Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 50

In some brothels, they used expensive gu poisons.

Without the medicine provided by Hao Sect, the gu would cause seizures in the body and lead to death.

Fortunately, neither she nor her brother had that level of value, so they were spared this.

But in any case, if you were caught after running away, there was no hope, and even if you successfully escaped, countless people would return.

Having only known the life of a brothel, it was impossible to suddenly adapt to a different life now.

They didn’t know farming or merchant work.

They had never experienced a normal life.

She gave up on the dream of escaping.

The last remaining dream was to become the head of Hao Sect.

In the unorthodox sects where power is justice, the strong can become the sect leader. She had succeeded in grasping the edge of that, becoming a branch leader.

And then she crumbled due to syphilis.

She leaned her face on Mu-wol’s shoulder.

“Still, that young hall master’s gaze was comfortable.”

“Ah… I felt the same, sister.”

“Yes. He didn’t ask me many things, nor did he interfere. He just saw me as someone to treat.”

“It was a gaze that only thought about what he needed to do.”

“Yes. It was a gaze that saw people as people. I liked that lukewarm gaze. I suppose ordinary people have always looked at each other like that?”

“…”

Instead of answering, Mu-wol stroked his sister Mu-hwa’s head.

“I wish you would get better, sister.”

“To still have hope… You’re so dull.”

“I wish you could tease me for being a fool even three years from now, sister.”

“Hahaha, three years? Why not ask me to tease you for being dull until you’re 100?”

“That would be too greedy.”

“Your greed is already big.”

She stopped speaking after that.

Because her throat began to hurt as if it were being torn apart.

‘I talked too much. It hurts…’

The pain was getting worse day by day.

Even though she tried to endure it with internal energy, it was the martial art of an unorthodox sect.

Since the internal energy wasn’t pure, it was difficult to expect the nurturing effects like those of orthodox sects.

She changed her dream.

She hoped she could live until next year.

She knew it was greedy, but she still hoped that at least this last wish would come true.

***

The next day, her fever was particularly severe.

Her consciousness alternated between awakening due to pain and sinking back down.

It must have been like the feeling of having one’s limbs torn off.

The rash that had broken out all over her body was the symbol of syphilis.

Jin Cheon-hee placed his hand on her forehead. He checked her temperature and then took her pulse.

“Doctor… Will I be able to get better?”

At those words, Jin Cheon-hee’s brow furrowed.

“…”

Syphilis has stages.

The first stage, where it’s difficult to realize you’ve contracted it due to painless rashes.

The second stage, where it fully breaks out and appears all over the body.

Then it goes through a latent period as if nothing happened, before breaking out again in the third stage.

If it progresses to the third stage, gummas are found in the eyes, internal organs, brain, and bones.

It’s a stage that damages organs, cardiovascular system, and nerves, and the mortality rate rises sharply.

For the first and second stages, intramuscular injections would suffice.

At this stage, the prognosis would be good. But the current state was dangerous.

‘Third stage… But there’s a possibility it has spread to the nerves as well.’

In modern times, they would draw cerebrospinal fluid for examination, but that’s impossible here.

‘Even if it’s the third stage, if it’s not neurosyphilis, intramuscular injections are possible. But if it has spread to the nerves, it’s a different story.’

Because with just intramuscular injections, it’s difficult for penicillin to cross the blood-brain barrier.

‘For now, her motor skills seem normal, so shall we give an intramuscular injection and observe her condition?’

If this alone improves her condition, fortunately, the nerves are safe. But if not, we’ll have to move on to intravenous injections.

As Jin Cheon-hee remained silent for a while, Mu-hwa thought.

‘It must be difficult even for the young hall master. An incurable disease is incurable after all…’

Her chest stung.

She thought she had let go of everything, but it seems there was still some lingering attachment.

Finally, Jin Cheon-hee spoke.

“I think it will go well. So let’s try our best together.”

‘Still, he’s different from other doctors who just click their tongues. Different.’

***

‘From here on, it’s a marathon.’

He manages the patients’ conditions and administers medication at set times.

For patients in the third stage, where the bacteria have invaded the organs, there was a high possibility that necrosis had already occurred in the internal organs.

He continued to observe them in preparation for sudden changes in condition.

‘Next is the data.’

He had to continuously record the patients’ improvement status and any possible side effects to keep as records.

Jin Cheon-hee couldn’t be sure if the penicillin here would have exactly the same effect as the penicillin on Earth.

In any case, this is a world where qi exists.

Humans can break rocks with their bare hands and run like horses.

If you gain enlightenment and ascend, you become an immortal, and somewhere, there are monsters.

‘Will the antibiotics made here have exactly the same effect as in modern Earth?’

It had succeeded in animal experiments. But it’s unknown how it will be from now on.

The one who provided the most help was the Medicinal Herbs Hall master, Man Pa-gok.

“The progress looks good?”

She deployed the physicians of the Medicinal Herbs Hall to assist Jin Cheon-hee’s Surgery Hall.

If penicillin succeeds, it means creating an internal injury treatment that didn’t exist before.

It could save many lives.

“If there’s anything lacking, just say so, young hall master.”

“You’re always helping more than enough.”

At Jin Cheon-hee’s words, Man Pa-gok smiled kindly.

“We’re the ones receiving help. Patients are already starting to show improvement. I’m beginning to think that maybe human power can cure this incurable disease.”

