However, the most surprising thing was that after Lamoer was beheaded, Marguerite actually asked the executioner for her lover's head. At midnight the next day, she held Lamoer's bloodstained head in her hands, sat in a carriage, and personally buried it in a small church at the foot of Montmartre. The noble family of the Count of Lamoer in the novel is actually the descendants of the beheaded Lamoer, and to commemorate their ancestor's deeds, Miss Mathilde wears heavy mourning clothes on April 30th every year, and her full name is Mathilde-Marguerite, clearly in honor of Queen Marguerite. From the entire novel "The Red and the Black," it can be seen that Stendhal arranged this plot with a certain suggestive effect, because at the end of "The Red and the Black," when the protagonist Julien Sorel was executed, Miss Mathilde, who deeply loved him, also buried him with his head in her arms, just like a replica of the love between Queen Marguerite and Lamoer.
Lin Hai slapped his head hard and said to himself, "You are so stupid. You should have thought of 'The Red and the Black' a long time ago. Stendhal gave me an explanation over a hundred years ago, and I have read this book so many times without realizing it."
Perhaps it was because he saw her portrait in the attic of the old house when he was eleven years old that Lin Hai became so obsessed with "The Red and the Black," deeply attracted by Julien's story, and read it repeatedly since he was a teenager. Although he didn't know who the woman in the portrait was at that time, nor did he know her name, there seemed to be a force guiding him to unconsciously understand Marguerite. He took a deep breath and felt that fate had played with him for so many years. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something and immediately opened the small cabinet at the head of his bed, where there were many books, including a blue-covered book called "The Lover's Head." As for the author of this book, he was ashamed to say that it was himself.
This book is actually a collection of short stories, and the main one is called "The Head of My Beloved". It is only a few thousand words long, and tells the story of a man who was beheaded in an unknown dynasty. His lover ran out of the palace in the middle of the night and took his head with her. She went into hiding with the head in a certain place, and many years passed. The woman gradually grew old, but the head of her beloved remained young-looking. When she was about to die of old age, the head was buried with her. Many years later, people dug up her tomb from underground, and she was reduced to a pile of bones, but the head of her beloved was still fresh and bright, displayed in a museum.
Lin Hai bought this book over a year ago, and was shocked by the short story "The Head of My Beloved". But he did not associate it with the story of Marguerite and Armand. Now, Lin Hai is convinced that this story must have also been influenced by "The Red and the Black", and the prototype of the female protagonist is Marguerite.
So Lin Hai came to me...
Now, let's go back to the night of April Fool's Day.
In this dimly lit small cafe on Nanjing West Road, the restless junior college student in front of me spent a full two hours telling me this extremely bizarre story. I listened attentively throughout the entire process. At first, I thought it was just an April Fool's joke, but later I suddenly realized the seriousness of the situation. There may be some unspeakable secret hidden in this story, and Lin Hai is just an innocent victim who has been caught up in a dangerous whirlpool. Yes, Lin Hai's fear and nervousness are indeed justified. Anyone who experiences such a thing would either become mentally ill or become very strong... unless they are already mentally ill. Then he opened his left palm to show me the red letters that said "aider moi" in French.
Looking at the letters in his palm, I finally spoke: "This means 'help me' in French, right?"
"Yes, I think this is some kind of message that the ghost is conveying to me, and Margaret said the same thing on that DVD. But I still can't understand where to go to save her," I said in response to his question. "Don't worry about that now, let's talk about something else. Did you come to find me because of my book?"
"Yes, I thought you would be very interested in Margaret," he replied.
"You're right. The inspiration for 'The Lover's Head' did come from 'The Red and the Black' and Margaret and Lamor's story. I always wanted to write their story into my novel because it's such a moving love story," I said, shaking my head. "But unfortunately, Dumas had already written it, and the French even made it into a movie called 'Queen Margot.' I've seen that movie too, the version with Agenie."
"I've read all your books, especially the last two. You often tell mysterious stories in your novels, and I don't know if you have experienced those things firsthand, but I think you must be eager for similar material."
"And now you've brought it to me on a silver platter," I said with a smile.
