A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 307

Chapter 59: Pressing Down Like Mount Tai (2)

That evening, in the on-call room.

Jun-hoo stood by the window, gazing at the dark sky.

The die had been cast.

The department head had promised to help Jun-hoo train in the cervical and lumbar spine areas as much as possible, and Jun-hoo had promised to drive Hoon-sik out, no matter what.

What could a mere resident do to remove a professor from his position of power?

Most would dismiss Jun-hoo’s pledge as mere bluster.

But Jun-hoo had a plan.

Hoon-sik’s bad habits.

Combined with Jun-hoo’s secret martial arts weapon.

If these two were in harmony, punishing Hoon-sik wouldn’t be impossible.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, a cool night breeze blew, playfully ruffling Jun-hoo’s hair.

Jun-hoo’s mind was as cold as the night breeze.

He might be emotional when dealing with patients, but he was as cold as ice when dealing with villains.

Jun-hoo took a slow, deep breath.

It was close to midnight.

Jun-hoo was alone in the on-call room.

The ward was quiet, and there were no unusual calls from the emergency room or intensive care unit.

He had time all to himself.

Jun-hoo fluttered his doctor’s gown and began to practice his martial arts.

Whoo-oong.

His widely spread palms struck the air.

Followed by a series of continuous movements.

His right hand drew a semicircle to the right, and his left hand drew a semicircle to the left.

His shoulders and wrists were as round as the curve of the moon.

The two hands drawing circles in the air met at the bottom of the circle.

The two hands soared from the bottom up like a fountain.

The martial art he was practicing was the Lunar Twelve Hand Techniques, which he had been practicing since last fall.

The mastery of the Lunar Twelve Hand Techniques was at the 8th level.

Just two levels short of the Great Achievement, the 10th level.

He knew it wasn’t a martial art that could be easily mastered, but the progress was too slow.

Jun-hoo’s mastery was still at the 8th level this fall.

He hadn’t made a single step forward since then.

That’s what made him more frustrated.

It felt like he was blocked by an invisible wall.

He needed to reach the Great Achievement to suture with 11-0 sutures [extremely fine sutures, about 0.01mm thick, used for delicate procedures].

There wouldn’t be any procedure he couldn’t do with his hands.

His anxious mind was fully reflected in his martial arts.

The connections between the stances began to break off.

The movements were either half a beat behind or half a beat ahead.

The flow of internal energy also became unstable.

But it was at that moment.

The moonlight streaming in from the window he had forgotten to close shone on Jun-hoo.

He felt a strange sensation.

He had the illusion that the moonlight was warmly embracing him.

He wondered if this feeling was the principle of acceptance that ran through the Lunar Twelve Hand Techniques.

Jun-hoo reinterpreted the stances with the feeling that a loving mother was embracing her precious child.

As his mind changed, so did the nature of his martial arts.

Every stance became round, soft, and warm. The operation of internal energy also became flexible in accordance with the stances.

Jun-hoo felt as if he himself had become a full moon.

Night-Shining Bright Moon.

After performing the final stance of pushing the enemy away with both palms, Jun-hoo quietly looked down at his hands.

A faint light was flowing from his hands.

The light was clearly moonlight.

Thanks to being showered in moonlight.

He had penetrated the true meaning of the Lunar Twelve Hand Techniques and achieved the Great Achievement.

“Ha…”

Jun-hoo’s lips parted, and a sigh filled with complex emotions escaped.

To think he would raise his mastery from the 8th level to the 10th level in just one day.

Enlightenment was profound yet capricious.

Jun-hoo, who had broken through his limits, sat down at his desk and took out the suture model, sutures, and suture tools from the drawer.

Ssssk.

He made a straight incision on the model with a scalpel.

Tore open the package of the 11-0 sutures, which had been like an enemy.

He held forceps in his left hand and a needle holder in his right hand.

Click, clack.

Jun-hoo’s eyes rested on the 11-0 sutures as he secured the suture needle with the needle holder.

The 11-0 sutures were the thinnest of all surgical sutures.

