A Single Test

'Fortunately, it's the very early stage.'

Kyungwoo thought to himself.

Observing the flow of energy in Grandpa Mansu's meridians right now...

'It's clear that the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian has been affected by external pathogens.'

This was the change that occurred after the third chapter of the Gamshin-tongmaek-rok opened.

Previously, he could only clearly feel the pain, but now he could faintly perceive the flow of the meridians throughout ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the body that had triggered that state of pain.

It was an ability that had grown after he practiced focusing on the pain to contemplate its mechanism.

'Of course, it's not as vivid as when I run simulations in the middle of the night...'

Treating Gu-an-wa-sa (facial nerve palsy) is a kind of time attack. Treating it on the day of onset with an 80% effective method is far more impactful than treating it the next day with a 100% perfect method.

And Kyungwoo was focusing with everything he had to push that 80% probability to 90%, then 95%.

There are many causes for peripheral facial nerve palsy, but the most common is exposure to sudden cold.

And if the flow of the lung meridian was this constricted...

'Invasion of cold pathogens. Even though it's midsummer, in the modern era, we have something that didn't exist in the days of the Huangdi Neijing.'

Kyungwoo asked with conviction.

"Sir, what temperature do you set the air conditioner to when you sleep these days?"

Grandpa Mansu, with a long acupuncture needle piercing one side of his cheek, answered sluggishly.

"Twunty-wun degrees."

Miyoung, standing beside him, was startled.

"Oh, Grandpa. You mean 21 degrees? How can you sleep in such cold?"

"I get too hot..."

Grandpa Mansu was experiencing something truly strange.

'The right side of my face is generally numb, but I feel a tingling sensation spreading from where the needle went in?'

Was it 15 years ago that he last had acupuncture? He remembered his son, who was in medical school at the time, throwing a fit when he heard he’d gone to an Oriental clinic. He hadn't felt any significant improvement, so he hadn't gone back since...

Ting-

Ting-

The needle that had entered near the corner of his mouth and poked out from his jaw twitched every time he moved his mouth.

Then, the Oriental doctor asked another question.

"Did the mild numbness and tingling in your face and the back of your neck start the day before yesterday?"

"Uhh... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yes..."

"And it seems you had something that caused you severe stress today, is that right?"

"...Yes."

His heart sank. His son sent him allowance money regularly, but calls were becoming rare and visits even rarer. He always bragged to others about having a doctor son, but he couldn't even bring himself to ask him to come visit. Lately, his frustration had grown, so he’d been blasting the air conditioner even more.

"I understand. I'll begin the treatment in earnest now."

The Jichang and Hyeopgeo acupoints are mandatory for symptomatic treatment of facial palsy, regardless of the cause. Having blocked the progression of the disease by accurately needling those, Kyungwoo now composed a combination of points based on the root cause of the illness.

This was the content that had caught Kyungwoo's eye on the day the third chapter of the Gamshin-tongmaek-rok opened.

Since even musculoskeletal diseases require different treatments based on the fundamental internal cause, it went without saying for neurological conditions like this.

'Geosa (Removing Pathogens) and Sun-gi (Smoothing Qi).'

He thought of the appropriate points to clear away the invaded cold pathogens and to disperse the qi that had clumped together due to pent-up anger, allowing it to circulate smoothly.

For Geosa: Pungji, Yeolgyeol, and Yepung.

To resolve stagnant qi: Naegwan, Samli, Taechung, and Taebaek.

And for the path where the facial nerve travels: Sabaek, Yangbaek, Taeyang, and Seungeup.

He didn't forget to use the Bosa technique to drain the turbid energy while simultaneously stimulating the points to achieve Deukgi (the arrival of qi).

"Ugh... uh... ugh..."

Grandpa Mansu was suffering from a sensation he had never felt before.

'What in the world is this?'

