In his dreams, Zhang Zian could see the nameless cape in Germany, packed with weird ocean creatures. He had even created weirder creatures in his dreams.
Many unimaginable creatures were lurking in the unfathomably deep ocean. If these creatures were attracted to Binhai City because of Sihwa’s presence here, it would be hard to imagine the consequences. When ferocious sharks, giants whales, and giant squids gathered at the harbor, there would surely be havoc.
The mermaid was almost a weapon of mass destruction!
Therefore, Zhang Zian was concerned with the answer to the question.
Sihwa shook her head with ignorance, suggesting that she had no idea.
Apparently, summoning ocean creatures was a passive skill that she owned. Maybe the source was in her description: “Creatures with scales all miss her, and come for a sleepover.” Maybe she was too pretty and attracted a multitude of ocean creatures to come around and fall asleep with her.
Zhang Zian scratched his head. What could he do?
Sihwa was completely unaware of the seriousness of this issue and continued to play with the little ducks while she sang a nursery rhyme that she made up.
“One yellow duck, two yellow ducks, swimming away to meet Oppa. Oppa is not home, so they come back for Sihwa…”
“Quack!”
Richard fluttered its wings and flew downstairs. As it happened to hear him talk, it interrupted, “You idiot! Did you forget it? Didn’t she sing a song back then and the white whale left? In my opinion, you should have called the whale back, then rode it to meet the Japanese porn star that you can’t get out of your mind. This fits that description: ‘Zian rides a whale to Japan today. When will he come back on a crane’s back?'”
Zhang Zian picked up a bar of soap and threw it to Richard. “F**k off! This is a freaking eulogy!”
“Quack!” Richard dodged it coyly, then flew downstairs to tease the other elfins. Its noise in the stairwell could be heard from a distance. “Lift your head to throw a soap, then bend your body to offer your butt! I finally completed this ancient poem!”
As soon as it left, the second floor turned quiet.
Zhang Zian thought about it carefully and realized that it made sense. Not the butt offering, of course, but the white whale leaving the coast after hearing Sihwa’s song and diving back to the deep ocean. It suggested that, although she could not manipulate the ocean creatures to not follow her, she was able to make them leave.
“Sihwa, at the German beach, did you sing to the white whale? Then it left?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She nodded without paying much attention.
“Can you repeat the magic and make the ocean creatures approaching Binhai City leave?”
She nodded, and then shook her head. “They are too far and can’t hear me.”
“This means that if the creatures are too far away, they can’t hear you sing?”
“Yeah.”
Fine. He didn’t think of this.
If Sihwa was able to leave the pet shop and sing at the beach or in the sea, it would have been fine. But she could not leave the pet shop…
Should he try to record her songs, and then play them at the beach?
But that could not work, either… Even if he played them at the beach, how far could the song possibly travel?
Zhang Zian could not figure of a better idea. He didn’t foresee so much trouble in bringing the mermaid to Binhai City.
He wanted to take a walk downstairs so he could figure out a new way. Then Sihwa murmured to herself, “If Oppa hears my song, will he come here to look for me…”
“That’s impossible,” Zhang Zian said, killing her thought from the start. “Isn’t your Oppa in Korea? It’s hundreds of kilometers away!”
She pouted. “Hundreds of kilometers? How far is hundreds of kilometers? But I can clearly hear the whales weep in that direction.”
As she spoke, she lifted one arm and pointed towards the northeast.
What?
Zhang Zian paused and looked towards where she was pointing, but all he saw was the wall of the bathroom.
“Wait, what you do mean?” he asked. “You heard the whales weeping? You can hear the whales weeping from here? Why can’t I hear it?”
“Because you are an idiot! Didn’t that bird call you an idiot just now?” She made faces at him.
Zhang Zian was not in the mood to joke with her. He asked seriously, “Sihwa, please answer me seriously. Can you hear the whales now?”
Sihwa rolled her eyes sneakily. “Do I get a reward if I answer correctly?”
“Yes, of course,” he answered quickly.
“What’s the reward? I want to watch TV!” she said excitedly.
Zhang Zian thought about it. “I can promise to shorten your waiting time, but it’s not possible to watch TV right away, as I only have one TV at home and Grandpa Tea is watching it. You see, Grandpa Tea is very old. We should respect the elderly, right?”
“Is it the tea-colored old cat who asked me to get dressed?” she asked childishly.
“Yes. Its name is Old Time Tea. You can call it Grandpa Tea, like I do,” Zhang Zian answered.
She was reluctant, but agreed. “You promise?”
“I promise,” he agreed generously. “Now, answer my question.”
“I can hear them. Not only the whales over there, but also the ones there, there, there, and there!” As she spoke, she waved her hand around, covering almost the entire 180 degree range from two o’clock to seven o’clock. She looked serious and didn’t seem to be joking.
Zhang Zian understood.
The human sound covered two to three octaves, but a whales’ sound covered eight octaves. They could emit sound from low murmurs, barely audible to human ears, to high-pitched sounds that were sharp enough to pierce the ear drums.
The sound traveled at a speed of 340 meters/second in the air under ambient temperature, but in the ocean, the speed could reach 1500 meters/second.
Whales used low-frequency sound waves for long-distance communication. They were even able to send simple signals to friends thousands of kilometers away.
Low-frequency sound waves alone were not sufficient to travel such a long distance. The reason that whales were able to achieve this was because of the presence of SOFAR channel, or deep sound channel in the ocean. The SOFAR channels were water layers capable of conducting the sound wave due to density difference. These SOFAR channels were only open to low-frequency sound waves, an exclusive privilege of whales.
Whales’ sound signals were complicated in nature, and different types of whales emitted different sounds. Even the same type of whales living in different regions carried unique regional accents, just like humans.
As they sang tirelessly in the ocean, were they having a conversation? Or singing songs to amuse themselves? Despite extensive research in recent years, humans still had no idea.
Sihwa said she could hear the whales’ sound, then pointed in four different directions at the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea, which suggested that she could hear the low-frequency waves from whales in the surrounding seas. Maybe it was the privilege of an elfin.
As soon as he figured it out, Zhang Zian asked again in surprise, “Sihwa, why are the whales crying?”
“I don’t know…” She shook her head with doubt. “All I know is they are weeping.”
Low-frequency sound waves could travel a very long distance, but carried very little information, around one bit per second. In comparison, each word that a human uttered contained ten bits of information.
Therefore, Sihwa was not lying, nor was she passing the question around. She did hear the whales crying, but didn’t know why they were crying.
Maybe, in a moment, new information would be transmitted.
As expected, she tilted her ears and listened again, then said, “The sound is chaotic, as if they are running away and being hunted. They are being… killed… by humans…”
As she spoke, she looked frightened. Her smooth and fair skin was covered with a thin layer of goosebumps as she shuddered.
“Okay, stop listening. I get it now,” Zhang Zian interrupted her.
She stared at him in confusion, with her mouth half-open, waiting for him to explain.
“This is whale hunting. Someone was poaching whales in Korea.” Zhang Zian sighed. “This is clearly a violation to international agreements. But… It’s hard to stop them completely.”