Chapter 5: The Tightrope and the Swing [1] —Deng
—Deng
—Deng
It was still a dark dawn.
Are they crazy? What's with this bell at this hour…
The bell rang a total of twenty-eight times.
He only learned later that it was called paru.
It rang around five in the morning, and only when it rang was the curfew lifted.
In any case, Kanghyeok was already well used to waking early.
So he got up and flung open the room door.
The cold, clear air felt good.
This one thing is nice.
Wasn't the world he knew overrun with fine dust?
It had truly been a long time since he had breathed such clean air.
Of course, there were far more things to regret.
For one, with no phone, his fingers felt bored to death.
"Did you call, young master?"
Turning his head, he saw Dolseok had come.
He set down a washbasin steaming with hot water in front of Kanghyeok.
Being a yangban really is nice.
To have washing water brought the moment he got up.
Kanghyeok nodded, satisfied.
"Yes, thank you. How is Okseok?"
"He's much better. However…"
Dolseok lowered his eyes to the ground and trailed off.
It seemed something was wrong.
"Did something happen…?"
The speech pattern felt unfamiliar, but Kanghyeok adapted quickly.
He had never imagined that the historical drama Tears of the Dragon, which he had watched as a child, would be useful now.
"The white, long things you gave me, young master, have disappeared. I searched everywhere but couldn't find them. I'm sorry."
"What? You mean the medicine I told you to crush and give him?"
"Yes, young master."
"Mm."
Kanghyeok let out a short sound.
He could have thought of it as just two antibiotic tablets.
But here, it was medicine he might never obtain again.
The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"You should have taken better care of it. Fine. I'll give him something else."
"Yes, young master. I'm sorry."
Kanghyeok opened the house-call bag he had left by his pillow.
Then he rummaged through where the Meyact had been. Something was strange.
"Hmm?"
There were exactly sixty Meyact tablets left.
What is this?
At first, he thought he had simply counted wrong.
But no matter how many times he counted, there were sixty.
Could it be…?
From the moment he had flown into Joseon, nothing about this situation had made sense.
On a hunch, Kanghyeok opened the incision set he had used yesterday.
The sutures… are all still there.
The blade he had attached to the scalpel was also still there.
It looked exactly as it had when he first opened it yesterday.
What in the world is going on?
Kanghyeok's face turned grave as he stroked his jaw.
He had lived his whole life priding himself on being a scientist.
He believed every phenomenon in the world had a cause and an effect, and that the process in between had to be logical.
In many ways, this is a situation I really don't like.
But what could he do?
Sometimes incomprehensible things happened.
For now, having more medicine is a good thing.
It was always better to have things left over than to run short.
He took out two tablets and handed them to Dolseok.
"Here. Crush these finely and… no, never mind. Let's go together."
"Thank you, young master."
Kanghyeok washed only his face and the back of his neck roughly, then headed with Dolseok to Okseok.
Okseok's condition was completely different from yesterday. For one thing, he was sitting up.
When he saw Kanghyeok, he even tried to get to his feet.
"Young master…"
"That's enough, lie down. Let me see your stomach."
"Yes, young master."
Kanghyeok carefully examined the wound he himself had cut.
Fortunately, the sutures had not disappeared.
So what's used stays in the body?
If the medicine had all vanished, then whatever was already inside the body should have vanished too.
If that had happened, Okseok would not have improved this much.
"Good. There's no need to crush it anymore. Here, swallow this."
"Yes, young master."
"Have you passed gas?"
"Uh… yes. I think so."
"Then you may start eating thin rice gruel now."
"Yes, thank you, young master."
"Then get some rest."
Kanghyeok covered Okseok's stomach and stepped out of the room.
Only then did Dolseok throw himself down and bow deeply.
"Young master! Thank you so much for saving Okseok!"
Kanghyeok had received thanks many times before.
But this was the first time he had received a full prostration. Considering the difference in status, it was not unusual, but Kanghyeok still found it unfamiliar.
He hurriedly grabbed Dolseok by the shoulder and pulled him up.
"What are you doing?"
"I am offering my thanks to my benefactor."
"I only did what I ought to have done. Don't make such a fuss."
"But still… Ah! Shall this servant try catching a rabbit for you today?"
A rabbit. And a wild one at that. It would surely be full of parasites.
"That's enough. Come outside with me instead."
"Outside?"
"Yes."
"Understood. First, I'll bring your morning meal."
Dolseok sprang up at once.
Then he ran toward the kitchen.
Come to think of it, the smell of cooking rice had been drifting over for a while.
Inside the kitchen, the kitchen women were busily at work.
I was getting hungry anyway.
Rubbing his stomach lightly, Kanghyeok returned to his room.
As he waited in the warm room, Dolseok brought in a tray.
"Please eat, young master."
The meal Dolseok brought was deeply disappointing.
White rice, marinated crab, soy sauce, and yeolmu kimchi. That was all.
"Mm, thank you."
He tried not to show it, but Kanghyeok was more than a little surprised.
There's no meat.
He had never dreamed soy sauce could count as a side dish.
Wasn't it just something used for dipping?
And why is there so much rice?
It looked like three times the amount he usually ate.
When he glanced outside, he saw Dolseok and the other servants eating.
The servants did not even have marinated crab. For them, it was only soy sauce and yeolmu kimchi.
It seemed they got all the calories they needed from rice.
Kanghyeok barely managed to eat half a bowl before pushing the tray away.
Dolseok immediately asked with concern,
"Young master, are you feeling unwell?"
"No. I'm perfectly fine. I just don't have much appetite. Let's go."
"Yes. They say there will be a sandaenori performance at the market today. Shall we go there first?"
"Sandaenori?"
"Yes. A troupe that usually performs over by Aeogae is coming to the market today."
A troupe, was it.
Anything would do if people came.
Where people gathered, stories would be exchanged, and perhaps he might even find a way.
"Fine, let's go."
"Yes. I'll clear the tray first and attend you right away."
Dolseok carried off the half-finished tray to the kitchen.
In the meantime, Kanghyeok looked through the house-call bag.
He might end up staying here for a long time.
If so, he needed to know what he had.
I saw the antibiotics yesterday. Anti-inflammatories, blood pressure medicine, diabetes medicine, disinfectant, and… huh? What's this?
There was a medicine that absolutely should not have been in an ordinary house-call bag.
Viagra? Looking at it now, that chairman really…
For a man his age to be asking for Viagra.
He was even more impressive than Kanghyeok had thought.
Still, this is good.
Viagra was certainly not a bad medicine to have.
And there was quite a lot of it.
One hundred and eighty tablets…
Even if used every day, that was six months' worth.
Kanghyeok thought the chairman must be out of his mind.
Shaking his head, he took ten tablets of each kind out of the bag and set them aside.
He needed to confirm whether his guess was right.
If the bag keeps renewing itself…
If so, then even if this bizarre situation lasted a long time, he could feel a little more at ease.
Whatever happened, it meant he had something to work with.
As he stuffed the tablets into his pocket, Dolseok's voice came from outside.
"Young master! Shall we go now?!"
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