My heart sank when I realized that on this dark and windy night, Jacques had brought me to a cemetery. What did he want to do?
Just as I was about to run away in fear, Jacques explained that this was his home. Was he a vampire who crawled out of a tomb?
Jacques then explained that he was good friends with the cemetery administrator, who allowed him to sleep in one of the empty rooms in the management building at night. It was much better than sleeping under a bridge by the Seine.
His explanation made me skeptical, especially with the lone tombstones around us. I thought I had really hit rock bottom tonight!
Jacques led me through the cemetery to a row of two-story buildings and knocked on one of the windows. A night shift administrator answered and let Jacques stay in any empty room he wanted. In the lit-up office, I suddenly saw the name of the cemetery - Archabault Cemetery.
This strange name immediately caught my eye. Wasn't it the same name as the signature on the bottom of the painting in "Margaret"? The signature was "A. Archabault", which was the painter's surname.
I looked closely at the letters, and they were exactly the same. That is to say, the name of this cemetery was the same as the surname of a court painter from the 16th century.
Although having a person's name and a place name be the same is a common phenomenon in Europe and America, "Archabault" is an extremely strange surname among the French people. In fact, it is a foreign surname, and there is no such surname in France. The coincidence of the cemetery and the painter having the same name could only be explained by chance.
In this midnight cemetery, it was as if something flew into my mind and suddenly made me realize - yes, I suddenly remembered Borges' short story "The Garden of Forking Paths." In this famous story, the author wrote about a Chinese man serving for Germany during World War I who wanted to pass on important information to Germany, but there was no way to transmit it. In the end, he killed a man named Albert, because the target that Germany wanted to attack was a city named Albert. The media reported this senseless murder case, and the Germans interpreted this important information because the newspapers printed the name Albert.
So, is "Archabault" also the same? This extremely strange surname just happens to be the same as the name of this cemetery, isn't it a certain important hint?
I think I have figured out Margaret's thoughts in 1574. She wanted to convey some important information in her portrait, but was afraid of being discovered by the Queen Mother, so she had to use some special means. So, she hired a court painter with a strange name to paint for her. At that time, all painters would sign their works, and as long as this painter named Archabault signed his name, it was equivalent to leaving an eternal password on the canvas -
Because "Archabault" is the location where the secret is buried!
At this point, everything became clear to me. Because there was a secret buried in Archabault Cemetery, Margaret hired a painter with the surname Archabault to paint her portrait, and the signature on the oil painting was the real message!
This was truly a brilliant password, one that only the smartest person in the world could set and decipher, not that I was bragging.
The Lamar family spent over 400 years trying to unravel this secret, and yet here I am, having stumbled upon it. I sighed deeply and looked up to the sky, grateful for Jacques who had turned out to be my lucky star. Without coming to this cemetery and seeing the name "Archabault," I may have never been able to understand it no matter how much I pondered and meditated.
Perhaps the biggest secret was right beneath my feet. I quickly snapped back to reality and dragged Jacques to ask the cemetery's caretaker for information. With our abysmal English proficiency, we struggled to communicate but finally managed to roughly understand the cemetery's history. Originally, it was a monastery called "Archabault Monastery" founded in 1505 and was once owned by the French royal family in the late 16th century. However, during the French Revolution, the monastery was destroyed in the flames of war and became a cemetery.
Since the monastery had become a cemetery, would the secret still exist after all these years? I lowered my head and pondered for a moment, feeling hopeful that it hadn't completely disappeared. After all, the signature "A. Archabault" in the original painting of "Margaret" was located at the bottom, almost hidden in an inconspicuous corner. Could this mean it was located underground beneath the monastery?
I asked Jacques if he had seen any of the gravestones. He replied that he knew almost every dead person buried there. I asked him if he had seen any gravestones from the 16th century, and he said he had seen them at the innermost part of the cemetery.
Jacques had been living in this cemetery for several years, so he led me through the terrifying graveyard and brought me to the ancient gravestone. He took out a flashlight and shone it on the words inscribed on the gravestone - "A. Tluabahcra, 1525-1572."
