Chapter 12 Chapter VII

Nostradamus did not come. In the dim light of early morning, Lin Hai slowly opened his eyes, and he saw the lattice of the dormer window, and a few pigeons flying past the window. "I'm alive!" Lin Hai said softly to himself.He took a few deep breaths, feeling as if he had risen from the grave. He quietly opened the attic door and looked down, only to see that Margaret had changed into a white nightgown and was hugging her knees, curled up on the bed like a shrimp. The bedroom of the old house was filled with warm morning light, which poured down on Margaret like a waterfall. She buried her head between her knees, her long black hair covered her face, and only a pair of white feet were exposed under her nightdress. Ya.Lin Hai rubbed his eyes, as if Margaret had changed from an oil painting to a black and white photo.

Lin Hai walked down the loft carefully, came to Margaret's side, stroked her hair and said, "What's wrong with you?" She obediently let Lin Hai touch her, until she slowly raised her head, opened her translucent emerald eyes, and said pitifully, "Because I don't know, I don't know..." "Do not know what is this?" Margaret stared into his eyes, and her lips moved for a long time: "I don't know which day, which hour, which minute, we will not be together - I will be locked up in the oil painting again, and you will lost life." These words were so bitter that Lin Hai immediately trembled. He quickly shook his head and said, "No, Nostradamus will not come, and I will not leave you."

"I had a dream just now. I dreamed——you died." Lin Hai's heart turned cold again, but he still tried his best to control himself and murmured: "Margaret, as long as you are still here, I will not die." Rather than saying this sentence was for Margaret, it is better to say that he was emboldening himself. Margaret finally got out of bed, looked out the window and said, "Are you really alive?" "Of course, am I living a good life?" Lin Hai checked the doors and windows again, then ran out to buy breakfast and lunch. After they came back, they finished their breakfast in silence, because Lin Hai didn't know what would happen in the next minute.After eating, he didn't say a word, and he was about to go to school with his bag on his back.

Margaret suddenly grabbed him from behind, Lin Hai stood motionless for a long time, and said softly: "Let me go, I will definitely be back this afternoon, please believe me." After half a minute of silence, Margaret finally let go, and Lin Hai hurried out of the old house. On the way to school, Lin Hai was always uneasy - he didn't know how this matter would end, when Nostradamus would appear, and whether he would die because of it. Even if that terrible ghost no longer appeared, even if she managed to escape, what should Margaret do?It is impossible for her to be "hidden in the old house" forever, Lin Hai felt like a helpless drowning person, who could only sink slowly with the whirlpool.

If there is any hope now, it is the parchment book—assuming that the parchment book hidden under the dormer window has some relationship with the portrait in the attic ten years ago, then once the contents of the parchment book are deciphered, we can know More clues, such as questions about Margaret, and mysterious old houses and attics. Yes, right now, the greatest hope is not on Lin Hai's side, but in Paris on the other side of the European continent. It is the writer he has placed high hopes on. I don't know how he is doing there?Lin Hai already sent an e-mail yesterday, I hope he has seen it there, if not, he can call Paris on his cell phone, don't worry about the international long-distance call fee.

Just thinking about it so wildly, Lin Hai has already arrived on the university campus.Oops, he was already late for the first class in the morning, so he rushed to the teaching building.When passing by the entrance of the small auditorium of the school, he stopped suddenly. The small auditorium is a Soviet-style house built in the 1950s. Lin Hai guessed that it was designed by the same person as the library.It used to be a place where the university held major events, but with the expansion of the university and the completion of new auditoriums and school theaters, it became deserted and gradually forgotten by many people.

There was no one around at the moment, and the side door of the small auditorium was open, revealing dim light from inside.Since it's already late, let's go inside and have a look.Lin Hai quietly walked into the side door, and saw that the small auditorium was empty, and there was still a lot of dust on the floor. He was looking for the painting—for God's sake, it was still there, still hanging on the wall. This is why Lin Hai walked into the small auditorium, because this painting was his grandfather's work. The oil painting hung high on the wall, more than two meters long and one meter high.In the painting is a golden wheat field. A middle-aged peasant woman is sitting on the ridge, holding a two or three-year-old child in her arms.

