Doctor Goes Back to Joseon

Chapter 116: Even Enemy [2]

‘It is Mad Max.”

Ganghyuk looked at Dolseok and Makbong who were forced to donate their blood.

At first, Ganghyuk tried to collect blood from them by himself, but he had to give up because his hands were trembling.

Now, Yeoni did the job for him.

‘Yeoni and Yeoju are very good.’

Yeoni was good at martial arts and Yeoju wa good at drawing. Therefore, they had good hand skills.

They did not feel tired although they constantly collected blood.

“Eum. What is this treatment?”

When Ganghyuk looked back, Heo Jun was standing with a worried face.

Although Heo Jun trusted Ganghyuk very much, he could not hide his worries because he had not seen such a strange scene in his life.

Although his mother was a slave, his father was a noble man and he studied Confucianism himself.

He had strong animosity against Confucianism because of his limitation of identity such as being a son of a slave mother.

But it did not mean that he was not under the influence of Confucianism.

‘Eum…”

Ganghyuk looked around the room without giving an answer.

Dolseok, Yeoni, Yeoju and Makbong are all Ganghyuk’s devoted retainers.

Heo Jun and Heo Im cannot be said as devoted retainers but they considered Ganghyuk as a teacher.

Patients could be different, but they did not have clear consciousness because of dehydration.

When they recovered, they would not know what treatment they had had.

‘Okay, I think I need to explain.’

He could not keep collecting blood without an explanation.

Dolseok and Makbong have the right to know as they became blood donors although not voluntarily.

Of course, they could not understand with jist a simple explanation, and there are many things that are not explained correctly to the related party just like insurance and tele-communication policies.

“I will give you some explanation since all of you are here together. Dr. Heo is here and the other Dr. Heo as well.”

“Yes, please do.”

“You must understand what blood is. Dr. Heo, what do you think blood is?”

“I think blood is the origin of life. I learned that we could remove blood when it was coagulated because of some problems.”

Heo Jun continued and told many things using expressions that Ganghyuk could not understand. He used expressions like Eohyeol and Sahyeol.

“Okay, it sounds good.”

Ganghyuk yawned but he covered his mouth quickly with his hand.

Ganghyuk tried not to show that he was not interested in his explanation at all.

He had to listen to it because it was him who asked the question.

“Yes.”

“Yes, right.”

But his explanation was very well received by rest of them except Ganghyuk. They were listening to his explanation nodding their heads.

It took nearly 10 minutes for Heo Jun to finish the explanation on blood.

During the time, Ganghyuk discovered how far the medicine in Joseon was from reality.

It was nobody’s fault.

At this time, people thought like that regardless of the East and the West.

‘What they call depletion. It is really…’

Ganghyuk remembered a lecture that he heard when he was a medical student.

It was very shocking, and he could not forget it.

It was at the end of the 18th century.

George Washington, the hero in American history, was sick and three doctors gathered to treat him. Depleting was very popular at that time and they performed this on Washington.

Depletion means taking out and draining blood out of the sick person.

They depleted and drained his blood which was not clotted or coagulated.

Finally, George Washington lost half of his blood because of depletion and he died.

“Dr. Heo. Thank you for your lecture. But blood is not that simple. You do not have the same blood that you had when you were born.”

“But I have never bled, sir.”

Heo Im opened his eyes wide and asked.

Ganghyuk almost laughed because his face was too serious while talking nonsense.

Ganghyuk tried to keep his rationality.

‘Hooo. They have the wrong conception…”

But he could not give up.

He started this lecture and the students are Heo Jun and Heo Im.

He thought that they could learn his lecture.

They are clever so if they don’t understand his explanation, that meant Ganghyuk himself was a bad teacher.

He cannot accept that.

‘I am a genius.’

Ganghyuk tried to find an analogy to make them understand and opened his mouth.

“You can’t possibly know everything about your body. You don’t know when they are created and removed. How much have you cried up to now?”

“Well. I think I cried a lot when I was young.”

“Yes, some people cried more than you. But you haven’t seen a person who can’t cry because he has no more tears, right?”

“Eo..”

In Korean, there is a phrase that goes ‘to cry until tears dry up’.

But it does not mean that the lachrymal gland is dried up. It is only an expression of emphasis. It is never meant to be taken literally.

“Do you think you and a newborn baby have the same amount of blood?”

“Eum…”

“What do you think about the amount of blood that you have and the amount that an old man has?”

“I think I have more.”

“Yes. Then do you feel when the blood is made?”

“No… You are right. Then it can be removed while I don’t notice.”

Heo Im nodded his head.

Then, Dongpa woke up and started to listen to Ganghyuk’s lecture but nobody noticed it.

They were all occupied by the new story that Ganghyuk told.

Even Dongpa who provoked a quarrel whenever possible was listening to his lecture.

