Heo Jun episode 22 A Short Cut to Hanyang?
Heo Jun gets bamboozled into staying even longer at the village to help the sick locals. It looks like he is not going to make it to Hanyang after all …
Heo Jun and another doctor have stayed behind in the village to treat the sick locals who can’t afford to go to hospital. But they have to leave if they want to get to the state medical exam on time – they still have more than 100 km to walk! 😮 But the line of patients is getting longer not shorter as word has spread about the doctors. Heo Jun feels sorry for everyone and agrees to stay a bit longer while the other doctor decides he must go and he hurries away.
Heo Jun feels sorry for the sick and decides to stay a bit longer
Back in Sanum Heo Jun’s son is rushed to the hospital sick with a fever. Ye Jin happens to be there getting medicine for the temple, so she treats him. She thinks it’s smallpox at first but luckily it isn’t and he’ll be ok. (We saw Dae Jang Geum manage to cure smallpox which had been incurable up to that point, but people can still be left with pockmarked skin.) Ye Jin and Da Hee spend a moment together as Ye Jin treats the boy. And Ye Jin says she can see now why Da Hee travelled so far to find Heo Jun and marry him. (in other words she can see what a special guy he is 😉 ) Da Hee looks a little taken aback at this. And Ye Jin seems to realise that perhaps she’s said too much. Awkward.
Da Hee brings her sick son to hospital where Ye Jin treats him.
Meanwhile, Heo Jun hasn’t slept for two days helping the sick. And it is now doubtful if he will make it to the exam. One of the locals (the one who had toothache) tells Heo Jun that he knows a short cut to Hanyang (but his staring eyes and the dodgy background music tell us that this chap is up to something). Heo Jun gratefully follows him through the short cut – it’s a short cut to the man’s HOUSE. It’s a trap. He wants Heo Jun to help his sick mum. (In some ways I can see why the other doctors refused to help in the first place because the stream of patients is ENDLESS) Heo Jun is frustrated (not to mention exhausted) and furiously turns to leave. But when he sees the poor man’s mum come out of her house and start coughing up blood, he can’t leave her.
Heo Jun thinks he is being taken to a short cut …
She’s at death’s door. Her son has not been able to afford to get any medicine for her. So Heo Jun starts treatment and gives her son money to go and buy medicine! (He’s even losing money now as a doctor) While her son is away, the patient almost dies, but Heo Jun bites his own finger and lets his blood trickle into her mouth and this seems to revive her. 😕
The other doctors all arrive in Hanyang and apply for the exam. Heo Jun must arrive by 8 am on the day of the exam if he wants to take it. But he’s STILL in the village. And now he has a dilemma because he needs to go, but the medicine he is making is also poisonous so it has to be made just right. Can he leave and trust the son to prepare the medicine properly? …
The other doctors arrive in Hanyang while Heo Jun is STILL in the village
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I was shouting at the screen when the ex-toothache chap leads Heo Jun along the ‘short cut’ to his own house! He seems like such a selfish man at first since he knows he could possibly ruin Heo Jun’s future. I really feel Heo Jun’s frustration. But then we see that his mother is so sick and will die if Heo Jun doesn’t help her. The sad part is she could have been cured easily if her sickness had been caught earlier. But the poor don’t have enough knowledge (or money) to know how to look after themselves. They are all victims. Heo Jun knows this and he doesn’t judge them or begrudge helping them even when he’s tricked into it. sigh.