The name of the painting is. Lin Hai remembered that when he was very young, he was once brought to school by his grandfather. His grandfather specially took him to the small auditorium and asked him to look at this painting. His grandfather also said meaningfully: "Look more, don't forget she." Probably grandpa wanted Xiao Linhai to remember his dead mother. Grandpa has been a teacher of the art department of this university since the 1950s. He said that he was an unsuccessful painter and could only be an unknown teacher for the rest of his life.Grandpa painted this painting in 1955. It took half a year at that time, and three months of it was sent to work in the countryside.He was apparently inspired by the peasant woman for this large oil painting titled.Because of ideological reasons, the principal at that time liked this painting very much, so when the small auditorium was completed, he hung this painting here as a decoration. This hanging lasted for fifty long years until it was gradually forgotten , and the person who painted the picture back then has long since passed away.

Although this painting is full of the ideology of that era, the golden wheat fields in the painting still give people a visual shock, and the thick ink and colors are a bit like Van Gogh.The heroine in the face is simple and fit. Does such a mother symbolize the infinite vitality of rural China? Everyone can have their own interpretation of a painting. Lin Hai sighed softly, bid farewell to the painting left by his grandfather, and left the small silent auditorium. The morning class was taught by Mr. Wenger, and this was the first time Lin Hai was late for Mr. Wenger's class.Wenger wanted to ask him after class, but Lin Hai ran away as if avoiding it, because he was in a mess and didn't know what to say. leak out.

After lunch, he immediately went back to the dormitory, ready to take some daily necessities back to the old house.When he stuffed those things into his backpack, he suddenly felt a hard object in the bag, which turned out to be a disc with no words on it. Only then did Lin Hai remember that on the first night he went to the Western Art Museum, he met a man in black outside the library, and got this DVD by accident. It contains the movie "Queen Margot" and the last words of Margaret. Yes, Lin Hai ignored this detail a few days ago and kept this DVD lying in his bag.What the hell is going on with this DVD?Is the man in black real or an illusion?