"Tluabahcra?" I repeated, the name sounding peculiar and impossible to pronounce. I carefully read the letters once again and suddenly realized that "Tluabahcra" was "Archabault" spelled backwards.
This grave must be more than just a simple tomb!
Jacques told me that the government had cleared the cemetery a few years ago and found that there was no coffin in this grave, and there was a big hole behind it. He pulled me to the back of the grave, and as expected, there was a hole where a person could jump into.
Although I didn't dare to jump into the grave, Jacques bravely went first and encouraged me to follow. I had no choice but to go down and found a large tomb below, but there was no sign of any coffin or even any bones.
Underneath the tomb, there was a large stone slab, and Jacques curiously shone his flashlight on it, discovering a gap that could be opened. Together, we exerted all our strength and managed to move the large stone slab.
As soon as we lifted the slab, a strange smell rushed out, choking us and causing our tears and noses to run. It must have been the smell from 400 years ago!
When the flashlight illuminated the area again, I finally saw a stone box, or more precisely, a stone casket. The casket was very heavy, and I carefully lifted it out, opened the heavy lid, and saw a scroll.
Under the flashlight's illumination, I trembled as I held the scroll. The paper was completely different from today's books and even different from parchment paper. It was difficult for me to describe its texture.
In summary, this book must be extremely old, and I dare not open it at all. I am afraid that once I do, it will turn to dust.
Suddenly, I heard a hurried footsteps outside the tomb, followed by a beam of light shining through the hole in the ceiling. Jacques immediately called out in alertness, but a figure had already jumped down into the tomb.
Could it be that the dead person in this tomb had returned from wandering outside? Should I apologize to it and say "sorry, we shouldn't have disturbed your home"?
However, when a flash of lightning shone on my face, I heard a familiar Chinese voice say, "What are you doing here?"
It turned out to be Yu Li's voice, and I quickly walked two steps towards him, and indeed saw Yu Li's face. Our expressions were equally surprised, and we never expected to meet here in this tomb. The scene of reuniting in a tomb was really too bizarre.
Jacques noticed that we seemed to know each other, so he no longer felt nervous. I shook my head and asked, "Yu Li, why are you here too?"
"I think I have discovered the secret in the 'Margaret' painting."
It turned out that Yu Li had also noticed the issue with the painting's signature. He believed that the signature of "a. archabault" was likely a hint, so he ran to the library in the middle of the night to look up information about the place name "archabault". He discovered that there was a monastery named "archabault" in northwestern Paris at the end of the 16th century, which was managed by the royal family and was later converted into a cemetery after the French Revolution.
So, he drove here overnight, ran to the cemetery to look for suspicious tombstones, and finally found this tomb from the late 16th century.
I was also surprised and shook my head. I thought I was the only one who had figured it out, but it turned out that Yu Li was even more capable than me. Then I hurriedly explained to Yu Li that I did not kill Professor Orleans. When I entered the study and found him, he was already dead on the chair.
Yu Li didn't seem to be in a hurry and nodded, saying, "Why would I suspect you? I will accompany you to clarify things with the police tomorrow morning. For now, let's take a look at what you have discovered."
I handed the strange book to Yu Li, who shone his flashlight on it and said, "Oh my god, isn't this an ancient Egyptian papyrus document?"
"What? An ancient Egyptian document?"
"Yes, this is the world's oldest type of book, also known as the 'papyrus scroll book,' which originated in ancient Egypt in 3000 BC. People used a plant from the sedge family, similar to reeds, that grew along the Nile River as a material, cut its stems into thin slices, and pressed them together to make papyrus. The ancient Egyptians used reed stems as pens to write hieroglyphics on the paper, which is the kind of scroll book you see before you."
At this point, I remembered that we were still in the tomb and felt very uncomfortable. I crawled outside the hole, and Yu Li and Jacques followed suit.
We set up our flashlights next to the tombstone and carefully opened the ancient papyrus document.
To our surprise, the beginning was actually written in ancient Greek. Most people who study Western history can read ancient Greek, and Yu Li immediately translated the first line into Chinese--
"The book you see now is the Book of the Dead of ancient Egypt. It contains records of the future world and the most profound magic capable of destroying the world and humanity."
