Margaret's Secret

Chapter 5 The Mysterious Sheepskin (3)
At least...she looks exactly like her. The attic of the old house at the age of 11 left a deep impression on Lin Hai, and he will never remember it wrongly. The woman in the painting on the attic of the old house must be Margaret.Of course, they cannot be the same painting. The painting I saw in the attic when I was a child is much smaller than the one I saw in the art gallery today, only about one-third of its size.And the painting in the attic only has her head, and only a little bit of the background, while the painting in the art gallery is a half-length sitting portrait, with her upper body clothes fully drawn, and much of the background exposed.

Perhaps the painting in the attic of the old house was just a facsimile, or a copy of another painting by Marguerite?But Margaret's face has long been buried in Lin Hai's heart, like a deep imprint that can never be erased.Before he knew it, the bus had already "climbed" to the gate of the university, Lin Hai realized this and hurriedly squeezed out of the bus.

It was getting dark, Lin Hai went directly to the cafeteria.After dinner, he didn't go back to the dormitory, but went to another place on campus—the library.This is a former Soviet-style building built in the 50s. It has not been renovated for many years. It looks solid on the outside, but dilapidated on the inside.The indoor lighting is also obviously insufficient. Even with all the lights turned on, it still looks a bit eerie.This environment is very reminiscent of nineteenth-century European libraries.

It was Saturday night, no one would be bored enough to come to the library for the weekend, and it would be closed in two hours, so the huge reading hall was as quiet as a cemetery, only Lin Hai was in a hurry. ran in.

Lin Hai doesn’t come to the library very often. He has an inexplicable fear of the dozens of rows of large bookshelves behind him, but at the moment he only has one thought in his mind, which is to quickly find her in the oil painting—Margaret, about Her life, deeds and love, everything about her must be recorded in the history books.Yes, he wanted to know Margaret too much. This sixteenth-century French princess and later became the French queen. What kind of person was she?Why is there such a charming charm that it makes a Chinese teenager wishful thinking more than 400 years later?
On the social science bookshelf, he found some books on European history, but most of these books talked about generalities, and there was very little content about Margaret.Then he found some books in English and French, which contained some detailed records. He moved these books to the reading room, and took the time to read them—

Marguerite, also known as "Margot", her full name was Marguerite de Valois before she married, and her father was King Henry II of the Valois dynasty of France. (1547-1559), her mother, Queen Catherine, came from the Medici family in Italy. It can be said that she inherited the genes of the two most famous families in Europe.After the death of her father, her brothers successively ascended the French throne, followed by Francis II (1559-1560), Charles IX (1560-1574) and Henry III (1574-1589).

In the second half of the sixteenth century, France was in the period of the "Huguenot War", when Catholics and Protestants were engaged in a brutal civil war.In 1572 AD, in order to end the war, the Catholic royal family decided to marry the Protestant leader, King Henry of Navarre. As the king's sister, Princess Margaret naturally became a victim of political marriage.The wedding was held in Paris. Marguerite married Henry of Navarre. When everyone was celebrating the wedding, all the bells in Paris rang. The massacre of Protestants kicked off, and blood flowed throughout France. This is the famous tragedy in Western history-"St. Bartholomew's Night".

Later, after several years of war, Margaret's brothers all died unexpectedly, and her husband accidentally inherited the French throne and became the founding king of the Bourbon dynasty-Henry IV. Margaret also came from France. The princess became Queen of France, known to history as "Queen Marguerite".

The historical records stop here and do not provide more information about Margaret, but Lin Hai knows that in novels and folk tales, Margaret is famous and a legendary woman, at least Alexandre Dumas wrote a novel "Queen Margot", and this "Margot" is another translated name of "Marguerite".

At this time, the lights in the reading hall gradually dimmed. It turned out that the closing time of the library was up. Lin Hai didn't want to spend the night in this cemetery-like place. He left here quickly, but the administrator didn't notice his existence and looked at him dumbfounded. run out.

It was eight o'clock in the evening, and the entire campus was immersed in the night. Under a few dim street lights, there were only those swaying bushes, casting the shadow of leaves on his face.He looked back at the library again. Don't the words hidden in the books look like dead bodies in a coffin?

Lin Hai hurried forward, feeling that strange feeling in his heart again.Just as he was trying to adjust his breathing, a black shadow vaguely appeared in front of his eyes...

The figure was getting closer and closer in a blink of an eye, and just a dozen meters away from him, he suddenly fell to the ground in a strange posture.

His heart jumped wildly immediately, Lin Hai finally moved his feet and ran to that person.

This is a man in a black windbreaker and a hat, his face cannot be seen clearly under the dim street lights.Lin Hai knelt down to pull him, but his body was so heavy that he couldn't move no matter what.

Maybe a heart attack?Lin Hai approached the other person's ear and said, "Hey, what's wrong with you? What's wrong?"

Suddenly, a withered hand lifted up, tightly grasped Lin Hai's left wrist, and turned his palm upside down.The man's strength was so great that Lin Hai couldn't break free all of a sudden.The man stretched out his other hand, still holding a marker pen, and wrote a few words in Lin Hai's palm.

