Chapter 73 Chapter 71

The "Falconer" took off and flew towards England.Langdon lifted the rosewood box carefully from his lap.When the plane took off just now, he had been putting it on his lap to protect it.He put the box on the table, and he didn't realize Sophie and Teabing were both leaning over expectantly. Langdon lifted the lid and opened the box, focusing not on the lettered dial on the cryptex but on the small hole in the underside of the lid.Using the tip of a pen, he very carefully removed the top rose inlay to reveal the text underneath.It's a secret, he mused.He hoped that if he looked at the text again, it would make him see things.Langdon spent almost all his energy studying this strange text.

After several seconds, Langdon felt the original distress resurface. "Sir Ray, why don't I know a single word?" Sophie sat across the table. She couldn't see the text from where she was sitting, but Langdon couldn't make out the text right away. To her great surprise.Is my grandfather's language so difficult to understand?Even experts in semiotics can't figure it out?She soon realized, though, that it shouldn't be a big surprise at all.It was not once or twice that Jacques Saunière kept secrets from his granddaughter. Ray Teabing sat across from Sophie, feeling like he was going to explode.He was eager to read that passage, and his whole body trembled with excitement.He leaned over, trying to see what was next to Langdon, but Langdon was still hunched over the box.

"I don't understand." Langdon muttered intently. "At first I thought it was a Semitic language, but now I'm not so sure, because most early Semitic languages ​​have Necudo characters, but this No." "Probably very old," Teabing reminded him. "Nikkudo characters?" Sophie asked. Teabing didn't take his eyes off the box for a moment. "Most modern Semitic alphabets do not have vowels, and nekudos—small dots and dashes drawn under or between consonants—are used to indicate their corresponding vowel symbols .Nikkudo characters are a relatively advanced addition to the language from a historical perspective."

Langdon was still leaning over the handwriting. "Could it be a literal translation of the Spanish Jews—?" Teabing couldn't take it any longer, and he yelled, "Maybe if it was me..." He reached out and pulled the box away from Langdon and pulled it towards him.It is true that Langdon has studied the serious historical relics—such as ancient Greek, Latin, and romance (that is, romance literature)—but Teabing only needs to take a quick glance to see Get acquainted with this text.He thought the writing looked more special, perhaps Rashi's handwriting, or the pistil with the crown on top.

Teabing took a deep breath, and he gazed greedily at the engraving engraved on the box.Not a word was spoken for a long time.As time passed, Teabing felt his confidence slip away. "Too surprised me, I seem to have never seen this kind of text." Langdon collapsed. "Can I have a look?" Sophie asked. Teabing pretended not to hear. "Robert, didn't you just say that you seemed to have seen something similar somewhere before?" Langdon was in a dilemma. "I think so, but I'm not sure, but the manuscript seems familiar to me." "Sir Ray, may I have a look at my grandfather's box?" Sophie asked again, seemingly displeased at being left out.

"Honey, of course." Teabing said, pushing the box to her.There was no contempt in his tone, but Sophie Neveu hadn't been back in business for years.If even British royal historians and semioticians graduated from Harvard University can't recognize this kind of writing, then—— "Ah," Sophie exclaimed, examining the box for a moment, "I should have guessed it." Teabing and Langdon turned around in unison, staring at her. "Quickly, what did you guess?" Teabing asked. Sophie shrugged and said, "I thought it was my grandfather's original script."

"You mean you can understand?" Teabing called out. "It's easy," Sophie exclaimed cheerfully, clearly enjoying herself. "My grandfather taught me this kind of writing when I was six years old, and I'm very proficient." She got down from across the table and fixed Teabing with a warning gaze: "Your Excellency, to be frank, I'm sorry." I am amazed you don't recognize him with such loyalty to Her Majesty." Langdon understood as quickly as lightning. No fucking wonder the handwriting looked so familiar.A few years ago, Langdon attended an event at Harvard University's Hoag Museum.Bill Gates, a Harvard dropout, returns to his alma mater to bid on his fabulously expensive treasure - which he recently bid on at an auction at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art 18 drawings - on loan to the museum.

The price he got was astonishingly high - $30,800,800. The author of these sketches is Leonardo da Vinci. These 18 drawings by Leonardo, named after their owner, the Earl of Leicester, and now known to the world as the Codex Leicester, are part of Leonardo's most fascinating notebooks surviving: His essays and drawings outline the general outlines of his progressive theories in astronomy, geology, archaeology, and hydrology.Langdon would never forget his reaction when he finally saw the rare parchment drawing after waiting in line.Not to mention how disappointed he was.These sketches are really incomprehensible.Although they are well-preserved and written in exceptionally delicate calligraphy—in pink ink on beige cloth paper—the codex still looks like gibberish.At first Langdon thought he couldn't read da Vinci's notes because he was using outdated Italian.But after further careful study, he realized that not only did he not know a single Italian word, he didn't even know a single letter.

"Sir, try this first." The female guide in front of the exhibition stand whispered.She gestured toward a mirror attached to a chained exhibit.Langdon picked up the mirror and used it to study the incomprehensible writing.It didn't take long for him to figure it out. Langdon had always had a particular desire to read the minds of some of the great thinkers, so strong that he had forgotten that one's artistic talent could make it possible to write in a script that could only be read with a mirror. This handwriting is difficult even for himself to decipher.Historians are still arguing about whether Da Vinci wrote in such a peculiar way for his own enjoyment, or because he was afraid that others would steal his ideas from behind. meaningful.Da Vinci was just doing what he was happy to do.

Seeing that Robert Langdon understood what she meant, Sophie couldn't help but secretly smiled: "I can understand the first few words, which are written in English." What's the matter?" "It's a text written in reverse order. Get a mirror," Langdon said. "No, I bet the paper is thin enough," Sophie said, holding up the rosewood box and examining the underside of the lid by the light on the wall.In fact, her grandfather could not write in reverse order, so he was always playing tricks.He wrote in the normal way and then turned the paper over, giving the impression that he was writing backwards.Sophie guessed he stamped the words written in charcoal in the normal order on a piece of wood and thinned the back of it with a grinder until it was as thin as paper and the charcoal could be seen from behind the wood pen characters.Then he just had to turn it over and print it again.Sophie moved the lid closer to the light, and soon she knew she was right.The bright light came through from under a thin layer of wood, so the writing appeared on the bottom of the cover in exactly the opposite direction.So it was immediately clear.

"It's English," Teabing hoarsely lowered his head in shame, "it's still my mother tongue." In the back of the plane, Rémi Legrud craned his neck to hear anything other than the roar of the engines, but the conversations of the people in front could not be heard at all.Remi hated spending the evening this way, not at all.He looked down at the bound monk at his feet.This guy was lying very quietly at the moment, he seemed to have obeyed the arrangement of fate, or maybe he was silently praying in his heart to escape from death.