Chapter 35: I'll Handle the Knife [2] Makbong ran inside without having any idea what was going on.
"Dolseok, Yeoni, don't lose your focus either. He's about to start moving."
"He's going to move?"
"Yes, you fool. Don't let go."
"Ah... understood."
There was not much time.
No matter that they had two strong men holding him down.
It was still difficult to keep a man frozen in place when he was gripped by the fear of death.
I should have tied him down.
Regretting it now was of little use.
If I ever get another chance like this, I'll definitely tie him down.
Steeling himself, Kanghyeok pulled out the suture thread.
"H-he's moving!"
The patient's fingers began twitching.
Dolseok shouted in panic, while Kanghyeok kept his hands steady.
"Hold him tight. It'll be over soon."
"Y-you... let me go!"
The patient, unable to understand the situation at all, bellowed at the top of his lungs.
He had so much strength that it was hard to believe someone had just opened his head.
The two sturdy men who had been waiting outside helplessly began shouting too.
"What's happening?"
"What's going on in there?"
Heo Jun, who had been watching in a daze, stepped forward.
He opened the door slightly and whispered,
"Everything is going well, so do not worry."
"The man is screaming like that."
"I said it's fine."
With that, he shut the door again.
"Well, damn."
They were frustrated, but they still could not come in.
Instead, the patient caused enough chaos for all of them.
"He's killing me!"
"Hey now! Who do you think you're shouting in front of?"
Dolseok said it while pressing the man down hard.
Maybe it was because he had been eating so well lately, but his strength was tremendous.
The patient quieted somewhat.
That did not mean the pain and terror had gone anywhere.
"It hurts, it hurts!"
Kanghyeok had injected a local anesthetic along with a vasoconstrictor, but it seemed the effect was a little weak.
The man screamed every time the needle pierced his scalp.
Kanghyeok kept working with his hands as he spoke.
"Sorry, but I'll finish quickly. That's the only way you'll live."
"What do you mean..."
"Should I knock him out again?"
If there had been a way, he would have liked to.
There were few things as exhausting and difficult as suturing a moving patient.
Makbong reacted to Kanghyeok's muttering.
"Want me to hit him once?"
His expression was so serious that it did not seem like a joke.
Dumbfounded, Kanghyeok let out a hollow laugh.
"You don't hit someone who just came back from the brink of death."
"One strike to the back of the neck will put him to sleep."
"If you hit him now, he won't sleep, idiot. He'll die."
"Is that so?"
It was an absurd conversation, but it did have an effect.
The patient, who had been struggling moments ago, suddenly quieted down.
He had probably realized that if he behaved the wrong way, he really might die.
"There."
Before long, the wound in the scalp had been neatly closed.
Though there was still a hole in the skull the size of a five-hundred-won coin.
That much should be fine.
It would probably never cause a problem in his life.
Unless someone aimed right for that exact spot and struck it.
Setting down the suturing instrument, Kanghyeok spoke.
His face looked completely relieved.
"It's over. You'll live now. Don't move. If you do, you'll die."
"Yes, yes."
The patient answered, stiff with tension.
I think he's completely misunderstood.
It seemed he had taken "you'll die" to mean "I'll kill you."
Judging by how damp his hands and feet were with sweat.
As long as you get to Seoul, no matter how you get there, that's what counts, was it?
In any case, all he had to do was stay still.
"Let's prop his head up a little. Doesn't this house have a pillow?"
"Here it is."
Dolseok quickly brought over a pillow.
"Good. Stay still like this. That way, the pressure won't build up in your head."
"Yes, yes."
Once the situation had settled, Heo Jun approached the patient.
"Huh. It's flawless."
He examined the wound Kanghyeok had stitched from every angle.
The wound that had clearly been gaping open had somehow sealed shut, so it was no wonder he found it astonishing.
Even more astonishing was that the patient, who had been limp and barely alive, now looked full of vigor.
"Where did you learn such a technique?"
"Mm."
Kanghyeok could not answer right away.
If he told the truth, he would obviously be treated like a madman.
I can't exactly say I learned it in the surgery department at Chungmu Hospital.
It was hard to brush it off vaguely, too.
Why are his eyes sparkling like that?
Would Heo Jun have become the greatest physician in Joseon for nothing?
He must have had qualities that set him apart.
Since he was looking at him with such eager anticipation, Kanghyeok could not bring himself to disappoint him.
Let's go with genius.
It was not exactly a lie.
Kanghyeok really had been called a genius surgeon.
"I never learned it."
"What? What do you mean by that? Then...?"
"Yes. I taught myself."
"Huh. Well, I've never seen or heard of such a technique. And I have read quite a number of medical books..."
Heo Jun looked sincerely awed.
"Huh."
"Well now."
He kept letting out exclamations of admiration, and Kanghyeok found it hard not to feel guilty.
He had dressed up centuries of accumulated knowledge as though it were something he himself had created.
Naturally, that weighed on him.
It can't be helped.
While Kanghyeok desperately rationalized it to himself, the door slowly opened.
It was the two sturdy men who had brought the patient.
When the room suddenly went quiet, they must not have been able to bear waiting any longer.
"How is he? Ah, your eyes are open!"
Seeing the patient back in his senses, the two men hurried inside.
Kanghyeok did not bother stopping them.
As for infection... yes, that is a little concerning.
But this was an age when medicine worked extraordinarily well.
And he had Mearct [1], an antibiotic.
A third-generation antibiotic, at that.
Even in the twenty-first century, where resistant bacteria were rampant, it worked on most ordinary infections.
"How did this... happen to me?"
The patient still did not understand his own situation.
At his bewildered question, the two sturdy men began noisily explaining.
"Don't you remember? You climbed the tree saying you were going to raid some bird's nest..."