Lin Hai wanted to call for help, but no sound came out of his mouth. He could only watch helplessly as someone forcibly wrote a line of letters on the palm of his left hand.Then the man let go of his hand and continued to lie motionless on the ground.Lin Hai was frightened out of his wits. Although he still couldn't see the other person's face clearly, he could smell a strong smell of decaying corpses.

Is it a dead man?

But how can the dead walk?Thinking of this absurd idea, Lin Hai only felt horrified. He quickly took a few steps back and looked warily at the man in black lying on the ground.

No, I should find someone to help, Lin Hai immediately ran to the school duty room, and ran a long way in the blink of an eye, finally found the school's duty teacher.He told the teacher that a man had fainted near the library and that the situation might be dangerous.The teacher on duty also became nervous, took a flashlight, and ran towards the library with Lin Hai.When they returned to the place where the accident just happened, they found that the ground was empty, and there was not even a ghost left.Lin Hai was dumbfounded all of a sudden, his heart seemed to sink to the bottom of a well, he looked around anxiously, there was an open space in front of the library, silent under the dim street lights, like a cemetery.

The teacher on duty began to look at Lin Hai suspiciously, and he took a flashlight to shine on the nearby bushes, but still found nothing.Finally, the teacher on duty couldn't help it: "You children, if you don't study hard, you like to play pranks."

Lin Hai opened his mouth but couldn't argue. He kept thinking about what he saw just now. He suddenly thought of something and immediately opened his left hand.

Under the dim street light, Lin Hai saw a line of letters written in his palm——

Aider moi
This line of letters is written with a red marker, which is very eye-catching on the palm of the hand.

Lin Hai knew this line of characters, and it meant—help me!

That's right, this is a French phrase, "aider" means "help" or "save", "moi" means "me", and together it means "help me" or "help me"!
Lin Hai immediately grabbed the teacher on duty and showed him the writing on his palm.Of course the teacher on duty did not understand French, so he shook his head and said, "What do you mean?"

"I'm a student of the French department. This line of letters means 'help me'. It was written on my hand with a marker by the person who fell down just now."

The teacher on duty laughed contemptuously: "Student, I suggest you go to a psychiatric hospital for an examination."

As if cold water had been poured on his head, Lin Hai lowered his hands in disappointment, and the teacher on duty patted him on the shoulder and said, "Go back and have a good rest, and stop thinking about it."

With the departure of the teacher on duty, Lin Hai was left alone in the open space in front of the library. The cool night wind from the campus made him tremble uncontrollably.

Lin Hai also shook his head, did he really see a ghost just now?He sighed, left here in a hurry, and returned to his bedroom.

There were two foreign students left in the dormitory, lying on the upper and lower bunks and chatting. Lin Hai didn't have time to talk to them, so he sat on the bed alone in a daze.He tried his best to forget everything that happened today, from the "Margaret" he saw in the Western Art Museum in the afternoon, to being sent to the hospital after he passed out strangely, to the "Ghost Encounter" outside the library just now .However, this scene was constantly replayed like a movie, forcing him to watch it over and over again.

Lin Hai began to doubt the authenticity of today's bizarre experience, could it be all his hallucinations?No, at least the oil paintings seen in the Western Art Museum are real, Margaret's face will never be forgotten, and the fact that I passed out in the art gallery can be proved by the security guards and doctors.

So what about the man in black that he met at the entrance of the library just now?Could it be that I have been too tired these days and mistook fantasies for facts?Or did he really meet a certain ghost? Thinking of this, he seemed to smell that rotting corpse again, maybe it was really a dead person?Suddenly, Lin Hai raised his left hand again. Under the bright light of the dormitory, the line of French "Aider moi" in his palm became clearer, and the red marker pen ink exuded a smell, which looked like some kind of spell.

Aider moi = help me

Although it can also be translated as "help me", Lin Hai only has three words "help me" left in his mind-only a desperate person would say that. It seems that the person is really in danger and needs help urgently. With the help of others, it happened that Lin Hai passed there, and this incredible thing happened.Is this incident by accident, or is it related to the strange things that happened in the afternoon?

Lin Hai turned around and rushed out of the dormitory, ran to the bathroom to wash his hands.He turned the faucet to the maximum, and the water rushed violently into the palm of his hand.But no matter how hard he washed it, the "Aider moi" in his palm couldn't be washed off. He found out soap and hand sanitizer, filled his palm with foam, and rubbed and rubbed it desperately. Washboard, but the row of red "Aider moi" is like a brand, which stubbornly "grows" in the palm of the hand and cannot be eliminated at all.

Looking at the line of immortal French in his hand, Lin Hai felt a bone-chilling fear. This was written by a dead person on his hand. Could it be that this line of words contained the soul of that person?This soul was unwilling to perish, but penetrated into Lin Hai's body through the red text (spell?), occupying his body?
No, Lin Hai didn't dare to continue to use his imagination, but there was nothing he could do about the writing on his hand, so he could only clenched his fists and went back to the dormitory.

The two classmates in the dormitory were still chatting endlessly, Lin Hai only felt a splitting headache, so he simply took off his coat and lay down on the bed.Just as he was taking off his coat, he suddenly felt something hard in his jacket pocket. He quickly put his hand into his pocket and took out a black disc case from it.

