Margaret's Secret

Chapter 14 From Shanghai to Paris (6)
Lin Hai's back was already in a cold sweat. He closed all the webpages about Nostradamus, not daring 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 sent me an e-mail on the keyboard.

The content of the email is what happened to him in the last two days, from Lin Hai entering the Western Art Museum the night before yesterday, being locked in the toilet after passing out, and then rescuing Margaret in the painting, to the various mysteries and Confusion, all written 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.

In the afternoon, he only had one class, then left the 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: "Marguerite! Marguerite!"

"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. 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, the narrow window can only accommodate two heads, their heads are almost pressed together, Lin Hai also sighed softly: "Yes, you have been imprisoned in the oil painting for 400 days For many 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 up 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 is the difference between being locked up in this old house all day and being imprisoned in an oil painting for 400 years?"

"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!"

"Okay then, shall we 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 many people. human gaze.

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 400 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 attire had long since disappeared, replaced by a plaid 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 suit immediately aroused her desire to shop. She was a French princess 400 years ago. She never had to worry 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 on an alien planet. Although she had seen it on TV last night, 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 21st century woman.

Then they took 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 Margaret's "French stomach".

After dinner, she took Lin Hai for a 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 turned 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 was shot into Lin Hai's ears like a sharp arrow, making cold sweat break out on his back.He hurriedly turned his head and looked around. In the night of Shanghai, there were countless human heads and unfamiliar faces, which he couldn't tell apart 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 many 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 that behind everyone's eyes, there was There may be a pair of ghostly eyes hiding.

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 ten 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 gasped for breath.Lin Hai calmed himself down slowly, and then whispered in her ear, "It's okay, I'm by your side, I won't let Nostradamus 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 asked blankly, "Did I become another person?"

"No, in my eyes, you will always be the French princess 400 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 thank you forever and ever."

"If you don't tell me why, I will never leave you."

She was silent for another moment, 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 trembled and uttered this terrible word, shaking 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, and you will probably die by then."

Lin Hai's lips turned purple: "Why? Why did I die?"

"Because I have already recalled... This is not the first time I have 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, 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 I had lost track of time in the Chamber of Secrets, I can't remember what year it was, I just remember the night when the young university student took me out of the museum and hid me in a rooftop room in Paris He brought me something to eat every day. After seven days like this, his face was getting thinner every day, as if 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 choked up, and Lin Hai also felt a chill down his back, but he still tried his best to restrain himself and said, "If you feel that 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, the red "Aider moi" was still unfading like a scar, he murmured "Aider moi" repeatedly, then shook his head and said softly: "Who saved you, Who will die, then I will die soon...then who will save me?"

Those last two words, are still "Aider moi".

Marguerite lowered her head tremblingly, and said "Je suis désolée" several times.

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 thinks of is that noon ten years ago, in this old room full of expired paint, when he was young, he sneaked up to the attic 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, you saw my portrait in the attic of this room?"

"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, and above was the small attic. She sighed and said, "Yes, we were destined to meet, fate destined me To be imprisoned for 400 years is also destined to meet you 400 years later."

"400 years...400 years...how many reincarnations is that?"

Margaret suddenly lowered her voice: "Lin Hai, look into my eyes..."

In an instant, Lin Hai stared straight at the pair of translucent emerald eyes as if under a spell. He thought they were eyes that only appeared in paintings. Where did such a stunner come from in the world?

She continued to say softly: "When you first entered the art gallery 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 those who appreciate the oil painting outside." .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 and your breath , feel the trembling in your heart."

"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 It's... all of this is unbelievable."

"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."

"That's 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 let me 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 in 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. Any of the above conditions must be indispensable, otherwise I can't 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 special relationship. an unforgettable relationship.”

"Past life?"

Lin Hai suddenly thought of a person. Could it be that he was 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 resounded in the dark sky, and there were towering old buildings all around. 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 his own psychological comfort.

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...

(End of this chapter)