Margaret's Secret

Chapter 24 From Shanghai to Paris (16)
"It doesn't matter anymore, the family is firmly in control of me, the first word I learned was 'obey', I never doubted the orders my family gave me, they told me that the family is everything, it is the family that gives me life , I must unconditionally dedicate myself to the family."

"So, you followed them to Shanghai and dug a huge trap for me?"

Margaret lowered her head again, and said with a buzzing nose: "Yes, this is their carefully planned scheme. They want to use me to control you and find clues to the real painting of "Margaret."

Lin Hai slowly closed his eyes, and replayed the scenes after that night in the art museum like a movie: he fainted mysteriously twice in the art museum, was locked in the toilet in the middle of the night, and found Margaery Te's ghost came out of the painting, and together with Margaret escaped from Nostradamus' pursuit...

Although all of this is so absurd, only mental patients would believe it to be true, but Lin Hai really fell into the trap and believed it like a paranoid. Why?

He tremblingly opened his eyes and stared at Margaret's face. In an instant, he finally understood that it was all because of her—this woman who was exactly the same as Queen Margaret 400 years ago.

Yes, at that noon ten years ago, in the sunshine of the attic of the old house, this face has been deeply imprinted in my heart.On that dark night ten years later, when she appeared alive in front of his eyes, all his rationality had already collapsed. He could not but believe, and had to believe, because she always lived in his heart—he loved this person, Whether it was 400 years ago or 400 years later, perhaps fate has long destined their encounter.

The room was silent for a long time, it was already past three o'clock in the morning, and there was still heavy rain pouring outside the window.Margaret finally broke the silence: "When I saw you for the first time, it was in the art gallery at night, we faced each other, breathing the air from each other's mouth. You may not believe it, this is my first time. This is the first time that I am so close to a man outside the family. At this moment, I feel a tremor in my heart. But I know that I must complete the task assigned to me by the family. I asked you to take me out of there, so you dragged me and ran wildly in the dark When we walked through the famous paintings in the art gallery, I suddenly felt that I had really returned to 400 years ago. I am Princess Marguerite, and you are my de La Mole. We eloped together to escape the terrible the Louvre, and behind us the king and soldiers chasing us."

"Is this true?" Lin Hai was really stunned, he said to himself, "I also felt the same way at the time."

"Then there are a few days and nights with you. I have never left the family, nor have I had contact with men outside the family, but I have vowed to complete the mission given to me by the family. But I found that I could not control myself , Maybe I was too involved in the performance, I even forgot what I was going to do, and took the role I played as myself."

"You must be in pain, right?"

"Yes, it's very painful, but what's more painful is that I found myself gradually falling in love with you." Margaret finally opened her eyes wide, staring at Lin Hai and said, "In the past, I was imprisoned in the cage of the family. I don't know what love is, but when I'm with you, I find myself so fragile, I long to smell your breath, long to have you hug my shoulders, long to..."

"do not talk!"

But Margaret continued stubbornly: "I can't believe that in just a few days and nights, people can love someone ecstatically...but it all happened like this."

"Like my grandpa and Mathilde?"

Lin Hai asked himself silently, is it possible that what happened to the previous generation will happen to them again?

Although the Lamor family's plan was so seamless, they ignored the most important point—the girl's heart.

As a bait, Margaret firmly controlled Lin Hai, but at the same time she fell into a vortex of emotions.In the end, between family and love, she chose the latter.

Yes, this is the biggest mistake of the Lamor family. They did not take into account the lessons learned: 70 years ago, Mathilde betrayed the family and eloped to China with Lin Danqing. Not only lost her daughter, but also lost the real painting and sheepskin Book.

"Lin Hai, please don't leave me. I have betrayed my family. They will not forgive me. I can only be with you."

But Lin Hai didn't know how to answer, he took a step back and said, "Wait a minute, all of this happened so suddenly, let me calm down and think about it."

"What are you waiting for? It will be too late."

But Lin Hai looked at the time and said, "It's already early morning, you must be extremely tired, right? Go to sleep first."

Besides, it was almost dawn, Margaret didn't continue to argue, she lay down on a small bed in the inner room, while Lin Hai sat blankly on the sofa in the small hall, listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the windowpane.

One leaf, one sound, the empty steps dripped to the bright...

Maybe it was because he was too tired, but he slept until noon the next day. Lin Hai was so hungry that he opened his eyes, and saw that the rain was still falling outside the window.

He shook his head vigorously, then ran inside and saw that Margaret had already got up.She looked haggard, and the circles of her eyes turned red. Lin Hai recalled everything last night, and standing in front of him was no longer the ghost in the painting, no longer the French princess 400 years ago, but a A living modern person, her name is Margaret Lamour.

Lin Hai washed up briefly, then ran out to buy lunch and came back. They were all very hungry, and they ate them all without saying anything.

