A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 213

Chapter 40: Suspicion (3)

That evening, in the conference room.

Si-ho sat across from Min-kyung at the oval table, deep in conversation.

Si-ho did most of the talking, while Min-kyung mostly listened.

“Really? Senior Jun-hoo really did that?”

“I felt incredibly frustrated. Just because a patient I cared for died, does that give him the right to accuse me of being a murderer?”

“Oh my goodness. He really crossed the line. Did he think he was the only one shocked? He didn’t even consider how you felt, being on duty.”

Min-kyung abruptly stood up from her chair, as if she couldn’t bear to hear any more.

“I can’t stand this. As a senior, I need to say something to him.”

“It’s okay. There’s no need to go that far.”

“You’re too nice, always trying to smooth things over. That’s the problem. Sometimes you need to raise your voice and fight!”

Si-ho started to argue, but Min-kyung shook her head.

Screech—Bang!

Min-kyung slammed the door shut and stormed out of the conference room.

Everything was going according to plan.

Left alone in the conference room, a chilling smile crept across Si-ho’s face.

Si-ho rose and walked to the window, scanning the serene scenery around the hospital.

He rubbed his throbbing temples with his fingertips; the headache felt particularly intense today.

The cause of the headache was Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo suspected Si-ho of killing the patient in a vegetative state.

He believed that Si-ho had subtly murdered the patient by administering drugs.

It was quite an insightful observation.

Firstly, Si-ho definitely had the intention to kill the vegetative state patient.

The urge to kill, which surged every few months, was nearing its satisfaction.

Moreover, the vegetative state patient was an easy target.

He also found the thought of Jun-hoo suffering when the patient died quite intriguing.

However…

Surprisingly, Si-ho did not kill the vegetative state patient.

The reason was simple: killing a living corpse wasn’t fun at all.

The second reason Jun-hoo’s insight was sharp was the drug-induced murder.

Si-ho had long preferred killing patients by injecting them with a lethal dose of anesthetic.

It was especially effective for critically ill patients.

The death of a critically ill patient is relatively less suspicious.

People tend to suspect when a healthy person dies, but they just accept it when a critically ill person dies.

In this case, the patient’s family wouldn’t even dream of an autopsy.

The victim becomes Si-ho’s best advocate.

Still, I didn’t expect Jun-hoo to see through me this much.

He really is an interesting guy.

I’ll have to be more subtle when I kill people in the future.

Si-ho’s gaze landed on the calendar hanging on the wall.

How many more days could he endure the urge to kill that was building up in his throat?

After calculating, it seemed like it would be about a month at most.

Until then, he had to devise a perfect murder plan that wouldn’t arouse Jun-hoo’s suspicion.

-You’re the one who killed patient Min Tae-woong, aren’t you, Senior?

As he was deep in thought, a fragment of the conversation he had with Jun-hoo earlier in the day flashed through his mind.

Instantly, Si-ho’s body, which rarely showed emotion, was engulfed in a hot surge.

The emotion was none other than injustice.

I didn’t kill the patient.

If I had actually killed him, I wouldn’t feel so frustrated.

Bang!

Si-ho kicked the nearby trash can in a fit of anger. The trash can fell over, scattering garbage on the conference room floor.

Still not relieved, he huffed and puffed.

Si-ho was genuinely frustrated.

* * *

At the same time, in the on-call room.

“Jun-hoo, don’t underestimate Si-ho just because he seems nice. He’s not someone you can look down on.”

“……”

“And if you take your anger out on the wrong person again, I won’t stand by. Be warned.”

Min-kyung scolded Jun-hoo with an angry face and left the on-call room.

Bang!

The sound of the sliding door closing was like thunder.

It was proof of how uncomfortable Min-kyung was.

“There are things you should and shouldn’t say. How could you accuse someone of being a murderer? Why did you do that? It’s not like you,” Kyung-soo, who was sitting next to Jun-hoo, said.

“Everyone’s being fooled. Senior Si-ho is not an ordinary person. He’s not as nice as you think.”

Jun-hoo shook his head.

The plan to secretly record Si-ho’s confession to murder using the phone’s recording app had failed.

Si-ho was adamant.

And he denied his crime to the end.

He was indeed a formidable opponent.

But Jun-hoo didn’t give up on Si-ho.

A tail will eventually be caught.

Si-ho would never be able to escape Jun-hoo’s eyes.

Jun-hoo had never missed a prey he had set his sights on.

The same was true for Jeok Il-do, the enemy of his Murim [martial arts world] father.

“Well, I agree with that.”

“Really? You suspect Senior Si-ho too?”

“Is that so surprising?”

Kyung-soo shrugged and asked back.

“There’s a subtle difference between a truly nice person and someone who pretends to be nice. I can tell the difference.”

“How?”

“It’s hard to put my finger on it. It’s kind of a feeling. Someone who pretends to be nice has a kind of disguised membrane.”

Jun-hoo was reassured by Kyung-soo’s answer.

To think that there would be a colleague on the medical staff who shared his opinion.

On the one hand, Jun-hoo was also saddened by the current situation.

If he had become closer to Kyung-soo sooner…

If he had known Kyung-soo’s thoughts sooner…

They could have kept Si-ho in check together.

If Si-ho was really the culprit who murdered patient Min Tae-woong, he could have prevented yesterday’s incident in advance.

“Then help me out from now on.”

“With what? How?”

“It’s nothing big. Just keep a close eye on Senior Si-ho from now on. Let me know immediately if there’s anything unusual. The more eyes, the better.”

“……”

“There’s a limit to me monitoring Senior Si-ho alone.”

“That’s not difficult, but… aren’t you going too far? Pretending to be virtuous and killing someone are completely different things.”

“There are a few circumstances. I’m not suspecting him without thinking.”

