Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 117

“Given the nature of neurofibromas, there’s a statistical chance of recurrence… But even if that happens, it won’t be as bad as before.”

“Yes, yes!”

“I’ve looked into a good external technique for physical therapy called qi exercises. Don’t dismiss it, and learn it step by step. This isn’t for fighting, but to return your back to normal.”

She could live normally.

She could finally do something she had never dreamed of in her life. There was no way she would dismiss qi exercises.

“Now we just need to handle the inflammation and focus on recovery. The nursing staff here is skilled. It’ll go well. Yup!”

He spoke a bit uncharacteristically, like an older man.

‘Little White Dragon is really an interesting person.’

She never imagined that the doctor her brother brought would be the famous Little White Dragon, renowned throughout the martial world.

“Hehehe. Doctor, can I walk now?”

“Of course. But you’ll need to work at it. You’ll have to keep seeing the branch doctors too.”

After briefly praising himself, he continued strictly.

“It’s fortunate we could do the surgery before you got older. The effects decrease after the growth period ends.”

“Yes.”

“This kind of thing is always a battle of time and patience.”

Jin Cheon-hee rubbed his chin. Wrinkles formed on his handsome face.

Watching him mutter to himself and get lost in thought made her want to laugh.

“Hehehe… It’s good.”

Suddenly, tears began to pour out.

Once the tears started, they kept flowing as if a dam had burst.

“It’s good. It’s so good.”

Like a fool, she could only repeat the same words.

Jin Cheon-hee looked flustered and took out a medical towel to hand to Sama Hye.

“Oh my, oh my.”

“Doctor, I’m so happy.”

“Are you crying already? You’ll cry even more when you see your brother.”

She could only say how good it was, but tears came with it, and Sama Hye felt somewhat foolish about the situation.

She couldn’t stop the good feelings or the bursting tears.

Jin Cheon-hee was flustered at first but eventually held Sama Hye’s hand.

‘So it was this hand.’

This was the hand that told her she could get better, that everything would be alright.

The thin but knuckly hand was reassuring.

Little White Dragon.

A small but white dragon.

It all felt like a dream, and fearing that if she let go of this hand she might return to the hut with her twisted back, she held onto Jin Cheon-hee’s hand and wouldn’t let go.

She couldn’t let go.

“Oh dear…”

Jin Cheon-hee scratched his cheek, seeming perplexed.

Eventually, as if letting her have her way, he comforted her.

“Yes. I am pretty amazing.”

That attitude was a bit annoying. But Sama Hye was happy about that too.

After some time had passed.

Thump thump-

The sound of someone rushing over was heard.

Then the door burst open. It was Sama Hyeon.

“Brother, did the surgery succeed?”

“Oh, you call it surgery too?”

“Huh? Why. You called it surgery, so I said surgery?”

Jin Cheon-hee gave a thumbs up, saying “Keu, as expected, you’re quick-witted.”

“Yes. We’ll need to keep monitoring, but at this stage, I think we’ve done the best we can.”

“So~ it’s a success, right?”

“That’s right.”

At those words, Sama Hyeon briefly had a dumbfounded expression. Then he wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

“Wow, to think a day like this would come in my life.”

“There will be many more. You punk.”

Sama Hyeon chuckled at Jin Cheon-hee’s words.

Somehow, that expression made him seem like a child his age, which felt good.

“Come and hold Sama Hye’s hand. Let me get free. Oh my.”

He deliberately exaggerated.

Sama Hye finally let go of Jin Cheon-hee’s hand. She had realized it wasn’t a dream.

Even if she were to return to the hut with a body that could barely breathe, she felt she would have no regrets.

“Hehehehe. Brother.”

She kept laughing like a fool.

Sama Hyeon held his sister’s hand.

“Hye…”

“Yes, brother.”

“Hye.”

“Yes.”

Sama Hyeon couldn’t say anything more.

He was speechless, just rolling his tongue in his mouth for a while.

But he couldn’t cry either. He just sat next to her and held Sama Hye’s hand like Jin Cheon-hee had done.

Finally, with trembling lips, he spoke to Jin Cheon-hee.

“Brother, you’re really a strange person.”

“You’re grateful, right?”

“How can you say that…”

“Don’t forget what you promised.”

Three favors.

How to fulfill them was entirely up to the individual.

It was a truly bizarre contract.

“Of course not.”

Jin Cheon-hee stroked Sama Hyeon’s head.

“I’m not telling you to live a good life. That’s impossible in a world like this anyway. Just help others three times when the time is right later on. Doing it three times in a lifetime is doable, right?”

“I’ll still kill people, brother. I already have a lot of grudges and favors piled up, and my life is trash anyway. I’ll probably live like trash.”

‘Wow, he’s really cynical.’

It’s not easy to observe one’s own life philosophy so accurately in this situation.

It was impressive in many ways that he could pinpoint his future self’s image so accurately.

The Hao Sect Leader. King of trash.

He would inevitably create rivers of blood.

It wasn’t as dignified as the demon cult, nor did it have any sense of justice.

A position that could only be obtained by rolling in the muck and fighting like a dog.

Jin Cheon-hee felt pity. But if this was his karma, he would have to go through it.

For Jin Cheon-hee, it was enough that he had reduced the bloodshed that would come.

Sama Hyeon hadn’t gone mad, and his sister and the children had survived.

‘A doctor… just does a doctor’s work.’

A doctor’s job is to treat the patient in front of them. The patient’s life is now open to them.

