Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 Dan could barely restrain himself from letting out a whoop that would have shattered every dish in the museum. Calm down. Finding the crest is the easy part. The trick was to figure out what it meant. The original temple had an open entrance, but in modern times a metal gate had been installed to keep intruders out. Cautiously, he edged up to the chain mesh and peered inside. The interior reminded him of a house right after movers had driven off with the entire contents— a hollow shell. It was empty, except for dust and a few crickets. He examined the barrier critically. He could probably break in somehow, but why bother? There didn't seem to be anything here. Besides, his sister would go nuts if he defiled a four

丹几乎控制不住自己发出一声喊叫，这声喊叫足以震碎博物馆里的每一个盘子。 冷静下来。找到波峰很容易。 关键是要弄清楚它的含义。 最初的寺庙有一个开放的入口，但在现代安装了一个金属门，以防止入侵者。 他小心翼翼地爬到网眼前，向里面看了看。 房子的内部让他想起了搬家工人刚把里面所有的东西搬走的房子——一个空心的外壳。 除了灰尘和几只蟋蟀外，里面空无一人。 他批判性地检查了那道屏障。 他也许能闯进来，但何必麻烦呢？ 这里好像什么都没有。 再说，如果他玷污了4，他妹妹会疯掉的

hundred-year-old temple. He smiled in spite of himself. For her, it was a short trip. He stepped back off the wooden porch, watching the crickets on the sloped roof. This place could use a Roach Motel, he reflected. Was there such a thing as a Cricket Motel? And then one of the insects disappeared. Huh? He paid closer attention. There must have been an opening in the roof tiles that the crickets were crawling in and out of. He returned to the security gate and peered inside. The temple ceiling was low, almost claustrophobic. Yet the roof was a tall A-frame…. An attic! A secret attic! With a furtive look around to confirm he was alone, he climbed onto the porch rail and began to shinny up the corner post to the eaves. A moment's hesitation— unobserved also meant there'd be no one to call an ambulance if he fell off the building. Mustering his strength, he reached past the overhang and hoisted himself onto the steep roof, holding on like Spider-Man to

身后,寺庙。他不由自主地笑了。 对她来说，这是一次短暂的旅行。 他从木门廊退了下来，看着坡屋顶上的蟋蟀。 这个地方可以开一家蟑螂汽车旅馆，他想。 真的有蟋蟀旅馆这种东西吗？ 然后其中一只昆虫消失了。 嗯?他更仔细地注意着。 屋顶的瓦片上一定有一个口子，蟋蟀从那里爬进爬出。 他回到安全门，向里面看了看。 寺庙的天花板很低，几乎让人感到幽闭恐怖。 然而屋顶是一个很高的a型框架.... 一个阁楼!一个秘密阁楼！他偷偷地环顾四周，确认只有他一个人，然后爬上门廊的栏杆，开始顺着角柱爬到屋檐上。 片刻的犹豫——没有被发现——也意味着如果他从大楼上摔下来，没有人会叫救护车。 他鼓起勇气，越过悬垂，爬上陡峭的屋顶，像蜘蛛侠一样紧紧抓住

the ancient yellow tile shingles. He clung there for a moment, catching his breath and listening to the steady pounding of his heart. No, wait— that wasn't his heartbeat! It was the thrum, thrum, thrum of marching feet. He flattened himself on the steep sloping roof and tried to disappear. In the pathway below, a unit of six soldiers trooped by in close-order formation. Security? No, they were dressed in red silk tunics with matching hats— like palace guards from back in the day when the emperors lived here. This was a ceremonial parade. The soldiers were trained to keep their eyes riveted straight ahead and never noticed the intruder on the roof. As they disappeared into the maze of crimson walls, Dan allowed his body to relax. And that was something you should never do on a steep incline. He was sliding before he even noticed. Frantically, he scrabbled for a handhold, to no avail. He was skidding slowly but inexorably toward a long drop. In desperation, he tried to wedge his fingers into

古老的黄色瓦片。 他在那儿呆了一会儿，喘着气，听着自己心脏的怦怦直跳。 不，等等，那不是他的心跳！那是行军的脚步声，脚步声，脚步声。 他趴在陡峭的倾斜屋顶上，试图消失。 在下面的小路上，六名士兵排成整齐的队形列队而过。 安全?不，他们穿着红色的丝绸束腰外衣，戴着相配的帽子——就像皇帝住在这里的时候的宫廷守卫一样。 这是一场仪式性的游行。 士兵们被训练得目不转睛地盯着前方，从不注意屋顶上的入侵者。 当他们消失在迷宫般的深红色墙壁中时，丹让自己的身体放松下来。 在陡坡上你绝对不应该这么做。 他还没注意到就滑了。 他疯狂地想抓住一个把手，但无济于事。 他正在缓慢而无情地滑向深渊。 无奈之下，他试图把手指插进去

the gap in a broken tile— anything to gain some leverage. With the creak of rusty hinges, a section of shingles came away from the roof, opening like a mailbox. He hung there, stopped at last, his astonishment turning to triumph. A trapdoor! This was the way in. The discovery brought a hidden reserve of strength. Dan hauled himself up and over the lip of the opening and dropped down onto a dusty wooden floor. The chirping was all around him like church bells, so loud that he felt it below the line of his gums. Crickets. Thousands of them. The floor and walls crawled. Instinctively, he reached for the inhaler in his pocket. No, he told himself. You don't get an asthma attack from being grossed out. With effort, he forced away his revulsion and examined the hidden compartment. The attic was narrow, with decent headroom only at the center. In the corners, he had to duck. The place was empty except for the crickets.

