A Surgeon Who Uses Martial Arts [EN]: Chapter 331

Chapter 64. Compression (1)

Jeong-hye unconsciously brought her fingernails to her mouth.

She chewed on her nails with her front teeth. As the dye peeled off, she tasted a chemical and artificial flavor on the tip of her tongue.

Jun-hoo had figured out that her husband was faking his vegetative state.

It was the worst-case scenario.

If she had anticipated it, she would have moved on to the next step, but she couldn’t even do that.

She felt trapped, like she was surrounded by cliffs.

However, even if she just watched, the situation wouldn’t improve.

The ground she was standing on felt like it was about to collapse.

“If he’s been faking being vegetative for this long, his muscles should have almost completely atrophied [wasted away due to lack of use],” Jun-hoo said.

Jun-hoo’s words were the final nail in the coffin.

The husband couldn’t argue and avoided Jun-hoo’s gaze.

The husband’s body was normal, but his mind had already resigned itself to being vegetative.

Jeong-hye glanced at the chat window on the phone Jun-hoo was holding.

[This couple are insurance scammers. We should report these nasty people right away! There’s a concentrated reporting period for ‘insurance fraud’ these days.]

There were many chats cursing her and her husband, but the ones mentioning ‘insurance fraud’ stood out the most.

The situation was rapidly deteriorating, snowballing out of control.

She had dreamed of buying a luxury coat with the money she had swindled from Jun-hoo, but now she was facing the prospect of wearing a prison uniform.

But how had it come to this?

Where did they go wrong?

When she thought about it, Jeong-hye felt wronged.

The house was meticulously staged to look like a home caring for a vegetative patient.

She played the role of a devoted wife to her vegetative husband.

The husband faithfully played the role of a vegetative patient.

Was there a loophole they had missed?

No, there wasn’t.

Her husband hadn’t suddenly sneezed while lying down.

He hadn’t scratched himself because he was itchy anywhere.

He had simply closed his eyes and breathed.

But how did Jun-hoo know that her husband was faking it?

Even the most meticulous insurance investigator had looked at her husband and left without saying a word.

Putting aside the unresolved question, Jeong-hye parted her dry lips after a long silence.

“Honey, come here for a second.”

* * *

The seating arrangement in the large room had changed.

With the blanket on the floor as the center, Jun-hoo sat by the south window, and the couple sat in front of the north door.

Jun-hoo’s gaze at the couple was cold.

The warmth from before was completely gone.

That gaze was the one Jun-hoo reserved for dealing with heinous heretics in the Murim [martial arts world].

“Do you dare to have anything more to say?”

Jun-hoo spoke informally, as if it was natural.

There was no reason to respect them.

“No, I don’t.”

“Then you have nothing to say, but you’re keeping me here? I’m a busy person, you know.”

As Jun-hoo started to get up, Jeong-hye stopped him, pleading.

“We were wrong. Please forgive us just this once.”

Jeong-hye, who had been kneeling, bowed deeply to Jun-hoo.

Young-shik was blankly watching, so Jeong-hye slapped his knee with her hand.

Only then did Young-shik bow deeply to Jun-hoo.

Jun-hoo snorted at their behavior.

“It’s hard to make a living… No, we committed this foolish act because we wanted to live comfortably.”

“…”

“We deceived and cheated many people. If you forgive us just this once, we will live kindly,” Jeong-hye said, wringing her hands together.

Did Jeong-hye really regret her actions?

Was that why she was desperately seeking forgiveness?

Jun-hoo didn’t think so.

Jeong-hye was desperate, probably just to avoid punishment.

People can change, but…

That change happens very slowly, over a very long time.

There’s no such thing as a sinner who repents overnight.

“Can I believe that your remorse is genuine right now?”

“Of… Of course. Say something too!”

“I’m sorry, teacher. As the saying goes, ‘a needle thief becomes a cow thief’ [someone who starts with small crimes escalates to bigger ones]… I didn’t originally intend to go this far. Somehow, things got out of hand…”

The couple apologized with solemn voices, and Jun-hoo stared at them silently for a while.

“At least you guys seem to have a glimmer of hope. Other people would have denied it to the end.”

“Then you’ll forgive us?”

The couple got up at the same time, as if they had rehearsed it.

“Yes. I forgive you.”

As Jun-hoo said he would turn a blind eye to the couple’s actions, a huge wave of comments flooded the chat window.

[Teacher, those people aren’t the type to repent. We have to teach them a lesson this time!!!!]

[I’m going crazy, really;;;;; There’s a limit to being nice.]

[Forgiving a crime is also a crime. Teacher, you’re making a mistake right nowㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

The viewers typed furiously, expressing their frustration, but the complaints quickly disappeared.

“But the police won’t forgive you two,” Jun-hoo said mockingly.

“Yes? What does that mean?”

“I accepted the apology from you fraudster couple. But my accepting your apology is completely separate from the legal consequences, isn’t it?”

Jeong-hye, understanding Jun-hoo’s words, slumped to the floor with a sigh.

On the other hand, Young-shik looked confused, but soon his face turned red.

“You son of a bitch. You were playing with us, right?”

Young-shik looked at Jeong-hye as if asking for confirmation.

Jeong-hye nodded weakly.

“A kid whose blood hasn’t even dried is making fun of his elders. Just because some punk begs, he thinks he’s a hotshot?”

“The pot calling the kettle black [criticizing someone for a fault you also have], that’s exactly what you look like now. You still don’t know what you did wrong, do you?”

