The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

Choi Gwi-jae, Honorary Chairwoman of PK Group.

Along with her husband Park Jang-jin, she was a legend in the business world who built PK from the ground up.

From a factory girl running sewing machines to becoming the head of a major conglomerate, her every action was a challenge and an achievement.

Of course, she had now finished most of her work.

The turbulent times of building the business and the days of holding on alone after losing her husband had all passed.

Though life’s compass had turned towards the sunset, her challenges knew no end.

Half marathon.

This was the latest challenge that Choi Gwi-jae was fixated on.

After her husband passed away in his early 60s, a young(?) age, she had been extremely diligent about health management.

She strictly followed a diabetic diet even for mild blood sugar levels and mastered various exercises said to be good for the body.

But isn’t it running, especially marathons, that truly stimulates the human spirit of challenge?

The pleasure of enduring breathlessness and a pounding heart with physical and mental strength that surpasses limits – its appeal could never be explained to those who haven’t experienced it.

“Mother, you’re amazing!”

“Congratulations!”

“Tsk, don’t exaggerate. People will pay unnecessary attention.”

These pathetic children and grandchildren.

Although Choi Gwi-jae had declared retirement and stepped down from the chairman position, she still held most of the stock shares. So these fools blinded by inheritance occasionally followed her hobbies like this, trying to gain her attention.

“Get out of here!”

Anyway, Choi Gwi-jae completed the half marathon.

After driving away all her children, she returned home and went to bed comfortably.

Her whole body ached, but muscle pain was like a reward that naturally followed a marathon.

She had a dream from long ago after a long time.

A dream from her very young days… when they lived in a tile-roofed house.

Although her great-uncle had poured all his wealth into the independence movement leaving nothing behind, they were once treated as respectable local figures.

An extended family of four generations living together. A healthy body and mind that never tired no matter how much she ran around the yard.

Choi Gwi-jae, who had built great wealth herself, bought all the land near their old tile-roofed house and built her current mansion.

But those days never returned.

The children and grandchildren living with her only know how to forcibly please her, and her body, no longer the same as before, screams in pain after just a little running.

“Damn it!”

The dream made her even angrier.

What on earth are those children and grandchildren doing?

They should be burning their shining youth, yet they’re just following an old granny to marathon events and bowing and scraping.

She felt she needed to admonish them more.

Now that the sun was up, she should summon all the sleeping family members and give them a good scolding.

So Choi Gwi-jae got up abruptly.

“Aaargh!”

The moment she took her first rough step, her leg gave out.

She had twisted her hip joint.

“Grandmother, are you alright?”

“Are you hurt somewhere? How many fingers do you see?”

“Should we take you to the emergency room?!”

Family members and servants rushed in upon hearing her scream, but.

“Get out! All of you, out!”

Choi Gwi-jae shouted, sitting on the floor.

Emergency room? Are you crazy? Is there any reason for this Choi Gwi-jae to make a fuss to reporters about being on her deathbed?

◆◇◆◇◆

I visited his home with Park Seon-yun.

There wasn’t an enormous garden and party hall like in animated depictions of chaebol mansions, but it was a grand three-story detached house more splendid than the rich Cheongdam-dong houses in dramas.

“I’ll apologize in advance. Please overlook it if our grandmother acts a bit rudely.”

Her personality must be quite eccentric, as Park Seon-yun warned and asked for understanding several times.

“Don’t worry. I get along really well with elderly people.”

“Haha, it seemed that way. All the grandmothers and grandfathers at the clinic like you, Director.”

Park Seon-yun heaved a deep sigh.

“She was very confident in her health management, but she seems to be in shock after suddenly getting badly injured. She keeps trying to get out of bed saying she can stand up, so family members are taking turns watching her.”

“Oh my.”

I could understand the feeling.

Those who are full of pride as martial artists and usually arrogant all come in injured and don’t listen to the doctor’s words.

I feel like tying them up with chains after pressing their acupoints, you know?

“Even with good management, there are inevitable aspects at nearly ninety years old.”

“Yes. It’s a shame this happened right after the marathon.”

“A marathon at that age, the Chairwoman is really something else.”

It’s not despite being right after the marathon, but because it was right after the marathon that she lost strength.