Trembling, I asked, "The Book of the Dead?"
"Yes, the content of this book was completed during the time of ancient Egypt, but these ancient Greek writings at the beginning were added later, probably around the fourth century BC. I think this is like a preface."
"What does the preface say?"
Looking at the beginning of the book, Yu Li suddenly said in amazement, "The preface was written by a Greek scholar. He said that the person who discovered this Book of the Dead was the Macedonian king, Alexander the Great."
"Alexander the Great? He is a famous figure in ancient world history."
"Yes, according to the preface written in ancient Greek, Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and discovered this Book of the Dead in an ancient temple by the Nile River. Alexander was very interested in this book, but since he could not read the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics in the book, he ordered it to be translated into ancient Greek. However, there was a part in the book that made Alexander unhappy - it was written that a young king with extraordinary military talent who dreams of conquering the world will arise north of the Aegean Sea and west of the Black Sea, but he will only accomplish half of his dream and die of epilepsy in Babylon."
"The Aegean Sea to the north and the Black Sea to the west is the Macedonian Kingdom, right? The person with extraordinary military talent who dreams of conquering the world by cutting a rope with a sword is Alexander himself, isn't it?"
Yu Li nodded and said, "Yes, Alexander did not fulfill his dream. He died of epilepsy in Babylon at the age of only 33."
"So, this part of the book accurately predicted Alexander's life."
"Yes, Alexander was at the peak of his career at the time. How could he believe that he would die of epilepsy? So he ordered this Book of the Dead to be forever sealed in a pyramid."
"But who would have thought that the prediction would come true? He did die of epilepsy."
Yu Li flipped through the papyrus book and said, "The preface ends here, and the rest is the main text. It contains both ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and ancient Greek writings, which are relative to each other."
"More than two thousand years ago, Alexander the Great ordered this book to be forever sealed in a pyramid. And Louis IX said in a parchment scroll that he discovered the great secret in an Egyptian pyramid. So, it can be inferred that the great secret Louis IX mentioned is actually this Book of the Dead, right?"
"You are absolutely right. I think this is the only possibility. Otherwise, why did Margaret, four hundred years ago, go to such lengths to set a password and ultimately lead us to this tomb?"
Jacques had been watching us Chinese talking, and impatiently stuck out his tongue.
Yu Li wrapped up the Book of the Dead, carefully placed it in his bag and said, "I have to go back to the university to further study this papyrus book."
"What about me? The police are still looking for me, but I didn't kill the professor."
Yu Li patted my shoulder and said, "You should turn yourself in first, I will figure out a way to help you." Saying that, Yu Li actually left me and walked straight outside the cemetery. At this point, I was trembling all over and shouted, "Wait, Yu Li! I want to know who killed the professor?" Yu Li paused for a few seconds, but he did not answer and continued to walk quickly outside.
I could no longer control myself, I ran towards Yu Li quickly, and shouted, "It was you who killed the professor, wasn't it!" Yu Li trembled like he had been shocked, then immediately turned his head back, and Jacques' flashlight shone on his face, which was as pale as the corpses in the cemetery. He showed an extremely strange expression and said, "What did you say? I killed the professor?"
"Yes, if you hadn't called me and asked me to go to the professor's place, how could I have ended up at the crime scene? All of this was arranged by you. You let me enter the crime scene first. After calculating the time, you called the female administrator to discover me in the first place, so that I became the biggest suspect for the murder."
"But what about the time of the crime? Didn't I go to the police station after dinner and stayed there until the police received the report?"
"Yes, you can find strong witnesses at the police station to prove that you had no time to commit the crime. But I remember that Professor Orléans was the first one to finish his meal and leave, and then you said you were going to the police station - during this period, you could have gone to the laboratory first, killed Professor Orléans, and then calmly made your way to the police station. You had completely calculated my schedule and waited for the safest moment before calling me and tricking me to the laboratory. After that, you just needed to call the female administrator and all the charges would be pushed onto me."
Yu Li was silent for a moment, and a malicious look flickered in his eyes. Suddenly he clapped his hands and said, "Very good, you are indeed a writer. Your reasoning is very brilliant, but you are missing one thing - evidence."