"It doesn't matter anymore. The family has a tight hold on me. The first word I learned was 'obedience.' I never doubted the orders given to me by the family. They told me that the family was everything, that they gave me life, and I must dedicate myself unconditionally to the family," Margaret said, lowering her head with a buzzing noise in her nose.
"So, you followed them to Shanghai to dig a huge trap for me?"
"Yes, this was their carefully planned scheme. They wanted to control you through me and find clues to the real painting of 'Margaret'," she said.
Lin Hai slowly closed his eyes and replayed the scenes after the museum that night, like a movie: he mysteriously fainted twice in the museum, was locked in the toilet in the middle of the night, discovered Margaret's ghost walking out of the painting and evaded Chudley's pursuit with Margaret...
Despite how absurd it all seemed, only a lunatic would believe it, but Lin Hai fell into the trap like a paranoid person, unquestioningly believing it. Why was that?
He trembled and opened his eyes, staring at Margaret's face. In an instant, he finally understood everything - it was all because of her, the woman who looked exactly like Queen Margaret four hundred years ago.
Yes, ten years ago, in the sunlight of the old attic, this face had already deeply imprinted itself on his heart. Ten years later, when she appeared alive in front of him, all reason had already collapsed. He could not help but believe and had to believe, because she had always been living in his heart. He loved her, whether it was four hundred years ago or four hundred years later. Perhaps their encounter had already been destined by fate.
The room was silent for a long time. It was already past three o'clock in the morning, and the rain outside was still pouring. Margaret finally broke the silence, "The first time I saw you was in the museum at night. We faced each other and breathed in each other's air. You may not believe it, but it was my first time being so close to a man outside of the family. In that moment, I felt a tremble in my heart. But I knew I had to complete the task that the family gave me. I asked you to take me away from there, so you pulled me and ran in the night. As we passed through the famous paintings in the museum, I suddenly felt like I had returned to four hundred years ago. I was Princess Margaret, and you were my De La Mole. We eloped and escaped from the terrible Louvre, chased by the king and soldiers behind us."
"Is that true?" Lin Hai was indeed stunned. He muttered to himself, "I had that feeling at the time too."
"Then there were those days and nights we spent together. I never left the family, nor did I have contact with any man outside of the family, but I once vowed to complete the mission given to me by the family. However, I found that I could not control myself. Maybe I was too invested in the performance, but I forgot what I came here to do and treated the role I played as myself."
"You must have been in a lot of pain."
"Yes, very much so. But the most painful thing was that I found myself gradually falling in love with you," Margaret finally opened her eyes wide, staring at Lin Hai, "In the past, I was trapped in the family's cage and never knew what love was. But when I was with you, I discovered how fragile I was. I longed to smell your scent, to have you embrace me, to..."
"Don't say it!"
But Margaret persisted, "I can't believe it either, that just a few days and nights can make someone fall deeply in love...but it happened."
"Like my grandfather and Mathilde?"
Lin Hai silently questioned himself, was the same thing going to happen to them as the previous generation?
Although the Lamore family's plan was seamless, they overlooked the most important thing - a girl's heart.
Margaret, as a bait, although firmly controlled Lin Hai, she herself also fell into the vortex of love. In the end, between family and love, she chose the latter.
Yes, this was the biggest mistake of the Lamore family, they did not consider the lesson learned from the past: seventy years ago, Mathilde betrayed the family and eloped with Lin Danqing to China, not only losing their daughter but also losing the real painting and parchment book.
"Lin Hai, please don't leave me, I have betrayed the family, they won't forgive me, I can only be with you."
But Lin Hai didn't know how to answer, he stepped back and said, "Wait a minute, this all happened too suddenly, let me calm down and think about it."
"What are you waiting for? It'll be too late if you wait any longer."
But Lin Hai looked at the time and said, "It's already dawn, you must be very tired. Go to bed first."
If they continued, it would soon be morning, Margaret didn't argue further and lay down on a small bed in the room. Lin Hai sat on the sofa in the small hall, listening to the sound of raindrops hitting the window glass.
One leaf, one sound, empty stairs dripping until dawn...
Perhaps tired from all the turmoil, he slept until noon. Lin Hai woke up hungry and saw that the rain was still pouring outside.
He shook his head hard and ran into the room, where Margaret had already gotten up. She looked much haggard, her eyes were even a little red. Lin Hai recalled everything from last night, and the person standing in front of him was no longer a ghost in the painting, no longer a French princess from four hundred years ago, but a living modern person named Margaret Lamore.
Lin Hai washed up quickly and ran out to buy lunch. They were both very hungry and finished it without saying a word.
