"Uncle Hughes! You know Uncle Hughes?" Miss Xiao cried out involuntarily. All her elegance and reserve, all her competence and maturity were thrown far away. Like a child, she stared at Bagnell with wide, astonished eyes.
Bagnell unconsciously rubbed the dark stubble on his cheek and chuckled. "So you're Hughes's niece!" A trace of sadness and reminiscence colored his words.
"You really know Uncle Hughes?" Miss Xiao stared blankly at Bagnell, her eyes round. "Are you a friend of his? But I never heard Uncle say he had any friends!"
"We're old friends. It must have been more than twenty years now. Is he doing well?" Bagnell asked softly.
Miss Xiao's eyes, like black gemstones, immediately dimmed. She shook her head sorrowfully. "Uncle passed away five years ago."
Bagnell fell silent. A trace of grief flashed through his eyes. Only after a while did he ask evenly, "Where was he buried? Inchbold? He loved the gardenias there."
Miss Xiao shook her head. "No, he was buried in Bristol. That was his hometown. Uncle didn't like gardenias. He liked magnolias." She looked at Bagnell with some suspicion.
"Heh, I'm getting old, and my memory's getting worse." Bagnell's expression remained unchanged, but inwardly, he relaxed. Then a wistful, nostalgic look appeared on his face. "Bristol was his hometown. He told me there was a Dawn Church in the town that made the best dry biscuits."
"So you really did know Uncle Hughes!" Miss Xiao's eyes widened further. She said sheepishly, "I thought you were trying to fool me!"
Bagnell smiled, looking somewhat somber, then suddenly asked, "Did you build this base, or did your uncle?"
"Uncle built it. The old base was far too run-down, and he didn't want to expand into the cities, so he spent most of his money building