Margaret's Secret

Chapter 4 The Mysterious Sheepskin (2)
"Believe what?" I suddenly looked back and looked around, and said a little mysteriously, "You want to tell me that you are haunted by a ghost, and it is beside us?"

"No, this is only a small part." Lin Hai became a little nervous, lowered his head and said awkwardly, "This incident is really unbelievable, it just happened in the past few days, if I didn't experience it personally, I would Nor would I believe it."

"Tell me, do you know how many incredible things I have experienced?" I almost wanted to show off my experience of those mysterious events again.

He nodded hastily and said, "I know, I have read almost all of your books, but what happened to me now, even the best novelist may not be able to imagine it."

For some unknown reason, the light in the cafe suddenly dimmed, and Lin Hai's face was blocked by a shadow, like a narrator behind a stage curtain, only hearing his special voice, narrating on the night of April Fool's Day Come-

Lin Hai started talking about it on March 2005, 3, three days before April Fool's Day.

It was a sunny day, the warm sunlight shone on the university campus, and the willows outside the classroom also pulled out filaments, making people temporarily forget many sad memories—such as the two incidents that happened in this university last year. Mysterious incidents have made many college students afraid to go to the bathroom alone at night. Fortunately, the ins and outs of these two incidents have been recorded in the two books "Desolate Village Apartment" and "The 19th Floor of Hell".Lin Hai also learned the story of the beautiful senior named Chun Yu through these two books. In the past, he often encountered Chun Yu in the student cafeteria.

However, there will be no more Spring Rain in this story.

On March 3, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the spring was bright outside the window, but the spring was exhausted inside the window.It is said that this is the time when people want to sleep the most. In the back seats of the big classroom, there are many bunkers made of books. Everyone in the back dreams that they are in Paris and on the Eiffel Tower.

For students of the French department, it is understandable to have such a dream, because this class is about French literature, and the lecturer is an authentic French teacher, Mr. Wenger.

Teacher Wenger has beautiful long chestnut hair, a straight nose bridge and gray eyes. He has the demeanor of a European aristocrat. More importantly, he is a French man, which often makes many girls secretly like him.Compared with other foreign teachers, Wenger can make students feel closer, because he can speak some simple Chinese, and he has no airs of foreigners.He stood gracefully on the podium and wrote a name on the blackboard——

Alexandre Dumas, père
Lin Hai, who was sitting in the big classroom, of course knew this name, because this person is so famous, his name translated into Chinese is Alexandre Dumas.

Mr. Wenger’s French literature class today is about the historical novels of Alexandre Dumas, and now he is talking about Alexandre Dumas’ trilogy set against the background of the religious wars at the end of the sixteenth century in France: "Queen Margot", "Mongolia". Mrs. Thoreau, 45 Guards.

Lin Hai has always liked Mr. Wenger's class, especially when he talked about French literature in the nineteenth century, he always felt that he would become the protagonist in the novel.

When the class was about to end, Mr. Wenger said in pleasant standard French: "Recently, the Western Art Museum in this city is holding an exhibition of treasures from the Saint-Louis Museum in France. I just have an extra ticket in hand. I really want to One of you goes to the exhibition and there is only one extra ticket. So, I want to give this ticket as a reward to whoever has the best French literature. "

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the classroom lifted their spirits, and even the few dreamers behind rushed back from Paris.

Teacher Wenger continued: "I know that you all have learned well, but there is always one who is the best. Now I want to ask a question. Whoever can answer first will get this ticket. Okay, everyone Listen to my question clearly—at the end of Stendhal's The Red and the Black, where is the protagonist Julien buried after his death?"

This question stumped the students immediately. Most of the students in the French department have read "The Red and the Black", but because the book is so thick, most people often just read the beginning and leave it behind.

Only Lin Hai is an exception. "The Red and the Black" happens to be his favorite novel, and Stendhal is the author he admires the most. He has read the Chinese-French version of "The Red and the Black" N times, and it is almost destroyed. up.