Jin Cheon-hee pretended not to know and said:

“Right. I know. It’s an unusual martial art.”

“Yeah. But I’ll at least repay the three favors. And brother.”

“What?”

“Why are you doing so much for trash like me?”

Jin Cheon-hee smiled wryly.

“Think about that for the rest of your life. I won’t tell you.”

“…”

Sama Hyeon’s face hardened at those words.

Would he really ponder it for the rest of his life? Jin Cheon-hee couldn’t know.

But probably no one would ever get an answer.

‘Grow up well.’

Sama Hyeon was a bit mad, but not completely insane. For Jin Cheon-hee, preserving that much was enough.

Inside, Sama Hye’s crying and Sama Hyeon’s voice could be heard.

“Well then, I should rest too. I wonder if the dongpo pork at the Hangzhou branch is tasty.”

If it’s not delicious, he’ll dash to the Celestial Inn!

Saying that, Jin Cheon-hee headed towards the communal dining hall.

The cool air felt good. Jin Cheon-hee took a deep breath.

***

Originally, he should have boarded a ship to the Zhoushan Islands by now, but for Sama Hye’s sake, Jin Cheon-hee decided to stay a bit longer.

It had been a fairly major surgery, so this was only natural.

In the meantime, Jin Cheon-hee continued treating patients in Hangzhou.

‘There are more patients at night than during the day in Hangzhou.’

At the same time, passing on medical skills to the doctors at the Hangzhou branch was progressing smoothly.

Diseases that currently only Jin Cheon-hee’s hands could treat would, in the future, be treatable by two pairs of hands, then three.

Medical knowledge was spread through medical reports, and some came to the main branch to learn new knowledge directly.

This time, teaching directly made the process even faster.

“So even if we treat external injuries, if inflammation management isn’t accompanied, the patient will die?”

“You’ve probably seen many patients who died from high fever even after stopping bleeding and suturing wounds. You need to monitor the bleeding status for at least 24 hours, and manage the infection for more than a week.”

Advanced training in orthopedic emergency trauma was also necessary.

“Compartment Syndrome is the most common complication of trauma. Remember, the faster you diagnose it, the more likely you are to save the patient’s limbs.”

“It doesn’t just mean muscle swelling, does it?”

“No. If left untreated, it interferes with blood circulation and eventually starts to necrotize from the extremities. It can be classified into impending, established, and chronic types. An easy way to diagnose it is…”

Practicing practical knowledge meant that the knowledge was alive.

They watched Jin Cheon-hee’s every move.

They asked about what they didn’t know and practiced what they did. Then suddenly, one intermediate doctor said with a gloomy face:

“Even if we learn these things, I’m not sure we can do as well as the Surgery Hall Master.”

What they were learning was the treatment of emergency trauma patients.

The major surgery Jin Cheon-hee had demonstrated was not only unprecedented in this era but also too difficult to even attempt to replicate.

Jin Cheon-hee answered:

“That’s why we keep learning to get there. If you don’t become arrogant and just do your best each day ordinarily, you’ll get there someday.”

“That’s a sound argument.”

This was unavoidable. There are no shortcuts or miracle drugs in medicine.

The only thing to believe in is taking one step forward each day.

“There are no shortcuts when it comes to saving lives.”

‘He’s an amazing person.’

They all quietly expressed their admiration for Jin Cheon-hee.

At such a young age, he was the Surgery Hall Master and the successor to one of the Three Great Medical Sects in the world.

He could have become arrogant, but Jin Cheon-hee had never once shown off.

Of course, there were many times when the training was harsh. But they had to follow because it was true that there was no easy way to save human lives.

“Don’t you get nervous?”

Being responsible for a patient’s life is scary. It’s nerve-wracking.

He had often worried about what he, a mere human, could do.

If one believed in God, they might turn to religion, but Jin Cheon-hee didn’t have even that.

Even during Sama Hye’s surgery, how much had he agonized.

“I do get nervous.”

At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, all the medical sect members murmured.

“None of us noticed.”

It was almost annoying how brazenly he acted.

Jin Cheon-hee gave a small bitter smile as he looked at everyone’s puzzled faces.

‘Senior. I’ve come to pass on the secret you taught me in another world.’

It was the senior who had guided Jin Cheon-hee by his side.

A senior who always struggled with politics, but remained in Jin Cheon-hee’s heart until this moment.

Although he wasn’t sure if it would be conveyed well in a place of different time and dimension.

“Originally, it’s better for a doctor to be a bit shameless.”

“Huh, is that so?”

“Yes. If a patient can’t trust their doctor, who can they trust? If even the doctor is anxious, the patient truly has nowhere to turn. So it’s good to be a bit annoyingly shameless.”

Smile when you’re nervous.

Because it’s good to be annoyingly shameless.

You must never transmit anxiety to the patient or to the staff performing the surgery with you.

Because humans are empathetic beings, there are times when you have to swallow the bad things alone.

‘I wonder how that senior is doing. I wonder if he came to my funeral.’

He wanted to tell him that he was doing well, that there were once again people following that senior’s strange teachings.

He wanted to tell him that even though the language was different, the clothes were different, the thoughts were different, and the place of living was different, it was still being passed on.

He craved a drink he didn’t even consume.

Jin Cheon-hee’s teachings gradually changed the Hangzhou branch.

It was some time after this that the reputation spread that the Hangzhou branch doctors were skilled but annoying.

The teachings had taken firm root.