Chapter 10 chapter Five

Lin Hai woke up very early today, and quietly walked down the attic before 6 o'clock in the morning.Margaret was still sleeping on the bed, the quilt just covering her neck, her long black hair was scattered on the pillow, it may have been washed last night. He walked slowly to Margaret's side, the morning light shone on her eyelids, her white skin was as clear as glass, and it was easy to remind people of the legend of Sleeping Beauty. Is it just a kiss that can wake her up? Lin Hai's heartbeat quickened again, he quickly suppressed the thought in his heart, let it stop quickly.

Is Margaret in front of her a human being or a ghost?Her body had aged more than 400 years ago and turned into a pile of dead bones lying in the soil of France.However, if she is just a ghost now, how can she explain her behaviors such as eating and sleeping? Perhaps, her soul died as early as April 30, 1574, with the head of her beloved La Moore falling to the ground, and the remaining body was just a walking dead, accompanied by her husband to death a few years later.But her mother, Queen Catherine, still loves her and does not want to see her beloved daughter become a soulless person, so the Queen Mother recalled Margaret through the power of Nostradamus who mastered magic. and imprisoned her in the secret chamber of the Louvre.

That is to say - Margaret died on April 30, 1574, at least completely dead in spirit, but she was then resurrected under the spell of Nostradamus, or she In order not to conflict with the walking dead Marguerite, she, who really has a soul, can only be imprisoned in the secret room of the Louvre.And this so-called "secret room" is actually the oil painting "Marguerite". Just as life has countless possible bifurcations, for Margaret's life, she has two possibilities after April 30, 1574: the first is to become a completely "dead heart" Margaret The second is to be imprisoned forever in the secret room of the Louvre.What we see in history books is her first possibility, and the second possibility does exist, but ordinary people cannot see it, or can only discover it through oil paintings.And what Lin Hai sees at this moment is Margaret in the second possibility.

From the perspective of the outside world, Margaret was indeed imprisoned in the oil painting, but from the perspective of Margaret herself, she was imprisoned in the secret room of the Louvre.In the space of this mysterious oil painting (secret room), time is always stagnant, which reminds Lin Hai of the time theory of light speed travel - when the astronauts traveling at the speed of light in space return to the earth, they find that the earth time has passed for several A hundred years, and only a few hours on the spaceship, his descendants on the earth have multiplied for several generations, and he himself is still a young man.This is probably the reason why Margaret in the oil painting (Chamber of Secrets) still maintains a beautiful youth even though more than 400 years have passed in the human world.

Between the world of Margaret's oil painting (chamber) and our real world, there is a window where we can see each other. This window is the frame of the oil painting for us, and it is the secret room for Margaret. in the mirror.She can see those of us who appreciate the oil painting in the mirror in the back room, and we who appreciate the oil painting can also see Marguerite herself in the frame.Through this picture frame (mirror), Margaret in the oil painting (chamber of secrets) and people in our real world can peek at each other. As for why Marguerite was able to leave the oil painting (the chamber of secrets), step out of the frame from her mirror, and enter the human world more than four hundred years later from her world?Lin Hai was completely puzzled.

At this time Margaret finally woke up, she opened her emerald eyes, and seemed to be whispering something in her mouth.Lin Hai couldn't hear what she said clearly, so he couldn't help lowering his head and approaching her: "What are you talking about?" But she immediately pursed her lips, shook her head and said nothing. Suddenly, Lin Hai realized that he shouldn't be standing in front of a girl's bed, he retreated to the outside of the old house wisely, and went out to buy breakfast and lunch. When he came back with something to eat, Margaret had finished combing and washing, and her hair seemed to be pulled up. I don't know what tools she used to make a hairstyle very casually.

While eating breakfast, Margaret said softly, "Why did you look at me like that just now?" "Because—" Lin Hai hesitated for a while, and finally said it boldly, "You are very charming." Although all the women in the world like this sentence, Margaret's expression did not change at all. She said lightly: "I seem to remember that a long time ago, many men once said this sentence to me .” Lin Hai was stunned by her answer.That's right, the Margaret in history was glamorous and charming, she had bowed down to countless princes and nobles, and had countless romantic affairs. The words just now were too common for her.

