Chapter 11 From Shanghai to Paris (4)

A news report played on the television screen with the headline "Strange things happening in the art museum, French masterpiece undergoes bizarre transformation." Lin Hai's heart immediately jumped as he grabbed onto the railing, watching the screen. The Western Art Museum appeared on the news, and the camera followed the reporter into the treasure exhibition room. In this hidden room, there was a painting frame, the 16th-century French oil painting, "Margaret."

However, the unbelievable thing on the news was that the position where Margaret was supposed to be in the painting was now a black mass, vaguely outlining the shape of a person. The edge of the black mass was exactly the outline of Margaret's figure in the original painting. It was like someone who was sitting in front of the camera had stood up and left, leaving only a shadow in the lens.

Of course, Margaret could not be in the oil painting anymore because she was in Lin Hai's old house at the moment.

Several experts appeared on the TV screen, and they were all amazed by the strange phenomenon in the painting. There was also some argument, and it seemed that no one could explain where Margaret had gone in the painting.

The news report ended at this point, but the scene kept replaying in Lin Hai's mind. Suddenly, he lowered his head and looked at the palm of his left hand, where the red "aider moi" was still there.

At this moment, the bus stopped at the station near the old house, and Lin Hai hurriedly got off the bus, carrying his KFC combo and running back to the old house.

It was just getting dark outside, and he looked at the window of the old house. Was Margaret waiting for him to return there?

When he arrived at the door of the old house, he didn't knock, but took out the key. As he opened the door, he suddenly became afraid. What if Margaret had disappeared again and returned to the painting, or if "Nochatanmas" was waiting for him in the room?

However, all of these were just his groundless fears. Margaret was waiting for him at the window.

Lin Hai suddenly became excited, approaching this beautiful woman in the painting and lightly tapping her shoulder. Margaret turned around nervously, like a startled deer in the forest, with fear in her eyes.

A French sentence came to Lin Hai's mind: "What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid that you'll leave me and never come back," she said, sounding like she had been wronged, making anyone who listened to her soft-hearted.

"I won't. Since I saved you from the painting, I will ensure your safety and will never abandon you," replied Lin Hai.

At that moment, Lin Hai looked at the table, and the French bread was gone. He placed the KFC combo on the table and whispered, "I don't know if you eat this kind of food."

"What is this?" asked Margaret.

Of course, people from four hundred years ago in France wouldn't eat KFC. Margaret looked at the burger and asked, "Is this bread?"

"It's kind of like that. Sometimes when I'm hungry, I'll eat this," said Lin Hai.

Actually, Lin Hai didn't like Western fast food, but Margaret would probably be even less used to Chinese food.

Even though she lived four hundred years ago, she was still a foreigner at heart. Margaret picked up the burger and ate it, and she didn't seem to know how to use the straw, so she took the lid off and drank the beverage. Seeing her four hundred-year-old clothing and watching her eat burgers and chicken wings, Lin Hai thought it was a great idea for a Western fast-food advertisement.

"Merci!" Margaret said, thanking him. She had finished everything and seemed to have a good appetite. Lin Hai wondered if she had been hiding in the oil painting for over four hundred years without eating?

"Excuse me, I have a small question. When you were in the oil painting, did you eat and sleep?" Lin Hai asked.

In short, the question was: did Margaret in the oil painting need to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom?

"Of course. Do you think I was just a portrait? No, I am a princess of France, the king's sister. My mother and Nochatanmas put a spell on me and forced me to stay in a room in the Louvre, facing a mirror forever. Year after year, day after day, until I couldn't even tell time anymore. At first, I could still see my mother, but later, I couldn't see anyone else except for a ghost who was always watching me. He was Nochatanmas."

"Unbelievable. But you still haven't answered my question."

"You mean eating and sleeping? Whenever I feel hungry, Nochatanmas would bring me food. When I feel tired, I sleep on the big bed behind the mirror."

But then Lin Hai remembered what he had learned about Margaret's life from Mr. Wenger at school today, and it didn't seem to match up with what she was saying. He shook his head and asked, "Tell me, did you get married?"

"Yes, my husband is the King of Navarre, Henry," Margaret lowered her head and said softly, "But I've never loved him, and he's never touched my body because I won't let him come near me."

"You said you were imprisoned in the Louvre. When did this happen?"

"It was May 1st, in the year 1574, 1574 years after the birth of Jesus," said Lin Hai.

"May 1st, 1574 AD?" asked Margaret.

Lin Hai immediately thought of "The Red and the Black" - on the day before this date, April 30, 1574, Marguerite's lover, De La Mole, was beheaded. That night, Marguerite personally carried her lover's head and buried it, which is why Mathilde Miss in "The Red and the Black" would wear heavy mourning clothes on April 30th every year.

This means that Marguerite was imprisoned on the second day after her lover's death.

