There was a significant difference in the timing of these two men's statements. If my guess was right, there had to be some discrepancy between them.
"Ten..."
"Ten times?"
"Thirteen times."
"Mm, at least you're being honest. Go on, what else?"
"Three months ago..."
Three months ago again? What exactly had happened three months ago?
"Three months ago, a group of men in black came to the base. At first, I didn't think anything of it, but later, during that month, I went through eight assassination attempts. They weren't very strong, and it seemed like they were testing me."
Testing her?
Three months ago—that meant the other five assassination attempts had happened before then?
That was a strange frequency.
"Then Uncle Scarface said you'd been through eight..."
"Mm. Uncle Scarface didn't know about a few of them. I didn't tell him."
I nodded. In that case, it seemed Scarface hadn't been lying, at least not about this. What Li Xie had said also matched up. Neither of them had lied to me about that.
"Mm. Go on."
I took a drag on my cigarette and asked again.
Juanjuan hesitated, glancing at me. After thinking it over, she said, "Recently, I noticed something was off about Uncle Scarface, and Uncle Li Xie has also been somewhat... distant from me. These things all started three months ago, after those men in black got in touch with the two of them."
"Wait... you mean both of them had contact with those men in black?"
"Mm."
Juanjuan nodded her little head, looking serious.
"My informants told me they'd both met those men in black, one after the other. From then on, they both started acting strangely. Uncle Scarface feels like a stranger to me, while Uncle Li Xie has started keeping his distance."
"After