Lin Hai's heart sank, and he felt ashamed. Although he was a handsome guy that many girls secretly liked in school, as long as he thought of the French court in the 16th century and the French movie "Queen Margot", he would immediately feel ashamed. You will feel ashamed. On that grand and romantic historical stage, Margaret is the moving heroine, while Lin Hai can't even stand up to the extras. Suddenly, a hand lifted Lin Hai's chin. It was Margaret's gentle hand. Her fingers were as cold as crystal, gently resting on his chin, which made the Chinese boy tremble slightly.

"Did my words hurt you?" The breath from her mouth blew onto Lin Hai's face, and she said in a very small voice, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, but your words reminded me of some past events—God Well, I almost forgot about those people, my brothers, the Duke of Guise, and..." Her words stopped suddenly, and her eye sockets trembled a few times, as if some ancient liquid was about to gush out.This surprised Lin Hai, she must have remembered someone, right? Lin Hai took out a handkerchief and handed it to her, but she shook her head and refused.Margaret seemed to be enduring in pain, but the tears flowed down slowly.

This is the first time Lin Hai sees Margaret crying, she is so lovely, who is she sad for?Lin Hai already had an answer in his heart. He didn't want to disturb Margaret any more, so he put the lunch on the table and said softly, "I'm going to school now, and I'll come back to see you in the afternoon." Lin Hai left the old house, feeling a little sour all of a sudden. An hour later, when he returned to the university, he happened to meet some roommates who asked him where he had been these days. Lin Hai could only perfunctorily say that he had gone to the suburbs to take care of his father.

