Xu Demin had completely lost the ability to think.
Everything happening here was challenging his understanding.
He had studied materialism at school, and after coming to Tonggu, his mentors had taught him to "seek truth from facts" as well. Yet what he was hearing now was—
"People just disappeared out of thin air?"
After listening to the emergency responder's account, Xu Demin's thoughts had been the same as the hospital staff's.
There must have been some mistake that outsiders weren't allowed to know about. To cover it up and protect certain people, they made up this absurd story.
But when Xu Demin looked at the expression on the emergency responder's face, he couldn't see any sign that the man was lying. There was only endless confusion and fear.
People who lied either felt guilty, their eyes darting everywhere, or pretended to be calm and confident to bolster their courage.
But the man before him had dull eyes and a pale, panicked face. He looked more like someone who had encountered something he couldn't accept.
Having worked at the mine for a year, Xu Demin also understood the people here. They didn't have the deceitfulness of those in the big cities. Even the leaders in high positions were very simple-minded, devoting themselves entirely to construction and saying things as they were. Many were even so straightforward that they were almost blunt, arguing with the workers beneath them over the smallest matters and insisting on determining who was right and who was wrong.
Xu Demin didn't know all the leaders, but he knew that this was the prevailing atmosphere at Tonggu Mine. Immediately shirking responsibility and concealing the truth after an incident was not how people in the Mining Area behaved.
Seeing that the leader couldn't handle everything alone, Xu Demin stepped