Chapter 80 Chapter 78

Sophie held the cipher box in her arms and began to type these letters, her heart was filled with joy. "An ancient word that contains wisdom." Langdon and Teabing watched from the side, and seemed to have stopped breathing at this moment. "SOF-" "Careful," Teabing urged, "be careful." "IA-" Sophie typed the last letter. "Okay," she said in a low voice, looking up at the others: "I'm going to open it." "Remember there's a bottle of vinegar in there," Langdon said softly, with a mixture of horror and joy. "You have to be careful."

Sophie knew that if the cryptex was the same as the ones she had opened when she was young, she would just have to hold tightly to the ends of the cylinder—no need to worry about letters or numbers—and pull hard, slowly toward the opposite end. direction pressure.If the entered numbers or letters happen to match the password, one end of the cylinder will slide away automatically.It was like opening the lid of a camera lens so she could reach in and pull out a document written on rolled papyrus.And these documents were all wrapped around the vinegar bottle.However, if they enter the incorrect code, the external force Sophie exerts on the ends of the cobblestone creates a thrust inside, which acts down on the cobblestone and puts pressure on the vinegar glass bottle inside, If you push too hard, you'll eventually break it.

"Pull gently." She said to herself. Teabing and Langdon both moved closer as Sophie wrapped her palms around the ends of the cylinder.Sophie was so full of joy that she was about to break the code that she almost forgot what they were trying to find inside.This is the keystone of the Priory of Mount Xion.According to Teabing, it contains a map that can help us find the Holy Grail. With this map, we can find the tomb of Mary Magdalene and the precious vessel that Jesus was jealous of at the Last Supper... You can also uncover countless unknown truths. Holding the cobblestone tightly, Sophie checked again that all the letters were the same as those on the indicators.Then she pushed slowly.But nothing happened.She pushed harder, and suddenly, the cobblestone tube opened with a "bang" like a well-designed telescope, and the heavy end of the cylinder still fell into her hand.Langdon and Teabing were so nervous they almost jumped up.Sophie put the lid of the cylinder on the table, tilted the cylinder, squinted to see what was inside, her heart was beating rapidly.

Ah, a scroll! Sophie peered into the gap between the rolled paper and saw that it was wrapped in a cylindrical object, which she thought might be a vinegar bottle.However, it is strange that the paper wrapped around the vinegar bottle is not the usual thin papyrus, but parchment.That would be weird, she thought.Vinegar doesn't dissolve parchment.She looked again at the gap in the scroll and realized that the thing in the middle wasn't a vinegar bottle at all, it was something else. "What's the matter?" Teabing asked her. "Get that scroll out now." Sophie frowned, grabbed the rolled parchment and the items wrapped by it, and took them out of the cylinder.

"That's not papyrus, it's so heavy!" Teabing said. "I know, there's something stuffed in the paper." "What is that? Is it a vinegar bottle?" "No." Sophie unfolded the rolled parchment, revealing its contents. "it is this." Langdon's heart sank when he saw what was wrapped in parchment. "My God, what an architect your grandfather was!" Teabing said, collapsing in his seat. Langdon's eyes widened in surprise. "I don't think Saunière would make things so simple." There was another cryptex on the table now, but smaller than the previous one, made of black onyx, it had been kept inside the previous cryptex.Presumably Saunière must have been interested in dualism.Two cryptex.Everything comes in pairs.Double meaning.man woman.There is white in black, and black in white.Langdon only felt that the big net woven by symbolic symbols was spreading outward.White begets black.

Every man is born of a woman. White - woman. Black - man. Langdon reached over and lifted the smaller cryptex.It was identical in appearance to the previous one, except that it was half the size of the larger one, and except for the color.He heard the familiar murmur.Apparently, the vinegar bottle they had heard of before was in this smaller cryptex. "All right, Robert," Teabing said, pushing the parchment toward him. "You'll be glad to hear that at least we're in the right direction." Langdon examined the parchment carefully.He saw another quatrain in fine calligraphy, still in iambic pentameter.The meaning of the poem was very vague, but he only needed to read the first line to know that Teabing's trip to England would be worthwhile.The first line of the poem is this:

A knight whose funeral the Pope presided over was buried in London. The rest of the poem makes it clear: To open the second cryptex, one must visit the knight's grave somewhere in the city. Langdon turned to Teabing excitedly, "What do you think this poem refers to?" Teabing grinned, "It won't be the hardest guess. But I know the answer is in the tomb." At that moment, fifteen miles ahead of them, six police cars raced down the rain-soaked street toward Biggin Hill Airport.