Chapter 121: Great Men Are for Me to See [2] "Yes, take a good look around."
"Ahem. It'll work, right?"
"Of course. You've already heard about it, haven't you?"
"Right.... And I have to use it today?"
"Yes. Go try it now."
"How can a scholar-official start in broad daylight.... Ahem."
The two men, their consultation finished, hurried out of the room wearing their satgat just as before.
Once they went out that way and turned into the alley beside it, another member of the Dorikkae gang would come and take the hats away.
Baek Kanghyeok was protecting his patients' privacy perfectly in this way.
Like a motel covering up license plates.
They'd get better if they exercised some too.
Kanghyeok neatly stacked the questionnaires the men had filled out in the corner of the room.
For some reason, most yangban barely engaged in any physical activity at all.
To think they had not worked up a sweat even once in five whole days.
It was not as if they were living frantically busy lives like workers in the Republic of Korea, with not even a moment to breathe.
They were simply loafing around and reading books.
Well... that was the culture, so it couldn't be helped.
He had told them, "You should at least do some martial training," but he had not expected much.
It was obvious none of them would follow his advice.
If they had been of lower status, he could have forced them to do it.
But the two who had just left were difficult to handle that way.
Their cloth is very fine. Not much worse than mine....
Kanghyeok looked down at the fan the patients had left behind.
In the past, he had just been an ordinary man who used whatever fan got handed out with cram school advertisements.
But now, when it came to fans, he was almost an expert.
A fan of this quality was first-rate.
They had not left only a fan.
At some point, the men who came looking for Kanghyeok had started bringing along rare items as well, things like ornaments made of jade or fragrant wood.
That meant they were pretty wealthy. Who were they?
He was curious, but there was no way to satisfy that curiosity.
Even in Korea, merely recognizing a face did not make it easy to identify someone.
So all he could do was guess, based on their age, attitude, and clothing.
"Young Master, your second appointment is here."
"Ah, it should be Elder Hwang Yungil, right?"
"Yes. Um... he has many people with him. Where should I tell them to wait?"
"Really?"
Kanghyeok cracked the door open and peered outside.
A man was still near the main gate, entrusting his horse to someone.
His name was not written on his forehead, of course, but judging from his manner, it had to be Hwang Yungil.
Perhaps because he was not here to receive something like Viagra, he looked completely confident.
The fact that he had brought attendants with him at all meant he felt no embarrassment whatsoever.
"Maybe because he's the Cheomji of the Jungchubu, there sure are a lot of people following him.... Tell them to wait in the detached quarters. Ask that elder to come in."
"Yes, Young Master."
At Kanghyeok's order, one of Dorikkae's gang ran out.
Unlike his status and the sort of things he had done, he had a rather fine face and a smooth tongue.
Makbong and Dolseok did not seem to like that much. Whenever they saw his face, they never stopped mocking him.
They called him a gisaeng's brother and said he looked like the type who would live off his face.
The nickname Whitey did suit him perfectly.
For some reason, although the man had spent nearly ten times more years under the blazing sun than Kanghyeok, his face was twice as pale as Kanghyeok's.
Kanghyeok himself was fair-skinned, so the difference was so great that comparing the man to rough fellows like Dolseok or Makbong was practically meaningless.
Well, that worked out. Among my people, there wasn't anyone really fit for dealing with yangban.
Of course, Yeoju knew etiquette well and was attractive too, but she was a woman.
Moreover, she was the niece of Jeong Yeo-rip, who had been branded a traitor and executed.
For many reasons, it was better to keep her identity hidden.
"Young Master, he is coming in."
"Uh, right."
Kanghyeok hurriedly shoved aside his pointless thoughts.
Then he sat on the neatly spread bedding and spoke in a composed voice.
"Please come in."
"Then excuse me."
The voice was deeper and more dignified than expected.
Was Hwang Yungil not a perfectly respectable civil official serving as Cheomji of the Jungchubu?
Yet just from listening to his voice, one might have thought him comparable to any general.
While Kanghyeok was still surprised, the door opened.
Bang.
Two men came in, flinging the door open with bold force.
