Running through the dark in rain and mud for a few hours, Eunwoo and Yong finally reach the town. Many of the stalls are closed and only a few restaurants and shops are open for business. However, Eunwoo and Yong ran through this weather to see Doctor Oh.

“We’re closed—”

Doctor Oh sees that it’s Eunwoo who is soaking wet and laughs, “What do you want? Another sick wife?”

“No. My daughter is sick this time. Please help her,” Eunwoo gives a ninety-degree bow with Yong on his back.

The doctor watches Eunwoo with malice but as soon as he sees the helpless girl, his heart eases. He gestures to the back room, “Put her down on the bed. I’ll see what I can do.”

“She has a large old wound on her stomach. My wife said it doesn’t look good,” Eunwoo says as he lays the girl onto a thin sheet covering the wooden floor. 

“You stabbed her?”

“No. I just adopted her this morning. Her wound is older than that.”

Doctor Oh rolls his eyes and unties Yong’s shirt to reveal a swelled slash from the left rib cage to the belly button. It’s quite deep and the color is white and yellowish green. He frowns, “Why did you adopt her? The chances that she’ll make it are not above one out of a hundred.”

“Can you save her or not?”

“Arrogant as always,” Doctor Oh clicks his tongue. “I’m the best doctor around. With me, her chances go up to forty out of a hundred. Anyway, I’ve already sent my apprentice home for the day, you’ll need to help me.”

Before the surgery, Doctor Oh and Eunwoo boil water to clean the tools and equipment and some left over for cleaning the surface, prepare bandages and ointments for preventing infection and healing, and light up the room well. 

As they go into surgery, Doctor Oh stuffs a towel in Yong’s mouth and explains to Eunwoo what the procedures were. Then, he cleans around the wound with warm boiled water, a clean towel, little alcohol, and some ointment. At last, he cuts off the white and discolored tissues with steady hands.

Eunwoo holds Yong down and wipes away Doctor Oh’s sweat so that they don’t interfere with his vision or fall onto Yong’s wound. Yong screams for a while until she loses consciousness all together. 

Once Doctor Oh sees that only healthy wounds are left, he stitches up the girl and bandages her up with some ointments. Then he falls onto his back and closes his eyes. He is exhausted.

Meanwhile, Eunwoo cleans up and boils water for them to wash. 

“She’ll need to stay here for a while so that I can monitor her,” Doctor Oh washes his arms and takes off his bloody clothes.

Eunwoo nods and wipes down Yong’s face and limbs. 

“She can’t sleep here though. I have patients coming in everyday.” Doctor Oh smiles as soon as he sees that Eunwoo’s hands stopped. “She can stay upstairs but that’ll cost extra. Also, do you trust her here by herself? Don’t you have a pregnant wife back home?”

“Can I trust you?” Eunwoo looks up to meet Doctor Oh’s condescending gaze. “Are you a pedophile? Or are you a doctor?”

“Those two things are not mutually exclusive, however, I am the latter,” Doctor Oh’s eyebrow twitches angrily. 

“Then there is no problem. I’ll pay extra, that’s fine. However, I can only visit her once every other day or so. As you know, I have a pregnant wife at home, but also a son and a manuscript to finish.”

“You’re a writer?” Doctor Oh knows that Eunwoo is testing him again. 

Eunwoo sits up straight and narrows his eyes with a smirk, “No. I am a physicist, trying to calculate the day of the total solar eclipse… Your stitching technique gave you away.”

“So, it turns out I am not the only one who has transmigrated to this alternative historical world.”  Doctor Oh covers his face with one palm and chuckles to himself, “What else gave me away? I was only seven percent sure you’re a transmigrator too.”

“You said magic the last time I was here with my wife.”

“What? Is it not magic?”

“Well, it’s not not magic. However, shamanism usually performs divinations or rituals that tell fortunes or calls upon deities and ancestors. So, what happened to my wife would’ve been considered a curse.”