Tears were welling up. He wasn't the type to make a fuss at the hospital, but this feeling was a first. However, he endured it without complaint, firstly because the fear that his mouth might never return to normal was immense, and secondly...

'The director's expression is...'

His eyes were incredibly serious, as if he were looking through the skin to the disease beneath, not at a human named Seong Mansu. It was so different from the doctor he’d seen that morning, who hadn't even looked him in the eye once, keeping his gaze fixed on the monitor while writing a prescription. He didn't even realize that in his heart, he had already started calling the man 'Director'.

And a moment later, when the needles were removed.

"Oh?!"

His mouth had returned!

"What is this? My sensation feels normal, and my mouth is back to normal, isn't it?"

Even seeing his face back in its proper place, the director showed no sign of arrogance.

"You were lucky. It's not easy to come in at such an early stage."

"Brother! Did you see that?! Our director is this kind of person! He says he can fix a twisted mouth in one go!"

"There are many cases of facial palsy, and yours was just an easy type. The biggest factor was that you came quickly."

Tap- tap-

Grandpa Mansu tapped his face in disbelief. Miyoung quickly brought him a mirror. His face reflected in the mirror was shockingly normal. Was this... even possible?

"Just because the symptoms have improved immediately doesn't mean you're cured. I've restored the flow, but it's still in a state where it can easily slip back into paralysis, so... hmm... actually, you should take medicine."

Kyungwoo's mind was filled with formulas to dispel wind and cold. The problem was that this clinic didn't have an herbal decoction room. Kyungwoo, making do, applied an anti-inflammatory Hwangryeonhaedok herbal injection to the Yepung point and prescribed insurance-covered Galgeuntang and Bangpungtongseongsan.

"Take two packets together. Come back tomorrow."

Miyoung chimed in from the side.

"Director, tomorrow's appointments are all full!"

"Can't be helped. I have to see this gentleman tomorrow. Tomorrow, I have no choice but to..."

Kyungwoo sighed.

"...I'll have to see four people, I guess."

It was then that Grandpa Mansu realized. He hadn't believed the rumors that the Oriental doctor had just come down to rest and only opened the clinic to treat Jia from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠apricot tree house. When he’d mentioned it to his son, his son had even sneered, "He's a con artist doing groundwork to pull off a big score. There will be wailing in the neighborhood soon."

'It wasn't a sales tactic. It was entirely my misunderstanding...'

There was no way someone with such miraculous acupuncture skills would be going through the trouble of running a clinic just to scam people in this rural village.

Miyoung, disinfecting the spots where the needles had been, said,

"You're lucky, Grandpa. Your son is a doctor, and you have a doctor like this in the neighborhood."

Grandpa Mansu jumped up.

"Th-thank you. Director."

"Yes. For the time being, turn off the air conditioner when you sleep at night. Even after you're fully recovered, try not to set it below 26 degrees."

"Yes. I will keep that in mind."

Grandpa Mansu, who had bowed repeatedly as he left, returned 30 minutes later.

"Please, take this... I'm just so grateful."

Inside the box he had brought on his cart were carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and pumpkins, only the prettiest ones selected and packed neatly.

Tap- tadak- tap-

'I never thought I'd be living a rural life in my 30s after retirement.'

Though, since I'm running a clinic, it's not exactly retirement. Kyungwoo, who had spent his whole life striving to achieve set goals, had never imagined there would be such leisurely moments in his life.

'I'm staying up almost every night, so is it even leisurely?'

He added carrots sliced into rounds, roughly chopped pumpkin, and the baby potatoes the village head had brought over the other day, washed clean and added whole.

Swoosh-

He poured in tap water and boiled it, and once it was cooked through enough that even the hardest pumpkin could be pierced with chopsticks, he added curry powder and pork.

A moment later, the savory smell of curry covered the entire residence attached to the clinic.

Soon after, he ladled two scoops of curry over a heaping bowl of rice, took out some kimchi, and sat down at the table.

"Rural vegetables are truly different."