Lin Hai sat down after eating, he didn't know what to do now.Margaret is by her side, what should she do?Her uncle or someone else from the Lamor family must be looking for them everywhere, but fortunately he has smashed the bearing sensor.

What to do next?Now that everyone has seen Grandpa's letter, there is one last thing that must be done—to find the real oil painting of "Marguerite".

It is said that there is a big secret hidden in that real painting.

But how can I find that painting?When Grandpa and Mathilde brought the oil paintings to China, they must have been hidden in some secret place. After so many years, things have changed, where can we find them?
Lin Hai found out the letter from his grandfather again. At the end of the letter, there was this sentence: "So, I decided not to tell you the answer, but I can give you a reminder—she has returned to her mother's womb."

What is "returning to the mother's womb"?

He lowered his head and thought for a long time, but he couldn't figure out why.Suddenly, he turned around and asked Margaret, "Did anyone in your family tell you the secret in that painting?"

"No, they wouldn't have come all the way to find the painting if they had known, but the secret must have been left by Queen Marguerite in 1574 to her unborn child of La Moore A gift, as a capital for him to avenge his father and ascend the French throne in the future."

"The fake painting my grandfather painted back then must be different from the real painting in some places, at least the secrets can't be seen in the fake painting, so they have to find the real painting. It must be a very subtle difference, because No one has discovered the secret of that forgery for decades."

Margaret suddenly said coldly: "There is indeed a slight difference, because according to people in our family, the forgery originally had your grandfather's signature on it."

"My grandfather's signature? But since it's a fake, how could the counterfeiter write his name on it?"

"Because your grandfather didn't know that he was making a fake when he was copying it. He just followed Mathilde's instructions. It was only later that he realized that it was a fake fake. In order to cover up the truth of the fake, the family members put The signature was cleverly obliterated, and the identification technology was not high at that time, and there was no accurate photographic record, so no one noticed that small detail, and it remained in the museum for six to seventy years."

"But since it has been altered, it will definitely leave traces."

"Yes, in recent years there has been a German expert who specializes in using computer photography technology to analyze famous paintings from all over the world, especially to identify authenticity. He analyzed all the collections of the St. Louis Museum and found that "Ma The painting "Gretta" is most likely to be a fake, because in the lower left corner of this oil painting, there is an extremely small trace of alteration, which is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, but it is revealed under the computer image analysis gone."

It was only then that Lin Hai suddenly realized: "So, you should take advantage of this opportunity to come to China for an exhibition, and try to steal that painting in every possible way to cover up the conspiracy of stealing it back then. At the same time, you should also use that fake painting to lure me out into the world. The trap is really a plan to kill two birds with one stone."

Margaret stopped talking, she walked to the window and looked at the rain outside, just like Margaret who was under house arrest 400 years ago.

Lin Hai was bored in the room all afternoon, thinking about the words his grandfather left him—she had returned to her mother's womb.

It was getting dark soon, he went out to buy dinner and came back, the two of them had a simple meal.He thought how wonderful it would be to be with Margaret forever if there were no such annoying things, but this was just his wild idea, and no one knew what would happen tonight.

After dinner, Lin Hai continued to think about that sentence, and even Margaret helped him think about it. The rain outside the window was still ticking, but it was much lighter than last night.

Just as the two were racking their brains, Margaret suddenly patted Lin Hai on the shoulder and said, "Didn't your grandfather learn painting in the past? Then, could the 'matrix' be a painting?"

"A picture?"

Lin Hai nodded. This is indeed very possible, but he has never heard of such a painting as "The Matriarch".And grandpa has painted so many paintings in his life, it is impossible for Lin Hai to remember so many names.

However, a certain flash of lightning flashed into Lin Hai's mind like a call from heaven—a small auditorium?

Yes, didn't he pass by the small auditorium of the school a few days ago?There was a painting drawn by his grandfather in the 50s. Lin Hai clearly remembered the name of the painting—"Mother".

Isn't "mother" the same as "mother"?

It turned out that this was a hint left by his grandfather that the real "Marguerite" should be in the small auditorium of the school!

He jumped up suddenly, grabbed Marguerite's hand and said, "Let's go quickly, I think I already know where "Marguerite" is!"

Before Margaret could react, she was pulled out of the room by Lin Hai.Holding their umbrellas, they ran out of the building in the rainy night, called a taxi and rushed to the university.

The taxi stopped at the gate of the university, and Lin Hai rushed in with Margaret.There were not many people on campus, and no one noticed their appearance.

Turning around a few rows of houses in the night rain, and finally ran in front of the small auditorium, Lin Hai suddenly stopped and took a deep breath, looking at this former Soviet-style house in the dark, he thought of his grandfather again.

"Grandpa, here I come!" Lin Hai said silently, and then dragged Margaret into the auditorium.After finally finding the switch in the darkness, he turned on a row of lights against the wall, which just illuminated the huge oil painting on the wall.

