Someone was following her, she had read stories about stalkers, but they belonged to a different world of violence, and she had no idea who it might be, who would want to hurt herself.She has been doing her best to suppress her panic, but lately her sleep has often been filled with unbearable nightmares, and every morning she wakes up with a sense of impending doom.Maybe it's all just my imagination, Ashley Paterson thought, I'm so tired from work.I need a vacation. She turned and looked at herself in the bedroom mirror.What she saw was a woman in her mid-twenties, neatly dressed, with an elegant face, a slender figure, and brown eyes that revealed a bright and anxious expression.She exudes a demure and elegant temperament, with an indescribable charm.Her black hair fell softly over her shoulders.I hate the way I look, Ashley said to herself, I'm so skinny.I need to start eating more.She went into the kitchen and started making breakfast while forcing her mind to forget about the horrible thing that was going on and focus on making that fluffy omelet.She flipped on the electric coffee pot, put a slice of bread in the oven, and ten minutes later it was all ready.Ashley put some plates on the table and sat down.She picked up the fork, stared blankly at the food for a moment, then shook her head in despair.Fear had wiped out her appetite.

This can't go on, she thought angrily, whoever he is, I won't let him hurt me.Never. Ashley glanced at her watch.It's time to leave for work.She looked around the familiar apartment as if seeking some reassurance of confidence in it.This is a beautifully furnished apartment on the third floor of the Via Minor apartment complex, consisting of a living room, a bedroom and study, toilet, kitchen and guest toilet.She has been living in Cupertino, California, for three years.Until two weeks ago, Ashley used it as a cozy nest, a safe haven.Now it was a fortress, a place where no one could break in and hurt her.Ashley went to the door of the room and checked the lock.I'm going to get someone to install a deadbolt, she thought, tomorrow.She turned off all the lights, stopped to check, made sure that the door was locked tightly behind her, and took the elevator to the underground garage.

The garage was empty.Her car was twenty feet away from the elevator.She looked around cautiously, then ran to the car, got in and locked the door.Her heart was pounding.Under the malicious, dark and ominous sky, she drove toward the downtown area.The weather forecast said it would rain.But it won't rain today, Ashley thought, and the sun will come out.I'll make a bet with you, God.If it doesn't rain, it means everything is safe, and it's always been my imagination. Ten minutes later, Ashley Paterson was driving through downtown Cupertino.She still marvels at the miraculous transformation that has taken place in what was once a sleepy little corner of the Santa Clara Valley.Fifty miles south of San Francisco, it's the birthplace of the computer revolution, and it's aptly nicknamed Silicon Valley.

Ashley was employed by Bad Ball Computer Graphics, a successful, fast-growing young company with two hundred employees. When Ashley turned the car onto Silverado Avenue, she felt him following her, which disturbed her.But who?And for what?She looked in the rearview mirror and everything seemed normal. But instinct told her otherwise. In front of Ashley was the irregular but modern-looking building where Universal Computer Graphics was located.She pulled into the parking lot, showed the guard her ID, and parked the car in her spot.She feels safe here. When she got out of the car, it started to rain.

※※※ Every day at nine o'clock in the morning, Universal Computer Graphics is always a busy scene.There were eighty standard cubicles in total, all owned by young Computer Geeks busy at the moment building new web sites, designing logos for new companies, doing some art for record and book publishing companies, and designing illustrations for magazines.The entire working floor is divided into several departments: administration, sales, marketing and technical support.The vibe is casual, with employees walking around in jeans, crop tops and knitted jumpers. As Ashley walked to her desk, her boss, Shane Miller, came up to her and said, "Good morning, Ashley."

