The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

“Is it really that surprising? From what I’ve learned, tenants sometimes end up buying the building.”

Is there any reason I can’t?

I tilted my head in confusion, just as Seo In-ae had done earlier.

“Of course it’s surprising!”

Seo In-ae shouted angrily.

“I don’t know anything about building auctions. What I studied was about villas. And I’ve never even won an auction! I just studied for a bit thinking I might be able to buy an apartment if I keep earning like this, but then I quit!”

Oh, is that so?

So you’ve never won an auction…

That’s a shame.

“Oh… that’s a shame. No, I mean, I support you in buying your own apartment.”

“My house isn’t the issue here! How can you think about buying a building when you know nothing about it?”

Wow, this is the first time she’s been this worked up since the incident with Gong Na-ri’s mother!

Seo In-ae grabbed the back of her neck, complaining of pain.

It won’t pass, will it? At least the qi doesn’t seem to be rising to the upper body, so it’s probably just a dramatic performance.

“Honestly, even clueless kids like me often jump into buying a villa unit or two. But you really shouldn’t do that with a building. It’s only for people who can precisely calculate how many billions it would cost to build this building, and how much more would be appropriate to add.”

Seo In-ae strongly advised me not to recklessly dive in.

But the more she did, the more it stirred my competitive spirit.

Who starts out knowing everything? Can’t I just start learning about it now?

“I don’t think bidding is a good idea either. I don’t know much about it, but… 1 billion won seems off.”

Hwang Sang-hoon also strongly advised against it.

“For the profitability reason you mentioned before?”

“Yeah. The grandfather who was the original building owner probably built it much cheaper decades ago, so he could make a profit even with this rent. But if you buy it for 1 billion won and inherit the contracts, it’s not even 40 million a year. With this rate of return, you’re better off putting it in the bank. It’ll probably fail to sell, so let’s just wait and see for now.”

Unlike Seo In-ae, he wasn’t saying I absolutely shouldn’t do it, but he meant buying it for 1 billion won wasn’t a good idea.

“It would be good if I could ask my aunt… Sorry. It’s a bit awkward to contact my family.”

“No, no, don’t apologize for something like that!”

“Maybe ask Seo-young at least.”

Hwang Sang-hoon felt very sorry that he couldn’t help me.

No, asking you to contact estranged family members for this is too much.

I’m always grateful for your hard work six days a week.

“For now, I was just considering it. I’ll look for places we could move to while watching how the auction progresses.”

Of course, I hadn’t completely given up on the idea of buying, but for now, I communicated this response plan.

Ah, I tried contacting Hwang Seo-young just in case.

– Aunt? I don’t even know her number~ Did I not tell you? She’s ostracized among my dad’s siblings.

The answer came back that she knew nothing.

It’s okay. I didn’t expect much anyway.

How could I spend billions based on the words of someone I barely know through someone else?

◆◇◆◇◆

Regardless of how much debt was on the building, patients kept coming.

I discreetly asked patients who seemed to know about real estate, and also looked around for commercial spaces to relocate to.

I watched a few online lectures too… but they weren’t much help.

“Now that it’s come to this, why don’t you come to Seoul?”

Kim Chun-sik made such a suggestion, but.

How could I leave the patients who trust only me in this area?

Even if I had to move, I didn’t want to go beyond one subway station away.

“I’m not going~! I absolutely need to receive the energy from the mountain behind here.”

“Ho ho, if that’s the case.”

“That’s right! Director Han needs to protect Busan! I left everything to you when I left!”

Oh. Come to think of it, didn’t Chu Mi-young say her father was a building owner?

“Director, could you ask your father how much this place might be worth?”

“Eh, I think my father probably paid a bit too much for his…”

Chu Mi-young said this but still asked her family for their opinion.

“They’re not sure, but they say it’s definitely not 1 billion won.”

…Even to this extent, everyone is trying to stop me.

After agonizing until the day of, I didn’t go to the auction site.

◆◇◆◇◆

Soon after, the first auction bidding took place.

The result was as everyone had predicted.

Failed to sell.

“Wow, it would have been a disaster if I had bought it.”

After racking my brains so much wanting to buy it, I felt a wave of relief when it failed to sell.

I guess you really shouldn’t rush in recklessly when you don’t know anything.

I expressed my gratitude to Hwang Sang-hoon and Seo In-ae for their earnest dissuasion and waited for the re-auction.

Not long after, the second announcement came out. Since no one was willing to pay just over 1 billion won, they lowered the minimum price by 20%.

Now the system is that if you write an amount you think is appropriate above the minimum of 800 million won, the person who writes the highest amount wins the auction.

“If it’s 800 million… if I take out a full loan, including interior work… excluding the decoction room…”

“Director! Resist!”

“No!”

The second auction date approached quickly.

“No, I’m telling you I’m not going!”

I did my own research too.

And I came to a conclusion.

To watch and wait this time too.

“……”

But the employees didn’t trust me and checked the consultation room several times.

“Do you really think I’d abandon my consultations and rush out there today?!”

Since you have to write the amount on-site, it was already too late to leave now, but I didn’t understand why they were treating me like a child left alone by the water.

But that composure didn’t last long.

Soon patients started pouring in and we got busy, unable to check the results while focusing on work.

“N-no way…”

Only when the second-floor restaurant owner came up clutching his stomach did I learn the result of the second auction.

“It failed to sell again?”

The restaurant owner, nodding his head vigorously, was now completely panicked.

“You know what? They say auction expenses come out before the bank loan. Unpaid taxes take absolute priority over everything… and late fees keep accumulating…”

If it had been sold for 800 million, it would have been a happy ending, but even if it sells next time, we might not get all of our deposits back.