"And then you fell with a thud and went all limp. I thought you were dead for sure."
"Was that what happened? I really can't..."
"Man, if not for the physicians, you wouldn't even be getting up right now."
While the three of them talked, Kanghyeok sorted out an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory medicine.
"For now, take these first."
The patient was completely cowed by Kanghyeok, so he obeyed very well.
"Ah, yes."
"Swallow them with water. Good."
The pills were not very large, so swallowing them was not difficult.
After confirming that the patient had taken the medicine safely, Kanghyeok spoke again.
"Then get some rest. We'll be in the next room, so let us know at once if anything happens."
"Yes, yes, my lord."
"Physician, you should rest a bit too."
"Ah, yes. Understood."
Kanghyeok led the others to the next room.
Since the homeowner regarded Heo Jun as his savior, he showed no dissatisfaction at all with their taking over the space.
Rather, he even laid out a generous table of food for them.
Though naturally, there were limits to how generous it could actually be.
"Ah, I'm tired."
Kanghyeok muttered it while biting into a cucumber.
At his flat tone, no one could keep their mouths closed.
To act like that after splitting open and patching up a man's head just moments ago.
The people around him were the ones who still had not recovered from the shock.
Heo Jun in particular was the worst of all.
He chewed at his lip for a long while before finally speaking.
"Scholar Baek."
"Ah, yes."
"Could I perhaps learn the technique you just showed as well?"
Kanghyeok fell into thought for a moment.
Teach him? Me, teach Heo Jun?
It was an honor, but at the same time it required caution.
First of all, the entire structure of the knowledge he had learned was completely different.
If he meddled carelessly, he might end up ruining a perfectly good physician.
Basic anatomy would help, though.
If Heo Jun only knew what a normal body actually looked like, then even minor injuries would be much easier to treat.
Kanghyeok nodded readily.
"That would be fine. Then let's do it like this."
"How shall we do it?"
"I will teach you what the human body actually looks like. In exchange, you teach me about medicinal ingredients."
"Very well. I will teach you to the best of my knowledge. But that thing from earlier..."
Heo Jun still looked reluctant to let the matter go.
That was only natural. He had just seen someone save a man who should by all rights have died.
"You mean the surgery?"
"Yes, yes."
"That's a bit difficult. It would be good if we had some materials."
At those words, Yeoju cautiously held out a bound volume.
The pages were filled with drawings of the procedure scene.
Some of them were so accurate that even Kanghyeok was startled.
"T-this is?"
"I drew it earlier. Things were happening so fast that I couldn't keep up with all of it."
"No, no. This is very good."
Most of the drawings were rough, almost what one might call Eastern-style croquis.
But she had captured the crucial points with uncanny precision.
Oh... the hand holding the scalpel and the angle of the incision are very good.
She had even accurately depicted the posture of the hand holding the chisel and the angle at which the hammer fell.
At this level, it was good enough to be used in a textbook immediately.
"This is really good. With this, I can teach you."
"Ah, is that so?"
"Wow, I'm glad we brought you along."
Heo Jun cut into their exchange.
"Then... you really can teach me?"
"Yes, I can. I'll explain each drawing one by one."
"Oh, I would appreciate that."
"Now?"
"Yes, now."
When Kanghyeok glanced outside, it was already night.
If they had been in the marketplace, the bell would surely have rung already.
Heo Jun, however, did not look bothered in the least.
So much for ever living comfortably again.
Steeling himself, Kanghyeok opened the sketchbook.
"All right, first, here the head was injured..."
Starting with why he had suspected internal bleeding, then why he held the scalpel this way, and why the angle had to be like that—
he went through everything one by one, as though teaching the A, B, and C of surgery.
Kanghyeok's explanations were quite detailed, and since they were full of the know-how of a true master, they were worth listening to.
Not just Heo Jun, but Yeoni and Dolseok, and even Makbong, all listened intently.
After listening to the lecture for a long while, Heo Jun quietly raised a hand.
"But must such treatment really be done while the patient is fully conscious?"
As if that could possibly be the case.
Kanghyeok shook his head with a bitter smile.
"It is better to put them to sleep. But I have not found any medicinal ingredient useful enough for that."
He did have narcotic painkillers.
But those were painkillers, nothing more.
They were not anesthetics.
In fact, Yeoju had been given that medicine before, and yet even then she had woken up because she could not endure something as simple as having a needle removed.
"Mm."
Heo Jun stroked his chin.
"If I search, I think there may be something usable."
"Is that really true?"
"No, for now it is only that I have some possibilities in mind. I will have to look into it."
"Oh, please do."
If there really was something that could serve as a substitute for anesthesia, it would be a tremendous breakthrough.
Not every patient had Yi Sun-sin's tolerance.
"Understood. Now then, let us continue."
"Yes, yes."
That hopeful prospect made Kanghyeok forget even his sleepiness.
And so the anatomy lessons that began that day continued on for several days.
Even until the patient who had undergone head surgery was almost completely recovered.
That night as well, they were all talking excitedly when someone violently shook the brushwood gate.
Along with a shriek thick with desperation.
"P-please... save us!"
It sounded even more urgent than the cry of the patient who had come earlier with the head injury.
"What now?"
"I'll go look."
Dolseok and Makbong quickly left the room.
Then they shouted at the same time.
"You two... need to come out."
"What is it?"
"He looks very bad."
Heo Jun was already running out.
Kanghyeok followed after him.
In the faint moonlight, the patient's face came into view.
The face was pale, and it was covered all over with tiny blisters.
Almost at the same time, a despairing word escaped from both Kanghyeok and Heo Jun.
"Smallpox [2]..."
"Mama [3]..."
Footnote:
Mama (마마) — A historical Korean term for smallpox, used with fear and euphemistic respect because the disease was considered terrifying and dangerous.
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