Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, a large transport plane landed at Cagliari Airport, the capital of Sardinia. Ling Hao and others walked out of the plane unsteadily wearing half-sleeved shirts, sun hats, and carrying travel bags. There were several off-road vehicles waiting there across the tarmac. Two people got off one of them, it was Professor Levins and his student Adeline.
"Ling Hao, my dear friend, as long as I see you, I feel confident in my heart. Come with me, let you try Sardinia's specialty seafood, especially the lobster here, which is very good. The equipment is on Come here, my people will be responsible for transporting it to the port for shipment." Professor Levins happily stepped forward and gave Ling Hao a hug. Adeline was also very enthusiastic and gave Ling Hao a French "sticker" Face-to-face greeting".
The "smoking and drinking voice" immediately sounded in Ling Hao's mind: "You can do it, kid. What does this English woman have to do with you? She just bites her face when we meet her?"
Ling Hao said to her in his heart: "I'm uneducated. This is the European's 'cheek gift'. It's just a common etiquette. Don't use your filthy thinking to define it. Only those who get into other people's beds in the middle of the night are dirty. , not qualified to comment on others.”
"Damn, are you going crazy? Why did I touch the tip of your heart?"
The group of people arrived at a villa on the beach. A seafood dinner was put on the table. They all sat down, drank, and talked about what happened after they said goodbye to the Blue Cave.
After the meal, Ling Hao and Professor Levins sat on the wicker chairs on the balcony and drank beer and chatted. This time, Ling Hao deeply realized the huge gap in wealth perception between himself and the rich. Except for some of the "Cretaceous fish" that were rescued in the Blue Hole before and were left by Levins to do research at Cambridge University, others were sold to many well-known universities and institutions due to so-called "insufficient breeding conditions." In aquariums, a single "bow shark" can be sold for one million euros. Since the "coelacanth" is still not extinct, it is sold for 100,000 euros. Small creatures such as "rod ammonites" and "spear-toothed fish" , also sold 10 pieces for 500,000 euros. Even those large numbers of dead "swordfish", either made into various specimens or simply complete skeletons, can be sold for hundreds of thousands of euros for large ones and tens of thousands for small ones. This time, Professor Levins earned tens of millions of euros. Compared with him, Ling Hao and the others were not called making money, but were still considered "part-time workers."
"The way people make money is indeed determined by their vision. I don't agree with this." Ling Hao sighed.
"Ling Hao, my pursuit of these strange creatures is not entirely for science. In fact, scientific and economic values do not conflict. Only by discovering them can we better protect them." Professor Levins explained to Ling Hao.
Ling Hao shrugged: "You don't need to explain this to me. Judging from the results, so far, the destruction of the environment and the continuous extinction of wild animals are all due to the continuous progress of human science and technology. That land in the Cretaceous In fact, the creatures in the sea should have become extinct 75 million years ago. You just picked up a fragment of the past from the long river of time and did not change anything."
"Profound, your words are very profound!" Professor Levins gently touched the beer glass in his hand to Ling Hao's, then raised his head and drank it all.
The Tyrrhenian Sea under the night sky is quiet and peaceful. The moonlight casts a silver light on the beautiful soft waves. On a small yacht, a young man and a girl wearing a bikini seem to have long since stopped looking up at the stars. In the mood, they were cuddling up on the deck and kissing passionately, not minding at all that they knocked over the champagne glass next to them.
With a "boom" sound, the boat shook, interrupting the two people's passionate love.
"Anthony, what's going on?"
"It's okay Sara, it's probably a large piece of garbage floating on the sea. I'll go take a look." The young man stood up and stuck his head out of the side of the boat. The girl named Sara was also looking behind him curiously.
Sure enough, there was a black object over one meter long floating beside the boat. Anthony didn't dare to touch it with his hands, so he casually picked up a hook from the deck and turned the object over, revealing a picture that was swollen by the sea water. A pale face immediately appeared in front of the two of them. It was a corpse, and it had obviously been in the sea for a while. Part of the skin on the face had fallen off, and it was hanging next to the ears and swaying with the waves. Yes, both eyes had long been pecked out by fish, and there were a few hermit crabs crawling in the two empty white eye sockets, which looked very scary.
"Ah!" A shrill scream of panic instantly broke the tranquility of the night.
Early in the morning, a horrifying news spread in Cagliari. Even Adeline heard that a dead body was found in the sea last night, and it was said that the death was extremely tragic, and it seemed that it was attacked by sea creatures. Fatal.
Originally, Professor Levins and Ling Hao didn't take it too seriously when they heard about it. Which sea area doesn't have stories of people dying in the water? After all, there are too many animals in the sea that can kill people. In addition to sharks, there are stingrays, sea snakes, man-of-war jellyfish, blue-ringed octopuses, cone snails, stone fish... there are countless animals. Once you die in the sea, no one will find you. It is also common for fish to eat most of them when they wash up on shore.
In the afternoon, two police officers knocked on the door of the villa. Adeline opened the door and asked why she came. One police officer said very politely: "I heard that Professor Levins, a marine biology expert from Cambridge University, lives here, right? We have something I want to ask for his help to help us solve the problem."
