Chapter 139: Chapter 12
It was a typical morning as usual.
Kanghyok got up early, washed his face with warm water and had breakfast.
‘Is it because I eat the dishes that taste flat? This one, too, tastes good.’
He looked down at the rice bowl he just emptied.
He used to eat only half the bowl before, so it’s a big progress in terms of his diet.
While he was taking a break on the main floor, sobody knocked on the door.
“Is anybody in?”
It was Makbong.
As Kang was waiting for patients, he quickly walked to the door.
But Dolsok was already ahead of him.
“Can I open the door, master?”
“Yes, he’ll keep coming for the ti being.”
“Wait a mont.”
As the door was pretty heavy, it was not that easy to open it.
Dolsok removed the latch and opened the door skillfully.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Well, I don’t feel any pain in my arms at all.”
With a smile Dolsok pushed the door open.
Makbong and Yoni were standing there.
It was always Yoni who ca forward first.
“Sir, how are you?”
Everybody knew Yoni was a woman.
But she was speaking in a male voice like before.
Though Kanghyok felt it awkward, he didn’t point it out.
“How about your father’s condition?”
“He’s okay. All thanks to you. But he has not got up yet.”
“Good. How long can you stay here?”
She scratched her lower chin at his asking.
“We haven’t yet decided on it. But as a big market is soon opened in a nearby village, we have no problem.”
“I see. Here you are. This is the pill for your father today.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Yoni strongly.
When she was about to leave, Kanghyok stopped her.
“Why are you in a hurry like that?”
“Do you have any direction for ?”
“Well, please do a favor. I want you to find out sothing.”
Kanghyok spoke in a low voice.
“Yes, please. Tell .”
Makbong nodded his head.
After hesitating for a mont, he said,
“When you happen to go to the market, or et other people, can you ask them if they know about the Republic of Korea?”
“What?”
As the word was rather difficult for him to understand, Makbong tilted his head.
Kanghyok instantly learned from the start that Makbong was not that smart.
But Yoni nodded her head as if she read his mind.
“You an ‘Republic of Korea,’ right?”
“Yes.”
“Got it. Let ask anybody I et about that.”
“Don’t overwork, though.”
“Don’t worry, sir.”
“See you tomorrow then.”
“Yes, sir.”
Bowing to him, they disappeared into a dark alleyway.
Whenever he saw them, he felt they were pretty speedy.
‘I used to do so workout in modern Korea.’
Kanghyok looked at them with envy.
When he turned back, he saw the yard so barren.
‘When I get used to my life here, I need to bring so fitness equipnt here.’
As he had to idle away here in old Korea, compared with his busy life in modern Korea, he was really bored out of his skull.
He couldn’t afford to be stuck in the study and read books all day.
‘Shall I go to the examining room now?’
He felt he could kill ti when he was there.
“Dolsok?”
“Yes, master.”
“Let’s go to the examining room.”
“What? Ah, you an the guest room, right?”
When he walked into the room, it was warm inside unlike yesterday.
Obviously Dolsok heated it before he ca.
In one corner of the room was a basin with boiling water where steam was rising.
Kanghyok looked at with a pretty satisfied expression, but Dolsok found it just strange.
First of all, there was nothing like incense that Dolsok usually slled in a doctor’s house.
“Master, don’t you need any dicinal herbs?”
“dicinal herbs?”
“Yes, I can buy them at dicinal herbs stores in the market street.”
“Oh, let see...”
Kanghyok conjured up his childhood mories.
The oriental clinic that he visited with his mother.
And the bitter herbal dicine that the doctor prescribed for him.
‘What was that dicinal herb?’
As he was little interested in oriental dicine, he knew little about dicinal herbs.
‘I don’t know anything but harts horn.’
He didn’t know about the effects of such dicine.
‘As I don’t know anything about it, I can’t prescribe it, either.’
Kanghyok looked down at the bag in his hand.
He felt he could cure any disease with the dicine in his bag.
“No thanks. I’ve got this.”
“Then, how about acupuncture?”
