The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 99

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

Chapter 99

“Wow! Hanyewon, how long has it been? It’s so hard to see your face after graduation! Have you been doing well?”

“I’ve been doing well. Are you finding hospital life manageable now?”

“Yeah, yeah. Being a second-year resident is definitely more livable. I guess intern year was the toughest after all.”

Her situation was certainly better than during her intern year or first-year residency, as Hwangseoyeong’s face looked better each time we met.

“If Sanghun oppa had endured at the hospital, he would’ve been fine by now. I wonder if I unnecessarily took away someone precious.”

“No way! What are you talking about! Oppa is absolutely overjoyed to be there!”

“Well, he might be happy… I always feel grateful and sorry for overworking him.”

“Come on! He says he’s thrilled to death every time we talk! Once I get my specialist certification, get me a job at your clinic too!”

There’s a line of people asking for jobs.

Next year Lee Ahreum, and the year after that Hwangseoyeong with her specialist certification could become vice director?

But what can we do? There’s no space since Hwang Sanghun has no intention of moving out.

“We should go see Professor Shin first, right?”

Chatting in Hwangseoyeong’s car, we arrived at school quickly. She had become quite comfortable with driving by now.

Today at Korean University, I was scheduled to meet with a total of 4 professors.

Mine and Hwangseoyeong’s thesis advisors, Professor Lee Minseok, and our homeroom professor from first year who had taken great care of our class in many ways.

Since we were scheduled to have meals with our thesis advisors, we met Professor Shin first.

“Haha, I knew you would definitely succeed. Keep striving forward.”

“Introducing me to good seniors and writing recommendation letters for China – it’s all thanks to you, Professor. It’s nothing compared to your kindness, but I prepared something simple.”

“Hahaha, you didn’t need to do this!”

I gave Professor Shin a bottle of liquor and flowers, and received some light words of encouragement.

Since my thesis advisor was still in class, we bought drinks from the vending machine in the lounge.

“Ms. Hanyewon? Ms. Hwangseoyeong?”

Just then, we ran into Professor Lee Minseok.

We had arranged to meet in the afternoon, and were planning to visit him after finishing our meal anyway.

“You’re here early? Have you had lunch?”

“We have a lunch appointment with Professor An Min and Professor Park Suyeong.”

“Ah, you should have told me earlier. I’ll join you.”

“…?”

What?

I deliberately avoided it thinking it might be uncomfortable with the older professors.

‘Is he more social than he looks?’

Shortly after, we ended up having a meal at a Korean traditional restaurant with 3 professors and 2 graduates.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the Korean restaurant gladly accommodated changing our reservation from 4 to 5 people.

Clatter clatter clatter.

Professor Lee Minseok, who was among the youngest of all professors, quickly set out the utensils.

An Min, Hwangseoyeong’s thesis advisor, was a professor of herbology and prescriptions and also served as the department head of Korean Medicine.

My thesis advisor Park Suyeong specialized in spleen-system internal medicine and was also the director of Korean University Affiliated Korean Medicine Hospital.

Both were senior professors and wielded considerable power within the school.

“Thank you for including me even though I asked so suddenly.”

“Haha, not at all! We need young people like Professor Lee to liven up the atmosphere!”

Nevertheless, Professor Lee Minseok showed no signs of discomfort. Rather, he naturally made flattering remarks as if breathing.

He doesn’t look the type at all, but maybe his ability to do such things is why he became a professor at such a young age?

“Isn’t Ms. Hanyewon incredibly busy with business right now? Hehehe, why did you come to see old folks like us in the back room?”

I was dumbfounded by Professor Park Suyeong’s words.

There should be limits to modesty. A hospital director with over 10 years until retirement calling himself an old man in the back room?

“The more I practice, the more I realize how amazing you professors are. I’m always grateful!”

Hwangseoyeong said.

“Thanks to Professor Park, I don’t worry about digestive patients at all!”

I also appropriately praised the professors.

“Haha, what did I tell you? If you can treat digestive disorders well, you can make a living!”

Just like when meeting Professor Shin, we exchanged pleasantries and caught up.

Actually, it had been over 20 years since I had thesis advisor meetings, so I didn’t remember well how to interact with them, but watching Hwangseoyeong, I could easily chime in without difficulty.

“Speaking of which, how is Professor Kim Chunsik doing?”

As we talked, Professor Lee Minseok brought up Kim Chunsik.

