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Chapter 27: Fever [1]

Yeoju stared at Ganghyuk. She was a beauty unlike Changgweon, but she was surely his daughter, resembling him a lot.

Therefore, Ganghyuk even felt as if Changgweon was staring at him there.

“Do not look at me with those eyes.”

“Sir, you came to my room many times.”

“Yes, I did.”

It was her mistake if she wanted to bind him with that. He was ready to escape from the situation if not caught red handed.

“You must have seen the paintings that I drew.”

“Ah!”

“I don’t want to boast about myself, but I am not too bad, right?”

“Not bad at all.”

As a matter of fact, her paintings were very good. In particular, she was really good at precision painting. He even wondered why she was not famous and known to him with such a skill.

“I would like to draw a painting of you.”

“Painting my examination?”

Ganghyuk looked around the room. As paintings were hanging on all the walls, he did not need to choose one direction.

‘Painting… It is good.’

How long could he examine and operate alone? He needed to teach some fellows.

‘I will do interesting and difficult ones then.’

He often let Dolseok do the operation in case of simple boil. The latter followed well and seemed to have a talent. The problem was when it came to the textbook, and a painting would help him.

“Painting…”

“Yes, sir. I drew my wound here.”

Yeoju gave him a small piece of paper. She had apparently drawn a painting when the pains had become tolerable. She expressed her lesion very well as a small hole and the shade. The sole looked just like that of a real foot.

‘She caught the characteristics very well.’ With just black and white, she had described it very well.

“En… Professor will not be here, eh?” Then, it will probably not be really dangerous. It might draw attention when she traveled from home to the clinic. But ,there were talents who could help in her trip… such as Makbong.

“Okay. But, do not come every day. Come when I call, alright?”

“Thank you!” Yeoju showed her gratitude by bowing slightly.

“Okay. We cannot stay here any longer, so let’s go now.”

“Yes, sir.”

With that, Ganghyuk and Yeoni came out of the room, where Dolseok greeted him gladly.

“Sir, we may not be able to eat chicken. We need to hurry up.”

“We can go now. You eat chicken nearly every day. Why are you so greedy?”

Half of the chicken that Ganghyuk earned went into the stomach of Dolseok.

Additionally, he had dried beef and fish. Ganghyuk did not stop him, so he could eat nearly everything from the clinic. As he ate so well these days, even his face had become oily.

“Not every day.”

“Nearly every day… Anyway, let’s go. I will have dinner together with father tonight.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Makbong, drop by the clinic on the way to the inn and get some for your fellows.”

“Do you want to give more to them? You are too generous.” Dolseok pursed his lips. Although it was Ganghyuk who earned it all through clinic work, Dolseok was still quite stingy.

“If we keep something for too long, it will go bad, and then nobody will be able to eat it. Makbong, do not hesitate to get the things from the clinic.”

“Thank you, sir. We owe you too much.

“No, if it were not for you, how I could wander like this? And, Yeoni needs to eat better.”

“Thank you.” Yeoni bowed in gratitude. Her pronunciation was not very clear, showing that her mouth had already watered at the prospect of the food.

It was natural, as these were the times when not just meat, but even rice was quite dear.

“Ok, we can part here then.”

“Yes, sir..”

With that, Ganghyuk and Dolseok hurried their steps. Particularly, Dolseok walked very fast.

“Sir, come quickly.”

“Ok, ok.” However, Ganghyuk was quite relaxed. They said that Chilhyanggye was a tasty food, but to him, it was just a chicken. He only took it for the intake of protein.

‘I would like to have fried chicken.’ Even without seasoning, he wanted fried chicken. When he thought of the savory juice of chicken, he even ended up drooling.

“Dolseok”

“Yes, sir?”

“Do we have oil?”

“Yes, we have a lot. The governor gave us the last time.”

“Oh! Then, let’s fry a chicken.”

“Fry?” Dolseok did not understand at all.

Frying a chicken? Not grilling?

“Yes! I want to fry a chicken.”

“I think nobody has done that before.”

“I will do that.”

“Sir? No… Great master will be angry.”

“Why?”

“We have a kitchen servant. Don’t go around the kitchen.”

He felt stiffed. Even though he was a nobleman, there were too many things that he could not do.

‘Law and face.’

Ganghyuk came back home with a sullen face. Due to that, Dolseok was not happy either. He was the master, anyway. He was somewhat curt, but he treated the latter very well. As a result, Dolseok always felt that he must pay back to Ganghyuk somehow.

Although, it was frankly ridiculous!

“Sir, I will fry.”

“Can you?”

“Let me know what I should do.”

“Then, I will draw out the process roughly. Just follow it.”

“Ok. You are very picky.”

“What?”

“No, no… We are here.” Dolseok said hurriedly as he looked up to the big gate. It was too high for the people on the horses to pass without getting off. It could be seen from the distance, reflecting the status of Baik family in Suwon.