He came up to the clinic, his hands trembling with worry.

“W-w-what should I do? I invested my entire savings into this restaurant.”

He had put in 500 million won as a deposit and spent nearly 10 million won on various equipment.

It was truly a heartbreaking story.

“How’s your stomach feeling?”

“I feel like throwing up. Urk. Urgh!”

I suggested he come up for acupuncture if he was feeling mentally distressed, but he didn’t show up for a while.

I understand, he must be busy with the restaurant too. No matter how hard it is, or rather because it’s hard, you have to work even harder.

But it seems he couldn’t bear it after seeing the results of the second failed auction.

“I’ll do the Heart Jeonggyeok and digestive treatment together. Close your eyes and rest for a moment.”

At this level of stress, even I can only do so much to calm things down a bit.

Because empty promises that everything will be okay would be more irresponsible, I treated the restaurant owner to the best of my ability and drew the curtain.

◆◇◆◇◆

The minimum price written in the third announcement was 640 million won.

Ever since this announcement came out, the same thought kept circling in my head after work.

‘That thought’ just wouldn’t leave my mind.

“Isn’t this really worth trying? Even if it’s in an outlying area, it’s still a four-story building in a metropolitan city?”

When it was 1 billion, I had only considered the possibility.

I thought it might be okay to buy it a little expensive since I had various uses in mind for the building.

Of course, if I had acted on impulse, ‘a little’ might not have been so little.

Now it’s not even buying expensive anymore.

With the auction price coming down this far, I really saw potential.

“…Do you have that much financial leeway?”

Hwang Sang-hoon asked.

I nodded with a stern face.

There’s 500 million won in my bank account right now. That’s what’s left after paying last year’s comprehensive income tax in May.

And just considering the recent sales of our clinic, Seongsu Korean Medicine Clinic Busan branch alone exceeds 100 million won per month.

On top of that, there are network franchise fees sent from the Daegu and Seoul branches.

Of course, after subtracting herb costs, labor costs, and next year’s taxes, the monthly income doesn’t even reach a quarter of the sales…

But don’t you get up to 70% loans when buying a building?

Honestly, it was hard to say my current financial situation was tight.

“It seems okay? But… No! I don’t know anything! I can’t take responsibility!”

Seo In-ae, rolling her eyes back and forth, waved her hands vigorously.

She said she absolutely wouldn’t offer any opinion.

“…I think it’s okay.”

Hwang Sang-hoon very cautiously offered a positive opinion.

My heart, having come this far, was quite inclined.

“Alright, then I’ll try bidding 640 million. If someone wins with a higher bid, there’s nothing we can do.”

Although it’s a bit larger in area and the monthly rent is higher, the sale price of the next-door building is a whopping 1.1 billion won.

The initial appraisal of this building was 1 billion won too.

Considering various factors, I was convinced that buying this building for 640 million won wouldn’t be a loss.

◆◇◆◇◆

With that decision made.

The day before the third bidding.

“What? You’re saying the director is buying this building?”

Grandma Heo Soon-nam, hearing my story, sat up in the middle of her treatment.

“Just wait a minute! You should have asked me earlier!”

“Pardon?”

“Just give me 30 minutes. No, go see other patients. I have some things to look up!”

She asked me to delay her treatment for 30 minutes.

That wasn’t a difficult request at all.

Grandma Heo Soon-nam rushed out to the waiting room and frantically searched for something on her phone.

“Can I use the printer?”

“What? Oh, Director.”

“Let her.”

What is she trying to do?

Since it seems she’s trying to help me, I naturally allowed it.

In fact, even if she wasn’t, lending the printer to a regular like Grandma Heo Soon-nam wouldn’t be difficult.

‘Is that a real estate registry?’

Was there unexpectedly an expert so close by?

I wanted to quietly watch what she was doing… but.

“Director, the needles on bed 7!”

I was too busy.

While Grandma Heo Soon-nam was searching for something and making phone calls, I had to continue treatments.

After making a full round of the beds, Grandma Heo Soon-nam hurriedly grabbed me in the corridor.

“If you’re going to bid, bid a little higher! This will definitely have competition.”

“Higher than 640 million? How much…”

Since it had failed to sell twice already, I was actually worried that it might fail a third time and I’d end up buying it.

But there’s competition?

“There’s a group chat where they share these listings, and there’s been some talk. If you’re going to buy, go just a little bit higher.”

A group chat for sharing listings?

She’s in a place like that too?

This grandma, that’s right, she said she ran an art gallery in Seoul.

I already knew she had considerable expertise in art auctions. Is she connected to building auctions too?

“If it were me, I’d write just over 680 million, but if you want to be sure, go for 700 million! Even that’s buying it cheap!”

Grandma Heo Soon-nam exclaimed boisterously.

Raise it to 700 million. Suddenly?

The fluctuating emotions felt strange.

Clearly, my heart had been moving since it was 1 billion, but now I’m worried about buying it 60 million won more expensive.

“Thank you for your recommendation.”

I first expressed my deep gratitude.

Since everyone else had only tried to stop me, I had hardly thought about raising the bid price above 640 million.

It could be a very important opportunity to buy a needed building cheaply, but I was leaving too much to chance.

I pushed aside the emotional aspects and pondered all night.

Neither Hwang Sang-hoon, Seo In-ae, nor Grandma Heo Soon-nam could make the decision for me.

In the end, it’s my money, and I’m the one who bears the responsibility.

Do I buy it a little more expensive, but still much cheaper than market value, to do what I want?

Or do I miss this opportunity and wander around looking for another space?

A fork in the road.

I attended the auction the next day.

And wrote down my bid price.

681.5 million won.

It wasn’t far from Grandma Heo Soon-nam’s suggestion.