Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 165

‘Well, for me, the completion of streptomycin will be my reward.’

While the children would leave, Jin Cheonhee was destined to live here permanently.

Jin Cheonhee looked at Yoo Ho, who was working with a haggard expression.

‘At least with Yoo Ho here, I won’t be lonely.’

At that moment, Yoo Ho seemed to sense Jin Cheonhee’s warm gaze and looked up at him, startled.

“Hahaha, please avert those pretty eyes before I pluck them out.”

Normally, the lab’s senior physicians would have cursed, saying things like “How dare you speak to Junior Pavilion Master like that!” or “The audacity…!” But everyone’s expression remained calm.

Indeed. Amidst the grueling work, the two had seen the depths of each other’s character.

The lab’s senior physicians had witnessed their rock bottom.

And they knew the extent of their workload.

Jin Cheonhee smiled brightly, undeterred by Yoo Ho’s threat.

“Yoo Ho, thank you for being here with me today too.”

Yoo Ho responded to those words with a nauseated expression.

“Is the acupoint stimulation from the wooden puppets not enough?”

It could be considered hellish external training.

Having been beaten so much, Jin Cheonhee’s skin had now become tough enough to withstand even a blade strike.

Such intense external training was necessary to become this strong.

All these achievements were thanks to Yoo Ho.

It was also because Jin Cheonhee had grabbed and ground Yoo Ho down.

Jin Cheonhee replied:

“The wooden puppets seem to be improving in performance day by day. It’s fine. Thanks to them, I’m getting stronger like this.”

He’s lost it.

Right. It’s not like Young Master Jin losing it is anything new.

The 19 senior physicians pretended not to hear and returned to their respective positions.

“Haah, young master.”

“What?”

“It seems the external training is becoming insufficient. Next time, shall I beat you personally?”

“No, wait, Yoo Ho. I don’t think I’m at that level yet?”

“I’ll be sure to make a heartfelt suggestion to the master.”

I’ll kill him.

I’ll chew this bratty young master to death.

It wasn’t just beating, but acupoint stimulation that targeted specific points. Somehow, it made him healthier with each beating, but the act of beating itself was the goal.

Yoo Ho contemplated whether to really give this hateful Young Master Jin a taste of hell.

It was the anger of both a servant and an assistant.

“Consider it an honor. It’s been a while since I’ve been this angry at a mere human. And consider yourself lucky to be alive. My contract as a servant is with the White Dragon, not with you.”

“Ah, I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you.”

Jin Cheonhee covered his ears and started babbling nonsense.

At that sight, Yoo Ho’s thread of reason finally snapped.

A moment later, painful screams of acupoint stimulation echoed from the lab.

“Aaaaargh–!”

It was an enemy that had risen from hell.

***

‘Yoo Ho might not be human.’

There were things Yoo Ho would say when he occasionally lost his reason in boiling anger.

Hearing those things, Jin Cheonhee thought that Yoo Ho might not be human.

In long martial arts novels, demons and immortals often appear, and in grand-scale martial arts stories, they even battle beings like Nüwa or the Heavenly Teacher, so it wasn’t strange.

After all, the ones whose skulls Jin Cheonhee had cracked were from the Blood Immortal Sect that worshipped fox spirits.

At that time, Jin Cheonhee had fought timidly, fearing that if he confronted Yoo Ho’s anger wrongly, the experimental equipment and bacterial farm would be destroyed. Still, he had fought quite well, not having wasted his internal energy cultivation.

The same was true for Yoo Ho.

If things were utterly destroyed, Jin Cheonhee would cry sadly and grab Yoo Ho to grind him down.

Yoo Ho knew what would happen if Young Master Jin started sticking to him like a leech with determination.

This guy pretended to live in enlightenment, but he went crazy when it came to his appetite for food and knowledge. So Yoo Ho couldn’t use all his strength.

The doctor and the lab slave engaged in a timid battle.

It was a shameful fight considering their level of internal energy.

That was the conclusion Jin Cheonhee reached while fighting.

Yoo Ho might not be human.

When Yoo Ho finally subdued Jin Cheonhee with his timid techniques and used violence under the guise of acupoint stimulation, there were no visible gaps in his skills.

It clearly wasn’t martial arts, but strangely, it was just strong and then stronger.

It was truly a time of painful acupoint stimulation, incomparable to the nine wooden puppets.

And the ecstatic conclusion reached through the pain.

‘But do I really need to know that?’

Jin Cheonhee thought.

If he were to find out, Yoo Ho would no longer hide the fact that he wasn’t human.

Then wouldn’t he refuse to do human research?

‘No slacking off, Yoo Ho. No slacking off!’

The hellish acupoint stimulation was better than that.

At least it improved his external skills.

Yoo Ho needed to be ground down as much as Jin Cheonhee himself was ground down.

After organizing his thoughts like this, Jin Cheonhee never pried into Yoo Ho’s true identity.

Rather, even when Yoo Ho dropped hints about it, Jin Cheonhee closed his eyes and covered his ears.

He would only look at the occasionally frenzied Yoo Ho with eyes that seemed to say, “The lab won’t be cold today. Shall we research together again, baby?”

Indeed. Confucius’ words were right.

Those who know are not as good as those who like, those who like are not as good as those who enjoy.^[1]

Jin Cheonhee had adapted to and was enjoying this crazy relationship in his own way.

Training, studying medicine, passing on surgical knowledge, performing surgeries, treating patients, organizing paperwork.

