A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 186

Chapter 35: Deep in the Mountains (1)

“Senior, weren’t you going to help me?”

Ho-jin asked Jun-hoo with a tearful expression.

He had expected Jun-hoo, who appeared like a savior, to take over the lumbar puncture, but what was this?

Jun-hoo had declared he was just watching.

He felt betrayed.

He even wondered if he had ever done anything to upset Jun-hoo.

“Hard to believe, but this *is* helping you.”

“Really? Are you serious? I’m not ready for a lumbar puncture yet.”

“Sometimes you have to do things that come up unexpectedly, without preparation. And Kyung-soo is right, too.”

Jun-hoo continued calmly.

“You need to know how to do a lumbar puncture. You can’t keep avoiding it. You’ll have to face it someday.”

“I know, but I’m scared.”

Ho-jin’s voice grew smaller.

A month ago, a resident at another hospital accidentally caused the death of a 6-year-old infant during a lumbar puncture.

That news strangely lingered in his mind, fueling Ho-jin’s anxiety.

Moreover, having the tiger-like senior Kyung-soo watching with fiery eyes was a great burden.

He felt like he would be torn to shreds if he failed the procedure.

“So, the reason you’re hesitant about the lumbar puncture is because of those two things?”

Jun-hoo asked after listening to Ho-jin’s explanation.

“Yes.”

“First of all, the infant death case is a special case. You shouldn’t do a lumbar puncture when there’s bleeding or high intracranial pressure, but they violated those contraindications.”

“…….”

“As for Kyung-soo… wouldn’t you rather take this opportunity to prove yourself *handsomely*? Show off your skills?”

“I appreciate your kind words, but I still can’t calm down.”

“Ho-jin.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“Are you good at ABGA [arterial blood gas sampling]?”

“I’ve been an intern for seven months; I’d get yelled at if I *still* couldn’t do it.”

“Lumbar puncture is no different. Just do it with the same feeling as ABGA.”

Jun-hoo suddenly placed his hands on Ho-jin’s shoulders.

He looked into Ho-jin’s eyes with his lake-blue eyes.

*Why are his eyes blue?*

…There was no time to doubt or wonder. He felt like he was receiving a divine revelation.

A voice was intensely rushing into his head.

The voice said.

*Why are you so cowed?*

*Why are you so intimidated?*

*If you don’t believe in yourself, who else will?*

*Courage is not about not feeling fear, but about facing it.*

The unknown voice passed through his head and began to resonate in his heart.

Ho-jin changed his mind and clenched his fists.

*Let’s just do it.*

*Being so scared doesn’t suit my personality, does it?*

*Don’t give in to fear, face it.*

As his thoughts and feelings changed, so did his attitude.

“Senior, I’ll try again.”

“Good thinking. I believe you can do it.”

Ho-jin returned to the ward first, followed by Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo watched Ho-jin’s back with a satisfied smile.

Jun-hoo had used Jeong-an (正顔) [a technique to influence someone’s mind] on Ho-jin, who was trembling with fear.

Now that he had fully mastered Jeong-an.

The effect was immediate.

Before and after receiving Jeong-an.

Ho-jin’s attitude had changed 180 degrees.

Anxiety, tension, unease, anger, and so on.

Jun-hoo was able to remove the negative emotions that diminished his abilities with Jeong-an.

He felt like he would be relying on Jeong-an often in the future.

“Senior Kyung-soo, I’ll do the puncture right away.”

Ho-jin picked up the probe that was on the dressing cart again.

He closed the distance with the patient.

“What’s this? Did you suddenly grow some guts?”

Kyung-soo asked with his trademark arms crossed.

“I don’t know, but I think so. I think I can do it.”

“Honestly, I don’t care if you’re scared or confident. The important thing is to succeed in the procedure.”

“Then I’ll just have to succeed.”

“Look at this guy. Just a moment ago, he was trembling, and now he’s talking nonsense? Is this your doing too?”

Kyung-soo’s gaze turned to Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo nodded instead of answering.

Under the attention of Kyung-soo and Jun-hoo.

Ho-jin inserted the probe between the patient’s 3rd and 4th lumbar vertebrae.

*Pshhh!*

No hand tremors, good angle, and the distance the probe advanced was also good at 5 centimeters.

