The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 84

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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 84

“Is there something wrong with your son?”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. It’s just that he seems to catch colds too often. I don’t know why this kid is so weak, but he gets sick five or six times a year without fail.”

“How old is the child?”

“My second child is in second grade.”

What did I think it was going to be? I was startled by the serious atmosphere, but it wasn’t a major illness.

However, for a second grader to get sick 5-6 times a year was indeed quite frequent. If it were when he just entered kindergarten, it would be normal since that’s when immunity is being built up.

“Bring him in once. I’ll do a consultation, check his pulse, and prescribe something if necessary.”

“Oh, thank you. Would weekends be okay?”

“Of course. During business hours is fine too, and if it’s too busy, after hours is no problem either!”

“Yes, then I’ll bring him next weekend. Sorry for keeping you!”

“Not at all~ Well then, everyone disperse! Use your bonuses to buy gifts for your families!”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

With more cheerful voices than ever, all four staff members scattered.

“Yeowon, you worked the hardest going back and forth. What are you going to do today?”

“Me? I’m going to log into the game after a long time. Those people helped a lot too.”

“Ah… okay, have fun.”

“You have a good rest too, oppa~”

Is Hwang Sanghun going to the gym or something? He doesn’t even play games, so I don’t know what he does on holidays.

Anyway, I logged into the game after a long time and generously distributed gifts.

[Wow~ Thank you, guild master~!]

[Long live Divine Physician!]

[Ah lol don’t distribute these things, just come back!!!]

[ㅠㅠ I didn’t even have time to do daily quests]

Yun Hanbyeol still called me guild master, but I had passed the party leader position to Young Master Chungpung, and now that my login frequency had clearly decreased, there was no need to save resources.

After the rewards and punishments were roughly finished.

I got to meet Oji Hoon, Jin Minjeong’s son.

“Jihoon, come in here! No! Don’t touch that! Mom told you to behave quietly when you come to the Oriental Medicine Clinic!”

As soon as the child entered the clinic, he started touching the pamphlets that Seo Inae had displayed.

His personality seemed curious and mischievous, but he was short and thin with very slender arms and legs.

In contrast, the girl who accompanied them had a sturdy build as if she were a shrunken copy of Jin Minjeong.

“Jiyeong, you sit here for a moment.”

“Can I watch YouTube?”

“Yes. Watch quietly. Jihoon, come in here! You need to consult with the doctor!”

I could see why she brought the children after business hours.

The older sister was fine since she was in upper elementary school, but the younger brother would have been quite difficult for Jin Minjeong to control while working.

“Hello, Jihoon~!”

I spoke to Oji Hoon, whom Jin Minjeong had barely managed to seat in a chair.

“Hello!”

“You should say ‘Hello, doctor!'”

“Hello, doctor!”

For me, this was much easier to consult with than a child who was too scared of the hospital to say a word.

“Jihoon catches colds often, so the doctor is going to make you strong. I’ll ask you a few things, can you answer well?”

“Yes!”

The child nodded vigorously.

“Jihoon, do you eat well? Do you look forward to lunch time?”

“Jihoon…”

I gestured to Jin Minjeong with my hand. I wanted to hear it directly from the child’s mouth.

“I like lunch time! But I don’t like it when the teachers scold me to eat all the food!”

“How much do you eat when you get your meal, Jihoon? You can’t finish a whole bowl?”

“Even when I ask for half, the cafeteria lady keeps giving me a lot!”

His appetite and meal portions weren’t large.

“Do you digest well? No stomach aches?”

“Yes. Only a little diarrhea when I catch a cold?”

The child answered while tilting his head.

“When you catch a cold, does your nose get very stuffy? What color is your runny nose?”

“Sometimes it’s stuffy, sometimes it’s not. Clear runny nose just keeps coming out.”

“How about headaches or fever?”

“It’s different each time, but usually not much!”

Since I had plenty of time anyway, I checked overall symptoms like sleep, bowel movements, sweating, hot and cold sensations, and cold patterns in this manner.

“Let me see your hand.”

After finishing the consultation, I felt Oji Hoon’s pulse and then gave Jin Minjeong the floor.

“His sister is healthy and tall, but I worry a lot because this one is too thin and small. He’s very sensitive to cold, and catches a cold right away if he overexerts himself even a little.”

“His immunity is weak?”

“That’s right. I can really count on one hand the times I’ve caught a cold in my entire life. My daughter hasn’t been sick once since entering elementary school. But this one unfortunately takes after his weak father and is always sickly.”

Jin Minjeong let out a deep sigh.

It wasn’t a special illness, but as a parent, there were many things to worry about.

“Jihoon, the doctor is going to give you herbal medicine to make you healthy. Can you take it well?”

“I don’t like bitter stuff!”

“Hey!”

“It’s okay. What the doctor gives me probably won’t be very bitter.”

After finishing the pulse diagnosis, I stopped Jin Minjeong from scolding her son.

Wouldn’t it be too exhausting to struggle every day trying to force medicine down his throat?

“Teacher Minjeong, could you bring me one stick-type Gyeongokgo?”

“Ah, you’re giving him Gyeongokgo?”

“Yes. I think that would be best for Jihoon.”

Jin Minjeong brought the stick-type Gyeongokgo from the refrigerator. I tore it open and handed it to Oji Hoon.

“Do I squeeze it out to eat? Like jelly?”

“Yes. It has a lot of honey in it, so it’ll taste good.”

I smiled brightly.

People think herbal medicine is bitter, but unless really bitter medicinal herbs like Coptis or Scutellaria are included, it’s quite manageable to take.

