Hua Tuo Becomes a Surgeon

tl: I was told that ‘화부’ was a proper noun. So instead of ‘the doctor’, it’ll be changed to ‘Hwabu’

~~~

When he examined his body, he saw that it was skinny and short.

“No matter how much stress you experience, there’s no way a person’s life can be cut off so easily… He’s not only weak-willed, but he also didn’t take care of his body at all!”

As he searched his memories, he saw Lee Minho’s life striving to become a doctor.

From a young age, he had been buried in books and had hardly exercised. He also didn’t eat much, claiming that he would get sleepy and have trouble studying if he ate too much.

After barely becoming an intern, he suffered a lot of mental anguish because of being branded with a false accusation, so how could his mind endure it?

“Tsk, the world has become unbelievably better because of the highly developed scientific civilization, but people haven’t changed. Well, it’s nothing compared to the era I lived in…”

He felt sorry for Lee Minho, but he also thought that he was foolish.

If it was so difficult that it led to such a death, wouldn’t it have been better to end it sooner?

Finding another profession rather than being a doctor might have been preferable.

‘If you die, it’s really the end!’

He felt like he had just dozed off, but thousands of years had passed.

Judging from the fact that he was possessing another person’s body, it seemed that souls did exist, but he couldn’t remember anything from the thousands of years that had passed.

Was he just experiencing this because he was temporarily possessing someone else’s body due to someone’s trickery, but for the majority of souls who haven’t had such an experience would they just disappear forever?

No, even if souls did exist, what was the point of existing in a state of nothingness, neither seeing, hearing, nor feeling anything?

It would simply be the end of everything.

‘Will I go back to being dead again, unable to remember anything, when the possession ends?’

Hwabu suddenly didn’t want to die.

But he couldn’t stay in someone else’s body forever.

((tl: I’m impressed. Most transmigrated MCs were just ‘oh well, I live here now, I’m just gonna get revenge for the original owner’, never considering giving back the body.))

Since this was not something he had done on his own, when the person who had summoned him ended the spell, he would return to his eternal rest.

‘Anyway, if I’m going to return to slumber, I should absorb as much of this young man’s memories as possible.’

Even now, a vast amount of memories keep flooding in, but he tried to widen his mind and absorb as much of those memories as possible.

Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring…

After a while, a familiar yet unfamiliar ringtone rang.

Hwabu realized that this sound was the ringtone of the body’s owner, Lee Minho’s cell phone, and turned his head in the direction of the sound.

“Hyungsun?”

The name on the bright screen was Kim Hyungsun, a fellow intern who is currently interning in cardiothoracic surgery.

***

Hwabu didn’t answer the phone even though it kept ringing. Having absorbed many of Lee Minho’s memories, he knew how to answer the phone, but what was the point of a dead person answering a phone call?

Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring…

The phone stopped ringing shortly after, but it rang again less than a minute later.

After searching through Lee Minho’s memories, he suspected the reason why the calls kept coming.

‘Perhaps a resident named Choi Yongsoo is looking for the owner of this body!’

Choi Yongsoo, a 2nd-year resident known as the military commander of the interns, was the one who had tormented him the most among all the residents.

He was probably calling even on a holiday to get him to work.

Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring…

Hwabu’s face contorted involuntarily as the ringing stopped and started again for the fourth time.

It seemed like the ringing would continue until the call was answered, and the familiar yet unfamiliar ringtone was quite irritating.

‘Seeing the way his body involuntary reacts to the ringing, it seems like it’s one of his stressors!’

As the ringing continued, his irritation grew, and he nervously answered the call.

“Hello.”

― Hey! Why did you take so long to answer the phone!

As soon as he answered the call, a loud voice assaulted his eardrums.

Although the language was still somewhat unfamiliar, but he had absorbed a considerable amount of the memories, so he was able to speak it without difficulty.

“I didn’t want to answer, so just tell me what you want.”

