Chapter 49

Chapter 49

Jo Eunjae's aunt, Lee Insook, sat in a corner of the Shanghai factory office and reviewed the contract draft again.

The hygiene-permit application for the new product line she planned to launch in Shanghai had just been rejected for the third time.

"This ingredient name doesn't match China's standard naming system. Rewrite it according to the INCI comparison table and submit it again."

The officer had drawn a red line across the document.

He was not deliberately making things difficult.

The registration format had changed only a few months earlier, and the electronic system itself had recently been replaced.

Even one wrong character triggered an error and forced them to apply again.

"You'll also need to redo the irritation-test data through one of our certified institutions."

Finding another testing institution and receiving new documentation would take several more weeks.

The regulations were still being reorganized, so even the officers seemed to interpret the standards a little differently each time.

The phone rang.

It was a buyer from a Hong Kong department store.

"The last shipment is already sold out. Can you increase the quantity for next season?"

Insook wrote numbers in her notebook.

The existing Shanghai product line was doing the same.

Products disappeared almost as soon as they reached the shelves.

Until now, her small-scale production had barely kept up.

But this volume was impossible to handle without expansion.

The problem was that the new OEM production-line contract meant to increase capacity still had not been finalized.

Whether Hong Kong or Shanghai, there simply were not enough products to send.

"I'll get them to you as quickly as possible."

Only after ending the call did Insook notice how bloated her stomach felt.

She had barely managed half a bowl of porridge that morning, yet her abdomen already felt completely full.

It had been happening constantly lately.

Only a few bites made her feel full.

Then the sensation lasted all day.

She needed to travel to Guangzhou for a factory inspection.

While checking the flight time, she loosened her belt by one notch.

Her clothes had become looser recently.

Yet her lower abdomen seemed tighter.

Her weight was clearly dropping.

Her belly was becoming larger.

Insook did not find the contradiction particularly strange.

"Too many business trips, that's all."

Negotiations with the factory manager lasted longer than expected.

Because the factory would need to install an entirely new production line, management did not want to take on too much risk.

They wanted a higher unit price and a larger minimum order.

Insook wanted the opposite to reduce her initial exposure.

Neither side gave in.

The market demand was so strong that products were selling out.

But the raw materials she had purchased with borrowed money were still sitting in a warehouse.

Even next quarter's cash-flow plan was beginning to shake.

In the end, Insook accepted the factory's terms.

Higher unit price.

Higher minimum order quantity.

After signing the agreement and leaving the office, a twisting pain suddenly struck her abdomen.

The pain squeezed around her upper stomach.

"Stress, probably."

Insook pressed a hand against the pit of her stomach and dismissed it.

Back at the hotel that night, she ordered porridge through room service.

She could not finish even half.

She already felt full.

Her waistband still felt tight.

The burning sensation in her stomach refused to disappear.

Thinking she was simply exhausted, she opened her laptop and went back through the paperwork.

There was a missed call from her precious niece and only family, Jo Eunjae.

Insook had not been able to answer.

A text message was waiting instead.

She immediately called back.

Eunjae answered happily.

"Aunt, are you eating properly?"

"Yeah, I'm eating fine. Things are just hectic these days."

Even after hanging up, Insook kept rubbing her abdomen.

Her stomach felt terrible.

But she forced herself to ignore it and reopened the stack of contracts.

***

The next morning.

A new front-desk employee, Namgung Ju, arrived for her first day.

"When you come in, the first thing you do is organize the messages on the answering machine."

Choi Yuri cheerfully explained each task one by one.

[Today, Ms. Kim ○○: appointment canceled, personal circumstances.]

[Today afternoon, Ms. Park ○○: appointment canceled, personal circumstances.]

[Tomorrow afternoon, Ms. Lee ○○: appointment canceled, personal circumstances.]

[Tomorrow afternoon, Ms. Jeong ○○: appointment canceled, personal circumstances.]

After writing the same sentence four times, Namgung Ju put down her pen.

Three of those women had even scheduled their ultrasound appointments three weeks earlier.

Choi Yuri looked over the list from behind her.

While folding sterile drapes, Yuri complained,

"This is because of that post last night."

"What post?"

The previous night, someone had posted on the free board of the Somang City local community café, Somang Mom Love Room.

[Title: Please Be Careful if You Go to the OB-GYN Inside the Market Alley]

[I heard a pregnant woman bled heavily and died there. She was transferred to Hanguk University, but apparently the initial response was so bad she eventually died. What did her poor husband do to deserve that? She lives in the apartment below mine. I guess childbirth really should happen at a big hospital.]

A tiny sprout icon beside the poster's ID showed that the account had been created only three days earlier.

There were already twelve comments.

Eight of those accounts had also been created exactly three days ago.

Their registration dates were identical.

It looked suspicious even at a glance.

After hearing the story, Namgung Ju blinked in confusion.

"Isn't that serious? Shouldn't we tell the director?"

"Mornings are busy, so I'm planning to tell her at lunch."

As soon as afternoon appointments ended, Choi Yuri knocked on Examination Room One.

"Director, look at this."

Gain raised her eyebrows and read the post.

Yuri spoke excitedly.

"Eight of the people commenting all joined on the same day. The twenty-ninth of last month."

She pointed.

"Look at the usernames too. Only the last number changes."

Gain traced the list with her fingertip.

[mom1982]

[mom1983]

Yuri was right.

"I'm going to message the café manager and ask them to delete it."

"Do you think they'll actually delete it?"

"That's up to the manager."

Yuri frowned.

"If they refuse, there's not much we can do."

She folded and unfolded the corner of the paper.

The crease did not flatten the second time.

"The second option is reporting it directly to Daum."

"I once got scammed buying something used, so I emailed Daum about it."

"Did that work?"

"No."

