Chapter 67. Dugong Appears

     Although Director Fu’s new drama will not be filmed on Xingzhou Island until the end of the month, the crew will ask the production director to go to the island a few days in advance to arrange the crew’s food, clothing, housing and transportation.

     Director Fu is a famous director, and his drama is also a big investment drama, so the crew naturally has a lot of people. However, when discussing the details of the relevant cooperation with Vice President Qi, Vice President Qi’s only requirement was “not to affect the normal operation of Xingzhou Island”. 

     Therefore, considering that too many people will affect the tourists’ experience of Xingzhou Island, Director Fu does not plan to bring too many people this time.

     The final confirmed list of people going to the island included six people from the production team, eight people from the director team, nine people in the photography team, the actors are the male and female protagonists and several extras, and the remaining stage staff, lighting, costume art, including the assistants brought by the actors, etc., adding up to only more than 20 people.

     The production director booked a holiday cabin for Director Fu and the male and female protagonists, and the rest of the people were arranged to rest in tents in the camping area.

     The crew’s food is also easy to solve. The production director spent money to book lunch boxes in the employee cafeteria of Xingzhou Island. Although takeout is cheaper, it is too troublesome to go in and out of the island every day, and it is not as clean and hygienic as the employee cafeteria.

     Of course, if someone wants to eat better, they can also go to the seafood buffet restaurant at their own expense, and he will not stop them.

     The production director thought that Xingzhou Island was arrogant at first, but after coming here, he realized that he was too loud. Other scenic spots are eager to have more tourists, so when promoting, they will say that the number of tourists received has reached tens of thousands, but Xingzhou Island actively controls the number of people landing on the island, and it is almost said that “the number of people entering the island is full, don’t come”.

     Xingzhou Island has a lot of repeat customers, some of whom come for the seafood buffet restaurant, and some for the scenery of Xingzhou Island.

     However, with more and more repeat visitors, the number of new tourists who come here is also increasing day by day, which has led to many tourists in Yóushì starting to “fight” with others: “Please don’t come to grab tickets from us. We just want to have a comfortable and relaxing holiday on the weekend. Why is it so difficult?”

     Therefore, even if Director Fu’s drama promotes Xingzhou Island, for many tourists, this will only increase the difficulty of grabbing tickets.

     When communicating with Vice President Qi, the production director asked whimsically: “Does your Island owner plan to build a film and television base? If this place is built into a film and television base, I am willing to stay here every day.”

     Vice President Qi: “…”

     He pointed to the other side of the river, “There is a film and television base under construction over there.”

     The production director said: “I have been there and I am not interested.”

     Vice President Qi said: “Then don’t think about it. Unless our business scope extends to the other side, it is unrealistic to build a film and television base here.”

     “Then you work harder and get the right to use the other side as well?”

     Vice President Qi: “…”

     This is a bit whimsical!

     The opposite side was developed more than ten years earlier than Xingzhou Island, and there are several travel companies involved. Who would be willing to give up such a big piece of cake?

     However, it seems that it is possible for the island owner who can always create miracles to achieve it.

 

……

 

     In the next few days, the crew arrived at Xingzhou Island one after another. The female lead Zhou Qunfang even came here a day earlier, under the pretext of getting familiar with the location and getting a feel for it.

     Crew: “…”

     You just want to come here early to play!

     People with annual tickets can do whatever they want!

     Director Fu saw that the crew was always yelling in the group, and the frequency of updating their Moments and V-blogs was as exaggerated as if they were paid to promote Xingzhou Island. He also began to lose his patience and finished other work early. He rushed to Xingzhou Island in the afternoon before the shooting started.

     When he arrived, he happened to encounter the “Hǎizī” phenomenon in the evening. In the shallow sea full of seaweed, a dugong was eating seaweed. Next to it was another young dugong^[1]The dugong (/ˈd(j)uːɡɒŋ/; Dugong dugon) is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living … Continue reading. It occasionally rubbed against the big dugong and occasionally went somewhere else to have fun, just like a mother and daughter going out to find food.

     Not far from them, there were also a few turtles. This scene made many tourists burst into shouts of surprise and surprise, because they recognized that these turtles were green turtles and leatherback turtles living in the waters of Xingzhou Island. The fact that they were in the picture showed that the two dugongs, one large and one small, were now active in this sea area!

