Xie Yuan suddenly broke through the water's surface, took a few deep breaths, and looked toward the spot where the pearl-diving boat had originally been anchored. He was about to call for the people on the boat to throw a sinker stone, but he found the area empty. The pearl-diving boat, along with all the people on board, had disappeared. As he stood there in confusion, he heard shouts behind him. He quickly turned around and saw the pearl boat, with seven or eight pearl divers rowing with all their might, speeding toward the south. Though they were now thirty to forty yards away, he could still sense their excitement. And when he listened carefully, he could clearly hear them shouting, "San Niangzi."
Xie Yuan didn't know what had happened, but it seemed definitely not a bad thing. And they were clearly shouting his cousin's name, indicating that she was likely to have been spotted on the sea surface, which was heartening news for Xie Yuan. He felt a surge of warmth, all his fatigue vanished, and he immediately began to swim vigorously toward the pearl boat.
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After finishing the clam picking, Wen Lan inflated the airbag and lightly tapped the rock with her toe, leveraging the counterforce to ascend slowly using an efficient and precise body posture. As she floated halfway up, the light around her became brighter and the water pressure gradually decreased, causing the airbag above her head to sway and accelerate along the rope.
Just as Wen Lan was about to accelerate her own ascent, she suddenly heard a strange chirping sound behind her. The sound was extremely eerie when heard underwater. Startled, she turned around, but her view was obstructed by a group of red pipefish swimming past her from behind, creating an indistinct shadow roughly ten meters away in the water.
Wen Lan's first thought was that she had encountered a shark, but she quickly dismissed that possibility, realizing that sharks do not make such sounds.
She immediately thought of a dolphin.
The fish group quickly passed by, and the shadow slowly moved closer to her. Upon seeing the unexpected visitor clearly, Wen Lan was relieved.
Indeed, it was a dolphin approaching her.
Due to her involvement in an international green organization for dolphin rescue, Wen Lan had some knowledge about dolphins. As it came closer, she recognized it as a short-armed spinner dolphin that preferred to live in warm seas. Its back, belly, and family members were all dark gray, with a rare circle of white lines on its forehead, giving it a slightly comical expression with its small eyes resembling black beans. Although its size was estimated to be about one and a half meters, it should still be a one to two-year-old juvenile, based on the normal body shape of this type of dolphin.
Before she could approach it, the dolphin swam to a spot a few meters away from her and continued to emit the strange chirping sound, staring at her with its glistening eyes.
The sound, coupled with its expression, stirred a feeling of pity in Wen Lan, similar to a child acting coquettishly with its mother after experiencing some distress. She was about to express her friendliness toward the dolphin when she noticed an unusual protrusion on its back.
Upon closer examination, Wen Lan found that the dolphin had a foreign object lodged in its back. It was quite obvious that the object did not belong there.
Wen Lan estimated that she could hold her breath underwater for a moment. Without hesitation, she immediately swam to the dolphin. Once she reached its side, she understood why it had been making those sounds. There was a piece of wood ingrown at an angle into the back fin of the dolphin. The exposed part of the wood looked somewhat rotten and covered in moss, with irregular, broken edges. The wound had turned white, indicating that the injury was at least two or three days old. It seemed that the dolphin had accidentally been injured while rubbing against the bottom of a fishing boat, possibly due to playful behavior or for some other reason.
Dolphins are empathetic creatures. Wen Lan had once assisted in rescuing a mother dolphin who was deeply sorrowful after losing her offspring. Witnessing the dolphin repeatedly pushing its child's body out of the water, as if hoping for a miracle, had given her a favoring impression of these animals. Clearly, this distressed dolphin had sought help after being injured and had encountered her in the water. Its intelligence had informed it that she could help, hence it continuously sought assistance through those sounds.
In a hurry, Wen Lan reached out and patted the dolphin's forehead to reassure it. After hearing its pained chirping, she was about to remove the splinter lodged in its body when suddenly a powerful, icy current enveloped her from the side, and she lost control, being swept away by the swirling current.