So, just as everyone was looking at each other, Lin Hai stood up and blurted out in French: "After Julien was beheaded and executed, Miss Mathilde, who loved him deeply, took his head and came to the place designated by Julien before his death." In the cave of Mount La. After the funeral ceremony of the priests, Mathilde buried her lover's head with her own hands."

Teacher Wenger was very satisfied with Lin Hai's answer. He nodded with a smile, then walked to Lin Hai's seat and handed the ticket to Lin Hai.

The ticket said "Exhibition of Treasures of the Museum of Saint-Louis, France", and the time was exactly tomorrow.Lin Hai only felt that he was so lucky, as if it was a gift from God. He didn't know what to say to thank him. He just remembered that Teacher Wenger patted him on the shoulder, and then announced that get out of class was over.

The next day, July 2005, 3.

Waking up in the morning, Lin Hai's right eyelid twitched, which reminded him of the old people's advice.Could something happen today?
Although it was Saturday, he did not go home, but stayed in the school dormitory until one o'clock in the afternoon, and went straight to the Western Art Museum in this city.

The Art Museum of Western Art was newly built three years ago. At the beginning, it only exhibited modern art works, but in the past year, it has held many exhibitions of Western classical art. Treasures Exhibition.

Perhaps because of his grandfather, Lin Hai liked drawing since he was a child, but his father strongly opposed him learning to draw.Although he studied French, Lin Hai was admitted to this long-awaited university, because his grandfather was a teacher of the art department of this university before he retired.

This is the first time I have been to the Western Art Museum, and the whole house has a post-modern style.Maybe it's because the elegant art music is so popular, and one ticket costs [-] oceans, so even the famous French treasures exhibition, the Western Art Museum is still deserted.

When Lin Hai walked into the gate of the art gallery, a group of people happened to squeeze out. He accidentally collided with them and almost fell to the ground.Lin Hai moved his body a bit, but luckily nothing happened, he just felt a little dizzy.

Near the entrance of the art gallery, there are some works of contemporary Chinese painters on display. Recently, the return of classicism has become popular. Most of what Lin Hai saw were oil paintings of figures.Going further inside, you will see the sign on the wall: "Exhibition of Treasures of the Museum of Saint-Louis, France".

As soon as he walked into the treasure exhibition area, Lin Hai seemed to smell a special smell, maybe every place where antiques are displayed will have this smell.His head is still a little dizzy, it feels like playing online games for hours on end.

He rubbed his eyes hard, only to see that the paintings on the wall were all in the style of Europe before the seventeenth century, and a railing was pulled under the frame to prevent visitors from touching the precious canvas.Lin Hai looked at the description below, and it turned out that they were all original works from 400 years ago. The painters were not well-known, they were all court painters, and almost every painting was related to the French Bourbon royal family.

Perhaps because of the high ticket price, not many people came to see the exhibition. Under the soft light of the art gallery, Lin Hai suddenly felt like he was alone in the world.It was the first time for him to have "intimate contact" with so many famous European paintings, and it seemed that he could really feel the existence of the souls of the painters.

But the number of famous paintings in this exhibition is not many, only about 20 pieces.In the innermost part of the exhibition hall of the art museum, there is also a special treasure exhibition room. It is said that the treasures of the town hall from France this time are displayed in it.

Sure enough, it was the treasure exhibition room, which was made into a fully enclosed structure, which looked more like a bank vault.Lin Hai walked in cautiously, and saw that it was designed as a secret room. In a depressing space of about [-] square meters, it was divided into two halves by an iron railing. On the wall behind the railing was the legendary It's an oil painting.

At this moment, Lin Hai was the only visitor in the treasure room, and he seemed to smell that strange smell again, which made his dizziness even worse.He shook his head abruptly, forced himself to cheer up, and stared at the fatal oil painting with wide eyes...

Silence lasted 30 seconds.

