One of the objections about the authenticity of the embassy institution during the Minor Occultation is the absence of the Four Deputies in al-Kulaynī’s al-Kāfī. Edmund Hayes, relying on this silence, claims that the institution of special deputyship was fabricated by the fourth-century theological current. The main question is: Does al-Kāfī’s silence about the embassy institution prove that special deputyship was fabricated? The hypothesis is that this silence stems from al-Kulaynī’s book-centered and pragmatic approach, dissimulation (taqiyya), and source-oriented method, not from a denial of deputyship; the core institution of mediation is reflected in earlier sources. The purpose is to critically examine Hayes’s view and clarify al-Kulaynī’s encounter with ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd. The method is historical-methodological analysis based on earlier Shiʿi sources such as al-Kāfī, al-Kashshī’s Rijāl, al-Nuʿmānī’s al-Ghayba, and Dalāʾil al-Imāma, along with a critique of Hayes’s method in selecting and interpreting traditions. The result is that the claim of fabrication is incompatible with historical and traditional evidence; a distinction must be made between “the core belief in deputyship” and “the verbal formulation of embassy.” al-Kāfī’s silence, due to its nature and method of compilation, does not negate belief in deputyship