Shane Miller, in his early thirties, was a burly, earnest man with a likable personality.At first, he tried to convince Ashley to sleep with him, but he finally gave up, but the two have since become good friends. He handed Ashley a copy of the latest issue of Time magazine. "Have you seen this?" Ashley glanced at the cover, which featured a photo of a man in his fifties with silver hair and an air of grandeur, with the caption: "Dr. Steven Paterson, Miniature Heart Surgery father". "I've seen it." "What's it like to have a famous dad?" Ashley smiled slightly: "Excellent."

"He's an amazing guy." "I'll tell him that's what you said, and we'll have lunch later." "Okay, yeah..." Shane Miller showed Ashley a picture of a movie star she was going to use in an ad for a client: "Here we have a little trouble, Desiree has gained about ten pounds. Pounds, and it's very conspicuous. And look at those dark circles under her eyes, even with makeup, her skin is spotty, do you think you can help?" Ashley studied the photograph carefully. "I could use a blur filter to fix her eyes, and I could try to use the Warp tool to make her face thinner, but—no, that might make her look weird." She looked at the picture again. Photo, "I had to touch up a little bit with the airbrush tool or the clone tool in some places."

"Thanks. Have we agreed to meet Saturday night?" "That's right." Shane Miller nodded toward the photo: "There's no rush for this one. They only want it for the last month." Ashley smiled, "Anything new?" ※※※ Ashley got to work.She is an expert in advertising and graphic design, specializing in the layout of text and images. Half an hour later, as Ashley was editing the photo, she felt someone watching her.She looked up.It's Dennis Tibble. "Good morning, darling." His voice irritated her nerves extremely uncomfortable.Tiber is the company's computer genius.Everyone in the company called him "the repairman".Whenever a computer broke down, Tibble would be called.He was in his early thirties, thin-faced, bald, with an uncomfortably haughty demeanor, and he had a paranoid personality, and word spread throughout the company that he was after Ashley.

"Do you need help?" "No, thank you." "Hey, how about we have dinner on Saturday night?" "Thanks. I'm busy." "Going out with the boss again?" Ashley turned to look at him, scowling. "Hey, this has nothing to do with you!" "Anyway, I don't know what you're looking for in him. He's an idiot, old-fashioned. I'll let you have more fun." He blinked. "You know what I mean?" Ashley struggled to hold back her temper. "I have work to do, Dennis." Tibble leaned close to her and whispered, "You'll see what's on my mind, my dear. I won't give up. Never."

She watched him walk away and thought to herself: Could he be the one? At twelve-thirty, Ashley put her computer on hibernation and set off for Margherita in Rome, where she joined her father for lunch. ※※※ She sat at a corner table in a crowded restaurant and watched her father walk towards her.She had to admit that he was very personable.People turned to look at him as he made his way to Ashley's desk. "What's it like to have a famous dad?" Many years ago, Dr. Steven Paterson made a groundbreaking breakthrough in the field of miniature diffuse cardiac surgery.Since then he has been frequently invited to give lectures in major hospitals around the world.Her mother died when Ashley was twelve years old, and she had no family but her father.