Did she injure her hip joint as her muscles relaxed?

She might have had an underlying condition from the start.

I’d have to examine her to know the details.

Knock knock.

Park Seon-yun knocked, and we entered Chairwoman Choi Gwi-jae’s room.

“Aiyah, nothing’s going right!”

Thwack!

Chairwoman Choi Gwi-jae was hitting a middle-aged man’s head with her cane.

…Must be her son? Park Seon-yun’s father or uncle? Probably a president or vice president of some affiliate company.

I was quite flustered to suddenly witness an assault.

“Grandmother, the director is here!”

Even though she was a chaebol grandmother, seeing her scolding her son made her not so different from the regular grandmothers at our clinic.

Well, even if she were to flaunt her authority, I’m used to that too.

I’ve managed to interact with the elders of the Great Four Heavenly Demon Cult who never yield before my master or me, his disciple.

There was no need to be newly nervous just because the patient had a lot of wealth.

“Hello, Chairwoman. I came at Director Park’s request to check your condition. May I?”

Though she’s a retired honorary chairwoman, it should be fine to just call her Chairwoman, right?

I greeted her politely, maintaining an appropriate distance.

“Ah, you must be the Korean medicine doctor Seon-yun mentioned earlier. Come in.”

Unlike the middle-aged man beside her who still didn’t know what to do, she greeted me courteously.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had acupuncture. When my husband was alive, a Korean medicine doctor we were close with used to treat me often.”

She waved her hand, shooing away her son.

Park Seon-yun looked to see if he should leave too, but the Chairwoman allowed him to stay by her side.

“I’m glad acupuncture isn’t unfamiliar to you. You must have been quite shocked by this sudden injury? I’ll treat you well.”

“Yes. It’s not too severe, but I’m a bit worried about having trouble walking.”

I approached her and pulled back the blanket.

I had brought various treatment tools like needles, needle-knives, and pharmacopuncture, but unfortunately I only had a console-type ultrasound, so I had to rely on physical examination.

If I had known I’d be making house calls, I should have bought a portable one.

“I’m going to bend your knee outward, in a figure-four position.”

“Alright.”

I first performed a gentle Patrick test.

This test involves lying flat, then flexing, abducting, and externally rotating the hip joint into a figure-four position. While fixing the opposite pelvis at the ASIS (anterior superior iliac spine), I gently pressed down on the knee of the leg being examined to apply pressure.

If there’s pain in the sacroiliac joint during this test, it could indicate sacroiliitis, sacral inflammation, or ankylosing spondylitis. Pain in the groin area could suggest iliopsoas or hip joint issues.

Creak.

As I pressed her knee, Chairwoman Choi frowned as expected.

“Where does it hurt? Can you point to it?”

Chairwoman Choi pointed to the inside of her right thigh.

It was close to the groin area… but a bit lower than where it usually hurts with a hip joint sprain.

“Not here.”

“Hmm.”

When I pressed the greater trochanter attachment site where hip inflammation often occurs, she nodded quietly.

“Is it here?”

“Urgh!”

She expressed severe pain when I pressed slightly below that, on the ligament where the gracilis muscle attaches.

“It hurts here and on the inside of your thigh, right?”

To confirm, I pressed along the adductor muscles on the inner thigh, and she nodded vigorously.

“That’s right. It hurts in my groin and inner thigh.”

She seemed tired just from confirming the tender points. Chairwoman Choi wiped sweat from her forehead.

“This isn’t the typical location for what we call a hip joint sprain. It seems the main issue is with the gracilis muscle that hurt when I pressed it just now. The adductor muscles are all tense from overactivation during the marathon, and in this state, it’s easy to twist something when the pelvis becomes unstable.”

I turned on the anatomy app on my phone to show her the muscle location.

“This right here is the gracilis muscle.”

“I see. How long will the treatment take? When will I be able to walk?”

After asking permission, I firmly pressed the pectineus, one of the hip adductor muscles.

It was a spot where I felt severely knotted energy.

“Oof!”

“Your inability to walk seems to be because the pectineus is severely contracted, preventing strength from entering your leg. Once we loosen this up, you shouldn’t have trouble walking. You’ll need to rest from running a bit longer though.”

And loosening the muscle wasn’t a very difficult task.

