Chapter Six: Don't Let Lin Mo Know
Lin Mo stared at his phone screen.
That sentence was like a needle.
It made no sound, but kept stabbing into his heart.
Don't let Lin Mo know.
He read it over and over.
“What does that mean?”
The message was sent.
Su Yan didn't reply.
Lin Mo asked again:
“Where are you right now?”
A few seconds passed.
“At home.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
“I'll come over.”
“Don't.”
The reply came quickly.
So quickly that Lin Mo froze for a moment.
“Why?”
“Don't come over yet.”
“Su Yan, how much do you actually know right now?”
There was no answer.
Lin Mo watched the chat window.
The words “The other person is typing” lit up in the text box, then went dark.
Dark, then bright again.
In the end, only one sentence appeared:
“I'll tell you tomorrow.”
Lin Mo frowned.
“Why can't you tell me now?”
“Because there are some things I haven't figured out either.”
“Who exactly sent you that photo?”
“I don't know.”
“What about that room?”
“I don't know.”
“And that line—‘Don't let Lin Mo know’?”
This time,
Su Yan was silent for a long time.
In the end, she sent back just one word.
“Me.”
Lin Mo went completely rigid.
“What do you mean?”
“I wrote that sentence myself.”
He stared at his phone.
His mind felt as if it had suddenly been cut off.
“Why?”
“I'll tell you tomorrow.”
The conversation ended.
Lin Mo didn't sleep at all that night.
He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling the entire time.
The only sound in the room was the air conditioner running.
He kept going over everything that had happened that day.
Three years ago.
Su Yan had suddenly left.
Her father.
Takahashi.
The anonymous email.
The photos.
And that room.
As well as the words she had written herself:
Don't let Lin Mo know.
If she had written that sentence herself,
then it meant that Su Yan, three years ago, had definitely known something.
And whatever it was, it had been important enough that—
she would rather let him misunderstand her
than tell him.
Lin Mo picked up his phone.
He opened their chat history from three years ago.
The chat history had survived several phone changes.
A lot of it was already gone.
But he had kept a few screenshots.
One of them was a conversation Su Yan had sent him the day before she left.
“I might be a little busy lately.”
“You don't have to wait for me.”
“If I don't reply, don't worry.”
At the time, he had assumed she was just being difficult.
Reading them again now,
every sentence seemed to carry a different meaning.
Lin Mo suddenly sat up.
He opened his cloud drive.
Then he started searching through everything from three years ago.
Photos.
Chat logs.
Emails.
Anything related to Su Yan.
One folder.
Two.
Ten.
He searched for nearly an hour.
Finally, he found a folder he had almost forgotten about.
Its name was only four words:
Before Summer.
He opened it.
There were thirty-seven photos inside.
Most of them were pictures of him and Su Yan going out together.
Eating.
Shopping.
Watching movies.
Riding bikes.
The beach.
The convenience store.
He went through them one by one.
Until the last photo.
Lin Mo stopped.
It was a picture of the school entrance.
Date taken:
June 17, three years ago.
He zoomed in.
It was evening in the photo.
Su Yan stood at the school entrance.
He wasn't with her.
She was talking to a man.
The man had his back to the camera.
He was wearing a dark jacket.
Lin Mo stopped breathing for a second.
It was Takahashi.
But something even stranger was—
the angle from which the photo had been taken.
It wasn't taken by him.
And it wasn't taken by Su Yan.
Someone had photographed them from a distance.
Lin Mo enlarged the picture.
There was a glass wall on the right side.
A person was reflected in the glass.
The person was holding a camera.
It was a girl.
Lin Mo suddenly remembered the photo Su Yan had sent him yesterday.
The fourth person.
It was her too.
The same person.
3:06 a.m.
Lin Mo sat in front of the computer.
He began carefully examining all the old photos.
If this girl had been there the whole time,
then there had to be other photos that captured her.
He enlarged them one by one.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Still nothing.
Until he reached a photo taken in a café.
He suddenly stopped.
