Chapter 87 Chapter 85

"The ball you are looking for should have been in the knight's tomb." All the stone statues in the Temple Church lie on their backs without exception, with their heads resting on rectangular stone pillows.Sophie just felt a chill in her heart.The "ball" mentioned in the poem reminded her of what she saw in her grandfather's basement that night. "Divine Marriage".round ball. Sophie wondered if anyone had ever performed such a service in this chapel.This circular room seems to have been specially built for such ceremonies.A long stone chair with backrest surrounds a bare space in the center.Amphitheater, as Robert said just now.She imagined that at night, the room would be filled with masked people, holding torches and chanting repeatedly, and the grand occasion of "communicating with God" would be staged in the center of the room.

With difficulty, she forced herself not to think that way, and followed Langdon and Teabing to the first of the dirt-riding statues.Despite Teabing's insistence that the investigation be done with caution, Sophie ran up ahead of them impatiently, taking a hasty look at the five statues of knights on the left. She inspected these tombs carefully, carefully observing the commonalities and differences between them.Each rider lay on his back, but three had their legs stretched out straight.While the other two knights put their legs together.This odd discrepancy doesn't seem to have much to do with the missing orb, though.Looking closely at their clothes, she saw that two of them wore tunics over their armor, while the other three wore ankle-length robes.This also doesn't explain anything.Sophie then turned to their other and only difference—their different hand positions.Two cavaliers are holding swords in their hands, two are praying devoutly with their palms folded, and one has their hands on their hips.Sophie looked at it for a long time before she shrugged. She saw no clue that the orb was missing.

Feeling the weight of the cryptex in her vest pocket, she glanced back at Langdon and Teabing—the two men were walking slowly, they were still looking at the third stone statue riding the earth, but they obviously didn't What luck.She didn't want to wait, so she turned around and walked towards another group of knight statues.She walked across the open space, chanting the poem over and over, she had read it so many times that she could recite it from memory by now. "Buried a knight in London for whom the Pope presided over his funeral. His actions offended God because they were contrary to His will.

The orb you're looking for should have been in the knight's tomb. It reveals the secret of rosy skin and fertile womb. " Sophie came to the second group of statues of knights, and she found that these statues were no different from the first group.Although they are lying on the ground, wearing armor and swords, their postures are different. Except for the tenth and last tomb. She hurried over, opened her eyes wide and looked down. I didn't see any stone pillow, I didn't see it wearing armor, I didn't see it wearing a long robe, and I didn't see it wearing a sword.

"Robert, Sir Ray," she cried, echoing throughout the room. "There's something missing here." The two men looked up in unison, and started running towards her from across the room. "Did you mean the round ball?" Teabing shouted excitedly, while quickly running over from the opposite side.His crutch made intermittent noises. "Is the ball missing?" "No." Sophie frowned and looked at the tenth tomb. "We seem to be missing a statue of a knight." Two men came to her side, looking down at the tenth tomb suspiciously.They didn't see any stone statues of knights lying in this open space.This tomb is basically a sealed stone box.This stone box is trapezoidal, with a small bottom and widening towards the top, with a very pointed lid on it.

"Why is the stone statue of the knight missing?" Langdon asked in surprise. "It's so interesting." Teabing stroked his chin and said, "I forgot about such a strange thing. I haven't been here for many years." "This coffin," Sophie said, "looks like it was built at the same time as the other nine tombs and by the same sculptor, so why is the statue of the knight placed in the open air instead of the other nine tombs?" In the box?" Teabing shook his head: "This is a mystery of the church. As far as I know, no one knows the reason."

"Are you okay?" The altar assistant came over with a rather disturbed expression. "If I offend you, please forgive me. However, you told me that you came here to scatter the ashes, but how do you look like you are here for sightseeing?" Teabing looked at him angrily, then turned to Langdon and said, "Mr. Wren, obviously your family's generosity has not bought you enough time to stay here as before. Therefore, we still put the ashes away." Take it out and deal with it." He turned to Sophie and said, "Mrs. Wren, what do you think?" Sophie followed suit, taking the parchment-wrapped cryptex out of her pocket.

