Doctor’s Rebirth

Chapter 61 - 61

 

Although one leg was unusable, he still had the other.

That was enough for this short distance.

His skills were clumsy, but the martial arts he had learned were still sufficiently threatening.

The warriors of Wangya’s residence didn’t hesitate. They drew their swords to protect their lord.

The blade flew towards his neck like the wind.

‘Good. There won’t be any pain.’

It would be the death of the traitor Cheon Yoo-rang, not the cherished consort.

Nothing cools as quickly as love.

Having grown up in the Hao Sect for half his life, he knew better than anyone how quickly people could turn cold towards others.

Swoosh!

The sound of a sword tearing flesh rang out. The smell of blood was intense.

There was no pain. It was strange.

Cheon Yoo-rang slowly opened his eyes.

Filling his entire field of vision was her.

“Cough!”

She spat out blood.

She stood there, stabbed by his weapon and pierced from behind by her guard’s sword.

“Wangya!”

It was Cheon Yoo-rang’s death cry as his world crumbled.

“Rang-rang, are you hurt? Your beautiful hands are stained with blood…”

Spitting blood, she burst into laughter.

Her body collapsed.

The guard who had accidentally stabbed his lord while trying to protect her was at a loss from the shock. She said,

“It’s alright. I won’t punish either of you. This is my last will as Wangya, so even His Majesty won’t ignore it. Everyone here will be witnesses.”

“…What are you saying! Why are you dying, Wangya! I’m the one who should die!”

“Shh, no. How can one who doesn’t even understand their companion’s heart be called a ruler?”

She reached out and touched his cheek.

A red bloodstain bloomed like a plum blossom.

Just like the winter plum blossom she had given him back then.

“You are free, Rang-rang… You’ve suffered enough, enduring someone you hated. Now no one will bind you anymore.”

With those words, she gradually lost consciousness.

“Ah, if only I had known sooner. If only I had understood your heart a little earlier…”

What was she looking at?

She smiled with her eyes closed.

“It’s beautiful. Truly beautiful… Even more beautiful than winter plum blossoms…”

Cheon Yoo-rang burst into tears.

He tried to pull out what he had stabbed her with and aim it at his own neck.

“You won’t be lonely, Wangya. Together…”

At that moment, Jin Cheon-hee’s voice rang out.

“Quickly, press on the wound!”

At Jin Cheon-hee’s shout, the consort instinctively pressed on Wangya’s wound.

“Harder!”

“Urgh!”

A groan burst from Wangya’s mouth from the extreme pain.

It was pain so severe that she cried out even in her state of exhaustion from blood loss.

That’s how stopping bleeding usually is.

Jin Cheon-hee said,

“Emergency surgery starting! Ah, Master!”

“Hmm?”

“What were you doing! Why didn’t you press her acupoints!”

“Ah, I was also in shock and lost my mind.”

Answering in a calm voice, Zhuge Rin finally raised his heavy body.

It was a bad place to die.

This is White Dragon Medical Pavilion.

***

‘Dammit, he pulled out the hairpin with his own hands. The pain must have been excruciating, has he gone mad? No, before that, how did he even stab someone with this?’

When he looked to see where the hidden weapon came from, it was an external fixation hairpin.

Jin Cheon-hee felt like crying, realizing that the world he had fallen into wasn’t a fantasy novel, nor a raid story, but unfortunately a martial arts novel.

‘Why do they all throw away their lives like straw… It seemed cool when reading it in novels, and my heart used to race whenever I saw the line about righteousness, chivalry, gratitude, and revenge being worth more than life…’

From a surgeon’s perspective, this place was hell.

‘Talk it out, people… Don’t throw away your lives, have a sincere heart-to-heart conversation… Peace is better for your health than swords, you martial arts novel people.’

It was maddening.

Only Jin Cheon-hee and Zhuge Rin were in the room.

The master had ordered everyone else to leave for a while, as they might see Wangya’s jade body.

‘Ah, seriously, even if you’re repaying gratitude with revenge, why think about throwing away your life? And Wangya, why did you throw yourself there? Even if it’s to protect the one you love, still. That’s why I’m taking her pulse like this… Huh?’

Something was odd.

Jin Cheon-hee took her pulse again. Before he knew it, his thoughts came out of his mouth.

“Huh? It’s better than I thought?”

The wound looked serious on the outside, but when he actually took her pulse, her blood vessels, internal organs, and arteries were all fine.

Was it a miracle because the hairpin was so thin?

Jin Cheon-hee was confused.

“Ah, no. She lost a lot of blood. It must have been because of the wound on her back. Let’s turn the patient over.”

The master calmly replied.

“Alright. Let’s do that. Wangya, can you turn over a bit?”

“…”

At those words, Wangya, who was thought to have fainted, slightly opened her eyes and reluctantly turned over.

“Is this alright?”

“Thank you.”

“…”

Jin Cheon-hee’s thoughts briefly stopped.

He mechanically reached out to take her pulse on her back, but it hadn’t even gone in deep.

“How did this… happen?”

Wangya Ju smiled nonchalantly.

“I bit the inside of my mouth rather hard, so there’s a lot of blood. Why don’t you treat that first?”

Jin Cheon-hee finally realized.

“You, you were acting?”

“Oh my! Acting? What can I do if I’m just too skilled! Even if I wanted to get hit, I couldn’t! And! For love, one must employ small strategies!”

This was… a scam.

Everything was a scam.

Wangya Ju had perfectly deceived her subordinates and her beloved consort, and was now lying here.