Outside the café window,
there was a blurry figure.
A camera was in her hand.
Lin Mo zoomed in.
It was another picture of the girl.
She was wearing a hat.
Her face couldn't be seen clearly.
But her build was exactly the same.
Lin Mo began to feel cold.
This wasn't a coincidence.
Someone had been following them.
And not just for one day.
He quickly returned to the folder.
Then sorted the photos by date.
June 17.
June 19.
June 21.
June 25.
July 2.
July 5.
Every few days,
that girl would appear.
Sometimes in the distance.
Sometimes in a glass reflection.
Sometimes only a small part of her would show.
As if she were deliberately making sure no one noticed her.
Lin Mo's hands began to tremble.
He had always thought those photos were simply records of their lives.
Only now did he realize
that another timeline might be hidden inside them.
Six in the morning.
The sky was already light.
Lin Mo hadn't slept.
He picked up his phone.
Then called Su Yan again.
This time, she answered.
“Hello.”
Her voice sounded exhausted.
“Are you awake?”
“Yeah.”
“I found something.”
There was silence on the other end.
“What?”
“There was a girl in our photos from three years ago. She kept showing up.”
Su Yan said nothing.
Lin Mo's heart sank.
“You know who she is?”
“…I know.”
“Who is she?”
“I don't know her name.”
“Then what do you know?”
“She came looking for me once.”
Lin Mo sat up straight.
“When?”
“After you left the school.”
“What did she say?”
Su Yan fell silent.
“She asked me if I was planning to leave with you.”
Lin Mo froze.
“What?”
“She said that if I really planned to leave, I shouldn't tell you.”
“Who the hell is she?”
“I really don't know.”
“Then how did she know about us?”
Su Yan didn't answer.
Lin Mo suddenly thought of something.
“Does she know my dad?”
“I don't know.”
“Does she know your dad?”
“I don't know that either.”
“Then how did she know about us?”
A very soft breath came through the phone.
Su Yan finally said:
“Because she had a lot of photos.”
“Photos of us.”
“All of them.”
Lin Mo's heart sank.
“How long had she been taking them?”
“I don't know.”
“When did she start?”
“At least six months ago.”
Six months.
Lin Mo suddenly felt a chill run down his back.
If she really had been taking pictures for six months,
then she had already been watching them
before they had noticed anything unusual.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Su Yan didn't answer.
Lin Mo's voice began to tremble.
“You knew someone was following us.”
“You knew someone was taking pictures of us.”
“You knew she had come to see you.”
“But you didn't tell me anything.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I don't want you to say you're sorry.”
Lin Mo closed his eyes.
“I just want to know.”
“Why?”
There was no sound from the other end for a long time.
“Because she told me that if I let you find out, something would happen to you.”
Lin Mo opened his eyes.
“What does that mean?”
“She said you had no idea who you'd crossed.”
“Who did I cross?”
“She didn't say.”
“And you believed her?”
“I didn't have a choice back then.”
“You did.”
Lin Mo said:
“You could've told me.”
“I could've decided for myself whether I wanted to be afraid.”
Su Yan was silent.
“But I was scared.”
She finally spoke.
“I was afraid something really would happen to you.”
“So I chose to let you hate me.”
Lin Mo said nothing.
Three years ago,
she had done the same thing.
Protected him in the same way.
Made herself the bad guy.
Made him leave.
But this time,
Lin Mo suddenly didn't know whether he should be angry or feel sorry for her.
“What happened to her afterward?”
“I don't know.”
“You never saw her again?”
“No.”
“What about the photos?”
“She took them.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
Lin Mo frowned.
“But I still have some here.”
The other end of the line suddenly went quiet.
“What did you say?”
“I found some.”
“Where?”
“On my computer.”
“Lin Mo.”
Su Yan's voice suddenly grew tense.
“Don't open them.”
“Why?”
“Don't look at them yet.”
“Why?”
“I don't know if she deliberately left those photos behind.”
Lin Mo looked at the screen.
“You think she did it on purpose?”