Play it again and see!Lin Hai immediately brought this mysterious DVD to the student union, where there is an activity room where DVDs can be played.Taking advantage of the fact that there was no one here at noon, he quickly put the DVD into the machine. Sure enough, the movie "Queen Margot" appeared on the TV screen. In order to hurry up, Lin Hai pressed the fast-forward button on the remote control, and quickly ended the two-hour movie. When the credits at the end of the movie "Queen Margot" ended, the DVD had already been put to the end, and Margaret did not appear on the screen. How is this going?Lin Hai rewound the movie and played it for a while, but Margaret still didn't appear.When the movie is over, the movie is over, and this DVD has only so much capacity.He watched the extras of the movie again, but the real Margaret still didn't appear, it was just an ordinary movie disc. Where is the Margaret who asked him for help in the DVD? Lin Hai was stunned for a moment, and the words still seemed to be buzzing in his ears: "Aider moi!" He lowered his head and spread out the palm of his left hand, "Aider mot" was still engraved on his palm like a shameful scar. Does all this not exist? Maybe the teacher on duty who was called out by him that night was right. This was simply his own fabrication, a delusion in his mind.Perhaps, the so-called man in black did not exist at all, and the "Aider moi" written on the palm of his hand was actually written by Lin Hai himself with special paint. As for the DVD of "Queen Margot", why did it appear in Lin Hai's pocket?The reason may also be very simple: on the way back to school that day, I happened to find this film at the disc stand, so I bought it and put it in my pocket. But what about Margaret's cry for help on the DVD? There are only two possibilities. The first is that "SOS" did not exist in the first place, but Lin Hai's own hallucination, or a memory error; the second is that Margaret did call for help, and she found it in the mirror in the secret room. Lin Hai then used the mirror as a medium (for Lin Hai, it was an oil painting) to input some kind of help-seeking information into Lin Hai's mind, causing him to have various illusions and fantasies that night, and thus discovered the truth of Margaret's message. SOS message to him. So why can't I see it now? According to the above logic, since Margaret has escaped from the oil painting, the call for help at the end of the disc is meaningless, so Lin Hai can no longer see it. Lin Hai can't judge from normal reasoning, but this matter has already deviated from logic and cannot be faced with normal people's thinking. It was past 1:00 in the afternoon, and someone would come to the student union soon, Lin Hai hurriedly ejected the DVD from the machine, and left here quietly. Because it was an elective course in the afternoon, he left school early and rushed back. Lin Hai did not break his promise, and returned to the old house within the agreed time.Margaret was waiting for him anxiously: "I thought you weren't coming back." She changed into white clothes again, which she bought yesterday at a small street shop. They looked very clean, and matched her Katsuyuki skin and ebony silk. It seems that whether it is the 16th century or the 21st century, women Aesthetics are all the same. Lin Hai felt an inexplicable exhaustion. Although he had a lot to say in his heart, he couldn't say a word at the moment, so he could only sit down obediently. "I found something under the bed this morning..." Margaret picked up a few old books and put them on the table, a faint cloud of dust rose up.Only then did Lin Hai regain his spirit.Those books were all in French, and they seemed to be very old. He opened the thickest one first, but unexpectedly it was Proust's "Reminiscence of the Past", which was published by Pascal Press in Paris in 1930.This is the first time that Lin Hai saw a French version of a book in the 1930s, and it was Proust's "Remembrance of Time Gone".More importantly, there is a line of Chinese written on the inside page of the book—— Lin Danqing was purchased in Paris in the 24th year of the Republic of China This line of words was engraved into Lin Hai's eyes like a brand, and he was stunned for a moment, and he spit out two words: "Grandpa! Paris!" He said these two words in Chinese, so Margaret didn't understand: "What did you say?" Lin Hai turned his head slowly, pointed to the Chinese characters on the page, and answered her in French: "'Lin Danqing' is my grandfather's name, 'Republic of China Twenty-Four Years' is 1935, and this book is written by him. Bought in Paris in 1935." "Your grandfather has been to Paris?" "I don't know either. Grandpa used to live in this old house until he passed away ten years ago. I remember that when grandpa was alive, he never talked about his youth. I only know that he studied art from a young age, and later worked as an art teacher in college.” He looked through several other old books, all of which were published in France in the 1930s, including Stendhal's, Dumas's "Queen Margot" and Maupassant's "Her Life", in addition to two art books. Lin Hai couldn't tell the author's name. On the inside pages of these books, there are all Lin Danqing's signatures, as well as the time and place where the books were purchased.The purchase time was between 1933 and 1936, and the book purchase location was basically Paris (Paris), only "Her