Chapter 100 Chapter 98

Langdon and Sophie walked slowly along the north aisle, their bodies always hidden in the shadows behind the many stone pillars that separated the aisle from the empty nave.Although they had walked more than half of the distance along the main hall, they still couldn't see Newton's tomb.His sarcophagus is concealed in an alcove, and from here it is indistinct to squint. "At least there should be no one over there," Sophie whispered. Langdon nodded, much more relieved.The whole part of the nave near Newton's tomb was now completely deserted. "I'll go over there first," he whispered to Sophie, "you'd better hide in case someone—"

Sophie had already stepped out of the shadow of the stone pillar, and walked across the open ground. "--stalking." Langdon sighed, and hurried after her. They walked diagonally across the nave, and when they saw the exquisitely shaped tomb suddenly appear, they remained silent.A black marble sarcophagus, a statue of Sir Newton with a slanted body, two statues of winged children, a huge pyramid... and a huge orb. "Do you know what that thing is?" Sophie asked with concern. Langdon shook his head, also a little surprised. "They're like planets carved on them," said Sophie.

As they walked toward the alcove, Langdon's heart sank.Newton's tomb is dotted with planets of all kinds -- stars, comets, and planets. "The ball you're looking for should be in the knight's tomb?" This seems a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. "Planets, all planets," Sophie said with concern, "There are a lot of them." Langdon frowned.The only connection between the planets and the Grail that he could think of was the pentagram of Venus, and he had already tried the word "Venus" on the way to the Templar Church. Sophie walked straight to the sarcophagus, but Langdon faltered a few steps away, and he inspected the church around him.

"On the Divinity," Sophie said, tilting her head, reading the titles of the books Newton was leaning against. "On Motion, Optics, and Principia Mathematica in Natural Philosophy?" She turned to him. "Do you hear anything?" Langdon stepped forward, deliberating carefully. "I remember the math being a little bit related to the gravitational pull between the planets. They're also spheres to be honest, but it always felt a bit far-fetched." "What about the zodiac signs?" Sophie said, pointing to the stars on the sphere. "Did you just say Pisces and Aquarius?"

It's the end of the world, Langdon thought. "The tail of Pisces and the head of Aquarius are said to be historic symbols of the Priory of Sion's plan to bring the Grail Documents to the world." Yet the new millennium has come and gone without incident, leaving historians There is no certainty when the truth will be revealed. "It's possible," said Sophie, "that the Priory of Sion's plan to leak the truth may have something to do with the last line of the poem." "It reveals the secret of rosy skin and a fertile womb." Langdon shuddered.He hadn't thought about it that way before.

"You told me before that the timing of the Priory of Sion's plan to reveal the implementation of the Holy Rose and her pregnancy is directly linked to the planetary positions." Langdon nodded in agreement, beginning to feel a slight possibility.Even so, his intuition told him that astronomy was not the key to uncovering the truth.The master's previous solutions are convincing and symbolic --- such as "Mona Lisa", "Our Lady of the Rocks" and SOFIA.This kind of persuasion is obviously lacking in the concept of planets and zodiac signs.So, so far, Jacques Saunière has proven to be a careful coder, and Langdon has to trust his final code - the five-member code that failed to reveal the absolute privacy of the Priory of Sion. Words made of letters -- will turn out not only to be very symbolic, but also very simple and clear.If the solution is like the others, it may be painfully obvious once figured out.

"Look," Sophie gasped, grabbing Langdon's arm.His racing thoughts were interrupted.From her horrified touch, Langdon felt sure that someone was coming towards them, but when he turned to face her, he found her staring at the top of the black sarcophagus, wide-eyed in surprise. "Someone has been here just now," she said softly, pointing to a spot near Sir Newton's outstretched right foot. Langdon had no idea what she was concerned about.A careless tourist left the charcoal pencil for tracing the inscription on the lid of the sarcophagus near Newton's feet.What is that.Langdon reached out and picked it up, but as he leaned over the sarcophagus, a beam of light fell on the freshly polished black marble sarcophagus, and he froze for a moment.Soon, he understood the reason for Sophie's fear.

On the lid of the sarcophagus and on the bottom of the statue of Newton, someone scrawled a few lines of almost illegible words in charcoal, emitting a faint light. Teabing was in my hand. You pass through the collegiate hall, Go out of the south gate and into the garden. Langdon read it twice, his heart beating wildly. Sophie turned around and quickly scanned the main hall. Langdon read these lines, and although he was terrified, he tried to convince himself that this was good news.Ray Teabing was still alive; of course there was another layer to it. "They don't know the code either," Langdon whispered.

