At least... she looks exactly like her. The impression left by the old attic in his memory was too deep for Lin Hai to remember wrongly. The woman in the painting on the old attic when he was eleven years old must be Marguerite. Of course, they couldn't be the same painting. The painting he saw in the attic when he was a child was much smaller than the one he saw in the museum today, probably only one-third of its size. Moreover, the painting in the attic only showed her head, with only a little bit of background, while the painting in the museum was a half-length seated portrait, showing all of her upper body clothes and much more background.
Perhaps the painting in the old attic was just a copy of Marguerite's another painting, or a replica? But Marguerite's face had already been deeply engraved in Lin Hai's heart like a deep mark that could never be erased. Unknowingly, the bus had already "climbed" to the university gate, and only then did Lin Hai react and rushed off the bus.
It was getting dark, and Lin Hai went straight to the cafeteria. After dinner, he did not return to the dormitory, but went to another place on the campus - the library. This was a Soviet-style building built in the 1950s, which had not been renovated for many years. It looked extremely sturdy from the outside, but inside it looked dilapidated. The indoor lighting was also obviously insufficient, even if all the lights were turned on, it still looked a bit gloomy and terrifying. This environment easily reminded people of European libraries in the 19th century.
It was Saturday night and no one would be bored enough to come to the library on the weekend, especially since it was going to close in two hours. The huge reading room was quiet like a cemetery, with only Lin Hai hurrying in by himself.
Lin Hai didn't often come to the library and had a strange fear of the dozens of bookshelves behind him. But at this moment, he only had one thought in his mind: to quickly find out about her - Margaret in the oil painting. About her life, deeds, and love, about everything concerning her, there must be records in history books. Yes, he was too eager to know about Margaret, the French princess of the sixteenth century who later became the queen of France. What kind of person was she? Why did she have such charming charisma that made a Chinese teenager infatuated with her over four hundred years later?
On the social science bookshelf, he found some books on European history, but most of them only briefly mentioned Margaret. Then he found some English and French books, and there were some detailed records. He moved all these books to the reading room and started reading them as quickly as possible -
Margaret (Marguerite), also known as "Margo" (Margot), her full name before marriage was Marguerite de Valois. Her father was King Henry II (1547-1559) of the Valois dynasty in France, and her mother, Catherine Queen Dowager, was from the Medici family in Italy. It can be said that she inherited the genes of two of Europe's most prestigious families. After her father's death, her brothers successively ascended to the throne of France: 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 Wars," and Catholics and Protestants were engaged in cruel civil wars. In 1572, in order to end the war, the Catholic royal family decided to marry the leader of the Protestants, King Henry of Navarre. As the sister of the king, Princess Margaret naturally became the sacrificial lamb of this political marriage. The wedding was held in Paris, and Margaret married Henry of Navarre. At the moment when everyone was celebrating the wedding, all the bells of Paris rang out. Under the planning of Queen Dowager Catherine, a massacre against the Protestants was launched, and the entire France was awash in blood. This is the famous tragedy in Western history - "St. Bartholomew's Night."
Later, after several years of war and chaos, all of Margaret's brothers died tragically, while her husband unexpectedly inherited the French throne, becoming the founder of the Bourbon dynasty - King Henry IV. Margaret went from being a French princess to a French queen, known in history as "Queen Margaret."
This is where the historical record ends, without providing any further information about Margaret. But Lin Hai knew that in novels and folk stories, Margaret was famous and legendary. At least Alexandre Dumas wrote a long novel called "Queen Margot," using "Margot" as another transliteration of "Margaret."
At this point, the lights in the reading room gradually dimmed. It turned out to be closing time for the library, and Lin Hai didn't want to spend the night in this graveyard-like place. He quickly left, and the librarian didn't even notice his presence, staring dumbfounded as he ran out.
It was already eight o'clock at night, and the entire campus was immersed in darkness. Under a few dim streetlights, only the swaying trees projected their shadows onto his face. He looked back at the library again. Were the words hidden in the books like corpses in coffins?
Lin Hai hurriedly walked forward, and that strange feeling rose in his heart again. Just as he was trying to adjust his breathing, a black shadow appeared before him...
The shadow approached him in an instant, and just a dozen meters away, suddenly fell to the ground in a strange posture.
His heart immediately started racing, and Lin Hai finally managed to move his feet and run to the person's side.
It was a man wearing a black windbreaker and a hat, and his face couldn't be seen in the dim streetlights. Lin Hai squatted down to pull him, but his body was so heavy that he couldn't move him no matter what.
Perhaps he had a heart attack? Lin Hai approached the other person and said in a low voice, "Hey, what's wrong? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
Suddenly, a withered hand lifted up and tightly grabbed Lin Hai's left wrist, flipping his palm up. The person's strength was so great that Lin Hai couldn't break free. The person then extended his other hand, holding a marker pen, and wrote a few words on Lin Hai's palm.