     All the people in the reserve management station went out to confirm whether this scene was real. Not to mention the fishery department, even the municipal government was alarmed.

     Dugong, that is a national first-class protected animal!

     The dugong has not appeared alive near the coast of China in nearly 20 years. The last time it appeared was in 2008, but that time people only found a corpse.

     In the 1970s, there were still many dugongs active in the Beibu Gulf, and Yóushì had also recorded the activities of dugongs. However, with the impact of people’s uncontrolled killing of dugongs and various environmental damages, the traces of dugongs have become increasingly difficult to find. 

     If dugongs are really found this time, it will be a big news that shocked the whole country!

     Director Fu got goosebumps all over his body. This scene was so shocking that it inspired him more than a mirage. He seemed to fall into the sea all of a sudden. The sea water washed his soul and gave him warmth, as if he was back in his mother’s arms. He could also take close-up photos of dugongs and play with them.

     Then he vaguely remembered that if dugongs really appeared in the waters of Xingzhou Island, would it affect the development of the diving project? Would it affect his filming plan?

…

     Li Yaolin also received a notice saying that the relevant departments would come to investigate whether there were dugong activities in this sea area.

     For the sudden appearance of this rare species, Li Yaolin thought of something and silently opened the 【No Fishing Zone】 to check.

     Sure enough, after several months of governance, the affinity coefficient of the 【No Fishing Zone】 increased to 30 points at an extremely slow rate, and the pollution index was further reduced to only 15 points.

 

    【No Fishing Zone】

     Affinity coefficient: 30

     Pollution index: 15 (level 1 pollution)

     Operation cost: 100 yuan/day

 

     The higher the affinity coefficient, the more suitable the environment is for marine life to survive and to be loved by them. So when the affinity coefficient was only 15 points at the beginning, there were no rare marine life here. After it was raised to 20 points, turtles appeared one after another and laid eggs and lived here.

     Now it has quietly increased to 30 points, so it is not surprising that dugongs are attracted here.

     Although their appearance will indeed affect some projects on Xingzhou Island, Li Yaolin will still welcome their arrival. When Xingzhou Island became a hot search for this matter, she also cooperated with relevant departments to conduct an investigation.

     The results of the investigation came out soon. Experts speculated that dugongs did appear in the sea area within the protected area because there were very obvious traces left by them after eating seaweed.

     However, the investigators did not find dugongs at the scene, so it is not ruled out that they had been active here and left for various reasons.

     Facing those who said that the development of diving and fishing projects on Xingzhou Island scared away the dugongs, Li Yaolin sneered and asked the person who made such a statement: “Is it because Xingzhou Island developed diving and fishing projects that dugongs disappeared from the waters of Youshi?”

     The other party choked.

     Although he was very reluctant to admit it, the current survey results showed that the dugongs were attracted here for the same reason as the turtles, which was the positive impact of Xingzhou Island’s vigorous pollution control and improved marine environment.

     If it is determined that the dugongs came and left because Xingzhou Island developed tourism and entertainment projects, it would be too contradictory. After all, it was Xingzhou Island that developed diving and boat fishing projects first, and then dugongs appeared. It makes no sense to prohibit Xingzhou Island from continuing to operate various entertainment projects because dugongs are suspected to have appeared in this sea area.

     As for why “Haizi” released the images from a few days ago, scientists have not even fully understood the principle of its appearance, let alone explain the principle of real-time and delay.

     Li Yaolin recognized the other party as the professor who was rejected by her to stay in Xingzhou Island to investigate the marine environment last time. She knew that the other party must have a little revenge in his heart, so she smiled and said: “It’s possible that you are too warm and hospitable and scared them away.”

     This made the professor so angry that he blew his beard and glared: “You are talking nonsense!”

     At this time, Cen Yingda gave full play to his imagination in his knowledge field and said: “Under normal circumstances, dugongs will move together with their family members, just like the killer whale group, so the two dugongs, one big and one small, that appeared in Haizi, could they have temporarily left the group and mistakenly entered the sea area here, and returned to the group after they finished foraging, rather than being caused by external factors? “

     “Haizi” has appeared for so long and has also released many pictures of the ocean world. No one will question the authenticity of the pictures released by “Haizi”. Almost everyone tacitly agrees that the two dugongs that appeared in the surrounding waters are two dugongs. 