“Ah, that’s right. Professor Kim is working with your network, isn’t he?”

Professors An Min and Park Suyeong seemed to know him too.

“Yes. Thanks to Professor Lee Minseok, I have the honor of working with such an excellent person.”

“Don’t be so modest. He treated us big time last time, saying his income increased tenfold after meeting Ms. Hanyewon.”

“Oh, really?”

“According to Professor Kim, you’re also preparing to operate an external herbal pharmacy. Is that true?”

Moreover, Professor Lee Minseok even brought up the purpose of my attendance at this gathering.

“Yes. It’s a bit overwhelming to continue with in-house decoction, but I don’t like the idea of leaving it to other companies.”

“I understand. Even though you think they’ll do fine, it’s still worrying. The hospital once received the wrong Cynanchum wilfordii.”

“Really?! How does the school hospital conduct quality inspections of medicinal materials?”

“Professor An Min here does one inspection, and the working pharmacists check again. It only happened once in our hospital’s history though. Professor An caught it before it went to patients.”

The reason I wanted to have a decoction room right in front of me was my concern that something like this might happen.

Just a few decades ago, when medicinal herbs were packaged and given to patients, they would boil them at home, but in modern South Korea, almost no households have home decoction machines.

Practically speaking, decoction methods are divided into in-clinic and external decoction, where in-clinic means boiling directly inside the oriental medicine clinic as I’m doing now.

And external is overwhelmingly convenient. If you input the prescription on the external decoction room website, they boil the medicine and send it to the patient’s home by delivery.

Of course, it costs a bit more than in-clinic decoction, but considering the decoction room and medicinal herb management costs, it’s not that expensive.

However, I’ve insisted on direct decoction because I was bothered by not being able to see with my own eyes the entire process from the state of the medicinal herbs to the finished medicine.

…The possibility of problems occurring in modern South Korea is very low, but you could say it’s trauma from seeing so many fraudsters in the martial arts world.

“Sigh, I’d like to see it directly too if possible. But checking not only mine but also other branches would be absolutely unmanageable time-wise. I was actually going to ask if there might be a teacher who has mastered this field.”

Thanks to Professor Lee Minseok bringing up the topic, I naturally stated my business.

From the expression “a teacher who has mastered,” Professor An Min immediately realized what today’s gathering was arranged for.

“Ho, so that’s why you even called me to treat me to a meal?”

“It’s not just that! You know how much I’ve always respected Professor An.”

“Hmm.”

Professor An Min chuckled.

Even though it was killing two birds with one stone, that was indeed one of the main purposes.

“Professor An, don’t you have anyone decent in your lab?”

Professor Park Suyeong asked casually, but Professor An Min frowned.

“Well. Most of the students these days come to polish their degrees… To entrust such work entirely, shouldn’t it be a Korean medicine doctor or pharmacist?”

“Yes. They need to have a license and practically have the ability to handle quality control and decoction.”

I nodded. They must be able to distinguish all medicinal herbs before and after processing, as well as identify superior and inferior grades.

“It’s not easy. Most of the students in our research lab verify the effects of specific medicinal herbs or medicines through animal experiments. No one has mastered medicinal herbs themselves.”

“Is it that bad?”

“These days, students have no occasion to see unprocessed medicinal herbs after graduation. Dr. Hwangseoyeong, can you distinguish between mokbanggi, bunbanggi, and gwangbanggi?”

“Huh? Oh, no.”

Hwangseoyeong, who had been quietly listening and was suddenly called upon, was greatly flustered.

Sorry, friend.

But then.

“Mokbanggi has a much darker color, doesn’t it? Gwangbanggi has fan-shaped patterns. Of course, gwangbanggi is toxic, so relying only on that could cause big trouble. And anyway, in Korea, all three can’t be used, and only Cheongpung (Sinomenium acutum) is available for use, right?”

Isn’t this basic knowledge?

It’s not like they’re asking me to distinguish by tasting the decocted medicine – you can just see it with your eyes, right?

Especially among similar species of banggi, gwangbanggi must be very carefully watched for as it causes nephrotoxicity.

“…If Dr. Han knows that so well, why did you only fail the herbology exam?”

“Huh?”

I had to think for a while about what Professor An Min was saying.

And I barely remembered. In the second semester of my fourth year, I took the herbology exam right after the semester started and completely failed it.

“Ah, haha. I wasn’t good with scientific names. That’s how it turned out…”

You still remember a student’s grades from over two years after graduation…?

