Awakening Day Collection

Chapter 6 Preface (6)
However, when the rag was completely torn off and the pattern on the frame was revealed, Nicholas was stunned.His heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and he stared at the painting for a long time before speaking: "I have never seen such a strange painting, never before."

The strange man looked at him, but didn't respond.Nicholas leaned the frame carefully on the table and looked at it carefully: "This painting is indeed interesting, I mean, I have never seen such a horrible and grotesque painting. However, the technique is far from It’s not good, it’s just an amateur level, and definitely has nothing to do with famous artists. Out of curiosity, I can buy this painting, but the price..."

Having said that, his voice suddenly stopped, and his eyes focused on a small corner at the bottom right of the screen.His eyes suddenly widened, his breathing became rapid, and something seemed to be roaring in his head, which made him feel like his blood vessels were about to burst.

"My God..." Nicholas muttered to himself.

In the lower right corner of this oil painting, which he evaluated as "horrific, grotesque and poorly drawn", where the author's signature should have been, there is no French, English, Italian or other European characters.There is a string of strange characters on it, with distorted and weird fonts. Even if you search all over Europe for scholars, I am afraid that no one can identify them, let alone interpret them.

Nicholas was also unable to decipher their meanings, however, he had seen similar strange characters.In fact, such words have been entangled in his heart for several years, which made him rack his brains and was unwilling to eat.He often saw these elf-like symbols jumping in front of his eyes in his sleep, mocking him and laughing at him.After the extremely lucky windfall a few years ago, Nicholas was only one door away from his dream country, and these incomprehensible words were the key to open the door.

"Please tell me the origin of this painting." Nicholas took a deep breath and tried to speak in a calm tone.

"The author of this painting is the monk Odoric of Pordenone," said the strange man.

"The monk of Pordenone...Odoric?" Nicholas felt that the name sounded familiar.He recalled it for a while, and suddenly his body shook slightly: "Is that the Italian who entered the mysterious snowy land in the east?"

"Yes, he is the first European to enter that snowy region," the strange man nodded, "that mysterious plateau is called Tibet. He has won a wide reputation, but people don't know that deep in his heart, he keeps a great secret related to Tibet. Before he died, he secretly told this secret to a Doctor, that's my father..."

Odoric is a Catholic Franciscan monk and a famous traveler. He has set foot in many places in his life, and the most famous experience is that he has been to the ancient land of the East - China, and even once Most of them have lived in the capitals of China for three years.In 1328, he entered Tibet and was the first Westerner recognized in history to set foot on Tibetan land.In his letter to the Roman Church, Odoric made many descriptions of this snow-covered plateau that no outsider has set foot in, such as: "All the buildings in Lhasa are painted in black and white, and the streets are paved with stone slabs. Killing is absolutely prohibited here, and people outside the city live in tents made of cow hair."

"The fashion in this kingdom is this: women wear their hair in more than 100 braids. They have teeth as long and sharp as wild boars."

"Another custom in their country is that if a man's father dies, the man will say, 'I would like to keep my father's memory.' So he put the priests, monks and musicians around the area and all the Neighbors and relatives gathered together. These people happily carried the corpse into the village. They prepared a large platform, and the priests cut off the head of the corpse on the platform and handed it to the son of the deceased. The son of the deceased and his son Everyone prayed for the dead many times in unison. The priests cut the body into pieces. After they got some pieces, they returned to the city, praying as they walked... After that, eagles and goshawks flew down from the top of the mountain, They all pecked at human flesh, and then flew into the air. At this time, everyone shouted in unison: "Look, this man is a saint, and the angel came and brought him into the kingdom of heaven!" This way made the son of the dead feel extremely Great honour. The oracle brought his father back to life in this admirable manner, and he witnessed it all. For this purpose, he took his father's head, boiled it immediately, and made a drinking vessel out of the skull. He and his family have always reverently drawn on his father's memory from the Night of the Skull. They have done so in the utmost respect for their father."

