The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 70

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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 70

Park Yeonggil. Gastroenterological surgery specialist.

He was the doctor who performed the most surgeries at Sowon General Hospital.

He was confident that his skills were not inferior to any gastroenterological surgery professor in South Korea.

So much so that he would personally operate on his own mother’s surgery.

What he did was generally clear.

Remove cancer cells, or if impossible, cut out entire organs and suture them cleanly.

‘But internal medicine doesn’t have clear-cut answers.’

He had seen countless patients complaining of dumping syndrome after gastric cancer surgery.

It wasn’t because the surgery was done wrong, but just something that happened randomly.

If they were unlucky, that was the patient’s burden, and if dietary therapy didn’t solve it, they’d be transferred to internal medicine. It wasn’t his domain.

But now that it had become his own problem.

‘Damn it! There are too many unclear things.’

It was frustrating.

Modern medicine had discovered so much.

The technology was advanced enough to resect the stomach and cleanly connect the esophagus to the small intestine.

Yet there was nothing he could do for his mother who said her epigastrium hurt so much she felt like going crazy.

– Are you out of your mind?

He suddenly remembered the expression of the oriental medicine doctor who heard about the thoracotomy surgery. Of course, he didn’t say it outright, but it was written on his face.

“Sigh…”

He knew it too.

If it were a machine, he’d take it apart to examine it, but at the advanced age of nearly 70, there was no way she could endure surgery.

A doctor could say “it looks clean” and be done with it, but thinking about the life afterward made everything cautious.

“Is this the right thing to do?”

Well, herbal medicine would be better than thoracotomy surgery or administering narcotic painkillers.

Park Yeonggil thought this way while continuously searching.

Papers on the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine.

There were so many bad cases he’d heard from professors during university, about people being rushed to the hospital after taking herbal medicine.

He too had occasionally seen patients who discovered cancer during tests because herbal medicine hadn’t worked.

‘I understand not being able to detect it. You can’t recommend tests for everyone who comes to a local clinic with a stomachache. But… Oh? This looks decent.’

So he had searched through papers with worry.

It wasn’t as bad as he thought.

The oriental medicine university curriculum seemed to include basic physiology, pathology, and pharmacology.

Moreover, when he looked up cases individually, as oriental medicine doctors claimed, everything from goat juice brewed at health centers to plants foraged from mountains were all mixed together with herbal medicine in the statistics.

Of course, this was only “better than expected.”

Korean research was too limited in number, and Chinese papers he was reading through translation couldn’t be trusted, right?

While diligently organizing papers, the phone rang.

“Hello.”

Park Yeonggil answered the phone before the first ring ended.

It was his older sister who lived in the same apartment as his mother and handled most of her care.

Since she called knowing it was work hours, it must be something related to his mother.

“Are you not busy?”

“I had a break between surgeries and was looking at papers briefly. It’s fine, so go ahead.”

“Mom keeps saying she wants to call you, so I was stopping her…”

Park Yeonggil’s heart sank.

“What happened?”

He shouldn’t have made such a gamble after all.

The reasonable assumption was that patient Yun Hanbyeol was just a coincidence.

But I lost my mind too, thinking there might be some amazing method, going to a place like an Oriental Medicine Clinic…!

His sister said nothing for a moment.

“Yeonggil, it doesn’t hurt at all! Isn’t that amazing?”

The voice changed to his mother’s.

His mother had snatched his sister’s phone.

“…You’re feeling okay?”

“Yes, son. I guess the doctor you found is different! The pounding like a ghost was hitting me completely disappeared, and the tight squeezing feeling is gone overnight!”

But the words that came from his mother were the complete opposite of his imagination.

What?

Park Yeonggil was left stupidly dumbfounded.

“Didn’t I tell you the medicine came yesterday?”

“Yes. I took it once yesterday evening and once this morning! I thought I slept a bit more comfortably yesterday? And now I feel perfectly fine! Amazing!”

She got better? In just one day? That can’t be right.

She must have felt temporarily better due to placebo effect.

That would certainly be the reasonable assumption.

– One week… at the latest, within a month, you’ll definitely get better.

So that was confidence based on evidence?

“Thank goodness.”

