Yu Haiting said anxiously, "Director Gong, take a look. What if he fell down there? We’ve searched everywhere and still haven’t found any trace of him."

Gong Daoyang looked down again. It was a drop of nearly thirty meters, and with snow having fallen for quite a while, no traces were visible below.

But, as Yu Haiting said, they had searched everywhere else. Therefore, the least likely place might indeed be the most probable one.

Now, they had to leave no stone unturned, not wasting any opportunity.

Having thought it through, Gong Daoyang immediately went to find the firefighters; after all, they were more professional in this kind of situation.

In no time, a firefighter with a rope tied to him slowly slid down, while nearly twenty people pulled from above.

There was really nowhere to secure the rope here.

The firefighter had just descended when he immediately made a discovery. "There are crawling traces here!"

At that one sentence, everyone grew excited, finally seeing a glimmer of hope.

All held their breath and continued to wait for news from below.

Soon, good news came again. "The person is here, in the crevice! I can’t see his condition clearly. Send a few more people down; I can’t pull him up alone."

The crowd above also became excited.

Especially the group from Central Lake—whether from the Health Clinic, the Township Government, or the Police Station—they were so overwhelmed they almost burst into tears.

It had been so difficult; they almost thought the person had vanished into thin air, or that something supernatural had occurred.

But the three men who had been lowered quickly became hesitant to move and started shouting to those above, "Is there a doctor? Send a doctor down! We don’t dare pull him up."

Du Heng shouted from the opposite side, "I’ll go! Lower me down!" While yelling loudly, he hurriedly scrambled towards the cliff edge.

When he arrived and was about to have the rope tied for his descent, Yu Haiting stopped him. "Dean, let me go instead. The footing below is too small, and it’s too dangerous."

Du Heng pushed Yu Haiting away and motioned for a firefighter to tie the rope to him. "So it’s dangerous if I go down, but not if you do? And it’s not dangerous for the firefighter below?"

Seeing Yu Haiting about to speak again, Du Heng waved his hand and pushed him back once more. "My medical skills are better than yours, and I also know bone setting. I’ll be more useful down there. You stay up here and help manage the ropes; our lives depend on all of you up here."

Du Heng had no rappelling experience; he was simply lowered down.

When he reached the bottom and found a place to stand, Du Heng immediately lay flat on the ground. His hand was mere inches from a drop of several tens of meters.

Slowly crawling to the edge of the crevice, guided by the flashlight in a firefighter’s hand, he finally understood why those men hadn’t dared to pull the victim up.

Other details were unclear, and he didn’t know how seriously the man was injured, but one sight alone was enough to make anyone pulling him lose their strength.

The man had fallen headfirst, but his head was now level with his shoulders, with the crown of his head pointing slightly upwards.

It appeared that when he fell, his head got caught in the crevice, but his body continued its downward momentum, forcing him into this folded posture.

At a glance, Du Heng judged that the man’s neck was likely broken; even if not completely severed, it was in a terrible state.

Du Heng, positioned over the crevice, called out for a while but received no response. Thus, he couldn’t be sure if the man was dead or alive.

After observing the unnatural angle of the man’s neck, Du Heng instructed the three firefighters on what to be cautious about, and then they carefully began to pull the man upwards.

But now, Du Heng was deeply conflicted.

If they pulled him up and he was already dead, that would be the end of it.

But what if he wasn’t dead? What if his cervical vertebra was also broken? With his current skills, Du Heng could help set it, but if the spinal cord and surrounding major nerves were damaged, it would be beyond his capabilities. High-level quadriplegia would be inevitable.

Pulling him out now—would it be saving him or harming him?

In the countryside, people relied on physical labor to earn a living. For them, quadriplegia was a fate worse than death.

If the man was alive, even if facing quadriplegia, Du Heng knew his primary duty was to save his life; that part wasn’t a choice for him.

But then there was the most difficult scenario: what if the cervical vertebra was broken, the man wasn’t dead but was comatose and suffering from respiratory failure? Should he save him then?

He could certainly save him, but what would the outcome be?

A life worse than death.

And if he didn’t save him? That would violate his professional ethics and duties. He might even be branded a "murderer," carry that psychological burden, and face legal consequences.

So, as the three firefighters pulled the man upwards, Du Heng prayed for that one-in-ten-thousand chance: that the cervical vertebra wasn’t actually broken, and it was merely the angle of his head causing the grotesque position.

The space was very narrow. As the three firefighters hauled the man up, Du Heng had to keep backing away, giving them room to move and exert force.

He also took this opportunity to finally survey the surroundings and try to understand how the man had ended up in this predicament.

After looking around and considering the narrow ledge where he himself had just been lying, Du Heng guessed the man might have jumped down intentionally. Perhaps in his haste, he hadn’t seen the landing spot clearly and leaped onto this side of the cliff instead of safer ground.

Moreover, falling from such a height, even if it didn’t kill him outright, would have caused severe injuries. Lying on this tiny ledge, he must have struggled to crawl further in, seeking a safer spot.

However, this area sloped inwards, and with the snow making it slippery, he must have slid into the crevice without realizing.

That seemed the most plausible sequence of events.

As Du Heng was mulling this over, the firefighters had already pulled the man out.

"Doctor, Doctor, come take a look!"

The three men shifted positions, making space for Du Heng to move in and examine the body.

But when Du Heng crawled next to the man, he felt a wave of sadness, yet also a strange sense of relief.

The man was already dead, thoroughly and completely.

Just like the others in the gully, there was no need for rescue. When Du Heng placed his hand on the body, it was already growing cold.

Looking at the condition of the man’s mouth, nose, and ears, Du Heng deduced that his internal organs must have ruptured, causing massive hemorrhage. His left shoulder was also broken.

His neck, his cervical vertebra, hadn’t actually been broken. However, due to the awkward angle of his head and the internal hemorrhage, his airway had been blocked.

Considering the nearly forty minutes that had passed during the search and rescue, he had ultimately died of suffocation.

Now, the dilemma of whether to save him or not was gone. Du Heng no longer had to choose, and in that, he found a grim sort of relief.

Five dead and one injured today. He hadn’t been able to use any of his skills. Or rather, these victims hadn’t given him the chance.

"The man’s already dead; his body is starting to stiffen. Let’s pull him up."