The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 185: Chapter 185: Rescuing an Injured Little Dolphin

Liu Huamei laughed out loud. ”You know, it’s actually true.”

Sister Tang also nodded. ”Right, right. Before, it was calling over friends of its own kind, but now it’s even trying to recruit dolphins!”

Sister Yun smiled. ”That creature is truly intelligent. Our ability to head back early this time is probably related to Xiao Dai.”

”May the Dragon King and Mazu bless us, so we can always have smooth sailing and bountiful harvests like this.”

The crew chattered excitedly, no longer feeling sleepy at all.

Everyone was in high spirits as they chatted, but when they emptied the net, they were all so shocked their jaws dropped.

Oh my god!

A net completely full of Big Yellow Fish!

A catch like this wouldn’t have been surprising twenty or thirty years ago.

But now, due to overfishing, the Big Yellow Fish population has been dwindling.

A full net of Big Yellow Fish like this was an incredibly rare sight.

Only someone with Han Xiaorui’s extraordinary luck could land catches like this so often.

”Our boat owner is truly a good person who gets good rewards! First she helped Xiao Dai, and now she’s rescuing a little dolphin. If our boat owner doesn’t get rich, who will!”

”Exactly! No wonder my wife always says that a family that does good deeds will always have blessings to spare. People really should be kind and do good things!”

Chen Yishui called out to everyone, ”Don’t just stand around chatting, hurry up and start sorting.”

Just as Han Xiaorui was about to radio the other boat, Captain Qi’s cheerful voice came through the walkie-talkie.

”Xiao Han, we just pulled up our net. It’s packed, and believe it or not, more than half of it is Big Yellow Fish.”

”We must have run into a school of them. How are things on your end? You should pull up your net and check, maybe you’ve got Big Yellow Fish in there too!”

Hearing this, Han Xiaorui was happy for Captain Qi and Uncle Yang.

”We’ve also caught a lot of Big Yellow Fish over here, we’re sorting them now! We really lucked out and hit a school of them.”

When Captain Qi heard this, he praised their luck repeatedly. ”I knew it, we really got lucky this time. We’re sorting out the net now, getting ready for one more haul, then we’ll head back slowly. We should be able to reach the pier by ten tomorrow morning.”

Han Xiaorui remembered the injured little dolphin. ”Uncle Qi, don’t cast the net again. Head back at full speed. Just now, a lot of dolphins surrounded my boat and brought an injured little dolphin to me.”

”I don’t know how to treat a little dolphin, so I want to get to shore quickly and ask a professional marine biologist for help.”

Hearing this, Captain Qi was completely astonished. ”Dolphins? An injured little dolphin?”

Han Xiaorui chuckled. ”If someone else told me this, I wouldn’t believe it either. But I saw it with my own eyes. It came aboard to ask for help, so we have to do something.”

”Uncle Qi, you’ll see for yourself when we get back to shore! For now, just focus on piloting the boat safely.”

Since Han Xiaorui put it that way, Captain Qi nodded. ”It’s a wide world, full of wonders. I’d heard dolphins were smart, but I never imagined they’d actually ask humans for help!”

”Yeah, you’ll get to see it this time!” Han Xiaorui turned off the walkie-talkie and didn’t join in sorting the Big Yellow Fish.

Han Xiaorui quietly went to the live well to check on the little dolphin.

The little dolphin was staying almost completely still in the water to minimize its pain.

Han Xiaorui reached out and gently stroked its head. ”Be good now, it’ll hurt less.”

The little dolphin nuzzled its head against Han Xiaorui’s palm, feeling the comfortable and powerful sensation.

The feeling made it feel very secure.

’Is this Mommy too?’

’But why does Mommy look different? Did she get smaller?’

Its little eyes darted around as if it were thinking.

Han Xiaorui stayed with the little dolphin for about half an hour. Outside, with the combined efforts of a dozen or so crew members, all the Big Yellow Fish had been sorted and packed into the freezer hold.

Every inch of space was stuffed full. The hold was maxed out again!

The fishing boat picked up a lot of speed as it raced toward the pier.

Chen Yishui and Captain Qi were experienced sailors. Relying on their memory, experience, and the ship’s instruments, they navigated a safe route, steering clear of reefs.

As the sky began to brighten on the horizon, they were only an hour and a half away from the pier.

Han Xiaorui waved at the dolphins that were still following the boat. ”Go on back, don’t follow us! It’ll be dangerous for you if you get any closer!”

After speaking, she gave the dolphins a bit of her Water Ability.

She hoped it would make them a little smarter and help them avoid being hunted by humans.

Especially their neighbors from Japan, who love to hunt dolphins and have many whaling ships.

It’s gotten to the point where the number of dolphins in the ocean is dwindling.

Then, Han Xiaorui used Xiao Dai’s perspective to communicate with the dolphins, telling them to stop following.

She promised she would definitely bring the little dolphin back in the future.

The dolphins called out a few times before finally sinking beneath the waves and swimming away.

On the neighboring boat, Cao Jun was holding a pair of binoculars. In the middle of the night, when Captain Qi was talking to Han Xiaorui, he had been nearby.

He hadn’t believed it at first, but just now, he had been watching through his binoculars.

He saw that there really were dolphins following Han Xiaorui’s boat, and a lot of them at that.

He was utterly shocked!

In the past, Cao Jun had always thought that ”luck” was too mysterious and couldn’t be trusted.

But the full catches every time, the pursuing dolphins, and now even dolphins bringing an injured one to be healed by Han Xiaorui...

This was even more bizarre than the stories his grandfather used to tell him as a child.

Witnessing it with his own eyes, Cao Jun was flabbergasted.

Captain Qi saw Cao Jun peeking at Captain Xiao Han’s boat again and shook his head with a laugh, guessing he didn’t believe the story about the dolphins asking for help.

Cao Jun ran a hand through his hair. He hadn’t washed his hair or showered, and it was clumped together in greasy strands, ruining his hairstyle.

’When I get back,’ he thought, ’I’m definitely going to wash up properly, get a nice blowout, put on my bell-bottoms, and wear my aviator sunglasses.’

’I’ll appear before Captain Xiao Han looking incredibly handsome. Maybe my good looks will be enough to win her over.’

’I can’t afford a boat, so I’ll just marry a female boat owner. Rounding up, doesn’t that mean I’ll have a boat too?’

If Captain Qi knew what Cao Jun was thinking, he would surely advise him not to get ahead of himself or indulge in wishful thinking, otherwise he’d just end up embarrassing himself.

Liu Huamei made a pot of seafood noodles and some scallion pancakes. ”Come on, eat up. Once we get to the pier, we’ll be busy for half the day before we’re done. We can’t work on an empty stomach.”

This was true.

Even though the sorting was done, weighing all the baskets would take a lot of time.

And then there was settling the accounts, which would take even longer.

They had eaten a late-night snack, but after being woken up by the dolphins in the middle of the night, no one had gone back to sleep. They wouldn’t last without eating something.

Everyone grabbed their meal boxes and started to eat.

The fishing boat arrived at the port at seven in the morning, right on schedule.

The two largest fishing boats in Jinshan Bay had docked.

Han Xiaorui disembarked and immediately called Zhang Guangnan, telling him to bring people to haul the cargo.

As for the little dolphin, Han Xiaorui was very cautious.

She wanted to make sure it was fully recovered before releasing it back into the ocean to be with its mother.