With a thickness of 0.01mm, they were used very rarely, only when suturing tiny blood vessels.

The old Jun-hoo could only handle up to 8-0 sutures.

If he used anything thicker, the thread would inevitably break.

But now, even though he was holding 11-0 sutures, he had no particular worries or fears.

Strangely, he didn’t feel like he would fail.

No matter how thin the 11-0 sutures were, could they be thinner than moonlight?

With eyes intoxicated by moonlight.

With hands soaked in moonlight, Jun-hoo began to suture the incised model.

Shoulders and wrists.

And even his fingers didn’t feel uncomfortable or awkward when suturing.

In the past, he had to struggle to avoid breaking the sutures, but there was no need for that now.

Suturing?

He just had to do it as his hands went.

Moonlight didn’t fall while being conscious of anyone. Moonlight created its own path.

Jun-hoo sutured the model’s wound with about 10 stitches using the 11-0 sutures.

All of this took only 3 minutes.

The sutures didn’t break in the middle, and the force with which the sutures held the wound together was exquisite.

The intervals between the knots were also as consistent as if they had been measured with a ruler.

Jun-hoo released the needle holder and forceps he was holding in his hands.

A faint moonlight was still flowing from his hands.

* * *

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

The sound of knocking on the on-call room door was heard in the early morning hours.

It was a welcome secret signal.

“Come in.”

The person who entered the on-call room after permission was granted was Ah-young.

It had only been about two months since they had been apart, but emotionally, it felt like they were meeting after two years.

“It’s been so long! If it had been any longer, I would have forgotten what you look like, Jun-hoo.”

“We video call often. Don’t exaggerate.”

“At my age, I’m entitled to exaggerate a little.”

Ah-young smiled brightly and sat down in the chair opposite Jun-hoo. Ah-young was holding a paper bag in her hand.

It was definitely bread inside.

Bread from Sunsimdang [a famous bakery in Daejeon, South Korea].

“You look so energetic even though you’re on duty. Did you do that Qi circulation thing?”

“That’s right. If you take nutritional supplements and do Qi circulation, you can work on duty forever. I don’t even know what fatigue is.”

A smile appeared on Jun-hoo’s lips.

One of the biggest contributors to making Jun-hoo who he is now was Qi circulation [a practice of coordinating breathing and movement to cultivate internal energy].

To endure the life of a surgeon, solid stamina and concentration were essential.

“You must be hungry, want to eat one? This is the famous fried soboro bread [a type of sweet bread with a crispy topping].”

Ah-young said, taking out a bread from the paper bag.

“You can eat a lot, bread lover. I don’t feel like eating bread.”

“Tsk. To think you still don’t know the charm of bread even after dating me.”

Ah-young’s eyes, while eating bread, scanned the on-call room.

“The on-call room doesn’t seem to be much different in Seoul or Daejeon?”

“That’s right. They’re all musty and dirty.”

“But what’s that? Did you practice suturing?”

Curious, Ah-young got up from her seat and approached the desk.

Ah-young examined the model and suddenly coughed.

“Ah-young, are you okay?”

“I’m okay and not okay.”

Ah-young continued, patting her chest.

“Jun-hoo, did you by any chance practice suturing with 11-0 sutures?”

“That’s right. Pretty neat, right?”

“Wow… Aren’t 11-0 sutures a thickness that even professors called master surgeons struggle with? You’ve already done it?”

“……”

“Looking closely… the sutures aren’t sloppy, and the feel is like suturing with regular sutures?”

“I just had an enlightenment today. That’s the result. I don’t think there will be anything I can’t do among the procedures done by hand in the future.”

“That’s amazing. Really. Send me to the martial arts world too.”

“The martial arts world isn’t always good. You never know when or how you’ll die.”

Jun-hoo shrugged his shoulders.

Jun-hoo was happy and comfortable with the conversation with Ah-young, whom he had met after a long time.

It was because after revealing that he was from the martial arts world, he no longer had to hide his inner thoughts or lie.

It was a great blessing to have one person in the world who would accept everything about him.