“Yeah. I don’t know, you bastard. Is it such a deadly sin to get some insurance money?” Young-shik shouted.

Thick blood vessels bulged on Young-shik’s neck.

“Politicians take hundreds of millions of dollars, but I’m an angel compared to them.”

“Don’t bring up other people. It doesn’t excuse your actions.”

“Ha… A young kid is talking back and using informal language. You’re dead today.”

Young-shik jumped up from his seat.

He stormed out of the big room and returned with a shiny kitchen knife in his hand.

Jun-hoo got up from his seat without any particular concern.

That foolish man didn’t realize that Jun-hoo excelled at physical confrontation.

“I’ll tear that shitty mouth of yours first.”

Young-shik, who had charged forward, swung the kitchen knife horizontally towards Jun-hoo’s face.

Whoo-oong.

The kitchen knife cut through the air.

Jun-hoo easily avoided the attack by simply pulling his head back.

“Oh? You avoided it?”

Young-shik’s eyebrows shot up.

Young-shik ruthlessly swung the kitchen knife, aiming only at Jun-hoo’s face. The trajectory of the knife was wild and fierce.

Young-shik was like a violent beast.

But…

If Young-shik was a beast, Jun-hoo was an experienced hunter.

Jun-hoo deflected all of Young-shik’s attacks by moving only his upper body.

The movement was amazing and overwhelming.

The difference in skill between the two was obvious.

If Young-shik was at kindergarten level, Jun-hoo was at an unlimited level. The very idea of them being in the same ring was absurd.

While toying with Young-shik,

Jun-hoo’s eyes flashed for a moment.

Thwack!

Jun-hoo’s hand blade mercilessly struck Young-shik’s wrist, the one holding the kitchen knife.

“Aaaagh!”

Young-shik screamed in pain. He grabbed his injured wrist with his other hand.

The kitchen knife fell to the floor.

Jun-hoo kicked Young-shik’s back as he bent down to pick up the kitchen knife again.

Young-shik rolled backward as if doing a somersault and crashed into a table leg.

Watching this, Jun-hoo smiled slyly for the first time in a while.

‘This is enough for a NewTube angle [good content for his NewTube channel].’

From some point on, Jun-hoo had awakened his NewTuber instincts.

* * *

“Wow… Things like this happen in the world,” Police Officer Lee Seung-ho exclaimed while watching the video on the cell phone that Jun-hoo had handed him.

20 minutes ago.

Seung-ho had received a call about catching a couple of insurance fraudsters on the spot.

Reports of insurance fraud were rare, so he went out without much expectation.

He assumed that the insurance fraud was just bait and that there was probably another complaint, but they were using insurance fraud as an excuse.

But what?

When he arrived at the scene, he heard unbelievable news from Jun-hoo, the reporter.

The couple had been receiving insurance money by pretending to be vegetative, and the husband, in particular, had harbored resentment against Jun-hoo, who had exposed them, and attacked him with a knife.

That was the kind of story you only read in novels!

But Jun-hoo wasn’t lying.

The NewTube live broadcast record was solid evidence.

“But how did you know that the husband was pretending to be vegetative?”

“It’s a long story. Let’s just say it was a hunch.”

“Well, the fact that the husband suddenly got up and wielded a knife at you is undeniable.”

Seung-ho nodded and continued.

“Still, you know it was dangerous, right? What if you had been injured by the weapon?”

“…”

“If something similar happens next time, please report it first.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Thank you for your hard work. Later, when you get a call from the station, just give them your account number. There will be a reward payment.”

Seung-ho said with a bright smile.

Thanks to Jun-hoo, he was able to get credit for free. It was like winning the lottery.

Boo-oong!

The police car carrying the fraudster couple and the police officers drove out of the alley.

Jun-hoo stood there, watching the police car disappear into the distance.

-But how did you know that the husband was pretending to be vegetative?

Suddenly, the police officer’s question flashed through Jun-hoo’s mind.

The decisive moment when he suspected Young-shik’s deception.

It was because of the strange behavior that Young-shik had shown after Jun-hoo sent the second telepathy.

Click. Click. Click.

Young-shik faintly bumped his upper and lower teeth together.

It was an action that a vegetative person who could not control his body could never do.

Young-shik must have felt uneasy after hearing Jun-hoo’s telepathy, thinking that the ability was a psychic power like telepathy.

Once the seed of suspicion was planted,

He began to doubt everything he had believed so far.

1) A medical supply cabinet that looked too new.

2) A diagnosis that was presented from the beginning of the conversation with the intention of saying, ‘My husband is a vegetative patient. So don’t ever doubt it.’

3) The patient’s body was clean, but the blanket and bedding that the patient was covering smelled of rancidity and festering flesh (probably because he only brought the bedding, saying he would wash the bedding of an elderly person suffering from an illness).

The couple’s scam was meticulous and elaborate.

If Jun-hoo hadn’t used telepathy, and if he hadn’t noticed Young-shik’s strange behavior with the observation skills he had built up in Murim.

The couple might have been receiving insurance money for the rest of their lives.

Jun-hoo, who was standing blankly, started walking to the subway station.

On the way, he also passed the hospital in question that had issued the diagnosis to the couple.

If the police start a full-scale investigation, the hospital will not be able to avoid punishment either.

Jun-hoo thought that he might be fighting not only against diseases but also against medical villains in the future.

Jun-hoo’s next destination was a mountain near his house.

He was planning to accumulate Mana Hearts there while receiving clear energy.

Growing little by little like that.

Two years had passed since then.