Seeing it was not the end of the matter.
He had heard for himself that her breathing was unstable.
And from quite a considerable distance, at that.
It was a symptom he could not simply overlook.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu moved at the same time, without needing to say who would do what.
The two of them hurried along and soon caught up with Hong Nanju and Kim Hyeon-gyeong.
“Hyeon-gyeong, Nanju.”
It was the instant Taesu called out.
Stop.
Kim Hyeon-gyeong halted while supporting Hong Nanju.
“Wheeze, wheeze.”
Hong Nanju’s breathing was definitely abnormal.
At that moment, Kim Hyeon-gyeong quickly turned around and greeted them with relief.
“Doctor Choi, Doctor Jeong.”
“Hello. I’m sorry, but Nanju’s breathing sounds strange.”
“We were actually on our way to the clinic.”
Kim Hyeon-gyeong spoke urgently.
That was how much she had come to trust the two men after Kang Song-hui’s surgery.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu approached Hong Nanju together.
“Wheeze, wheeze.”
“Nanju, the doctors are…… Why is she like this?”
Kim Hyeon-gyeong was explaining when she suddenly froze in shock.
Hong Nanju’s eyes had rolled halfway upward.
“Wheeze, wheeze.”
Her breathing grew even rougher.
The worse it became, the higher Kim Hyeon-gyeong’s voice rose.
“Nanju, what’s wrong with her?”
Kim Hyeon-gyeong fidgeted helplessly.
Taesu and Jeong Minsu were also observing Hong Nanju’s condition closely.
They were not merely standing by and watching. They were assessing her.
Abnormal breath sounds.
Hypoxia.
Mental fog.
What did they add up to?
Tracheobronchial stenosis.
The same diagnosis came to both their minds.
It was a basic medical condition anyone who had set foot in thoracic surgery needed to know without fail.
The problem was that her condition was deteriorating.
As tracheobronchial stenosis worsened, the amount of air she could breathe gradually decreased, potentially progressing all the way to apnea.
There were already signs of that happening.
Now that they had identified the problem, there was no reason to keep watching.
This was an emergency.
In a flash—
Taesu rushed toward Hong Nanju and shouted to Jeong Minsu.
“Intubation.”
Tap-tap.
Taesu closed the distance like a bolt of lightning.
When he reached Hong Nanju, he unexpectedly hooked his leg around hers.
Whoosh.
Hong Nanju lost her balance and collapsed to the side.
Taesu swiftly caught her and slowly lowered himself along with her.
Soon, Hong Nanju was lying on the floor.
It all happened in an instant.
Kim Hyeon-gyeong’s scream rang out.
“Eek! D-Doctor!”
“Please get Manseok. Hurry.”
“Aah! All right. M-Manseok. No, Manseok-ah!”
Tap-tap-tap.
Kim Hyeon-gyeong ran off in shock, so flustered that she even became confused about what to call her own younger brother.
People nearby also began watching what was happening.
“That’s Nanju.”
“I thought we’d finally get to see her after so long, but she’s sick again?”
“Is she Nanju or some kind of princess?”
“Something feels strange.”
“The doctors have been busy ever since they entered the village.”
With so many people gathered together, all sorts of comments flew back and forth.
Meanwhile, Jeong Minsu was shouting into his radio.
Beep.
“Hyeokgwon, emergency. Bring the ambu-bag set, quickly.”
—Beep. What kind of mess is it this time?
“Hurry.”
He was not merely urging him with words.
He swiftly looked around for anything that might be useful.
“Breathing, breathing.”
Tap-tap-tap.
Unable to get his bearings, Jeong Minsu moved first and figured he would think later.
At the same time—
Taesu was watching Hong Nanju, who had been laid down.
“Wheeze, wheeze.”
Her chest rose and fell rapidly in time with her labored breathing.
It was a textbook sign of hypoxia.
Taesu first checked her consciousness again.
“Nanju. Nanju.”
“Wheeze, wheeze.”
There was no response.
“Damn it, Nanju.”
Smack, smack.
Taesu even slapped Hong Nanju’s cheeks.
Still, she did not respond.
Her eyes rolled farther upward.
This was no time to worry about formalities.
“Damn it.”
Whoosh.
Taesu immediately began chest compressions on Hong Nanju.
“One, two. No, that’s not enough. Harder. Three. Four……”
Press, press.
After two consecutive compressions, he sensed it instinctively.
It was completely blocked.
Air could not pass through the narrowed bronchi under normal pressure.
Counting was meaningless now.
If he could not supplement her breathing with mouth-to-mouth ventilation, he had to continue chest compressions.
The moment he reached that conclusion, he increased the force.
He pressed hard enough to make Hong Nanju’s chest sink deeply.
“Hng. Hng……”
Press. Press.
Only compressions this forceful allowed her to breathe a little.
“Hah…… hah……”
It was barely more than a sob.
No one could survive on such a small amount of air.
She needed several times more.
All he had to do was secure her breathing.
That alone would get her past this crisis.
“Hng, hng.”
With that single thought, he compressed Hong Nanju’s chest so violently it seemed ready to burst.