However, the historical Marguerite did not disappear after 1574, and she remained the queen of King Henry of Navarre. It was only after more than ten years that her husband ascended to the throne of France, and she was abandoned by him and died alone in the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

So, who was the Marguerite after 1574?

Lin Hai was already dizzy from this complex history and sat on the chair in a daze until Margaret lightly patted him on the back. "What are you thinking? You look like a fool."

"Maybe I am a fool," Lin Hai shook his head and looked into her emerald eyes. "Don't you know about the latter half of your life in history?"

Margaret shook her head and said, "No, you are not Nostradamus, you cannot predict the future."

"For you, it is your own future, but for people in my world, it is history that happened over 400 years ago."

Then, Lin Hai told her about the latter half of Marguerite's life, which he had heard from Wenger the teacher today.

Watching this Chinese youth in front of her tell her about her future life, Margaret looked at him with half-belief and half-doubt, and finally shook her head and said, "Have I really lived that long? But I have forgotten the passage of time and how many years I have spent in that room."

"It is now the year 2005 AD, and 431 years have passed since 1574."

"I have been imprisoned for 431 years?" But Margaret immediately shook her head. "No, now I am just a ghost. My body was destroyed over 400 years ago. Since May 1, 1574, my soul has been imprisoned in the Louvre. The one you saw after that date was just a shell without a soul. She is not the real Marguerite. The real me can only be seen in the painting."

Although he still didn't completely understand, Lin Hai had a faint guess. Perhaps there really are two worlds - the real world and the world in the painting. Everyone has the possibility of living in the painting world, and Marguerite's world in the painting is a secret room in the Louvre. For Marguerite, who was imprisoned in the secret room, the frame of the oil painting was just a mirror. She could peek into the outside world through this mirror, which was the real world. The reason why Marguerite walked out of the painting was simply because she jumped out of this mirror, or rather, a window, and the world outside the window was the Shanghai Museum of Western Art in 2005.

But Lin Hai still shook his head. There are too many things in this world that cannot be explained, and perhaps we will never truly understand.

For the next few hours, they sat and chatted. Margaret was clearly very curious about the world in 2005, and was full of questions about all the modern civilization she had seen. Lin Hai did his best to answer her, and luckily he had a large vocabulary of French words and always carried a French dictionary with him. However, many of the modern French words he used were not understandable to Margaret from the 16th century, and he had to explain them to her.

Margaret seemed to be becoming more and more interested in this world. Lin Hai turned on the TV and showed her how to use the remote control. The images on the TV screen were like another world to Margaret, and she was amazed by the magic of the television screen. Lin Hai didn't know how to explain it to her. Fortunately, Margaret's interest quickly turned to the content on the TV, like a country person visiting a big city for the first time. They chatted until deep into the night, and Lin Hai felt that it was a good oral exercise.

At midnight, Margaret finally looked tired and said softly, "If you come to the museum at midnight, you will see that I have my eyes closed in the painting. I am resting at that time, and I only open my eyes in the morning. It seems that for hundreds of years, no one has discovered this secret in the painting."

Lin Hai said in a daze, "Actually, from the moment I saw that painting, I felt that there was an amazing secret hidden in it."

Margaret's eyelids suddenly twitched and she said coldly, "What secret?"

"I don't know. Maybe the secret is you, or maybe there's a bigger secret?" Lin Hai shook his head and said, "Let's not talk about it. You should rest now."

Lin Hai returned to his attic and looked at the moonlight shining through the tiger window. He couldn't fall asleep for a long time, tossing and turning in bed. After a while, he quietly climbed down from the bed, opened the door to the attic and looked down.

Although the bedroom lights were turned off, a few rays of light were still shining through the window, illuminating the silhouette on the bed. Margaret was wrapped in a blanket and seemed to be asleep. Lin Hai stared at the door of the attic, cursed himself inwardly, and climbed back onto the bed.

This was my first morning in Paris, at the top of the history department at the Université Paris VII. I opened the window of this ancient guest room and saw the gloomy sky outside. The jetlag had almost reversed by now, and I recalled everything that happened after arriving in Paris yesterday, every detail seemed so clear and vivid. Yet, I still felt a sense of unease, as if this feeling had been buried in my heart since the moment I set foot in France.

Yuli came to pick me up in the morning, and he asked me mysteriously, "Did you hear any knocking on your door last night?"

"Not even a ghost shadow."

"That's too bad. Maupassant wrote an article in his later years, recalling his youth when he lived at the Université Paris VII. Beautiful women would come and knock on his door at night, claiming to be from the era of Louis XIV."

"Women from the era of Louis XIV came to the 19th century? Isn't that a ghost?"

"Exactly," Yuli said with a mischievous smile.

I laughed too. If I ever encounter such a thing, I must write a story called "Encountering Ghosts in Paris".

Yu Li took me to a restaurant for breakfast, and downstairs in the history department building, we saw the female administrator of the building. The plump aunt looked at me with a gloomy look, giving me goosebumps all over my body.