“I don't know.”
“Then I have even more reason to look.”
“Don't!”
It was the first time Su Yan had shouted during a call.
Lin Mo froze.
“Don't look.”
Her voice began to tremble.
“At least wait until I get there.”
“Okay.”
Lin Mo was silent for a moment.
“I'll wait for you.”
One in the afternoon.
Su Yan arrived downstairs at the dorm.
Lin Mo went downstairs.
The two of them stood by the side of the road.
Neither spoke first.
“You really found the photos?”
“Yeah.”
“Give me all of them.”
Lin Mo handed her his phone.
Su Yan looked through them one by one.
Her expression grew worse with every photo.
When she reached the seventh,
she suddenly stopped.
“This is her.”
“What?”
She enlarged the photo.
In the picture,
the girl stood at the school entrance.
She was holding a camera.
“That's her.”
“Are you sure?”
“I'm sure.”
“You've seen her before?”
“I have.”
“What was her name?”
“I don't know.”
“What did she look like?”
“I never got a clear look at her.”
Lin Mo frowned.
“You talked to her, but you never saw her clearly?”
Su Yan shook her head.
“She always wore a hat.”
“What did her voice sound like?”
“She sounded very young.”
“How old, roughly?”
“About our age.”
Lin Mo looked at the photo.
“Then why was she taking pictures of us?”
Su Yan didn't answer.
After a long time,
she finally said:
“Because she wasn't taking pictures of us.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was taking pictures of you.”
Lin Mo froze.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
Su Yan enlarged the photo.
“Look at the direction of her camera.”
Lin Mo looked.
His heart jolted.
Although the girl in the photo was standing near them,
the camera wasn't pointed at Su Yan at all.
It was pointed at—
him.
“So…”
Lin Mo said quietly:
“She'd been taking pictures of me the whole time?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Su Yan shook her head.
“I don't know.”
The two of them returned to Lin Mo's room.
He opened the computer.
Then began reorganizing the photos.
Su Yan sat beside him.
Neither of them said a word.
Time passed, one photo after another.
Until they found a photo taken on June 3, three years ago.
Lin Mo remembered that day very clearly.
It was the first time he'd gone to an off-campus event.
In the photo,
he stood in the middle of a group of people.
In the distance,
that girl was there again.
But this time,
she wasn't taking pictures.
She was talking to someone else.
Lin Mo enlarged the image.
The man—
was Takahashi.
Su Yan's face instantly went white.
“They know each other,”
Lin Mo said.
Su Yan didn't answer.
“Didn't you say Takahashi was just a friend of your dad's?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was he meeting this girl?”
“I don't know.”
Lin Mo looked at her.
“You really don't know?”
“I really don't.”
She didn't look like she was lying.
Lin Mo turned his attention back to the photo.
The two of them were standing very close,
as if they were having a conversation.
The girl was also holding an envelope.
She handed it to Takahashi.
Takahashi took it,
then left.
Lin Mo enlarged the photo.
There was a letter on the envelope.
M.
“M?”
Su Yan frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Lin Mo shook his head.
“I don't know.”
He continued scrolling.
The next photo.
Takahashi was gone.
The girl was gone too.
Only Lin Mo remained,
standing alone on campus.
The photo was dated June 4, three years ago.
The next one.
June 5.
The next one.
June 6.
For three days in a row,
the photos showed only Lin Mo by himself.
Su Yan slowly furrowed her brow.
“Why did she keep taking pictures of you?”
Lin Mo didn't answer.
He suddenly remembered something.
In early June, three years ago,
he had received an email from an unknown sender.
He hadn't opened it at the time
because the system had marked it as spam.
He had always assumed it was an advertisement.
“Wait.”
Lin Mo abruptly stood up.
“What is it?”
“My inbox.”
He opened his email backup from three years ago.
Then started searching.
One email.
Two.
Three.
Finally,
he found an email marked as spam.
Sent:
June 7, three years ago.
Sender:
M.
Subject:
“About What You Don't Know.”
