Awakening from Longing
Pulse diagnosis was crucial, but it was not an all-powerful art that could uncover every hidden internal ailment. Yet this woman was doing exactly that. "Astonishing" was the only word that fit the moment.
"Once Father's treatment is finished, you should let me treat you as well, Mother," Hwa Yuhwa said.
"Me too?"
"A proper physician doesn't ignore pain when they see it. Besides, you're the Captain's mother. I'll pour my heart into treating you."
A gentle smile bloomed across Jin Yeongyeong's face, so different from her expression moments earlier.
"Goodness, in all my years I've never seen anyone so beautiful, and it turns out your heart is just as lovely."
Perhaps this woman...
Feeling as if she'd glimpsed a small ray of hope, Jin Yeongyeong spoke.
"Please take good care of my husband."
"I will do my utmost."
Hwa Yuhwa sat primly before Dan Yuseon. His symptoms had left him staring endlessly in a single direction, his pupils showing no reaction to light.
As she began taking his pulse, Dan Yuseon's heartbeat traveled through her fingertips. Her closed eyes began to tremble slightly.
Staring in only one direction means he's experiencing hallucinations. That indicates a problem in the brain.
It was completely different from a stroke or any other common condition. Hwa Yuhwa finally understood why the Captain had called for her. If it involved the brain, even he would have been powerless.
The pulse diagnosis stretched on. Hwa Yuhwa's expression grew increasingly grave. Jin Yeongyeong watched her with anxious eyes, never looking away.
Dan Hyunwoo spoke to his mother. "Father will be fine. She's the best physician I know."
"Yes, let's trust her. I've heard the rumors that she's the greatest doctor in the Central Plains. If she can't heal him, no one else could either."
Dan Hyunwoo nodded.
At that moment, Hwa Yuhwa, having finished the diagnosis, moved. Twenty large acupuncture needles appeared in her hand. She lifted them carefully, aiming into empty air.
First, I need to clear the blocked channels in his brain. I've identified where the problem lies.
Hwa Yuhwa swallowed dryly as she memorized the precise treatment points on the head.
Whoosh!
Having located the spots, she drove the large needles into Dan Yuseon's skull.
Crunch!
The gruesome sound made Jin Yeongyeong's stomach turn. Yet she kept her eyes wide open, refusing to leave her seat. She could not turn away here. As his wife, she had to watch over her husband. She bit her lip hard.
The treatment continued without pause. More than twenty large needles pierced the skull one after another in a horrifying sequence. Once they were in place, Hwa Yuhwa switched to medium needles.
She had stimulated the blood flow to the head and directly to the brain. By now, his entire body would be in chaos as his pathways realigned.
Hwa Yuhwa took his pulse again. Dan Hyunwoo's internal energy was circulating through Dan Yuseon's body in a grand heavenly cycle, but the meridians had hardened.
Then Dan Hyunwoo spoke. "Is there nothing I can do to help? This is my father, after all. It's unbearable to just sit here and watch."
"Then lend me your energy. My own internal energy would suffice, but yours is far purer. Besides, your energy is already circulating through Father's body. Using the same energy would be best."
"Understood."
Swish, swish, swish!
The medium needles pierced all three hundred and sixty-five acupoints on Dan Yuseon's body. Having sealed every point, Hwa Yuhwa borrowed Dan Hyunwoo's energy to slowly loosen the hardened meridians.
Meridians hardened for so long should not have yielded easily, yet thanks to Dan Hyunwoo's energy, they quickly returned to normal.
As expected of the Captain.
Hwa Yuhwa's pupils contracted. At the same time, the energy flowing through her body made her hair flutter wildly. It was a bizarre sight, but the more intense it became, the sharper her mind grew. The energy guided her body along the exact path it needed to follow.
The pathways inside the body were changing. This moment, as the meridians came back to life, was critical.
Swish, swish, swish!
Hundreds of small needles embedded themselves in Dan Yuseon's body. These would restore the distorted pathways to normal and stabilize the blood flow to the brain.
It was a skill bordering on the divine. Dan Hyunwoo had seen it several times before, yet he was still impressed. Jin Yeongyeong blinked in pure amazement.
To think such medical arts existed. Every doctor she had met until now seemed like a quack in comparison. It was simply because Hwa Yuhwa's skill was generations ahead.
Thud.
Several of the medium needles began sliding out on their own. The revived meridians were pushing them out. He had regained that much strength.
One by one, all the medium needles that had covered his body fell away. The moment the final needle dropped to the floor, Dan Yuseon's body, which had remained motionless until then, suddenly pitched forward.