Both he and Marguerite held their breath, staring at the oil painting on the wall, which was more than two meters wide and one meter high.

The title of this painting is "Mother".

In the oil painting, there is a golden wheat field, and a middle-aged peasant woman is sitting on the field ridge, holding a two or three-year-old child in her arms.Under the light, the wheat waves are so dazzling, like the sea under the sun, and the mother is a reef standing on the sea.

Lin Hai trembled and said, "This is the 'matrix'!"

He moved a table aside and stood on it just within reach of the top of the picture frame.The frame was fixed by a hook, and Lin Hai took it off carefully. The oil painting was indeed very heavy, weighing at least forty to fifty kilograms. Lin Hai's hands were shaking, and he put it on the table with all his strength.

"My God, why is it so heavy?"

Lin Hai gasped for a few times, then looked at the wall, there was only a black circle where the original picture frame was, and the white lime wall behind it, he touched it with his hands a few times, but there was nothing unusual.

He just climbed down from the table and carefully looked at the "Mother" painted by his grandfather. From the surface of the oil painting, there was nothing special about it.

At this time Margaret reminded: "You said this painting is heavy? Could it be..."

Lin Hai's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately thought of it—picture-in-picture.

Yes, he quickly checked the picture frame. Although it has been 50 years, the wooden picture frame is still very strong, without any signs of cracking and mildew.

Lin Hai and Margaret worked hard together and turned the whole oil painting over again so that the back of the frame was facing up.Then he tapped it with his knuckles again, and sure enough, he heard that there seemed to be a sandwich inside.He nodded excitedly, looked carefully at the back of the picture frame, and found that there seemed to be a bulge at the bottom of the picture frame.He immediately took out a fruit knife that he carried with him, and said softly, "I'm sorry, Grandpa."

Then he cut open the bulge with a knife, and it really revealed the gap inside, and he continued to cut carefully until the entire back of the picture frame was uncovered.

Finally, the back of another picture frame was exposed inside, and it really was a picture-in-picture in the interlayer.

Lin Hai almost screamed in excitement, he tore off all the outer frames, and then took out the painting inside the interlayer.At this time, what they saw was the back of the frame, which was about [-] centimeters long and [-] centimeters wide, exactly the size of the "Marguerite" that Lin Hai saw in the Western Art Museum.After a few seconds of silence, the two of them held their breath, and together they carefully turned the painting over.

In an instant, time went back, and the time 400 years ago reappeared, and they saw the real "Margaret".

"Praise God!"

Lin Hai was shocked, and it really was the oil painting, Queen Margaret at the end of the sixteenth century, she was sitting in the painting, her charming face was illuminated by the dim light, and her translucent emerald eyes were revealing Looking at eternal sadness, it seems to be watching everyone in the world.

The feeling of being in the Western Art Museum came to my mind again. This French princess and queen 400 years ago, a stunner in that era, was sitting in front of him through time.The real Marguerite has a higher charm than the fake, as if waiting for someone to take her away and tell the big secret.

And Margaret was even more shocked when she looked at the person in the painting. She seemed to be facing a mirror, looking at herself wearing the clothes of 400 years ago, imprisoned in this ancient oil painting, it seemed that the family made up for her Her lies have become reality, and she still stays in the Louvre until the eternity of time.

Yes, this is the real oil painting "Marguerite", which was brought by Lin Danqing and Mathilde from France in 1936—her body carries great secrets and too many conspiracies, So she must be hidden here, sealed in the "matrix" for fifty years, until tonight Lin Hai and Margaret have gone through untold hardships and finally revealed her to the world.

Lin Hai was too excited to speak. He just stared blankly at the oil painting, as if he had seen Margaret herself 400 years ago.Suddenly, Margaret let out a low moan, and Lin Hai looked back vigilantly, and saw a figure standing behind them.

The light in the small auditorium illuminated the man, revealing a typical French man's face, and Lin Hai softly read his name: "Mr. Wenger."

Yes, he is Wenger, Lin Hai's foreign French teacher, staring straight at the oil painting on the table.Seeing Mr. Wenger here, Lin Hai was obviously very surprised. He asked in French, "Teacher, why are you here?"

Teacher Wenger didn't speak, he turned his eyes to Margaret again.Only then did Lin Hai realize that Margaret's expression had completely changed, and she took a step back in fear.

Is there anything wrong?Why is Wenger here?Lin Hai's mind turned rapidly in an instant, and before he could figure it out, he suddenly heard Margaret screaming!

In an instant, Lin Hai only felt a gust of wind in the back of his head, and just as he was about to turn around, something violently hit the back of his head.Like a knife inserted into his brain, he couldn't feel anything, and slipped into the night in the oil painting in an instant.

(End of this chapter)