In the forensic room of the police station, Professor Levins, Adeline, Ling Hao and Jiang Mingyu looked at a human corpse on the autopsy table. The corpse was highly decomposed and looked like a giant. It had been dead for at least five days. The most shocking thing was a huge bite mark that extended from the left waist to the inside of the right leg. Not only the entire left leg It was gone, and even the pelvis was neatly bitten off in half.
The forensic doctor explained on the side: "This is a tourist from Helsinki. Five days ago, the police received a report that he disappeared while swimming at the beach, so his identity was quickly confirmed. The cause of death was clear at a glance. This huge and hideous The bite was caused before he was alive, which directly caused him to suffer from hemorrhage, shock, and then drowning. The key is what animal can cause such harm to people? I have been a forensic doctor in this coastal city for more than 20 years, and because of marine animals I have seen countless corpses killed in attacks, but I have never encountered such bizarre wounds. Because Professor Levins was here to participate in academic exchange activities a few days ago, I also went to listen to the lecture. I know that you were in Sardinia during this time. I’m doing research on the island, so I asked my superiors to invite you to come over and see if I can provide some of your professional advice.”
Levins and the four of them focused their attention on the corpse. The forensic doctor was not even sure if they listened to him. They watched for nearly half an hour. Professor Levins put away his magnifying glass and asked Ling Hao and Jiang Mingyu Said: "What do you think?"
Ling Hao said: "Taking into account the 'giant view' factor, the diameter of this bite mark has reached at least 40 centimeters. Those are the only marine creatures with such a big mouth. Can you still narrow the scope?"
Jiang Mingyu said: "The teeth of toothed whales are all cone-shaped. They are good at biting but unable to cut. First of all, all marine mammals can be excluded. Among large fish, such as giant grouper, tuna, swordfish, etc. Animals, let’s not talk about whether they have such big mouths, first of all, they don’t have teeth that can cause such wounds. Those guys with huge fangs in the deep sea swallow their prey whole, and their teeth are only responsible for puncture like hooks. It is impossible to cause such bite marks with fixed prey, and the scope is only among several large species of sharks."
Professor Levins nodded and said: "The large sharks with ferocious temperaments and records of attacking humans are nothing more than great white sharks, tiger sharks, bull sharks, hammerhead sharks, lemon sharks, and mako sharks. However, in the Mediterranean Sea, , it seems that only one type of mako shark is distributed. In addition, there is also a large shark in the Mediterranean, the gray sixgill shark, but this shark lives in the deep sea and has never been recorded attacking humans."
The forensic doctor asked: "Does that mean the killer is between the mako shark and the gray sixgill shark?"
"No!" Professor Levins said one word with certainty, leaving everyone baffled. After pondering for a long time, he continued: "You have all seen the teeth of sharks. The teeth of the sharks just mentioned are triangular and barbed, and they are good at cutting. But if you look at the pelvis of the deceased, the bones with a diameter of 5 centimeters were cut. Is this what a shark’s teeth can do to bite it off neatly?”
Everyone was silent. Yes, although the shark's teeth are sharp, they are relatively fragile. It is impossible to bite such a thick bone. Even if you encounter the overbearing great white shark, which can bite a person in two, that broken The bones cannot be so neat and clean.
"Then what is your conclusion?" The two police officers who had been listening silently finally couldn't help but ask.
"If I tell you, don't blame me." Professor Levins smiled. "In my memory, there is only one marine creature that can create such bite marks, and that is the 'Dunklefish' that lived in the Devonian period 360 million years ago. Its teeth are two rows of guillotine-like skulls. , and the bite force is amazing, only such a mouth can cause such damage."
Ling Hao felt a little nervous. He had just had close contact with the ferocious animals of the Cretaceous Period. Wouldn't something like the Devonian Period happen again this time? Is this Professor Levins a Doraemon? What about the built-in "Gate of Time and Space"? Who can stand this kind of "random dressing"? Ling Hao finally confirmed that this old guy is definitely poisonous and he must never deal with him again in the future.
Jiang Mingyu laughed and said: "Professor has such a rich imagination. I would rather believe that someone made such a machine to mutilate the victim in order to confuse the public and hinder the investigation. This is the Mediterranean, and it is not an inaccessible place. How could any creature left over from prehistory suddenly appear?"
The two police officers who originally wanted to criticize Jiang Mingyu after hearing the professor's words quite agreed with Jiang Mingyu's words and planned to launch an investigation in this direction.
Back at the villa, Professor Levins asked Ling Hao: "What do you think of what just happened?"
"Anyway, I think your idea of 'Dunklefish' is simply fanciful. I just escaped from the Cretaceous. If you take me to the Devonian again, I promise to leave you with 'Dunklefish' as a snack." I will save you from killing me one day." Ling Hao gave Professor Levins a hard look.
"I just made a judgment within my cognition based on the wound, and I didn't say that what I said must be right. There are still many creatures that are beyond my cognition. For example, I came to you this time to ask for The thing that I went looking for, fishermen in Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, and even Tunisia called it 'Lamus', a legendary water monster."