After a while, a clear, dew-like liquid formed on the head of the probe.

It was cerebrospinal fluid.

It was proof that Ho-jin had succeeded in the lumbar puncture in one go.

The procedure ended smoothly while securing enough cerebrospinal fluid for the examination.

Ho-jin had an excited expression.

Kyung-soo had a dumbfounded expression, and Jun-hoo had a proud expression.

“Thank you, Senior Jun-hoo. Strangely, I felt more comfortable after talking to you.”

Ho-jin said as he left the ward.

“It’s all your ability. You don’t need to thank me.”

“I’ll clean up the supplies and go do other work. Senior Kyung-soo, thank you for your hard work too.”

Ho-jin pulled the dressing cart and moved to the station.

“This is making the picture weird again.”

“What is?”

“It feels like I’m the only villain.”

Kyung-soo grumbled.

“You *are* a villain. Making it so junior colleagues can’t even breathe. Did you just realize that now?”

“We have to handle patients’ lives; should I just let them loose like runaway colts?”

“Give them carrots sometimes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Carrots, my foot. You eat all the carrots you want.”

While bickering with Kyung-soo, Jun-hoo returned to the on-call room.

* * *

11 PM.

As the time approached midnight, the neurosurgery ward was quiet.

All the lights in the ward hallways and rooms were turned off. Instead of moonlight, soft nightlights emitted a faint glow.

Most of the patients and their guardians were in dreamland.

The staff was the same.

Most were sleeping or resting in the on-call room, and some were studying in the conference room.

Jun-hoo, who was on duty, remained alone in the on-call room.

He was uploading videos he had filmed during his spare time to his NewTube channel.

Extracting the videos wasn’t very difficult.

He filmed himself studying as usual.

Then he quickly memorized and danced the latest trending dances.

That was all the content.

The NewTube people still loved those two types of videos.

Currently, the channel has 600,000 subscribers.

The average number of views for the four videos uploaded per week was close to 300,000.

It was a pretty solid channel.

*Should I really focus on growing the channel more?*

If I branched out into fields that use physical skills, there would be a lot to do.

Like playing physical games.

Or touching on sports, and so on.

It wasn’t that he had no ambition, but Jun-hoo decided to be satisfied with the current state.

NewTube was, after all, a side job.

Jun-hoo’s ambitions and aspirations were all related to medicine.

While uploading the videos, Jun-hoo checked his personal email.

There was an email from his teacher, Jae-hyun.

[Sorry for the late delivery of the materials. I had a conference schedule, so I went to Busan. But I’ve prepared the materials thoroughly. If you have any questions or don’t understand anything, feel free to contact me anytime.]

Jae-hyun attached a compressed file called ‘Collection of Cerebrovascular Diseases’ to the email.

It was the data Jun-hoo had requested.

Because the disease he wanted to overcome after brain tumors was cerebrovascular disease.

Unlike brain tumors, cerebrovascular diseases often involved emergency patients.

If he conquered cerebrovascular diseases as well.

Jun-hoo would master all chronic and acute diseases related to the brain.

He downloaded the attached file.

When he unzipped the compressed file, approximately two hundred document files appeared in the folder.

The file names were severely long and complicated.

-Cerebral Aneurysm Surgery Case 1.

-Non-ruptured cerebral aneurysm with symptoms such as headache, location of onset is the Circle of Willis [a network of blood vessels in the brain], size is 7mm in diameter, patient age is 70 years with hypertension, clip ligation [surgical procedure to treat aneurysm], good postoperative progress.

-Cerebral Aneurysm Surgery Case 2.

-Ruptured cerebral aneurysm with symptoms such as headache, location of onset is the middle cerebral artery, diameter is 15mm, patient age is 40 years, endovascular surgery [minimally invasive surgery], postoperative course death.

…….

Click!

Jun-hoo clicked on the first file.

The file contained a summary of the surgical procedure.

Jae-hyun’s feelings and improvements while performing the surgery.

And how to deal with emergency situations.

In other words, each file contained Jae-hyun’s successes and failures.

His worries and efforts.

His joy and tears were all contained within.

In terms of martial arts, this was a top-notch secret manual. It was something every martial artist would covet.

It would be strange if they didn’t turn their eyes to the fact that an absolute master had explained in detail the process of the martial arts they had learned.

