The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

“Pardon?”

What do you mean, what am I? I just inserted the needles normally…

Was my tone strange? My needle insertion posture? Or could he possibly sense the movement of qi and blood?

“You’re not using a guide tube.”

“Ah.”

Oh, is that all?

Only after Professor Lee Minseok pointed it out did I realize that all my classmates were using guide tubes to insert their needles.

A guide tube is exactly what it sounds like—a cylindrical tube used for needle insertion, slightly shorter than the needle itself, designed for quick insertion with just a tap.

Since it pierces the skin much faster than manually pushing the needle in with your hand, it causes less pain for the recipient. In modern times, where painless treatment is important, most practitioners use guide tubes.

‘I wasn’t thinking at all.’

Unlike in the martial arts world where I had to sterilize the needles myself, I was still getting used to the pre-packaged, sterilized needles that come in sets of 10 when you open the wrapper.

Looking again, I saw that each needle pack indeed contained one guide tube per needle.

‘Hmm, I could have used them if I had asked for them to be made.’

It would have been impossible at first, but after settling in with the Tang family, I could have asked a craftsman to make them. However, by that time, I was already accustomed to inserting needles without a guide tube, so I didn’t even think of their existence.

“Yes, I’m used to this method.”

“You look like a veteran with 10 years of experience. Are your parents Korean medicine doctors? Do you practice at home?”

The professor asked with a suspicious look.

“No, sir. I just practiced on my own using tissues.”

I answered, recalling how Professor Kim Seongcheol, who was now on parental leave, had told us to practice by piercing toilet paper rolls.

“You’re good at it.”

He stared at me for a moment, then patted Jo Haneul’s shoulder.

“Haneul, you should learn from this. Cut down on the drinking.”

“Ugh, yes…”

He kept calling him “hyung,” but I couldn’t tell if they were really close or if he was just picking on him.

After checking the practical work of all the students, Professor Lee Minseok returned to the platform and revealed his own method. I suppose it was meant to be a model answer.

And so, today’s class ended safely.

Thanks to Jo Haneul being the sacrificial lamb yesterday and our class representative today. We still had at least 10 more classes with Professor Lee Minseok… Is everyone going to get scolded once?

While I was lost in thought, I heard Professor Lee Minseok speak.

“The next class is on Wednesday, right? Take a picture of the assignment and submit it by the day before. The content should be the same as last time—write about diagnosis, treatment methods, and other patient education.”

Unlike the example patient from yesterday where he only mentioned the main symptoms, this time there was detailed information about the patient’s present illness, past history, social history, and problems in each body system.

“The main symptom is tinnitus, and it’s been over 10 years since the symptoms started. If you need other information for pattern identification, refer to this. Tinnitus patients are both difficult to treat and quite common in local environments.”

Professor Lee Minseok said.

‘Tinnitus onset 11 years ago? Hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and cervical disc problems too?’

I carefully read the chart written on the screen.

[P.I (Present Illness)]

* Symptoms occurred after spouse’s death 11 years ago

* Left untreated for a long time due to repeated improvement and worsening, symptoms worsened without specific cause 1 year ago

* Became unable to sleep without alcohol, first attempted examination and treatment in November last year

* ENT examination showed no structural problems in the inner ear, mild hearing loss. Had otitis media at the time, but tinnitus persisted even after inflammation subsided

* Brain MRI in January this year showed no significant findings

* Attempted treatment at two Korean medicine clinics since then, but no improvement, hence visit

Below that, social history, various test findings, and systematic inquiries were listed. The social history, in particular, stood out.

“He drinks a bottle of soju every day? And he works in construction? The construction site must be incredibly noisy.”

Hwang Seoyoung said. There was much more information compared to the patient briefly presented last time.

There were multiple aspects of his lifestyle that could cause tinnitus.

“How are we supposed to do pattern identification? Qi deficiency? Liver and kidney yin deficiency?”

She tried to identify the pattern as if solving an exam question.

Pattern identification is a diagnostic method that examines not only the patient’s main symptoms but also all signs in the body such as appetite, digestion, urination, defecation, and sweating to determine the deficiency or excess of the five viscera and six bowels, and essence, qi, spirit, and blood.

It’s as important as deriving a disease name in the Korean medicine diagnostic system, but unlike exam questions, real patients rarely fit neatly into categories.

“Don’t just copy from books. Submit what you think is the actual treatment method you would use.”

The professor left the screen up, received our farewells, and left the classroom.

Unlike yesterday when she left early saying she had something to do, Hwang Seoyoung held me back today.

“What do you think? Is alcohol really the problem?”

“I don’t think this is a question that can be answered with pattern identification. If it were, it would have been clearly directed in one way like a national exam question. Alcohol probably wasn’t the initial cause, but if he doesn’t quit drinking like that, he’ll hardly get better… I think the intention is to write about treating around the ear, cervical spine, and temporomandibular joint with acupuncture, and how to get him to quit drinking and take medicine.”

“Ah!”

“It’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.”

Hwang Seoyoung nodded.

“I think you’re right. There are so many problems. Disc issues, mild hearing loss, and he hasn’t been cured despite trying various treatments for a year. They probably even tried steroids, but how can we cure something that doesn’t respond?”

“It’s not that it can’t be cured at all. It does get better with long-term treatment while taking medicine.”

There were quite a few tinnitus patients in Murim as well. No, there were surprisingly many.

While the pathophysiology of tinnitus isn’t clearly understood, it’s thought to be caused by inner ear disorders, noise, trauma, inflammation, stress, and imbalances in the cervical spine and temporomandibular joint.

A martial artist who has reached a certain level should not be affected by external factors except stress, but renowned masters who didn’t seem like they would be affected at all often came to me suffering from PTSD.

