Super Zoo

The entire work group consisted of fifteen people, and after excluding Wang Jian She and two government workers, the actual field operation team, including Suming, totaled twelve.

These twelve split into three groups, each equipped with radios and sonar detectors, along with some shallow water equipment, before boarding three small boats.

Originally these three boats belonged to a fishing company, but now that Zhou Jin was hospitalized and still in critical care, the boats had been temporarily requisitioned.

As a matter of course, the few followers of Zhou Jin were also requisitioned as 'local citizens cooperating with the work', responsible for guarding the fishing boats.

The bald man had snuck off to release the crocodile snake last time and ended up returning with injuries all over his body; he had just been discharged from the hospital yesterday.

Who would have thought that just as he stepped out, Zhou Jin was admitted, and suddenly seeing Suming, the bald man felt a shiver of unease for no apparent reason, with a chill rising simultaneously from the top of his head and his rear end. Instinctively, he took a step backward and exclaimed in shock, "It's you?"

Before Suming could speak, Wang Jian She's secretary, with a stern face, asked, "This is Mr. Su, the expert assigned by the higher-ups. Do you have a problem with that?"

The bald man glanced at the serious-faced secretary and then back at Suming with a look of uncertain surprise. Wasn't this guy just a temp at the zoo? How in the world did he suddenly turn into an 'expert designated by the higher-ups'?

Whether he was an expert or not didn't really matter; it was the words 'the higher-ups' that were truly frightening.

"Oh, no problem, we know each other," Suming chuckled, "Mr. Bald, now's not the time to catch up."

"Yes, yes, yes..." Baldy came to his senses as if waking from a dream, quickly stepping aside to untie the ropes of the fishing boat and allowing Suming and the others to board.

Before long, the fishing boat had sailed away from the shore.

The bald man stood on the shore with a few of his followers, and one of them, seeing that they were all to themselves, leaned in and said, "Bro, doesn't this punk have a grudge against us? This is the perfect chance to get him!"

"Get your sister!"

The bald man glared at him, then with a mix of helplessness and frustration, smacked his forehead heavily, saying, "Didn't you see he's got connections with the government? I wondered, how could he dare to compete with Mr. Zhou and cause trouble with just being a temp? Turns out he's got people up top! No wonder, no wonder..."

"So we just let it go?" the follower asked.

"What else can we do?"

Baldy gestured towards the temporary tents on the shore and said, "Those people in the tents, which one of them can we afford to offend? If we get on their bad side, with just a word from Mr. Wang, Mr. Zhou's reservoir contract won't happen, and we'll be left eating air and drinking farts!"

...

The fishing boat Suming was on wasn't much different in size from the assault boat he used on Shuijun Lake. Besides Mr. Song and Suming, there was also a graduate student of Professor Chu named Liang Shi.

Liang Shi was the kind of person who looked very honest at first glance, wearing thick glasses, speaking little, and had been staring tensely at the sonar indicator at the bow of the boat ever since embarking.

Drip... Drip... Drip... Drip...

The sonar device emitted a consistent soft beeping sound. The principle behind the monitoring system was similar to radar, continuously scanning the surrounding hundred meters of water with their boat as the central point.

From the video footage of the collision with Zhou Jin, the finless porpoise appeared to be at least 1.2 meters long, presumably an adult, and the sonar would reflect any large creatures over a hundred centimeters in length onto the monitor.

Mr. Song was also holding a radio, communicating every now and then with the search personnel on the other two boats.

Suming wasn't particularly in a hurry. Having learned that a special team had been assembled to investigate, he had already instructed the alligator gar to return to Shuijun Lake and even temporarily blocked those few passages at the reservoir end, lest they survive the enemy's gunfire only to fall into the hands of their own people.

Before sealing off the waterway, Suming had specifically summoned the bighead catfish, along with a dozen or so juvenile black carp, to scatter and search the water for any injured Chinese River Dolphins.

After searching for more than half an hour, the three boats found nothing, and Suming received no feedback either. He didn't know whether the dolphin was dead or had simply hidden itself.

Liang Shi was staring intently at the sonar screen the whole time without moving his eyes. He was nearsighted and kept rubbing his eyes, which were blood-red; seeing this, Suming couldn't help but feel a bit of pity. He patted Liang Shi's shoulder and said, "Take a break, I'll take over for you."

"Thank you so much! Then I'll trouble you to watch for a bit while I put in some eye drops and come back to relieve you."

Liang Shi repeatedly expressed his thanks, made way from in front of the monitor, and sat at the back of the boat. He took out a bottle of eye drops, removed his glasses, tilted his head back, and squeezed a few drops into his eyes.

Suming, preoccupied, watched the monitor and made small talk, "Liang, you're still a student, right? How come even the student army has been sent out?"

"Yeah... I'm in my third year of graduate studies... Oh, Mr. Su, we're about the same age, you can just call me by my name..."

With his eyes closed, Liang Shi spoke in a rather wooden tone, "Our agricultural academy's graduate practice courses count for credit, and my thesis topic happens to be about wild Chinese River Dolphins. That's why Professor Chu specifically brought me along for this operation."

"Oh, so you're the real expert on river dolphins," Suming teased.

Liang Shi said a bit embarrassed, "It's all theoretical knowledge from books; in fact, I've never even seen a wild river dolphin."

"Ah? Then how will you write your thesis?" Suming asked, taken aback.

Talking about the river dolphins, Liang Shi's words clearly became more plentiful, "It's like this, there are three types of river dolphins. The ones we're talking about are usually the freshwater ones, called Yangtze River Dolphins. In 2006, the United Nations conducted a survey, and the wild population of the Yangtze River Dolphin was less than 1,500. Moreover, it decreases by about 10% every year. By now, the number of wild Yangtze River Dolphins in the whole world is probably less than five hundred. In reality, it might even be fewer. Over the past few years, I followed Professor Chu and traversed through the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, including nearby Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake, but there have been no signs of river dolphin activity for a long time."

"How will you write your graduation thesis?" Suming asked.

"I just hope we can find that dolphin this time; if we really can't, I'll have to stay for an extra year and change my topic," said Liang Shi with a wry smile and then opened his eyes. He crawled toward the front of the cabin and said, "Mr. Su, my eyes are better now, let me do it."

Suming was about to make way when a 'beep' suddenly sounded from the detector!

All three people on the boat turned their gaze to the sonar at once, and on the screen, about twenty meters from the boat, a dark, fish-shaped shadow appeared underwater, maintaining the same direction as the fishing boat and slowly swimming forward.

Liang Shi immediately became excited, grabbed the walkie-talkie and blurted out, "Hey hey hey, Boat Two has discovered a suspicious target, Boat Two has discovered a suspicious target!"

After some faint static, Professor Chu's voice came through the walkie-talkie, not directly answering Liang Shi but instead asking, "Song, are you there?"

Liang Shi was startled, realizing his reporting overstepped his bounds, as Mr. Song was the team leader on the boat. With an awkward scratch of his head, he handed the walkie-talkie to Mr. Song.

Mr. Song nodded at him without saying much and spoke into the walkie-talkie, "I'm here. We found something big, looks a lot like that dolphin."

"Let the young people go down and check it out."

"All right," said Mr. Song, putting down the walkie-talkie. Before he could speak, Liang Shi had already hurriedly started pulling on a diving suit, exclaiming, "I'll go, I'll go!"

"Su, you go with him. The two of you watch out for each other and be careful!" Mr. Song said.