I nodded, pulled my hand back, gripped her shoulders, and said firmly, "Don't worry. We still need to find Mom together. When I used the Blood Kin Compass to search for you in the Sea of the Dead, it told me Mom was still alive, living near a well. I just don't know where that well is yet, but one thing is certain: she's alive."

My older sister's eyes widened, unable to believe the words were true; fresh tears welled up in her already swollen eyes. "You're not lying to me?"

I looked at her seriously and replied, "Of course not. The Blood Kin Compass told me you were on Silent Mountain, and I found you there, didn't I? It doesn't lie. Mom is alive."

"Mmm," she choked out, managing to whisper through sobs after a long moment, "Once Dr. Wang's business is settled, I'll wait for you to come back, and then we'll look for Mom together. We’ll be a family again."

"How did that call go?" Xiao Shu, unable to watch the exchange any longer, deliberately interrupted my sister and me, steering the conversation back to practical matters.

My sister wiped the tears from her eyes, regaining her composure, and told Xiao Shu, "The Editor-in-Chief gave me this reporting assignment. I'll go to the police station at 8 PM to retrieve the news materials. You two can come along, pretending to be my assistants."

I looked up at the sky outside the window. Dusk was fast approaching, a sliver of sunset staining the western horizon, coloring half the city a deep red. If I weren't so worried about Wang Jue, I would have asked Wenshu out for a quiet, intimate evening for just the two of us.

"It's getting late. We should get ready and head out," Xiao Shu said.

"Yeah, let's eat something first," my sister turned and walked into the kitchen. After a dozen minutes of clanging and clattering, she emerged with three bowls of noodles.

Each of us took a bowl. Xiao Shu and I hadn't properly eaten all day, so we grabbed ours and devoured the noodles in a couple of gulps. Only my sister held her bowl, her eyes red, finding it hard to swallow.

I couldn't watch it anymore and urged her, "Sis, eat up, or the noodles will get mushy."

"I can't eat it. You have it," she said, carefully transferring several mouthfuls from her large bowl into mine.

I glanced at Xiao Shu's bowl; it was already scraped clean, not even soup remaining. How could I have the nerve to selfishly finish her portion? I quickly picked up half of what she gave me and passed it to him. He didn't complain; he just kept saying "Enough, enough" while slurping down the newly added noodles with his chopsticks.

Once the noodles were gone, the three of us gathered our things, and my sister drove us toward the Public Security Bureau.

The newspaper office had already contacted the police station, so my sister led us straight to the evidence room. The officer on duty greeted us warmly and played the surveillance footage from the crime scene for us to watch.

14:27:40: Wang Jue, wearing a red T-shirt and jeans, holding a fruit knife, rushed out of Building No. 2 and headed directly for the guardhouse. Two or three passersby walked past him; he stared straight ahead and did not attack any of them.

14:29:57: Wang Jue opened the guardhouse door. Guard A approached to ask what was happening. Wang Jue thrust the knife forward, stabbing A in the chest. A clutched his chest, stumbled two steps backward, and fell.

14:30:32: Guard B realized what was happening, stepped forward, and wrestled with Wang Jue, grabbing the wrist holding the knife with his left hand and restraining Wang Jue's left hand with his right, shoving him outside. Guard C moved to aid the injured A, while Guard D picked up the telephone on the control panel to report the incident.

14:31:29: Wang Jue kicked Guard B viciously in the lower body. B released both hands, bent over, clutching his groin. Wang Jue seized the opportunity, lunged forward, and stabbed B directly in the neck with the fruit knife. Blood sprayed out, and B collapsed diagonally near the door.

14:31:59: Guard C saw the gravity of the situation, grabbed a nearby stool, and hurled it at Wang Jue. D hung up the phone and picked up the flashlight from the control panel, adopting a fighting stance. Wang Jue twisted around, dodged the stool, and threw the knife at Guard C. The fruit knife struck C directly in the head, and C fell.

14:32:33: Wang Jue moved to pull out the knife lodged in C's head. D circled behind Wang Jue and smashed the flashlight directly onto the back of Wang Jue's head. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Wang Jue bent his waist, pulled out his knife with his right hand, and simultaneously grabbed the hand holding the flashlight with his left. He then immediately stabbed the drawn knife into D's lower left abdomen. Following that, he fiercely shoved D against the control panel and delivered another stab to the chest.

14:33:00: Covered in blood, Wang Jue bolted out of the guardhouse and fled rapidly toward the west.

The entire process of the assault took five minutes and twenty seconds, involving five stab wounds. Guard C died instantly. Guard A succumbed to his injuries during emergency treatment. B and D are both in the Intensive Care Unit.