Lin Mo's hand stopped.
Su Yan stood behind him.
Neither of them spoke.
“Have you seen it before?”
“No.”
Lin Mo clicked it open.
The email contained only one block of text.
No signature.
Nothing else.
Only this:
“If you want to know why Su Yan left you, find the photo from June 3.”
Lin Mo went completely rigid.
June 3.
That was exactly the day they had just found Takahashi meeting the girl.
There was another line below it.
“Don't believe the first version she tells you.”
Su Yan's face instantly went white.
“I didn't know about this email.”
Lin Mo didn't answer.
There was also an attachment at the very bottom.
A file.
Name:
M-01.
He opened it.
The screen showed a video only seventeen seconds long.
The footage was extremely blurry.
It looked like it had been taken by a security camera.
Timestamp:
June 3, three years ago, 11:17 p.m.
In the footage,
a man walked into a building.
A few seconds later,
a girl walked in too.
Finally,
Lin Mo himself appeared.
He stopped in front of the screen.
“Where is this?”
Su Yan looked at the footage.
She suddenly couldn't speak.
“You know this place?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
Her face grew paler and paler.
“It was where my dad used to live.”
Lin Mo turned his head.
“Your dad?”
“Yes.”
“But…”
Lin Mo pointed at the screen.
“Why was I there?”
Su Yan didn't answer.
Because she didn't know either.
The video continued.
Lin Mo walked into the building.
Then stopped in front of a door.
He raised his hand.
And knocked.
The door opened.
Someone was standing inside.
The video suddenly stopped there.
The screen went black.
Then a line of text appeared.
“Do you really not remember that day?”
Lin Mo stared at the screen.
His head began to hurt.
He tried hard to remember.
June 3, three years ago.
That night,
what exactly had he done?
He only remembered returning to the dorm.
Taking a shower.
Studying.
Going to sleep.
But now,
he suddenly realized
there really was a blank spot in his memory.
About two hours.
Two hours.
He couldn't remember any of it.
“Lin Mo.”
Su Yan suddenly grabbed his hand.
“Don't watch any more.”
“Why?”
“Because I remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
She looked at him.
For the first time, real fear appeared in her eyes.
“That day, June 3.”
“You didn't go back to the dorm.”
“You came to my house.”
Lin Mo froze.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“But your house wasn't…”
“Not where I live now.”
Her voice grew quieter.
“Where my dad lived back then.”
Lin Mo looked at the screen.
The seventeen-second video
suddenly became impossibly clear.
It turned out he hadn't been appearing in that building for the first time.
He had been there before.
And—
he might have seen someone.
Someone he had never remembered
in the three years since.
Just then,
Lin Mo's phone suddenly rang.
It was an unknown number.
He looked at the screen.
He didn't answer.
The call stopped.
A few seconds later,
he received a text message.
Just one short sentence:
“If you've already seen M-01, then it means she told you after all.”
Lin Mo's expression changed.
The next sentence appeared right after it.
“Stay away from her now.”
He looked up.
Su Yan had seen the message too.
The two of them looked at each other.
Neither said a word.
The phone vibrated again.
This time, it was a photo.
Lin Mo opened it.
The photo showed—
the room they were in right now.
The window.
The desk.
The computer.
Even the exact positions where the two of them were standing had been captured clearly.
The time displayed in the lower-right corner was:
Just now.
Lin Mo slowly raised his head.
He looked toward the window.
They were on the tenth floor.
There was no one outside.
But beside the curtain,
an extremely thin black shadow flickered past.
Su Yan grabbed his hand.
“Lin Mo.”
“Yeah.”
“We're…”
She didn't finish.
Lin Mo already understood.
What had happened three years ago wasn't over.
The person who had been photographing him all along might never have left.
And now—
they knew the two of them had begun investigating the truth.
Lin Mo looked at the last message on his phone.
The unknown number sent one more line:
“You think Su Yan left you three years ago.”
“The truth is, someone made her leave you.”
“And that person is still watching you now.”