“Since the topic of suturing has come up, shall we do a homework check?”

“Isn’t it too harsh to do that from the first day we meet in Daejeon?”

“Life is originally harsh.”

“Okay. Now that it’s come to this, I’ll show off my skills a little.”

Ah-young, who had finished eating the bread, wiped her hands with a wet wipe.

Then she sat down at the desk and held cut scissors (scissors for cutting suture knots) in her hand.

Snip. Snip.

The sound of scissors cutting the knots that Jun-hoo had made was cheerful.

After removing all the untied sutures.

Ah-young prepared to suture.

Holding forceps in her right hand and a needle holder in her left hand.

This was a left-handed suturing setup.

It was possible because Ah-young had been practicing left-handed suturing since learning the ambidextrous technique from Jun-hoo.

“What suture should I give you?”

“I’ll try with 4-0.”

“Are you sure? It’ll be too much to handle that level within 6 months.”

There was worry in Jun-hoo’s voice.

“You know me. I’ve been playing rock-paper-scissors with both hands every day while being called a fool by my seniors. I won’t be able to sleep if I can’t do this much.”

“Okay. Let’s try it first.”

Jun-hoo took out a 4-0 suture, unwrapped it, and handed it to Ah-young.

Click, clack.

Ah-young tightened the suture needle with the needle holder.

Contrary to what he had worried, her hand movements were quite skillful.

Her fingers didn’t move awkwardly, and she didn’t put in too much force.

“Then I’ll start.”

Ah-young’s left-handed suturing began with the declaration.

Jun-hoo was inwardly astonished as he watched the enthusiastic Ah-young.

Ah-young’s rate of development far exceeded Jun-hoo’s expectations.

Looking only at her suturing now, it was to the point where he wondered if Ah-young was originally left-handed.

‘I wonder if other people felt this way when they looked at me.’

Thanks to Ah-young, Jun-hoo was able to look at himself from the perspective of others.

Ah-young’s skills had improved that much.

Come to think of it, Ah-young was originally talented.

She had just been overshadowed by Jun-hoo.

She had taken second place after Jun-hoo in the suturing competition she had taken during her internship, and she was loved by the thoracic surgery residents and professors.

“Hoo. I can’t do any more than this.”

Ah-young put down the surgical tools and raised both hands high into the air.

A total of 8 stitches were sewn.

The time taken was 10 minutes.

The tension with which the sutures closed the wound was appropriate, and the intervals between the knots were also uniform.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Jun-hoo replaced praise with applause.

It wasn’t just Jun-hoo who had achieved something. Ah-young had also achieved a miraculous feat.

“Did I do well?”

“Perfect. Perfect. If you keep doing this, I’ll catch up soon too.”

“Eh, I don’t think I’ll be able to do 11-0 sutures even if I die and come back to life?”

“You can do it. It’ll take some time, but. But how far can you go with your right hand?”

“I can do up to 5-0 without any problems.”

“Awesome. We’ll be on the news as a famous doctor couple later?”

Ah-young smiled shyly at Jun-hoo’s joke.

After the skill test was over.

Jun-hoo immediately performed the Meridian Examination on Ah-young.

It was because he was worried that Ah-young’s condition had deteriorated a lot in the meantime.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Jun-hoo massaged Ah-young’s shoulders, neck, back, etc., rubbed them in circles with fingers containing internal energy, and realigned the bones.

Because Ah-young’s moans were suggestive.

He gave her a warning once in a while.

Finally, Jun-hoo placed his hand on Ah-young’s lower back.

He examined the flow of blood vessels while sending her true energy.

As time passed, the wrinkles on Jun-hoo’s forehead began to increase.

Several of Ah-young’s blood vessels were blocked, and the circulation of Qi was not smooth.

Her energy was also very weak.

It was because of her strenuous thoracic surgery life.

“Ah-young. You haven’t been feeling well lately, have you?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

Ah-young asked back in a surprised voice.

“I can tell just by looking at you. This won’t do. We’ll have to match our days off soon and do some body strengthening.”