There were two big classes in the morning, both of which Lin Hai didn't like. After three hours of sleepwalking, he rushed to the cafeteria for lunch. After lunch, he returned to his dormitory, turned on the computer that he hadn't used for a long time, and went online to enter the Google search engine.The keyword he searched for was "Nostradamus". Yes, Lin Hai wants to check the ghost that Margaret mentioned, this person who imprisoned Margaret in the oil painting (secret chamber) by some means, this person famous in history as a mysterious prophet . He searched many Chinese websites, and also searched French websites, and got more French information. Nostradamus, the mysterious figure in France in the 16th century, finally surfaced. Nostradamus's real name is Michel de Nostradamus, and "Nostradamus" is his Latin-style name. On December 14, 1503, Nostradamus was born in Provence, southern France. It is said that his ancestors had been court doctors. Nostradamus had extraordinary talents since he was a child, and became a doctor when he was young. Because he was punished by the religious court, he lived a homeless life for six years, and began to show the ability of prophecy. Pig, whose fate was prophesied by Nostradamus.Nostradamus predicted that black pigs would be eaten on the plate and white pigs would be eaten by wolves.The owner ordered to kill the white pig for dinner, but unexpectedly a wolf ate the white pork by surprise, so the servant had to kill the black pig to make a dish.The victim said that the white pig was already on the table, but Nostradamus insisted that it was the black pig, and finally he called the servants to find out the truth. In 1555, Nostradamus published his first collection of prophecies, The Centuries, spanning from his time until the end of the world.He originally planned to write a thousand poems and compile ten collections of prophecies, but the seventh was not finished. The collection of poems "The Centuries" is written in obscure medieval style, including French, Provence dialect, Latin, Italian and Greek. The chronological order is deliberately disrupted, and the secrets hidden in the book can only be deciphered by experts. After the publication of "The Centuries", the name of Nostradamus shook the whole of Europe, especially in the court, because one of the lines predicted the death of the king. In 1556, Queen Catherine summoned Nostradamus in Paris, and the queen asked about the quatrains that hinted at the king's death. In 1559, the king really died, and the facts verified the prophecy.So in the long life of Queen Catherine, she always believed in the prophecy of Nostradamus. In 1564, Queen Catherine led the royal family to tour the country and met Nopridamas again in Provence.There was a young man among the Queen Mother's entourage. Nostradamus wanted to see the mole on his body, but the young man refused.The next day, Nostradamus took a peek at the young man while he was asleep and predicted: "This young man will become the king of France in the future." His sons are still alive, so it is not his turn to inherit the throne.But many years later, the prophecy of Nostradamus really came true. The young man at the beginning became Margaret's husband. After all the political enemies were dead, he finally ascended the throne of France. He was Henry IV. In 1566, Nostradamus passed away. When his body was found, as he himself predicted: "Lying stiffly between the chair and the bed." Seeing this, Lin Hai took a deep breath, and it seemed that the terrifying footsteps in the art gallery sounded in his ears again—yes, that was Nostradamus, a terrifying magical ghost. But according to historical records, Nostradamus died in 1566, and he had been dead for eight years by the time Margaret was imprisoned in 1574.Lin Hai only thought of two possibilities, the first possibility: Nostradamus in 1574 was already a ghost; the second possibility: the one who died in 1566 was just a substitute of Nostradamus, the real magician Chardamus did not die (or his life has become another special form), he was secretly called into the royal palace in Paris by Queen Catherine, and became an important tool for Queen Mother to deal with political enemies. Perhaps, it doesn’t matter whether Nostradamus is a ghost or not. The important thing is that he lived forever in the dark, and spent more than four hundred years with Margaret in a hidden corner in the oil painting (Chamber of Secrets) . And now that Margaret has escaped from the cage of the oil painting (chamber of secrets), Nostradamus has the responsibility of guarding her, how could he let it go?Perhaps he will come after him soon, with those terrible footsteps in the dark... Lin Hai's back was already in a cold sweat. He closed all the webpages about Nostradamus, and he didn't dare to think about that wizard-like prophet anymore. After being silent for more than half a minute, Lin Hai suddenly thought of another person. Ashamed, that person was me. Yes, Lin Hai thought of me in Paris, he immediately found out my e-mail address, and typed an e-mail to me on the keyboard. The content of the email is what happened to him in the past two days, from Lin Hai entering the Western Art Museum the night before yesterday, being locked in the toilet after fainting, and then rescuing Margaret in the painting, to all the mysteries he is facing now And confusion, all in the email. After Lin Hai finished writing, he let out a long breath. In fact, he also wanted to know my progress in Paris. After only one class in the afternoon, he left school and hurried back to the old house. When he opened the door of the old house, but did not see Margaret, Lin Hai's heartbeat quickened immediately, but there was still no sign of her inside, and the lunch on