― Wh-what did you say? It’s bad enough that you got us all in trouble, and you’re saying you didn’t want to answer the call? Are you crazy?

“Whatever happened to you is none of my business, so just tell me what you want.”

― Huh! This is ridiculous. I don’t even know what to say. Have you gone mad?

“If you don’t tell me your business, I’m going to hang up. And don’t call me from now on, I won’t answer the phone.”

― Hey, you crazy asshole! You just decided to quit, and you’re going to drag me down with you……

Click.

Hwabu frowned and hung up the phone.

As soon as he hung up, the phone rang again, but remembering how to mute the phone and turn it off during a call, he pressed the reject button and muted the sound.

“Ahem, it’s finally quiet now.”

Although the phone was on silent, the light on the screen indicated that Kim Hyungsun was still calling.

Just seeing that made Hwabu annoyed, so he shoved the phone under the pillow.

Sitting back on the chair, he saw the medical book he had been looking at earlier. He could tell that Lee Minho had repeatedly read this book several times.

“Huh! This guy was truly remarkable. To be able to study so diligently.”

Having absorbed Lee Minho’s memories, Hwabu could skim through the book and understand the contents clearly in his head. He could also compare it to his own experience treating patients.

“The more I look, the more astonishing it is!”

He couldn’t believe how much medicine had advanced.

He couldn’t even fathom how many doctors had studied and strived to save lives.

After going through anatomy, he continued to flip through books on emergency medicine, general surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and more.

It was like a vast and amazing world of medicine was unfolding before his eyes.

“I used to think that it was a miracle to just cut out rotten bowel and sew it up, but in this era, they can connect not only severed blood vessels but also nerves! It’s truly incredible!”

Hwabu exclaimed in admiration again and again.

While he was reading the book on cardiothoracic surgery, he saw the section about heart transplant and was so surprised that he forgot to breathe for a moment.

As he was reading the book, he remembered that he could watch various surgical procedures and technique videos on a website exclusive to hospital doctors.

If he turned on the computer right now, he could watch videos of other people’s surgeries.

Hwabu hurriedly turned on the computer and waited for it to boot up.

And then, after a while, he logged into the hospital site from Lee Minho’s memories and started watching videos.

There were tons of videos, starting from simple endotracheal intubation to correcting dislocated shoulders, appendectomy, and finally, there was even a video of a heart transplant surgery.

Watching the video, Hwabu began to follow along with the surgeon performing the operation.

Hoo.

A smile involuntarily appeared on Hwabu’s face as he followed the hand movements.

Even though he was possessing someone else’s body as a soul, he was enjoying learning about new medical techniques and procedures.

***

Grrrrrrr….

How long had he been following along with the videos?

Hwabu, who had lost track of time, perked up his ears at the sound of his stomach growling.

“Huh? You’re hungry? Why would you be hungry when you’re already dead?”

Taking a moment to focus internally, he observed that his stomach was rumbling, and his heart was beating.

“Clearly, it’s a dead body… Is this happening because I’m possessing it?”

Once he thought about being hungry, a maddening hunger came over him.

‘Why am I so hungry? I don’t think the owner of this body eats that much.’

For a moment, he had an internal debate whether he should eat something for now, or if he should just endure it since he would return to being dead once the possession ended.

“Come to think of it, I wonder how the food in this world tastes!”

Even though he was in a state of possession, he thought he would be able to taste the food if he ate it.

Hwabu paused the video and opened the refrigerator.

Inside were bottles of water, ready-made rice, and kimchi.

He first took out a bottle of water.

“Is this purified water sold in stores? In my time, the water wasn’t clean, so I had to boil it to avoid getting sick. But here, I can just drink it!”

He unscrewed the cap and took a sip, and cool water flowed into his mouth.

Hwabu’s eyes widened.

He knew what the refrigerator could do, but he was still surprised to actually drink such ice-cold water.

