"Her condition, actually, had been deteriorating ever since I met her three years ago, only recently the pace has accelerated somewhat."

Zhao Mengjin still had some difficulty understanding what he meant by this. What was he concerned about? Since Gu Nuan could lie to others that she was completely deaf, and since many believed that Gu Nuan was completely deaf, it seemed that even if Gu Nuan truly lost her hearing, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Gu Nuan must have been mentally prepared for this, right?

But her uncle, Dabai, if he had known the truth from the start, might not have been able to accept it. In any case, Dabai’s concerns shouldn’t be within Ou Yanan’s realm of worry.

"My teacher told me that her condition, because the subject said it was caused by an external injury, could be worsening over time due to damage from that injury. I’ve thought it over many times and always felt something strange about it."

Zhao Mengjin raised her eyes in question: "Are you saying you suspect what happened in her accident back then?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Yes, I do suspect, but her parents don’t seem to be able to explain, after all, neither of them were present at the scene when it happened. I once visited her hometown, trying to learn about it, but looked and looked and couldn’t find anyone. Moreover, since her parents knew she had an accident at the time, they should have investigated afterwards, yet no results came of it. I’m even less likely to find results going back to investigate after all these years."

"If that’s the case—" Zhao Mengjin deduced from his words, "your teacher, at that time also visited her hometown, could it also have been for this matter?"

"Not necessarily." Ou Yanan was certain about this because, "My teacher’s skills far surpass mine, people in the United States consider him a rare medical genius. He wouldn’t need to go back to the incident site; he should be able to discern the real cause of illness based on the current patient’s symptoms."

"What’s the point of him hiding my aunt’s illness?" Zhao Mengjin wondered. The enigmatic Professor Tang himself was a mystery.

Ou Yanan couldn’t explain it either. The only thing he could be sure of was his own worry, that there must be a special reason Tang Sili was hiding this illness.

Zhao Mengjin furrowed her brows and said, "Actually, I’ve always been curious about what exorbitant price my uncle and aunt paid him to make him so devotedly loyal to them."

Ou Yanan couldn’t answer this either. What Tang Sili wanted seemed like an even bigger puzzle, one that no one could solve. Although last time Tang Sili had revealed quite a bit to him, including the fact that Tang Sili himself no longer had any living relatives in this world.

This was definitely the first time Zhao Mengjin had heard this, after all, it was Tang Sili’s personal business: "Are you saying he has no family at all?"

Ou Yanan suddenly realized he had let something slip and was rendered speechless.

Noticing his concern, Zhao Mengjin said, "It’s okay, I found out through a private investigator. His family situation, if you investigate, it’s impossible not to find out." She just hadn’t investigated before; the reason was simple. When you like someone, you can’t secretly investigate them.

Ou Yanan nodded.

Zhao Mengjin, however, was somewhat stunned. So he was all alone, without a single relative, more forlorn and pathetic than she, who had only lost her mother, by countless times. Is that why he could treat her with such calm detachment?

The car arrived at the airport, and Ou Yanan escorted her out to the boarding gate. This time, they were truly parting ways. Zhao Mengjin suddenly opened her arms to him and said, "Can I hug you?"