12 A Rather Beautiful Mystery

Chapter 12 A Rather Beautiful Mystery I think I need to lie down," said Rockwell, tiny beads of sweat appearing on his brow. "I know how you feel," smiled Mrs M, looking fondly at Rockwell. And yes, Peanut, monoing the entire city has always been part of his plan, but twelve Big Xs would mean he could make it happen much quicker than we ever thought possible." "Part of his plan?" said Peanut, Surely, once the whole of Chroma is monoed, that's game over, isn't it? What else could he possibly want to achieve?" Actually, we think he wants to ensure that no one from

第十二章 一桩相当美妙的谜题 "我觉得我得歇一会儿，"罗克韦尔说，他的额头上冒出了细细的汗珠。 "我懂你的感受，"M夫人微笑着说，温柔地看着罗克韦尔。 对了，花生，把整座城市全单色化一直都是他的计划，但十二个大X意味着，他能比我们预想的快得多实现这件事。" "他计划的一部分？"花生说，肯定啊，等整个克罗玛都被单色化，一切就都结束了，不是吗？ 他还能有什么别的想要达成的目标吗？" 实际上，我们认为他想要确保，没有来自

your world can ever visit our city again," said Mr M gravely. "I don't understand," said Little-Bit as she scratched Doodle under the chin. "Why would he care who comes to Chroma, if he's going to mono everything anyway?" "Well," said Mrs M, removing her glasses. "Do you remember that I told you that most of your world's great creatives have visited Chroma at some point? That they have swum in the Rainbow Lake and, in some cases, spent a great deal of time here? And, while it's true that the lake boosted their creativity and helped them to become great artists, we shouldn't forget that in return, they brought their own special talent to the Illustrated City. They left their mark. A few even had entire districts named after them." "For example—" she pointed to an area on the map marked "Vincent Fields'-'a Dutch chap named Van Gogh was responsible for the look of much of this area." And over here—" Mr M gestured to the narrow district at nine o'clock on the map marked "Dali Point West" "young Salvador had great fun. What an imagination! A total one-off!"

你们世界的人能再来拜访我们的城市了，"M先生严肃地说。 "我不明白，"小不点一边说，一边挠了挠嘟嘟的下巴。 "反正他都要把一切都变成单色了，干嘛在意谁能来克罗玛呢？" "唔，"M夫人说着，摘下了她的眼镜。 "你还记得我告诉过你，你们世界大多数伟大的创作者都曾来过克罗玛吗？ 他们都在彩虹湖里游过泳，有些人还在这里待了很长一段时间，对不对？ 而且，虽然这片湖泊确实激发了他们的创造力，帮他们成为了伟大的艺术家，但我们不能忘记，作为回报，他们也给这座插画之城带来了独有的天赋。 他们在这里留下了自己的印记。 甚至还有好几个整片片区都以他们的名字命名呢。" "比如说——"她指着地图上一块标注着 "文森特原野"的区域，"这片区域大半的风貌，都出自一位叫梵高的荷兰人。" 再看这儿——"M先生指向地图九点钟方向那块狭长的、标注着 "达利西角" "年轻的萨尔瓦多在这儿玩得可开心了。 想象力太惊人了！ 真是独一无二！"

"Well, we think White wants to stop that happening," said Mrs M. "He doesn't want anybody creative visiting the city. "Right. So how did, er do they all get here?" asked Little-Bit. "Well," continued Mrs M, "that has always been one of the great and enduring mysteries of Chroma. I mean, we already knew about at least one secret gateway between your world and ours, thanks to your daddy." "The Green Valleys portal, said Peanut, her cheeks flushing with pride, as she thought of Dad going through the very same doorway that she, Little-Bit and Rockwell had gone through only a few hours earlier. "That's right, my dear," said Mrs M, smiling. "Gary was

"唔，我们认为怀特想要阻止这件事继续发生，"M夫人说。 "他不希望任何有创造力的人来这座城市。 "没错。 那，呃，他们到底都是怎么来到这儿的呀？" 小不点问道。 "唔，"M夫人继续说道，"这一直是克罗玛长久以来的一大谜题。 我是说，多亏了你爸爸，我们早就知道你们世界和我们世界之间至少有一道秘密门径了。" "绿谷传送门，"花生说，一想到爸爸走过的那扇门，就是几小时前她、小不点和罗克韦尔走过的同一扇门，她就骄傲得脸蛋发红。 "没错，亲爱的，"M夫人笑着说。 "加里就是

one of our first and best recruits to the Resistance movement against Mr White. He did indeed reveal that gateway to us. We always suspected there were others, there had to be, but we never knew where they were. Not that anybody looked very hard—we citizens of Chroma had no need of a portal, after all. And the whole visiting-artists thing was always considered a rather beautiful mystery. These amazing people would appear out of nowhere, swim in the lake, produce their amazing art, and then off they'd go, having left their mark on our city. It was a win-win situation. "The thing is, while artists continue to find their way to Chroma, tiny seeds of their talent will find a way to grow here no matter how much Mr White tries to mono the city, said Mr M. "It's a system that's been working for centuries. So the only way he could totally destroy Chroma would be to stop creatives coming." "Yes," said Mrs M darkly, as she put her glasses back on. "That would break the system beyond all repair."

我们反抗怀特先生运动中最早、最优秀的成员之一。 那道传送门确实是他透露给我们的。 我们一直怀疑还有其他传送门，肯定有的，可我们从来不知道它们在哪里。 倒也不是没人费心去找——毕竟我们克罗玛市民本来就不需要传送门呀。 而艺术家来访这件事，一直都被大家看作一桩相当美妙的谜题。 这些了不起的人从天而降，在湖里游泳，创作精彩的作品，留下印记之后就离开。 这本来是一件双赢的好事。 "问题在于，只要艺术家还能找到来克罗玛的路，不管怀特先生怎么把城市单色化，他们天赋的小种子都能在这里生根发芽，"M先生说，"这套机制已经运转了几百年。 所以他要彻底毁掉克罗玛，唯一的办法就是阻止创作者进来。" "是的，"M夫人戴上眼镜，语气阴沉地说。 "那会彻底破坏这套机制，再也没法修复。"