“Not a chance. I’m not leaving until I deliver this food to my grandson.”

Naturally, these rules applied to the world of martial artists, but this grandmother didn’t care in the slightest.

Jin Cheon-hee sighed. That was when he noticed a dark crimson stain spreading across the fabric of her sleeve. Startled, he seized her wrist.

“You little rascal! How dare you grab an elder like that!”

“Grandmother, your elbow is ripped open! You must have fallen on the stairs, didn’t you?”

“Quiet, you brat!”

Climbing the long stairs of the Medical Pavilion was difficult for an ordinary old woman, even if a trained martial artist could handle it without issue.

“Let me see your knees as well.”

“Th-this boy…!”

“Aigoo, just let me check, please.”

The grandmother refused to show her knees, but it was obvious she had fallen hard. Judging from the scrapes on her hands, it might have happened more than once.

This food must be so heavy… Aigoo…

He guessed she had made the climb to celebrate Beginning of Spring by feeding a cold-hearted grandson who couldn’t even manage to visit her himself.

Then, Jin Cheon-hee understood. It’s not about the food. She just wanted to see her grandson’s face.

If delivering the food had been her only goal, she could have simply left it at the clinic at the bottom of the mountain to be delivered. No, this grandmother must have missed her grandson with a desperate longing, so much so that she braved the long, steep staircase, falling time and time again.

“You need treatment first,” Jin Cheon-hee said. “Come inside.”

He planned to escort her to the Bamboo Grove Hall, used to receive external visitors. He could treat her wounds there and then summon her grandson.

I’ll just have to get permission from Yoo Ho, the Chief Steward. Even when being flexible, Jin Cheon-hee’s creed was that it must be done within the boundaries of the rules.

“Joo Do-hwa,” the grandmother said. “That’s my grandson’s name. He’s in the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department.”

The Acupuncture and Moxibustion Hall was the department responsible for needles and moxibustion, and it was notoriously the busiest in the Pavilion.

Jin Cheon-hee turned and offered the old woman his back. “Here. I’ll carry you.”

“I can walk on my own!”

“You’re bleeding everywhere, Grandmother. I listened to you being stubborn, so now you have to listen to me.”

Her frame was surprisingly small, and Jin Cheon-hee was able to lift her onto his back without difficulty.

He had barely taken three steps inside the Pavilion compound when he ran right into Yoo Ho. The Chief Steward looked out of breath, as if he had come running.

“That person is…?”

Fearing Yoo Ho would kick her out, Jin Cheon-hee spoke quickly. “She came to bring her grandson some ‘Beginning of Spring’ food. His name is Joo Do-hwa.”

“Joo Do-hwa?” At the name, Yoo Ho’s brow twitched.

The grandmother shouted, “Well? Are we going or what?”

Yoo Ho said, “…Understood, for now. Please, escort her with care.”

The Yoo Ho he knew would have demanded a full inspection, twice or three times over. But for some reason, he was being lenient today. He hadn’t expected him to add the ‘with care’ part, either. That was an impossibly charitable act, judging by the personality Jin Cheon-hee had seen from the bastard so far.

Maybe that bastard Yoo Ho has a grandmother back home, too.

Well, permission was permission.

Just then, a group of people was ascending the path behind him.

“The White Qilin Medical Pavilion hasn’t changed a bit,” one of them said.

Jin Cheon-hee glanced back and saw they were dressed as physicians. However, the characters written on their chests were not those of the White Qilin Medical Pavilion.

‘Hwaju Medical Pavilion.’

What business could they possibly have here?

His gaze lingered for only a second before he turned and continued toward the Bamboo Grove Hall. The grandmother’s treatment came first.

***

Jin Cheon-hee asked a passing servant to inform the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department that a man named Joo Do-hwa had his grandmother visiting.

“I’ll pass on the message, sir,” the servant said, “but the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department staff are never in one place. It may take some time.”

It was the time of day when they would be wrestling with patients. And this period right before ‘Beginning of Spring’ was when even more patients arrived.

The cold has broken and the weather is nice, so it’s the peak season for ‘Gangho first-timers’ to go out and get themselves smashed to pieces.

Unlike in winter, it was easy to hunt, so they didn’t have to worry about starving. The breeze was gentle, perfect for a boat ride, and even better for a spar. There was no better season for an excursion. And all those injured newbies were now gathering at the White Qilin Medical Pavilion for a meet-up. Thanks to them, the Pavilion physicians were being worked to death, and among them, the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department was being ground down the hardest.

“Grandmother, since you’re here, let’s just treat you properly.”

“I’m fine, I said! Leave it be, and it’ll heal on its own.”

“Aigoo, you promised. I listened to your stubbornness, so you have to listen to mine.”

Seeing that she wouldn’t budge, Jin Cheon-hee finally unleashed his secret weapon: his boyish charm. A bright smile from the princely-looking boy was more than enough to sway the old woman’s heart.

“My, my, what a cute and handsome boy you are. Alright, alright. I lose, I lose.”

“Thank you!”

“What’re you thanking me for? I should be thanking you. Aigoo, you’re just too soft…”

The grandmother clicked her tongue, then rummaged in her bundle and pulled out a dang-gwa. It was a flower-shaped pastry, deep-fried in malt syrup, and the sweet fragrance alone was overwhelming.

Grandmother, you brought something that takes so much work to make.

Jin Cheon-hee accepted the sweet she offered and put it in his mouth.

“Hehe.”

He beamed like a child, and the sight seemed to remind her of her grandson, as her wrinkled cheeks softened.

“What’s your name, child?”

“It’s Jin Cheon-hee.”