“Acupuncture?”
“Yes, acupuncture.”
Acupuncture.
Acupuncture is one of the traditional dicines that has proven effective. In the midst of the craze for alternative dicine, there ca out lots of related papers on it. As a dical student, Kanghyok also read the papers with interest.
‘If you apply acupuncture on the infected area, it has an effect of dispersing the level of inflammation there.’
But he has never actually applied it.
“I don’t need that. Don’t bug like that, Dolsok.”
“Oh, I just wanted to help you.”
“You don’t have to worry. Do you know how many patients I treated so far?”
Dolsok seed to think for a mont, hiding his sullen look.
‘Only two at the most’
How could he now know as his personal servant?
But he was quick-witted enough to hide his genuine feelings.
“How do I know?”
“At least several thousands. So, you just stand near and learn. You should think it’s an honor for you to work with . Even foreign doctors are coming over to watch my surgery...”
Realizing he made a tongue slip, Kanghyok smacked his lips.
“Master, Sir Yop Huh is here.”
He saw Yop Huh last night.
‘Did he say he had backache?’
“Please have him co in.”
“Yes, sir.”
As soon as Kanghyok ordered, Yop Huh ca in, massaging his back.
Dolsok quickly helped him to sit before Kanghyok.
“Good heavens! I’m so uncomfortable because of back pain.”
“Let check it first.”
“Yea, this area....”
He lay on the bed, groaning with severe pain.
“You will feel hurt.”
Kanghyok pressed on that pain area of his back hard.
“Oh my god! It hurts!” he scread.
“I’m feeling the pus here.”
“Pus? Can you cure it?”
“Not a problem. Though it hurts a lot, you will get better quite soon.”
“Please go ahead.”
After making him feel at ease, Kanghyok searched through the bag and took out a surgery set.
“Sir, you’ll feel better after you feel hurt a bit.”
“Okay. Huk!”
Then Kanghyok applied an anesthetic injection into the pain area.
“Ugh... I feel burning in my back.”
“Are you feeling hurt?”
“Yea.”
“I’m not done yet.”
Kanghyok cut open the pus area with a scalpel.
The thick pus pooled inside ca out.
Disgusting odor filled the room.
When Dolsok was about to press on his nostrils with fingers, Kanghyok shouted.
“What are you doing now? Wipe off this!”
“Oh, yes, sir.”
Dolsok wiped off the flowing pus with gauze.
The more pus ca out, the better he felt because he could not feel the pain any more.
“I just feel I’m already cured.”
In the anti Kanghyok was already done with stitching the open wound.
“Now swallow this pill. Co back tomorrow.”
“Thanks.”
Kanghyok gave him an anti-inflammatory, antacid pills and antibiotics.
“Thanks so much. I’ve brought several boxes of dried at for your service.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Goodbye for now.”
After Yop Huh left, Kanghyok treated several other patients.
Today alone, he treated dozens of patients.
Looking at a long line of patients outside, he shook his head and said,
“That’s it today. Let’s resu tomorrow.”
As if he waited for his order, Dolsok ran out and shouted,
“My master is too tired to treat you today. So, go back!”
Though there ca out voices of complaints here and there, nobody couldn’t make disturbances in the house of Sungmun.
So, he sent them back for the day.
But soone quickly ran into his house and ca to the examining room.
Though Dolsok stopped him, it was too late.
“Hey, please let in.”
“I can’t do,” said Kanghyok.
What he hated most was preferential treatnt.
But he changed his mind after confirming that stranger’s face.
“Suwon mayor?”
“Shush!”
“Please co inside.”
“Thanks.”
The mayor quickly ca into the room.
After confirming that only Dolsok was in the room, the mayor said in a low voice,
“I’m so ashad to say this to others, so I’ve co here...”
“Really? Just tell about it.”
“Nobody knows, but I’ve decided to co here as you’re so good at treating patients.”
“Just tell then.”
The mayor hesitated for a mont and then looked at his lower body.
“I can’t get a good erection...”
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