At first glance, they looked somewhat similar to the two men who had come earlier for Viagra, but on closer inspection they were completely different.
The one who came in with him was short, but he radiated a sharply honed presence.
He wore a gat of strange shape, and because of it one side of his face could not be seen clearly.
As Kanghyeok quietly examined him, Hwang Yungil greeted him.
"Ah, so you're Baek Kanghyeok."
The man extending his hand in greeting in that same heavy voice was Hwang Yungil himself.
He held the substantial office of Cheomji of the Jungchubu and was also fairly well known as one of the notable figures among the Westerners, who had been doing quite well lately.
I heard he'll be going to Japan soon as a diplomatic envoy.
Kanghyeok recalled the letter he had received from Heo Jun a few days earlier.
He had wondered why, in order to find a single Cheomjeong of the Royal Medical Bureau, they had even sent a Seonjeongwan, but there had been a reason for it.
A man named So Yoshitoshi, who had come from Japan as an envoy, had come down with severe diarrhea.
Fortunately, rumors spread that Heo Jun had treated him brilliantly using the oral rehydration method he had learned from Kanghyeok.
Since it was said that a diplomatic mission would be dispatched to Japan as soon as So Yoshitoshi fully recovered, one could say Hwang Yungil's departure on a long journey was not far off either.
This gentleman was the one who went there and saw Toyotomi Hideyoshi properly.
Because he had accurately perceived the man's ambition and submitted the correct report.
Unlike usual, Kanghyeok looked at Hwang Yungil and resolved to provide especially kind treatment.
"Yes, I'm Baek Kanghyeok. But did the gentleman who came with you also come because he is unwell somewhere?"
"Ah... actually, I'm not the patient. This friend here is the patient."
"Is that so?"
"That's right. It's no easy matter to get in for a consultation with you.... I heard it would be difficult for this friend to secure an appointment on his own."
"Hmm."
What Yungil said was true.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Kanghyeok's outpatient consultations were almost the exclusive preserve of the upper class.
First of all, the very fact that Kanghyeok was seeing patients in this manner was not widely known.
Only yangban of real standing in Hanyang could know of it at all.
And knowing was not enough.
Kanghyeok's consultation fees, as known to the public, were truly beyond imagination.
That part wasn't exactly what I intended.
Of course, it was true that he had set the basic consultation fee somewhat high.
To receive treatment for the first time, one first needed a fan.
In Korea, that would be the equivalent of receiving goods worth at least four to five hundred thousand won.
If he had charged that much in Korea, he would probably own one or two buildings by now.
But seen the other way around, there was a certain logic to it as well.
In an era when people could starve to death, what sort of ordinary people would be looking for Viagra?
And what about those who came to be injected with pufferfish poison just to smooth out wrinkles when others were worried about how to feed their children?
Still, I didn't mean for it to escalate to this level.
There was one thing Kanghyeok had failed to take into account:
Joseon was an incredibly closed society, one that placed immense importance on saving face.
At first, it had definitely been just one fan, but if someone added one extra item out of gratitude, that soon became the price the next person had to pay.
Normally, when prices rose, the number of patients should have dropped sharply, but instead appointment inquiries kept increasing.
Honestly... was it because I only saw four people a day?
Limited consultation opportunities paired with an outrageous cost.
Luxury goods had nothing on this.
Without intending to, he had ended up using luxury marketing, and it was working very effectively.
For Kanghyeok, it was a very favorable situation with no downside, but now and then, people who truly desperately wanted his treatment were suffering because of it.
If they were commoners outright and got referred after Dolseok or Makbong examined them, that would actually be better.
But for ambiguous yangban like the man who had come with Hwang Yungil, even that was difficult.
Well... since he came all this way, of course I should see him.
No matter how much Kanghyeok lived however he pleased, he was still someone with at least a minimum sense of propriety.
At the very least, he never threw a patient out once that patient had entered the consultation room.
"Would it perhaps be an imposition?"
When Kanghyeok merely went "hmm" and stayed silent for a while, Hwang Yungil asked with a worried face.
"No, not at all. I'll see him."
