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.
Stanley noticed Quinlyn still staring at the screen, mesmerized. He gave her a gentle nudge.
“What are you standing there for? Get 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 hint of impatience in his voice.
Quinlyn stumbled forward, her small frame barely reaching the edge of the desk. Watching her stretch her neck to peer at the screen amused Stanley immensely.
With a kind gesture, he lifted her onto the chair, watching as her fingers fumbled around, pressing keys tentatively and gazing at the screen, carefully identifying the letters.
He crossed his legs, amusement bubbling within him, waiting for her to give up and admit defeat. Then he would lay into her with thick mockery, indulging in his mean–spirited humor.
Quinlyn had never interacted with a computer before. She had only seen them occasionally in the hands of criminals passing through the borderlands.
She knew these devices held the key to vast amounts of information, which fascinated her. So, as soon as she saw one, she was determined to learn how to use it.
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Chapter 5
At first, her fingers were clumsy on the keyboard. She couldn’t remember where the letters were, nor did the understand what they meant
But she possessed an excellent memory, and after pairing images with programming sequences, the copied Stanley’s activen and began typing letters, slowly but surely
Her speed was sluggish at first, 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 closer to a revelation.
Stanley watched her movements initially, dismissing her efforts as mere gibberish. But when he glimpsed the code she was crafting, his eyes widened in astonishment, and his fork clattered to the floor, forgotten
The cursor blinked, and with a single press of the enter key, a pristine digital page materialized on the screen. He was utterly astounded.
“Did you conjure this from thin air?” Stanley inquired, snatching the computer to scrutinize the interface for any signs of deceit, his eyes narrowing.
“But weren’t you right there, watching my fingers dance across the keys?” Quinlyn replied, her brow furrowing in confusion as she gazed at him.
“That’s beside the point!” Stanley exclaimed, his amazement intensifying as he pored over the screen. “Everything else looks impressive, but what’s with all the typos?”
Quinlyn followed the direction of his 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.
Stanley was 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 in fear. “Stanley, Mr. Anderson expressly forbade any altercations, Archer protested hastily.
Stanley’s only reply was a curt, “Be quiet. He slammed the door shut, sealing off any intruders.
He seated Quinlyn in the gaming chair and activated four colossal surround screens, each displaying a labyrinthine code. “Take a gander at this. How much can you decipher?”
Quinlyn cast him a curious glance before turning her attention to the screens. The symbols seemed even more intricate, their generated effects more mesmerizing, with a diverse array of patterns
After a brief observation, she abruptly pointed to a line of code on the third screen. “Is there a glitch here?”
Stanley halted and leaned in for a closer look. “Where?”
“Here,” Quinlyn said, moving her finger upwards. As the touchscreen highlighted it, she deleted the flawed code and swiftly typed a new line. Before Stanley could intervene, she pressed the enter key.
“Hey, quit monkeying around,” Stanley snapped, nearly at his wits end. His team was engaged in a fierce hacker alliance competition, racing against the clock to breach the opponent’s firewall and uncover vulnerabilities to secure victory.
He hadn’t slept for days due to this competition and had finally reached the climactic moment of the championship battle. Little did he know that stepping away for breakfast would lead to Quinlyn meddling with his meticulously crafted code. His anger was a tangible force; he had completely forgotten that he had granted Quinlyn access to the code, Just as he about to explode, the screen suddenly lit up with the word “win, and the speakers erupted with the jubilant cheers of h
teammates.
One of his teammates shouted, “Stanley, you’re incredible! You found the fatal flaw in no time. Their system crashed, and we won! We’re the champions!”
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Upon hearing their excited cheers, Stanley slowly turned to gaze at the third screen, his eyes widening in disbelief When be looked back at Quinlyn, his entire perspective shifted.
“Hey, still want that computer? I’ll buy it for you,” he said, scratching his head in embarrassment, feeling as if he had been showing off in front of a true expert and had been exposed.
Moreover, winning the game with the help of a child didn’t sit well with his pride, and now he was eager to make amends
Quinlyn didn’t fully comprehend the significance of the match, but she knew she had probably been of assistance, so the didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I do”
“Alright, let’s hit the town now, Stanley said, feeling rejuvenated and walking with a spring in his step. After quickly changing his clothes, he led Quinlyn down the stairs.
Archer was awaiting them at the bottom, sighing in relief when he saw them descend unscathed. Upon hearing Stanley’s announcement that he was going out with Quinlyn, Archer’s jaw dropped in astonishment.
Stanley had been exceptionally intelligent and somewhat unmanageable since childhood. Furthermore, his inability to abide by Tina’s favoritism towards Harriet had strained his relationship with his parents, and he barely acknowledged
Archer never expected that on her very first day. Quinlyn would actually capture Stanley’s undivided attention
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