破瓦片的缝隙——任何能获得杠杆的东西。 随着生锈的铰链的吱吱声，屋顶上的一段瓦片脱落了，像信箱一样打开了。 他停在那里，终于停了下来，他的惊讶变成了胜利。 一扇门!这是进去的路。 这一发现带来了隐藏的力量储备。 丹吃力地爬起来，爬过洞口的边缘，落在尘土飞扬的木地板上。 唧唧声就像教堂的钟声一样围绕着他，声音如此之大，以至于他在牙龈以下都能感觉到。 蟋蟀。成千上万。 地板和墙壁都在爬行。 他本能地伸手去拿口袋里的吸入器。 不，他告诉自己。你不会因为被恶心而得哮喘的。 他努力克制住自己的厌恶，仔细检查了那个隐藏的隔间。 阁楼很窄，只有中间有足够的净空空间。 在角落里，他不得不躲闪。 除了蟋蟀，这个地方空无一人。

Could crickets be the Clue? That made zero sense. There was no way these crickets could date back to some Chinese emperor. Then he realized that the place wasn't empty after all. On the floor in the far corner lay a piece of fabric about the size of a hand towel. He stooped and picked it up, shaking off several crickets and a puff of dust. It was a dull gold sheet of silk covered in Chinese calligraphy, with a large red signature stamp— a "chop," the tour guide had called it. He looked closer in the dim light. It wasn't all Chinese characters. With mounting excitement, he recognized the symbols for the four branches of his illustrious family, as well as the Cahill crest. His brow furrowed. The symbols were laid out like a mathematical equation: There was no question about it. This object was what had brought them to the Forbidden City. He had to get it back to Amy so they could figure out

蟋蟀会是线索吗？ 这毫无意义。这些蟋蟀不可能追溯到某个中国皇帝。 然后他意识到这个地方并不是空的。 在远处角落的地板上放着一块手巾大小的布。 他弯下腰把它捡起来，抖掉了几只蟋蟀和一股灰尘。 那是一张暗金色的丝绸，上面写满了中国书法，还有一个大大的红色签名章——导游称之为“印章”。 他在昏暗的灯光下凑近了看。 不全是汉字。 随着越来越兴奋，他认出了他显赫家族的四个分支的标志，以及卡希尔的徽章。 他皱起眉头。这些符号就像数学方程式一样排列着：这是毫无疑问的。 正是这个东西把他们带到紫禁城来的。 他得把它还给艾米，这样他们才能弄清楚

what it meant. "Later, dudes," he breathed to the chirping crickets. He folded the piece of silk and stuffed it into his shirt. Then he stretched for the opening above and hauled himself back onto the roof. He was extra careful on the way down, pressing himself into the tiles as he shut the trapdoor. He practically oozed to the pillar that was his safe passage back to ground level. Perhaps he should have used some of that great care to scout the area first. For when he set foot on the pathway, he found himself in the grip of a uniformed guard. And this one wasn't wearing the ceremonial garb of centuries past. His jacket bore the red star insignia of the Chinese army. The man barked something in his own language, then took in Dan's Western features and switched to English. "This area is restricted!" "I lost my tour group—" Dan began. The officer began to pat him down, pausing at the soft bulge under his shirt. "What is this?" He pulled out the folded silk. Dan's mind worked at light speed. If he sees the

这意味着什么。“等会再说，伙计们。”他对唧唧喳喳的蟋蟀说。 他把那块丝绸折起来塞进衬衫里。 然后他向上面的洞口伸了个懒腰，把自己拖回到屋顶上。 他下楼的时候格外小心，关上活板门的时候把自己压在了瓷砖上。 他几乎爬到了柱子上，那是他回到地面的安全通道。 也许他应该先小心翼翼地侦察一下这个地区。 因为当他踏上小路时，他发现自己被一个穿制服的卫兵抓住了。 这个人没有穿几个世纪前的礼服。 他的夹克上有中国军队的红星徽章。 那人用他自己的语言吠叫着什么，然后把丹的西方特征换成了英语。 “这里是禁区！”“我跟旅行团丢了——”丹开始说。 警察开始搜身，在他衬衫下面的软鼓包处停了下来。 “这是什么？”他抽出折叠的丝绸。 丹的思维以光速运转。 如果他看到