The entire incident starts with a short video.
An elderly man is found living beneath a bridge, confused, poorly dressed, and unable to clearly explain who he is or where he came from. The person who records the video is not trying to start a national discussion. He is simply hoping someone might recognize the old man and help him find his family.
The internet has other ideas.
Within days, millions of people have already decided what happened. Comment sections fill with anger, livestreamers rush to cover the story, reporters begin asking questions, and countless strangers become convinced they understand the situation after watching less than a minute of footage.
According to public opinion, the answer seems obvious.
An old man has been abandoned.
Someone must be responsible.
The search for that someone quickly turns into a spectacle of its own.
As more information appears online, attention shifts toward a family connected to the old man. Their version of events spreads rapidly, gaining sympathy almost as fast as the original video. New accusations appear every day, old details are reinterpreted, and people who have never met any of the individuals involved argue with absolute confidence about who is innocent and who deserves blame.
The strange part is that the story refuses to stay simple.
Every time the public believes it has reached a conclusion, another detail surfaces and complicates everything again.
Meanwhile, a small group of people react very differently to the viral video.
They are not interested in internet debates.
They are not interested in chasing views.
They care about one thing only.
The identity of the old man.
To most viewers, Song Haotian looks like a lonely dementia patient whose life has reached a tragic end. A few individuals, however, recognize his name immediately, and their reactions raise far more questions than answers. Some travel across the country after seeing the footage. Others quietly begin making phone calls. A handful seem genuinely alarmed that the video exists at all.
None of them explain why.
The novel blends internet drama, hidden-identity mystery, and social commentary into a story where public opinion often moves much faster than the truth. Rumors spread in hours, reputations collapse overnight, and assumptions become facts long before anyone bothers checking them.
As for Song Haotian himself, he spends much of the early story appearing far less remarkable than the chaos surrounding him.
Which only makes the situation stranger.
Because the more attention people give to the old man beneath the bridge, the more obvious it becomes that someone important has been forgotten.
And not everyone is prepared for what happens when the world remembers him again.
