“Juniper, what did you just say?" Byron''s neck went stiff. He couldn''t believe his ears.


    "It seems your hearing problem is quite serious. You should get to a hospital soon, don''t dy.” Juniper looked up, her gaze on Byron pointed and meaningful, her attitude both polite and sincere.


    Byron''s face turned ashen with rage, his lips trembling.


    "Goodbye." Juniper gave Byron a slight nod, then sauntered off toward Tucker''s office, cake box in hand. She ran into him halfway there.


    "Professor Tucker, good morning." Juniper handed him the cake. "You should put this in the fridge before it melts."


    “Ah, right!” Tucker looked from Juniper to the furious-looking Byron standing a short distance away, and he understood immediately. It seemed Byron''s threats and bribes had no effect on this girl.


    Tucker clutched his chest, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. This girl might be young, but she was a natural talent inputer science. With a little guidance, she was destined for greatness. He''d been so worriedst night he couldn''t sleep, terrified she''d run off with a fraud like Byron. Thank goodness!


    "Come on, I need you to look at some data for me," Tucker said, his face breaking into a wide grin as he led Juniper inside. She never once nced back at Byron as her figure disappeared into the office.


    Byron remained frozen in ce, the blood draining from his face. His sunken, triangr eyes were fixed on the direction they had gone, a deep hatred welling within them.


    How dare that little brat look down on him? In all his decades, he had never been so insulted.


    Fine. He would make her regret today''s decision!


    Inside theputerb.


    Tucker sat in his chair, eating cake while watching Juniper''s fingers fly across the keyboard. His eyes widened. "How do you know so many of these terms?"


    This was all high-frequency vocabry forputer programming; this single program involved thousands of them. More importantly, the terminology was incredibly difficult.


    "Didn''t you tell me to memorize it?" Juniper gestured with her chin toward the materials on the desk, her tone nonchnt.


    "You finished reading this whole stack?" Tucker shot up from his seat, his tongue tied in knots.


    "Wait, you memorized all of it?" he stammered.


    Juniper finished the line of code she was working on and turned to look at Tucker, raising an eyebrow. "I taught myself someputer science before, so I have a bit. foundation. Besides, I


    eache


    of


    most of these terms in high school, So didnt really need to memorize them."


    She decided it was best not to seem too brilliant, just in case the old man recognized her.


    "Is that so?" Tucker frowned, watching her with a mixture of belief and suspicion.


    "Yes." Juniper nodded without a hint of panic. "I may have memorized them, but I''m not that familiar with their application. I still need to reinforce my memory."


    Tucker stared at her, lost in thought. Something felt off. Maybe it was all thete nights recently making his brain fuzzy.


    "Ahem." His intense gaze was


    making Juniper a little nervous. She


    cleared her throat, deliberately


    changing the subject “Registration


    for the World Programming


    Competition is open. Aren''t you going to enter?"


    The World Programming Competition drew topputer experts from all over the globe. Orient Country had two slots. Tucker definitely had the skill topete, and even win.


    At the mention of it, Tucker''s head buzzed with frustration. "I have too much on my te right now," he said, looking a bit dejected. "I don''t have time for that."


    The more significant reason was that to qualify for the internationalpetition, you had to win the national one first. He had tried entering before, but no matter how good his programming was,


    always lost Most of the judges were Byron''s cronies, and he and Byron had never gotten along.