“You can’t be so nice all the time, you hear me?”

The grandmother finally showed him her knee. Jin Cheon-hee gasped when he saw it.

“Grandmother, wasn’t this painful?”

It was a mess. It looked so painful that any normal person would have burst into tears and given up after the first fall.

“How long were you climbing?”

“Dunno.”

This is bad… I wonder if her cartilage is okay.

He held her knee, gently examining the bone to see if there was any serious damage. Fortunately, her knee was more than just fine; it was remarkably sturdy, far more so than an average person’s.

That’s strange. She fell this badly, but her cartilage is completely intact.

It was odd, but it was a good thing. All he had to do was treat the torn flesh. It wasn’t oozing or festering yet, so a simple procedure would be enough.

Jin Cheon-hee took an acupuncture needle and pressed a pressure point, attempting to anesthetize the area. He, too, had now reached a level of skill where he could present himself as a physician of the Gangho. It was a fact that would have astounded anyone, knowing he hadn’t even been in this world for a full year.

“Grandmother, does it hurt?”

“How strange. I can’t feel a thing.”

It worked. Jin Cheon-hee poured the medical-grade distilled spirits onto the wound to disinfect it.

Next, what he took out was not a suture thread, but an adhesive glue.

Sutures became famous after I used them in Wang Gak-yeon’s surgery. But there’s no need to use them now.

Suture thread. At first, Jin Cheon-hee had thought he would have to make natural sutures from cow or sheep intestines, just as ancient humans on Earth had done. But since the main component was animal organs, there was no way to prevent infection or inflammatory reactions in the body.

‘A substance that is harmless to the human body, maintains at least 60-80% of its tensile strength, and dissolves on its own when the time comes.’

Yoo Ho had been the one to solve it.

The answer was elixirs.

An elixir could be described as a physical manifestation of Qi. It existed as medicine, but once absorbed into the body, it reverted to Qi. Yoo Ho had a Pavilion member use the Gold Qi of the Five-Elemental Divine Art to weave it into a thread.

This was something Jin Cheon-hee had never anticipated.

And the cost of surgery skyrocketed.

The first thread they spun was a monofilament—a single, thick strand. Its surface was smooth and it caused little tissue reaction, so the side effects were minimal, but it was less stable. It was also called Monofilament Suture.

Jin Cheon-hee had this improved into a multifilament.

A Multifilament Suture, was made by braiding multiple thin strands into a single thread. It was strong enough to be used as a fishing line, but bacteria could easily get trapped between the filaments, making it less clean than a monofilament. On top of that, it required an immense amount of skill to braid threads that were almost invisible to the naked eye.

One Pavilion member had been needed to weave the monofilament. Six were needed to braid it into a multifilament.

But the multifilament was what I needed. I couldn’t be sure how long the tensile strength would hold, and I had to suture inflamed tissue.

Yoo Ho had said that while the price varied wildly depending on the elixir used, even the cheapest one, when made into a suture, was more expensive than weaving a thread from pure gold.

“You’re not gonna stitch me up? I heard the White Qilin Medical Pavilion is good at that.”

Had her grandson told her? She was quite well-informed.

This suture was saving many lives right now, but because of its insane manufacturing process, he couldn’t just use it for everything.

“Are you planning on going out to practice martial arts, Grandmother?”

“Why would I do a thing like that?”

“Then this will be just fine.”

Medical costs in this world were high. Furthermore, if a clinic wasn’t affiliated with the Pavilion, they might not even know how to remove the sutures and be unable to touch it. Worse, there was a high chance a total quack would offer to do it.

Shockingly, this world was rampant with unlicensed doctors who had never been vetted. It was a harmful side effect of medical knowledge being passed down secretly from master to disciple. The creation of the Pavilion had reduced the problem, but there was still an enormous number of “back-alley” doctors, on a level incomprehensible in modern Korea. There was no state system to verify the quality of education, conduct exams, or issue licenses. The truth was, a patient had no way to verify if a medicine was even effective or not.

On the bright side, this wound was minor enough that the adhesive glue would be sufficient. By the time the skin healed, it would fall off naturally. Most importantly, she wouldn’t need to visit another clinic, which would save her money.

“Grandmother, once I put this on, you can’t move around too much for a while.”

The problem was the location, right below the knee. The wound was a horizontal gash, like the edge of a stair.

“Is a little movement okay?”

Jin Cheon-hee fell into thought. This medical adhesive was his own invention, created precisely because he needed a substitute for sutures in cases of external trauma. After many, many refinements, he had finally made something usable. Thanks to a special herb from the Sichuan Tang Clan, its adhesive strength was quite good.

If it were on the kneecap, he’d be worried, but this location was probably fine.

Honestly, the best-case scenario would be for her grandson to come and remove the stitches later.

But if he did that, and the grandson “forgot” because he was too busy, just as he had this time, the grandmother’s heart would be broken. As always in life, things rarely go as planned.

Jin Cheon-hee employed an adult’s wisdom.

“Mmm, after you meet your grandson, I’ll carry you back down the stairs myself. And you have to promise me you won’t climb the Pavilion stairs again until you’re all healed, okay? And don’t walk on it for at least a day or two.”

“Alright, alright.”

Jin Cheon-hee, in a deliberately casual tone, secured her promise and began to treat the wound. He then skillfully applied dressing, using bandages and gauze.

The grandmother said nothing, just stared intently at what he was doing.

A moment ago, she had the face of an ordinary grandmother. But now, her eyes held a strange, profound light.

Completely unaware of this, Jin Cheon-hee continued his earnest treatment.