Life" was bought in Lyon (Lyon). "All these books were bought by your grandfather in France?" Lin Hai could only nod his head and said, "That's right, it seems that in the 1930s, Grandpa really went to France." Four hundred years ago, France did not have Dumas and Proust, so Margaret had never heard of these writers and works. She asked blankly, "What are these books about?" "History—Love—Childhood—Fate—" Lin Hai's lips moved, and he uttered a few important French words. "It seems that there are books about painting, right?" "Yes, my grandpa studied art when he was young, it seems that he studied in France." But Lin Hai lowered his head in doubt, "But such an important matter, why didn't grandpa ever mention it? " Moreover, if grandpa had ever studied in France, he would definitely be able to speak fluent French, but in Lin Hai's memory, grandpa had never spoken a word of foreign language, nor did he have any traces of French culture on his body, and he could not even see that he had Been abroad.As for Lin Hai's study of French, he has not been influenced by his grandfather at all. When he took French as an elective in middle school, his grandfather had passed away for several years. When she was puzzled, Margaret also expressed her question: "But I don't understand, since China is so good, why should I go to France to study?" Lin Hai could only smile wryly: "You don't know the history after 1574. Although our ancient China was great, since the 19th century, China has become very backward and has been bullied by many countries, including you, France. In order to change China’s backwardness, we must learn from your advanced countries, so after the end of the 19th century, many Chinese students went to your country, and this is still the case today.” "It's hard to imagine how weak France was in my time. The country was divided and the people killed each other, while the far east was full of charm. How much God loves you Chinese. I didn't expect that after more than 400 years, the world It turned upside down." "Don't talk about it, this matter is too complicated." He packed up those books and put them in a small cardboard box next to the bed and said, "If you feel too boring, you can take out a book and read it." "Actually, I've already flipped through one of them just now." She lowered her head suddenly, biting her lips and said, "That book is called "Queen Margot." Lin Hai's heart trembled suddenly. Isn't the protagonist of Alexandre Dumas' "Queen Margot" the historical Marguerite?When a person sees his or her name appearing in a classic historical novel and becoming the protagonist of the novel, how does he or she feel? He looked into Margaret's eyes and said, "How much of this book have you read?" "After reading the first few dozen pages, the person in the book seems to be me, right? My queen mother, my brothers, and..." At this point, she stopped suddenly, as if some painful memories were brought back.Lin Hai knew who she was going to talk about, and he didn't want to hear that name again. "That's enough, it's just a novel. The content of the novel is all fabricated by the novelist. Even a historical novel is by no means equal to history. It can only be said to be the personal creation of Alexandre Dumas. You must not cover those things covered by the book." really." Margaret's tone became more and more sad, but she tried her best to control her emotions: "Although, for the time I was born, this is a book written by people more than two hundred years later. But it is precisely this book The book awakened some of my memories and made me unable to extricate myself..." "Stop talking about that, let's watch TV for a while." Lin Hai deliberately wanted to change the subject, picked up the remote control and turned on the TV.Although it was an old color TV bought ten years ago, the picture was quite clear, and it finally caught Margaret's attention. Everything spoken on TV was in Chinese, and Margaret couldn't understand a single word, but she still concentrated on it, as if we were watching an original foreign film without subtitles. At dusk, Lin Hai went out to buy dinner. This time he didn't buy foreign fast food, but bought two portions of Chinese food. He thought it was time for Margaret to try Chinese food.In addition, he went to the supermarket to buy tape, nails, hammers and other items, these things will be useful tonight. He didn't keep Margaret waiting for a long time, and returned to the old house as quickly as possible. The food was still hot. To Lin Hai's relief, Margaret fell in love with Chinese food after only a few bites.No wonder there are Chinese restaurants wherever there are Chinese people. Even the French princess was conquered more than 400 years ago. It turns out that Chinese food is the "universal truth". With Lin Hai's help, Margaret tried to use the chopsticks, but after a few pinches, she picked up the spoon again, which made her smile rarely.Lin Hai also wanted to laugh, but couldn't because he felt that the happiness was too short, like an unreal dream. Seeing Margaret eating, he suddenly thought of a painting - "The Last Supper". Maybe Nostradamus will appear tonight. Will this be the last supper for the two of them? After eating, Margaret forgot about the honor of the princess. She licked her lips with the tip of her tongue and said, "This is probably the best dinner I have had in more than 400 years." Lin Hai had already finished eating. He