"Sorry I'm late, Ashley." He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "It's okay, I just got here too." He sits down. "Have you read Time Magazine?" "Saw it. Shayne showed it to me." He frowned. "Shaney? Your boss?" "He's not my boss. He's...he's one of the wardens." "It's never a good thing to mix business with pleasure, Ashley. You socialized with him, didn't you? That was a mistake." "Father, we are just good friends..." A waiter came to the table. "Would you like to see the menu?" Dr. Paterson turned his face away and snapped at him, "Don't you see we're talking? Go away, and come back when I tell you." "I...I'm sorry." The waiter turned around and hurried away. Ashley curled up in embarrassment.She had forgotten how bad-tempered her father was.He once punched an intern during an operation for a lapse in judgment.Ashley still remembers the big fights between her parents when she was a little girl.They really freaked her out.Her parents kept arguing about the same thing, but even though Ashley tried, she couldn't remember what it was.She had wiped it out of her mind. Her father continued as if uninterrupted. "Where was that? Oh, yes. It was a mistake to befriend Shane Miller. A big mistake." His work brought up another terrible memory. ※※※ She could hear her father's voice saying, "It was a mistake to befriend Jim Cleary. A big mistake..." Ashley had just turned eighteen and was living in Bedford, Pennsylvania, her birthplace.Jim Cleary was the most famous boy in the Bedford area high school.He's a football player, handsome, funny, with that amazing smile.It seemed to Ashley that every girl at school wanted to sleep with him, and most of them probably already did, she thought bitterly.When Jim Cleary started dating her, he made up his mind not to sleep with him, and she was sure he was only interested in her for sex, but over time she changed her mind.She enjoyed being with him, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy her company. That winter, the high school class was going to the mountains for a ski weekend, and Jim Cleary loved skiing. "We're going to have fun," he assured Ashley. "I will not go." He looked at her in surprise, "Why?" "I don't like cold weather. Even with gloves on, my fingers are numb from the cold." "But it's going to be fun..." "I will not go." In the end he had to stay in Bedford, with her. They have the same hobbies, share the same ideals, and they are always happy when they are together. When Jim Cleary said to Ashley, "Somebody asked me this morning if you were my girlfriend. What should I tell him?" Ashley smiled and said, "Tell him yes." Dr. Paterson was worried. "You've been having too much fun with that Cleary boy these days." "Father, he's decent, and I love him." "How can you love him? He's a bloody football player. I'm not going to let you marry a football player. He's not good enough for you, Ashley." He'd said that to every guy she'd gotten along with. Her father had repeatedly denigrated Jim Creerie, but it had always been Ashley's graduation night.Jim Cleary was taking her to the graduation party.She was crying when he came to pick her up. "What's the matter? What happened?" "I... my father told me he was taking me to London. He has enrolled me in... a college there." Jim Cleary looked at her dumbfounded. "He did it because of us, didn't he?" Ashley nodded, looking miserable. "When are you leaving?" "tomorrow." "No! Ashley, for God's sake don't let him do this to us. Listen, I'm going to marry you. My uncle offered me a pretty good job at his ad agency in Chicago. Nice job. Let's go. Meet me at the station tomorrow morning. There's a train for Chicago at seven. Will you come with me?" She looked at him for a long time, then said softly, "Yes." ※※※ Talking about it later, Ashley couldn't remember what graduation night was like, and she and Jim spent the night discussing their plans excitedly. "Why don't we fly to Chicago?" Ashley asked. "Because then we would have to give our names to the airline. If we went by train, no one would know where we were going." As they left the party, Jim Cleary asked softly, "Would you like to stay with me for a while? My family is out of town for the weekend." Ashley hesitated, distraught. "Jim... we've been waiting this long. A few more days, won't it matter?" "You're right." He grinned, "I may be the only man on this continent who married a virgin." ※※※ When Jim Cleary dropped Ashley home from the party, Dr. Paterson was waiting for her, furious: "Do you know how late it is?" "I'm sorry, sir. The party..." "Don't give me your damn excuses, Cleary. Who do you think you're fooling?" "I don't……" "From now on, you don't fucking touch my daughter, understand?" "Father……" "You get out of it!" he was roaring now. "Clieri, I want you to get out of here and never come in again!" "Sir, your daughter and I..." "Jim..." "Go to your room!" "gentlemen……" "If I see you here again, I will break every bone in your body!" Ashley had never seen him lose his temper like this.Everyone was yelling at the end.When it was all over, Jim