"Urrgh!"
Black blood poured from Dan Yuseon's mouth. The stagnant blood trapped inside him was finally being expelled.
Jin Yeongyeong gasped in shock, but Hwa Yuhwa raised a hand to calm her.
"This is a normal reaction. All the bad blood accumulated in his body is being flushed out."
"Good heavens! To think so much tainted blood had pooled inside him. No wonder he was in such pain... Did none of the other doctors notice this?"
An enormous quantity of blood poured out. Jin Yeongyeong watched with a face drained of all color. There was so much blood that she feared he might die from the loss. The thick, viscous fluid that splattered onto the floor seemed even nastier than the years of suffering it represented.
And when the flow finally began to ease, Dan Yuseon's pupils at last started to focus.
For the first time in years, he blinked. His gaze slowly turned toward Dan Hyunwoo.
At first, he didn't recognize who he was looking at. But soon, instinct told him that the person holding his trembling hand was someone precious.
The son he had longed for so desperately. The son he had wanted to see more than anything.
Is this real?
Even in his hazy state of mind, Dan Yuseon was seeing his son's face. Whenever he had opened his eyes before, his son had always been there in that same spot, exactly as he looked when he had run away from home. So he had simply kept staring at that place.
No matter how he called out, his mouth wouldn't open, and his son would only stare back. But now, a much taller son was looking at him. And that son was calling his name.
"Father."
Dan Yuseon gathered his courage and opened his mouth. The lips that had remained sealed for so long parted naturally as he called the name of the son he had missed so terribly.
"Hyu... Hyunwoo. Is it really you? My son, Hyunwoo?"
"It's me, Father. Your Hyunwoo."
Dan Hyunwoo pulled his father into a tight embrace. The broad back, the warm body heat. But what moved him most was the voice calling his name aloud. A voice he could listen to a thousand times and still want to hear again.
"Hyunwoo! Hyunwoo! My son! Hyunwoo!"
"Father!"
Endless tears streamed down their cheeks. Tears that showed no sign of stopping.
"When did you grow so big? When did you become so dependable? Just moments ago, you were still that little boy standing before my eyes!"
"I was standing before your eyes?"
"Yes. You were always standing quietly in front of me."
Dan Yuseon's words were difficult to understand at first. Hwa Yuhwa offered an explanation.
"He was seeing hallucinations. He missed you and longed for you so much that his mind created an image of you to see."
The reason he had always stared in the same direction. Upon learning the truth, Dan Hyunwoo's heart shattered with bitter pain. He wept openly, shedding even more tears.
He had committed a terrible sin. He had torn out his mother's heart and broken his father's spirit. Even as his body failed and his mind grew ill, his father had been longing for the hallucination of his son.
He regretted fighting with this father more than anything.
As if sensing his son's guilt, Dan Yuseon shook his head.
"No. It's not like that. You've grown up so well, that's all that matters. I'm just so happy to see you again."
"I'm sorry, Father. I won't leave again. I'll stay by your side from now on."
"Children are meant to leave home when they grow up. But you left too early and have only now returned. The order doesn't matter. All that matters is that you've come back."
Their arms refused to let go. Dan Hyunwoo couldn't bear to leave his father's embrace, the one he had missed for so long.
Jin Yeongyeong, who had been watching quietly, wrapped her arms around both of them.
"Now our family is finally complete."
"It is. Father, are you feeling any discomfort anywhere?"
"Strangely enough, I feel like I could fly. Haha."
Jin Yeongyeong spoke in a slightly pouty voice.
"So all this time, while I wondered where you were looking, you were actually seeing Hyunwoo? You couldn't see me?"
"Ahem. Ahem. You were there too, of course you were."
"You still can't lie properly, can you? Hohoho."
"Is that so? Hahaha."
It was a strange sight, laughing through tears and crying through laughter. Yet their hearts grew warm. The one piece that had been missing for so long was finally filled. That was why the tears came.
The sound of laughter flowing from the Dan family manor spread far and wide.
Hwa Yuhwa rearranged the room so Dan Yuseon could rest comfortably. She would need to continue monitoring him as he was still a patient. It would take at least two months before he could move as he once did.
Dan Yuseon's eyes held complicated emotions as he watched Hwa Yuhwa place needles in Jin Yeongyeong's knee. He had heard the basic story. The Dan family manor had somehow returned to the happy days of the past. When he learned that his son had made it possible, he felt both proud of the boy and resentful of his own helplessness.
Everything that had happened to the family was his fault.