‘If you ask if I can cure it completely, that’s not the case, but to give up treatment… even if it improves by just 70%, the quality of life improves quite a bit.’

I tried all sorts of things, saying I’d treat it.

In a modern medical environment, a patient like the example given would have left for another hospital if they didn’t get better, but in Murim, there were plenty of patients who relied solely on me for months or even years.

“You talk as if you’ve actually treated it.”

Jo Haneul approached with a smirk.

“Yes, I’m just blabbering based on what I’ve read in books. Your parents must have treated cases like this, so why don’t you go ask them?”

If class was over, they should have left quickly, but Jo Haneul was picking a fight and Hwang Sanghun even tried to sneak a peek at my laptop. I couldn’t possibly tell them about my clinical experiences anyway. I waved my hand, shooing them away.

“Are you going to work on the assignment before leaving again?”

“Yeah.”

Hwang Seoyoung also went home first. She was shocked at first but had accepted the fact that I really only studied after classes ended.

“Ahem~”

Today, even Hwang Sanghun went home without resistance, and there was no one left in the classroom.

‘I guess I don’t need to go to the library then?’

I typed up the assignment at almost the same speed as I thought.

I could compose prescriptions without needing to search through books. As I told Hwang Seoyoung, I could insert needles into acupoints around the ear, or I could identify which of the five viscera and six bowels was weak and tonify it. As Professor Lee Minseok said, tinnitus is quite a common disease, so any acupuncture method would have a set of points for treating it.

There isn’t just one answer, and it’s not like there’s a set number of needles to use, so what does it matter?

“Done!”

I cheerfully exclaimed “finished” just like the day before, but only silence filled the classroom.

I briefly considered whether to study in the classroom until the security guard came or go to the library, and chose the latter. I didn’t like having my concentration broken midway.

“Oh.”

I was about to leave when I suddenly noticed that the PPT was still displayed on the screen.

“Did he leave his USB behind?”

No, that’s not it. He must have brought the file and saved it on this computer, right?

Curious, I went up to the platform to check the classroom computer. But what Professor Lee Minseok had left behind wasn’t a USB.

He had brought his own laptop and switched the cable to display it on the screen.

“Geez… how could he be so careless, no matter how distracted he was.”

It seemed that neither the class representative nor the information officer had noticed, busy discussing the assignment.

No one would say anything if I just left it there, but…

‘What if it disappears and I get blamed?’

Having adapted to a world with unstable security and rampant slander, I couldn’t bring myself to leave the laptop in an open classroom.

“I guess I’ll take it to him.”

I messaged our class representative to find out where Professor Lee Minseok’s office was.

[Oh my, I should have taken care of it! Should I come get it now?]

[No, I asked because I was planning to take it to him.]

[He’ll be at the hospital, not the school~. Clinical Research Lab, 3rd floor! Thank you! I’ll text him to let him know you’re coming~!]

I thought he’d be in his office just up a floor, but now I had to go all the way to the hospital. With the class representative responding like that, I couldn’t back out saying it was troublesome.

“It’ll probably take about 15 minutes if I walk slowly.”

The university hospital wasn’t that far anyway. That’s probably why the professor went straight there after the lecture ended.

I leisurely enjoyed the breeze as I made my way through the students and left the campus.

The hospital was right across the main street.

Honk honk honk-!

Suddenly, a car horn blared at the intersection.

I had been fiddling with my phone, but I jerked my head up.

“Huh?”

I vaguely saw a middle-aged man, who looked to be in his 50s, crouched at the entrance of the crosswalk.

A blue Porsche was heading straight for him.

Honk! Honk honk!

The middle-aged man didn’t get up, as if he hadn’t heard the horn. He had something in one ear that looked like a wireless earphone.

If that was the case, the car should at least make an emergency stop, but the Porsche didn’t slow down at all. Its attitude seemed to say, “It’s my right of way, so you’d better move.”

There was less than 50 meters left between the car and the crosswalk.

“Are they crazy?”

Whoosh!

I launched my body simultaneously with my words. Using qinggong to dash forward, I grabbed the old man with the grappling hand technique.

“It’s a red light! How can you crouch at a crosswalk with earphones in?”

“Ugh!”

I shouted loudly.

There was no one else but me and the man at the crosswalk between the school and the hospital. If I had been even a split second later, the middle-aged man would have been hit by the car.

“Gasp, huff! Are, are you human?”

The middle-aged man flailed his arms as if he’d seen the grim reaper. Not only had he narrowly escaped a life-threatening situation, but my movement in grabbing him wasn’t that of an ordinary person.

“Of course I’m human!”

I answered calmly, but he, having been suddenly grabbed from a crouching position, couldn’t shake off his shock.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!”

The Porsche finally slowed down.

That’s all they had to say, opening the passenger window. They didn’t seem to care at all about the middle-aged man’s well-being.

If someone had suddenly dashed out while jaywalking, it might be understandable, but to keep driving while honking from afar at someone clearly visible? What kind of mentality is that?

“Wow, they’re out of their mind.”

I muttered briefly and helped the middle-aged man up. I had initially yelled at him too, but the driver’s arrogant attitude actually calmed my anger.

“Be careful. If you get hit by a crazy driver like that, you’ll be the only one to suffer.”

“Oh my, young one. Thank you. I dropped my hearing aid…”

And with those words, my remaining anger turned to guilt.

He fiddled with his left ear and bowed his head.

What I had mistaken for earphones was a hearing aid in his right ear. He had dropped the left one on the road and had gone onto the crosswalk to pick it up.

“Oh my goodness, I’m sorry. You must have been so startled?”