Lin Hai wanted to scream for help, but he couldn't make a sound. He could only watch as his left palm was forcibly written with a line of letters. Then the person let go and continued to lie motionless on the ground. Lin Hai was already frightened out of his wits. Although he still couldn't see the other person's face, he smelled a strong odor of decaying flesh.
Could it be a dead person?
But how could a dead person walk? Thinking of this absurd idea, Lin Hai felt a chill run down his spine. He quickly took a few steps back and looked cautiously at the black-clothed man lying on the ground.
No, he should find someone to help. Lin Hai immediately ran to the school duty room. In the blink of an eye, he ran far away and finally found the duty teacher. He told the teacher that someone had fainted near the library and the situation could be very dangerous. The duty teacher also became nervous and took a flashlight to run towards the library with Lin Hai. When they returned to the place where the incident happened just now, they found that the ground was empty, without even a ghostly shadow. Lin Hai was dumbfounded and his heart sank. He anxiously looked around. In front of the library was an open space, quiet and silent under the dim street lights, like a graveyard.
The duty teacher started to look at Lin Hai with suspicion. He shone the flashlight on the nearby trees, but still found nothing. Finally, the duty teacher couldn't help but say, "You kids, always playing pranks instead of studying." Lin Hai opened his mouth, but couldn't argue. His mind kept replaying everything he had seen just now. Suddenly, he thought of something and immediately opened his left hand.
Under the dim street light, Lin Hai saw a line of letters written on his palm in red marker pen--"aider moi." This line of letters was extremely eye-catching on his palm.
Lin Hai recognized this line of letters. Its meaning was "Help me!" Yes, this was a short phrase in French. "Aider" means "help" or "rescue," "moi" means "me," and when combined, it means "help me" or "save me"!
Lin Hai immediately grabbed the on-duty teacher and showed him the writing on his palm. The on-duty teacher, of course, did not understand French and shook his head, saying, "What do you mean?"
"I'm a French major. The meaning of these letters is 'help me'. It was written on my hand with a marker pen by the person who fell down just now," Lin Hai explained.
The on-duty teacher sneered and laughed, "Classmate, I suggest you go to the mental hospital for a check-up."
Like a bucket of cold water being poured over his head, Lin Hai was disappointed and hung his hand down. The on-duty teacher patted his shoulder and said, "Go back and rest well, don't think too much."
As the on-duty teacher left, the empty space in front of the library was left with only Lin Hai, and the cool night breeze on campus made him shiver uncontrollably.
Lin Hai also shook his head. Could it be that he really experienced something supernatural just now? He sighed and quickly left, returning to his dormitory.
There were still two out-of-town classmates in the dormitory, chatting on the upper and lower bunks. Lin Hai didn't have time to talk to them and sat alone on his bed lost in thought. He tried his best to forget everything that happened today, from seeing "Margaret" at the Western Art Museum in the afternoon, to mysteriously fainting and being sent to the hospital, and then the "encounter with ghosts" outside the library just now. But these scenes kept playing like a movie in his mind, forcing him to review them over and over again.
Lin Hai began to doubt the authenticity of his bizarre experience today. Could it be that everything was just his imagination? No, at least the oil painting he saw at the Western Art Museum was real, and he would never forget Margaret's face. And the fact that he fainted at the art museum could be proved by the security guard and doctor.
So what about the black-clothed man he met outside the library just now? Could it be that he was too tired these days and mistook his fantasies for reality? Or did he really encounter some kind of ghost? Thinking of this, he seemed to smell the stench of corpses again. Perhaps it really was a dead person? Suddenly, Lin Hai raised his left hand, and in the bright light of the dormitory, the French words "aider moi" in his palm were even clearer. The red ink of the marker pen emitted a smell, making it look like some kind of spell.
Although it could also be translated as "help me", only the three words "save me" were left in Lin Hai's mind—only desperate people would say that. It seems that the person is really in danger and urgently needs someone's help. Lin Hai happened to pass by there, which led to this incredible incident. Was this a coincidence, or was it related to the strange things that happened in the afternoon?
Lin Hai turned around and ran out of the dormitory, rushing to the bathroom to wash his hands. He turned the tap to the maximum, and the water rushed fiercely into the palm of his hand. No matter how hard he tried to wash, the words "aider moi" in his palm couldn't be washed away. He then found soap and hand sanitizer, and covered his palm with foam, desperately rubbing and scrubbing, as if his palm had become a washboard. However, the red words "aider moi" stubbornly remained like a brand, unable to be eliminated.
Looking at the unerasable French words on his palm, Lin Hai felt a bone-chilling fear. It was as if a dead person had written these words on his hand. Could the words contain the person's soul? Did the soul refuse to disappear and instead infiltrated into Lin Hai's body through the red words (a curse?), occupying his shell?
No, Lin Hai dared not use his imagination any further, but the words on his hand were truly helpless, so he could only clench his fist tightly and return to the dormitory.