‘Hoo! It’s not even winter, and I can enjoy such cool water! It’s really refreshing!’

Moreover, the water tasted good.

Hwabu opened the shelf above the refrigerator with sparkling eyes.

On the shelf were ramen, cans of tuna, and spam.

Gulp.

His mouth watered involuntarily.

From Lee Minho’s memories, he knew that ramen was one of the delicious foods he often ate as a substitute for rice.

Hwabu poured water into a pot, placed it on the gas stove, and turned on the heat. And when the water began to boil, he added the broth base and noodles.

As soon as the smell of ramen wafted through the air, he picked up a spoon and took a sip of the broth first.

Slurp.

“Huh! To think there’s such a taste in the world! What on earth did they do to create a flavor like this?”

Even while the ramen was boiling, Hwabu kept stirring with the spoon, blowing on the broth, and sipping it. And after a while, when the noodles were cooked, he picked up a chopstick and tried it.

“Haa!”

It was so delicious that, for a moment, he was left speechless.

Despite having tried countless noodle dishes before, he had never tasted anything so chewy, springy, and flavorful that stimulated every taste bud on his tongue.

Drip, drip, drip…

Tears welled up in his eyes involuntarily.

He was moved and impressed, and he envied the people of this era who could eat such food whenever they wanted.

It seemed like he had barely taken a few bites, but the noodles were all gone before he knew it.

Hwabu drank all the broth and proceeded to cook four more ramen without delay. Although he wanted to cook all the remaining ramen, the pot was too small, so he could only cook four.

After hastily finishing the ramen, his stomach protruded like a tadpole’s. Despite wanting to drink the remaining broth, he refrained, feeling like his stomach was going to burst.

“I’ll have the broth later once my stomach settles.”

Hwabu placed the pot with the remaining broth on the gas stove, put a lid on it, and resumed watching the video.

“Let’s see, where was I…… Ah, here it is. Let’s start with laparoscopic gallbladder removal [1].”

[1] a minimally invasive surgery, where small incisions and specialized tools are used to remove inflamed gallbladder.

***

“Has he gone mad?”

Kim Hyungsun gnashed his teeth as he stared at his phone.

He had called more than ten times and sent three text messages. But even two hours later, there was still no answer or call back.

Bang.

At that moment, Resident Choi Yongsoo barged into the doctor’s office, looking agitated.

Kim Hyungsun turned his head and quickly pocketed his phone when he saw Choi Yongsoo.

“Hey! Kim Hyungsun.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That anchovy kid hasn’t come to work yet?”

“I called him, but he didn’t answer, and I left a text message, but there’s no reply.”

“Ha! He’s just an intern, but he’s already skipping work after finishing his on-call duty? And he’s ignoring the calls?”

“……”

In response to Choi Yongsoo’s question, Kim Hyungsun lowered his head deeply, concealing his perplexed expression.

In fact, given the unjust treatment you’ve made him suffer and even forced him to do an on-call duty, shouldn’t he not be called on his day off?

“He’s losing it. No matter how much the times have changed and the 100-day on-call duty has been abolished, when I was an intern, I never got to leave work properly and lived in the hospital.”

“……”

“Anyway, what are you doing here?”

“I was going to have a cup of ramen because I didn’t have breakfast.”

Kim Hyungsun pointed to the cup of ramen he had poured hot water on, and Choi Yongsoo reached out and took it.

“Hey, I’m hungry too. Good timing. I’ll eat this, and you can make a new one.”

“Oh, alright.”

“And go out during lunchtime and get that anchovy kid.”

“Yes? During lunchtime?”

“Why? You don’t want to?”

“No, not at all. I understand.”

Slurp…

While Choi Yongsoo twirled his chopsticks, Kim Hyungsun poured water into the coffee pot and unwrapped a new cup ramen.

‘Fuck, I couldn’t eat breakfast, and now I can’t even eat lunch!’