The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 75

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 75

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Dadun, Shaochong, Yingu, Shaohai!

I inserted needles into the correct points of the Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian.

These were key acupoints for treating illnesses caused by the seven emotions – joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, love, hate, and desire. They could stabilize emotions and tonify the heart that had been weakened by the seven emotions.

Swoosh.

I gently primed the flow so energy could circulate well through the heart meridian.

“Oh, ooh!”

Hyeon Jumi flinched at each needle’s stimulation and exclaimed in amazement.

“Wow, this is amazing. I feel like something’s connecting inside!”

“People sensitive to sensations can feel it.”

“The tightness in my chest feels relieved!”

After the heart correction came the liver victory pattern.

Jingqu, Zhongfeng, Shaofu, Xingjian.

These were acupoints that released stagnant liver qi accumulated as fire in the body.

Here, heart doesn’t mean the physical heart, and liver isn’t synonymous with the visible organ. The pathological state of blocked energy due to stress is expressed as liver qi stagnation.

I stimulated all the meridians related to Hyeon Jumi’s panic disorder symptoms to circulate qi.

Then I stimulated Danzhong again, which I had opened initially, to clear the blocked pathways.

“…!”

I worked down the Conception Vessel to release the digestive system, and inserted a needle at Baihui to clear the head.

“Ugh. Wow, just like Seseon Unni said, my stomach feels settled right away?”

Hyeon Jumi touched her belly in amazement.

While her core issues of mind and breathing needed more treatment, the supplementary digestive area was released first.

“All done. No uncomfortable needles, right?”

“Ah, yes yes.”

Hyeon Jumi answered while flicking the needles.

“When are you going to Seoul? Leaving right today?”

“Haha, no. Since I don’t have any schedule anyway… I planned a 3 nights 4 days trip to see Haeundae!”

“That’s great. Then come for treatment all 4 days. I’ll release the stagnation as much as possible with acupuncture. When you go back to Seoul, continue treatment at a nearby Oriental Medicine Clinic when you have time.”

“Oh, sounds good!”

Perhaps because she felt immediate effects, Hyeon Jumi readily gave a thumbs up. The needles in her fingertips wobbled, but she didn’t mind at all.

I lowered her arm and said.

“You worked hard today talking during consultation and receiving treatment. You’ve taken a step forward, so you’ll gradually improve.”

With 4 treatment sessions, quite meaningful changes would appear in her core symptoms too.

I could definitely restore her to better than her basic state before it worsened from taking ephedra.

That would be sufficient for daily life, and then treatment would continue with medicine.

‘Bupleurum, tangerine peel, cyperus, cnidium, peony, bitter orange, licorice…’

After consultation hours ended, I prepared Bupleurum Liver-Soothing Powder for her.

An excellent prescription for patients like Hyeon Jumi whose stress manifested as physical tension. It was commonly used for mental illnesses like panic disorder and depression.

This medicine would be sufficient to calm her current symptoms.

Though she’d need help from psychological therapy to avoid somatizing stress again.

* * *

As soon as Hyeon Jumi finished her Busan trip and returned, Park Seseun contacted her.

“Did your Busan trip go well?”

Hyeon Jumi welcomed her greeting and invited her home.

“Jumi, are you okay?”

Her manager also rushed over. This was because Hyeon Jumi had contacted her manager from Busan in advance.

When the agency CEO had asked to book an appointment at the counseling center, she worried something might be wrong.

Park Seseun was a senior at the same agency as Hyeon Jumi anyway, so she was acquainted with the manager too.

Hyeon Jumi served tea to both of them and said.

“Yes. The Busan trip went great! Thanks to Seseon Unni introducing me to a good doctor, I got better!”

“Right? You did well going there too, didn’t you? Even if it’s far, you absolutely won’t regret it.”

“Yes. Thanks to you, I realized my problem!”

When Hyeon Jumi expressed gratitude to Park Seseun, the manager who didn’t understand widened her eyes.

“Seseon Unni introduced me to an Oriental Medicine Clinic in Busan. During consultation, they said my panic disorder, insomnia, and indigestion… all these symptoms were stress being somatized!”

“Oriental Medicine Clinic? Does that help?”

The manager tilted her head.

“Of course! As soon as I got acupuncture once, everything went down smoothly, my head cleared, and my chest opened up! Taking the medicine makes me feel like I can live! I realized I hadn’t felt alive until I took the medicine!”

“I, I see.”

“Huhu, Jumi, you became a fan too?”

“Yes! Absolutely the best!”

Park Seseun smiled brightly.

“Anyway, I’m glad you got better. Let’s ride this momentum and treat it well. I already made an appointment at the counseling center.”

The manager nodded in bewilderment at Hyeon Jumi’s rapid-fire words, something she had never done before.

Anyway, both the manager and the CEO had been hoping for this. The agency had thought she was in a precarious state for quite some time.

They just couldn’t strongly recommend it, considering Hyeon Jumi’s pride.

“Thank you, Manager unnie. Please tell the CEO I’m grateful too. Everyone was worried about me, but I was being too stubborn, wasn’t I?”

“No. This is something we should naturally do.”

The manager felt sorry instead for not properly caring for Hyeon Jumi until it came to this.

When she said this, Hyeon Jumi shook her head.

“Manager unnie always looked after me so carefully. This is all because I didn’t know myself… *sniff*, I’ll get better, so, *sob*, I understand. Actually, I was really…”

She was about to say something, but her voice was choked with tears.

The manager was startled and hugged Hyeon Jumi.

Even though she had been her dedicated manager for several years, she had never shown a weak side.

Unlike other celebrities who would frequently display mood swings and sometimes act demanding, she was always bright, kind, and cheerful.

