Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Zian raised his head to look at the red sun that was still up in the sky. The temperature of the air was also increasing with the rise of the sun. He knew that the whale’s grayish black skin would absorb twice the heat of sunlight and that its thick fat layer would prevent it from releasing heat. Although the surface of the whale had not shown signs of decay, the decay in its body was probably accelerating further under the heat of sunlight, which could not be stopped.
After most animals died, they would start to rot from the inside to the outside. The first things that would rot were their internal organs, and it was the same with whales.
Besides that, there was a unique part of whales: The whale’s skin was too thick and tough.
When land animals died, there would be all kinds of scavengers that would flock in. The carcasses would be completely eaten out just after they showed signs of decay, regardless of whether they were the king of beasts or anything else.
But if whales died on the beach, it was unique because there were rarely any great scavengers at the beach.
Without shark-like, razor-sharp teeth, ordinary shrimp, crabs, and seabirds couldn’t even break the whale’s skin. Therefore, if a whale died on the beach, its body was often well preserved.
Zhang Zian reached out his hand and pressed on the grey whale’s skin. Its skin was hot and fishy; the moisture had dried, but the flesh still seemed to be elastic when he pressed his palm down. It was somewhat similar to the feeling of pressing down on a water bed.
He walked around to the other side of the whale, where part of the whale’s belly was exposed. He tried to press the belly of the whale. Compared to pressing on the whale’s back, it was even softer and even more elastic; it seemed to be a bit too soft.
When he helped the stranded minke whale leave the beach, he pressed the belly of the minke whale, which gave him a feeling of firmness and elasticity. Although different species and ages of whales could not be compared, the difference in the feeling was too great.
He walked over to the head of the grey whale next, then went close to the side of its mouth to smell it.
The grey whale’s mouth was slightly open, and the strong and nauseating smell slowly overflowed from the depth of its mouth. Zhang Zian coughed, staggered away a few steps, squatted down, and retched a few times.
He was not the only person next to the whale’s body; there were still five or six people taking photos with the whale’s body so they could post it on Weibo and send it to friends to boast.
Zhang Zian wiped his mouth and saw one of the person had happily finished taking his selfie, and was concentrating on editing it. They wanted to add some artistic filter to the photo and had added the words, “Met a deer in the deep forest, and whale in the blue sea.” He was getting ready to send it to his friends to act pretentious.
He walked over to start a conversation with him. “Brother, sorry to bother you.”
The other party was shocked. He looked at Zhang Zian, on guard after realizing that he did not recognize him. He asked in a monotonous voice, “Is there a problem?”
“I wanted to ask––when did the whale get stranded here?” Zhang Zian pointed at the grey whale and asked.
“This… I’m not sure. It was here when I got here… Eh, do any of you know when the whale was stranded here?” the person asked the people next to him.
“I don’t know,” one woman answered.
“I’m not sure,” another said.
“I was also called over by a friend. She said that there was a whale that was beached, and had me hurry over to take a look,” a girl said.
Zhang Zian asked, “Then when did your friend see this?”
“Um…” The girl thought about it. “This morning, maybe? She has the habit of running on the path next to the sea in the morning, and she told me after she finished running and returned to our shared, rented flat.”
“Roughly what time was that?”
“What time was it… Ah… Probably a little after seven.”
Zhang Zian took his phone out to check the time, then roughly calculated the time of the ebb and flow of the tides.
Influenced by the moon’s gravity, there were two ebbs and two flows every day. The time of each ebb and flow was not fixed, but they were scheduled with periodic cycles like the moon’s waxing and waning. There were about 12 hours between the two high tides a day, and it was the same for the ebb tides.
As a child that had grown up by the seaside, he was very clear about this rule.
The last time he had helped the minke whale, the high tide occurred close to noon, and based on his guessing, the first high tide that day was most likely around 9:30 in the morning. At that time, however, the grey whale had already been stranded here.
He had to make one thing clear first: The mature grey whale had definitely been pushed up on the beach during some high tide.
Since it was not pushed up onto the beach by the high tide at 9:30 in the morning, then it was very likely to have been pushed up by the high tide at around nine the night before. It had been dark, and no one would come to the beach at that kind of time, so it was found in the morning.
As to whether it was even earlier… that was hard to tell, because yesterday afternoon when he came to the beach, he did not pass by that area. He was not sure if the grey whale was already there at that time.
Based on the most conservative estimate, its body had already been there for about 14 hours. How long had it floated in the sea after its death before it was pushed up to the shore? No one could confirm.
“This whale is probably already dead, right? It’s already smelly.”
“Probably.”
“Do you think there’ll be some restaurant boss or something that will pull the whale’s body away and sell its flesh?”
“I don’t think so, right…? That’s too disgusting. It’s already so smelly…”
Next to them, there were a few people that were chatting with each other.
Zhang Zian asked again, “Do you all know if anyone reported this whale to any relevant departments?”
The young people looked at each other. “I didn’t,” one responded.
“I didn’t either,” the other said.
“I feel like there should have been someone else who reported it already, right…?”
They laughed as they talked, their expressions relaxed, as though they had all thought that there was probably someone who had reported it already and it had nothing to do with them.
“Furthermore, which department even qualifies as a relevant department?” One of them smiled bitterly. “Are they supposed to call 110? Wouldn’t that be considered a fake police report?”
“Hello? 110? I found a body at the beach, can you come over to take a look? Please protect the crime scene, and say where you are roughly. Is the body a female or male? Actually, it’s a whale’s body. I don’t know if it’s a male or female… Get lost!” Another person imitated a police report, causing the girls present to laugh loudly.
Zhang Zian was speechless.
“Since no one has called the police, then let me call them. After you are done taking photos, leave this place quickly. It’s very dangerous to continue staying here. This whale’s body could explode.”
He gave them a warning, but he had no time to explain in detail. He took out his phone, then found a phone number in his contact list. The number’s owner was Ke Shaohui, the fishery official who he had called over last time he rescued the minke whale.
His hand shifted to Ke Shaohui’s name and was just about to press it to make a call when he was suddenly shocked and hurriedly stopped.
The irritating smell from the whale’s mouth lingered around. Making a phone call next to a decaying whale carcass was even more dangerous than making phone calls at a gas station.
He ran a small distance away before he called Ke Shaohui’s number.
