Chapter 1

When the old man went down at my feet, three lines of comments drifted past my eyes:

【Don't help him up. He's waiting for a young person.】

【His son's a lawyer. He's right across the street at the coffee shop.】

【They run this scam. They've already conned people out of seventy grand.】

A woman beside me shoved her phone in my face. "You're the closest one. Why aren't you helping him?"

I didn't touch the old man. I called 911, then the police.

"Sir, don't move, okay? I'll wait with you. I'm recording the whole thing."

Five minutes later, the old man climbed to his feet on his own, brushing off his pants. "It's fine. Never mind."

Across the street, the man in the gray shirt sat back down inside the coffee shop.

But the whole thing had been caught on several phones at once.

"Ow, oh God, my back..."

I hadn't even reached the crosswalk when the old man ahead of me suddenly lurched sideways and dropped flat in the middle of the sidewalk.

His hand landed half a meter from mine.

On instinct, I took a step forward.

Then three lines of half-transparent text drifted across my vision.

【Don't help him up. He's waiting for a young person.】

【His son's a lawyer, sitting in the coffee shop right across the street.】

【They stage accidents and file claims. They've pulled it off several times already.】

I stopped.

The text slid past just above the old man's head, like the scrolling comments on a short-video app, and vanished fast.

I blinked twice.

Gone.

"Miss, give me a hand."

The old man reached out toward me.

He looked to be over seventy, gray-haired, in a jacket washed thin with age.

"I can't get up. My back might be broken."

"Don't move for now."

"Just pull me up, that's all."

"If your back's really hurt, I can't just yank you up like that."

The hand he was holding out froze.

The woman running the hot dog stand poked her head out.

"Come on, miss, he's asking you. Just help him up."

"I'm about to call 911."

"What do you need 911 for? Just help him up, done."

She lifted her phone and pointed it right at me.

"Kids these days, so cold. An old man falls at their feet and they won't lift a finger."

The lens was almost against my face.

I stepped to the side.

"Ma'am, if you're in such a hurry, you help him up."

She rolled her eyes.

"I've got a business to run. You're the closest. You do it."

The old man groaned again.

Just then, a man inside the coffee shop across the street stood up.

Gray shirt, black briefcase.

He didn't come out.

He just stood behind the glass, staring straight over at us.

The second comment had said he was the old man's son.

I pulled out my phone and started recording.

"Sir, I'm filming everything now. Lie still and don't move around."

The old man frowned.

"What are you recording me for?"

"To protect you, and to protect me."

"I just asked you to pull me up. What is wrong with you, girl?"

"You just said your back might be broken. Moving you could cause a second injury. I can't take that risk."

More people had gathered around by now.

Someone murmured that I was right to be careful.

Someone else said I was too suspicious.

The hot dog woman turned her lens toward the old man.

"Don't worry, sir. She won't help you, but we'll be your witnesses."

The old man was breathing hard.

"People these days. Fine, forget it, forget it."

Right in front of everyone, I got through to 911.

"There's an elderly man who's fallen. He says his back hurts. He's conscious, no bleeding at the moment."

The dispatcher asked for the address, then reminded me not to move him.

I had it on speaker.

The hot dog woman went quiet.

After I hung up, I called the police too.

This time, the old man braced against the ground and sat up.

"What are you calling the cops for?"

"Someone's hurt and there's a dispute at the scene. It's safer to have an officer come."

"Who's disputing anything with you?"

"Even better, then. An officer can just take a report. It won't hold up your treatment."

The pain drained out of the old man's face.

He shot a glance at the coffee shop.

The man in the gray shirt was still standing.

A new comment drifted across the top of my phone screen.

【Don't stop recording.】

【He's about to get up on his own.】

I lowered the lens to make sure I had his whole body in frame.

In under a minute, the old man pushed off with both hands and stood up.

Steadier on his feet than an old woman with a cane in the crowd of onlookers.

He slapped the dust off his pant legs.

"Guess I'm fine. Must've just slipped."

I asked, "Your back doesn't hurt anymore?"

"Walk it off and it's fine."

"The ambulance is already on its way."

"Tell them not to come."

"You just said your back might be broken."

"I said might. I didn't say for sure."

"The police are on their way too."

The old man's face darkened.

"What is wrong with you, so pigheaded? I already said I don't need it."

He pushed through the crowd and walked off.

The onlookers parted to let him through.

The man in the gray shirt sat back down in the coffee shop.

But none of them noticed the young guy in the ball cap off to the right, his lens fixed on the glass door the whole time.

And the recording on my phone hadn't stopped either.