CHAPTER 226: 216 THE FIVE-FINGERED GIRL WHO STUMPED EVERYONE

"That’s right." Tian Sangsang crouched down, gently stroking his little curly hair, smiling tenderly. "Son, promise Mama one thing, alright?"

"What is it, Mama?"

"Promise me first."

"Okay." Meng Shuyan nodded obediently.

"Good boy." Tian Sangsang planted a smacking kiss on his cheek and said, "Whatever we did here today, don’t tell your father, okay?"

"Came to the ballroom?" Meng Shuyan blinked his bright, watery eyes.

He even knows it’s a ballroom! Kid, you know way too much!

"Yes, but everything about this visit is something you must forget too. Honestly, son, places like these aren’t suitable for us. There’s an unspoken rule that virtuous women and minors shouldn’t step foot in ballrooms. But we came only because we were looking for Chun Zisu. We bribed the attendant to get in, and that was against the rules. If your dad, being the strict soldier he is, finds out, he’d surely be furious."

"Okay." Meng Shuyan nodded solemnly. "Then we shouldn’t come again next time."

"You’re so good, my boy." Tian Sangsang hugged him tightly, moved to tears.

"But that auntie..."

Tian Sangsang’s body stiffened—there’s still Ji Yao’er! What is there to fear? She went inside too!

The editorial department of *Huaxia Novel* was housed in a makeshift building that looked like a construction trailer. Even standing close to it felt suffocatingly hot. Editors living and working in such deep waters and fiery conditions were truly admirable! While standing at the door, Tian Sangsang suddenly remembered something.

She published her works under the pen name "Yadan" so as not to expose her real identity. But if she personally submitted her manuscript here, wouldn’t that completely reveal her identity? Sending it by mail would be better! Also, she needed to carefully strategize so her identity wouldn’t be uncovered. And how to keep dangling the carrot to bait Li Yibai? Today just wasn’t the day for submitting anything.

"Comrade, is there anything I can help you with?" A refined voice sounded.

Tian Sangsang turned to the side and saw a man in his thirties, dressed casually in a white short-sleeve shirt tucked neatly into his relaxed-fit pants, cinched with a belt. His hair was slightly messy, and he wore gold-rimmed glasses—clearly a learned man.

"No, thank you." Tian Sangsang politely shook her head. "There’s a new series, *Heroic Legend of the Condor Heroes*, that’s really good. I came here because I was curious."

"You’re here to buy the paper, right?" Chief Huang chuckled softly. "Our papers are sold at the kiosks, but we have some here too. If you want one, I can fetch it for you." A happy man is a gracious one. Haha, *Condor Heroes* is a hit—even foreigners are reading our papers now.

"Oh, no no." Tian Sangsang stopped him. "I saw the kiosk up front. I’ll buy it there, so I won’t trouble you. Are you one of the editors here?"

Chief Huang nodded. "Yes, my surname is Huang."

Tian Sangsang looked at him intently and nodded in understanding.

...

Zhao Chun was staggering, his face flushed, looking both angry and embarrassed as he walked out. Ji Yao’er stood not far away, smiling coyly at him.

"Shall we dance together?"

"Alright." He took her hand and led her to the dance floor, absentmindedly wrapping his arm around her slender waist.

"What’s wrong? Your expression seems off."

Zhao Chun spoke in a low voice: "Just stuck on a problem."

"That screenplay of yours, *Desire*?" Ji Yao’er furrowed her brows slightly. "I know some people in that field. I can help push it forward. With your passion for art, it doesn’t make sense they wouldn’t shoot your script—they’re just exploiting the fact that you’re not famous yet."

Even Wenxiu scoffed at him, but Ji Yao’er believed in his talent. Saying he wasn’t touched would be a lie. Zhao Chun opened up and asked, "Yao’er, do you know what ’Five-fingered Girl’ is?"

Though Ji Yao’er studied performing arts, she wasn’t utterly clueless, but this time... "Five-fingered Girl? Is it a person? Or some technical term in a specific field?"

Zhao Chun’s eyes lit up. "I was mistaken—it’s probably a technical term."

"Is it ’No Fingers,’ ’Five Fingers,’ or ’Melodious* Finger?"

"Five Fingers." That was Zhao Chun’s immediate reaction.

"That’s really strange." Ji Yao’er couldn’t make sense of it even after thinking about it. "Maybe it’s some profound term that neither of us fully comprehends. How about you give me some context—what sentence did it appear in? We might figure out its unique meaning from the surrounding cues."

Context... background...

Zhao Chun’s eyes shimmered as he swallowed, then said, "I just overheard it randomly. I’ll look it up when I get back."

"If you find it, you have to tell me." Ji Yao’er smiled sweetly, her eyes curving. "It’s my first time hearing such an intriguing term."

Zhao Chun: "..." Somehow, he felt this wasn’t a term suited for women.

After parting ways with Ji Yao’er, Zhao Chun couldn’t figure it out. "Yao Yu, let me ask you something—what’s ’Five-fingered Girl’?"

Yao Yu blinked out of the ballroom’s rhythmic haze, "Boss, your luck with women is off the charts these days, huh? First it’s Yao’er, then some Black Beauty, now this ’Melodious Finger Girl’... And don’t forget Sister ’Yadan’ from the Tians!"

"What nonsense!" Zhao Chun gave him a head-slap, feigning arrogance. "I’m seriously asking here! I suspect Five-fingered Girl isn’t a person!"

"What!? Boss, don’t scare me... you know I’m afraid of that kind of stuff."

"It’s just some spooky nonsense, what’s there to be scared of..." Zhao Chun patted his shoulder, suddenly recalling something. He couldn’t help reciting: "Yesterday, eight people played hide-and-seek together. In about five minutes, I was found. Another five minutes later, three more were found. By the last five minutes, all four others were also found. It was too fast—we need to play again next time."

"All eight people were found, hahah—wait, weren’t there just eight people?!" Yao Yu’s face turned pale with fear, and he yelped, "Boss, it’s broad daylight—you’re freaking me out here!"

Zhao Chun shot him a look, signaling for silence, then continued softly: "My family’s birds are always noisy, so sometimes they put the cage in the dark bathroom. One day, I was in the unlit living room and suddenly heard the birds screeching from the bathroom. It sounded like they were in pain. Thinking something was wrong, I rushed to open the bathroom door. Inside, one bird was sleeping in the birdhouse, while the other sat dumbly on its swing.

’Good grief...’ I closed the door and went back to the sofa, watching my TV. The news was reporting a bizarre case in which a burglar secretly stayed in someone’s house for a long while and tied people up. I thought to myself, maybe I’ll let the birds out to fly around the house later."

Yao Yu trembled. "Those birds—was one poisoned and the other flailed out of the cage? And that burglar... maybe he’s still in that guy’s bathroom!"

"Look at you, frightened like a child." Zhao Chun rolled his eyes, scratching his head perplexedly. "But something feels off—I don’t usually tell stories like this, do I? Why am I so fluent in them now? Where could I have heard these?"

"..."