was gone, and Ashley was crying. I'm not going to let my father do this to me, Ashley thought, making up her mind.He was trying to ruin my life.She sat on the bed for a long time.Jim is my future and I want to be with him.I don't belong here anymore.She got up and started packing a small travel bag.Thirty minutes later, Ashley slipped out the back door and started walking to Jim Cleary's house, twelve blocks away.I'll stay with him tonight, and then we'll take the early morning train to Chicago.But as Ashley got closer to his house, she thought again: No, that's not right.I don't want to screw everything up.I'd better meet him at the train station. So she turned and walked back. ※※※ Ashley stayed up the rest of the night, thinking about her life with Jim and how wonderful it would be.At five-thirty she picked up her suitcase and slipped past the closed door of her father's bedroom.She tiptoed out of the house and got on a bus bound for the train station.Jim wasn't there when she got to the station.She came early.The train will arrive in an hour.Ashley sat on the bench and waited anxiously.She thought that she and you would wake up and find that he was gone, and he would be furious. But I can't let him live for me, and someday he'll really know Jim, and he'll know how lucky I am.Six thirty... six forty... six forty-five... six fifty... still no sign of Jim.Ashley starts to panic, what's going to happen?She decided to call him.No one answered.Six fifty-five...he could come any minute.She heard a train whistle in the distance and looked at her watch.Six fifty-nine.The train was coming into the station, and she stood up, looking around nervously.What terrible thing happened to him?He was in a car accident?he is in the hospitalA few minutes later, Ashley stood there dumbfounded, watching the Chicago-bound train leave the station, taking all her dreams with it.She waited another half an hour, tried again to call Jim, and when there was still no answer, she walked slowly, forlornly, home. At noon, Ashley and her father boarded a plane to London... After Ashley attended a school in London for two years and decided to pursue a career in computing, she applied for the prestigious MEI Wang Scholarship, which is dedicated to engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. established by girls.She was accepted.Three years later, she was recruited to Universal Computer Graphics. At first, Ashley wrote a few letters to Jim Cleary, but she tore them all up again.His behavior and his silence told her all too clearly what he thought of her. ※※※ Her father's piercing voice brought Ashley back to the present. "You have wandered a million miles away, what are you thinking?" Ashley watched her father across the table. "I didn't think about anything." Dr. Paterson motioned to the waiter, smiled amiably and said, "Now we're ready to look at the menu." ※※※ It wasn't until she was walking back to the office that Ashley remembered that she had forgotten to congratulate her father on the cover of Time Magazine. When Ashley walked to her desk, Dennis Tibble was waiting for her. "I heard you had lunch with your father." He is a little reptile who loves to eavesdrop.He made it his job to know everything that happened here. "yes." "That can't be any fun." He lowered his voice. "Why don't you join me for lunch?" "Dennis... I told you before, I'm not interested." He grinned. "You will. Just wait and see." There was something ghostly about him, something frightening, and again she wondered if he was the one... She shook her head.No.She had to forget about it and move on with her life. On the way home, Ashley stopped and parked her car in front of the Apple Tree bookstore.Before going in, she kept an eye on the image in the store mirror to see if there was anyone she recognized behind her.not even one.She enters the bookstore. A young male clerk approached her. "Do you want to buy any books?" "Yes. I...do you have a book on stalkers?" He looked at her strangely. "stalker?" Ashley felt like an idiot.She added hastily, "Yes. I'd also like a book on ... er ... gardening and ... er ... African animals." "Stalkers and gardening and African animals?" "Yes!" she said with certainty. Who knows?Maybe someday I'll have a garden and I'll travel to Africa. ※※※ By the time Ashley got back into the car, it started raining again.As she drove, raindrops on the windshield fragmented the view, turning the street ahead into surreal pointillisms.She turns on the wipers.The wipers began to scrape and squeak against the glass: "He's going to get you, he's going to get you, he's going to get you..." Ashley turned it off quickly.No, she thought.They are saying, "Nobody's there, nobody's there, nobody's there..." She turned the wipers on again. "He's going to get you, he's going to get you, he's going to get you..." ※※※ Ashley parked the car in the garage and pressed the elevator button.Two minutes later, she walked to her suite.She reached the gate, put the key in the lock, opened the door, and stood there dumbfounded. Every light in the suite was turned on.