After walking for more than ten minutes, they approached a small reef island.
Most of the ti, this island is underwater, with only parts of the reef exposed during low tide.
"Brother Ying, there seems to be soone over there!"
Dao ihua also shone her light around and keenly spotted a bit of orange-red and a reflective strip.
"Oh my god, could it be the missing stranded person?"
Xiao Fang got excited too, quickly speeding towards it, later spotting a super large sea turtle on the reef with a human body, covered by a life jacket, lying on its back, legs subrged in the water.
"How do we get closer?"
Xiao Fang had average skills, and Chen Ying had never driven a boat before. In the end, they had Dao ihua hold the boat steady while they put on life jackets and swimming rings and jumped into the water to swim over and check the situation.
Before diving in, they had already notified the rescue team, estimating that a rescue boat would arrive in a few minutes.
Chen Ying struggled to swim a few ters, then felt lighter as he was gently carried by the guiding sea turtle. However, Xiao Fang wasn’t as lucky and had to swim over by himself.
After approaching the reef island, they discovered that the large sea turtle carrying the stranded person was on a sloping reef, and while there were rocks under the water around it, they were too deep to stand on.
It was clear that the turtle had tried hard to wedge itself against the rock, worried that the person on its back might fall into the water.
Xiao Fang and Chen Ying each grabbed onto either side of the reef, holding onto the person’s clothes with their other hand to prevent him from slipping off.
From this position and in this situation, they couldn’t imdiately get him onto the boat for ergency aid.
"Xiao Fang, maybe you could try to get the boat a little closer, then climb back on while the turtle and I carry him to the side of the boat. We must do sothing, as waiting like this isn’t an option. We can’t assess his condition, and his body temperature has already dropped. I’m worried about hypothermia if we keep him in the water any longer."
Xiao Fang gritted his teeth, let go, and swam back towards the boat.
Without Xiao Fang pushing from the other side, the body slid a bit into the water again. Chen Ying could only hold onto the shoulder of his clothes tightly and pull him towards himself.
At this mont, the guiding sea turtle smartly went to the side of the large sea turtle to help hoist the person’s legs out of the water using its back shell.
Although the position was a bit awkward, the intention to help was clear.
Xiao Fang brought the boat a bit closer, jumped into the water, and prepared to help Chen Ying pull the person onto the boat.
However, neither of them had training in water rescue, and after struggling for a while, the life jacket almost ca off, but the person remained off the boat.
Just then, the rescue boat arrived.
Three rescue team mbers jumped into the water a few ters away, ca over, and took over the stranded person’s body. With three of them in the water and two on the boat, it took two to three minutes before they finally got him onto the boat.
Once on board, the rescue team mbers imdiately checked the condition of the drowning victim, while the team mber in charge of steering the boat turned the power to maximum, speeding towards the shore.
Chen Ying and Xiao Fang floated in the water for a mont to rest, then helped each other climb onto the small coast guard speedboat.
Chen Ying leaned over the side of the boat, reached out, and petted the heads and back shells of the two sea turtles. After being gently caressed for a while, they quietly subrged and swam away.
Halfway through their journey, three little killer whales swam over.
The baby killer whale looked pitifully at Chen Ying, poking its big head up, wanting to be petted.
Chen Ying hugged it and petted it several tis, then returned the long tridacna it wanted, causing the baby killer whale to happily flip its tail and follow its older siblings back.
By the ti they returned to shore, the last-rescued drowning man had already been sent to the hospital for ergency treatnt.
The rescue team said that his chances of survival were low. When they found the man, he almost had no heartbeat left.
Too bad that the turtles couldn’t talk. Otherwise, people would have wanted to know why one turtle would carry the man so far and knew to bring another turtle to look for help.
The owner of the boat organizing the night fishing was taken away. With a casualty, the sea fishing would definitely face restrictions. The nearby fishern, who relied on this for inco, didn’t look pleased.
