Pet King

The minke whale floated next to the boat. Its defenseless state was extremely dangerous to it. If someone wanted to harm it, or if there was a naughty brat on the boat, they could easily injure it, or even kill it.

Had it not heard a familiar voice from a distance, then recognized Zhang Zian after it approached him, then it would not have easily let its guard down, as it had once been harmed by a human. It proved that it was an intelligent creature. Although it didn’t have a high intelligence level, it was intelligent enough to distinguish good people from bad people.

Whale lice was yellowish, and it was attached on its body surface in crowds. They looked just like scorpions without tails. Whales could swim at a high speed, but it could still not get rid of them. One could imagine how firmly they could attach themselves to the whale’s body. They pierced through the whale’s skin with their hook-like appendages. They would not harm the whale’s health, but it was definitely uncomfortable. They were as annoying as lice on human bodies. They were not deadly, but they were so annoying that anyone would want to snap them dead one by one.

The minke whale floated there still, making it more convenient for Zhang Zian to remove the whale lice near its wound carefully. The whale lice was too firmly attached. Sometimes, he could not pull them out using his hands alone, even if he used all his strength. He had to use his secret weapon once again––the Swiss army knife.

Playing with a knife on an inflatable boat was similar to playing with firecrackers near fire. If his hand slipped and the knife poked a hole in the boat, nobody would blame anyone but him.

Zhang Zian leaned himself against the boat’s side, held the Swiss army knife at a safe distance as much as he could, then slipped it under the whale lice. He then twisted his wrist and turned the knife 90 degrees to remove the parasites forcefully. He held them in his left hand and threw them far away into the water on the other side of the boat.

The numerous amounts of whale lice were all over the place, like a swarm of scorpions stinging around the minke whale’s wound. They were indeed disturbing and disgusting to watch. They sucked the blood oozing from the wound so they could grow and reproduce.

Some marine parasites and hosts were in a mutually beneficial relationship. However, whale lice were not that nice––they were a pure nuisance. But as whales didn’t have hands, they couldn’t do anything about it.

After his careful cleaning, there were fewer whale lice on the minke whale’s body. Only their marks remained on the whale’s skin in the form of small dents.

Without their shield, the wound had finally revealed its true form.

Zhang Zian wanted to remove the cotton string sutures in the minke whale’s wound. It was Xiao Zhi and Huang’s kite string, and it was very tough and solid. It would be fine to leave it in the wound––as it would slowly incorporate into the whale’s skin––but since he had the chance, he took the advantage to remove it.

Yet as he looked carefully, there was barely any string left outside the skin; there was only some broken ends. Maybe the hungry whale lice chewed them off, which saved him some work.

The wound recovered well, without any signs of splitting back open or any infection. After all, it was a feisty, half-grown minke whale.

He put away the dangerous Swiss army knife, then tapped around its wound to let it know that he was done.

Even if whale lice attached to it again, they would not do much harm. By that time, the skin around its wound would have thickened again, making it less uncomfortable as it felt then.

The minke whale seemed very happy to be free from the annoying whale lice––even its swimming movements were much loftier. It circled around the inflatable boat slowly, spraying low water mist from time to time.

It reminded Zhang Zian of monkeys catching lice for one another. He wondered if it had mistaken him for another whale.

He remembered Xiao Zhi; he knew how much that kid loved whales. He was in such a precious moment with the minke whale, so he knew that he should take some pictures to send to him as souvenir.

He took his phone out of the waterproof bag and tried to get a good angle for the photos.

However, as the minke whale was too close and the boat rose too high, it was hard to take a good a picture of it.

Afraid of hurting it with the propeller blade, Zhang Zian didn’t start the motor, nor did he dare to put the phone too far out of the boat. What if it fell into the water? How would he get it back?

He took a few pictures, but he was only able to capture its grey back. Had he not specified anything, it would be hard to tell that it was a whale.

As Zhang Zian was trying to figure out what to do, the minke whale suddenly swung its tail and swam away from the boat. He seized the moment and took a few more pictures. Finally, he was able to capture the whole image.

Was it tired of playing? Or was it hungry?

Zhang Zian thought that it would swim away away, yet it stopped after swimming 200 to 300 meters. A thin air mist appeared in front of it. Then the water split into two, and another grey back surfaced.

It was a much bigger, fully grown minke whale, very similar in shape to the previous half-grown one.

Zhang Zian was astonished to see another whale so suddenly. He felt nervous for the younger minke whale, fearing a possible conflict between the two whales.

Most whales were group animals, forming pods of a few or a dozen whales. They might be related to each other, or they might not. By forming a group, they defended each other against possible invaders and took care of unrelated, young offspring for each other. Much like humans, they formed a structured, mini society.

However, that was not the case for minke whales. They were known for being loners, and they would not travel with other minke whale individuals unless it was for mating purposes, or…

After seeing the fully grown minke whale, the young minke whale was not afraid, but it swam over happily and rubbed against the grown whale with affection. It expressed its fondness through physical touch.

As he expected, it was a female, adult minke whale. It was most likely the young minke whale’s mother.

Zhang Zian had been wondering where the young minke whale’s mother was, as it was not quite old enough to be alone. Did it get lost when it was being hunted by the whaling boat? Or… did it already die under the whale boat’s harpoon?

It was unlikely that it got lost, as a whale’s sound could travel a long distance in the ocean. They could find each other even if they got lost. Then…

A young whale that left its mother prematurely could hardly survive in the dangerous ocean. He had been feeling nervous for the young minke whale, yet a whale was not a cat, nor was it a dog. He could not bring it home even if he felt sorry for it. Therefore, regardless of how nervous he felt, there was nothing he could do.

After seeing its mother, Zhang Zian felt happy for it, and he was finally relieved.

That day, he told Huang that the minke whale had left quickly after it was rescued from being stranded because it hurried off to get back to its family. In fact, he was just saying that, as he wasn’t sure about it at all. It turned out, however, that his guess was right.