Fake heiress Real heroine

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Quinlyn’s unexpected words caught Stanley off guard, causing him to choke on his breath and cough twice. He turned to face her, his eyes locking onto her intense, youthful visage, inexplicably captivated.

With a flourish, he waved the sleek machine in the air. “You really want this?” he teased, eyes twinkling with mischief.

Quinlyn nodded earnestly, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the object of her desire.

Stanley’s lips curled into a mischievous grin, his handsome features lighting up with amusement. “Well, it’s not impossible to part with it,” he drawled, his tone laced with sarcasm.

“But do you even know how to wield such a powerful gadget? Computers are intricate beasts, not toys for kids like you”

Quinlyn stepped forward eagerly, her eyes pleading. “How do you play with it?” she asked innocently.

Stanley’s mind flashed back to the last time Harriet had fallen for one of his pranks, ending in tears. His grin widened as he beckoned Quinlyn closer and opened a coding page on the screen.

“Watch closely,” he said, his fingers dancing across the keyboard like a maestro conducting an orchestra. “Even the cool graphics you see are made up of these mysterious letters and symbols.”

Lines of code scrolled by in a blur, a mesmerizing dance of digits and letters. Finally, he hit the Enter key, and a brand new page appeared on the screen, seemingly out of nowhere.

“See, it’s simple,” Stanley said, pushing the screen towards her and leaning in to whisper with a hint of challenge. “Do you dare to try? Even a fool could understand this.

“But if you can’t, well… it just means you’re not as smart as you think. And don’t tell anyone I’m your brother anymore. Pretend you don’t know me if we meet outside, okay?”

Nearby, Archer kept wiping the sweat from his brow, well aware of Stanley’s prowess with digital gadgets since childhood. Stanley had even attended a prestigious tech program the previous year, advancing almost to a professional level in coding. This was just another one of his pranks.

Last time, Harriet had been so scared she cried, and ever since, she had gone out of her way to avoid Stanley. Thinking of Quinlyn, who hailed from the remote outskirts and might have never even laid eyes on a computer, made her plight seem even more pitiful.

Quinlyn still staring at the screen, mesmerized. He gave her a gentle

truly my sister, you wouldn’t struggle with this

barely reaching the edge of the desk. Watching her stretch her neck to peer at the screen

her onto the chair, watching as her fingers fumbled around, pressing keys tentatively

to give up and admit defeat. Then he would lay into her with thick mockery, indulging in

only seen them occasionally

knew these devices held the key to vast amounts of information, which fascinated her. So, as soon as

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18 Mar

Chapter 5

first, her fingers were clumsy on the keyboard. She couldn’t remember

programming sequences, the copied Stanley’s activen and began typing letters, slowly

Her mind! wandered

dismissing her efforts as mere gibberish. But when he glimpsed the code she was crafting, his eyes

of the enter key, a pristine digital page materialized on the screen. He was utterly

this from thin air?” Stanley inquired, snatching the computer to scrutinize the interface

weren’t you right there, watching my fingers dance across the keys?” Quinlyn replied,

point!” Stanley exclaimed, his amazement intensifying as he pored over the screen. “Everything else looks impressive, but what’s

followed the direction of his finger and confessed with unvarnished honesty, “I don’t recognize them all.” Her limited vocabulary

rendered speechless. He stared at Quinlyn as if she were an enigmatic visitor from another planet. In the next heartbeat, he swept her up in his arms and marched upstairs, leaving Archer trembling

only reply was a curt, “Be quiet. He slammed

screens, each displaying a labyrinthine code.

curious glance before turning her attention to the screens. The symbols seemed

pointed to a line of code on the third

leaned in for

touchscreen highlighted it, she deleted the flawed code and