After eating, Lin Hai sat down and didn't know what to do now. Margaret was beside him, what should she do? Her uncle or other members of the Lamore family must be searching for them everywhere, luckily he had already smashed the location sensor.
What to do next? Since they had already seen grandfather's letter, they must complete the last task - find the real painting of "Margaret".
It was said that the real painting contained a huge secret.
But how could they find that painting? When Grandfather and Mathilde brought the painting to China, they must have hidden it in some secret place. After so many years and changes, where could they find it now?
Lin Hai pulled out the letter from his bag, and at the end of the letter, there was a sentence: "So, I have decided not to tell you the answer, but I can give you a hint - she has returned to the womb."
What does "returned to the womb" mean?
"He lowered his head and thought for a long time, but couldn't make sense of it. Suddenly, he turned around and asked Margaret, "Has anyone in your family ever told you the secret in that painting?"
"No, if they knew, they wouldn't have come all this way to find this painting. But the secret was definitely left by Queen Margaret in 1574. She wanted to leave a gift for her unborn child of the La Morel family, as capital for him to avenge his father in the future and ascend to the throne of France."
"My grandfather's forgery at the time must be different from the real painting in some way. At least, the secret could not be seen in the forgery, so they had to find the real painting. It must be a very subtle difference, because no one has discovered the secret in the forgery for decades."
Margaret suddenly said coldly, "There is indeed a tiny difference, because according to people in our family, your grandfather's signature was originally on the forgery."
"My grandfather's signature? But since it's a forgery, why would the forger put his name on it?"
"Because at the time when your grandfather was copying the painting, he didn't know he was making a forgery. He was just following Matilda's instructions. He only found out later that it was a fake. In order to cover up the truth about the forgery, the family cleverly erased that signature. At that time, the appraisal technology was not high, and there were no accurate photographic records, so no one noticed that small detail, and it has been in the museum for sixty or seventy years."
"But if it has been altered, there must be traces left."
"Yes, in recent years, there is a German expert who specializes in analyzing the world's famous paintings using computer photography technology, especially to identify authenticity. He analyzed all the collections in the Saint Louis Museum and found that the possibility of 'Margaret' being a forgery is the highest, because there is an extremely subtle trace of alteration in the lower left corner of the oil painting. It is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, but it is revealed in the computer image analysis."
Lin Hai suddenly realized, "So you came to China this time to exhibit the painting and to cover up the conspiracy of the past. At the same time, you used the forgery to lure me into a trap. It's really a clever plan."
Margaret didn't speak anymore. She walked to the window and looked out at the rain, like Margaret who was imprisoned four hundred years ago.
Lin Hai spent the whole afternoon in his room, thinking about the sentence his grandfather left him - "she has returned to the womb."
It was getting dark soon. He went out to buy dinner and came back. The two of them had a simple meal. He thought if it weren't for these annoying things, it would be great to be with Margaret forever, but this was just his wishful thinking. No one knew what would happen tonight.
After dinner, Lin Hai continued to ponder the sentence. Even Margaret helped him think. The rain outside was still dripping, but it was much lighter than last night.
Just as the two of them were racking their brains, Margaret suddenly patted Lin Hai's shoulder and said, "Didn't your grandfather study painting in the past? Could 'mother's womb' be a painting?"
"A painting?" Lin Hai nodded. This was indeed possible, but he had never heard of a painting called 'Mother's Womb'. His grandfather had painted so many paintings in his lifetime, and Lin Hai couldn't possibly remember so many names.
However, a sudden flash of inspiration, like a divine calling, came to Lin Hai's mind - the chapel? Yes, a few days ago, he passed by the school chapel, where his grandfather's painting from the 1950s was hanging. Lin Hai clearly remembered the name of the painting - "Mother." Could "Mother" be the same as "Mother Body"?
It turned out to be a clue left by his grandfather, and the real "Margaret" should be in the school chapel! He jumped up and grabbed Margaret's hand, saying, "Let's go, I think I know where 'Margaret' is!"
Margaret had not yet realized what was going on and was pulled out of the room by Lin Hai. They each held an umbrella and ran out into the rainy night, calling a taxi to the university.
The taxi stopped at the entrance of the university, and Lin Hai dragged Margaret inside. There were not many people on the campus, and no one noticed their arrival.
After turning a few rows of buildings in the rainy night, they finally ran to the entrance of the chapel. Lin Hai suddenly stopped and took a deep breath, looking at the Soviet-style building in the dark, thinking of his grandfather again.
"Grandpa, I'm here!" Lin Hai silently said, then he pulled Margaret and ran into the chapel. It was difficult to find the switch in the dark, but he finally found a row of lights on the wall that he turned on, illuminating the huge oil painting on the wall.