What did he see?
There seemed to be a shadow flickering in front of my eyes, it was that noon many years ago, in that narrow and cramped attic, dust danced in the sunlight, and that beautiful face was staring sadly at a Chinese boy.

Yes, she is still there, still so beautiful and so melancholy, just like that night more than 400 years ago, when the blood stained the lover's head.

Lin Hai saw her again, in this secret room of the Western Art Museum, on this cold and pale wall.

She is in a painting.

Yes, she has a pair of almost translucent emerald eyes, staring straight at the visitors in front of the canvas. There is a bit of melancholy in her eyes, but there seems to be some kind of hope and hint hidden. The complex eyes show her complex and pain inside.That's right, her expression is very strange, it is the kind of smile that is not a smile, and a look that is not sad, maybe she has tasted the most painful thing in the world.

Under the painter's brush, her face is so beautiful, the lines of her cheeks and chin are extremely soft, not like those European women with thick lines, but more like an oriental woman.Although she has long black hair, she is indeed a Frenchman, and her figure and temperament are unique to the French.

She wore a pair of amber earrings and a gorgeous gown, the style of European courts of the sixteenth or seventeenth century.But the canvas only reveals her upper body, and the velvet shawl covers her alluring skin. Perhaps she no longer needs to use her body to seduce men.

The background of the painting is immersed in shadows, and only the black curtain and some white candles can be vaguely recognized, but it is really hard to see where they are.

Lin Hai seemed to be struck by lightning, and it took him a long time to recover.He didn't dare to take a big breath, for fear that the turbid air in his mouth would pollute the painting, so he could only take a few steps back to observe.The whole painting is about sixty centimeters high and forty centimeters wide, inlaid in a gorgeous wooden frame, which can only be regarded as a small framed painting like the "Mona Lisa".

Why is she here?

It has been a long time since he was so shocked. Lin Hai kept shaking his head, only feeling the buzzing in his head, as if a voice kept chanting a spell to him.

He was still the only one in the treasure exhibition room. He stared blankly at the painting on the wall, and then saw the following description—

""Marguerite", the author is unknown, suspected to be the French court painter at the end of the 1574th century. This painting was completed in about [-] AD. The figure in the painting is the famous Queen Margaret in French history, belonging to Henry of the Valois Dynasty Daughter of King II, later married Henry IV, founder of the Bourbon dynasty."

Lin Hai didn't know her name—Margaret until now.

Queen Margaret of France more than 400 years ago.

However, this explanation is too simple, and it is not enough to solve the many doubts in Lin Hai's mind.He turned his gaze to the painting on the wall again, and seemed to have discovered something new...

No, in a blink of an eye Lin Hai covered his ears in pain, and he could feel certain voices in his brain. It was French in the sixteenth century, and it was the voice of a young woman.

It was she in the painting who was talking to Lin Hai.

There seemed to be many shadows passing by before her eyes, and she seemed to stand up from the canvas, showing him a strange smile.Gradually, her face became clearer and clearer, and she was about to walk out of the painting soon...

God, she had almost touched him!
Lin Hai couldn't see anything in front of his eyes, and even the last bit of will collapsed. There seemed to be countless voices singing in his mind, and then he fell into the dark seabed.

He really saw her.

Margaret.

A fatal encounter?
When Lin Hai woke up leisurely, he found that the world was already white, and the strange smell in his nose had been replaced by a strong smell of disinfectant.

It turned out that I was lying in the hospital. This was not a ward, but a narrow emergency room, surrounded by several people waiting to see the emergency room.

Although his mind was still a little groggy, he sat up immediately. Fortunately, nothing was inserted into his body, so it should be fine.

