Chapter 126
“Ah, hello, Physician.”
The young apprentice of the painter bowed respectfully. The painting tools the girl had been holding were already in the old man’s hands.
The elder’s eyes widened like lanterns when he saw Tang Shayu himself arrive.
“Master of the Tang Pharmaceutical Hall, to come personally… I am at a loss for words…”
“It is only natural that the person who hears the story comes to see for themselves. Is this the child who is ill?”
Tang Shayu’s gaze fell on the small girl. She nodded.
“My name is Dan Sun-yeong. This is Master Dan, my grandfather and teacher.”
As soon as Dan Sun-yeong finished speaking, the old painter added an explanation.
“Sun-yeong’s parents passed away early, so I have raised her. Fortunately, she has a talent and interest in painting, so she follows this old man around without complaint.”
The old painter’s hand rested gently on Sun-yeong’s head.
Of course, he had accepted the Tang family’s request in order to check the girl’s health. It was only natural to want to bring a sick child to the best physician.
When Dan Sun-yeong introduced herself clearly, it seemed a faint look of relief appeared on her uncle’s face. She didn’t look very sick, after all.
“Let me see your hand.”
Dan Sun-yeong obediently extended her hand, and her uncle took it carefully.
I sat behind them alongside the old painter, waiting for the pulse-taking to finish, and spoke to him.
“You said you visited a village recently. Was it a place where an endemic disease was spreading?”
“Yes, I only stayed briefly at the request of someone, but I did not expect the disease to spread…”
To think of staying in a village where an endemic disease was present… it must have been an important request.
“It seems you are learning to paint…”
“Huh? How did you know that?”
“By the way you described the intruder’s face. You explained it as a painter would.”
Indeed, an expert in any field sees things differently. I nodded.
“I learned a little. There is someone who teaches painting while staying in our household. Their surname is Joo, and I call them Master Joo.”
“The fact that you could describe someone you only briefly saw so accurately shows that you have keen observation skills. A teacher must be proud to have such a talented student.”
That didn’t feel quite right. I thought of the crooked, scrappy sketches I had worked so hard on and felt sweat break out.
‘If this elder sees my drawings, he’ll be terribly disappointed…’
I must never show them.
The painter seemed to read my thoughts and gave a faint smile.
At that moment:
“Master.”
Her uncle turned around. The painter looked up, startled, at Tang Shayu’s voice.
“Which village did you visit recently?”
Her uncle’s smile vanished. The painter was surprised.
“It’s a very small, unnamed village. Why do you ask?”
“This is not an endemic disease.”
Her uncle spoke firmly. He glanced at Dan Sun-yeong and then stood up.
“It would be better to continue this conversation outside. You stay here.”
Tang Shayu’s words caused the girl to nod, looking slightly frightened.
“Ah, but first…”
Tang Shayu checked the old painter’s health and, finding him fine, moved ahead.
When her uncle left the room, the painter gave Sun-yeong a worried look before following.
I hesitated briefly, then followed her uncle.
As he exited, he instructed Shibi:
“Until I return, no one is to enter this room. You, take the herbs I name, prepare decoctions, and give them to the patient in this room.”
“Yes, Master.”
As her uncle recited the herbs, Shibi immediately wrote everything down on paper with brush in hand, then hurried off to prepare the decoctions. Watching this, the painter’s worried expression deepened.
Tang Shayu spread a large map across the table and said to the old man:
“Please point out roughly where the village you visited is located.”
The painter’s trembling hand indicated a spot. Tang Shayu marked it with red dye. Deep in the mountains.
“Why? Is there a problem with your granddaughter?”
He had given up calling her a student, asking instead with a worried voice.
Tang Shayu spoke:
“What is troubling the child is not some endemic disease. It is a parasitic creature living inside her body that is tormenting her.”
Parasitic?
I narrowed my eyes.
“A parasite? Like some kind of loneliness?”
“Different from loneliness. Loneliness is like a curse created to make someone suffer. This is born to feed on another’s blood from the start.”
As Tang Shayu continued, the painter’s face turned pale.
“If my guess is correct, what is in her stomach is one of the ‘Chung’ worms that appeared briefly long ago. It grows by consuming the host’s flesh. The real problem is that it should have been extinct long ago… so why has it appeared again?”
Tang Shayu lifted his gaze to the painter.
“You said this was an endemic disease village, which means all the villagers suffered the same symptoms as the girl. Am I correct?”
The painter nodded.
“They had rashes and stomach pain at night. Many villagers screamed in pain or writhed in agony due to stomach aches.”
“Didn’t a physician visit?”
If the whole village was afflicted, surely a physician would know.
“They did visit,”
“But they did nothing?”
“They seemed to keep giving medicine…”
Tang Shayu folded the map and set it aside.
“We need to examine it in detail, but if this is indeed the Baekin-chung (Hundred-Person Worm), there’s a high probability that all the villagers were infected.”
The name was unfamiliar, said to be extinct long ago.
This explained why the village physician had not been able to cure the disease or even notice the parasite.
Tang Shayu, overseeing all knowledge and information in the Tang family pharmacy, even knew about long-extinct poisons and parasitic creatures.
For a physician without such information, it was natural that they didn’t notice. Besides, the symptoms were somewhat ordinary.
It could easily have been dismissed as a simple stomachache. Drinking bad water could produce similar symptoms.
“Then… what will happen to my granddaughter?”
The painter asked, terrified.
“Can she be treated? Or is there no way? I’ll pay any cost, just please…”
His face turned as pale as someone facing death as he listened to the horrific explanation.
“She is my only granddaughter, my only student. Both her parents were killed early, and I have raised her alone. She is my everything, Physician. Please, my granddaughter…”
Tang Shayu replied calmly:
“If there were no way to save her, I would not have brought you here and sent you back. The Baekin-chung is a parasite inside the body, and there is a method to remove it. So do not worry too much.”
Tang Shayu continued:
“Removal is not difficult. The child will be sedated with sleep-inducing incense, and the creature will be extracted. However, this Baekin-chung has caused many deaths in the past—it is a terrible parasitic venomous insect…”
His gaze fell on the map at the side.
“Once it spreads, it will be uncontrollable…”
He muttered quietly.
Baekin-chung.
Named for producing one hundred offspring that parasitize one hundred bodies, leading all to death.
A terrifying parasitic venom, thought extinct long ago, has reappeared.