He and Margaret held their breath and stared at the oil painting more than two meters wide and more than one meter high. The painting was called "Mother."
The oil painting depicted a golden wheat field, with a middle-aged farmer woman sitting on the edge of the field, holding a two or three-year-old child in her arms. The wheat waves were so dazzling under the light, like the sea under the sun, and the mother stood like a reef on the sea.
"This is the 'Mother Body'!" Lin Hai trembled.
He moved a table from the side and stood on it, just reaching the top of the frame. The hook fixed the frame, and Lin Hai carefully took the frame down. The oil painting was indeed very heavy, at least forty or fifty kilograms, and Lin Hai's hands were trembling. He used all his strength to put it on the table.
"Oh my God, why is it so heavy?"
Lin Hai gasped a few times, then looked at the black circle on the wall where the frame was originally hung. Behind it was a white lime wall, and he touched it a few times with his hand, finding nothing unusual.
He climbed down from the table and looked carefully at the "Mother" painting his grandfather had created. From the surface of the oil painting, there was nothing special about it.
At this point, Margaret reminded him, "You said the painting is heavy? Could it be..."
Lin Hai's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately thought of it - painting within a painting.
Yes, he quickly checked the frame. Although fifty years had passed, the wooden frame was still very strong, without any signs of cracking or mold.
Lin Hai and Margaret both exerted force and turned the entire oil painting over, with the back of the frame facing up. Then he used his finger joints to knock on it, and heard a layer inside. He nodded excitedly and carefully looked at the back of the frame. He found that at the bottom of the frame, there seemed to be a bulge. He immediately took out a fruit knife he carried with him and whispered, "I'm sorry, Grandpa."
Then he used a knife to cut open the bulge, revealing a gap inside. He carefully continued to cut until he had completely removed the back of the frame.
Finally, another frame was revealed inside, a painting within a painting in a sandwiched layer.
Lin Hai was so excited that he almost shouted. He tore off all the outer layers of the frame and took out the painting inside. At this point, they could only see the back of the painting frame, which was about sixty centimeters long and forty centimeters wide, the same size as the "Margaret" painting Lin Hai had seen at the Western Art Museum. After a few seconds of silence, the two of them held their breath and carefully flipped the painting over.
In an instant, time seemed to flow backwards, and the light and shadow of four hundred years ago were revived. They saw the real "Margaret".
"Praise be to God!"
Lin Hai was stunned. It was indeed the oil painting of Queen Margaret from the late 16th century. She sat upright in the painting, with dim light illuminating her enchanting face. Her translucent emerald eyes expressed eternal sadness, as if gazing at everyone under heaven.
The feeling he had at the Western Art Museum came back to him. This French princess and queen from four hundred years ago, the beauty of her time, had crossed through time and was now sitting in front of him. The real Margaret was more charming than the fake, as if waiting for someone to take her away and reveal the enormous secret she carried.
As for Margaret, looking at the figure in the painting was even more shocking. She seemed to be facing a mirror, seeing herself wearing the clothes from four hundred years ago, imprisoned in this ancient oil painting. It seemed that the lies her family had fabricated had become reality, and she was still trapped inside the Louvre, until the end of time.
Yes, this was the real oil painting of "Margaret", the genuine article that Lin Danqing and Mathilde had brought back from France in 1936. She carried a huge secret and too many conspiracies, so she had to be hidden here, sealed away in the "womb" for fifty years, until Lin Hai and Margaret had gone through countless hardships tonight to finally reveal her to the world.
Lin Hai was so excited that he couldn't speak. He just stared blankly at the oil painting, as if he had seen the real Margaret four hundred years ago. Suddenly, Margaret let out a low moan. Lin Hai turned alertly and saw a figure standing behind them in the light of the small chapel. It was a typical French man's face, and Lin Hai quietly said his name in French, "Professor Wenger."
Yes, he was Lin Hai's foreign French teacher, Professor Wenger, staring at the oil painting on the table. Seeing Professor Wenger here, Lin Hai was obviously surprised and asked him in French, "Professor, what are you doing here?"
Professor Wenger didn't speak. He turned his gaze back to Margaret. It was only then that Lin Hai noticed that Margaret's expression had completely changed, and she was retreating in fear.
What's wrong? Why is Professor Wenger here? Lin Hai's mind suddenly raced, but before he could figure it out, he suddenly heard Margaret scream!
In an instant, Lin Hai felt a gust of wind behind his head. Just as he was about to turn around, something violently hit the back of his head. It was like a knife had pierced his brain, and he couldn't feel anything as he slipped into the darkness of the oil painting.