Chapter 545: Riding a Whale in the South China Sea

Chapter 545: Riding a Whale in the South China Sea

“Oh my god, where have you been? You’re so dark it’s ridiculous!”

“Hainan Island. Got a bit tanned, but it was fun.”

“Where’s my brother?”

“I don’t know. He’s been underwater for a while now. He’s been crazy about diving these past few days. I just came up—I’m too exhausted to keep going. Taking a break on the boat.”

Wu Tong was on the phone with Meng Caiwei, talking while using binoculars to scan the sea for Meng Fan. She didn’t find him, but she wasn’t worried—Meng Fan had a device on him for real-time tracking, and he could also locate where the yacht was anchored.

“Sis, I’ll call you back later!”

Through the binoculars, Wu Tong spotted black smoke rising from the distant sea. She said it hastily, hung up, then stood up with the binoculars, seeing the smoke billowing from a cruise ship!

It startled Wu Tong. She immediately contacted Meng Fan, telling him a cruise ship was in trouble, and also called the maritime emergency rescue service.

When Meng Fan received Wu Tong’s message, he was happily playing with a pod of false killer whales over seven hundred meters underwater.

Why could he dive that deep? How could he still contact Wu Tong at such a depth?

Of course, it wasn’t because his free-diving skills and physical condition had reached that level. He had just exchanged for a black-tech product under the [Sea King] category. If not for the limitations of this sea area, Meng Fan could dive even deeper without worrying about oxygen deprivation or being crushed by water pressure.

“Is it serious?”

“I see black smoke, and people jumping from the cruise ship into the sea. I’ve called the rescue team, but I don’t know how long it’ll take them to get here.”

“Is it far from our yacht?”

“Not too far—that’s why I can see it. I’m heading over in the yacht now. Maybe I can help a bit.”

“Okay, I’ll come right away. I’ll follow your direction of movement.”

After confirming the direction with Wu Tong, Meng Fan initially planned to say goodbye to the false killer whale pod. But thinking it would take too long to surface from this depth and then head over, he reached out to the largest one—wearing the black-tech diving suit, contact with any marine life caused no harm or impact—flipped onto its back, and gave the command to ascend.

False killer whales are marine mammals of the dolphin family, about five meters long, ranking third in size among dolphins. The one Meng Fan rode was around six meters, quite majestic, though Meng Fan had given it a terribly rustic name: Big Black.

False killer whales are fast and agile, and even faster when moving as a group. It was a good thing Meng Fan had great strength; otherwise, even with animal-taming skills, he wouldn’t have been able to ride a whale.

…

The sea area where the cruise ship accident occurred wasn’t too far away, just within the patrol range of the rescue team. When Wu Tong’s distress call came in, a helicopter was nearby on patrol and quickly flew toward the accident site.

The rescue helicopter initially judged that the cruise ship had caught fire. The specific situation couldn’t be determined yet, but a key preliminary assessment was that it wasn’t a human-caused incident, including illegal acts like hijacking. If so, normal rescue procedures could be followed.

They quickly relayed this information to headquarters, mainly to verify the number of people on the cruise ship and dispatch appropriate rescue vessels for evacuation and firefighting.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out among the crowd on the cruise ship. More people, who had been hesitating on the deck, chose to jump into the sea. From the helicopter, it was clear that the ship was sinking rapidly—there might be a more serious problem than the fire, with a high likelihood of sinking.

The helicopter flew over the stricken cruise ship, dropping life jackets and other supplies. At the same time, two rescue team members rappelled down to the ship to gather more information for the rescue effort.

The helicopter crew reported the latest news and also spotted a yacht heading toward the area. The yacht wasn’t large, but it could at least rescue some non-swimmers. They tried to establish contact with it to make better use of the vessel.

As more tourists jumped from the cruise ship, the situation grew more urgent. Just then, the helicopter crew noticed something strange on the sea surface. Moments later, they saw a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives!

…

“Why did she hang up so suddenly!”

Meng Caiwei set her phone aside, took a couple of sips of water handed over by her assistant, and headed over as the director called her.

She had originally planned to join Meng Fan and Wu Tong on this trip, intending to bring Bai Zhi along too—after all, two people as third wheels would be more fun. But unfortunately, she had received a last-minute cameo invitation for a film. The director was someone who had been kind to her before, so she couldn’t refuse. Since it was a fill-in role, she quickly joined the production.

After filming one shot, there was a minor accident on set at the airport, so she sat back down to rest.

Nearby, a crew member started crying. The sobs were restrained, trying not to disturb others, but they were heart-wrenching. Another crew member was comforting her.

Meng Caiwei caught a few words and roughly understood the situation. She sighed sympathetically.

It turned out the crying girl had a boyfriend who claimed he was on a business trip but had actually gone on a cruise. The cruise had just sunk. Before jumping, he took a photo and posted it on his social media, which the girl saw. What made her burst into tears wasn’t just that her boyfriend was in a shipwreck and had jumped into the sea—it was the photo he posted. In it, he was holding hands with her best friend, with a caption saying they would jump together and get married if they survived!

Her boyfriend had cheated on her, and with her best friend.

Now both were caught in the disaster.

She didn’t know whether to curse the cheating pair to die or pray for their survival!

Hearing such a melodramatic story, Meng Caiwei marveled at how reality could sometimes be more absurd than film… Suddenly, she grabbed her phone. She realized the disaster the girl mentioned had happened in Hainan, and Meng Fan and Wu Tong were right there. Plus, Wu Tong had hung up abruptly. She didn’t know if they were on that cruise ship, so she quickly called.

No answer!

She overheard new conversations from the crying girl, who was clearly following the situation. It seemed news about the cruise ship sinking was already online.

She checked Weibo and saw related trending topics. There were also photos compiled from posts by tourists—pretty terrifying.

The location and event were confirmed, but she didn’t know if Meng Fan and Wu Tong were on board. As for the cause of the sinking, no official information was available yet.

She scrolled for a while, about to log off and try calling Meng Fan and Wu Tong again, when two new trending topics popped up.

#MengFanRidesWhaleInSouthChinaSea#

Clicking on it, the most eye-catching image was a photo of a whale leaping out of the sea, graceful, its tail splashing waves. The most astonishing part was a person riding on the whale, enveloped in spray and sunlight, looking extraordinarily majestic and magical.

The person was so conspicuous that even without zooming in, many could instantly recognize him as Meng Fan!

Meng Caiwei was baffled. What was going on?

(The End)