Supplies were approaching from both sides.
Taesu mapped out the sequence in his head.
Only a few seconds remained until arrival.
But the human brain could sketch countless images.
Rustle.
Taesu visualized the first-aid procedure in his mind.
Dozens of images were drawn in an instant.
One second……. Two seconds…….
A flash.
‘It’s possible.’
It was simultaneous with reaching that conclusion.
“Taesu.”
“Mr. Choe.”
Swish.
Jeong Min-su and Gang Yeong-hun arrived simultaneously from both sides.
Taesu immediately snatched the water jug and turned toward Jeong Min-su.
“Both of you, get over here.”
“Here.”
Clack.
Jeong Min-su produced two items upon seeing the water jug.
Taesu poured water over them.
It happened almost simultaneously.
Splash.
Water cascaded down, soaking the hose and the metal rod.
Taesu poured it over Jeong Min-su’s hands as well, then splashed water over his own.
There was no time to find alcohol.
He’d count himself lucky to have even water.
Taesu immediately headed for Hong Nan-ju.
Jeong Min-su followed suit.
“Her face.”
“Yeah.”
Jeong Min-su quickly hurried after him.
Taesu, arriving first, lowered his stance and looked at Hong Nan-ju’s face.
Her lips had gone past pale to a bluish hue.
“Hh, hh.”
Her breathing had weakened too.
It wasn’t that I Man-seok’s strength had faded, but that her bronchial constriction had worsened.
There was no time to delay.
Still, he asked for understanding.
“Mr. Man-seok. I’m sorry.”
“Do whatever you have to.”
I Man-seok bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Taesu had only one thought.
He had permission.
That was enough.
Taesu used both hands to open Hong Nan-ju’s mouth.
“Hup.”
Gg……. Uhk.
The moment her mouth opened, he poured all the remaining water from the jug into it.
Splash.
“Ghk, gurk.”
Her breathing sounds grew strange, affected by the water.
He turned her head to the side and drained the water out first.
And then he said sharply.
“Rinse done.”
“Here.”
Jeong Min-su immediately held out the metal rod.
Taesu took it without a word.
Fortunately, the end was blunt.
“Min-su, hold her face.”
“Got it.”
“Mr. Man-seok, stop CPR when I give the signal.”
“Got it.”
I Man-seok’s reply was thunderous, as if it would burst one’s eardrums.
It had little effect on Taesu.
His gaze was already focused inside Hong Nan-ju’s mouth.
Even for a moment.
If he could get her breathing for just one minute, Gim Hyeok-gwon would arrive.
He just had to buy that one minute.
Along with his resolve, he positioned the metal rod in front of Hong Nan-ju’s mouth.
“Hh, hh.”
Taesu, listening to the breathing sounds, suddenly shouted.
“Stop.”
Thud.
I Man-seok’s CPR stopped instantly.
The moment the movement ceased, Taesu pushed the metal rod in.
The target was the entrance to her airway.
He just had to hook it.
Click.
A faint sensation touched his fingertips.
Caught…….
“It’s caught.”
“Here’s the hose.”
“Hand it over.”
Click.
The moment he snatched the hose as if intercepting it, he pushed it in along the metal rod.
It was going in.
It was going in exactly toward the airway.
He felt like cheering.
But it was still too early.
Taesu kept pushing it in slowly, bit by bit.
Unfortunately, it soon seemed to hit a wall and couldn’t go further.
Tick.
“Here.”
The location of the airway blockage was clear.
Because Jeong Min-su had been watching with eyes practically popping out, he immediately gauged the location.
“Around the Adam’s apple?”
“The Adam’s apple?”
“By my standards. Miss Nan-ju doesn’t have one, though.”
“Remember it. Hup.”
Cutting the conversation short with that, Taesu immediately began to force the hose in.
Pop. Snap.
There was a sensation of something thin and small bursting.
But the important thing was that the tightly blocked wall didn’t budge.
“This is driving me crazy.”
“Shall I do it?”
I Man-seok immediately tried to step in.
That wouldn’t do.
Taesu immediately blocked him.
“If you just use force, you’ll tear her airway.”
“Then what should I do. What do I do.”
I Man-seok was restless and on the verge of tears.
One could feel how much he cherished and loved Hong Nan-ju.
But now was not the time to be swayed by emotions.
Shudder.
Convulsions began in the patient’s body.
If breathing didn’t resume soon, it would really be cardiac arrest.
The desperate Taesu felt frustration surging to the tips of his hair.
It was then.
He paused.
Taesu quickly looked at I Man-seok again.
“Mr. Man-seok, strength.”
“Strength? What strength?”
“……Get ready for CPR.”
“Yeah.”
Thud.
I Man-seok answered in casual speech and immediately placed his hands on Hong Nan-ju’s chest.
Now there was no mental energy left to worry about honorifics and such.
Taesu was the same.
“Once, very hard……. Press.”
“Hup.”
I Man-seok pressed down mercilessly.
Hong Nan-ju’s chest really sank deep.
Crack-crack.
The sound of ribs fracturing was louder than cracking one’s knuckles.
But it was then.
The wall blocking the end of the hose had weakened.
This was the moment.
This was exactly what he had wanted.
Taesu, who had been waiting, pushed the hose in further the moment he felt it.
