Margaret's Secret

Chapter 27: Thus Said Nostradamus (3)
My heart went cold in an instant. On this dark and stormy night, Jacques actually led me to the cemetery. What on earth did he want to do?
Just when I was about to run away in fright, Jacques said that this is his home. Could it be that he is a vampire crawling out of the grave?
Jacques also explained that the cemetery administrator knew him very well, and it was much better to let him sleep in the empty room of the management office at night than to spend the night under the bridge hole of the Seine River.

His answer made me skeptical, and then I looked at the lonely graves around me, thinking that I was really unlucky tonight!
Jacques led me through the cemetery to a row of two-story houses and knocked on one of the windows. There was a night caretaker inside.Then he opened the door and let Jacques live in any of the empty rooms.In the duty room with lights on, I suddenly saw the name of the cemetery—Archabault Cemetery.

This strange name immediately caught my eye. I stared at this line of letters like a fool, thinking where did I see it?
By the way, isn't there an artist's signature at the bottom of the real painting of "Marguerite", that signature is "A. Archabault", and "Archabault" is the artist's surname.

I looked at the row of letters carefully again, and none of them were bad.In other words, the name of this cemetery is the same as the surname of the court painter in the sixteenth century.

Although it is said that the names of people and places are the same, it is quite common in European and American countries.But among the French, "Archabault" is an extremely weird surname. In fact, it is a foreign surname, and there is no such surname in France.The reason why the cemetery has the same name as the painter can only be explained by coincidence.

In this cemetery at midnight, something seemed to pass through my mind, and I was suddenly enlightened-yes, I suddenly remembered Borges' short story "The Garden of Forking Paths", in In this famous novel, the author wrote about a Chinese who served Germany during the First World War. He wanted to pass important information to Germany, but there was no way to pass it on. He was at the last moment Killed a man named Albert, because he wanted Germany to attack a city called Albert.The media reported the murder without a motive, and the Germans deciphered this important information because the newspapers published Albert's name.

So "Archabault" is the same reason?This extremely weird surname happens to be the same as the name of this cemetery, isn't it just some kind of important hint?

I think I have already guessed what Margaret was thinking in 1574. She wanted to convey some important message in her portrait, but she was afraid of being discovered by the queen mother, so she could only use some special means.Therefore, she invited a court painter with a strange name to paint. At that time, all the painters would sign their works. As long as the painter named Archabault signed his name, it was equivalent to leaving an eternal code on the canvas. —

Because "Archabault" is where secrets are buried!

At this point, I figured everything out. Because of the secrets buried in the Archabault Cemetery, Marguerite invited a painter named Archabault to paint her portrait. The signature on the oil painting is the real information!
It's a brilliant password, and only the smartest people in the world can set it up and crack it, not my bragging rights.

It took the Lamor family more than 400 years to figure out this secret, but now I have discovered it.I looked up to the sky and sighed. It seems that Jacques is really my lucky star. If I hadn't come to this cemetery and seen the name "Archabault", even if I had been thinking hard for 100 years, I might not have figured it out.

Perhaps the biggest secret is right under my feet. I hurried back to reality and dragged Jacques to ask the administrator of the cemetery.Because our English level is horrible, we exhausted all kinds of expressions, and finally asked about the situation of the cemetery. It turned out that this cemetery was originally a monastery, which was built in 1505 AD. The original name was "Archabault Monastery". , owned by the French royal family at the end of the sixteenth century.But during the French Revolution, the monastery was destroyed in the flames of war and turned into a cemetery.

Now that the monastery has been turned into a cemetery, will the secret still exist after the passage of time?I lowered my head and thought for a while, and felt that hope was not completely lost, because in the real oil painting of "Marguerite", the signature of "A. Archabault" was at the bottom, almost hidden in an inconspicuous corner. Can it be understood as the underground of the monastery?
I asked Jacques if he had seen the tombstones, and he said he knew almost every dead person here.I asked him again if he had a tombstone from the sixteenth century, and he said he had seen it at the innermost end of the cemetery.

Jacques has lived in this cemetery for several years, and he took me with ease through the horrible cemetery to the old tombstone.

He took out a flashlight out of nowhere and illuminated the words on the tombstone—"A. Tluabahcra, 1525—1572"

"Tluabahcra?"