Fortunately, Alon’s family didn’t operate sea fishing. He worked as a diving instructor, and his father piloted boats for the Qiao Family. They didn’t earn much but it was steady.
For the next three to four days, Chen Ying didn’t head to the seaside or even return to the hotel much, because the situation of the baby glasses monkey with an eye problem was deteriorating.
"Surgery is a must. The eyelid infection is severe, and there is an increase in purulent secretion today. Delayed treatnt could be life-threatening."
The veterinary station at the Qiao Family Zoo lacked eye surgery equipnt. Eventually, Chen Ying approached the local wildlife protection departnt, and through their coordination, an ophthalmology departnt at a human hospital completed the surgery during idle nightti hours.
"It must have gotten injured accidentally while the Monkey Mother carried it during activities. Generally, wild animals have strong self-healing abilities, but this baby monkey wasn’t that lucky. Combined with their relocation to a new environnt and the Monkey Mother being overly cautious, holding it close to her all the ti created a warm and humid environnt that led to serious bacterial infection."
Explaining to the keeper who accompanied them for the surgery, Chen Ying then requested the ophthalmologist to prescribe baby-safe eye drops.
For each dication, Chen Ying ticulously detailed the dosage, dilution, and timing of application.
"You’ll have your hands full for the next few days, as you’ll need to care for the monkey baby alone. Once it fully recovers, then it can be returned."
The baby monkey was very clever; after getting familiar with the keeper’s scent, it willingly snuggled up on the keeper.
Together, Chen Ying and the keeper followed an online tutorial to fashion a portable little nest, mainly woven from young branches. They added a simple fabric strap outside to secure it on the body. Fresh leaves were laid inside the nest to create a natural scent for the little monkey to sleep in.
The keeper had a tough job, responsible for cleaning both indoor and outdoor areas, preparing food and water, and monitoring environntal temperature and animal activity.
Especially since the family of glasses monkeys preferred to be active from eight or nine at night till past five in the morning. Throughout the night, they couldn’t be left unmonitored for more than an hour, requiring regular check-ups through surveillance.
During the day, while the monkeys slept, the keeper had other duties, with only one to two hours of respite in the afternoon.
The little nest was always with him out of fear that frequent change in caretaker would make the already timid and weak baby monkey unable to rest peacefully.
A week later, all the animals had adapted to the new environnt.
The Qiao Family hired two specialized veterinarians and nurses for the Land Animal Hall.
Chen Ying wasn’t a full-ti veterinarian at the zoo and only agreed to be a veterinary consultant, stepping in when the regular veterinarians couldn’t solve problems.
With matters settled, he and Dao ihua planned to self-drive along the Southeast Coast, hoping to experience the fad beautiful seashore road. However, before they could set off, they received a call for help from the Northeast Tiger and Leopard Park.
"That Far Eastern Leopard is a female, and it was bitten on the hind leg by a Northeast Tiger. Both hind limbs have varying degrees of fractures and cracks. Most importantly, its tail vertebra is also fractured. We found that it seems to be pregnant, with at least three fetuses developing."
Chen Ying opened his computer to review the X-ray images sent over, noting the disarray in the hind limb area.
If surgery is to be perford, the cubs inside the womb might not survive.
Moreover, the fracture debris was so extensive that even an orthopedic surgeon with average skills found the surgery challenging.
Knowing Chen Ying’s excellent surgery skills from previous collaborations, the park’s managent recognized his expertise, particularly as he had trained under a prominent dostic traditional Chinese dicine orthopedic master.
Complex surgeries that would seem tough to others had a success rate that increased by thirty percent when handled by him.
"Our top priority is to save the fetuses in her belly. Far Eastern Leopards are too rare and precious. Recent surveys show their wild population hasn’t exceeded 100 individuals in this region. They are a Class I national protected species in our country and listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the World Conservation Union Red List of Endangered Species."
The loss of any leopard, even an embryo, is a pain deeply felt by Far Eastern Leopard researchers and conservationists.
Reviews
All reviews (0)