Ganghyuk decided to use Heo Im as a teaching material.

He touched Heo Im’s waist and opened his mouth.

“Blood is mainly made here.”

“Oh.”

“The longest living blood can last at most 4 months.”

“Eh?”

Everyone was looking at Ganghyuk with surprised faces.

Ganghyuk looked back at his followers.

‘Yes, I was very surprised at first.’

The life of a red blood cell is at most 120 days.

The life of a platelet is only 2 weeks and a white blood cell lives only a day or two.

It meant that the blood in our body is changed nearly every day.

“Then where does the dead blood go? Is that Eohyeol [extravasated blood]?”

Heo Jun asked the question with a darker face.

He tried to find something in his body. It seemed that he wanted to discover accumulated extravasated blood.

“Then the old sages who told that we need to remove the old blood regularly are correct.”

Dolseok laughed with satisfaction while watching his arm.

He was satisfied with his blood donation.

When he laughed, Makbong followed.

Yeoju and Yeoni who collected blood also showed brighter faces.

They felt sorry to extract someone else’s blood.

But Ganghyuk threw a wet blanket there.

Then he told with a cold and calm voice.

“No, you don’t need to remove it.”

“Eh?”

“Our body has the organ that destroys it.”

“Ah.”

“Blood is mainly destroyed here. Then the residue will be discharged as urine.”

Ganghyuk pointed at the left abdomen of Heo Im. It was where the spleen is located.

Ganghyuk grabbed the place and Heo Im moaned in pain.

“Eok!”

“Yes, do you feel my hand now? Yes, this is the one. How do you feel?”

Although Ganghyuk tried to explain it softly, the poor victim felt pain and fear.

“It hurts.”

“No, I mean how do you feel when I touch your spleen?”

“It seems to burst.”

“You are not cooperating.”

Ganghyuk removed his hand.

Heo Im gave a sign of relief.

The rest of them touched their own left abdomen.

Although they could not touch anything, they tried to find their spleens.

“Then is it okay to draw my blood like this?”

Dolseok asked while touching his abdomen for a while.

He was still losing his blood while the lecture was going on.

He felt it was not right after listening to Ganghyuk’s lecture.

If it is made and destroyed in the body, he should not remove it out of his body.

“No, it should not be collected infinitely. If you do that, you will die.”

“I will die?”

“No, I control it. I donated blood, too. Do you think I want to die?”

“Ah.”

“If we take a rest and eat well, we can make blood.”

“Anyway, why will we die if we do not have enough blood? What does it do?”

It was a good question.

Everybody was curious.

He did not tell them what the blood does although he emphasized its importance.

“The blood is circulating in our body. It supplies nutrients and oxygen… Em?”

“Why, sir?”

“Dongpa has awakened.”

“Eh? Yes, he is. When did he open his eyes?”

Dongpa closed his eyes again.

But he could not hide that he was already conscious.

His stomach made noises.

Ganghyuk went to Dongpa who opened his eyes again with a resigned look.

“How do you feel? Better than before?”

“Eum.”

Dongpa moved his eyeballs.

He realized what was important.

Discharging was nothing.

The real problem is the helplessness and unconsciousness that followed discharging.

He could see the difference between the patients who had Ganghyuk’s treatment and those who had his treatment.

‘I was making them die. I was not treating them.’

He could understand the situation in his head, but he did not want to accept it in his heart.

He could not accept that Ganghyuk was a better doctor than him.

He had made efforts to be a good doctor but what had Ganghyuk done before him was showing his skill. He considered Ganghyuk as a gangster.

“Answer. Would you like to die?”

“No, sir. You are right. I feel better.”

“Yes, you are a quack. So you must learn. Don’t be stubborn. See, here Dr. Heo is Naeuiwon Cheomjeong. But he is listening to me.”

“Cheomjeong?”

Working in Naeuiwon itself is an honor for a doctor.

To work in Naeuiwon, they need to exert effort and have good skills.

Moreover, Cheomjeong was not the position at the end.

It was quite a high position even among the doctors working in Naeeuiwon.

Such a person is learning medicine from Baik Ganghyuk.

‘I have not heard such a lecture until now.’

He came to Seoul to be a good doctor with an ambition.

He forgot his dream and ambition after he got some fame.

He felt that a corner of his heart was melting down.

He knelt in front of Ganghyuk and confessed his feelings.

It was probably because of the dehydration and the overwhelming atmosphere that Ganghyuk had made. He might not be able to make the right decision.

It did not take long for him to regret this decision.

“Sir, I could not recognize you because I was blind. Please teach me.”

“What? What is this sudden change? Do you have bipolar disorder?”

“What is that? Please teach me.”

“Ah, ok. But you are still discharging. Why are you kneeling down in that situation?”

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