This surname is even more peculiar, and it is impossible to read it at all. I read the letters carefully again, only to find that "Tluabahcra" is "Archabault" written backwards?
This tomb must not be simple!
At this time, Jacques told me in broken English that the government cleaned up the cemetery a few years ago and found that there was no coffin in this tomb, and there was a big hole behind the tomb.

As he said that, he pulled me to the back of the tomb, and sure enough, a hole appeared under the beam of the flashlight, and people could jump into it.

But I would never dare to jump into the grave, but Jacques jumped down first. He said it was very interesting below, and let me go down to see it too.

I had no choice but to bite the bullet and sneak into the hole, and found that there was a large tomb underneath, but there was no sign of a coffin, not even a trace of bones.

There is still a stone slab under the tomb. Jacques took a photo with a flashlight curiously and found that there is a gap beside it, which can be moved.So the two of us worked together to move this big stone slab away.

Immediately a strange smell burst out from under the stone slab, choking our noses and tears, maybe it was the smell 400 years ago?
When the flashlight illuminated the bottom again, I saw a stone box, more precisely, a stone box.

The stone box is very heavy, I carefully moved it out and opened the heavy box cover...

I see a book.

Under the light of the flashlight, I took out the book tremblingly. The paper quality is completely different from today's books, and it is also different from parchment books. It is difficult for me to describe its texture in words.

All in all, this book must be very old, and I dare not open it at all, for fear that if I do, it will turn to ashes.

Suddenly, I heard a rush of footsteps coming from outside the tomb, and then a light came in from the hole above my head.Jacques immediately cried out vigilantly, but a black figure had already jumped out of the tomb.

Could it be that the dead in this tomb have wandered back?Should I say "sorry, we shouldn't disturb your home" to it?
However, when a flash of lightning hit my face, I heard a familiar Chinese saying: "Why are you?"

It turned out to be Yu Li's voice, I hurried up two steps, and sure enough I saw Yu Li's face.He looked as surprised as I did. He never expected that we would meet here. The reunion in the grave like this is too bizarre.

Jacques saw that we knew each other, so he was no longer nervous.I shook my head and asked, "Yu Li, why are you here?"

"I think I discovered the secret in the oil painting of "Marguerite"."

It turned out that Yu Li also discovered the problem of the signature of the oil painting. He thought that the signature of "A. There is a monastery called "Archabault" in the northwest of Paris, which was managed by the royal family at that time and was converted into a cemetery after the French Revolution.

So, he drove here overnight again, ran to the cemetery to look for suspicious tombstones, until he found this tomb from the end of the sixteenth century.

I also shook my head in surprise, thinking that I was the only one in the world who had figured it out. It turned out that Yu Li was even more powerful than me.Then I hurriedly explained to Yu Li that I didn't kill Professor Orleans. When I entered the laboratory and found him, he was already dead on the chair.

Yu Li didn't seem to be in a hurry. He nodded and said, "Why would I doubt you? I will accompany you to explain to the police tomorrow morning. Let's take a look at what you found first."

I handed that strange book to Yu Li, and he took a photo with his flashlight and said, "My God, isn't this a papyrus document from ancient Egypt?

"What? Ancient Egyptian documents?"

"Yes, this is the oldest book in the world, also known as 'papyrus scroll', which was produced in ancient Egypt in 3000 BC. People used a sedge plant similar to reeds by the Nile River as a material. The stems are cut into thin slices and pressed together to make papyrus. The ancient Egyptians used the reed stems as pens to write hieroglyphs on paper, which is the scroll you see in front of you.”

At this moment, I felt uncomfortable at the thought that I was still in the tomb, so I crawled out of the hole, and Yuli and Jacques also crawled out.

We set up a flashlight beside the tombstone, and carefully opened the ancient papyrus.

I didn’t expect that the beginning was actually in ancient Greek. Most people who study Western history can understand ancient Greek. Yu Li immediately translated the first line of text in Chinese——

"The book you are reading now is "Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead", which records the future world and the most profound magic capable of destroying the world and human beings."

I tremblingly asked, "The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead?"