Doctor Oh watches Eunwoo washes his hands and rolls down his sleeves. He is curious to say the least, so he asks, “Did this culture survive in your alternative universe?”

“Yes… Was there not a Korea where you’re from?”

“No wonder you blended in so well.” The doctor purses his lips and shakes his head. While tapping his lap, he thinks of something else and asks, “Are you calculating the day of the solar eclipse because you’re a physicist or is it because you’re a physicist that you’re calculating the day of the solar eclipse?”

“I’m calculating it because my wife asked me to.”

“A wife man…” Doctor Oh sighs, “The reward is quite handsome. How long do you reckon it’s going to take you?”

“Probably a week.”

“Can I read it when you’re done?”

“That’s my intention.”

Doctor Oh flinches back, “Your intention?”

“Yes. I can’t assume that everyone will understand the nonesene that I’ll write. You’re from a different universe as well, double check my math if you will.”

“And what makes you assume I know math, and am good enough to decipher your chicken scratches? Also, what if the planetary system is different? How will I know that you are doing the physics correctly if I can only tell if your math is correct?”

Eunwoo crosses his arms, thinking hard before answering, “There are some fundamental truths such as the speed of light or the atomic distance between the diatomic molecules of the smallest unit. Unless this universe doesn’t follow those rules, which I doubt, then my studies would need to start over. But for now, let us assume these fundamental truths are the same across the multiverse since I don’t have time to observe and study.”

“How is that your area of expertise and yet you know the different stitching techniques? What kind of machine are you?”

“I read. Don’t you read research from other fields of studies?” 

“Why would I ever waste time doing that when I don’t even know enough about the field of medicine?” Doctor Oh scoffs.

Eunwoo sighs, pretending to pity the other person, “Ideas can be multi-disciplinary. Consider taking in different perspectives.”

“Are you calling me ignorant again? How dare you! Doctors are busybodies unlike you scientists who sit and think all day,” Doctor Oh leans forward and pulls on Eunwoo’s collar.

The two spit insults back and forth and learn more about their differing viewpoints. For instance, Eunwoo says to Doctor Oh, “Why do you care that I do what I do for my wife? Aren’t you doing what you’re doing because of your god complex?”

“God complexes are for doctors who hold life and death in their hands. I, on the other hand, specialized in endocrinology, or internal medicine. Don’t you physicists also have a god complex, burdened by the knowledge of being insignificant in the grand scheme of things?”

“Not necessarily. Maybe a cosmologist or astrophysicist, or something similar. But my discipline is particle physics,” Eunwoo averts his eyes.

Doctor Oh slaps his knee and laughter rings in their ears. When he is able to hold a sentence, he says to Eunwoo, “And here I thought my experience was useless and had to draw on my early days in the operating room. Why didn’t you spend your time studying something more applicable?”

Eunwo obviously does not answer the rhetorical question. If he knew he was going to return, he would’ve definitely studied something else.

“Alright. Alright.”

Before long, the sun rises from the East and Doctor Oh’s apprentice has come to work.

“I haven’t slept. Tell the patients to come for the afternoon shift, and take this girl upstairs,” Doctor Oh says to his apprentice.

Eunwoo reaches for a pouch and gives the apprentice some money, “I still have a wife and son at home. Please watch over my daughter, buy her meals according to Doctor Oh’s instructions and also snacks for her. Feel free to eat them with her. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.”

The young apprentice stares at Eunwoo with wide eyes, hypnotized by the weight of the money in his hand. He glances at his master who couldn’t care less, and before he could refuse, Eunwoo has left. 

“Master, wasn’t that the same man who came two days ago with his wife? They look so young, how is it that their daughter is already this old?” The young apprentice puts the money away and goes to carry the girl.

Doctor Oh nods and adds, “He adopted her yesterday apparently. Change her bandage in a bit. I’m going back to sleep upstairs.”

“Rest well, Master.”