“I think it was really, really hard. I shouldn’t have just denied it and refused to admit it, *sob*. Always saying I was fine, but I couldn’t do my work properly, so I became a burden, a burden instead, didn’t I?”

“What are you talking about! Jumi, you did so well for us! Even taking this break, you fulfilled all your responsibilities for everything that was contracted. Don’t feel any burden about work at all, and rest well!”

So everyone thought everything was fine.

“Waaaahhh!”

Hyeon Jumi was also just one ordinary, fragile person.

Hyeon Jumi clung to the manager and burst into tears. The manager gently patted her back.

She felt so sorry for not properly recognizing this until she went all the way down to Busan to meet a Korean medicine doctor and gained the courage to speak up like this.

“No matter what I do, people hate me, *sob*! I, I always did my best for the group and for our projects…!”

“I know. I know so well. Everyone at the company knows.”

The manager shed a few tears herself while comforting Hyeon Jumi. Park Seseun, who was beside them, added a word.

“That’s right. All the actors who worked on projects with you know, and your fans are always supporting you. Just ignore the people who criticize…”

Park Seseun hesitated while trying to tell her to ignore the malicious commenters.

“No, take this opportunity to sue them. Once you actually catch them, they’ll probably turn out to be nothing special!”

There was a more fundamental solution than ignoring them.

“…”

Hyeon Jumi hesitated.

The agency CEO had often suggested lawsuits too.

She had always refused. Why go through such troublesome things when it wouldn’t have any impact anyway?

“…Actually, I was scared of getting more hate for filing lawsuits.”

Hyeon Jumi revealed her honest feelings.

“We should drag all those bastards to court too!”

The manager said.

Hyeon Jumi thought of the people who pointed fingers at her.

She had always just built walls as if they didn’t exist, but for the first time, she thought about it concretely.

…Would they beg for leniency?

Somehow, she felt like laughing.

“Should I?”

It might be a little satisfying.

“Good thinking!”

A few days later.

Hyeon Jumi’s agency issued a lawsuit announcement.

The manager, company staff, fellow actors, everyone told her she did well.

Fans gladly sent PDF files they had collected and supported Hyeon Jumi’s decision.

‘This must have been the right decision.’

Separately from that, counseling also proceeded.

Every time she returned from psychological counseling, she would cry.

It was hard.

Yet she was also happy.

That’s what it meant to face emotions as they were.

Hyeon Jumi’s mind was clearer than ever.

For a whole month, she didn’t have a single panic attack.

* * *

“Clinic Director~ Hello!”

It had been a month since Hyeon Jumi’s first visit.

Having finished her first prescription, she came down to Busan once again to get her next prescription.

“You must have had a hard time coming here.”

“That’s right~ It was really hard! The airplane was delayed!”

To my polite remark, Hyeon Jumi acted cute, saying it was really difficult.

“Really, why are you so far away? You’re not someone who should be here. Come to Seoul!”

Hmm, quite a Seoul-centric statement.

I naturally knew it was meant as a compliment, and since it was true that my current location had poor accessibility, I just smiled.

“Haha, thank you. How are you feeling?”

“So much better! Everything was just as you said! Even my counselor said I was completely avoiding my negative emotions. Now that I’m starting to understand, sometimes I get a bit emotional and want to cry… but my physical condition is incomparably better!”

“You’re doing well. Cry all you want, curse all you want.”

“I will. Hehe, I even filed a lawsuit! I did good, right?”

“Oh? You really did well.”

I figured there was a reason she hadn’t done it, so I didn’t mention it that far, but in modern South Korea where duels to the death aren’t possible, lawsuits were indeed the best form of attack.

I praised Hyeon Jumi enthusiastically.

Her symptoms had really improved a lot, so if nothing unexpected happened, it seemed fine to conclude treatment after just one more month of medication.

I prescribed the same medicine to continue and also performed acupuncture treatment.

“Thank you, Director! Please contact me if you ever come to Seoul!”

Hyeon Jumi returned to Seoul.

‘Seoul, huh.’

But the words she left without much thought lingered in my mind.

It wasn’t like I had come here with some noble intention for rural medicine.

If that were the case, I should have gone to an even more rural area like where Yun Hanbyeol used to live.

Coming to Busan was purely by chance.

The moment I decided to open a clinic, I noticed a post on the transfer board about this oriental medicine clinic being sold.

The clinic name ‘Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic’ that the previous director had chosen evoked nostalgia from the martial arts world.

Plus the rent was cheap, there was no key money, and when I came to see it in person, the energy flow was excellent too… that was all.

‘But I like everything about it.’

It’s a metropolitan city, so naturally, everything you need is here.

I met good staff and formed many connections with patients. I might consider expanding nearby, but I didn’t particularly want to leave for another region.

What would I do if I went to Seoul?

I have no family, and while I have two friends, they’re busy so I barely see them even when I’m in Seoul anyway.

As for relatives, I wouldn’t meet them no matter where I lived.

“…Still, it is a bit regrettable.”

The regretful feeling was purely competitive spirit.

The most accessible yet fiercely competitive battleground in South Korea would be Seoul, wouldn’t it?

Even the Tang Family, the hegemon of Sichuan, wanted to extend their reach to the Central Plains whenever they got the chance. Of course, I’m not the hegemon of Busan, but still.

“Ah.”

So I asked Hwang Sanghun.

“Oppa, after your one-year contract ends, want to open a branch in Seoul?”

I wasn’t expecting much, just asking about his intentions.

I thought Hwang Sanghun would want to go up since his family, relatives, and friends were all in Seoul.

“What?”

At my words, Hwang Sanghun’s face looked like he’d just received a termination notice.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————