Sunken Fish - Chapter 45
"We should be aware of the consequences. You can't just have intentions without considering the consequences. The question is, who pays the price for the consequences? It's the same principle as rescuing a fish from drowning. Who gets saved, and who doesn't?"
The others remained silent; they had no answer either. It was like a brain teaser: from the side, she was a beautiful young woman wearing a hat, but from the front, she was a withered old woman with a hooked nose—it all depended on your perspective.
“Oh my God, what can we do?” Heidi said sadly, still staring at the fish. “Can’t we say anything? I want to buy them all and then release them.”
Mo Fei shook his head and said, "Forget it, it's pointless, don't look at it anymore."
The fish continued to thrash about, perhaps pulling the stubborn Heidi away.
Will the fish drown?
Rupert asked Benny quietly.
"Of course not. Fish have gills, not lungs."
“Actually,” Berhali suddenly interjected, “they really do drown.”
All eyes were on him, except for Heidi. Beryl began to speak at length: "When a person falls into the water, their lungs fill with water. Because our lungs cannot filter out the life-saving oxygen, the person will suffocate in the water and eventually die from lack of oxygen. We call it drowning."
He saw Jumarin looking at him intently, and he continued confidently, “Fish have gills to take in oxygen, but most fish have to keep swimming to take in large amounts of water and filter out enough oxygen. If they can’t swim, for example, if they get trapped in a reef cave at low tide or get hooked, they will eventually suffocate from lack of oxygen. They will drown.”
Saving drowning fish (4)
He saw Marlene staring at him, her eyes seeming to say: You are so knowledgeable and so sexy. If there were a bed here, I would throw myself into your arms right now.
Jumarin was actually wondering why he looked so happy when he described how the fish died.
Heidi was still thinking about the fish she had just seen: "If they can absorb oxygen from the water, why can't their gills absorb oxygen from the air?"
Marlene looked at Berhali expectantly, and he explained proudly, "Their gills are two thin, semi-circular pieces of silk that open wide in the water, like two sails on a ship. When they leave the water, the two gills deflate like plastic bags, pressing against each other and sealing them off, preventing air from getting in, so the fish suffer from oxygen deficiency."
Vera snorted: "So no one can honestly say they're saving the fish from drowning."
Berhali stubbornly replied, "No, they drowned on the shore."
“And what about the chickens?” Vera pondered, pointing to a cage of chickens. “How kindly will they be treated? Will they be in a yoga class when their necks are accidentally broken?”
“It’s not much worse than what we do at home,” Esme said calmly. “We’re just better at disguising it. I saw a TV show where pigs were herded together along a ramp, all squealing because they knew what was going to happen. Horses are killed like that too. Some dog food is made with these things. Sometimes they’re even being butchered before they’re dead.”
Jumarin looked at her daughter: It seemed Esmi was going to put on a show for her. How could a little kid know these things? Marin was worried and anxious about her daughter's precociousness. These days, Esmi was still very dependent on her mother, as if her mother could shield her from all the ugliness of the outside world, which reassured her.
However, Jumarin recalled one time when they were strolling together in Chinatown, Esme burst into tears after hearing a shopkeeper say that the live fish were "for human consumption, not for keeping as pets." Esme's hysterical outburst was no different from animal rights activists handing out leaflets on the street protesting the slaughter of live fish and chickens in Chinatown to prove that their food was absolutely fresh.
"The fish was beheaded while it was still alive."
An animal rights activist complained to her about the slaughtering methods used by Chinese people.
But Jumarin yelled at her daughter, "All animals are alive before they are slaughtered. Otherwise, how do you kill fish? Let them die of old age?"