The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 85

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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 85

Oji-yeong had loved dancing since she was little.

Even when no one taught her, she would watch dance singers on TV and copy them, and after getting a smartphone, she self-taught by watching YouTube.

“Who’s going to perform in the talent show~?!”

“We absolutely have to participate!”

When she entered elementary school, she met friends who shared her interests.

Like Oji-yeong, they were children who dreamed of becoming idols and had hobbies of singing, dancing, and dressing up.

“Hey guys, could you please perform just one dance at the opening of this sports festival?”

The teacher, who learned that the children enjoyed dancing and being the center of attention, would sometimes ask them to perform at events.

“Nana will be dancing here, so Jiyeong, you come in from the side!”

She would also film and upload TikTok challenges with her friends.

During this time.

“Wow, it looks like a broadcast dance academy is opening here in front of the station!”

A dance academy opened within walking distance from home.

“Amazing!”

“Looking at the website, there’s even an instructor who was a backup dancer for the idol group U-Way! She must have met a lot of celebrities, right?”

“Isn’t being a choreography director even more impressive?”

“Wow, I need to ask to register as soon as it opens!”

All the friends she hung out with registered for the academy.

“Which class should we join? Broadcast dance? Girls’ hip-hop? Is kids’ dance for kindergarteners?”

“They’ll probably tell us when we go for consultation, right?”

“Jiyeong, you’re going too, right?”

“I’ll ask my mom and get back to you.”

Oji-yeong naturally wanted to go to the academy too. She wanted to join the broadcast dance class with her friends, learn to dance properly, and even audition if the opportunity arose.

“What? Dance academy? Where do we have money for that?”

But her family wasn’t particularly well-off.

“…I figured as much.”

Her father was a civil servant, and she had repeatedly heard that after paying the principal and interest on the mortgage, there was nothing left after feeding a family of four.

Oji-yeong had no choice but to watch her friends’ skills gradually improve.

“Do you want to go to the academy that badly?”

“It’s okay.”

Even without going to an academy, if you have talent, you’ll shine anywhere!

She believed this and practiced alone by watching YouTube.

“This is called a wave. The angle is different, right?”

“Do that thing. The one where you ride waves with your hands!”

“This?”

“Wow, that’s cool.”

But her friends’ skills kept improving, and she could only watch.

‘I used to be the best before!’

During this time, her younger brother Oji Hoon entered elementary school.

And Mother declared that she would also start working from now on.

“Go to school together with your sister, and when school ends, don’t walk alone – come with friends. Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

Oji-yeong didn’t think much of it.

She was just happy that she could use her phone freely since Mother wouldn’t be home.

But when Mother, who had been looking for jobs here and there, registered for nursing assistant school, passed the exam, and started working, quite a lot changed.

“There were so many things I couldn’t do for you until now, right? If you still want to go, should we try the dance academy?”

“Yes! Yes yes yes yes!”

“Mother needs to work hard to support our daughter!”

Oji-yeong registered for the academy.

“You must have practiced a lot?”

“Yes! I practice every day after school!”

In just two months, she was promoted to the intermediate class where her friends were.

“Jiyeong~ Welcome~!”

“Hi? Nice to meet you!”

There were friends from the same school there, as well as many children from other nearby elementary schools.

Oji-yeong quickly became close with them.

They practiced dancing together, went to karaoke, and enjoyed window shopping in Seomyeon.

Then one day, Oji-yeong watched a movie at the academy.

– Boom boom! Boom ba boom~! Boom bam! Boom ba bam!

Wasn’t the dance battle scene on water in the movie just so cool?

“Is this how you do it?”

“Wow, that’s crazy! How can you copy it right after seeing it once?”

It happened to rain that day.

– Bam bam! Bam ba bam~! Bam bam! Bam ba bam!

Oji-yeong was recreating a scene from a movie.

Splash!

“Jiyeong, are you okay?”

“Oh no! Can you get up?”

She had slipped and fallen.

