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.

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

to it! I’ve lent you my precious computer. If you were truly my sister, you wouldn’t struggle with this little thing.” he urged, a

edge of the desk. Watching her stretch her neck to peer

chair, watching as her fingers fumbled around, pressing keys tentatively and gazing at the screen, carefully identifying the letters.

her to give up and admit defeat. Then he

computer before. She had only seen them occasionally

her. So, as soon as she saw

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18

Chapter 5

on the keyboard. She couldn’t remember where the letters were, nor did the understand

sequences, the copied Stanley’s activen and began

but as she memorized the crucial key positions, her fingers gained momentum. Her mind! wandered as she typed, exploring various combinations simultaneously, each keystroke bringing her

glimpsed the code she was crafting, his eyes widened in

and with a single press of the enter key, a pristine digital

this from thin air?” Stanley inquired, snatching the computer to scrutinize the interface for any signs of

my fingers dance across the keys?” Quinlyn replied, her brow furrowing in

pored over the

finger and confessed with unvarnished honesty, “I don’t recognize them all.” Her limited vocabulary stemmed from borderland communication codes; school had never been an option for her.

heartbeat, he swept her up in his arms and marched upstairs,

a curt, “Be quiet. He slammed the

colossal surround screens, each displaying a labyrinthine code. “Take a gander at this.

before turning her attention to the screens. The symbols seemed even more intricate, their

pointed to a line of code on the third screen. “Is there

for a closer look.

finger upwards. As the touchscreen highlighted it, she deleted the flawed code and swiftly typed a new line. Before Stanley could intervene, she pressed