“Such a relief! What would have happened if they opened my chest! I did well to listen to my son, right?”

Mother was truly delighted.

Deep down, I knew. It was real.

If it was going to heal with a placebo, it would have healed long ago. How much medicine had been given all this time.

“Really… it’s a relief, and since it might be temporary improvement for now, please take your medicine properly. You’ve switched to a regular diet, but please be careful.”

“Of course! Mother isn’t a child, would I eat recklessly just because I got better? I’ll eat just enough to get by and go to the Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic!”

“Yes. Please be careful on your way.”

We had wandered for a whole 2 years.

I thought it was ridiculous to think we could solve that in just a week.

In one day?

Even if it was fast, it was too fast.

It was absurdly simple.

“…”

Park Yeonggil closed all the research papers he had been frantically searching through with bloodshot eyes.

He just stared into space for a while.

Then made a phone call.

* * *

“Ugh, there’s no content!”

I hadn’t even enjoyed the game for a few months and I’d already become a veteran player!

Getting excited and jumping around every time a mythic item dropped was only in the beginning.

Having repeatedly conquered countless raids, I was now fully equipped with mythic gear down to every accessory.

There was absolutely nothing left to fight until the next update.

So what remained? Only collecting.

I was fishing to fill out the collection book and gain a bit of combat power.

Tap. Tap. Thwack!

A mini-game where you press the spacebar when the fish moving back and forth enters the zone.

It was notoriously difficult, but with my reflexes, this much was…!

Bzzzzzz!

“Damn, does this guy listen with his nose? I told you not to call!”

The fishing was ruined anyway.

I answered the phone.

If he hadn’t called in the first place, maybe, but if I rejected this call, I’d go crazy with curiosity until tomorrow.

“I told you to contact the Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic, didn’t I?”

“I did, but they said it’s a holiday today.”

“Then you should come tomorrow, right? Anyway, what’s the matter. Haven’t the medicines arrived yet? Are you uncomfortable after taking them?”

“That’s not it.”

Then what is it. Speak to the point.

I asked directly about the purpose of the call.

“She’s taken the second dose now, and Mother says she doesn’t hurt at all. How on earth did you do it?”

Ah, what did I think it was. So he called in such surprise and haste because of that?

I leaned back in my chair and chuckled.

“It’s a medicine called Chijasitang. Keep it secret from the patient since knowing the ingredient composition could cause reverse placebo effects.”

“Chijasitang…”

Ah, even if I say it like this, modern people wouldn’t know.

“It’s a medicine with only two ingredients: gardenia and beans. The character ‘si’ is the ‘si’ from fermented soybeans, and it’s called hyangsi as a herbal medicine.”

“Gardenia, you mean that gardenia flower I know?”

“The fruit of that flower.”

“…That cured Mother’s 2-year-old illness?”

“Yes.”

Amazing, right? Incredible, right?

Praise me.

I almost fainted too when I first saw Master using ancient prescriptions.

I was amazed, wondering if this could really cure people.

“Oh… my goodness. To think it could be cured like this.”

Park Yeonggil gave exactly the reaction I expected.

“It would have been terrible if you had done thoracotomy surgery, right?”

“…Yes. Really, truly.”

Park Yeonggil was breathing heavily.

Was he happy? Or what, did he feel defeated?

“Thank you. Thank you so much. If we had done surgery as I said, she wouldn’t have survived. You’re the savior of Mother’s life.”

…Is this guy crying?

“*sniff* Thank you so much. How fortunate we are to have met you.”

He’s really crying.

Seeing a man in his late 40s who had been so rude crying made me very flustered.

I thought it wouldn’t be strange if he went wild asking how it healed so quickly, what I put in it.

“I’m glad to hear you’ve improved.”

With such pure gratitude, I didn’t have the heart to be sarcastic about what they had said before.

In any case, it was fortunate that a patient who had been in heart-wrenching pain had recovered, and her worried son and daughter must have felt relieved too.

“Still, please take the full month’s prescription. If you’re nearby, it would be even better if you came for acupuncture treatment too.”

“Of course I should.”

Something suddenly occurred to me.

While I don’t hide the medicinal ingredients when asked, I always need to give warnings when I tell them.