the table had already been eaten. Could it be that she has been captured by Nostradamus? No, Lin Hai clutched his chest tightly, his heart almost jumped out of his throat, and he yelled loudly: "Margueritte! Margueritte!" "I'm up there." Margaret's voice came from the attic, which finally relieved Lin Hai's hanging heart. He quickly climbed up to the attic, and sure enough, he saw Margaret, who was standing on the small wooden bed with her head sticking out of the dormer window.Lin Hai also climbed to the edge of the dormer window, looked at the sky outside the window with her, and asked softly, "Why do you come to the attic?" "I want to see the sky, and I remember it's been a long, long time—I haven't seen the sky." Margaret's eyes were fixed on the blue sky, and she kept breathing deeply, as if even the tiles on the roof were fragrant. They stood side by side at the window, only two heads could fit in the narrow window, and their hair was almost pressed together.Lin Hai sighed softly: "Yes, you have been imprisoned in oil paintings for more than four hundred years." "I want to fly - I want to be free, it's been my childhood dream." Lin Hai nodded. He could understand Margaret's sadness. She had troubles in the emperor's house since she was a child, and being locked in a secret room for more than 400 years was an unprecedented pain in the world. He lowered his head and thought for a while, then suddenly said softly: "Let me go out with you for a walk. What's the difference between being locked up in this old room all day and being imprisoned in an oil painting?" "But I'm afraid—" "Afraid of what? Nostradamus? Margaret, look into my eyes." Sure enough, Margaret turned her head and stared closely into his eyes.Lin Hai wanted to give her a sense of security, and said sincerely: "I will protect you, forever!" "Alright then, let's go now!" A few minutes later, Lin Hai took Margaret and left the old house. This time Margaret was finally discovered by people, but she covered her face with a veil, so no one could see that she was a foreigner, but her "exotic clothes" more than 400 years ago did attract people. The eyes of many people. Lin Hai stopped a taxi and took her to Huaihai Road.The first thing to go to is of course the clothing store. Every woman likes to buy clothes, and the French princess four hundred years ago is of course no exception.On the way, she saw a clothing advertisement. It was a blonde girl in jeans.Lin Hai quickly bought this suit for her. When Margaret walked out of the fitting room, Lin Hai could hardly recognize her. The court dress had long since disappeared, replaced by a checked cotton shirt and jeans. Margaret liked this dress very much, and looked at it in front of the mirror for a long time. It seemed that it was a woman's nature.This set of clothes immediately aroused her desire to shop. She was a French princess four hundred years ago, and she never had to think about money bags, so she dragged Lin Hai into the shopping mall.This posture made Lin Hai's heart skip a beat, is it going to be her ATM today? Fortunately, Lin Hai has already brought his credit card. Although he is only a college student, French is a scarce language in the Chinese market, and French translation can often make more money. In the past year, Lin Hai has often worked outside to help others translate French contracts, so he also Accumulated a lot of extra money. For Margaret, who came from 400 years ago, Shanghai was like a paradise from an alien planet. Fortunately, she had seen it on TV last night, but there were still many things she couldn’t understand, and Lin Hai needed to explain it to her.What's more terrible is that Lin Hai's credit card burned four digits quickly, and Margaret bought several sets of clothes and shoes, and of course there were girls' underwear, and "armed" herself from head to toe— — It seems that she has become a woman of the 21st century. Then they carried their big bags and small bags and went to the Red House Western Restaurant to have dinner. Although Lin Hai didn't like Western food, it was very suitable for Marguerite's "French stomach". After dinner, she dragged Lin Hai to walk on Huaihai Road. There were so many foreigners on this road, and she had completely changed her image, so no one would stare at her anymore. It was night in Shanghai, all the lights were on, Margaret looked up at the colorful world, surrounded by fashionable petty bourgeois men and women, as if she had returned to the dreamlike "Night of St. Bartholomew" . Just when Lin Hai was getting carried away, Margaret suddenly grabbed his wrist and whispered tremblingly in his ear, "Oh my God, he's here." Lin Hai didn't understand at once: "Who's here?" "He—Nostradamus!" This name from more than 400 years ago shot into Lin Hai's ears like a sharp arrow, causing cold sweat to break out on his back.He hurriedly turned his head and looked around. In the night of Shanghai, there were countless human heads and strange faces, which could not be distinguished at all. Lin Hai trembled and asked, "Where is he?" "I could feel his breath - hiding in the crowd behind us." "But I can't see him!" "Nostradamus is an immortal ghost, of course you can't see him." Margaret held Lin Hai's hand tightly and walked forward quickly, "Hurry up, let's go quickly." They held hands, like two rabbits being hunted down by a hunter, they hurriedly shuttled through the crowd, bumping into others from time to time, and there were several complaints around them. Margaret gasped and said as she ran, "Nostradamus may be disguised as the face of some ordinary person, so you have to be careful of everyone around you." Countless faces flashed before his eyes, and the Huaihai Road at night was sometimes brightly lit and sometimes covered