Zhang Zi'an looked up at the red sun hanging in the sky, and the air temperature gradually increased as the sun rose. He knew that the gray-black skin of this whale would absorb the heat of the sun more than doubled, and its thick layer of fat would prevent the heat from escaping, and although its body surface had not yet shown signs of decay, the degree of decay in its body was probably further accelerated by the heat of the sun, and it was already unstoppable.

After most animals die, they begin to decay from the inside out, and the first to decay is the internal organs, and the same is true for whales.

In addition, there is another difference between whales, which is that the skin of whales is too thick and tough.

When the animals on land die, all kinds of scavengers will come in droves, and the corpses may be eaten up as soon as they show signs of decay, whether you were the king of beasts or something before.

But whales are special if they die on the beach, because there are often no particularly strong scavengers on the beach.

Without the razor-sharp teeth of sharks, ordinary shrimp, crabs and seabirds can't even break through the skin of whales, so if a whale dies on a beach, the carcass is often preserved intact.

Zhang Zi'an tried to reach out and pressed the skin of the gray whale carcass, the skin was hot and fishy, the moisture had been dried, but the palm of the hand still seemed to be elastic, somewhat similar to the feeling of pressing on the waterbed.

He circled to the other side of the whale's carcass, which revealed part of the whale's belly, and he tried to press the whale's belly again, which was softer and more elastic than on the whale's back, and seemed to be a little too soft.

When helping the stranded minke whale leave the beach, he also pressed the minke whale's abdomen, giving him the feeling that it was firm and elastic, although different species of whales of different ages may not be able to be compared horizontally, but this feeling difference is a little too great.

He walked over to the head of the gray whale and sniffed it closer.

The gray whale's mouth opened slightly, and the strong, disgusting pungent taste slowly overflowed from the depths of his mouth, choking him to cough, staggering away a few steps, squatting down and retching a few times.

He was not the only one next to the whale's carcass, there were five or six other people who took photos and selfies with the whale carcass as the background, and then posted them on Weibo and Moments to show off.

Zhang Zi'an wiped his mouth, saw that one of them had finished taking a selfie, and was concentrating on retouching, adding a literary filter to the photo, and then with the words "See the deer when the forest is deep, and see the whale when the sea is blue", ready to send it to the circle of friends to pretend to be forced.

He walked over and accosted, "Dude, excuse me." ”

The other party was startled, looked at him a few times vigilantly, and found that he didn't know him, so he asked lukewarmly, "Is there something wrong?"

"I want to ask, when did this whale run aground here?" Zhang Zi'an asked, pointing to the gray whale.

"This one...... I don't know, but it's here as soon as I get here...... Hey, do you know when this whale ran aground?" the man asked the others next to him.

"I don't know. ”

"I don't know. ”

"I was also called by a friend, and she said that there was a whale stranded on the beach here, and I was asked to come over and have a look. One of the girls said.

Zhang Zi'an asked: "Then when did your friend see it?"

"Well......" the girl thought for a moment, "maybe it's in the morning, she has a habit of running along Huanhai Avenue in the morning, and she walked back to our shared house and told me." ”

"What time is it?"

"What time is it...... Maybe it's past seven o'clock. ”

Zhang Zi'an checked the date on his mobile phone, and then silently estimated the time of the ebb and flow tide in his heart.

Affected by the gravitational pull of the Moon, there are two high tides and two low tides every day, and the time of the high tide and low tide is not fixed, but cycles like the waxing and waning of the moon. There is a gap of about 12 hours between the two high tides each day, as well as the low tides.

As a child growing up by the sea, he is well aware of this pattern.

The last time he helped minke whales, the tide was high around noon, and according to his calculations, the first high tide today was around half past nine in the morning, but by then the gray whale had already stranded here.

First of all, to be clear, this large adult gray whale must have been pushed onto the beach by some high tide.

Since it was not pushed up by the high tide at half past nine this morning, it was probably pushed up by the high tide at the beginning of nine o'clock last night. It was dark at night, and no one would have come to this beach at that time, so it was discovered in the morning.

As for whether it will be earlier...... It's hard to say, because he didn't pass through the area when he came to the beach yesterday morning, and it is not clear if the gray whale was already here at that time.

According to the most conservative estimates, its body has been here for a long time...... Almost 14 hours.

How long did it float in the sea after it died before it was pushed to the beach?

"This whale must be dead, right? ”

"Probably. ”

"Do you think there will be a restaurateur or something who will take the whale carcass away and sell whale meat?"

"Won't you...... That's disgusting, and it stinks......"

A few people next to him were talking to each other while taking pictures.

Zhang Zi'an asked again: "Do you know who reported the death of this whale here to the relevant departments?"

“......”

The young men looked at each other.

"I didn't. ”

"Neither did I. ”

"I think someone else should have reported it......

They laughed as they talked, their expressions were relaxed, and they all seemed to think that someone else might have reported it and had nothing to do with them.

"Besides, the relevant departments, which department is the relevant department?" one of them smiled bitterly: "Do you want to call 110?

"Hey?110? There's a body found on the beach, please come over for a moment. Please protect the scene, tell me your specific location, is the body male or female?report, is it the carcass of a whale, I don't know if it's male or female...... Get out!" the other person imitated the tone of calling the police, which made several girls present laugh.

Zhang Zi'an: "......"

"Since no one is calling, I'll call. You should leave here as soon as you have taken the pictures, it is dangerous to stay here, and the carcass of this gray whale may explode. ”

He warned them, but he didn't have time to explain in detail, so he took out his mobile phone and found a phone number from the address book, and the owner of the number was Ke Shaohui, the fishery administration worker who called when he rescued minke whales last time.

His finger moved to Ke Shaohui's name, and he was about to press it to dial the phone, but he was startled and quickly stopped.

The pungent smell of overflowing whales' mouths lingers around them, and making phone calls next to a decomposing whale carcass is as dangerous as calling on a cell phone at a gas station.

He trotted away some distance and dialed Ke Shaohui's number.