In the early hours of April 5, a news story appeared on major platforms and spread with the force of a locust swarm.
#Maple Leaf County Indigenous Victims Memorial Hall Catches Fire; No Casualties Reported, Cause Under Investigation#
Beneath the stark headline, the reporter described the Memorial Hall's devastation in sympathetic, pitying prose: the building had been scorched, vast quantities of materials burned, and the dense maple forest reduced to ash, leaving behind a ravaged scene like one haunted by demons and monsters.
Whether deliberately or not, the article also mentioned the Memorial Hall's predecessor, Red Maple Leaf Boarding School, writing in an eerily cryptic tone:
"We cannot help but recall that Red Maple Leaf Boarding School once suffered a similar fire. Fate seems to have completed a strange cycle, as though it were a curse bestowed by the gods."
Two images were attached below the article. One showed the Memorial Hall blackened by smoke; the other showed the maple forest's vegetation destroyed, reduced to scorched earth.
There was something strange about this news story at every turn.
It was clearly not yet the dry season, and there were no piles of fallen leaves or other flammable material on the ground. How, exactly, had such a fire spontaneously started in the sparsely populated maple forest?
The fire had been so massive that it destroyed both the maple forest and the venue, so why had not a single tourist been harmed?
Delighted by the spectacle, netizens discussed it with gusto. Some claimed it was a Federation conspiracy, some said it was a supernatural incident, while others took the opportunity to explain the history of Red Maple Leaf Boarding School...
Propelled by an invisible force, more and more people began paying attention to the news. In the end, most of their attention