It was incredibly embarrassing, but she got up as if nothing had happened and danced until the end.

“How did your clothes get so messed up?”

“…I fell.”

“You’re all soaked in muddy water. Washing won’t fix this. We’ll have to throw it away. If you slipped that badly, are you hurt anywhere?”

“My ankle a little?”

“Come to the Traditional Korean Medicine Clinic where Mom works tomorrow for treatment!”

“It’s not that serious. Just putting on a pain relief patch should heal it.”

It wasn’t that she was particularly afraid of acupuncture. She just didn’t want to skip academy classes to go to the hospital.

“Your ankle is really okay now, right? Shouldn’t you be resting from academy?”

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt at all now.”

A week later, when Mother carefully examined her ankle, Oji-yeong said she was fine.

The pain had actually improved by more than 80%, and it would heal completely soon anyway.

“Hmm.”

But the pain lasted longer than expected.

She was talented not only in dancing but also in running, so she was chosen as the relay representative, but her ankle was throbbing severely before the sports festival.

“Ah, it’ll get better.”

But she ignored that too.

There was no other girl in Oji-yeong’s class who could serve as the relay representative.

“…”

Still, her ankle continued to hurt.

It had been almost 6 months since she first fell.

If she said it hurt now, wouldn’t she get in trouble?

They’d get angry asking why she didn’t speak up properly then, and tell her to quit dance academy too, right?

“This won’t work. I can’t handle the choreography. You two switch positions. Jiyeong will take Bogyeong’s role, and Sumin will do Juon.”

“…Is that really okay?”

“Yeah. Actually, Jiyeong, you be the center! I can’t do this!”

That absolutely couldn’t happen.

The mayor was coming, and they were assigned to perform at the opening ceremony of a regional event hosted by a celebrity she’d never heard of but was apparently famous?

Her ankle would somehow work out.

She’d managed well so far, hadn’t she? As long as she didn’t twist it at certain angles or dance too much, it was bearable.

She’d think about it after the performance was over!

So Oji-yeong continued going to school, going to academy, and staying to practice more while hiding that her ankle hadn’t healed.

* * *

“Don’t be like that, let’s just take a look once. It might heal quickly.

I persuaded Oji-yeong and had her sit on the waiting room sofa.

Jin Minjeong, who had finished processing payments and settlement, also approached Oji-yeong.

“I’m really fine though.”

Oji-yeong pouted saying she was fine, but from what I could feel by touching, that wasn’t the case at all.

Visually, there was still swelling in the anterior talofibular ligament.

“Ah!”

Sure enough, even with just a light press, she complained of severe tenderness.

I carefully palpated not only the medial side of her ankle but also her knee and hip joint.

“The anterior talofibular ligament is completely torn up, this doesn’t seem like it was sprained just a day or two ago. Even the peroneal muscles have weakened… This has been going on for a while, hasn’t it? When did you first twist it?”

“Not really…”

“The first time? That’s right, she fell once on a rainy road about 6 months ago!”

“Ah, Mom!”

Oji-yeong shook her head, but Jin Minjeong recalled her daughter’s medical history.

“Did you hurt it again now? Or has it been continuous since then? Oh my, I shouldn’t have believed you when you said it was all healed!”

“…It really was all healed.”

Even as Jin Minjeong blamed herself and beat her chest, Oji-yeong vehemently denied it.

But there are things you can leave alone thinking they’ll get better, and things you can’t.

As the saying goes “sickly at 80,” naturally frail people go to the hospital right away even for minor ailments and take good care of their health.

It wasn’t uncommon for healthy friends like this to miss the treatment window by trusting in their self-healing ability. Even a tough person like Kim Ijin came late like this, making her treatment longer.

“Jiyeong, you need to get this treated. If it leads to habitual sprains, you’ll really twist it at the slightest thing, and if it gets worse and the ligament ruptures, you’ll need surgery. If that happens, you’ll have to wear a cast for two to three months, let alone dance.”

I gave Oji-yeong an exaggerated scare.

