1 Earlier That Day

Part One in which Peanut's eyes are opened

第一部分 花生大开眼界

1 Earlier That Day Peanut Jones picked up the last of the marker pens and carefully slid it into the custom-made slot on her new artistic utility belt. It was a perfect fit, just as the paintbrushes, the charcoal block, the brush pen, the ink roller, the pots of black-and-white ink, the stamps, the can of spray paint and the small tin of watercolours had been. The belt was fully loaded and ready to go. Well, almost fully loaded. One slot remained empty. This was the second iteration of her bandolier. The first version had been taken from her a few months ago when she and her friends had been imprisoned in the Spire, a huge tower at the centre of Chroma, the Illustrated City. But far worse than losing the bandolier had been the loss of her all-important magic pencil. It had been stolen by a small man

1 那天早些时候，花生·琼斯拿起最后一支马克笔，小心翼翼把它插进了全新艺术工具腰带的专属卡槽里。 尺寸刚刚好，就像之前放好的画笔、炭块、毛笔、油墨滚筒、黑白墨罐、印章、喷漆罐和小水彩锡罐一样合衬。 腰带已经塞满，随时可以出发。 嗯，差一点点就塞满了。 还有一个卡槽空着。 这已经是她的第二条工具腰带了。 第一条几个月前被收走了，那时她和朋友们被关在彩画城克罗马中心的巨型高塔尖塔里。 但比弄丢腰带更糟糕的，是她那支无比重要的魔法铅笔也不见了。 它被一个小个子男人偷走了

wearing a white fedora, after an incident involving a remote detonator (given to Peanut, her friend Rockwell and her sister Little-Bit by a talking alligator) and several thousand exploding mechanical fish. Peanut reached over to her desk and picked up the wooden box that was sitting on top of her exercise books. It was full to the brim with small, yellow Post-it notes. Each one had been decorated with a picture drawn by her dad he used to hide one inside her school lunchbox every day to cheer her up as she ate her sandwiches. But that was before he suddenly went missing. She ran her fingers across the two words carved into the lid: "Little Tail'. It was inside the secret compartment at the bottom of this box that she had first found Conté's Pencil Number One, the magic pencil, and soon after its discovery she'd realised that whatever it drew became real. That, in turn, had started a chain of events that led to her drawing a door, opening it, and stepping through into Chroma, the Illustrated City. The driving beat of the drums, guitars and keyboards coming from her radio faded as the DJ's voice kicked back in. "The Beatles there with "Get Back"— one of their very best! And now at five o'clock, it's time for the top-of-the-hour news headlines, read to you today by Benedict Hughes."

那人头戴一顶白色软呢帽，一切源于一场意外：一只会说话的鳄鱼把遥控雷管交给了花生、她的朋友罗克韦尔还有妹妹小贝蒂，之后还炸了几千条机械鱼。 花生走到桌边，拿起了压在练习本上的木盒子。 盒子里塞得满满当当，全是黄色的小便利贴。 每一张都画着爸爸画的小图，以前爸爸每天都会藏一张在她的学校午餐盒里，让她吃三明治时能开心一点。 可那都是爸爸突然失踪之前的事了。 她用手指摩挲着盒盖上刻的两个字：“小尾巴”。 正是在这个盒子底部的暗格里，她第一次找到了孔特一号铅笔，也就是那支魔法铅笔，很快她就发现，这支铅笔画出来的东西都会变成真的。 紧接着一连串事件就此开启：她画了一扇门，推开门走了进去，来到了彩画城克罗马。 收音机里鼓点、吉他和键盘的动感节拍渐渐减弱，DJ的声音响了起来。 “刚刚播放的是披头士的《回去》，这可是他们最棒的作品之一！ 现在是五点整，该播报整点新闻头条了，今天由本尼迪克特·休斯为您播报。”