And Gyeongokgo doesn’t contain a single unpalatable ingredient. In fact, if cost weren’t an issue, some people would want to keep eating it just for the taste.

“How is it? Not bad, right?”

“Ugh, it’s bitter!”

Oji Hoon frowned but squeezed out and ate the entire stick.

“Can I have one more?”

“No. It’s medicine, after all.”

Even ginseng can taste bitter to young children, but the kid seemed charmed as his eyes sparkled.

At this level, he won’t run away saying he can’t eat it!

“Let’s eat just one stick each morning when you wake up. Then your meals will taste much better, and you’ll run well when playing soccer at school. You won’t catch colds easily either. Can you do that?”

“Yes!”

“Promise with the doctor!”

“Promise~.”

After getting a promise from Oji Hoon, I had Jin Minjeong and the child switch seats.

She had basic education, but I still wanted to briefly explain the Gyeongokgo her son would be taking.

“We could have him take direct cold medicine for a longer period. Something like Galgeun-tang or Socheongryong-tang.”

Jin Minjeong was familiar with Galgeun-tang and Socheongryong-tang. She kept insurance herbal medicines in stock for the occasional cold patients.

If he had been constantly sniffling due to allergic rhinitis or similar conditions, taking those for 2-3 months would have been a better choice.

“But rather than treatment focused on cooling fever and drying runny noses, Jihoon needs to build his own ability to resist external stimuli. It’s ultimately a tonic.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Gyeongokgo is both a tonic and a specialized treatment medicine for the lungs among the five organs – liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys – meaning the respiratory system. However, unlike the cold medicines I mentioned earlier, it improves respiratory diseases by moistening chronically dry lungs. In common terms, it strengthens immunity.”

Moreover, it helps digestive function to increase appetite, relieves physical and mental fatigue, reinforces basic stamina, aids children’s growth and development… anyway, it does all good things.

The Donguibogam even states that it ‘supplements vital energy to make the old young and cures all diseases.’

This is why Gyeongokgo is always included in any selection of the three greatest herbal medicines. For reference, the first is Gongjindan, and the third is usually Cheongshimhwan, though sometimes Guiryong-tang or other herbal medicines make the list.

“I see. Our child is constitutionally weak and especially vulnerable to colds, so it seems like a good fit.”

Jin Minjeong nodded, saying she understood the explanation.

“I’ll make it with extra honey specially so Jihoon can enjoy it. But you have to eat your meals well, okay?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, Clinic Director. The direct family discount applies to Gyeongokgo too, right?”

“Of course. I’ll make it well for you, so make sure to give him one packet each morning.”

“Yes, thank you.”

We finished the consultation and left the examination room.

Since all the other staff had gone home, Jin Minjeong had to swipe her own card at the desk and process the payment.

“Hey, what are you doing in the clinic!”

But as soon as we came out to the waiting room, Jin Minjeong grabbed the back of her neck.

Her older daughter had connected YouTube to the desk TV and was dancing.

“You said I could watch YouTube!”

“I meant on your phone! How could you touch the TV!”

“It’s just Bluetooth.”

“Ah, it’s fine. No one’s here anyway. Just turn it off when you leave.”

I had already heard the sounds from outside while in the examination room and didn’t mind much, but Jin Minjeong kept fidgeting restlessly.

She was always someone who silently took on all the difficult work. Not only did she run around most diligently in the physically demanding treatment room, but when Seol Yuhui or Gong Nari had trouble dealing with difficult patients at the desk, she would act as a shield as the senior staff member.

Even such Jin Minjeong was having trouble with her lively, bouncing children? It felt somehow refreshing.

“Oh my, I’m really sorry, Clinic Director. I shouldn’t have brought her…”

“What’s wrong with it? She dances so well! Take your time with the payment.”

“I’ll finish quickly. Phew, this is really driving me crazy. She begged me to send her to dance academy saying she wants to be an idol, so I sent her, and now she’s making a fuss about going to some local event!”

Jin Minjeong sat at the desk, very embarrassed. She had to process payment and reorganize the daily settlement report, so it would take about 5 minutes.

“Ah, practice comfortably until the song ends~ What kind of event is it? A competition?”

“Just an event at that park over there, and our dance team is in charge of the opening performance.”

“I see, that’s amazing! What’s your name, big sister? What grade are you in?”

“Oji-yeong! 5th grade in elementary school!”

“…It’s Jiyeong.”

Oji Hoon and Oji-yeong answered simultaneously.

Oji Hoon also danced along beside his sister, and Oji-yeong never stopped her steps even while talking with Jin Minjeong or me.

As someone whose MBTI starts with I, these were truly fascinating children to me.

I might understand martial arts techniques, but I had neither talent nor interest in dancing. Though it’s a fairly old memory, how terrible it was when I was forced to dance at freshman welcome parties and such.

“But when did you hurt your ankle? Since you’re here, why don’t you get treatment before you go?”

While watching Oji-yeong’s dance, I noticed her right ankle moving strangely and casually mentioned it.

“….”

But as soon as the ankle topic came up, Oji-yeong suddenly stopped the steps she had been practicing.

And Jin Minjeong’s head, who had been handling work at the front desk, shot up immediately.

“Jiyeong, did you sprain your ankle again?”

Ah… she was hiding it?

“No. I’m fine. It’s perfectly okay.”

“Fine my foot! What if you’re dancing with another injury? Stop right now!”

“What are you talking about! I’m really completely fine!”

“I told you if you lie to me one more time, I’ll cancel your academy enrollment immediately!”

Hmm, did I touch a nerve?

Oji-yeong glared at me with extremely resentful eyes.

Sorry, friend. But if you’re injured, you need to get treatment, don’t you.

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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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