“Okay, I got it.”

Kyung-soo readily nodded.

“Thanks for helping.”

“I owe you my life; this is nothing. Take care.”

Kyung-soo left, leaving Jun-hoo alone in the on-call room.

Jun-hoo was on duty today.

Jun-hoo leaned back in his chair and stared blankly at the ceiling.

There was no evidence that Si-ho was the murderer of patient Min Tae-woong.

Judging by the way he grabbed his collar and got angry during the day, Si-ho might not be the real culprit after all.

But that didn’t mean he could leave Si-ho alone.

Si-ho was a dangerous man.

He had already tasted blood and was likely to taste blood again in the future.

It’s a relief that Kyung-soo said he would help.

If I install CCTV in the center of the hospital ward hallway, I’ll be able to prevent crimes that will happen in the future to some extent.

Jun-hoo was planning to ask the facilities team to install additional CCTV.

Eliminating blind spots in CCTV coverage was the top priority.

That way, he could figure out which room Si-ho entered and when to commit murder.

After organizing his thoughts and feelings, Jun-hoo straightened his back and looked at the monitor.

The chart of patient Min Tae-woong was still on the monitor. An alarm window was flashing, indicating that a death certificate needed to be issued.

Whether it was good luck or not, for nearly nine months as a first-year resident, Jun-hoo had never written a death certificate before.

He didn’t know if the patients he was in charge of had died in other hospitals, but at least none had died in front of Jun-hoo.

So, this was the first time he was parting ways with a patient due to their death.

Jun-hoo steeled his heavy heart and placed his hand on the keyboard.

I hope you will bloom as a flower in your next life.

Jun-hoo briefly offered a silent prayer and tapped on the keyboard. The stopped heart and time began to flow again.

* * *

That dawn.

Jun-hoo was sitting cross-legged in a corner of the on-call room.

He was practicing Qi [life energy] circulation to recover from fatigue, to accumulate inner energy, and to gain enlightenment.

-Let the boundary between this side and that side be blurred. All things shall be connected as one, and only your prejudice and stubbornness block the circulation of reason.

-When the wind blows, become the wind. When it rains, become the rain. The world is you, and you are the world.

Jun-hoo repeated the mental incantation over and over again.

The incantation was left by the first patriarch of the Seo Clan, the only ancestor in the Seo Clan who had reached the realm of Hyeon-gyeong [a high level of martial arts mastery].

In order to ascend from Harmony Realm to Hyeon-gyeong, a correct understanding of the incantation was essential.

The incantation seemed like an excessively abstract story.

It also sounded like pretentious nonsense.

But Jun-hoo brushed aside all those doubts and ambiguities and focused only on the essence of the incantation.

You can’t understand what you think you can’t understand.

The important thing was an open mind and perseverance.

Jun-hoo, who had been concentrating on mental training for a while, opened his eyes.

He got up from his seat and lightly stretched his body.

He didn’t gain anything, but he wasn’t disappointed.

Training was like pouring water into a large jar.

Even if you pour water into the jar, it doesn’t seem to have any immediate effect or result.

But over time, the jar will overflow.

Jun-hoo called that overflowing water enlightenment.

Suddenly, he looked at the wall clock and saw that the hour hand was pointing to 2 a.m.

It was a good time to train the next martial art.

Jun-hoo slowly reviewed the stances of the Howol Twelve Movements in his head.

The Howol Twelve Movements consisted of Yuwol, Yeonwol, Wolha, Hyeonwol, Jewol, Eonwol, Nangwol, Beomwol, Eunwol, Manwol, and Howol.

Each of the 12 stances containing a total of 12 principles was supported by 6 detailed stances.

The total of 72 stance movements was no exaggeration to say that it encompassed all the techniques that existed in Murim.

It included palm techniques using the palm and finger techniques using the fingers, so there was nothing more to say.

The reason Jun-hoo had his eye on the Howol Twelve Movements was because of the suturing.

He was confident in his use of the scalpel because he had wielded a sword in Murim.

He was confident that he wouldn’t lose even if he competed with the world’s leading surgical professors.

But suturing was a different story.

The proficiency of suturing was significantly lower than the proficiency of the scalpel.

Of course, his current level was unmatched, but it was impossible to anastomose [surgically connect] microcerebral blood vessels.

Jun-hoo hated that flaw of his.

He was afraid of losing a patient because of that flaw.

And the only way to overcome fear was to face it head-on and break through it.

If I master the Howol Twelve Movements, there will be nothing I can’t sew in this world because my hands will become more precise and faster.

With a hopeful dream, Jun-hoo began to unfold the Howol Twelve Movements.

Whoo-oong-

Jun-hoo’s straight palm faced the air.

Then, his wrist gently bent 90 degrees.

It was the first stance of Howol Twelve Movements, Yuwol’s Gyeonghwasuwol.

It was a stance with a beautiful, soft curve that evaded the opponent’s palm technique while also striking the opponent’s wrist in an unconventional way.

There will definitely be people who think, what does this stance have to do with suturing?

Of course, it was related.

Bending the wrist is very important in suturing.

Unchim [wrist snap].

That’s because the wrist snap is used when passing the needle through the suture site.

If the wrist snap is clumsy, the needle will not penetrate deeply into the suture site.

Conversely, if the wrist snap is too strong, there is a risk of tearing the suture site.

In other words, Jun-hoo could practice wrist snaps easily and dozens of times without having to use a needle through Gyeonghwasuwol.

He could also develop the movement of muscles and nerves optimized for wrist snaps.

Each of Jun-hoo’s martial arts stances was all connected to elements essential for suturing.

As the dawn deepened, Jun-hoo’s martial arts training also gradually deepened.

Jun-hoo, who had fallen into a state of selflessness, had already forgotten the world.