Strange, Lin Hai doesn't remember such a disc.When he went out in the afternoon, his jacket pocket was empty and he hadn't let anything go.His money and other things he carried with him were always in his bag.He thought carefully about today's experience again, and he didn't remember putting anything in his pocket.

Before he had time to think about it, Lin Hai opened the disc box first, and there was indeed a disc inside, which looked like a DVD, but there were no words or patterns on the back of it, just a white background.

Lin Hai has never seen this disc, where did it come from?His heartbeat quickened again, and he fell into a long painful memory.When he raised his head, he could only think of two possibilities. One is that when he fainted strangely in the Western Art Museum, someone stuffed this disc into his pocket; the other possibility is that just now In front of the library, when he leaned down to ask the man in black, he quietly stuffed the disc into his pocket.

But why would that person (or ghost?) do this?Lin Hai spread out the palm of his left hand, and the red "Aider moi" seemed to be more eye-catching.Looking at this DVD that came to his pocket inexplicably, Lin Hai naturally had some kind of association.Perhaps there was some kind of message to be conveyed to him, but because of unknown barriers, it had to be done in this particular way?Lin Hai has made up his mind, he must watch the contents of the DVD, whether it is a "cursed DVD" or a horror documentary.

But there is no TV in the dormitory. If you use the computer to watch it, you will definitely be seen by the two classmates.No, it must not be seen by other people. Since the ghost in the dark is deliberately giving him such a thing, it shows that it is very important and extremely secret.

But everything that happened today has made Lin Hai unable to hold back, he must see the contents of the DVD as soon as possible, and now! Now!

Lin Hai thought of a place.He carefully put the disc in the bag, greeted the two classmates, and ran out in a hurry.

The weekend night on campus was extremely quiet, and Lin Hai rushed out of the school gate like the wind.He first rushed to a good friend's residence, borrowed a DVD player from him, then stopped a taxi, and drove away with the borrowed DVD player.Yes, you may have guessed it, there is only one place Lin Hai wants to go at the moment—the old house.

The old Lin family house is located in a large alley in the city center. It is said that it still retains the original style of the 30s, but it has become more and more dilapidated over the years. Many real estate developers have taken a fancy to the prime land here, but It was abandoned due to high demolition costs, so there has been no movement so far.

It was almost ten o'clock in the evening, and Lin Hai walked through the alley wrapped in the night, with the DVD player under his tuck.Since his grandfather died ten years ago, he hasn't been back to the old house for a long time.

No one noticed Lin Hai's arrival, and there was no light in the aisle, so he could only grope in the darkness.Finally set foot on the narrow and steep stairs, it seems that every step I take may fall down.

Finally, Lin Hai heaved a sigh of relief—he arrived on the third floor, and this is Grandpa's old house.

Since grandma passed away many years ago, grandpa has been living alone in the old house. Lin Hai's father asked grandpa to live in the new public house countless times, but every time he was rejected by the stubborn grandpa.In Lin Hai's childhood impression, his grandfather was an extremely withdrawn old man. Although he heard that his grandfather was a college art teacher, Lin Hai almost never saw his grandfather holding a paintbrush.Grandpa often does not speak all day long, and no one knows what he is thinking in his heart, which makes Xiao Linhai feel fear every time he sees grandpa.Lin Hai rarely spends the night in his grandfather's old house, because the old house is full of the smell of expired paint, and because he is afraid of the dark night in the old house.Now, he stood in front of the door of the old house again, and he seemed to smell that familiar smell again in his nostrils.With trembling hands, Lin Hai took out the key chain. Among the dozens of keys, one was particularly conspicuous, big and heavy, like an antique. This was the key of the old house.A few years ago, when his father went to live in the country, he gave Lin Hai the key to the old house and told him to keep an eye on the old house.

The key was slowly inserted into the keyhole, and with the sound of the key turning in the keyhole, Lin Hai pushed open the door of the old house.The moment he pushed open the door, his nose seemed to smell the smell of expired paint again, and Lin Hai felt a little inexplicably excited.Lin Hai reached out and touched the wall, and found the light switch by memory.A light flickered, it was the fluorescent lamp that hadn't been turned on in ten years, it seemed to vent out the loneliness accumulated over the years, and it took half a minute to fully light up.

Finally, Lin Hai saw the old house clearly. He breathed the air here greedily, as if he could smell the smell of his grandfather again.Nothing in memory has changed, and the one-dimensional time seems to have frozen in this room, still stuck at the noon ten years ago.He immediately put down the DVD player and came to the inner room of the old house, which was the bedroom of his grandfather before his death.The wire bed was still there, but there was nothing on it, and the grid-like steel bars were exposed.The only furniture left is a TV cabinet, which contains a 1993-inch imported color TV bought in 21. I don’t know if it can be used now.There is a small bathroom and a Taidian water heater in the bedroom. These things were not in the old house. Lin Hai’s father bought them for his grandfather who lived alone ten years ago.

Now, Lin Hai thought of the most important place to see—the small attic.

(End of this chapter)