After breakfast, I took the parchment book and went to the office of Voltaire University to handle the appraisal procedures for the cultural relic with the professor. I received a certificate from the school confirming that it was only a proxy appraisal, not a donation or collection. The professor also signed to guarantee the return.

After all the procedures were completed, I felt relieved and handed the parchment book along with the iron box to Professor Orleans. Suddenly, I noticed a strange light in his eyes when he took the iron box. Could my uneasiness come from this?

Orleans and Yu Li took the parchment book to the laboratory next to the professor's office, where there were many archaeological instruments. They immediately began working, with the professor wearing gloves and a mask, using a magnifying glass to read the medieval French on the parchment, and having Yu Li record it. They constantly whispered to each other as they interpreted the parchment, but always turned their heads away when speaking to avoid breathing or spitting on the parchment.

Seeing their work, I knew I couldn't help, so I quietly pulled Yu Li out and said that since I had come all the way to France, I naturally wanted to admire the beauty of Paris. Yu Li said that the professor didn't allow him to leave and gave me a map with some points marked on it, instructing me to follow the route and reminding me of a few things to pay attention to. He then sent me away alone.

At this point, I felt the sadness of "solo travel," but I walked out of Voltaire University with my head held high, following the map to find the nearest subway station. French road signs are mostly in French, but my English proficiency was already pitiful, so I couldn't distinguish between French and English. I just imagined them according to the Roman alphabet spelling rules.

Thankfully, I guessed correctly, and after a dozen minutes on the subway, I arrived at the Eiffel Tower, the huge iron tower in our memories. However, when I arrived at the foot of the Eiffel Tower that I had long admired, I began to curse Yu Li in my heart because he had not told me that the Eiffel Tower could not be seen during the day, and the daytime view of the Eiffel Tower was completely different from what I had seen at night. Nevertheless, I still went up and circled the tower like a pilgrimage, but unfortunately, the weather in Paris in April was not good. Under the cold and gray sky, even from the top of the tower, I couldn't see the full view of the city very clearly.

When I came down from the Eiffel Tower, I immediately got into a taxi and only said, "Musée du Louvre."

You guessed it right, the place I wanted to go was the Louvre.

I remember when I was in elementary school, a very long foreign documentary was broadcast on TV, specifically about the Louvre. Perhaps my desire to learn painting came from there.

From the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre was not too far, and soon I arrived at this temple on the north bank of the Seine. I breathed in the artistic air and felt like I had become a part of it. The Louvre has a history of more than 700 years. In 1204, Philip Augustus built a castle here. After several renovations and expansions by Charles V, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Napoleon I, and Napoleon III, it was finally completed in 1857.

During the Renaissance period, many famous painters, such as Leonardo da Vinci, had painted for the French royal family. In the 17th century, the famous paintings from Fontainebleau Palace were also moved to the Louvre. In 1791, the French National Assembly issued a decree, making the Louvre a national museum open to the public. During the Napoleonic era, when the French army captured new territories, cultural treasures from those regions were transported to France. Today, the Louvre has a collection of over 400,000 pieces.

I found myself surrounded by tourists speaking various languages. I could occasionally hear some Chinese words, but I had to be careful with my digital camera as it was easy to capture people's heads in the shot. When I arrived at the Louvre, there were three must-see items: the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa.

The Venus de Milo was undoubtedly the highlight of the museum. Before it was damaged, it was said that the Venus de Milo held an apple in her left hand and her right hand was naturally hanging down. But today, people are accustomed to the beauty of the armless statue.

Finally, I saw the Mona Lisa with my own eyes. I don't think I need to introduce who painted it. The painting is probably the only one in the Louvre that takes up an entire wall. The painting is locked in a specially made box, seemingly only the size of an A3 copy paper, and protected by thick glass. The Mona Lisa, sitting upright, gazes at the dense crowds of visitors, as if she were an idol in a shrine. I heard that there were often thieves hiding among the crowds, so I had to use one hand to cover my wallet and the other hand to hold up my camera, looking somewhat comical.

By the time I reached the third treasure, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, my legs were already tired. The statue of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, dating back to 190 BC, was depicted with a graceful and elegant appearance, spreading its angelic wings, and the folds of the skirt were sculpted meticulously.

After leaving the Louvre, it was already past 2 pm, and I was both tired and hungry. I rushed to a nearby street and spent 9.5 euros to buy some bread to satisfy my hunger. French bread was too long, so I only ate one and felt full. The other two loaves were stuck behind my back like Jay's nunchucks, as I moved through the foreigners in the streets, giving off an air of a swordsman in a Louis Cha novel.

As I still had some time before I needed to head back, I wandered through the narrow alleys near the Louvre, admiring the old buildings in Paris that reminded me of the high-rises on Jiangxi Middle Road in Shanghai where I lived as a child. After wandering around for over half an hour, I accidentally walked to the banks of the Seine River. Many people have dreamt of floating down the Seine River, but in reality, it's not much wider than the Suzhou River.