Chapter 99 : The Slacker Points the Way (2)

Chapter 99: The Slacker Points the Way (2)

Glug glug.

Night had fallen under the weight of darkness. Jin Yeran filled her cup with liquor alone. She wasn’t usually one to drink, but on nights like this, staying sober was simply too difficult.

Looking at the cold liquor brimming in her cup, Jin Yeran let out a deep sigh.

“…Wow, what a sight.”

Wi Yeonho unknowingly nodded as he watched Jin Yeran drinking alone under the moonlight.

A beauty beneath the moon…

Even for Wi Yeonho, who could hardly be said to care about others, that particular scene was something he couldn’t deny was beautiful.

But now wasn’t the time to be admiring beauty.

“Drinking alone will ruin your stomach.”

Wi Yeonho trudged over and sat across from Jin Yeran. Though she gave him a sidelong glance, she didn’t stop him from sitting.

“Mind giving me a cup?”

As Wi Yeonho looked around for a cup, Jin Yeran silently held one out to him from beside her.

Glug glug.

As he received the cup, Jin Yeran picked up the bottle and filled it for him.

“Drinking alone is poison in itself.”

“Isn’t looking at your face more poisonous right now?”

“Hm, then should I lie down? You won’t see my face that way.”

“A very fitting solution from Young Master Wi.”

Jin Yeran bowed her head deeply.

“I’m sorry.”

“Pardon?”

“I knew full well how much Young Master Wi has done for me, and yet, I lost my temper and said those things. I knew I should apologize, but I was too ashamed to face you.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“How could I not worry?”

Jin Yeran looked at Wi Yeonho with slightly vacant eyes. The faint flush from the alcohol only made her beauty shine brighter.

“It’s not easy.”

“What isn’t?”

Jin Yeran hesitated for a moment, then continued.

“Following the teachings of my predecessor is already difficult, but what’s truly hard… is realizing that Soa isn’t necessarily wrong. Maybe I was just being stubborn.”

“Mm…”

“No, I was definitely being stubborn. I kept insisting that a physician must be this way or that way and forced my own ideals onto Soa. But the truth is… Father only asked me to raise Soa into a fine physician and to restore the Sacred Hand Grounds. And yet, I interpreted what a ‘fine physician’ meant solely by my own standards.”

“Mmm.”

Wi Yeonho didn’t even try to hide the expression that he hated complicated talk. Seeing his face, Jin Yeran let out a small laugh.

“Sorry. This doesn’t concern you at all…”

“Actually.”

“Yes?”

Wi Yeonho looked quietly at Jin Yeran.

As their eyes met and time passed, Jin Yeran, unable to endure the awkwardness, turned her head slightly with her cheeks tinged red.

“I don’t really get what you’re struggling with.”

“Pardon?”

Jin Yeran tilted her head slightly.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult story. From what he had seen, Wi Yeonho might have been lazy, but he wasn’t a fool. So this couldn’t mean he didn’t understand what she was saying.

Then what?

“Master always said… hmm, lately this has become my go-to phrase… Anyway, that old man said, if you want something, you have to make it happen yourself.”

“…”

“That old man was a mean-spirited, irritating fellow, but at the very least, he never said anything wrong. To be more precise, he always said the right things—but they were all the kind of ‘right things’ that no one wants to hear, so they were doubly annoying…”

Just as Jin Yeran was feeling bewildered at suddenly hearing gossip about someone she didn’t even know, Wi Yeonho steered the drifting conversation back to its original course.

“Anyway, assuming that old man was right, then the idea that you must achieve what you want on your own is also correct. Most people expect others to fulfill what they themselves desire, but it’s always the thirsty one who digs the well.”

“So…”

Jin Yeran cleared her throat.

“You’re telling me to do it?”

“Yes.”

Wi Yeonho nodded without hesitation.

“Don’t you want it for yourself too?”

“Young Master Wi, the rightful heir of the Sacred Hand Grounds is Soa.”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve heard that only the heir can restore a clan.”

“I’m a woman.”

“I think that’s also the first time I’ve heard that only a man can revive a clan. Especially for a medical clan.”

Jin Yeran couldn’t hide the confusion on her face at Wi Yeonho’s words.

‘Me, personally?’

She had believed that her mission was to raise Jin Soa into a fine physician. Not once had she considered doing anything in Soa’s stead.

“Me?”

Still confused, Jin Yeran asked again and again.

Wi Yeonho, with a sulky look, didn’t answer. He knew she was asking to find reassurance, but he also knew he wasn’t the one who could give her that answer—it had to come from Jin Yeran herself.

“Can I really do it?”

“No one knows that.”

Wi Yeonho answered honestly.

“But as far as I’ve seen, the ideal physician you speak of differs from the path of the Sacred Hand Grounds and from the path Soa wants to walk. If you force your ideal on someone else, problems are bound to arise.”

“Ah…”

“And I get the feeling that you’re trying to connect two completely different things.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Here is the corrected translation of the previous sections, with Jin Soa now properly referred to as male in all instances. No other content or formatting has been changed.

Wi Yeonho tapped the rim of the liquor cup before him with his finger. The liquor inside rippled from the contact.