Jin Cheon-hee shook his head.

“We still need to observe a bit more.”

“All the Medical Pavilion members are in an uproar with excitement, but our young hall master is still as strict as ever. Oh, by the way, when the medicine is completed, instead of calling it peni… whatever, it’s better to change it to something easier to understand.”

He hadn’t thought about that.

“Why?”

“I don’t understand why the name of the medicine is so difficult to remember… peni… whatever. It’s the same for other Medical Pavilion members. It’s easier to use if it’s easy to remember, so name it more comfortably. Huhuhu.”

She patted Jin Cheon-hee’s back with her large palm.

“Where did such a lucky charm fall from? No wonder the hall master favors you.”

With those words, she went off to work.

Processing penicillin is the job of the Medicinal Herbs Hall.

In an era without proper equipment, refining and processing while preserving the medicinal effects was an incredibly difficult task.

‘It’s fortunate we have the Medicinal Herbs Hall.’

Even the same herb can be medicine if used well, but poison if used wrongly.

Not just the dosage, but the process of drying and boiling the medicine, and the compatibility between medicines could potentially kill patients.

The Medicinal Herbs Hall she commands is working like clockwork even at this moment.

The discipline is so sharp that it’s hard to imagine it’s led by her with her kind appearance.

It’s amazing that she’s still well-liked despite this.

As she does her work, now it’s Jin Cheon-hee’s turn to do his.

Jin Cheon-hee continued to monitor the patients’ conditions as he made his rounds.

“I heard you made this medicine, big brother?”

A young child asked while Jin Cheon-hee was taking his pulse.

“Just a moment. Don’t speak.”

The child obediently closed his mouth at Jin Cheon-hee’s words.

Congenital syphilis.

These are children infected in the fetal state.

It’s largely divided into early congenital syphilis and late congenital syphilis, but if syphilis breaks out in newborns, there’s nothing that can be done with this era’s technology anyway.

The child dies.

If it breaks out after some growth, occasionally there are cases like this where they live fighting the disease.

But syphilis is a terrifying disease.

Aside from the scar covering half his face, one of the child’s eyes was already blind. One ear had also already developed hearing loss.

The mother had already died from syphilis, and this child came here thanks to Jin Cheon-hee’s request.

After finishing the pulse diagnosis, Jin Cheon-hee asked.

“Have you ever learned martial arts?”

“No.”

“But there’s internal energy flowing in your danjeon?”

“Uh… internal energy?”

As his condition improved with penicillin, it was discovered that internal energy was moving inside his body.

The child himself didn’t know about the internal energy.

Jin Cheon-hee explained with gestures.

“Well, have you ever breathed in a strange way?”

“Ah, that’s right. When I had a fever and it hurt too much, I breathed with my belly because it hurt less that way. Like this…!”

The child showed Jin Cheon-hee how he breathed earnestly with his tadpole belly.

‘He built up internal energy with this? Without receiving any verbal teachings?’

If that’s true, this child is a genius.

For now, Jin Cheon-hee placed his hand on the child’s back and checked how the internal energy moved with each breath.

‘He’s doing microcosmic orbit? He’s making it do microcosmic orbit?’

He was making the internal energy circulate in microcosmic orbit in sync with his breathing without any master.

Just accumulating internal energy might be possible, albeit one in a million or ten million chance, if one obtained a fortuitous encounter or consumed some spiritual medicine. But making internal energy circulate inside the body was a different matter.

It’s even more surprising that he’s not aware of it himself.

“I thought this was normal…”

The child tilted his head.

Due to his hideous face, he covered half of his face with his hair.

Until he came here, he had been in a dirty state, but now he was clean and smelled nice. But he was still hideous, so everyone avoided looking at him.

Jin Cheon-hee asked.

“You said you don’t have a name, right?”

“The Hao Sect uncles call me ‘Hey’. They also call me ‘There’ or ‘You’. The kids call me ‘Dog’ or ‘Leftovers’.”

“Hmm…”

Jin Cheon-hee furrowed one side of his brow.

He’s the only child among the syphilis patients.

He had expected the child’s circumstances to be unfortunate, but hearing it directly felt different.

“Let’s do this. I can’t write your name like that, so I’ll make one up and write it here.”

“Do as you like.”

He said he’d write something roughly, but Jin Cheon-hee sat there pondering for a long time. Then he wrote this:

Cheon-woo (天佑).

He took the first character from “Heaven’s Blessing and Divine Help” (天佑神助).

He wrote it hoping that heaven would help this child as much as he had been unfortunate.

“From now on, you’re Cheon-woo. ‘Cheon’ for heaven and ‘-woo’ for help. It means a person helped by heaven.”

“Wow, that’s nice!”

The child nodded.

“And if it’s okay, would you like to live somewhere other than Hao Sect?”

With this level of talent, he could do anything as a martial artist.

But that wouldn’t work within Hao Sect.

“Hehehe, anywhere you take me is fine, big brother.”

Was he starved for affection?

The child didn’t hesitate. In a way, it was natural.

Adults were indifferent, and children his age beat him. After the outbreak, long periods of abuse followed.

Saying ‘He might spread germs’, the children beat the boy.

Even after moving to a place where sick people gathered within Hao Sect, the violence continued.

Deep wrinkles formed between Jin Cheon-hee’s brows.

‘First, I’ll need permission from the master and Hao Sect.’