Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The minke whale rolled its black and white eyeballs, staring at Zhang Zian. He responded with calm and gentle eyes, while petting its smooth and soft skin with his palms.
Zhang Zian was not sure which one worked––the eye contact, the tone of his voice, or the body contact––but he was sure that it was trying its best to control itself and to not hurt anyone by struggling. It proved that it understood that they were helping it to relieve its pain.
Each stitch on the wound was not as bad as the pain of cutting off the flesh, or removing the spear, but it needed at least a dozen or a few dozen stitches. Could it take such continuous pain?
Zhang Zian hesitated, wondering if he should invite Sun Xiaomeng to come down. She was a licensed veterinarian, after all, and she would be familiar with stitching up animals––at least much more familiar than he was.
He thought again. She surely stitched up many wounds, but they were all small animals such as cats and dogs. She might not have similar experience in stitching up such a gigantic whale.
Besides, it would take her some time to win the minke whale’s trust, and time was what they lacked the most.
As for anaesthesia, she might not be sure about the dose on an animal of that size. If the dose was too low, it would not work. If she was too high on the dosage, it might never wake up again.
Zhang Zian felt a cold sensation on his ankles. As he looked down, the water was above his feet.
The tide was rising.
“Hey! The tide is rising!” Xiao Zhi exclaimed.
Zhang Zian stood up, looked out over the sea in the distance, and got anxious, “What’s taking the tow boat so long? The Fishery Administration is so inefficient…”
The rising tide was the best time to tow the whale back into the water. If they missed that and waited until low tide, it would be in trouble.
Splash! Splash!
The tide rose under the moon’s gravitational force, each time higher than the last. The ice-cold water made the minke whale comfortable, but human’s movements harder. After the tide had reached their waistline, they could no longer stand firmly under the water. They would have to move back, or else it would be dangerous.
Huang’s cell phone rang. He picked it up quickly. “Where the heck are the two of you? Are you coming home for lunch or not?” A savage voice came out of the loudspeaker like a roaring lion. Even Zhang Zian could hear it loud and clear.
Huang smiled at Zhang Zian with embarrassment, then gave the kite handle to Xiao Zhi. He bent over and ran a bit further to answer the phone.
“We’ll be home soon! Very soon! We just came across with a stranded whale by the beach. It’s wounded, so we are helping it return to the sea…” Huang’s voice came from a distance.
“Wounded? Who’s wounded? Xiao Zhi? I’m telling you, Huang, if Xiao Zhi gets hurt, I will kill you!”
“No! It’s not Xiao Zhi, but a whale that’s stranded on the beach…”
“Bullsh*t! You think I possibly believe this crap?” Huang’s wife gave him crap. He had to take a picture of the minke whale and send it to his wife to appease her anger. She asked him to head home immediately after he finished.
Zhang Zian suddenly realized what a bliss it was to be single!
Xiao Zhi was quite used to such interactions with his parents. He stuck to Zhang Zian for all kinds of questions, as he saw the variety of things that Zhang Zian could do with a Swiss Army knife. It was so amazing to him.
Huang dealt with his wife quickly, then hung up the phone and walked over with an awkward smile. “She’s such an ignorant woman. I won’t make such a fuss like her… Let’s continue.”
As the tide rose higher and higher, there was no time to delay anymore.
Zhang Zian had already instructed the father and son on what to do. Without further words, he tapped the minke whale’s head and prepared for suturing.
The flesh around the wound’s edge was already infected. He had to remove the corrupted flesh first before he could suture it. It would cause the whale a lot of pain.
With each cut, Zhang Zian could feel the minke whale trembling. Maybe his comforting acts turned out to be useful, or the rising tide was reassuring. Despite the pain, it didn’t struggle violently; it gave nothing more than a head or tail shake. The body remained still as much as it could.
Luckily, whales had a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, in which there weren’t any nerves. There was not much infected flesh, and the wound was not too big compared to its body size. The deeper tissue was not infected. He removed the infected tissue with only a few cuts.
The tide continued to rise. Soon, it was over their calves. The water under their feet was tainted red by the whale’s blood.
Tired and nervous, Zhang Zian’s forehead was covered in sweat. Sweat drops hung on his eyebrows and made him very itchy, but he had no time to wipe them off.
After cutting off the infected tissue, Xiao Zhi handed him the kite string along with the needle.
Zhang Zian used the small pliers in the Swiss Army knife in his right hand to grab the needle, and he focused on putting the whale’s skin together with his left hand. He then pierced the needle into its skin like he was sewing cloth.
The minke whale was getting more and more used to the pain––or it might have been too exhausted to feel the pain. It didn’t struggle as the needle and string pierced through its skin and flesh.
Huang and Xiao Zhi had turned their heads away when Zhang Zian cut the infected flesh. They felt pain in their own skin by simply watching.
Zhang Zian had never done any needlework, and the whale was trembling. As a result, the suture was super ugly and all over the place; it was not symmetrical at all. He would have surely failed had this been a medical school exam.
Yet, the suture worked almost right away. As the wound was closed up, the bleeding was slowly controlled.
The whale’s skin was too slippery and tough, while the “needle” was not specifically sharp. Zhang Zian was not good at suturing. After a while, his right hand was so sore and numb. As it trembled, the needle slipped off the little pliers. He even almost dropped the Swiss Army knife.
Although the needle slipped, it didn’t fall into the water, as it was attached to the string.
Had it been a human surgery, he would surely need to change the needle, or at least redo the disinfection. But due to the limited amount of time left, he could not do that much. He picked up the needle again and continued suturing. Whales were much hardier than men, anyway. He hoped that it could survive.
As whales moved a lot while swimming in the ocean, Zhang Zian worried that the suture might not hold while it swam. He made dense sutures and used a lot of the kite string. Huang released the string carefully, while glancing over the sea nearby, searching for the Fishery Administration’s boat.
Despite being super busy, Zhang Zian asked Xiao Zhi to step away and keep a distance, as the rising tide had submerged the two grown men’s calves. Xiao Zhi was shorter and lighter; the tide already made him swing left and right. He might fall at any time.
Xiao Zhi didn’t want to leave, but he stayed away under his father’s insistence. He stared at them worriedly from a rock, afraid that the tide might wash them away.
Suddenly, he captured a black dot over the horizon.
He rubbed his eyes and looked carefully. Then he shouted in excitement, “Dad! Look over there! A boating is coming!”