While skimming through the first document.

Jun-hoo lost track of time.

He felt like he had actually observed the surgery, even though he had only looked at one document.

His teacher’s data was that absorbing and meticulous.

*I’m always just amazed when I see it.*

*He must have been tired just performing the surgery, but he still left this data behind…….*

Not just one or two, but all the surgeries he performed.

After reading the document, Jun-hoo leaned back in his chair.

If he perfectly acquired these materials.

And incorporated his own style, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Jun-hoo would become the world’s best neurosurgeon.

-If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

This was said by the great scientist Newton, and Jun-hoo greatly sympathized with Newton’s words.

Because he stood on the shoulders of his teacher Jae-hyun, Jun-hoo would be able to see further and more.

His relationship with Jae-hyun.

Jun-hoo was endlessly grateful for Jae-hyun’s interest and affection towards him.

And it was clear that the only way to repay this was for Jun-hoo to grow dazzlingly.

*Pa-ba-bat.*

Jun-hoo used his inner-energy-filled index finger to stimulate the acupoints on his head.

The prefrontal cortex, which controls thought.

The Broca and Wernicke areas, which interpret language information.

And the hippocampus, which stores long-term memories.

It was to fully absorb his teacher’s data.

But just as he was about to start studying in earnest.

*Creak.*

The door to the on-call room opened.

With a deflated feeling, he turned his head and saw Si-ho entering the on-call room.

“Senior, aren’t you sleeping?”

“I’m a little hungry? I can’t sleep. I’m going to eat a cup of ramen and go to bed.”

Si-ho said with her usual bright smile.

Colleagues and nurses called Si-ho’s smile an angel’s smile, but Jun-hoo couldn’t agree.

*Why don’t people know?*

*That Si-ho is wearing the mask of an innocent sheep.*

Jun-hoo stared intently at Si-ho as she tore open the cup ramen packaging and put water in the pot.

“Is it that amazing to eat ramen?”

Si-ho said, noticing Jun-hoo’s gaze.

“I just happened to look.”

“That’s a bland answer.”

“Senior. Did you meet Ah-young during the day?”

Si-ho sat across from Jun-hoo and said.

“I went to the thoracic surgery ward as a consultant and ran into her by chance. She’s graceful and pretty. You two are a good match.”

“What were you doing?”

“I was catching up on my studies. I’m looking up *papers* these days.”

“*Papers* in the first year…… as expected, the next ace is different. Kyung-soo seems busy just looking at textbooks.”

“I was lucky enough to learn how to speed-read when I was young.”

Jun-hoo shrugged his shoulders and made eye contact with Si-ho.

He immediately used Jeong-an.

*Treat patients and colleagues with sincerity. Don’t try to manipulate or deceive the people around you.*

*The mask of hypocrisy doesn’t last long.*

*It will all come back as karma later.*

*Don’t regret it then, repent now.*

*That’s the way for you.*

Jun-hoo poured all the thoughts and feelings that he usually couldn’t express directly to Si-ho into Jeong-an.

As Jeong-an was activated.

As Jeong-an succeeded.

Si-ho’s eyes also took on a deep blue color like Jun-hoo’s eyes.

*So, is Si-ho going to be reformed now?*

Jun-hoo was slightly filled with anticipation.

“Senior, how do you feel right now?”

“I don’t know why, but it’s very bad? The kind of thoughts and feelings I hate the most flashed through my mind.”

“What is it?”

“It’s hard to say. It’s very personal.”

Si-ho smiled and avoided answering.

Jun-hoo was shocked.

It was shocking that Jeong-an had succeeded but had no effect on Si-ho.

It was also shocking that she described the good that Jun-hoo had emitted as disgusting.

Si-ho was a much stronger opponent than Jun-hoo had thought.

*No, what kind of person is this?*

“Jun-hoo. You know what?”

“What?”

“You and I are very similar.”

“Well, I have no idea what you mean at all. I can’t agree either.”

“If you can’t recognize that, then at least in this area, I might be above you.”

For the first time in a while, a chilling smile flashed across Si-ho’s lips.

“I’m your shadow. If you turn around, I’m always there.”

Si-ho’s words were meaningful and ominous.

Two months passed since then.