“I’ll treat you right away. Relax and lie comfortably.”

I took out a 6cm needle, long enough to reach the pubic bone.

I inserted the needle directly into the spots where I felt knotted energy and where the patient complained of pain, without missing any.

“Oh!”

“Mm!”

“Mmm~”

It must feel refreshing when a severely contracted muscle loosens with a single needle.

“Haha, Grandmother. How does it feel?”

“Well, you brought someone good. Hmph!”

But seeing her make similar sounds to Park Seon-yun beside her, the surprise was unavoidable.

Is it genetic? There’s no family rule about not holding back groans, is there?

I used short needling, inserting and immediately withdrawing the needle while infusing sufficient energy, so the muscles should have loosened to some extent.

After disinfecting, I pressed the adductor muscles again to confirm that the tense muscle fibers had softened.

“Let’s try standing up.”

“Is it okay to stand up right away?”

Surprised by my words, Park Seon-yun prepared to support his grandmother.

But Chairwoman Choi Gwi-jae brushed off her grandson with her cane and stood up by herself.

“Oh! It’s much easier to walk now.”

She had been groaning all day unable to walk, but now she could walk after just about ten needles?

She walked around the room, marveling at how strange it was.

The Chairwoman’s room was easily more than twice the size of an ordinary house’s living room, so it was sufficient to test for pain while walking.

“It doesn’t even hurt much unless I spread my legs!”

“That’s good.”

“Yes, it really is. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to walk for days, thank you for coming.”

“It’s understandable that you were shocked. The inability to use your leg was due to muscle issues, so it was quickly resolved, but it would be good to fully treat the ligament sprain as well. You’ll want to keep running in the future, after all.”

Chairwoman Choi kept marveling as she rubbed the area that had been painful until just now.

“Much better than that friend of my husband’s…”

“Grandmother!”

Understanding who she was comparing me to, I smiled slightly, and Park Seon-yun’s face reddened for no reason.

“Haha, but you still need to rest for now. If you want to exercise again.”

I advised her to lie back down on the bed, to prevent her from overdoing it already.

Unlike how she had ignored all her children’s pleas, she listened to my words very well.

“Ah, that’s right. I need to participate in the next marathon too.”

It made me feel bad for comparing her to martial artists who couldn’t understand a word.

I pressed the gracilis and pectineus muscles, which were the main problem areas, once more as I spoke.

“Loosen them a bit more with your hands, and when you feel up to it, come to the clinic for further treatment. If our clinic is too far, it’s fine to go to another nearby place.”

“Ah, no. It’s quick if I take the car anyway. Now that it’s not difficult to walk, I’ll come visit. Thank you so much.”

I thought I’d have to make house calls for a few days, but Chairwoman Choi declared she’d come to the clinic starting tomorrow.

Well, it would be quick in a chauffeur-driven car.

“How unusual for you to do something useful?”

The Chairwoman suddenly turned her head towards Park Seon-yun.

Though her tone and expression changed abruptly, he didn’t seem flustered at all.

“Thank you for the praise, Grandmother. And thank you so much for coming, Director.”

“Oh no, it’s nothing compared to the help I’ve received from Director Park.”

I waved my hand, praising Park Seon-yun.

So this is how he gets scolded at home.

…But surely all the children and grandchildren get scolded equally?

“Is there anywhere else that’s uncomfortable? Since I’m here, I can treat you thoroughly.”

After running a marathon, her knees, ankles, or back might hurt.

Having been promised a hefty house call fee, it felt odd to leave like this, so I asked one last time.

“Anywhere else? Ah, actually…”

Chairwoman Choi frowned.

Sensing she had something she wanted to say, I leaned in slightly towards her, tilting my ear.

But after a moment, her gaze turned to Park Seon-yun.

“……”

Her mouth clamped shut.

Ah, an illness she wants to hide from her grandson?

“If you have any concerns, please feel free to tell me comfortably at the clinic next time.”

I retreated quietly without prying.

Since she shook her head saying everything was fine, I politely excused myself and left Park Seon-yun’s house.

Hmm~ One job well done.

I declined the dinner invitation and returned home with a heavier pocket.

And three days later.

Chairwoman Choi Gwi-jae graced our clinic with her presence.