I didn’t forget to give Jin Minjeong a look that it wasn’t actually that serious.

Fortunately, she understood well and backed me up.

“That’s right! You’re going to be in big trouble at this rate? Like the Clinic Director said, stop dancing until it heals and get treatment!”

“Ah, I said I’m fine!”

“Ah, I said I’m fine!”

Oji-yeong kept looking anxiously back and forth between her mother and me.

Hmm, maybe just scaring her won’t be enough.

“When is the performance? Can’t you rest for just one week?”

“This week… there are only a few days left.”

“I won’t tell you not to perform. Let’s treat it today and rest for one week, no, just exactly 5 days.”

“…”

Five days would be fine, right? Right?

I mixed carrot and stick to coax Oji-yeong.

“If you treat it after the performance, it won’t take 5 days but over a month. You’re going to overwork yourself tremendously from now until the performance day, aren’t you? Your ligaments have reached their limit now. We need to treat it while you still have some self-healing ability left.”

“…Will it really get better in 5 days?”

Only then did Oji-yeong show interest.

I nodded my head.

Ordinary chronic sprains don’t heal that quickly, but Oji-yeong has good physical condition.

My calculation was that if I performed the treatment I had in mind while infusing her with energy, she would recover sufficiently.

“Not 100%, but from 5 days later, you can dance while continuing treatment in parallel. Of course, with taping and being careful.”

Oji-yeong thought for a moment.

Jin Minjeong was very frustrated, but I waited for her answer.

“Alright. Then I’ll tell my academy teacher that I’m taking a break.”

Oji-yeong reluctantly nodded her head.

Yes, this is how it should be.

Good thinking.

I took everyone to the treatment room and moved to our positions.

Then I took out the torch.

“You’re going to use that?”

When I brought out the long metal rod, Oji-yeong was startled by the visual appearance of the torch.

She probably thought she was just getting regular acupuncture, so it’s understandable she’d react that way when a strange device appeared.

“Yes. Heated fire needling is very good for habitual sprains. You’ll feel the difference right after today’s treatment. After this, just 2 or 3 more treatments with regular acupuncture should make it better.”

“Heated fire needling… you heat it with fire and then insert the needle?”

“There are fire needling methods like that, but today I’ll insert the needles first and then light the fire.”

“Oh.”

With regular acupuncture, she’d have to receive treatment for quite a long time, and then we couldn’t meet the performance date.

From what I could see, Oji-yeong’s ankle pain was definitely not mild.

She was so desperate to dance that she hid this for 6 months.

…I wanted to help her get on stage if at all possible.

That’s why I brought out a special weapon to treat her as quickly as possible.

Heated fire needling involves inserting needles deep into connective tissue, at the location of inflammation, and applying heat stimulation.

Fundamentally, it’s a method that induces damage to promote regeneration through increased blood flow, similar in principle to regular acupuncture but with stronger stimulation.

“Should I light it?”

“No. I’ll do it. Let me insert the needles first.”

When you mention lighting fire, both patients and guardians might be scared if you use fire needling, but Oji-yeong was simply happy to hear she could get better quickly.

Jin Minjeong also wasn’t too worried since she had seen other patients receive it several times.

I immediately inserted needles into Oji-yeong’s ankle and leg.

Starting with the most problematic points Qiuxu and Shenmai, I went up along the Foot Taiyang Bladder Meridian to Weizhong and Weiyang, and also needled Yanglingquan where the peroneal muscle begins and Zusanli.

“Sister. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Not really?”

Fortunately, Oji-yeong took the needles well.

“I’m going to heat them now, but at first it won’t be as hot as you think. If it suddenly gets hot, please tell me right away.”

“Yes.”

Whoosh!

When the torch lit up, my face, which had been expressionless the whole time, even brightened.

When I was in the Martial Arts World, I used to transfer flames with candles, but having a torch is really nice, isn’t it?

“Wow, it’s a fire show!”

Oji Hoon, who was watching from the side, found it fascinating and started filming a video with his phone.

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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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