Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Using Connections

‘This seems like something I need to ask Mother about. There isn’t just one or two men in the Cha family.’

My mouth tastes bitter.

I crave a cigarette.

“Hey, kid. If you keep biting your lip like that, you’ll bleed.”

Uncle Cheol-gu, who had been sitting next to me, roughly messed up my hair.

“If you want to cry, you can cry. I’ll allow it just for today.”

“It’s fine. If crying could have saved Mom, I would have wailed at the top of my lungs long ago. But crying doesn’t solve anything, does it?”

Maybe if I solve it another way, that would be different.

“So, Uncle, can you lend me some money?”

“Money? Is it because of the hospital fees?”

“No. It’s because there’s something I need to request right away.”

Originally, requests must always be accompanied by sincerity.

I did bring Mother’s bag, but there’s only 9,850 won.

“What are you talking about? A request?”

“I’m going to slip the doctor in charge a thick sincerity.”

“······.”

Uncle Cheol-gu blinked both eyes.

Every time he did, the cigarette he was habitually holding in his mouth bobbed up and down.

This man really doesn’t catch on to what I’m saying.

“Rather than comforting yourself by saying ‘do your best and leave the rest to heaven,’ or searching for all sorts of gods and praying, this side is much easier, faster, and more certain.”

I rubbed my fingers together and grinned.

“Where else is there such a good lubricant for smoothly handling the affairs of life.”

Thud.

Uncle Cheol-gu dropped the cigarette he was holding.

“In that sense, lend me some money··· ugh!”

Uncle Cheol-gu grabbed both my cheeks and stretched them sideways without mercy.

“Ugh aagh······!”

“Where are you talking about bribing with bribes?”

“Gyaaah······!”

I frantically rubbed my tingling cheeks and backed away as far as possible.

“In the hospital, the doctor in charge is God and Buddha. Whose hands is our Mom’s lifeline in?”

“Ugh.”

“If you can buy sincerity and sincerity with money, you should buy it. The aftereffects of coal gas are terrible, you know.”

Uncle Cheol-gu let out a longer sigh than me, even though Mother was in the intensive care unit.

“Is this something a seven-year-old kid should be saying?”

“Then should I make a request to refrain from secondhand smoke in front of a kid poisoned by coal gas?”

I picked up the cigarette Uncle Cheol-gu had dropped and blew the dust off it.

Uncle Cheol-gu, who looked exactly like a brown bear, cleared his throat with a cough.

“I was just holding it in my mouth.”

Bang.

At that moment, the intensive care unit door opened and the doctor came out from inside.

We both stood up at the same time.

The doctor said.

“If it had been even ten minutes later, it would have been dangerous.”

“Ah······! Thank you, Doctor! Thank you so much for saving our Mom!”

I bowed at the waist to convey my thanks.

Someone firmly held my shoulder, so I turned around and saw Uncle Cheol-gu smiling widely.

“See? I told you Mother would be fine, that she’d be okay.”

I nodded my head greatly.

My heart swelled as if it would burst.

The doctor said with a very tired face.

“Our hospital is equipped with the latest high-pressure chamber facilities, and the best medical staff······.”

The doctor drew out his words and scanned us with sharp eyes.

I was wrapped in a hospital blanket, barefoot in underwear in the middle of winter.

Uncle Cheol-gu was wearing a tracksuit with an old aviation jacket, and shabby sneakers roughly shoved on.

The doctor’s words gradually grew colder.

“Please register the treatment fees at the administration office first. Then we’ll move the patient to a general ward right away.”

How many minutes had it been since Mother entered the intensive care unit.

One corner of my mouth trembled on its own.

‘Don’t tell me they’re trying to roughly end the high-pressure oxygen treatment just because we look like we have no money?’

In fact, the only treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning is supplying 100% pure oxygen under high pressure.

So they treat by leaving them for 1–2 hours at 4 atmospheres of oxygen concentration.

But high-pressure oxygen treatment also costs money.

Probably many people like us with shabby appearances ran away without even paying that money.

This area was an industrial complex, and the pockets of people who worked at factories were generally as light as feathers.

As long as they don’t die, that’s enough.

Then the hospital can claim it wasn’t a medical accident or medical staff negligence.

In the end, the aftereffects become the patient’s burden.

‘It would be troublesome if Mother ends up suffering from aftereffects of carbon monoxide poisoning.’

A once-damaged brain is difficult to restore to full function.

The reason carbon monoxide poisoning is scary is because the binding force of hemoglobin in red blood cells is about 200 times stronger than oxygen.

If the blood saturation level of carbon monoxide is at 55–57%, whole-body paralysis and nerve cell death begin, and if it exceeds 60%, death occurs from oxygen deficiency.

Mother had lost consciousness to the point of near-suffocation.

She must not be abandoned like this.

‘Since Mother’s aftereffects are at stake, I can’t back down either.’

It’s regrettable.

That I’m only a seven-year-old kid.

That I have no money, status, power, or even physical strength that I can use right now.

‘The most certain and simple thing is to pressure the doctor’s superiors. But right now I have neither the ability, power, nor connections for that.’