     Wan Min said: “We can’t rule out this possibility, but they all live near the coast. If they migrated from somewhere else, someone should have seen them along the way, but there is no relevant news from other places. We can’t rule out that they were released by the aquarium. We have to contact the aquarium where dugongs are registered to verify this.”

     Since no one has seen dugongs appear here, the traces of seaweed being eaten alone cannot be conclusive evidence, so this investigation plan has been shelved for the time being.

     Cen Yingda privately said to Li Yaolin: “I was really happy when I saw the dugongs appear, because experts have organized many exploration and tracking activities to find dugongs, but no wild dugongs have been found for so many years. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Zoological Society of London proposed a possibility in their recent research that wild dugongs are likely to disappear completely in China.”

     Li Yaolin comforted him and said: “I believe they will appear again.”

     Cen Yingda sighed: “I am looking forward to their appearance and I also hope they don’t appear. Appearing can certainly prove that they have not disappeared in China, but their appearance will inevitably attract the attention of many people, and people who poach them will also be ready to move. The staff of our small management station is too weak.”

     Li Yaolin said: “I will protect them together with the reserve and provide them with a good habitat.”

     It’s a pity that she can’t know the movements of these marine animals, otherwise she wouldn’t realize that they have been here after they left.

     Suddenly, Li Yaolin had an idea. She asked the “Smart Butler”: “Since the Butler can monitor various data of Xingzhou Island, it should also be able to detect the survival of organisms in the 【Special Marine Ecological Protection Area】, right?”

     This was the inspiration brought to her by the new changes in the sea fishing field after the merger with the boat fishing project. She thought, since the sea fishing field can view the data of fish living in that area, what about the Special Marine Ecological Protection Area?

     It is nominally managed by the protection management station, but it is actually still under the control of Li Yaolin. In other words, the smart butler should have the same monitoring authority over this area.

     The smart butler replied: “The monitored data has been recorded in the ‘monitoring log’. The island owner can enter keywords to extract relevant logs.”

     Li Yaolin directly verbally entered the keyword: “Dugong.”

     Soon, several records appeared in the log, including the time, behavior, health status and departure time of the dugong in the waters of Xingzhou Island.

     This data confirmed that two dugongs had indeed appeared in the waters of the reserve. They appeared in the early morning and ran away after eating. At that time, the first ship to Xingzhou Island had not yet been dispatched, so no one noticed.

     The housekeeper said considerately: “The current mode is the default mode. If you don’t want to miss important messages, the island owner can set the reminder mode.”

     If it is set to reminder mode, I am afraid that too many messages will pop up every day, which is quite troublesome, so Li Yaolin said: “Remind me next time a dugong appears, and if there are health problems with wild protected animals living in the reserve, please notify me.”

     “Set successfully!”

…

     The results of this survey disappointed some scholars and animal protection organizations, but Director Fu was moved by this because his drama was able to start filming smoothly.

     Filming in the sea is much more difficult than filming in a swimming pool. In winter, ocean currents often stir up the sea water and make it turbid. If you encounter a cold current, the water temperature will drop rapidly, causing a lot of trouble for divers.

     If an accident occurs in the sea, rescue is difficult, so the crew checked all kinds of equipment several times when filming this part of the scene.

     Director Fu also invited two diving coaches, including Zhou Yingying, to provide professional guidance. If Zhou Qunfang really couldn’t shoot this scene, Zhou Yingying would be asked to be a stand-in.

     However, his worries were unnecessary. Even at the end of October, the temperature in Xingzhou Island was only a little cooler than in midsummer, and the sea water temperature was the same as before, not too cold. The visibility in the sea was still very high, and the pictures captured by the camera were even better than those taken in the swimming pool!

     Zhou Qunfang’s performance in the sea was not like a novice at all. She perfectly interpreted the character of the heroine “who loves diving, so she is very professional in diving.”

