Taeyeon quickened her pace as she left the house.

She had hoped that no one saw her leaving her house as she wanted to avoid any sort of social interactions as much as possible, but the moment she stepped out of the house,

"Mi Yeon-a!"

Taeyeon looked over her shoulder at the sound of "her name" to see her neighbour, Doo Na, sitting in a circle with a few other women on the bench outside one of the neighbours' house. Women in this village often gather around to weave baskets out of straws so that they can make some income when they sell them in the market later. It's an activity that Taeyeon always try to make up excuses to exclude herself for, because she simply hates getting splinters on her fingers.

"Where are you going this early in the morning? I was about to send you some stew I cooked later," said Doo Na as the other women around her waved at her, greeting her with a small smile on their faces before looking back down to continue weaving the baskets.

"Oh. I am going to collect some herbs!" Taeyeon replied, doing a quick spin on the spot to show the empty basket she carried on her back.

"Is your uncle not back yet? How many days have it been?"

"Six," Taeyeon replied as she looked up thoughtfully. "If you see him, please tell him that I went up the forest to collect some herbs!"

Doo Na nodded with a huge smile on her face, happy to help out a neighbour. "Don't worry about it, I will when I see him!"

Taeyeon beamed a bright smile at her and politely nodded towards the other girls before walking away.

"Aigoo... I wish my daughter wouldn't turn out like her," one of the women said loudly without bothering to lower down her voice. "She should be getting married at her age. There is no future for her if she keeps obsessing over medicine."

"What a pity for her beauty, she could even marry a noble man with those looks. But she chose medicine over men."

"She's just peculiar," defended Doo Na.

Although she could hear them gossiping about her loud and clear, she pretended to not hear them and continued walking forward. It took her to walk past two more houses before their voices finally died down and she could no longer hear them.

She has lived in this village for a year now, ever since she ran away from home.

The people in this village always talk behind her back as if she was deaf. Women would mock her for always having her head in the clouds, dreaming of becoming a herbalist and open her own pharmacist one day.

It was rare for a woman to practice medicine, let alone become a physician themselves. They often take on the role of assisting male physicians in the infirmary, that's why when Taeyeon said that she wants to open her own pharmacy one day, people thought she went mad thinking that she could really do that herself.

For a woman, she shouldn't be wasting her time doing a man's job. Instead, she should get married, give birth and cook for her husband for the rest of her life.

That's what they have always adviced her.

But Kim Taeyeon never responded to any of their judgements about her, because she believes that she will be able to succeed one day and show them that she could achieve her dream as a woman too.

She has been learning from her uncle, who is a physician that owns a small clinic in the village. He would often tell her to ignore those ignorant judgements from the people in the village, and to never engage in arguements with them because she would only be wasting her breath trying to change their mindsets.

Taeyeon took in a deep breath as she stopped in front of the path that leads to the forest. "The air smells refreshing today," she sighed, glancing back at the busy village behind her. "Who cares what they think? I am only twenty, I still have a long way to go before settling down and having a family."

In order to collect the high quality herbs, she has to go up to the mountain, which is also a place her uncle never allows her to go up alone. But since her uncle isn't back yet, she figured that she could try going up the mountain by herself for the first time as she is already very familiar with the path up there.

She stopped by a stream to collect more water when she started to feel thirsty from all the climbing. "The water tastes a bit like copper today," she mumbled to herself as she spat out the water from .

Standing up, she straightened her back and put down her basket. It was tiring walking up the mountain alone, probably because of the lack of company, where she has someone to chat with when she gets bored with the scenery.

She was stretching her arms in the air when something behind the rocks not far away from her caught her eye. Without any hesitations, she walked towards the huge rocks to investigate what was contaminating the water.

Taeyeon went there, expecting to see metal or maybe a dead animal. But she screamed when she saw a human body behind the rocks. Taking a few steps back, she placed her hands in front of to stop herself from making any more noises, just in case dangerous people are lurking nearby.

"Calm down Kim Taeyeon, you literally work with your uncle at his clinic. You have seen worse injuries than that."

After a few seconds of her small pep talk to herself, she plucked up the courage to take a closer look at the body. She wasn't sure if he was still alive, because his body was moving with the flow of the water.

Rolling up her sleeves, she circled her arms around his ankles and leaned backwards, slowly pulling the body out of the stream so that he won't lose anymore blood and contaminate the water.

Once he was fully on land, she squatted down beside him to check his injuries and realized that the man is still breathing, but he was barely alive. She smiled, relieved that it wasn't a dead body.

Further examining his injuries, she noticed that his abdomen was badly hurt, it appeared that he had been stabbed by someone judging by the torn fabric on the wound.

Although Taeyeon is interested in learning medicine and herbs, her uncle also let her assist him in performing surgeries on his patients, saying that she should also learn about it as part of her training.

Standing back up, she stared down at the body, contemplating whether it was possible for her to save his life. She decided that she should save his life no matter what, to prove to her uncle that she has completed her training.

She started to cut open her basket so that it can help her to drag the body back to her uncle's clinic. "This basket was a gift from Doo Na, it better be worth it," she let out a struggled cry as she started to drag the body onto the straw mat.

It took a lot of time and effort for Taeyeon to drag the body to the clinic, which was luckily just located near the forest. By the time she reached the clinic, the man was barely breathing, so she had to quickly get to work.

"Wow, I should really try to exercise more," she collapsed onto the body once she finally set him down on the bed. "Okay, let's strip him first."

Glancing at the face of the unconscious man, she clasped her hands together and said, "Please allow me to take off your robe, I promise I will only look at your injuries."

Taeyeon acted quick, there was no time to waste, she was determined to save this man's life. When she took off the man's robes, she gasped when she saw all the old scars that covered his torso.

She cursed under her breath. "What if he's an assassin?"

Taking a small step back, she shook her head at herself violently. "No, no, no. Uncle taught me to save lives no matter who they are or where they come from. Even if he's a killer, I can't just leave him to die knowing that I could've saved his life."

She tied a piece of white cloth over her face to cover her nose and mouth before starting the operation. He was losing a lot of blood from the open wound, but luckily the weapon didn't stab any of his vital organs.

After making sure that the man is alright and stable, she took off the mask and wiped off the sweat that had formed on her forehead.

"Uncle is going to be so proud when he sees this," she said to herself as she gazed down at the man, still unconscious on the bed. "This man better repay me for carrying him all the way to the clinic," she mumbled as she started to clean up the place.

She rested one hand on her hip, looking at the mess she made and wondering where she should start first. She decided to fold up the man's clothing that had fallen off the bed. As she started to fold his robe, she noticed that the material felt expensive.

The kind of material that belongs to a noble.

"Does he belong to a noble family?" she sneaked a quick glance at the man. "So he might not be a cold-blooded killer, he might have been attacked by a robber," she continued, placing the neat pile of clothing beside him along with the sword that was with him.

After cleaning up all that mess, she took a seat beside the bed and crossed her arms in front of her chest as she sank into the chair lazily. "But then, what's with those scars? Does he get attacked often?"

It didn't take long for her to fall asleep in that uncomfortable chair as she was completely exhausted and worn out from the operation she performed earlier.

Now, the only thing to do now is to wait for the patient to wake up and negotiate the payment with him later.