Here, paperwork included information exchange with the Four Great Medical Halls and budget meetings.

“The medicinal ingredients that came in this time are all of good quality, making it easy to brew medicinal decoctions.”

In response to Medicinal Herbs Hall Master Man Pagok’s words, Zhuge Rin replied.

“The contracted merchant group is supplying us with high-quality ingredients. I can’t express how fortunate this is. So I’m thinking of entrusting part of the distribution of spiritual pills to this merchant group as well.”

“Are you referring to the White Dragon Divine Pills?”

Man Pagok’s eyes widened slightly. Zhuge Rin said:

“If it were any other medical pavilion, they should have started distribution long ago. We’ve taken quite some time with our thorough verification.”

At Zhuge Rin’s words, everyone looked at Jin Cheonhee.

From the perspective of this world’s traditional medicine, the verification stages of modern medicine must have seemed quite frustrating.

But this wasn’t just for use by directly trained physicians in the medical pavilion, but for official sales.

Jin Cheonhee didn’t want to compromise either.

Zhuge Rin continued:

“Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The longer the verification, the higher the trust. Currently, there are quite a few great clans sending people to ask why we’re not releasing the White Dragon Divine Pills.”

Hearing this, Chiropractic Hall Master Joo Danha replied:

“The White Dragon Medical Pavilion has given the impression that it doesn’t compromise for immediate profit. Of course, we’ve actually acted that way too.”

Zhuge Rin nodded.

“That’s a reputation worth buying with a thousand gold for a medical pavilion. We invested time and effort instead of gold, so it can be said to be a profitable venture. Hui, so… is there anything else that needs verification?”

To that, Jin Cheonhee calmly replied:

“No. All safety checks have been passed.”

Strangely, the White Dragon Divine Pills didn’t cause penicillin allergies.

Whether it was due to the unique effects of the spiritual pills or their combination, while there were cases where the effects were less pronounced than in others, there had never been an allergic reaction.

It was something to be grateful for.

Jin Cheonhee added one more thing:

“However, although it’s a spiritual pill, there have been cases of stomach irritation when taken on an empty stomach, so it should be taken after meals.”

“…If that’s the extent of the side effects, it’s enough to turn the martial world upside down, Hee-ya.”

At Zhuge Rin’s words, all four hall masters nodded.

Over the past few years.

The White Dragon Divine Pills had undergone repeated experiments and improvements.

What Jin Cheonhee wanted was a safe spiritual pill with antibiotic effects.

The cost was also gradually reduced.

Of course, it still wasn’t a cheap price by any means, but they had managed to lower it to 50% of the initially set price.

Man Pagok exclaimed that this was truly a miracle!

It was because Jin Cheonhee had put everything into it, grinding himself down, and Yoo Ho along with him.

It also contained the sweat and effort of the senior physicians who were involved in mass production.

The penicillin team experienced less mental anguish than the streptomycin team, but more internal energy and physical pain.

The two teams sympathized with each other.

‘We’re still better off than the bacterial strain team. When squeezing out internal energy to the limit, it’s hard to tell if we’re doing martial arts training or labor, but at least our minds are at ease.’

‘Senior, isn’t it better here than where they make the White Dragon Divine Pills? Sometimes it feels like my insides are twisting, but at least we haven’t become human internal energy injectors.’

Only Jin Cheonhee and Yoo Ho knew which side was less difficult.

Because they were doing both.

Since both were meaningful tasks that saved lives and pursued truth, Jin Cheonhee deeply loved all his disciples.

Meaning he ground them down with love.

They were happily ground down with the reward of potentially securing official positions in the future, while Jin Cheonhee and the physicians under him often felt an inexplicable madness.

‘Little White Dragon is so merciful, but why do all the physicians who enter the Surgery Hall go crazy?’

‘Their skills become extraordinary, but it seems like they lose something precious.’

Things like their soul. Their heart. Their innocence.

In any case, they tended to drop something.

Acupuncture Hall Master Sima Byeong said:

“So currently, excluding the existing income of the medical pavilion, the new sources of income would be the Cheongok game, Ondol, and White Dragon Divine Pills.”

At those words, Medicinal Herbs Hall Master Man Pagok grinned.

“While Junior Pavilion Master, the Surgery Hall Master, takes all the profits from Cheongok and Ondol, I hope you won’t forget that our Medicinal Herbs Hall’s efforts are also included in the White Dragon Divine Pills.”

‘I see. He’s not going to let it go just like that.’

Jin Cheonhee smiled back.

“Of course. How could I forget the efforts of the Medicinal Herbs Hall?”

Though they had gathered under the ideology of treating people, the desire to receive a larger budget was the same.

The physicians and patients each hall master was responsible for were at stake.

In that sense, Man Pagok would want to claim Cheonhee’s share too.

She was in the position of being responsible for the Medicinal Herbs Hall, after all.

Seeing this, the Acupuncture Hall Master and Chiropractic Hall Master sighed.

When Jin Cheonhee first tried to create the White Dragon Divine Pills, the two hall masters didn’t lend a hand.

It wasn’t their role, and they didn’t want to bear the burden if it failed after dividing their manpower.

On the other hand, Man Pagok was a gambler, and she had drawn a good hand.

“How much would you like to claim?”

When Jin Cheonhee asked directly, Man Pagok replied:

“Considering the monthly salaries of the Medicinal Herbs Hall’s senior and junior physicians, and the ongoing supply of medicinal ingredients being consumed, it would be right to claim a full 50%, but that’s not possible. I’ll take 30%.”