These descriptions let Europeans know a new and unknown world full of magic, and Odoric also won a great reputation.But after returning from Tibet, his physical condition began to deteriorate, and he never traveled around again.He became increasingly neurotic, often waking up from nightmares in the middle of the night screaming, and then refusing to sleep all night.People in the monastery speculated that maybe it was because he encountered something extremely terrible in Tibet, which planted the seeds of fear deep in his soul, which not only destroyed his spirit, but also dragged down his body.

During the last year of his life, Odoric suddenly became obsessed with painting.When he was young, he had learned oil painting for a while, but he was not proficient, but now the monks couldn't tell whether his painting skills were good or bad, because no one could see what he painted.When he was painting, he always closed the door tightly to prevent others from entering, and he always covered the easel with a cloth when he was resting.He hardly ever left his house, never leaving this small room. As long as the young monk who brought him food got a little closer to the painting, he would shoot fierce wolf-like gazes from his cloudy eyes.

The only person who can get close to him is the French doctor Bernard. He will come to the monastery to check Odorick's body every once in a while. Although he is still not allowed to touch the mysterious painting, Odorick occasionally Will have some conversation with him.Most of the time, the elderly monk was sane, but sometimes, he would suddenly fall into a delirium-like state and say some strange words from his mouth.

"The Tibet I have described is all lies." Odoric said suddenly once.

"What are you talking about?" Bernard didn't react for a while.

“I did go to Tibet, but I didn’t go to Lhasa at all,” said Odoric, “Most of the things I mentioned about Tibet in my letters to the church were hearsay, and some of them were even made up by myself. "

Bernard was very surprised, and wanted to inquire further, but Odoric kept silent.After a few days, Odoric lay weakly on the bed after undergoing the bloodletting therapy given by Bernardo.Suddenly, he said something strange again.

"I have never been to Lhasa, but I have been to even stranger places." Odoric said.

"Where?" Bernard asked hastily.

"Tibet's secrets are not in cities like Lhasa, but in those snow-capped mountains that eat people, in those barren lands where even yaks can hardly survive." Odoric breathed heavily, "There are no secrets in the world. All the truth is hidden in hell! Hidden in the domain ruled by the devil!"

"Hell... the devil?" Bernard felt a chill run down his spine, "What exactly are you referring to?"

Aldoric had already passed out and did not speak again.

In the following days, Odoric intermittently uttered some amazing words that he didn't know were true or false in such a dazed state.Bernard roughly figured out an outline from these few words: Odoric had indeed traveled to Tibet, but he did not enter the center of this plateau—Lhasa—as he described in his letter.However, compared to Lhasa, he has been to another more dangerous and elusive place.According to him, "an angel of the devil brought me there".

As for what happened in the "field ruled by the devil", Aldoric refused to say anything.But judging from how much the old monk attached to his painting, Bernard had a vague guess: the contents of that painting may be the real thrilling experience of the traveler in Tibet, or maybe it was to frighten him. That horrible thing that has to keep falling into nightmares.

In addition, Odoric even made some blasphemy remarks, such as "God does not exist" and "God cannot create a world ruled by devils", which made Bernard feel chills, Fortunately, these random ravings were not heard by other monks.

After several months, Odoric finally finished the painting.He made the picture frame himself, and then wrapped the whole painting, still keeping others away, and this oil painting seemed to have exhausted his remaining efforts and energy, his body began to weaken rapidly, and finally recovered from his illness Since then, Bernard tried his best but failed to save his life.

On his deathbed, amidst the humming of monks reciting prayers, Odoric's eyes were kept wide open, as if looking through the ceiling of the monastery to the far east, to those who destroyed him. Horror of soul and faith.When the prayer was finished, he struggled to move his skinny right hand, raised his index finger with all his strength, and pointed at Bernard.

Bernard understood, came to his side, bent down, and brought his ear to his lips.Aldoric's throat squirmed, and he struggled to squeeze out a few words, his voice was as thin as a mosquito: "Drawing... for you..."

(End of this chapter)