"Yes, the content of this book was completed in the era of ancient Egypt, but the ancient Greek text at the beginning was written later, it should be around the fourth century BC. I think the opening paragraph is similar to the preface."

"What's in the preface?"

Yu Li roughly glanced at the opening paragraph, and suddenly said in great surprise: "The preface was written by an ancient Greek scholar. He said that the person who discovered this "Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead" was King Alexander the Great of Macedonia."

"Alexander the Great? That is a famous figure in the history of the ancient world."

"Yes, according to this preface in ancient Greek, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and found this "Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead" in an ancient temple on the banks of the Nile River. Alexander was very interested in this book because He couldn't understand the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in the book, so he ordered someone to translate the full text into ancient Greek. However, there was a passage in the book that aroused Alexander's displeasure—it was written in the book that in the north of the Aegean Sea and west of the Black Sea A young king will be born, a king with extraordinary military gifts, who cuts knots with his sword, dreams of conquering the world, but only halfway achieves it, and dies of epilepsy in Babylon."

"North of the Aegean Sea and west of the Black Sea is the Kingdom of Macedonia? Isn't it Alexander himself who has extraordinary military talent, cuts knots with a sword, and dreams of conquering the world?"

Yu Li nodded and said, "That's right, Alexander did not fulfill his dream. He died of epilepsy in Babylon at the age of 33."

"In other words, this section of the book accurately predicted Alexander's life."

"Well, Alexander was in full swing at the time. How could he believe that he would die of epilepsy? So he ordered this "Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead" to be sealed in the pyramid forever."

"But I didn't expect the prophecy to be fulfilled! He really died of epilepsy later."

Yu Li flipped through the papyrus at the back and said, "This is the end of the preface. The rest is full of text. There are both ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and ancient Greek characters. These two characters are compared."

"More than 2000 years ago, Alexander the Great ordered this book to be sealed in the pyramid forever. And Louis IX said on the parchment scroll that he discovered the great secret in the Egyptian pyramid. According to this inference, what Louis IX said The great secret of the ancients is actually this "Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead", isn't it?"

"You're right. I think this is the only possibility. Otherwise, why did Margaret 400 years ago set up a password so painstakingly that she finally led us to this tomb?"

Jacques kept watching us two Chinese talking, and stuck out his tongue impatiently.

Yu Li wrapped up the "Book of the Dead", carefully stuffed it into his bag and said, "I must rush back to the university to do further research on this papyrus script."

"Then what should I do? The police are still looking for me, but I didn't kill the professor."

Yu Li patted me on the shoulder and said, "You should turn yourself in first, and I will find a way for you."

Speaking of which, Yu Li actually abandoned me and walked straight to the outside of the cemetery. At this moment, I started shaking all over and shouted: "Wait a minute, Yu Li! I want to know who killed the professor?"

Yu Li paused for a few seconds, but he didn't answer, and continued to walk quickly outside.

I couldn't control myself anymore, I ran towards Yu Li quickly, and shouted at the same time: "You killed the professor!"

Yu Li trembled as if he had been electrocuted, and then turned his head immediately. Jacques' flashlight shone on his face, which was as pale as the dead bodies in this cemetery.

He showed an extremely weird expression: "What did you say? I killed the professor?"

"Yes, if you hadn't called me and asked me to go to the professor once, how could I have appeared at the murder scene? These are all your arrangements, let me enter the murder scene first. After calculating the time, give The female administrator called and asked her to find me immediately, so that I became the biggest murder suspect."

"But what about the crime time? Didn't I go to the police station after dinner? I stayed in the police station until the police received a report."

"Yes, you can find strong time witnesses at the police station to prove that you have no time to commit the crime. But I remember Professor Orleans was the first to leave after eating, and then you said you were going to the police station—in this paragraph During the time, you can go to the research room first, kill Professor Orleans there, and then rush to the police station calmly. You have completely calculated my work and rest time, and you wait until the safest moment at the police station, Call me again to lure me to the laboratory, and then you only need to call the female administrator again, and all the crimes will be pushed on my head."

Yu Li was silent for a moment, with malice in his eyes, he suddenly clapped his hands and said, "Very good, it really is a novelist's material, your reasoning is very exciting, but there is only one thing missing—evidence."

(End of this chapter)