Considering the landscape of the seabed, the area had likely experienced changes due to geological movements, resulting in the formation of deep-sea trenches. It was highly probable that this irregular temporary undercurrent originated from nearby deep-sea trenches, where temperature differences in the water produced whirlpools. Her only option was to protect herself. Luckily, when she encountered the current, she had already reached a relatively safe depth in terms of water pressure.
As the water flow gradually calmed and warmed, Wen Lan, who was feeling dizzy and disoriented, opened her eyes but found it difficult to discern her location.
She is now close to the limit of holding her breath, and her lungs were urgently craving for air. However, she was more aware that the more critical the moment, the less irritable she should be. Many divers like her often get into trouble not because they have reached an irrecoverable state, but because they cannot control the desperate desire to breathe and the ensuing panic, which results in tragedy.
As she struggled to stabilize her body and determine the direction of the light coming through the water, something suddenly poked her back, immediately giving her a point of support and steadying her. Looking down, she found that the dolphin she just encountered was the one propping her up; it had followed her.
Seeing her stabilize her body, the dolphin immediately chirped and guided her towards the direction of the light. When she was close to the surface, barely reaching her limit, the dolphin used its strength to push her up. With a splash, almost effortlessly, her head emerged from the sea.
Wenlan opened her mouth to breathe. Fresh air filled her lungs, and she immediately felt relieved. Sensing the dolphin still circling below her, she remembered the injury on its back. She immediately held her breath and dipped back into the water. After swimming to its back, she removed the wooden piece lodged in its back and then cleared the small wood splinters around the wound. Luckily, the wood was not deeply embedded, and after a brief flow of blood, the wound stopped bleeding.
That was all Wenlan could do to help the dolphin. She hoped its immune system would help it heal quickly, allowing it to continue to swim in its own world.
While she was tending to the dolphin's wound, it floated silently. After pulling out the wood splinter, as if feeling a relief in the pain on its back, it made a chirping sound, circling around Wenlan and continuously touching her body with its mouth. She knew this was its way of thanking her. But she didn't have time to play with it now because she had been underwater for a while, and if she didn't show up, the people above would be in chaos. After patting the dolphin's head again, she immediately surfaced, looked around, and only then realized that the strong current had carried her quite a distance away from the pearl boat, which was now far away, about two hundred meters from her location.
Wenlan shouted loudly towards the people on the pearl boat, waving her arms in an attempt to attract their attention, but her voice was weakened by the sea breeze. Just as she was about to take a breath and call out again, the dolphin suddenly leaped high out of the water, emitting a sharp cry. The people on the boat were immediately attracted by this sound and finally noticed Wenlan's location.
Even Li Haiqiu and others, who had witnessed Wenlan's swimming skills, initially thought she must be in trouble. The people on the boat were not in the mood to check if there were pearls in the big clam anymore. When they saw her appearing on the surface not far away, it was an incredible joy that was beyond words. At that moment, who would remember that Xie Yuan was still underwater? They immediately rowed the boat towards her, which resulted in the scene that Xie Yuan witnessed when he surfaced earlier.
When Wenlan saw the boat approaching, she was a little tired, so she stopped swimming, took off her mask, put it back in the basket, and just floated on the water's surface. As the boat approached and they pulled her on board while she was still catching her breath, she felt someone putting a coat on her shoulders. When she turned back, she saw Wei Zixing looking at her with a smile on his face, and she thanked him casually.
Li Haiqiu, a man who made a living in the water for half a lifetime, never shed a tear no matter how hard or tiring the situation was. At this moment, he couldn't contain his excitement, his throat was a little choked, and he anxiously asked about what had happened underwater. Wenlan briefly described the experience, and just as others were amazed, the dolphin leaped high by the side of the boat, as if unwilling to leave, swimming around the pearl boat.
Dolphins have always been known for rescuing drowning people, and there are ancient stories in the local area about fishing boats avoiding reefs because of the dolphins' guidance, so they hold a sacred place in the hearts of the local people, referred to as "divine fish". When they saw the divine fish approaching, they all knelt down and worshiped.