The heavy silence that followed Su Yueqing’s internal thought was absolute. The lighthearted atmosphere from just a moment ago vanished, replaced by a suffocating tension.

Duchess Lin Meiyun’s hand instinctively gripped her sleeve, her knuckles turning white. Xi Mingyu, her youngest son, was the hidden wound of the Xi household. He had been bedridden for months, his condition deteriorating day by day while the best physicians in the empire shook their heads in despair.

Su Yueqing, entirely unaware of the emotional storm she had just triggered, simply stared at little Anran’s blinking eyes. Her face remained a perfect mask of cold indifference, but her mind kept digging backward into the "novel’s" lore.

[Ugh, what was the name of that exact illness again?]

Su Yueqing’s inner voice grumbled, sounding genuinely frustrated.

[He’s been sickly since he was a literal toddler. The book mentioned it during the late-story tragedy arc, but I totally skipped those Chapters because they were too depressing. Let me think... it wasn’t just a regular cold. Ah! I remember the name now!]

Every single family member stood entirely paralyzed, their eyes darting to one another in an agony of suspense. The Old Madame’s breathing turned shallow. Even Gu Zhen and the boys forgot to breathe. They had spent years trying to find a proper diagnosis, receiving nothing but vague answers like "weak constitution" from the imperial doctors. Could this strange, system-bound girl actually know the root of the curse destroying their boy?

[Right, it was called the Nine-Volt Cold-Qi Consumption!]

Su Yueqing’s mind snapped its fingers. [It mimics a standard lung weakness at first, but it actually blocks the meridian pathways around the heart. The doctors keep giving him warming herbs, which is hilarious because that actually feeds the block and makes it worse. Poor kid. In the original timeline, he dies right around his seventh birthday because everyone keeps treating it like a standard winter chill.]

The Duchess’s eyes widened in sheer horror. ’Warming herbs... make it worse?’ They had been feeding Mingyu premium ginseng and warming tonics every single day!

Aunt Xi Ronghua was the first to break the frozen silence out loud, her voice trembling slightly as she tried to sound normal so Su Yueqing wouldn’t suspect anything. She forced a stiff smile and stepped closer to the steps.

"Yueqing, dear..." Ronghua said, her voice a bit tight as she looked up at her daughter-in-law. "Since we are all staying for breakfast, why don’t you join us? We can talk about... family matters. It’s good for a household to be close."

The Old Madame let out a long, heavy sigh, her hand trembling on her cane as she looked toward the inner courtyards where the young boy lay resting. "Yes... family is everything. A house cannot stand when its foundations are weak."

Su Yueqing blinked, her outward expression morphing into an annoyed pout. "Hmph. If Aunt insists. But don’t expect me to be pleasant. I still haven’t forgotten how my morning was ruined."

[Ugh, breakfast with the whole squad?] her inner voice groaned dramatically.

[Fine, whatever. More chances to act like a spoiled brat and reject their food. Maybe I can spill some tea ’accidentally’ on purpose. Nine, get ready to log these points!]

The family members didn’t care about her fake villainous schemes anymore. They exchanged grim, determined looks. They needed to get her to the dining hall, and more importantly, they needed to figure out how to extract the cure from her chaotic, unfiltered mind before time ran out for little Mingyu.

Later that afternoon, the heavy wooden doors of the Duke’s grand study remained tightly shut. Inside, Duke Xi sat behind his large desk, reviewing military maps with a few of his top commanders.

The air was thick with the scent of old paper and ink. Just as they were finishing up, the doors opened smoothly, and Duchess Lin Meiyun stepped inside.

The men immediately stopped talking and bowed deeply to her. Sensing the urgency in her eyes, they quickly dismissed themselves, leaving the couple completely alone.

The Duke stood up from his chair and walked around the desk to welcome his wife. He took her hands in his, his brow furrowing as he felt how cold they were.

"Meiyun, what is wrong?" the Duke asked, his voice full of worry as he sat her down. "You look completely pale. Did something happen at breakfast?"

The Duchess pressed a hand to her chest, her fingers trembling. "It is Mingyu, husband. Our poor boy. We finally know what is wrong with him."

The Duke froze, his eyes widening. "What do you mean? Did the imperial physicians finally find something?"

"No, not the physicians," she said, shaking her head quickly. "It was Su Yueqing. I heard her... her mind, husband. She knows the exact name of his sickness. She calls it the Nine-Volt Cold-Qi Consumption."

The Duke gripped her hands tightly. "Nine-Volt Cold-Qi Consumption? I have never heard of such a thing. Are you certain?"

"She was completely sure of it," the Duchess insisted, her voice breaking. "She said it mimics a standard lung weakness at first, but it actually blocks the pathways around his heart. And the worse part... she said the warming herbs and premium ginseng we give him every day are actually feeding the block. We were making him worse!"

The Duke’s face turned completely white. He stood up sharply, accidentally rattling the teacups on his desk. "Warming herbs make it worse? Dear God... we have been giving him those tonics for years! If she knows the sickness, she must know how to save him. Did you ask her for the cure?"

"We couldn’t ask her directly without exposing ourselves," the Duchess replied, looking completely helpless. "But we tried everything at the dining table. Ronghua, Lanyin, and I spent the entire breakfast dropping hints about Mingyu’s failing health. We talked about how weak he was, hoping she would think about the cure in her head."

"And? Did she think of anything?" the Duke asked desperately.

"Nothing at all," the Duchess sighed, burying her face in her hands. "Her mind wouldn’t cooperate. The entire time we were trying to guide the conversation to a cure, her thoughts were completely stuck on those ridiculous ’villain points.’ She was totally ignoring our worried faces, only thinking about how to ’accidentally’ spill her soup or how to reject our food to look like a spoiled brat. We couldn’t get a single useful memory out of her."