Lin Hai neither confirmed nor denied, "Although I thought of finding you, I didn't know how to contact you. It wasn't until yesterday that I heard you were going to be a guest in the Yunjian chat room, and I immediately ran to the Internet cafe today, logged into the chat room using the name 'De Lamore,' and asked you a question. I thought this would deepen your impression of me. After the chat, I immediately ran to the building opposite and waited for you."
"If that's the case, you haven't even eaten dinner yet?" I asked.
He smiled wryly, "The ghost haunting me has long made me forget about hunger."
I quickly called for the waiter to bring some more snacks.
"Thank you," Lin Hai suddenly looked a little embarrassed, bowing his head and saying, "Although I thought you would be interested, I didn't expect you to be so concerned about this matter, and you don't even look much older than me."
"Everyone who's met me says the same thing. You're a junior this year, right? Actually, I'm only five years older than you," I pointed to the snacks and said, "Eat quickly. Even if you become a ghost, it's better than starving to death."
Lin Hai was indeed hungry. He looked around instinctively and then started eating ravenously. While he was eating, I was thinking about how to handle the situation. The only things I knew about the incident were from Lin Hai's verbal account, except for the parchment in the metal box and the French words "Save me" in his palm. In fact, he had no evidence to back up his story. But my intuition made me believe everything Lin Hai said. Whether or not ghosts exist in the world, it could be real to him. But what about me? Lin Hai finished his meal quickly, and then I made a request to him: "Excuse me, can I take a picture of the text on the parchment?" He grabbed the metal box tightly and asked, "Why?"
"I have a friend who is studying French history in France. I want to take a picture of the text on the parchment with my digital camera and send it to my friend's mailbox. I think he can decipher the text on the parchment."
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Hai finally nodded, "Okay, just take it."
At this point, I had already taken out my digital camera from my bag. Lin Hai carefully unfolded the parchment and allowed me to take a picture of the text on it. However, I didn't take pictures of everything, only about half of the content. I thought that sending these things to France was enough. After taking the pictures, Lin Hai rolled up the parchment and put it back into the metal box. He let out a long sigh and said to himself, "Finally, I've said it all today."
"Yes, if you keep this kind of thing in your heart, you'll definitely get mental illness," I said.
Lin Hai didn't seem to catch the meaning behind my words. He smiled bitterly and said, "Thank you for listening."
"Don't worry, I will definitely help you. What you just told me, I will take it as a gift from God. This is such rare material for a novel. Even if Agatha Christie was hired, she might not come up with it."
"Okay, I'll wait for your message." Then, Lin Hai gave me his phone number, email, and QQ contact information. Although I wanted to chat with him a little longer, he couldn't sit still anymore. He stood up nervously and looked around, as if the ghost was still spying on him.
Lin Hai put the metal box back into his bag, lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry, I can't stay any longer. I need to get back to school quickly. I'm afraid that if I stay outside, I will be..." He paused, and I asked suspiciously, "Be what?" But Lin Hai's face had turned pale, and he pursed his lips, not saying anything. Then he paid the bill to the waiter, and without taking the change, he ran out of the coffee shop.
I wanted to follow him, but the waiter stopped me to give me the change. When I finally got the change and rushed out of the coffee shop, Lin Hai had already disappeared on Nanjing West Road, leaving behind a street full of colorful lights.
Night has fallen. However, on this April Fool's night, it still attracts countless men and women. They walk past me laughing and joking, perhaps hiding a ghost among them? My heart suddenly trembled, and I immediately called a taxi to leave.
It was close to midnight when I returned home, but I stayed up late and input all the photos from my digital camera into my computer. It was a very unique experience to look at the parchment book on the computer screen. Although I couldn't understand the medieval French, I had a vague feeling that there was something hidden between the lines. Could it be a huge secret?
I immediately went online and sent the parchment book photos in jpg format to Yuli's email in France. Yuli is a big Internet user, and I think he will receive it soon. At this point, I was really tired, and the night outside was getting darker. Shanghai's April Fool's night had passed. What would Paris be like at this moment?
Today is the second day of April, and it is said that many things will change on this day because you only realize now that many of the news you knew yesterday were actually false.
I was really surprised today because when I just got online in the morning, I received an email from France. It was from my friend Yuli, and the content of the email is as follows:
My friend,
Hello, I don't know how to describe my feelings right now, but I can only wish you well on this Parisian night.