“The request to raise Soa into a fine physician and the task of restoring the Sacred Hand Grounds are clearly two different matters. But it seems like you're treating them as if they must go together.”

“……”

“Soa becoming a fine physician is one thing. But there’s no reason he must be the one to restore the Sacred Hand Grounds. Isn’t it because you think only Soa has the right to do it that you keep fixating on him?”

Jin Yeran’s eyes wavered.

Wi Yeonho spoke frankly.

“I’m too lazy to care about other people’s business. But there’s one thing I do know—if it’s my business, I have to do it myself. If you want to restore the Sacred Hand Grounds, you shouldn't leave it to Soa. You should do it yourself, especially if you want to rebuild it into the ideal medical house you envision.”

Jin Yeran silently stared at Wi Yeonho.

“What?”

“Young Master Wi, you're a strange person.”

“I hear that a lot.”

“You’re really strange.”

Jin Yeran continued staring quietly at Wi Yeonho before lifting her head to look at the moon hanging in the sky. Half-covered by clouds, the moon still brightly illuminated the dark night.

“Can I really do it?”

“No one knows that. But one thing is certain…”

Wi Yeonho picked up the cup in front of him.

“Those who don’t move, who don’t try, who only sit around thinking—those people never achieve anything.”

“Is this self-mockery?”

“Maybe.”

Wi Yeonho grinned.

“I’m someone who’s very satisfied living like this. I don’t particularly want to achieve anything, and I don’t feel like I must do something either. But right now… I think I’m happier than you.”

“……”

“That’s because I’m doing what I want. Well, thanks to my damned master, I still have to do things I don’t want to do sometimes.”

“Your master must be a really great person. He manages to make you move.”

Wi Yeonho silently looked up at the sky.

— Be happy.

It almost felt like he could see his master’s gently smiling face.

“Maybe so.”

Jin Yeran quietly gazed at Wi Yeonho.

It was a truth most would overlook due to his carefree expression, but there was a faint wistfulness clinging to the corner of Wi Yeonho’s eyes.

“You really are an unusual person, Young Master Wi.”

“That’s another thing I hear often.”

“You’re right. If there’s something I want, I have to achieve it with my own hands. Maybe… I was asking Soa to walk a path that was too difficult for me. Even though I shouldn’t have.”

Her voice quivered slightly.

“I… Do you think I can do well?”

“No one knows.”

“Still… please say that I’ll do well.”

Jin Yeran, as if wishing to shake off her anxiety, spoke in a trembling voice. And Wi Yeonho gave her the best answer he could offer.

“You just need to try as much as you're anxious.”

“……”

“It's natural to feel anxious. Everyone does. But there are those who end it at anxiety, and those who strive as much as they fear. Trying doesn't always lead to success, but most people who make an effort end up becoming better than who they used to be.”

“You think so?”

“I know that you’ve already been trying hard all this time. But I think your direction has been wrong. Now, it’s time to start moving in the right direction.”

Wi Yeonho was perhaps the last person anyone would expect to say something like this.

If it had been the usual Wi Yeonho, Jin Yeran might have brushed his words off without a second thought.

And yet, for some reason, the current Wi Yeonho felt trustworthy.

‘Come to think of it…’

Everything changed after this man appeared.

The Sacred Hand Grounds, once mired in poverty, had been freed from debt. Jin Soa began walking his own path and declared the revival of the Sacred Hand Grounds. And now, even Jin Yeran was being shown the way forward.

‘Such a strange man.’

Truly, an utterly strange man.

The moon quietly and gently looked down on the two of them.

—

“…Isn’t it going well?”

“Going well?”

At the Historian’s comment, the Divine Mad Dog scoffed.

“Which medical house is the most prominent in the Central Plains right now?”

“That would obviously be the Sacred Hand Grounds!”

“And?”

“Sorry?”

“Besides the Sacred Hand Grounds?”

“Well… there’s the White Robe Medical Sect.”

“Exactly.”

The Divine Mad Dog wore a sharp smirk.

“What’s the relationship between those two?”

“Oh come on, now. Who doesn’t know this? Elder Mad Dog, the Sacred Hand Grounds and the White Robe Medical Sect are notorious enemies. They clash and argue over everything.”

“Right. Bitter enemies.”

The Divine Mad Dog clicked his tongue.

“Since that day, Miss Jin took on a new mindset and changed the name of Nameless Clinic. To always remember her unwavering heart toward her patients.”

“No way…”

“Yes. The White Robe Medical Sect’s predecessor was the Nameless Clinic. Thanks to Wi Yeonho’s visit, both the Sacred Hand Grounds and the White Robe Medical Sect came into being in Hubei.”

The Historian’s eyes trembled.

The Sacred Hand Grounds was known to be the most powerful medical house in the Central Plains, and the White Robe Medical Sect was famed for its utmost dedication to treating patients—so much so that it was called the House of Healing. Their personalities and approaches were so different, the two sects couldn’t mix, like water and fire.

Not long ago, things had gotten so bad that their physicians literally attacked each other with needles. It was a relationship that could only be described as the worst.

And now, to learn that these two medical houses had the same root!

“It only takes a moment for siblings to become enemies.”

The Divine Mad Dog clicked his tongue again, the expression on his face strangely spiteful. The Historian let out a groan and shook his head.

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