But several people frowned.
“W-What the hell is he doing?”
“In broad daylight, with everyone watching.”
“Where the hell has Manseok gone?”
Everyone had a rough idea that something was wrong with Hong Nanju’s breathing.
Even so, it seemed difficult for them to view Taesu’s actions favorably.
Taesu was in no condition to care about their looks.
The heartbeat he felt beneath his palms was approaching arrhythmia.
He was still pressing with all his strength.
Yet her breathing had to be considered almost completely obstructed.
“One minute?”
Even that was a generous estimate.
The odds of her heart stopping before then were far too high.
“Minsu, you bastard!”
The only person Taesu could rely on now was Jeong Minsu.
But then—
Rumble.
The people who had gone down to eat were coming back up.
Among them was a man in his mid-thirties who was running like mad.
He was Lee Manseok, Hong Nanju’s husband.
The first thing Taesu had thought when he saw Lee Manseok was:
‘Im Kkeok-jeong.’
He was exactly that type.
He looked like someone who could take down a cow with his bare hands.
Now he came charging forward with the force of a rhinoceros.
“Nanju!”
His voice was incredibly loud.
Taesu saw Lee Manseok running toward him.
His expression was anything but ordinary.
Combined with the momentum of his charge, it was downright murderous.
Even then, Taesu could not stop performing CPR.
Press. Press.
As he compressed Hong Nanju’s chest, he could vividly envision his own future.
It looked as though being sent flying through the air was about to become a reality.
But—
‘What am I supposed to do about it?’
Press. Press.
Taesu was desperate too.
It was already difficult enough to pour all his strength into the CPR.
He had no energy left to shout out an explanation.
In the meantime, Lee Manseok had come within arm’s reach.
“Nanju, honey.”
Thud, thud.
The look he directed at Taesu was almost feral.
A moment later, he was right in front of him.
He looked ready to slam into Taesu head-on.
“Nanju!”
Lee Manseok shouted as if screaming.
Taesu sensed the dizzying impact that was about to come and squeezed his eyes shut.
But……
Nothing happened.
Even then, his body instinctively continued the CPR.
Press. Press.
Right beside him, Lee Manseok’s voice, almost a roar, rang out.
“Doctor Choi!”
Flash.
Taesu opened his eyes and was startled anew by Lee Manseok’s face, which had come right up to him.
“Gasp.”
“Move. I’ll do it.”
“What?”
“I know how.”
Lee Manseok was trying to convince Taesu.
What?
But if he really knew how—
With that strength of his—
Taesu made a quick assessment and decision.
Then—
“Switch.”
Whirl.
He quickly rolled away from Hong Nanju.
Lee Manseok took his place.
Thump.
He placed his pot-lid-sized hands on her chest and began performing real CPR.
“Nanju, wake up. Nanju.”
Thud, thud.
Every downward push sent a shock through Hong Nanju that seemed powerful enough to come from a defibrillator.
Even more astonishing was Hong Nanju’s breathing.
“Ugh, ugh.”
A faint breath could be heard.
Lee Manseok’s CPR posture was textbook-perfect as well.
Taesu’s eyes widened as they darted from side to side.
‘This isn’t his first time?’
That was something to think about later.
Hong Nanju’s problem had not yet been solved.
“Manseok, a little less force, and faster. Can you do that?”
“Uh, yes.”
Huff, huff.
Lee Manseok adjusted the force and speed according to Taesu’s instructions.
His expression was filled with anxiety that something might happen to Hong Nanju.
The people around them watched, unable to understand what was going on.
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know either.”
Even though they asked one another, no one could give them an answer.
The people around him were invisible to Taesu now.
People were selfish.
Unless something directly concerned them, they did not want to step forward.
That was not coldness so much as an instinctive tendency to protect themselves.
Taesu did not want to criticize them for it.
More accurately, he did not even have the time to think about it.
Lee Manseok’s powerful strength had only bought them time.
This was not a problem that could be solved with strength alone.
Her airway would become blocked again.
They had to find a way before that happened.
But there was nothing around them to use, to begin with, and Jeong Minsu was nowhere to be seen either.
“Where the hell did that bastard go?”
“Taesu.”
Jeong Minsu’s voice reached him.
He was running toward them with something held high above his head in each hand.
He was showing them what he had from a distance before he got any closer.
Taesu could see them.
A thin hose and a slender metal rod about the length of a handspan.
What were those supposed to be?
It was absurd.
But then Taesu’s eyes suddenly gleamed.
Could it be intubation?
With those crude tools?
No. If he looked only at the most essential part of endotracheal intubation, it was not a bad idea.
That did not mean he could use them exactly as they were.
Jeong Minsu was still approaching.
Taesu grew increasingly impatient.
Just then, Kang Yeonghun and Kim Hyeon-gyeong came running from the other side together.
They were carrying water containers.
That was it.
Taesu quickly shouted toward them.
“Yeonghun, Hyeon-gyeong, water. Hurry!”
“I-I’m coming!”
Kang Yeonghun shouted as he increased his speed.