in shadows. In Lin Hai's flustered sight, it seemed that everyone might be Nostradamus, or behind everyone's eyes, There may be a pair of ghostly eyes hidden. No, Lin Hai felt that the more people there were, the more likely he would meet Nostradamus, so he pulled Margaret onto a small road.There are obviously fewer people here, and the light is much darker. The shadows of the plane trees on both sides of the road are whirling, and there is a rustling wind in the night. Although he was separated from the crowd, Lin Hai's sense of fear did not weaken. He felt that there were murderous intentions lurking in every dark corner.He anxiously wanted to hail a taxi, but there were very few empty cars at this time, and they didn't dare to stay in one place, so they could only walk in the direction of the old house. Lin Hai broke into a sweat within a short distance. He didn't know whether it was cold sweat or hot sweat. He looked back at the dark street and then at Margaret's pale face. Get rid of the nightmare. At 10 o'clock in the evening, they returned to the old house out of breath.As soon as the door was closed, Margaret leaned against the door and took a deep breath.Lin Hai calmed himself down slowly, and then whispered in her ear, "It's okay, with me by your side, Nostradamus will not hurt you." Margaret nodded, threw herself to the table and took a big sip of water. She looked down at her clothes - plaid shirt, jeans and Nike shoes, and said blankly, "Did I become another person?" "No, in my eyes, you will always be the French princess four hundred years ago." "Lin Hai..." But then she fell silent again, staring into Lin Hai's eyes, as if hesitating to speak. "Just say what you have to say." Margaret hesitated for a while, then suddenly covered her mouth and said, "Lin Hai, I think you should leave me quickly." "why?" Lin Hai approached her all of a sudden, his emerald eyes were so sad, just like those seen in oil paintings. "There is no reason, you leave me, it's for your own good." "Did I do something wrong? Or do you hate me?" Margaret shook her head immediately: "No, I am very grateful for the help you gave me. You saved me from the oil painting. You are my benefactor. I will always thank you forever." "If you don't tell me why, I will never leave you." She was silent for a while, the atmosphere in the old house was suffocating, until she said the reason: "Lin Hai, if you don't leave me now, I think you might die." "Death?" Lin Hai tremblingly uttered this terrible word, he shook his head, "You mean - if I continue to be with you, then I will die?" "That's right. I think Nostradamus has discovered us. He will definitely come and take me away. You will die by then." Lin Hai's lips turned purple: "Why? Why did I die?" "Because I've recalled it—it's not the first time I've escaped from the Chamber of Secrets." "Isn't it the first time you escaped? What do you mean?" "I've escaped from secret rooms in the past. A long, long time ago, there was a young art student who broke into the Saint-Louis Museum in Paris in the middle of the night and rescued me from the painting." Lin Hai was very surprised by Margaret's answer, he was startled and said, "Why didn't you tell me such an important matter?" "I'm sorry, I just recalled it just now. Because Nostradamus does not allow me to recall, he always forces me to forget all the past and keeps me in the secret room forever." Her tone was full of guilt, and she lowered her head in pain.Lin Hai calmed himself down, comforted her and said, "You said you were rescued back then, so what happened afterwards?" "I said that I have lost track of time in the secret room, I can't remember what year it was, I just remember that night, the young university student took me out of the museum, he hid me in a rooftop in Paris In the room, he came to bring me something to eat every day. After seven days like this, his face was getting thinner every day, and it seemed that there was a ghost attached to him. Until the night of the seventh day, he opened the window on the top floor and smiled. jumped out..." At this point, she was already a little choked up, and Lin Hai also felt his back trembling, but he still tried his best to restrain himself and said: "If you think the memory is too painful, then stop talking about it." "Let me go on, the art student died like this, and then Nostradamus appeared, and he killed the innocent young man. Nostradamus took me back to the museum, Put me back in that secret room. He warned me that anyone who helped me escape would die within a few days, and no one would be spared." "Is this the price for saving you?" Lin Hai suddenly spread his left hand, and the red "Aider moi" has not faded like a scar.He murmured "Aider mo" repeatedly, then shook his head and said softly, "Whoever saves you will die, so I'm going to die—then who will save me?" Those last two words, are still "Aider moi". Margaret lowered her head tremblingly, and said several times: "Excusez-moi." The word means "sorry", but Lin Hai shook his head and said, "You don't have to say sorry, I will never resent you. All this is because of myself, because I fell in love with you a long time ago." "What did you say?" Margaret didn't understand what he meant - "I fell in love with you a long time ago". At this moment, what Lin Hai thought of was that noon ten years ago, in this old room full of expired paint, he sneaked up to the attic as a teenager and saw the portrait of Margaret. From that noon when the sun shone on the dust, everything was doomed.Maybe this is the so-called "fate", a fate that everyone can't resist. Lin Hai's expression was no longer frightened. He regained his composure and said, "Margaret, do you believe in fate? It was fate that made us meet here." Then, Lin