Peanut opened the lid and picked up one of the Post-it notes. On it, Dad had drawn a perfect miniature version of The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai. How appropriate, she thought. At various points over the past year she'd felt as if she were in the eye of a similarly overwhelming storm. Just recently, however, it seemed as though the clouds had parted slightly, and one or two beams of sunlight were beginning to break through. Finally, there was a glimmer of hope. "One of the world's most famous paintings, Guernica by Pablo Picasso, today became the tenth priceless work of art to mysteriously disintegrate in the last three months." Peanut's eyes flicked from the Hokusai Post-it note to the radio. "The bizarre turn of events happened just before Madrid's Museo Reina Sofia opened this morning. Renowned art historian Diana Drown described it as a tragedy to end all tragedies. "What was once the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history is now just a medium-sized pile of silvery grey powder on the gallery floor. I haven't stopped crying all day.""

花生打开盒盖，拿出了一张便利贴。 爸爸在这张便利贴上画了一幅完美的迷你版葛饰北斋《神奈川冲浪里》。 真应景啊，她心想。 过去一年里，她好多时候都觉得自己身处一场同样来势汹汹的风暴中心。 不过就在最近，乌云好像稍稍散开了些，一两缕阳光已经开始穿透云层照了下来。 终于，出现了一丝希望的微光。 “世界最负盛名的画作之一，巴勃罗·毕加索的《格尔尼卡》，今日成为三个月内第十幅神秘碎裂的无价艺术品。” 花生的目光从这张便利贴移向了收音机。 “这件怪事就发生在今早马德里索菲亚王后美术馆开馆前不久。 知名艺术史学家戴安娜·德劳恩称这是一场无与伦比的悲剧。 “曾经史上最动人、最有力量的反战画作，如今只剩下美术馆地板上一堆中等大小的银灰色粉末。” “我哭了一整天，根本停不下来。”

Peanut's coppery topknot swayed from side to side as she shook her head. Another one? She thought to herself. This has definitely got Mr White's fingerprints all over it. The sooner we get back to Chroma the better. Mr White. The man who had stolen the pencil from her in Chroma. The man who had imprisoned her in the Spire. The man who wanted to rid the world of all its creativity. "In other news, a woman in Buckinghamshire today found a turnip in her local supermarket that looks exactly like the Prime Minister. Barbara Armitage, from Chalfont St Peter, described the likeness as uncanny. "And, what's more, it would probably make a better job of running the country!" Peanut stuck the Hokusai drawing to the wall, switched off the radio and turned to face her newest collection of Post-it notes which were stuck to the wardrobe door. These notes had started to show up in her lunchbox on a daily basis a couple of weeks after she had returned from Chroma. Most of them featured abstract shapes made up of one or two thick, black lines, but some were almost blank. Almost. On every one, the words "Love you forever x" were written in tiny, cursive handwriting. Her dad's tiny, cursive

花生摇头的时候，红铜色的发髻来回晃动。 又一件？ 她暗自想道。 这肯定是怀特先生干的好事。 我们越早回克罗马越好。 怀特先生。 就是这个男人，在克罗马偷走了她的铅笔。 就是这个男人，把她囚禁在了尖塔里。 就是这个男人，想要清除这世界上所有的创造力。 “另一则消息：今日白金汉郡的一位女士在当地超市买到一个芜菁，长得和首相一模一样。” 来自查尔芬特圣彼得的芭芭拉·阿米蒂奇说，长得像得惊人。 “而且啊，它治国说不定都比现任干得好！” 花生把这张葛饰北斋贴到墙上，关掉收音机，转身看向贴在衣柜门上的最新一批便利贴。 她从克罗马回家几周后，午餐盒里就开始天天出现这种便利贴了。 大部分便利贴上都是一两道粗黑线构成的抽象图形，也有几张几乎全白。 几乎。 每一张便利贴上，都用细小的花体字写着：“永远爱你x”。 那正是爸爸特有的细小花体字迹