Especially when the prescription has few ingredients that are easy to obtain, like Chijashitang.

“Just in case, I’m telling you this, but after you finish the month’s supply, don’t think you can save money on medicine by brewing gardenia at home, okay? Next month’s prescription might need to be completely different.”

There are always people who insist on obtaining and brewing herbs themselves.

Though there probably aren’t many nowadays since people don’t keep herbal medicine pots at home.

“Of course. You’ve practically saved my life, so how could I begrudge that cost? You can’t perform surgery by just paying for the scalpel. I don’t even think of it as medicine costs.”

It was an unnecessary worry.

Still, perhaps because she worked in the same field, she had respect for the skill involved.

“Please take good care of Mother’s acupuncture treatment, and I’ll visit together with her next month. Thank you so much, and… I’ll make sure not to bother you with phone calls from now on. I’m sorry.”

And then the phone abruptly hung up.

Geez, really. Would it hurt to wait and hear me say it’s okay?

I was going to offer some well-wishes for her health anyway.

Still, receiving an apology didn’t feel too bad.

No, actually, I felt quite proud.

‘Wow.’

It was a satisfaction incomparable to completing a fishing guide or clearing a raid for the first time.

* * *

“Doctor! It doesn’t hurt at all! That crushing feeling in my chest is completely gone!”

Mun Yeonghui reported her progress with several times more excitement than Park Yeonggil.

“That’s good to hear. Have you been eating well?”

“Yes. But I was eating so little before, and now that I’m suddenly eating a lot, I feel a bit bloated.”

“I see. We’ll continue treating your heart pulse instability, and I’ll also look at your digestive system.”

“Thank you!”

From then on, she came faithfully for acupuncture every day I worked.

Like all elderly people her age, even without the deadly agonizing epigastric pain, she had many other aches and pains.

Most of the time I treated her digestive system for maintenance, but sometimes I’d place needles in her knees, shoulders, or back.

“Because of this area being so stuffy, I didn’t even know my back was bad!”

“Disc problems need to be viewed long-term. Let’s treat it slowly.”

Then one day.

I encountered an absurd scene.

“No, I’m telling you Dr. Han is better! He cured something I suffered from for over 2 years!”

“2 years? Don’t be ridiculous. Dr. Hwang cured my 3-year-old knee problem!”

“What are you saying? My back pain, if you count from when it first started hurting, has been 40 years!”

In order, it was Mun Yeonghui, Yu Malja, and Heo Sunnam.

Of course, next to Yu Malja were Oh Yeongsuk, Son Chunja, and Kim Oksun as well.

‘Why is she mixed up in there?’

I had seen Grandmother Heo Sunnam occasionally bicker with Hwang Sanghun’s Four Kings guard, but I didn’t expect Mun Yeonghui to join in too.

Wait, was Park Yeonggil the only one maintaining dignity? Come to think of it, Mun Yeonghui was around that age group too.

‘They say people become childlike as they age.’

The sight of four grandmothers with an average age of 70 debating like 7-year-olds about who was stronger.

I shook my head and knocked on Hwang Sanghun’s examination room.

“Dr. Hwang~ I have a favor~”

“Sorry. I’ll tell them to be careful.”

The Four Kings don’t listen to me.

Actually, Grandmother Heo Sunnam doesn’t listen to me either.

If I asked them to restrain themselves because it was embarrassing, they’d obviously get angry, saying those people who don’t know our doctor’s greatness are pitiful.

“Ladies, while I appreciate your words…”

“Oh my~. Dr. Hwang! We were too noisy, weren’t we? We’re sorry!”

At least they listen to Hwang Sanghun, don’t they?

We barely managed to calm the commotion before starting our consultations.

And a little while later.

While I was busy working, Seo Inae knocked on my examination room door.

“Doctor, a fax came in.”

“Huh? Where did it come from?”

A fax? There’s nowhere it should be coming from.

“Sowon General Hospital.”

That would be Park Yeonggil’s workplace. But what reason would the hospital have to send me a fax?

I immediately took the paper Seo Inae handed me and read the title.

“…Partner Hospital MOU Proposal?”

What is this supposed to mean now?

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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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