walked to the window and looked at the night outside, without speaking for a long time. Margaret's happiness passed quickly, she didn't turn on the TV, she just sat by the bed alone, wondering what was on her mind. The old house was silent for more than two hours. Lin Hai kept looking at Margaret quietly, and finally couldn't help but speak: "Margueritte, what are you thinking?" "I'm thinking of someone." She slowly raised her head with a very complicated expression, "You know who that person is, and you can tell his name." After hesitating for a few seconds, Lin Hai said the name—De La Mole. The name ran through Margaret's body like electricity, and she bit her lip and said, "Yes, I have thought of him." "Tell the story about you and him, I am willing to listen." She was silent for a while, then said softly, "I first met him on the day Henry and I got married." Lin Hai was taken aback. Could it be the same as the one in the movie? Marguerite continued: "I know that in the streets and alleys of Paris, there are many different versions of stories about me and La Moore, but I am definitely not the person they imagined." Lin Hai understood what she meant, as long as he looked into Margaret's eyes, he knew that she was definitely not the legendary slut.The love between her and La Mole was originally pure and noble, and there was no reason to doubt her chastity.He asked faintly: "Have you also experienced 'St. Bartholomew's Night'?" "Yes, it was a bloody and horrific night, and I'll never want to think about that night again." "Did you and Larmor fall in love that night?" "Maybe. The relationship between me and Lamor is very secret. Although my husband found out later, he didn't have much resentment, because Henry and I were purely political marriages, and we didn't have the slightest affection at all." " Marguerite seemed to be hiding a lot, and quickly jumped to the end, "The one who actually ordered the arrest and execution of La Moore was actually my queen mother." "Do you still remember the day Lamor was executed?" Lin Hai's heart also tightened, he knew that he might have touched Marguerite's sore spot, so he paused and said, "I'm sorry, you don't have to Said." "Let me say - it was April 30, 1574, a day I will never forget, when Larmor was beheaded in a square in Paris. I was hiding in a small room near the square when When I saw Lamour again, he was already decapitated. I bought off the executioner and got Lamour's beheaded head. On the streets of Paris in the dark night, I was wearing a long white dress, hugging I hurried past the head of my lover. When I came to the small church in the Montemar heights, my white skirt was already stained red by the blood of the head. I felt countless ghosts floating around, singing dirges for us in the tomb. With tears in my eyes I buried the head under the chapel, and my heart was buried with Larmor." After listening to this long spiritual monologue, Lin Hai felt that he had also arrived in Paris in 1574, his head had been cut off, and he was slowly walking through the dark and cold streets in the arms of Marguerite fluttering in white. She let out a long breath, as if spewing out more than four hundred years of sadness: "Yes, my heart has died since that day, and I was imprisoned in the secret room of the Louvre the next day .Four hundred years have passed, I lost time and years, until now I meet you again." Lin Hai trembled and took half a step back: "No, I am not your De La Mole, nor am I the Frenchman four hundred years ago. I am me, and my name is Lin Hai!" "Don't you believe in fate? It is fate that brought us together. It was destined four hundred years ago. We have to be separated for such a long time to meet again in this distant place." Margaret slowly approached Lin Hai, her hands were so cold, like an octopus crawling out of the dark, tightly grasping Lin Hai. Their faces are also getting closer, and each other's heartbeat can be heard in the silent room. And the other's breath. Getting closer…… Suddenly, the electric light went out, and the room became pitch black. Just when Lin Hai's heart was about to jump out, the light suddenly came back on again, but within a few seconds the light went dark again.The electric light flickered on and off like a convulsion. Margaret's face was sometimes illuminated by lights, and sometimes shrouded in darkness. Every time the light flickered, Lin Hai could detect the fear in her eyes.She leaned tightly next to Lin Hai, barely daring to open her eyes. Lin Hai also stared at the electric light helplessly, the flickering light made him feel dizzy for a while, it looked like the voltage was unstable, this is also common in houses with aging wires, but at this moment he is more willing to believe in another One possibility—Nostradamus is here. Under the flickering lights of the cemetery, Margaret uttered the name tremblingly: "Nostradamus." Just when Lin Hai's heart was as heavy as lead, he suddenly heard a heavy knock on the door! A ghost knocking on the door in the middle of the night?The sound in this dark night was so terrible that it almost broke his heart. Margaret also raised her head and said, "Here he is!" Their faces flickered under the light, like two frightened birds, while the knocking on the door continued, like the sound of the waves at night.This "sound of hell" gradually surrounded the entire old house, and it seemed to be coming from the windowpane, ceiling, and