     “Very good!” Director Fu shouted excitedly. In addition to being satisfied with Zhou Qunfang’s performance, he couldn’t take his eyes off the beautiful underwater scenery under the camera. Isn’t this more touching than the special effects in the later stage? ! If Zhou Qunfang hadn’t been wearing diving equipment, she would have been a beautiful mermaid against the backdrop of these scenes!

     Suddenly, a very bold and adventurous idea popped up in Director Fu’s mind. He immediately contacted the screenwriter: “Change the script, change all the scenes where the male protagonist dives into the water to save the female protagonist to the female protagonist saving the male protagonist!”

     Screenwriter: “…”

     Then Director Fu looked at Zhou Qunfang with a burning gaze and asked: “Do you dare to dive without an oxygen tank? Only shoot two shots.”

     Zhou Qunfang’s assistant immediately said: “No, it’s too dangerous. Besides, Xingzhou Island will not allow it.”

     Zhou Yingying also said: “Currently, free diving requires relevant certificates to dive, and must be accompanied by a special person.”

     Director Fu was a little disappointed. It seems that this shot can only be shot in the swimming pool, and then special effects are added.

     But it doesn’t matter. In the scene where the male and female protagonists first met, the female protagonist was diving. She could save the male protagonist wearing diving equipment!

     Zhou Yingying added: “But the snorkeling area is OK. The water there is two or three meters deep, so the risk factor is not that high.”

     Director Fu’s eyes lit up and he contacted Li Yaolin again. After all, the shooting plan had changed, and he had to discuss it with Li Yaolin in advance and get his consent.

     Li Yaolin said: “This is not in the plan, but we can wait until Xingzhou Island ends its operation before shooting.”

     The snorkeling area is generally not allowed to go into the sea after 5 pm, so shooting after this time will not affect the operation of Xingzhou Island.

     How could Director Fu have any objection? He said happily: “That’s great!”

     Director Fu’s scene took two or three hours to shoot, from 5 pm to more than 7 pm. The sun had set, and only a trace of rosy clouds remained in the sky. The lights on the other side were bright, and there was a prosperous atmosphere everywhere, which formed a strong contrast with the tranquility and peace on the side of Xingzhou Island.

     Li Yaolin passed by after get off work. She had never seen a crew filming in her life, so she went to join in the fun. She happened to hear someone say to the man who seemed to be the director: “After it gets dark, the effect here is not as good as the previous diving area. If you light it, the underwater shots will be clear, and it will be difficult to process it later.”

     Director Fu was also worried. The water quality of this snorkeling area is good, but it does not emit light, so after nightfall, the effect here is far worse than the diving experience area.

     He sighed: “Let’s do special effects in the later stage!”

     Li Yaolin was not convinced. She would never allow anyone to use special effects after shooting in the waters of Xingzhou Island. Isn’t this a slap in her face, saying that the seascape here ultimately needs special effects to present its beauty? !

     Even if special effects are added, only she can add them!

     At this time, someone looked at the sea and blinked hard, rubbed his eyes, and then asked uncertainly: “Is it the lighting effect on the other side? Why do I feel that the sea is glowing?”

     His question stunned everyone, and the tourists reacted faster than them, screaming: “Ah, it’s sea fire, I finally encountered sea fire!”

     Director Fu’s voice trembled: “Sea fire, is it the magical phenomenon that is circulated on the Internet?!”

     Li Yaolin glanced at him. Didn’t he expect to encounter sea fire? Ye Gong likes dragons?^[2]“叶公好龙” (yè gōng hào lóng) is a popular Chinese idiom that comes from Chapter 5 of a book called Xinxu, by Liu Xiang in the Han Dynasty, and can be literally translated as … Continue reading

     Director Fu probably didn’t expect his luck to be so good. After he reacted, he shouted to everyone: “Why are you standing there? Hurry up and shoot!”

     This scene must not be missed. Any special effects are also prohibited in the later stage. He wants to present the most real and beautiful scene to the audience!

     “That’s right!” Li Yaolin was satisfied. Suddenly, she heard a faint singing voice in the sea breeze… It seemed that every time she released the “Sea Fire”, there would be such a sound, but because it was so ethereal, she just thought it was an auditory hallucination caused by the visual impact brought by the “Sea Fire”.

     The housekeeper reminded: “Dugongs have been detected in the waters of Xingzhou Island