Hai told Margaret what he saw in the attic of the old house ten years ago. Something strange flashed across her eyes immediately: "You said that ten years ago, in the attic of this room, you saw my portrait?" "Yes, the portrait is very small, only about a third of the oil painting in the art gallery, it looks like a picture frame, but it must be your face in the portrait, I think it must be copied .” "Why is that painting gone now?" "I do not know either." Lin Hai remembered what his father had said to him again. Could it be that he was really sleepwalking?Is everything in front of me an illusion? But Margaret's eyes were a little different. She looked up at the ceiling, which was the small attic above.She sighed a long time and said, "Yes, we are destined to meet each other. It is destiny that I will be imprisoned for four hundred years, and it is also destiny that I will meet you four hundred years later." "Four hundred years... four hundred years... how many reincarnations are there?" Margaret suddenly lowered her voice: "Lin Hai, look into my eyes——" In an instant, Lin Hai stared straight at those translucent emerald eyes as if under a spell.He originally thought that those eyes could only be found in paintings, where did such a stunner come from in the world? She continued to say softly: "When you entered the art gallery for the first time and came to my oil painting, I found you in the mirror in the secret room-this is a transparent mirror, and you can see the people outside who are admiring the oil painting. People. While you are looking at me in the oil painting, I am also looking at you in the mirror in the secret room. In fact, at that moment, we are gazing at each other, and I can feel your heartbeat, feel your Breathe, feel the trembling inside of you." "I understand: to me, you are the person in the painting, and to you, I am the person in the mirror. When the person in the painting faces the person in the mirror, when I, Lin Hai, face you, Margaery T-it's all incredible." "Lin Hai, when I saw you for the first time, I felt like we knew each other a long time ago." Margaret shook her head and closed her eyes again, "But I can't remember Who are you, I can only look at you in the mirror sadly." "Isn't that why I saw you in the gallery and found Marguerite in the painting so sad?" "Yes, I think it is destined that you will meet me, then I must ask you for help and rescue me from the secret room." Lin Hai spread his left hand again, looking at the red line of "Aider moi". This is probably because of the power of her thoughts. When a person or ghost desires freedom, no one can stop it.He nodded: "Your call for help was successful. I dream about you almost every night. You kept me awake at night. In the end, you summoned me to the art gallery and asked me to break into the secret room to rescue you." "Yes, when you miraculously appeared in front of me for the second time in that dark night of the art gallery, I felt the desire in your eyes, and seemed to see the hope of freedom. I believe you will definitely help me, And only you can help me. Because I know the secret of the mirror—only a certain young man from the world can take me out of the oil painting in a certain silent night. None of the above conditions can be less, Otherwise I would not be able to escape the cage." "It really is a miracle." Margaret lowered her head as if grateful, and murmured: "Maybe a long, long time ago, maybe that was our previous life, I already knew you - in that life we ​​had some kind of A special, unforgettable relationship." "Past life?" Lin Hai suddenly thought of a person, could it be him in his previous life—the man who was beheaded in Paris 400 years ago, he lost his head, but was buried by the woman who loved him deeply. In an instant, he seemed to have returned to the bloody night in Paris. Everything around him seemed to have changed. The death knell was ringing in the dark sky, surrounded by towering old buildings. On this square known as the guillotine, he was waiting The arrival of the lover takes away his head that is about to fall. Is he the "lover's head"? Margaret looked up at him again and said, "Did I frighten you?" "No, you're driving me crazy." "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said these words. You must be tired, right? Then go to bed early." She took a big sip of water and sat on the bed and said, "I'm tired too." Lin Hai nodded and said, "Will Nostradamus find this place tonight? No, I can't let him come in and hurt you." So, he went to check the door first, and inserted an iron latch behind the door, even if someone picked the lock, he would never be able to enter the door.Lin Hai closed all the windows again, and stuck wooden sticks or iron bars behind the windows just in case, so he almost sealed the windows with wooden bars.After thinking about it, he was still uneasy, so he moved the table to the back of the door to block it, so that Nostradamus would not be able to come in, right?He asked himself silently, maybe this is just self-comfort in his heart. Margaret looked at everything he did, but her expression became even more sad, as if the prey had fallen into a trap, and could only obediently wait for the hunter to be slaughtered. After exchanging "Bonne nuit" (French: good night), Lin Hai washed his face in the bathroom and hurried up to the attic. However, Lin Hai found that the dormer window was still open, so he quickly closed the dormer window and inserted the latch inside. He didn't dare to look at the moonlight outside, so he simply blocked the window glass with old newspapers. Closing his eyes and lying on the small wooden bed, Lin Hai didn't dare to think about what happened tonight. It seemed that Nostradamus would knock on his door at any time...