floor. Lin Hai struggled to stand up, walked carefully to the door, and put his ears on the door panel.The heavy knock on the door outside hit his eardrums violently—who is the person outside the door?Or is there a human outside the door? At this moment Margaret shouted loudly: "Don't open the door!" He came to his senses all of a sudden, and hurriedly moved the table over, firmly pressing it against the back of the door panel, and then let the knocking on the door continue. Margaret had already hid in his arms, and Lin Hai hugged her without any scruples.At this moment they are all in extreme fear, especially Lin Hai doesn't know if he will die in the next minute.He only felt that Margaret's body was no longer cold, she was so fiery and trembling, like a frightened kitten, with long black hair sticking to the corner of his mouth, and a faint smell invaded his heart. Is this the end of the world?Wouldn't it be romantic if two people died holding each other like this?Although there is no blood-stained head of La Moore, nor the lights of the dark night in Paris, Lin Hai seems to have glimpsed the truest eyes of Marguerite amidst the deep fear created by Nostradamus. Under the ghostly flickering lights, they looked into each other's eyes, which was the final confession of the dying, and there was no need for half a sentence, and then they closed their eyes in unison. After more than ten minutes like this, the terrible knock on the door suddenly stopped, and the electric lights returned to normal.Like a drowning person who had just been rescued, Lin Hai slowly opened his eyes and took a few deep breaths, his forehead was covered with beads of sweat. Margaret also opened her eyes. She stared blankly at the electric light above her head and the night outside the glass window, paused for a moment and said, "He's gone?" Is Nostradamus gone?Lin Hai gently let go of Margaret, and he went to the back of the door and listened carefully to the movement outside. It seemed that there was no sound at all. The air in the old house was still close to suffocation. He and Margaret didn't speak any more, they just looked at each other and waited for the moment when Nostradamus came again. However, about half an hour later, the lights remained normal, and there was no sound from outside the door.Lin Hai finally relaxed, sitting on the chair and panting heavily. But Margaret said coldly: "Nostradamus will come back." This sentence immediately reminded Lin Hai, who knows when that ghost will come again?He stood up again, walked around the room a few times, and suddenly thought of the things he bought in the supermarket in the afternoon. Lin Hai hurriedly took out the tapes and nails, first tapped the nails on the important positions of the windows with a hammer, which was equivalent to fixing the windows, and then sealed the gaps between the doors and windows with tapes.He didn't even spare the dormer windows in the attic. Those thick tapes almost covered the window panes, making it impossible to see the light outside clearly.Then he pushed the table behind the door, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't knock the door open. In the end, even Lin Hai himself shook his head. He almost made the old house into a secret room, or more like a sealed ancient tomb. Margaret smiled bitterly: "Do you want to bury us all here? If you can survive tonight, what will you do tomorrow?" At this time, Lin Hai's spirit was about to collapse. He grabbed his hair and said, "Do we still have tomorrow?" Margaret stopped talking, she lowered her head and said, "Go to bed early, I'm tired." Ten minutes later, Lin Hai climbed to the attic. He looked at the dormer windows that had been sealed with tape, and suddenly thought of the idiom "to bind oneself in a cocoon". It was already midnight, and he lay quietly on the small wooden bed. The terrible experience just now kept him awake for a long time. Lin Hai tried to calm himself down, temporarily forgetting the fear just now, and then reorganized everything that happened recently.How incredible this is, why did all this happen to me? The scenes turned like movie scenes, and he thought of the attic he was in, the noon ten years ago, and the parchment found under the dormer window. No, there can be no such coincidence in the world. The portrait of Margaret hanging here ten years ago and the parchment about the "Mystery of Louis IX" all happened in this attic, and these things are Grandpa stayed here, right? Today he has discovered that his grandfather studied in Paris, France in the 1930s, where he studied fine arts.The portrait of Marguerite and the parchment are obviously related to French history, all of which point to his grandfather Lin Danqing. Could it be related to my grandfather's experience of studying abroad in France? If it really mattered, it might be Lin Hai's last straw, he immediately jumped out of bed, gasping for breath in the dark attic. He thought of the man far away in Paris. I sent an E-mail there yesterday, I don’t know if I received it, I can’t wait until tomorrow morning, God doesn’t have much time for Lin Hai. No, tell him now! Lin Hai picked up his mobile phone, quickly found the writer's number, and pressed the dial key forcefully. The radio wave flew out of the small attic in an instant, went straight to the distant starry sky, spanned more than 10,000 kilometers and countless countries, and reached the distant Paris...