The vegetables Grandpa Mansu had grown with care, without even using pesticides so he could give them to his family, were permeated with a deep, natural sweetness. It was a simple curry, but the quality of the vegetables made it taste as good as any Michelin-starred restaurant.

As he inhaled the food, Kyungwoo thought.

'Sikyukdongwon (Food and medicine share the same origin). In the end, ingredients are fundamentally the same as medicinal herbs...'

Herbal medicine is a natural product. Among natural products, those whose properties are skewed to one side, allowing them to normalize a human body skewed to the other, are called medicine. There's a reason people say eating well is the best medicine.

'However, there is something different from food ingredients...'

Food ingredients have neutral properties. People often say pork and barley are cold, and ginger and chicken are warm, but that's just a slight difference in cold or heat within the category of neutrality. However, medicinal herbs have extreme properties, so if you take herbal medicine that doesn't match your body's state, side effects can occur. No, actually, it's correct that side effects occur. Rather, the problem with modern cultivated herbal medicine is that the polarity of the herbs is weaker.

'In the end, for fundamental treatment, I have to use medicine as well...'

As his acupuncture skills improved day by day, this was the very part that held Kyungwoo back. Because the effect of acupuncture was so good, acute diseases were well-treated with acupuncture alone. Even with chronic diseases, patients often felt dramatic improvement just from acupuncture. Compared to that, the effect of medicine couldn't keep up with acupuncture.

'They say there were times in the past when herbs were more expensive than their weight in gold...'

They say herbs were that precious in the days when all an herb gatherer could do was dig them up in the mountains. It might have been due to scarcity, but Kyungwoo guessed that the extreme properties of herbs that grew wild in nature were far superior to the herbs of today.

'Taking medicine is much more ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expensive than acupuncture, but the effect doesn't follow acupuncture, so it's hard for me to recommend medicine.'

This was actually a problem that occurred because Kyungwoo was just too good at acupuncture.

'I wonder if this will be resolved if a new chapter of the Gamshin-tongmaek-rok is opened?'

Herbal medicine was essential for acute cases like Grandpa Mansu's today, and for Jia, who suffered from chronic pain. However, it was difficult to recommend herbal medicine that didn't provide immediate effects for months to Jia's family, whose economic situation was difficult due to the child's rare disease.

He piled the empty dishes in the sink and opened the Gamshin-tongmaek-rok.

And he asked in a loud voice.

"Hey."

The book didn't answer. But he knew by now that it was just playing coy.

"Is there a way to boost the effect of the medicine, or not?"

It was silent. Even when he clicked the moxa torch, the fact that it remained silent was highly suspicious. It would have said there wasn't if there really wasn't.

"So there is one?"

"Is this another one of those 'not passing it to the unworthy' things? Like, 'the next chapter opens when you reach a certain level.' That kind of thing?"

"But think about it. You talked about the true path of medicine. There's a patient right in front of me, and you're holding back the methods I could use and not teaching me—can you call that the true path of medicine?"

Perhaps stung by something, the medical book finally reacted.

However, Kyungwoo argued against the contradiction.

"Look. I don't know what era you were created in, but the times are different now. Back then, they gave government posts and gold to doctors who cured kings, right? But do you know how much herbal medicine costs these days?"

"At most, it's 250,000 won per course. Even with good deer antler, the most expensive is 500,000 won. If I charge more than this, I can't compete."

Suddenly, a lecture on the operation of modern Korean clinics flowed out!

"Besides, how many patients would take herbal medicine in this countryside? These are grandmas and grandpas who find it a waste to pay 2,400 won for acupuncture and go looking for places that charge 1,900 won."

"Oh, wait, you made my body like this, so I can't even see many patients, can I?"

Kyungwoo tapped the book.

"I can't see many, but shouldn't I at least treat the patients I do see properly? Am I wrong?"

The medical book finally proposed a compromise.

Kyungwoo's eyes flashed.