Before long, hurried footsteps could be heard outside, and Jirong rushed in. Upon seeing Yunyi, she immediately asked anxiously, “Jixiang told me something happened to Chengzong. What exactly occurred? Is he injured somewhere?”

As she spoke, she had already taken Chengzong into her arms, examining him carefully. This son was the treasure of her heart—even losing a single hair would pain her for half a day.

Yunyi sighed softly, “Lady Ji, please rest assured. Da Lang isn’t injured, but… his ears may not be well.”

“Not well?” Jirong looked puzzledly at Li Chengzong, who was playing with his own fingers, then said to Yunyi, “What do you mean?”

“Today I encountered Da Lang playing in the snow in the courtyard, so I stayed for a while. I accidentally discovered that Da Lang has no reaction to anything we say. He… can’t hear us speaking.”

Jirong felt as if struck by five thunderbolts, her ears ringing and unable to hear or say anything. After a long while, she finally managed to open her mouth with effort, squeezing out a thin voice from her throat, “You’re saying… Chengzong is… deaf?”

Although Yunyi didn’t like Jirong, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy at this moment. “This is just my suspicion. Ruyi went to get a physician, who should arrive soon.”

A physician… wasn’t she herself a physician? Thinking of this, Jirong tried to calm her emotions and extended trembling fingers to Li Chengzong’s thin wrist, wanting to diagnose the problem in his body. Unfortunately, her hands shook too violently to accurately take his pulse, until her other hand gripped her forearm to stabilize it somewhat.

After diagnosing Li Chengzong’s pulse, Jirong’s entire body trembled. This pulse pattern… this pulse pattern was clearly… No, it couldn’t be. Chengzong had always been fine, never fell ill, never showed any discomfort. At most he had been somewhat quieter recently, not speaking much. How could he suddenly become deaf?

Li Chengzong looked at the continuously trembling Jirong and blinked, “Mother, what’s wrong with you?”

Jirong forced herself to compose her mind, “Mother is fine, just feeling a bit cold. You sit properly on the bed while Mother asks Qiulin and the others a few questions.”

After placing Li Chengzong on the bed and carefully examining both his ears, Jirong stood up and walked to the trembling Qiulin and others, saying coldly, “All of you come out with me.”

Qiulin and the others followed behind her with heavy steps. After leaving the room, one of the nannies said urgently, “My lady, we…”

“Slap!” Jirong turned and struck her hard across the face, gritting her teeth, “I asked you to take care of Da Lang—is this how you take care of him?”

Several people immediately knelt down, saying in panic, “My lady, please see clearly. We have all been carefully taking care of Da Lang without the slightest negligence. You’ve also seen that Da Lang is very lucid. We truly… don’t know how Da Lang could suddenly become deaf!” Before she finished speaking, she received another heavy slap on the other cheek. “You still dare to argue!”

The nanny said with great grievance, “This servant doesn’t dare.”

Jirong breathed heavily, trying to suppress her anger, “Speak. What has happened recently?”

The two nannies tried hard to recall but truly couldn’t think of anything. One of them glanced at Qiulin beside her and said, “In response to my lady, Da Lang is rather attached to Qiulin. Perhaps she would know something.”

Jirong snorted coldly and stared at Qiulin, “You speak. What happened?”

Qiulin glared resentfully at the nanny who had shifted blame to her, then said in a trembling voice, “These past days, Da Lang has been the same as usual with no unusual incidents. This servant also can’t understand how Da Lang became deaf.”

Jirong had also examined Li Chengzong’s ears just now—everything was normal with no signs of redness or infection. It shouldn’t be external injury, so it must be internal. “Have you recently given Da Lang anything improper to eat?”

Qiulin thought for a while, then shook her head, “Da Lang doesn’t like to eat, so aside from three meals a day, there’s only the douhua I make, occasionally a few pieces of apple or orange. Nothing else besides that.”

While Qiulin spoke, Jirong kept staring at her. She didn’t seem to be lying. Strange—ever since Chengzong could eat things other than milk, all his meals and extra food had to pass through her approval. This period was no exception, and she hadn’t discovered any problems. Why had Chengzong suddenly become deaf? No, there must still be a problem somewhere.

Thinking this way, Jirong asked again, “Were all the food items handled by you few personally?”

Qiulin nodded repeatedly, “My lady instructed this—how would we servants dare not comply?”

“The douhua was also made by your own hands?” Jirong’s question made Qiulin’s expression change slightly. She quickly lowered her head, “Yes.”

Although Qiulin tried to hide the subtle change in her expression by lowering her head, Jirong still noticed it. Her voice immediately turned cold, “Is there something else you haven’t said?”

“No… no.” As she spoke, Qiulin lowered her head even more. But she didn’t know that this action was exactly what told Jirong she had a guilty conscience.

“Won’t speak?” Jirong said coldly, then told the servant behind her, “Go get a whip and beat this little wretch severely—beat her to death!”

Hearing this, Qiulin was immediately scared out of her wits and quickly knelt down, “My lady, spare my life! This has nothing to do with this servant—this servant is wronged!”

Jirong stared straight at her, “If you don’t want to suffer physical punishment, then confess truthfully. If there’s one more lie, even if you beg until the sky breaks, don’t expect me to spare you!”

Qiulin didn’t dare hide anything more. She swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice, “About ten days ago, when this servant was cooking douhua in the kitchen, I met a woman. She called herself Ah Yue and said she served in the eldest young madam’s room. She told this servant that to bring out the true sweet flavor of douhua, honey should be added. This servant tried the method she described, and it was indeed fragrant and delicious, so I gave it to Da Lang to eat. After Da Lang ate it, he also liked it very much. This servant thought that both items were good things, so eating them together would surely benefit Da Lang. Therefore, these past days, I’ve always used honey to flavor the douhua.” Then she said urgently, “This servant didn’t mention it just now not because I was deliberately concealing it, but because I felt Da Lang’s ear problem couldn’t be related to this.”

“Couldn’t be related?” Jirong stared at her with a sinister expression, her eyes seeming to burn with ghostly green flames that one dared not look at directly.

Seeing Jirong’s expression become even uglier than before, Qiulin said tremblingly, “Yes.” Before she finished speaking, she received a heavy slap across the face with such force that it actually knocked out one of her teeth.

Jirong still wasn’t satisfied and slapped her several more times forcefully, hitting until Qiulin’s mouth was full of blood before finally stopping with hatred, “You cheap slave! You’ve harmed Da Lang terribly and still claim it’s unrelated! Do you know that tofu and honey are mutually incompatible? Taking it occasionally once might not show anything, but long-term consumption will cause deafness. Da Lang’s illness is entirely thanks to you!”