These days, Ganghyuk was earning some big money, and the wealth added some more power to the family. Obviously, their wealth was rowing every day.

“Open the gate.” Dolseok shouted after taking in a deep breath. Everybody in the house knew his voice, even though there were many new servants. Hence, several men rushed to the gate and opened it promptly.

“Master, welcome home!”

“Why are you so late? Sir, please come this way.”

“Okay. Let’s go.” Ganghyuk went into the house following Dolseok.

Although the yard of the clinic was quite large, it could not be compared with the yard of the house. And at this moment there were several iron pots in this huge yard.

Chickens were boiling in each iron pot, filling up the house with the typical smell.

Okseok ran through the pots and came to Ganghyuk. He looked very healthy, as if he did not have any illness at all.

“Sir, welcome home!”

Ganghyuk asked him while waving steam with his hands, “Is father in?”

“Yes, sir. He is in the main building. I will guide you there.”

“Okay. Dolseok, you can take a rest here.”

…

On the floor of the main building were Seungmun and Sunshin. Ganghyuk felt very good on hearing laughter of two people from the distance. He went first to his father and greeted the latter.

“Father, I came back.”

“Oh, did you? Come up here.”

“Yes, sir.”

It seemed that they had drunk a lot. Sunshin looked normal, but Seungmun’s face was all red.

“You are a bit late.”

“Yes, sir. I had gone to examine the status of the daughter of professor Changgweon.”

“Yes, I heard of it. You did a good job! How could you treat a patient without seeing her? It is hard to imagine what level of knowledge and skills you have in medicine.”

Ganghyuk felt guilty about it, but he smiled without showing it on his face. “I was lucky.”

“No, no… Thanks to you, Changgweon can now go to Hyanggyo with a light mind.”

Yeoju was right; Changgweon might not able to come around here for some time.

“Then, what did you talk about?”

“We were talking about “Jeongshimjang” of the Daehak.”

Jeongshimjang?

What was that? He did not know what Seungmun was talking about. But, he could not say anything and just blink his eyes. Fortunately, Sunshin answered almost immediately.

“There was a phrase that if one is angry, fearful, glad, or worried, one cannot stay on the righteous path. I told him that his mind was like this because of thinking about you.”

On the opposite side, Seungmun laughed to show his gladness.

“There was no time when I did not worry about you after you grew up. But nowadays, I recite this phrase day and night, and worry about you less, which has made things better.”

Although Ganghyuk did not understand it fully, it did not seem unfavorable to him. He said that he would worry about him less, which meant that he probably would not nag much.

Thinking this, Ganghyuk smiled as he sat between them. “I always told you not to worry about me.”

“Yes, you are right. It would be better if you study though.”

He mentioned the phrase from Daehak one minute ago, but he nagged again. Clearly, nothing can beat one’s worry for children. He was a famous Confucian scholar, but even his Confucian phrase could not make him less worried.

‘If I don’t answer, I will be in trouble.’

When he investigated Seungmun’s personal history, he found that the latter worked in Hongmungwan. As he used to give a lecture to the King, he made it a habit to teach people.

For those who are ready to learn like Sunshin, he was a good teacher. But, Ganghyuk did not want to learn Confucianism.

Thus, he answered before Seungmun could add some more, “Yes, father.”

“Good! Anyway, all the servants and I had a good time thanks to you.”

After a while, Okseok and kitchen maid came inside along with tables. On each table was a a portable kitchen.

‘The tradition of a chicken per person was developed long ago.’

It was no wonder, because the daily intake per person was quite huge.

“Let’s have it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ganghyuk ate while trying not to make any noise. There were many table etiquettes for noblemen, and one of them was not to make any noise. At first, he did not know that and drank the soup while making some slight sound, only to be hit on the forehead with a spoon.

As he was eating slowly, he observed Seungmun as a doctor.

‘En… He has a lot of insect bites.’ He was asked to take a bath, but he only washed his face. It was no wonder.

‘It may be fine… Itchy, but… a mosquito bite would not kill a person I guess,’ he thought. Ganghyuk then ate all the food without thinking anymore about it.

“Father, I will retire now.”

“Yes, read a book before going to bed.”

“Yes, sir.”

…

At this moment, Ganghyuk finally got to come back to his room. Dolseok was waiting for him here as he had ordered.

“Sir, would you like to fry now?”

“Ugh! They gave me too much.”

“I am full now as well.”

“Save the oil. We will fry in the clinic tomorrow.”

“Ah! Okay, sir. En? Okseok is coming here.”

“Is he?”

Okseok normally did not come to Ganghyuk’s place. He was very busy looking after Seungmun. Additionally, he did not run around like that.

But, he was breathless when he arrived at Ganghyuk’s place.

“Sir, sir!”

“What happened?”

“The great master is trembling a lot.”

1) Daehak – One of the Four Books of the Confucian Classic Scriptures