Sophie nodded.How else would they let others know their whereabouts? "They might have to trade Ray Teabing for the code." "Maybe it's a trap." Langdon shook his head. "I don't think so. The garden is just outside the church, and it's a very public place." He had once been to the church's famous college garden—a small orchard and a herb garden—which was self-taught. It is left over from the day when Taoist priests planted natural medicinal materials.The College Garden claims to have the oldest fruit tree still alive in the UK. It is a very popular place for tourists. You don't need to go to the church, you can see it from outside. "I think it's a credit to call us outside so we don't have to worry about safety."

Sophie didn't believe it. "You mean to go outside, right? There aren't any metal detectors there." Langdon looked sad because Sophie had hit a point. He peered back into the planet-carved tomb, hoping to find clues to deciphering the cryptex code... and came up with some bargaining countermeasures.I was the one who implicated Ray Teabing. If there is still a chance, I must try to rescue him. "The message told us to go through the collegiate hall to the south exit of the church," Sophie said. "Maybe we can see the garden from the exit? That way, we can get out before going out there and getting into a dangerous situation." Maybe it's time to act."

That's not a bad idea.Langdon vaguely remembered that the Collegiate Hall was a huge octagonal hall, where Parliament was originally held before the modern British Parliament was built.He hadn't been there in years, but he remembered walking across a verandah somewhere.He took a few steps back, inspected the inner altar on the right, and turned his gaze to the main hall of the church they had just come up to. A vaulted door with many holes is nearby, and a large signboard can be seen. From here leads to: various verandahs vicarage Clergy Hall museum Eucharist St. Faith Church parsonage hall Langdon and Sophie trotted past under the sign. They ran too fast, so they missed the apologetic text on the notice stating that some places were temporarily closed due to interior renovations. Immediately they came to a courtyard surrounded by high walls and without a roof.It was raining in the early morning, and the wind passed over their heads, making a low "humming" sound, as if someone was blowing on the mouth of the bottle.They entered the narrow, slightly sloping passage that adjoined the courtyard.Langdon felt the familiar uneasiness rising inside him every time he was in a confined space.These aisles are also called verandahs.Langdon also noticed with disquiet a connection between these fancy cloisters and the Latin word for claustrophobic (claustrophobic). Langdon walked towards the end of the tunnel with all his heart. He followed the prompts on the signboard to find the direction to the pastor's chapel.It was raining in spring, and the corridor was wet and cold.A gust of rain poured in from outside the lone columned wall, the only entrance of light in the hallway.At this time, two people hurriedly ran from the opposite side, eager to get rid of the embarrassing situation at present.The verandah was deserted now, and it is true that on a windy and rainy day the veranda was probably the least attractive aspect of the church.They walked forty yards along the eastern verandah, and to their left came an archway that led into another corridor.Although this was the population they were looking for, the entrance was sealed off with hanging ornaments and bulletin boards.The sign reads: The following internal renovations are temporarily closed: Eucharist St. Faith Church parsonage hall Looking from the hanging decoration, the long and deserted corridor is messy with scaffolding and discarded clothes.Through the gaps in the hanging ornaments, Langdon quickly saw two entrances, one on the left and one on the right, leading to the Eucharist and St. Faith's Church.The entrance to the Vicarage Hall was much further away, though, at the end of the long corridor.Even from here, though, Langdon could see its heavy wooden doors open, and its octagonal interior bathed in gray natural light pouring in from its huge windows.These windows face exactly the Academy Gardens. "You go through the chapel, out the south gate, and into the garden." "We've just left the east veranda," Langdon said, "so the south exit to the gardens must go through there, then go right." Sophie had now walked over the hanging ornaments and was on her way. They walked hurriedly along the dim corridor, the sound of wind and rain on the veranda gradually receding.The Collegiate Hall is a sort of satellite-like foil-an outbuilding standing at the end of this long corridor, separate from the other houses, to ensure that parliamentary activities can be held in secrecy here. "Looks big," Sophie said softly as she walked. Langdon had lost track of how big the room was.For even standing outside the gate, he could see across the wide ground to the astonishingly large windows in the distance opposite the octagonal hall.The windows were five stories high and stretched up to the vaulted ceiling, so of course they had a good view of the garden from here. They stepped over the threshold and found themselves squinting.Compared with the gloomy verandah, the collegiate hall is like a solarium.They walked a full ten steps into the hall, looking for the wall to the south, only to find that the door they were looking for was not there. They were standing in a huge dead end. Suddenly, the heavy wooden door opened with a "squeak" and was closed again heavily, and then the latch was also inserted, which made them both turn around in a hurry.The man who had been standing behind the door looked composed and pointed a small revolver at them.He is stocky and leans on two aluminum crutches. For a moment Langdon thought he was dreaming. This person was none other than the Ray Teabing he was looking for.