Tsk.

‘Nothing I can do. For now, I’ll have no choice but to slip them even my entire fortune.’

This is an era when a bowl of jajangmyeon cost 300 won.

Money less than 10,000 won is a ridiculous pittance for bribing a doctor, but it should still serve as a sign of sincerity.

Because I’m only a seven-year-old kid.

The other party will take that into account and decide their actions.

‘If necessary, I’ll even offer the luxury wristwatch. Right now, Mother comes first.’

But Uncle Cheol-gu was faster than me.

The uncle took out a thousand-won bill from his wallet at random.

I was surprised when I saw the uncle’s ID card stuck in the wallet.

‘No way? He wasn’t just a neighborhood unemployed guy who habitually talks about catching spies?’

Uncle Cheol-gu casually slipped the money into the pocket of the doctor’s gown.

“You’ve worked hard. Please take good care of her from now on as well.”

“Ahem!”

The doctor openly cleared his throat.

It meant that this money couldn’t buy sincerity and sincerity.

‘This gentleman has excessive greed. Nothing I can do. If he comes out like that, I’ll have no choice but to take out the uncle’s ID card.’

I snatched Uncle Cheol-gu’s wallet.

I spread the wallet wide so the doctor could confirm the uncle’s ID card.

“Uncle’s name is Park Cheol-gu? Central Intelligence Agency agent.”

Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the KCIA.

The predecessor of the Agency for National Security Planning in the 80s, it was the current president’s powerful sword.

An organization that held domestic and foreign information in one hand and exercised power beyond the prosecution.

“You can even read Hangul? Oh, you’re smart?”

“I heard you’re busy catching spies these days. If a spy report comes in, do you go out immediately?”

Uncle Cheol-gu had an expression of ‘why are you suddenly talking about spies.’

But when I sparkled my eyes, he answered obediently.

“That’s right.”

“What if a spy report comes in from the hospital?”

“First, catch the spy bastard and beat him up, then thoroughly investigate the background.”

“In the process, an innocent hospital might get turned upside down for no reason.”

“If there’s no spy suspicion, they’ll be released soon.”

It meant that once you’re involved with spies, you see dirty things.

The 70s was an era when the government shouted anti-communism and cracked down on spies with eyes blazing.

'A powerless person’s protest might be laughable, but a powerful person’s threat would be uncomfortable, right? If a KCIA agent steps in and stirs things up, the first thing they’d have to hide is the hospital’s ledgers. Who would like that.'

The high-pressure chamber is already running.

If you trace back who caused this annoying incident and compare the scolding you’d receive with the trouble of administering a bit more high-concentration oxygen?

It was clearly a scale tipping to one side.

I folded the wallet with a snap.

“······.”

The doctor immediately corrected his posture and spoke in a serious voice.

“It seems we’ll need to extend the high-pressure oxygen treatment time a bit more so that no aftereffects remain. I promise we will do our utmost in the treatment.”

Then he took out the thousand-won bill he had received earlier from his pocket and stuffed it back into the uncle’s pocket.

“We shouldn’t make someone who works for the country worry about things like this. Medicine to the pharmacist, patients to the doctor. We are the medical staff of Taeseong Hospital. Please trust and leave it to us.”

The doctor opened the intensive care unit door and gave a few more instructions in a loud voice.

“Properly check the blood oxygen concentration levels, and add one more nutritional supplement to the IV.”

“Yes.”

“The patient is shivering because she’s cold. Quickly wrap her in a few more blankets. It would be troublesome if she catches a cold.”

“Yes.”

The quality of medical service changed immediately.

The landlord’s uncle narrowed his eyes and looked down at me.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“The effect is certain, isn’t it?”

What can I do when I can guarantee Mother’s treatment without aftereffects through threats.

If bribes don’t work, I have to use threats.

* * *

We sat side by side in the same posture, waiting for Mother’s high-pressure oxygen treatment to finish.

Uncle Cheol-gu crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and leaned his head against the wall.

I quietly took out the bankbook I had brought earlier.

‘She really saved diligently.’

It was very similar to the bankbook left by the late mother of Gang-u.

Some days 120 won, some days 90 won, and other days 440 won.

Mother had been carefully saving small amounts of money like that.

On the cover of the bankbook, it was written in neat handwriting.

University tuition for our Jeong-hyeok

In reality, I couldn’t even properly graduate from elementary school, let alone university.

Yet our Mother had been saving money to send me to university.

‘Did Gang-u feel this way when he saw his mom’s bankbook?’

Vaguely guessing someone else’s feelings and experiencing it yourself are very different things.

Somehow, a corner of my chest throbbed.

‘When Mother passed away, this bankbook, notebook, and wristwatch were gone. It means someone stole them along with the jewelry box in the middle.’

It was bitter.

I could understand if they stole the highest-grade luxury watch out of greed.

But to even empty the bankbook because it was money too.

‘In the notebook, there’s just one phone number written, with no name, no address, nothing.’

It’s a phone number I’ve seen a lot somewhere.

‘It was definitely the home phone number of a chaebol chairman’s house, right?’

I think I know where this is.