Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Sihwa’s songs were emitted at a low frequency, inaudible to human ears. Maybe cats and dogs could hear them, too, but only the whales and herself could understand the content. As the transmission rate of low-frequency sound waves was very low, a short human sentence would take a long time to sing when it was being transmitted by low-frequency waves.
In the recording, she sang to ask the hunted whales in northeastern Asia to come to Binhai City’s outer sea for asylum. It took her a good three or four minutes to complete the sentence.
Apart from Sihwa, nobody understood whale language––even the scientists didn’t understand the grammar and pronunciation in whale language.
Zhang Zian suspected that the wording in Sihwa’s song might not be accurate enough. As a result, some whales had misunderstood her and swam into the dangerous, shallow water.
Sihwa didn’t understand what he meant at first. After a moment, as she understood it, her face immediately turned red in anger.
“You… What nonsense are you talking about, you cheapskate? Don’t compare me to those stupid cats and dumb dogs!” she said in arrogance.
“Cut it. What are you angry at? I’m just confirming… Besides, you are not qualified to call others stupid, are you?” Zhang Zian knew it was inappropriate to question others without any evidence, but he had no other choice.
“Anyway, I am not wrong!” Sihwa gnawed her teeth and crossed her arms in front of her chest in anger.
Zhang Zian had to apologize. “Fine, I’m sorry I wronged you… Just help me do another recording. You should tell them: ‘If you are hurt or sick, this man is here to help you. Please don’t harm him.’”
“Hurt? That whale is hurt?” She lifted her eyes and asked. She felt a tightness in her heart.
“I can’t be sure yet. That’s why I need to observe it closer on a boat,” he said.
She spoke in lingering anger, “Whales don’t hurt people. It should be fine even if I don’t tell them, right?”
Zhang Zian explained, “Not necessarily. If it’s really hurt and was injured by humans, then it might be holding a grudge against humans. All whales are short-sighted. They can’t tell the difference between different people at a certain distance. It’s very likely to capsize my friendly boat before I have a chance to get close enough…”
“Injured by humans?” She misunderstood immediately. She spoke, her eyes big and furious, “You said Chinese people don’t harm whales! That’s why I asked them to come here! Did you lie to me on purpose? You a**hole cheapskate!”
“It wasn’t injured by Chinese people, for sure. I mean, maybe after they heard your song, they swam to China from other places with their wounds… Wait a minute.” Zhang Zian asked her to calm down. He walked out of the bathroom, took a long object wrapped in plastic, then opened it up next to the bathtub.
“Look. What is this?”
Inside the plastic wrap was the broken fishing spear he had taken back from the beach. The rusted metal appeared a darker crimson color after it was soaked in blood. The fractured section of the wooden handle was rough and uneven. The handle itself was old and worn after years of use.
The bloody object might be mistaken as a weapon if he walked out in public with it. Due to recent security concerns, it would be a big problem if the police arrested him for suspicion. He might also frighten the customers in his shop. Therefore, he wrapped it in plastic.
Sihwa stared at the fishing spear and glanced at it from left to right. She didn’t know what it was, but a faint bloody smell had drifted into her nostrils, making her feel nauseated. A bad premonition suddenly rose in her heart.
She stretched out her fair and tender fingers and rubbed against the spear’s rough surface. It was covered in rust, but she could still feel the sharp curve. In the end, she stopped at the sharp end.
“Ouch!”
Her finger had just gently touched the tip of the fishing spear, and it was cut. The wound was not visible, yet a drop of blood seeped out and dripped into the bathtub. As it circled and spread, it made a beautiful shape like a cherry blossom.
Even baby fingers were not that tender.
“What is this?” she asked, retracting her hand.
Zhang Zian answered, “This is a fishing spear.”
She couldn’t understand what it was used for just by hearing the name alone. He held the remaining portion of the wooden handle and lifted the spear over his shoulder to make a javelin throwing pose. He didn’t know if the harpooning movement was similar to that, but it was enough to fool her; she could not tell if it was right or wrong.
“As soon as they saw a whale emerge out of the water, they threw the spear out like this. Do you see the barb? As long as the spear pierces into the whale’s body, it will not fall off. The barb will grab the whale’s flesh firmly, making them insanely miserable. This spear is not whole; there is another half. The tail is attached to a rope, and the rope is attached to the boat. After the whale is pierced by the spear, the whale can no longer escape. It will use all its strength in its great pain to drag the boat as it swims. But the more it does so, the more it loses blood and drains its strength. In the end, it’s exhausted and collapses on the surface of the water. It then gets dragged onto the whale hunting boat and gets butchered into pieces…
Judging from the size, this spear is used to hunt small whales. The owner might be driving a non-professional whale hunting boat––a regular fishing boat. That person may not live on whale hunting alone, but rather they are only a regular fisherman. But he always keeps a fishing spear on the boat. Each time he comes across a small whale, he picks the spear up to make some extra money. The real, professional whale hunting boats use a harpoon cannon. After shooting a whale, it may even pierce right through it…
This fishing spear was discovered in a minke whale a few days ago. It was very lucky. It might have struggled too much after being harpooned, or the wooden handle was already rotten inside after it had been used for a long time. Anyhow, the spear broke in half. From another perspective, you can tell how firmly the barb can grab onto a whale. It won’t fall off, even if the handle is broken.
It heard your song. With a spear inside its body, it swam a long way, in great pain, all the way to Binhai City. At last, it lost direction under the pain, then dashed onto the beach and got stranded. Luckily, it was discovered in time and got rescued, leaving only an ugly sutured wound on its body.”
Everything Zhang Zian had just said was a guess; it was not precise, but most likely not far from the truth, either.
With rich body language, he made a graphic illustration. Even if Sihwa had never seen a real whale hunting excursion, the bloody scene was vivid in front of her eyes.
She was so terrified that she held her own body tight in the bathtub, as if she was freezing. She realized she was shaking.
“Who… Who is he? What kind of person is capable of such a horrific deed?” she asked, fighting back her tears.
Zhang Zian put the spear back to the side of the bathtub, flipped it, then pointed at the family name engraved into the fishing spear to let her read.
