“You earn sixty yuan a day, and you're willing to risk your life for it?!”
Li Shoutian is sixty-one. To pay for his wife's medical treatment, he hides his age and takes daily-wage jobs.
When a fire breaks out at a racetrack, he grabs a fire extinguisher and rushes into the flames, only to discover it's broken! The security footage only shows him “throwing down the extinguisher and running away.” The signal cuts out before it can show him rescuing anyone...
The whole internet tears into him: “The old geezer is a coward!” “A craven who fled when it mattered!” “He's brought shame on the whole country!”
But they don't know that this old man charged into the fire three times, rescuing trapped drivers with his bare hands, until both his hands were burned raw!
They also don't know that ten years ago, his son died in a fire on that very same track because help arrived too late!
As the truth is uncovered, one layer at a time:
A reconnaissance soldier in the War Against Vietnam, a second-class military merit recipient, living under an assumed identity for thirty years...
He donated his entire month's wages after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake and repeatedly saved people anonymously...
The whole internet erupts! Everyone is looking for this old man!
But right now, Li Shoutian is using that sixty yuan to buy two yuan's worth of burn ointment and five yuan's worth of pork, then stewing pork with glass noodles for his wife...
He has no idea he's become an internet sensation.
All he knows is that tomorrow he has to look for another day job, because his wife's medication can't run out.
True heroes don't need the spotlight. But this time, the whole world owes him an apology.