"How did I come here?" Lin Hai carefully recalled what happened just now. He remembered that he went to the Western Art Museum to see the treasures exhibition of the Saint-Louis Museum in France, and saw an oil painting that shocked him. Lost consciousness in pain and woke up in the hospital.After reacting, he quickly touched himself. Fortunately, the phone is still there. It is 04:30 in the afternoon, which means that he has been in a coma for more than two hours just now?At this moment, the doctor came over, and Lin Hai realized that it was people from the art museum who brought him here. It is said that he suddenly fainted in the art gallery, and the security guards rushed him to the nearest hospital.The doctor checked Lin Hai again and found that there was nothing wrong with him, and he couldn't explain why he fainted suddenly just now.In desperation, the doctor could only attribute it to the fact that Lin Hai slept too late at night, and told him that he might have hypoglycemia, and he should take more nutrition and rest.

Coming out of the hospital, Lin Hai only felt as if he had gone through a long journey and had just returned from a distant world.Sitting on the bus back to school, he rubbed his head vigorously, but something seemed to be buried in his head, the more he recalled, the more painful it was.Yes, he still remembered that secret treasure exhibition room, when he was the only one in the exhibition room, facing a sixteenth-century French oil painting called "Marguerite".

Margaret—finally remembered the name again, passing through Lin Hai's body like an electric current, making him seem to see that face again.

She was there, watching him.

Lin Hai shivered, her face seemed to be reflected on the window glass, but it was covered by the light outside the window in a blink of an eye.

Dusk in Shanghai is the time when the traffic is the most congested, and the bus continues to crawl slowly among the traffic.Lin Hai tried hard to recall her appearance, that face became more and more clear, as well as those melancholy eyes, thin and slender lips, soft chin...

What an impressive face it is, once seen it is never forgotten.

Yes, he had known her a long time ago, that noon ten years ago.That year, Lin Hai was still an 11-year-old boy.

Grandpa's old house is in the middle of a large area of ​​old houses. You have to climb a narrow staircase to enter the small rooms.Grandpa went out that noon, and his only grandson came to the old house. In addition to the unique smell in the room of the elderly, there was also a smell of paint, because grandpa was a college art teacher before retiring.

11-year-old Lin Hai walked into his grandfather's bedroom. He knew that there was an attic in this old house, and a wooden staircase led to the roof, but he had never gone up there.Because grandpa strictly forbids anyone to enter his attic, not even his only grandson.Throughout Lin Hai's childhood, the mysterious attic in the old house, like the legendary treasure cave, kept enticing the boy's imagination.

What is hidden in the attic?Taking advantage of his grandfather's absence, 11-year-old Lin Hai secretly climbed up the ladder. He imagined himself as Ali Baba, and he gently pushed open the wooden door of the small attic without saying "Open Sesame".

Lin Hai will never forget this noon ten years ago. The smell of expired paint still exudes in the small attic. The dust that came down flew up as the door opened.

There is a small wooden bed in the attic, and a small painting is hung on the wall beside the bed.

The frame is really too small, about the size of octavo lead paper, like a mirror placed by the bedside, with the face of a Western woman in it.

The noon sun shines on Lin Hai's eyes, while the paintings on the wall are outside the sun.He only remembered that the woman in the painting was beautiful, her eyes and hair were like a fairy in the legend, and she had a special look in the painting, staring at the 11-year-old boy melancholy.

That's right, it was a face that could never be forgotten once one glanced at it.

The 11-year-old Lin Hai has since been captured by her in the painting.

Just like a seed falls into the soil, no matter how much dust and years it is covered, it will always grow roots underground and tenaciously create a life.

Many years had passed since that noon, and the boy had become a handsome lad.Could it be that strange fate once again made an arrangement for him to meet her again after a lapse of ten years?
- They have met.

The voice in his head seemed to ring again, Lin Hai closed his eyes in pain, the bumpy bus was still crawling on the crowded road, as if it was going to take him to some extremely distant place.

Now Lin Hai can be sure that the Marguerite in the 11th century French oil painting he saw in the Western Art Museum in the afternoon is exactly the one in the painting he saw in the attic of the old house when he was [-] years old. woman.

(End of this chapter)