I did graduate as valedictorian but only failed that one exam, so I guess there was quite a bit of resentment built up.

“Anyway, like Dr. Hwang, these days Korean medicine doctors have no occasion to see medicinal herbs once the herbology exam is over. They either leave it to external decoction rooms, or even if done in-clinic, they trust pharmaceutical companies for quality. They leave decoction to staff.”

“Is that so…”

“Mm, practitioners who’ve been Korean medicine doctors since the days of packaging herbs would be older established doctors, and scouting them won’t be easy.”

“That would be the case.”

“Hehe, if I were facing retirement like Professor Kim Chunsik, I would have raised my hand.”

No, I’ll pass on that.

Even though Kim Chunsik was a professor, I never actually took his classes so I could just get by, but how could I hire someone who was even briefly in a teacher-student relationship with me as an employee?

It would be uncomfortable and absolutely not acceptable.

“It would be better to look among pharmacists for this work. Sorry I couldn’t be of much help.”

I nodded.

“Do you happen to have any connections in that field?”

“I do give lectures at the Department of Oriental Pharmacy, but don’t expect too much.”

I was grateful just that he readily agreed to look into it.

Professor Park Suyeong and Professor Lee Minseok also promised to introduce me if they came to know suitable people within their networks.

“Thank you. It’s not urgent for me anyway. I don’t even have space to create an external decoction room yet.”

I’ve thrown the topic out there, so if there’s a connection, I’ll meet someone.

If no one connects, I’ll have to post an official notice or proceed directly.

“That aside, don’t you need a vice director instead of a pharmacist?”

Feeling that the conversation was roughly finished, Professor Lee Minseok changed the subject.

“Do you have someone to recommend as vice director?”

“No way! I’ll go there when I get my specialist certification!”

“Isn’t Dr. Hwang still in her second year? I’ll be hiring next year.”

Just go ahead and decide everything among yourselves.

“Next year, junior Lee Ahreum said she wants to join. Though there’s no position anyway.”

“Ah! That student was exactly who I was going to recommend. She’s very excellent. She even spoke up directly.”

“Right. What on earth are you telling students about me?!”

“I just told them the truth and said to follow your example.”

I tried confronting Lee Minseok too, but it didn’t work at all.

Instead, he began explaining to me the advantages of hiring Lee Ahreum as vice director.

Smart, and when you teach them one thing, they understand ten… that’s all well and good.

“Anyway, Sanghun oppa says he’ll stay on. Even if we wanted to hire one more person, there’s no examination room available.”

“Don’t you see over 100 patients a day? Why don’t you expand?”

Where did she hear that from again? Clinic Director Kim Chunsik?

“That was only during our busiest times. And to expand, you need space. This isn’t a big building – we’re already using the entire floor.”

I shook my head.

If infinite expansion were possible like in a game map, I’d want to add examination rooms next door, put in Korean Medicine Doctor units, and increase the beds by about 10.

But setting aside rent and labor costs, there really was no space.

The location was chosen based solely on feng shui without even considering transportation convenience, so there’s no way they would have thought about expandability.

* * *

Time flew by quickly as we chatted about this and that during our meal.

After I generously paid for the Korean set meal, Professor Park Suyeong, being the eldest, bought coffee.

Since everyone was very interested in my business, we continued our conversation quite late into the evening.

Professor Lee Minseok is listening way too intently… I wonder what story Lee Ahreum will end up hearing.

Just like when I visited Seoul before, I arrived in Busan on the first flight of the morning.

Seeing patients busily as always was no different from usual.

Then suddenly, Professor Lee Minseok’s words came to mind.

Expansion – if it were possible, I wanted to do it. I wished the waiting room could be about twice as big.

So I dug through the contract to find the building owner’s contact information.

It was someone I had never met directly since a real estate agent handled the contract negotiations.

I sent a brief message along with my introduction.

[By any chance, are there any tenants on other floors of the same building who will be moving out soon? If any space becomes available in the future, I would like to sign a contract.]

However, there was no reply.

The next day was the same, and the day after that too.

‘…Am I being ignored?’

What’s this about? They could just say no if there’s nothing available, right?

Something felt off about this.

A week later.

Documents arrived from the court.

It was a notice to interested parties that an auction bid was scheduled, instructing me to fill out a dividend claim application and other forms.

“…What the hell is this supposed to mean?”

So, the building is going up for auction?!

Did the building owner go bankrupt or something?

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