"Okay," Teabing shouted to the altar assistant, "can you leave for a while?" The altar boy stood still, staring at Langdon, and said, "You look familiar." Teabing became angry: "Maybe that's why Mr. Wren comes here every year." Sophie was frightened now.Maybe he had seen Langdon on the Vatican TV show last year. "I've never seen Mr. Wren," the altar boy declared. "You got it wrong." Langdon said politely, "I believe we met last year. Father Knowles just didn't introduce us formally, but I recognized you as soon as I walked in. Well, I I know how offended I am this time, but if you give me a few more minutes, I might walk away now and scatter the ashes in the grave." Langdon paused , Teabing kept nodding in agreement.

The altar assistant seemed even more suspicious: "But these are not tombs." "Excuse me, what did you say?" Langdon interjected. "Of course they're graves," Teabing declared loudly. "What the hell are you talking about?" The altar assistant shook his head: "The graves are buried with corpses. But these are statues. They are gifts for real people. There are no corpses under these stone statues." "But it's a catacomb," cried Teabing. "Only outdated history books say that. During the renovation of the church in 1950, it was believed to be a catacomb, but it turned out to be empty." He turned to Langdon and said, "I thought Wren Mister knows about this, because it was his family who discovered this fact."

There was an uneasy silence in the room. It wasn't until the door of the annex building was opened with a "bang" that the silence in the house was broken. "It must be Father Knowles," Teabing said, "Do you want to go and see?" Although the altar assistant didn't believe it, he still swaggered towards the place where the sound came from, leaving Langdon, Sophie, and Teabing behind, looking at each other depressedly. "Ray," Langdon whispered, "what did he say? No body in the grave?" Teabing was a little distracted: "I don't know, I always thought—of course, this must be the place. I can't imagine what he's talking about. It's pointless." "I can look at that song again." Poetry?" Langdon asked.

Sophie took the cryptex out of her pocket and handed it to him carefully. Langdon unfolded the parchment, read the poem, and put the cryptex in his hand. "Yes, the poem must be alluding to graves, not to statues." "Is it possible that this poem is wrong?" Teabing asked. "Jacques, did Saunière make the same mistake as I did?" Langdon thought about it and shook his head: "Ray, you are talking about yourself. This church was built by the Templars from the Priory of Sion's army. There are signs that if some Templar corpses Buried here, the elders of the Priory of Mount Sion will think it is a good idea." Teabing was dumbfounded: "But this place is very good." He suddenly turned to face the stone statues of knights, "We found that there must be something missing!" The altar boy entered the outbuilding, but was surprised to find that there was no one there. "Father Knowles?" he thought, when I clearly heard the door open just now.He continued walking until he could see the entrance of the church. A thin man in evening dress stood at the door, scratching his scalp, looking very dazed.The altar assistant yelled angrily, realizing that he forgot to close the door again after letting other people in, which made the poor country bumpkin run in from the street outside, looking at him, he seemed to be How to find the route to attend the wedding. "I'm sorry," he shouted, running past a huge stone pillar, "we haven't opened the door yet." Behind him, there was a sudden rustling of clothes.Before the altar assistant could turn around, his head was turned away first.A strong hand tightly covered his mouth from behind, so that his shouts would not be heard.The hand covering him was snow white, and he could smell the wine. The prim man in evening dress calmly drew a small revolver and aimed it straight at the altar boy's forehead. The altar boy felt his lower body heat up, and he realized that he was incontinent. "Listen carefully," the man in evening gown said in a low voice, "I want you to get out of here immediately, keep quiet, and run away, don't stop. Do you hear me clearly?" The altar assistant couldn't speak. , only nodded desperately. "If you call the police—" the man in evening dress lowered his gun: "We will definitely find you." The altar assistant then quickly ran out of the courtyard outside, not daring to stop for a moment, until his legs became weak and he was exhausted.