《The Billionaire's Hidden Tech Queen 》全部章節：第 1 章 - 第 6 章

At exactly 4:30 AM, the alarm rang. Cathy slammed her palm against the plastic casing, cutting the noise instantly before it could rattle her mother. She had only just closed her laptop at 3:30 AM after hours of debugging corporate firewall architecture as "Mirage." One hour of sleep. Her brain felt scraped raw, her eyes burning as if someone had rubbed glass into her corneas, but the digital underworld didn't pause for exhaustion. The cash from her cybersecurity retainer was the only thing keeping her father breathing. Before she could even push herself off the mattress, soft, dragging footsteps shuffled across the small apartment. The door to her room clicked open, revealing her mother. The older woman’s face was etched with deep, permanent fatigue, bruised purple under her eyes, yet she offered a tight, fragile smile as she stepped inside carrying a warm, damp washcloth and a clean, ironed collar liner. "I heard your alarm, love," her mother whispered, her voice raspy with lack

The afternoon air hung heavy and thick as Cathy dragged herself up the concrete steps of their apartment building after school. Her school backpack felt like a dead weight against her shoulders. Juggling classes all day while fielding client messages on her phone had hollowed her out completely, her bones humming with a dull, low-grade fatigue. She heard the familiar double-click of the deadbolt sliding back from the inside before she could even fish her keys out of her pocket, stepping into the narrow hallway and letting out a long, shuddering breath as she dropped her bag onto the entryway table.Before she could even kick off her left sneaker, her phone buzzed sharply against the wood grain.She picked it up, half-expecting an automated alert from the school attendance portal about a missed homeroom check-in. Instead, a cold blue light cut across her face from a direct message notification on Fiver.It was from her highest-paying private client—the anonymous corporate heavyweight

It was Monday morning, and Cathy's chest felt tight, the kind of heavy, suffocating dread that made every step down the hallway feel like walking through wet cement. She knew what was waiting for her. She knew the exact spot where Alex Vance and his friends liked to hang out, and she knew her name would be the first thing out of his mouth.The fluorescent lights of the Elite Academy cafeteria hummed at a high, irritating pitch, but the noise inside was deafening. It was the twelfth-grade lunch rush, that chaotic daily hour where social hierarchies were reinforced over lukewarm pasta and greasy fries.Cathy kept her head down, sliding into the back corner right by the emergency exit where the draft from the courtyard cut through the heavy air. She set down her grey plastic tray. On it sat a small carton of generic white milk and half a turkey sandwich she had packed herself—not because she liked turkey, but because trimming the crusts took up space and hid how little food was actually