The two classmates in the dormitory were still chatting endlessly. Lin Hai felt a splitting headache and simply took off his jacket and lay down on the bed. As he was taking off his jacket, he suddenly felt something hard in his jacket pocket. He quickly reached into the pocket and pulled out a black disc box.
Strange, Lin Hai did not remember having this disc. When he went out in the afternoon, his jacket pocket was empty and he didn't put anything in it. His money and other personal belongings were always kept in his bag. He carefully recalled his experiences today, but couldn't remember putting anything in his pocket.
No time to think about it, Lin Hai opened the disc box and found a DVD inside. It looked like a DVD, but the back had no text or patterns, just a white background.
Lin Hai had never seen this disc before, so where did it come from? His heart rate increased, and he fell into a long period of painful recollection. When he looked up, he could only think of two possibilities: one was that someone put the disc in his pocket when he fainted mysteriously at the Western Art Museum, and the other possibility was that the black-clad man secretly put the disc in his pocket when he bent down to ask him a question in front of the library.
But why would that person (or ghost?) do this? Lin Hai opened his left palm and the red "aider moi" stood out even more. Looking at the DVD that inexplicably appeared in his pocket, Lin Hai naturally began to have some sort of association. Perhaps there was some kind of information that needed to be conveyed to him, but because of an unknown obstacle, it had to be done in this special way. Lin Hai had made up his mind that he must watch the contents of the DVD, whether it was a "cursed disc" or a horror documentary.
However, there was no television in the dormitory, and if he watched it on the computer, he would definitely be seen by his two roommates. No, it absolutely cannot be seen by others. Since the ghost in the darkness went to such great lengths to give him this thing, it must be very important and extremely secret.
But everything that happened today has already made Lin Hai unable to hold back any longer. He had to see the contents of the DVD quickly, now! Lin Hai thought of a place. He carefully put the disc into his bag, said hello to his two roommates, and hurriedly ran out.
The campus on the weekend was unusually quiet, and Lin Hai rushed out of the school gate like the wind. He first went to a good friend's place and borrowed a DVD player, then flagged down a taxi and raced off with the borrowed DVD player in hand. Yes, you may have already guessed it, but the only place Lin Hai wanted to go to right now was the old house.
The Lin family's old house was in a large alley in the city center. It was said that it still retained the authentic style of the 1930s, but over the years it had become more and more dilapidated. Many real estate developers had set their sights on this prime location, but had given up due to the high cost of demolition, so there had been no movement until now.
It's almost 10 PM, and Lin Hai is walking through the alleyway shrouded in the darkness of the night, carrying a DVD player under his arm. He hasn't been back to his old house since his grandfather died ten years ago.
No one noticed Lin Hai's arrival, and there were no lights in the hallway as he fumbled his way through the pitch-blackness. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief when he reached the narrow and steep staircase leading up to the third floor, where his grandfather's old house was located.
Ever since his grandmother passed away many years ago, Lin Hai's grandfather had lived alone in the old house. Lin Hai's father had tried numerous times to persuade his grandfather to move to a new apartment, but he was always stubbornly refused. In Lin Hai's childhood memories, his grandfather was an extremely solitary person. Although he had heard that his grandfather used to be a college art teacher, Lin Hai had hardly ever seen him pick up a paintbrush. His grandfather would often go through whole days without speaking, and nobody knew what he was thinking, which made Lin Hai feel frightened every time he saw him. Lin Hai rarely stayed overnight in his grandfather's old house, partly because of the smell of expired paint and partly because of his fear of the darkness in the old house. Now, he was standing in front of the door to the old house again, and he could smell the familiar scent in his nostrils.
Lin Hai's hands trembled as he fished out his keychain, searching for the key to the old house among the dozen or so keys. There was one key that stood out, large and heavy like an antique - it was the key to the old house. A few years ago, when his father moved to the countryside, he had entrusted the key to Lin Hai and asked him to take care of the old house.
The key slowly turned in the lock, and with the sound of the lock turning, Lin Hai pushed open the door to the old house. As he did so, he could once again smell the scent of expired paint, which inexplicably excited him. Lin Hai reached out and found the light switch on the wall from memory. The flickering light from the fluorescent lamp, which had not been lit for ten years, seemed to want to release the accumulated loneliness of all those years. It took half a minute before the light was fully on.
Finally, Lin Hai could see the old house clearly, and he greedily breathed in the air as if he could smell his grandfather's scent again. Everything in his memory remained the same, and time seemed to have frozen in this house ten years ago, still lingering at that noon. He immediately put down the DVD player and went to the bedroom, where his grandfather used to sleep. The wire bed was still there, but there was nothing on it, and the mesh-like steel bars were exposed. The furniture had been reduced to only one TV cabinet, which contained a 21-inch imported color TV bought in 1993, and he wasn't sure if it still worked. The bedroom had a small bathroom and a water heater, which Lin Hai's father had added ten years ago to make life easier for his grandfather.
Now, Lin Hai thought of the most important place to visit - the attic.