Yuri sighed.

"They just replied that I should resolve it directly with the person who posted it."

Gain looked at Yuri.

Yuri looked back.

"So what you really want to do is..."

"I'm a member there."

Yuri sat forward.

"My account level is pretty high too."

"I'll reply myself."

Gain waited.

"I'll say the mother is alive and the baby is doing well."

Yuri continued,

"And I'll ask the mothers I know to help."

"If they have eight people, we'll get sixteen people to reply."

Gain placed the paper on the desk.

"Yuri, thank you for wanting to help."

Then she shook her head.

"But I don't think we should do that."

Something similar had happened long ago.

After Gain had spent about half a year treating soldiers in field tents, people started calling her the Saintess.

It had not been a title Gain gave herself.

Priests from the temple were dispatched to investigate.

They demanded explanations.

Someone not ordained by the temple calling herself a Saintess was a problem.

Using divine power without proper procedure was a problem.

They demanded the formal structure of her prayers.

They demanded to know who had given her a divine revelation.

For three days, they argued inside the tent while wounded soldiers lay outside.

Gain had not engaged them.

She already understood that explaining herself with words would never end it.

Every rebuttal created another argument.

Every proof was dismissed as fake.

So Gain simply kept the tent open and treated whoever was carried inside.

In front of the priests, she cut open bodies and stitched wounds closed.

On the tenth day, the priest who had shouted the loudest arrived carrying his own nephew.

The boy was sixteen.

He had been serving as a scout when his thigh was torn open.

Gain saved his leg.

That night, the priest left with the other three.

Only afterward did the temple formally grant Gain the title of Saintess.

"All we need to do is keep treating patients properly here."

Gain looked at Yuri.

"We don't need to fight those people."

***

Pyo Jinwoo was reviewing the day's patient list.

The numbers have dropped quite a bit.

Had everyone simply moved into Im Gain's schedule?

As he was thinking, someone knocked.

"Come in."

"Dr. Pyo, do you have a moment?"

"Yes."

"Do you know a doctor named Seo Pilju?"

Pyo Jinwoo answered immediately.

"That hypocrite?"

A second later, he realized what he had said.

"My apologies."

His expression remained serious.

"That was inappropriate."

"No, it's fine."

Gain asked,

"May I ask why you think that?"

"He claims to care about sterilization and hygiene, but refuses to allocate an appropriate budget for either."

Pyo Jinwoo's tone was flat.

"He's nothing like you, Director Im."

Then he narrowed his eyes.

"Why? Did he apply to work here?"

Gain laughed softly.

"He opened a hospital right in front of us."

"Ah."

Pyo Jinwoo did not seem surprised.

"That sounds exactly like Seo Pilju."

"He likes opening branch hospitals next to OB-GYN clinics that are doing well."

Pyo Jinwoo continued,

"He's close with the president of the local OB-GYN association and knows plenty of influential people, so nobody says much."

He glanced at Gain.

"Do you have anyone in the obstetrics and gynecology association backing you?"

Gain shook her head.

"No."

"Really?"

Pyo Jinwoo looked skeptical.

"That can't be right."

Gain widened her eyes in confusion.

Pyo Jinwoo smiled.

"I attended continuing education recently and heard a case presentation."

"You know how presentations about delayed transfers usually go."

Gain nodded.

The title sounded respectable.

[Cases of Delayed Transfer]

But in practice, it was usually a collection of cases in which private clinics waited too long before transferring patients to a tertiary hospital.

Then everyone discussed why they were late.

Why did they not send the patient earlier?

How did they misread that ultrasound?

In the end, private practitioners usually became the target.

Gain smiled faintly.

She had attended many sessions like that herself.

Oh Seongmin especially enjoyed criticizing private clinics.

"But Professor Kim added one extra slide at the end."

Pyo Jinwoo continued,

"A thirty-four-week patient with complete placenta previa came in at dawn with bleeding."

"Before the patient even arrived, the private clinic had already called ahead and the referral information had been passed to the hospital."

"That can happen."

"Director."

Pyo Jinwoo looked directly at her.

"I worked at tertiary hospitals too."

"When a private clinic calls at dawn, half the time you have to ask everything again from the beginning."

"You practically redo the whole history over the phone."

"Meanwhile, the patient is lying in an ambulance and continuing to deteriorate."

Gain did not deny it.

"Professor Kim said they checked everything again in order."

Pyo Jinwoo lifted a finger.

"Not one detail was wrong."

"Placental position."

"Time the bleeding began."

"Even the interval between the last contractions."

Gain fell silent.

"And I heard you diagnosed uterine arteriovenous malformation with Doppler and referred that case too."

"The resistance index was abnormal."

"Even when people see something abnormal, most doctors tell the patient to wait and watch."

Pyo Jinwoo shrugged.

"Because if they're wrong, they're the ones who take the blame."

He smiled slightly.

"Anyway, Professor Kim placed those two cases side by side and said this."

"People complain that referral letters from private clinics have gotten sloppy lately."

"But Director Im in Somang City is different."

***

Choi Yuri happened to pass Examination Room Two and overheard part of the conversation.

Something about a Hanguk University professor.

Something about that professor specifically praising Director Im.

So what?

Yuri and Namgung Ju were the ones who had listened to the answering machine that morning and recorded all the canceled appointments.

Yuri was the one who had organized everything.

I don't think the director understands how serious this is.

The clinic had become popular within the local community.

That meant it could fall just as quickly.

If more antis gathered, things could become dangerous.

Our director is such a good person.

Choi Yuri finished folding the sterile drapes and returned to the front desk.

When she got home, she planned to make several more accounts.

If new accounts could not comment, she would first meet the promotion requirements.

She would probably have to wait three days after joining.

I'll do it without the director knowing.

She wanted to protect this clinic.