wanted to go through Park Seon-yun was of course due to Chinese ‘guanxi.’

It’s a culture that creates various problems both then and now, but it’s not my country so it’s not my concern.

If you become someone A introduces to B through A’s phone call, B treats you on par with A.

It meant I could start under much better conditions than establishing trade routes directly.

Park Seon-yun again calculated something in her head for a moment.

“If it’s something like that, I’ll gladly help. It’s an honor to be able to assist you.”

She readily agreed.

Great!

It would be like vouching for me, which could be burdensome, but she looked very pleased instead.

“Thank you so much. You introduced me to your cousin and agreed to help with my request. I’m sorry I couldn’t accommodate what you wanted.”

“Not at all! Even though I made an inappropriate proposal, you explained things well instead. Thanks to you, my knowledge has broadened.”

Was she pleased that we’d established even a slight connection? I don’t know why she thought so highly of me. It’s not like she had wandered everywhere with an incurable disease before coming to me for treatment.

Knock knock.

As soon as our conversation died down, someone knocked on the door from outside.

Oh, come to think of it, the main course hadn’t come out yet. Since some business-like conversation was going on, they must have been tactfully waiting.

“Wow, the steak tastes, wow, wow…”

“I’m glad it suits your taste.”

The portion was ridiculously small so I couldn’t hear the explanation at all, but it was a steak that wouldn’t be a waste to call heavenly.

I ate the main course while exclaiming countless times.

“This is completely different from any steak I’ve ever had.”

After that, we conversed in a more harmonious atmosphere. When I told her about the misunderstandings I’d had, she felt very wronged.

“That’s ridiculous! I just got startled every time a hand touched my back – how is that enjoying it?”

“Sorry. I was just wondering, just wondering.”

The misunderstanding about Seol Yuhui was also cleanly resolved.

“I really have no personal feelings toward the desk teacher. I didn’t even know her name! She looked at least ten years younger than me – just how much of a scumbag did you think I was?”

“You wouldn’t tell me your business, so…”

“Having a position means I had a lot to consider too. And the Clinic Director drew a line as well. …So I wanted to find more ways, but.”

Park Seon-yun trailed off slightly.

“It ended up like this in the end. Please let me know when you open the External Decoction Room. Connecting you with herb suppliers is natural, and if needed, I’d like to invest too. Within what’s possible personally, not through the company.”

“Haha, I’ll contact you. Well then, shall we get up? I’ll pay the bill.”

The meal ended with our stomachs pleasantly full, though somewhat reluctantly. I picked up the bill and said.

“I already took care of it when making the reservation. Of course I should pay.”

“What? Then let me at least transfer money to your account. I rejected all your proposals and only made requests of my own.”

“It’s fine. It was an honor to meet you today, and I learned a lot in many ways.”

I had gotten everything I wanted, so I at least wanted to buy the meal… but Park Seon-yun firmly refused.

Oh well, whatever. I should at least let her handle the payment however she wants.

“Thank you for the meal. And thank you for bringing me to such a nice place.”

* * *

After finishing the payment, we left the restaurant. Park Seon-yun took the elevator down to the first floor with Hanyewon.

She had naturally used valet parking, so she was heading to the parking lot.

But Hanyewon turned her body toward the opposite direction.

“Clinic Director, didn’t you bring your car?”

“Ah, no. I keep saying I should buy one but haven’t yet. I walked here, well actually, I came by public transportation.”

“I see! Which direction is your home? I’ll give you a ride.”

Park Seon-yun immediately offered to give Hanyewon a ride.

She never imagined she wouldn’t have a car. She seemed like she would be an excellent driver too.

If I had known this, I would have offered to pick her up from the clinic or her home!

“It’s okay. I like walking while enjoying the evening breeze.”

“Isn’t it cold?”

“I don’t really feel cold or heat much.”

But once again, she was firmly rejected. Just like all the business proposals she had made.

“…I understand. Please get home safely.”

“You have a safe trip home too, Seon-yun.”

Park Seon-yun didn’t make any more fuss and let her go.

No matter what she said, it didn’t seem like she could move Hanyewon anyway.

Watching Hanyewon’s retreating figure as she walked leisurely wearing only a thin cardigan even in the dead of winter, Park Seon-yun recalled her grandfather and the medical practitioner from decades ago.

“…She really is cool.”

Did grandfather feel this way too?

It seemed like she could do anything with that person.

But apparently what she could do was outside of her own choice.

Was it because of the regret of not being able to visit the clinic during her business trip? Park Seon-yun stood there for a long time until Hanyewon’s silhouette disappeared.

* * *

Even if I had actually paid for the fine dining meal with Park Seon-yun, it wouldn’t have been a burden at all.

Because these days, I’m making quite a lot of money.

“Clinic Director, please do acupuncture on beds 1, 2, and 3 in order, there’s one chuna patient waiting, and one herbal medicine consultation. You have 15 minutes until the consultation appointment, so please hurry.”

“…Yes.”

In exchange for that, I was extremely busy.

If I just kept my mouth shut and only did acupuncture, I could see 100 people a day, or even 300.

But there was a limit to conducting proper examinations while having normal conversations.

‘I really need to hire an associate director now.’

I need to reorganize the system before it’s too late.

I made my decision.

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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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