"Good. Just as I'd heard, you do have a generous side. Thank you. This man here is Kim Simin, who serves as Pangwan of the Training Office."
"Kim Simin?"
"Why, is it a name you know?"
"Know? Of course I do. Well, well."
Kim Simin's official rank might not have been especially high, but the greatness of the name he left to later generations was incomparable to Hwang Yungil's.
After all, he was one of the figures always mentioned when people spoke of the three great victories of the Imjin War.
So this was the hero of the Battle of Jinju.
In truth, there was one more reason Kanghyeok remembered Kim Simin so distinctly.
He was someone mentioned in a letter Yi Sun-sin had sent after going north.
Brother Sun-sin said they'd served together. He said Kim Simin was an upright man and they got along very well.
In other words, that also meant he was the type of person who would be hard to mix with Kanghyeok, like water and oil.
Remembering Yi Sun-sin's glowing praise, Kanghyeok put on a kindly smile.
It was a manufactured smile, but patients were generally fooled by it well enough.
"I heard your achievements were remarkable when you were serving in the north."
"How could you remember someone small like me?"
"In truth, I'm close enough with Brother Yi Sun-sin, who served there with you, that we call each other brothers."
In truth, it was more that Kanghyeok unilaterally regarded him as an older brother.
But he did not bother to point that out.
The moment Yi Sun-sin came up, Kim Simin immediately broke into a broad grin.
Then, looking as though he had finally understood something, he exclaimed, "Ha. Now that I look at you, you must be that younger brother Physician Baek that elder brother always brought up whenever he drank."
"Does he talk about me often?"
"Of course, of course. He spoke of you without end, the younger brother who fixed his leg."
The atmosphere only grew warmer and warmer.
The sound of laughter rose so much that, seen from outside, the consultation room might have looked more like a men's reception room than a clinic.
By this point, even Hwang Yungil, who had brought Kim Simin, felt pleased.
He had heard plenty of rumors that Baek Kanghyeok was generous, but that if things soured, he had no regard for rank or age.
Yet now he was welcoming Kim Simin in such a good mood, so there was no way Yungil would not be satisfied.
"This is good, very good. Then please, hurry and examine him."
Only after Yungil said that did both Kanghyeok and Kim Simin come to their senses.
"Ah, right. What brings you here? Where are you unwell?"
"Well... it's been some time since I was injured fighting those Jurchen bastards."
"Let me take a look."
"Here. Ever since I was struck by a blade, it's been very strange."
Kim Simin spoke as he removed the oddly shaped gat that hung long on one side.
Only then could Kanghyeok see the other half of Kim Simin's face.
It seemed the fighting against the Jurchens had been particularly fierce.
A jagged wound ran a long line from his left brow all the way to the front of his ear.
"Hmm."
Kanghyeok let out a low sound as he examined the wound closely.
I was wondering why his expression had looked strange from earlier....
The facial muscles near the scar were contracting all at once.
It looked almost like a tic disorder.
A doctor with insufficient experience would almost certainly have diagnosed it that way.
As for the physicians of this era, they probably would not even have had such a diagnosis come to mind at all.
But Kanghyeok was a little different.
God might have taken away his decency, but in exchange had poured all the rest into medical talent.
A case he had once only glanced at in passing came back to him naturally.
I thought I'd never get the chance to see one in person in my life.
Apparently that was not the case.
Kanghyeok still could not take his eyes off the wound as he spoke.
"It still hurts now, doesn't it? When exactly were you injured?"
"Ah, yes. That's right. It really... hurts. It's strange. It's already been more than a year since I was injured, but somehow the pain seems to grow worse by the day."
Kim Simin said this while his left eye kept twitching.
It seemed that, until now, no physician had ever seen him and immediately brought up pain.
Which was natural enough.
Outwardly, it only looked like a severe scar. It was a wound that had already healed.
But someone who could look inside, or who knew what lay inside, would think a little differently.
Just as Kanghyeok did now.
It's a problem with the fifth cranial nerve.... Can this even be dealt with here? In a place without not only an MRI, but even a CT scan?
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