“Hup.”
Slip.
The hose went in about one knuckle’s length.
Taesu felt it vividly.
And then.
“Swooo.”
The sound of Hong Nan-ju’s exhaling breath came from the end of the hose.
Taesu froze the moment he heard it.
“Hu, huh?”
“Why, what.”
“Shh.”
Taesu shouted sharply.
It was then.
“Swooo, hoooo, swooo…….”
The breathing sounds continued.
Continued, and continued again.
Not only Taesu, but Jeong Min-su and I Man-seok heard it too.
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Huhhh?”
Their widely opened eyes in surprise gradually curved into crescents.
And then.
“She’s breathing.”
“She’s alive.”
“Nan-ju.”
The three of them unconsciously embraced each other.
The joy of this moment.
“Uwaaaaah.”
There was no way to express it except with a cathartic shout.
Just as the three men were embracing and shouting.
Tap-tap-tap.
Gim Hyeok-gwon nimbly ran up but paused when he saw that sight.
At a glance, it was clearly an atmosphere where the emergency was over.
“Why did you call me?”
Gim Hyeok-gwon scrunched up his face deeply.
Meanwhile, the people seemed to have grasped what was going on now.
“Sh-she’s alive.”
“She’s alive. Wow.”
Clap-clap-clap.
They sent up cheers mixed with joy and bewilderment.
No one would be able to judge these people as good or bad.
It was true that they had hoped Hong Nan-ju’s problem would be resolved well.
On the other hand, there were also those sending joy filled with sincerity.
Representative of them were Gang Yeong-hun and Gim Hyeon-gyeong.
“She lived. She’s alive.”
“Thank goodness.”
Clutch.
Holding each other tightly, they smiled as brightly as Taesu, Jeong Min-su, and I Man-seok.
Besides them, many villagers were sending joy and congratulations.
30 minutes later.
Medical staff had entered the house of I Man-seok and Hong Nan-ju.
Hong Nan-ju, lying on the bed, had been properly intubated with official medical equipment.
“Hoooo. Hoooo.”
Compared to the makeshift hose, the scale of her breathing was different from the start.
Gim Hyeok-gwon was sitting beside the bed.
Beep. Beep.
He was repeatedly checking an automatic blood pressure monitor and recording vitals.
Taesu and Jeong Min-su were watching from a short distance away with I Man-seok.
I Man-seok asked first with a face full of worry.
“Teacher Choe, is our Nan-ju going to be okay now?”
“Her breathing is fine, but…….”
“But what.”
When I Man-seok asked like a man possessed, Taesu answered with a troubled expression.
“The fact that six of her ribs are broken is a bit of a problem.”
“Ah, ah……. It c-can’t be helped.”
I Man-seok answered awkwardly, since he was the one who had broken them with his strength.
That appearance of his looked gentle, contrary to his large build.
But the expression Taesu directed at him began to grow solemn.
“Mr. Man-seok.”
“Please speak.”
“This isn’t Miss Nan-ju’s first time, is it?”
When Taesu asked the core question from the start, I Man-seok calmly nodded.
“Yes. She has an illness where she suffers if she moves her body too much.”
“An illness. You don’t know the name of the illness?”
“I don’t know that. Nan-ju doesn’t know either.”
“But then how do you know it’s an illness?”
Taesu asked, weighing the logical consistency.
I Man-seok’s expression turned bitter as he gazed deeply at Hong Nan-ju.
“The first time I met Nan-ju, it was just like today.”
“When she was having trouble breathing?”
“Yes. A woman walking with strange breathing approached me, pale as a sheet.”
“Did she perhaps ask you to do CPR?”
When he asked, predicting it slightly, I Man-seok nodded.
“She asked me to press her chest right away, out of nowhere.”
“Hm. That must have been a rather complicated feeling.”
“I asked why, and she said she’d die if I didn’t press.”
I Man-seok’s expression grew complicated, perhaps remembering that time.
Taesu could roughly guess what state of mind he had been in.
Still, he continued the questions.
“So did you press right away?”
“How could I? I jumped in surprise. But then she suddenly collapsed.”
“You must have thought she was going to die.”
“I didn’t even think. I was already pressing her chest.”
Taesu smiled faintly at those words.
“Don’t tell me that became your fated meeting and Miss Nan-ju started chasing after you?”
“That’s right.”
“What.”
Taesu blinked.
Jeong Min-su was the same.
“Miss Nan-ju didn’t think that with your great strength, she could somehow survive, did she?”
“That’s also right.”
“Surely you didn’t get married right away just because a pretty woman fell into the lap of a guy like me. Right?”
Jeong Min-su wove together every trope he’d ever seen in dramas to create a story.
In short, it sounded completely made up.
But I Man-seok nodded.
“Of course. How could a woman like Nan-ju end up with a man like me, a cattle thief. Ahem.”
“Ta, Taesu. I’m tapping out.”
Jeong Min-su quickly got out of the conversation.
He seemed more surprised that all his guesses had hit the mark.
On the other hand, Taesu more or less understood.
“It’s perfectly possible. The odds may be one in several hundred thousand, but it’s not impossible.”
“Right? I must be a lucky man.”
“I get that feeling too. But Miss Nan-ju, since when did she have those symptoms?”
Taesu asked, just in case.