Jin Cheon-hee looked at his master with disbelieving eyes.

“Master, the reason you didn’t press Wangya’s acupoints and just stayed still while she was coughing up blood… Was it because you knew from the start?”

At those words, the corners of his master’s eyes curved gently.

“Hee-ya.”

“Yes, Master.”

“The title of divine doctor can only be earned through countless real experiences. Naturally, one develops the discernment to see through such feigned illnesses.”

‘Right. The novel definitely said Wangya Ju was a master of martial arts. Not just a master, but a peerless master. Still, given the situation, she had no choice but to embrace him and… oh…’

In short, instead of joining Wangya’s act, he had just watched, and when his disciple said in a grave voice that emergency surgery was needed, he played along.

“Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“Oh my! Are you trying to ruin my plan!”

Well, that’s not it, but…

Jin Cheon-hee recalled the novel.

Wangya Ju loved Cheon Yoo-rang very much.

So when Cheon Yoo-rang met his end through starvation, she built a thatched hut next to his grave and drowned her sorrows in alcohol every day, reciting poetry.

Until she would later encounter the Heavenly Demon, she was very… healthy.

She was someone who took care of her body like a diamond. And her mind was also incredibly healthy in a different sense.

Giving up everything, drinking alcohol and reciting poetry alone seemed so heartbreaking when reading it in the novel, but seeing this situation now, it just seemed…

‘Wasn’t she just enjoying a life of leisure in nature after retiring?’

Of course, her love was real.

She always missed him, and there was no new love after Cheon Yoo-rang.

But her way of loving was so healthy, and also strong…

To an extent that ordinary people could hardly imagine.

The master said,

“It was an impressive strategy. It couldn’t have been easy to act out throwing yourself in that situation.”

“Well, our Rang-rang didn’t really intend to stab, so I had factored in the slowness, but the guards were the problem. The discipline has slackened. The speed of their sword swings was so slow.”

…To Jin Cheon-hee, it had happened in the blink of an eye, almost instantaneously.

Wangya Ju said,

“Well then, could you treat it moderately and wrap it in bandages? It’s important that it looks like a very big wound.”

Jin Cheon-hee sighed.

“I’m glad you didn’t really throw yourself.”

“Oh? I thought you might be angry for being deceived.”

“What could be more important than a person being alright? I’m really glad.”

He didn’t dislike Wangya’s feigned illness.

“…”

Wangya Ju looked at Jin Cheon-hee’s face.

“My, it’s been a while since I’ve liked a child this much.”

At that moment, the master spoke gently.

“No.”

“Hmm? I haven’t even started talking yet. How do you know what I was going to say?”

“Hahaha, no.”

His voice was gentle but firm.

At those words, Wangya Ju clicked her tongue.

“Divine Doctor Baek Rin, you’re a devil at reading the situation.”

Not only did he have the medical skills to save Rang-rang’s leg, but he also had the courage to say everything that needed to be said while still fearing her.

On top of that, even in this situation, his upright attitude of prioritizing the patient over his own emotions really appealed to her.

Jin Cheon-hee was quite a tempting talent.

‘If I could, I’d like to kidnap him to Wangya’s residence…’

The problem was that the boy’s master was a devil at reading the situation.

He cut off the roots before she could even bring it up.

It meant he had no intention of giving him up.

‘The rumors that the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency had their eye on him weren’t lies.’

Moreover, this child was still young.

It meant his potential was limitless.

‘I want to make him the guardian deity of Wangya’s residence…’

Wangya Ju said,

“Did you say your name was Jin Cheon-hee? If there was a job that came with money and honor, would you do it?”

Zhuge Rin clicked his tongue softly.

It was an uncharacteristically rude action, but Wangya Ju was laying the groundwork to try and take his disciple.

By martial arts world standards, it was something that should never be done.

He had already shown great restraint by not intervening.

Jin Cheon-hee asked,

“Um… money and honor?”

“Yes. You could even gain tremendous power.”

Jin Cheon-hee thought for a moment and then said,

“Can this job make me the world’s best doctor?”

“Hmm?”

It was an unexpected answer. Jin Cheon-hee said,

“My dream is to become the world’s best doctor. Because that’s how I can cure my master’s illness.”

It was a very clear rejection.

‘I didn’t expect to be turned down before even getting to the main point…’

But somehow, it made her like him even more.

Talents that couldn’t be bought with money and honor from the imperial family were rare. And the reason was because of his master.

She said,

“Ho ho ho, this is a big problem. I like you more and more.”

She turned to Zhuge Rin and said,

“Divine Doctor Baek Rin, what kind of fortune did you receive in your past life to have such a disciple?”

Zhuge Rin humbly said,

“Fortune? He’s still an insufficient disciple.”

His words lacked persuasion as he spoke with his shoulders tensed up.

“You might as well boast, Divine Doctor Baek Rin.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“My goodness, you look like you’re going to die of happiness, Divine Doctor Baek Rin. Anyway, how nice it would be if the doctors at my own residence were even half as good as that child.”

“You flatter me.”

“Your mouth is going to split from smiling.”

An aura of happiness and pride emanated from Zhuge Rin’s body.

Suddenly, Jin Cheon-hee asked,

“Wangya, there’s something I’m curious about. May I ask?”

“Oh, of course! What are you curious about?”

“Why do you love the consort so much, Wangya? Even if you avoided vital points, it must have still hurt. Moreover, he did actually deceive you, didn’t he?”