As he sighed quietly, his gaze fell on Hwa Yuhwa treating his wife. How had his son, who had gone out into the ruthless world of the Jianghu, come to know such a woman?
She was captivating.
"Hyunwoo, what is your relationship with this young lady?"
"We're friends."
"Friends? Since when do men and women have friendships like that?"
Jin Yeongyeong, who was receiving treatment, perked up her ears at her husband's words. It was exactly what she had wanted to ask.
Dan Hyunwoo poured every ounce of emphasis he could muster into his voice as he declared firmly, "We are friends!"
"Is that so."
"Nothing more, nothing less."
Disappointment clouded both Dan Yuseon and Jin Yeongyeong's faces. It would have been perfect if this young lady married their son. Where else could one find a woman of such outstanding medical skill that even imperial physicians would weep, combined with such beauty?
From what they could see, Hwa Yuhwa didn't seem to dislike their son either.
Hwa Yuhwa wrapped a cloth around Jin Yeongyeong's knee as she spoke. "The treatment will take three months. It won't be easy, but please take it slowly with me. You will definitely be completely cured."
"My knee already doesn't hurt. Thank you, young lady."
"Please call me Yuhwa."
"My, what a lovely name. The more I hear it, the prettier it sounds. All right."
"And please speak casually. I prefer it when you talk comfortably."
"Hohoho. What a fine young lady you are. I'll speak comfortably then, as Yuhwa suggested. After all, we won't be strangers after just a day or two."
"Yes, hohoho."
Jin Yeongyeong turned her gaze toward Dan Hyunwoo.
"Hyunwoo, there's that nicest room right next to the master bedroom. Give that room to Yuhwa."
"Isn't that the room Grandfather used?"
"All his old furnishings are still there, so Yuhwa won't be uncomfortable. And since she's an honored guest, isn't it proper etiquette to give her the best room? I'd like her to stay in our home not as a guest, but as family."
"Mother!"
"I'm just saying. In any case, treat her well."
Grandfather's room, she said. His mother didn't know. This was the woman who had slept sprawled on mud during wartime without complaint. While others groaned in discomfort, she had snored loud enough to wake the dead. Yet to Dan Hyunwoo, Hwa Yuhwa had looked most beautiful at those times.
She was prettiest when sleeping. Always beautiful. Because when she slept, she didn't sneakily cling to him.
Dan Hyunwoo showed Hwa Yuhwa to the room. Though old, Grandfather's room was still spotlessly clean, without a speck of dust.
"This is the room."
"It's a nice room. Grandfather had quite refined taste. I like it very much."
Hwa Yuhwa linked her arm with his again, pressing close. She made sure her chest subtly brushed against his arm. Why is she looking at me like that again? Her face was slightly flushed too.
Dan Hyunwoo pulled his arm free and asked, "You said Father's treatment will take two more months and Mother's three months. What about the Nameless Unit? Is that all right?"
"Yes, it's fine."
"Even if things aren't as busy as before, they wouldn't give you such a long leave, would they?"
"Um... I quit the Nameless Unit because the Captain called for me?"
"What?"
For a moment, Dan Hyunwoo made a sound like he was sucking in air. He was so shocked that the sound slipped out unconsciously. It was a sound he hadn't even made when fighting the Blood Night Heavenly Demon, the most vicious creature of all time. Hwa Yuhwa smiled at his reaction.
"If the Captain calls, I'll follow anywhere. Even if it's to hell itself."
"Why do you follow me to such lengths?"
"Who knows? In any case, just remember that I'll be with you forever, Captain. And since you called me here, you have to take responsibility for me."
"What did His Majesty say? He really allowed you to quit just like that?"
"He said I've worked hard all this time and that it was fine to rest. He even gave me a generous retirement bonus."
"Retirement bonus?"
Damn it. To think she had secured even that before leaving. There was no possibility of her returning now.
Wait, had this girl been interested in a retirement bonus?
"How much did you get?"
"I received a rather substantial amount from His Majesty. Why do you ask?"
"Just curious."
"We're not family, just 'friends,' so don't try to pry into such private matters. Unless..."
Hwa Yuhwa made a seductive expression and slightly revealed her thigh.
"If you want to know, how about we become something more than friends?"
Thump!
Dan Hyunwoo's fist came down squarely on top of Hwa Yuhwa's head.
"Ouch! Why did you hit me?"
"It annoyed me."
"Tsk, fine. Roughly speaking, it's enough to put me in the top hundred among women in the Central Plains."
Bang!
The fist slammed down on her head again.
"Why do you keep hitting me!"
"Because it pisses me off that you accepted it when I refused."